Now THAT is a hemp butter and cherry jam sandwich.
They can have their Wonder-Bread, Skippy, and Smuckers.
Recipe:
*Bread is 2 apples, 1 cup of ground flax, 1/8 cup of coco oil and 1/4 cup of water.
Blend all in food processor, spread 1/2 inch thick on dehydrator sheet and dry for 10 hours.
Flip and dry for another 2. REALLY Easy.
*Hemp Butter is from Manitoba Harvest. The best I've ever tried.
I get the 10lb tub to avoid having to re-order or stand in line at the grocery store.
*Cherry Jam is 1 part dried cherries, 1 part re-hydrated cherries.
Pulse in food processor until you like the consistency.
ENJOY!!!!
Onto the post.
Those of us who read the comments section might know of Aaron.
Aaron is one of my best friends from Minnesota.
We lived together in Minneapolis for a while, and we've
stayed close despite me living over in NYC for way too long.
He's actually picking me up at the airport on Saturday and
we are going to pick up the 2 beehives in the evening to bring
back to our area of Minnesota. I'll be sure to tape all of that.
He has recently been getting into the world of raw food,
and he sent me this short story about an issue he deals with.
Here is goes...
When I eat, I finish my food.
I am the part of America who has been programmed to clean my plate.
Psychologically, I don't feel done until my food is gone.
That is mostly associated with when I go out to eat because at home
I can decide how much food I put on my plate but at a restaurant, I have no choice.
I also don't like to take leftovers home either. I don't know why but for some reason
I have been programmed to eat it and finish it all at my initial sitting.
I think feeling like I have to finish my plate has also taught me to think that
I need to eat until I am too full. One of my problems with remaining close to
completely raw is that I don't get that 'full' feeling as much after my 'raw' meal is finished.
That is one of the contributors to me snacking or cheating and eating some cooked
or processed junk food. We all have been programmed to think we need to be 'full'.
The minute we get a rumble or two in our stomach, we feel the need to stop the noise.
Don't get me wrong, if you are hungry...by all means eat.
I think that it can sometimes be a good thing though to let your
stomach do some talking for a bit here and there.
Play around with your 'programming' and allow your body and mind to
feel OK with not eating at first noise; or when you eat, just eat 3/4ths of your normal intake.
After a while, you will feel better after a meal even though you aren't 'full'.
If you are feeling hungry but it isnt time for supper or lunch, make sure you are hydrated.
Alot of people mistake being hydrated for being hungry because your body gives
you some of the same clues. I think that these types of problems that I have had are
more the norm for a person who is new to the Raw Lifestyle or a person that is not
over feeling the cravings of cooked food. The real problem though is when I would CRASH
and eat 2 times more junk food then I did when I wasn't Raw. Don't let it get to that point.
When you are in the transitioning period, try to come up with some fall back items that
maybe aren't Raw but are healthier then a big bowl of ice-cream or a half of a pizza.
Don't feel like you are cheating yourself out of being healthy.
We are all in a constant transition, reaching different levels of enlightenment whether
it is regarding our eating habits or relationships with people.
Think of training for a marathon, or even a 10k race; you don't start out running 5 miles a day.
You begin with a mile the first day and build on that.
After a few months, you may even be up to a comfortable 10 mile run.
It is a progression that you can be proud of. With being raw, just try to make improvements.
Extend your progression but have realistic expectations.
For some, moving from even Vegetarian to Raw Vegan can be easy, but that is not the norm.
Give your self the right to get smarter and try to re-program your mind and body.
Progression doesn't = ALL or nothing.
-Aaron
Is this a midwest thing? I feel the same way about cleaning my plate.
Jeez...I'll even clean off OTHER people's plates. Without hesitation.
I think all my mom's lectures about "The starving children in Africa" really hit home with me.
Case in Point...
A group of us went to dinner at Quintessence the other night,
and 2 of the lovely young women had the common sense to
stop eating their pecan sundaes because they were full.
In comes the human garbage disposal (Me).
(Not that Im saying that Quintessence is garbage..FAR from it).
They offered...because Ill never ask. But true, I wanted to
finish their ice cream sundaes. Just seeing those unfinished
works of art just sitting there..melting away...something had to be done.
Is this deep Midwestern conditioning?
I had a friend once (yes, its true...) and if you didnt
finish your dinner at his house and you were staying the night,
his mom would make you eat it in the morning.
You HAD to finish your supper...come hell or high water.
I think this is why changing our eating habits is harder than kicking
many other vices...they are LIFE-LONG.
We saw a mom feeding a hot dog to her one-year old daughter on the subway today.
She was obviously unconscious about what she was doing to her precious child,
but she was cultivating an addiction, as crazy as that sounds.
I, like Aaron, never leave food on my plate. I would consider it a waste
of food and an insult to those who cant afford to eat like this.
Sure, I could put it away for later, but it just doesnt happen with me.
Whats your take on this? Is your family upbringing similar?
What is this really doing to us?
Thanks Aaron for the great post...much appreciation.
-Anthony
We lived together in Minneapolis for a while, and we've
stayed close despite me living over in NYC for way too long.
He's actually picking me up at the airport on Saturday and
we are going to pick up the 2 beehives in the evening to bring
back to our area of Minnesota. I'll be sure to tape all of that.
He has recently been getting into the world of raw food,
and he sent me this short story about an issue he deals with.
Here is goes...
When I eat, I finish my food.
I am the part of America who has been programmed to clean my plate.
Psychologically, I don't feel done until my food is gone.
That is mostly associated with when I go out to eat because at home
I can decide how much food I put on my plate but at a restaurant, I have no choice.
I also don't like to take leftovers home either. I don't know why but for some reason
I have been programmed to eat it and finish it all at my initial sitting.
I think feeling like I have to finish my plate has also taught me to think that
I need to eat until I am too full. One of my problems with remaining close to
completely raw is that I don't get that 'full' feeling as much after my 'raw' meal is finished.
That is one of the contributors to me snacking or cheating and eating some cooked
or processed junk food. We all have been programmed to think we need to be 'full'.
The minute we get a rumble or two in our stomach, we feel the need to stop the noise.
Don't get me wrong, if you are hungry...by all means eat.
I think that it can sometimes be a good thing though to let your
stomach do some talking for a bit here and there.
Play around with your 'programming' and allow your body and mind to
feel OK with not eating at first noise; or when you eat, just eat 3/4ths of your normal intake.
After a while, you will feel better after a meal even though you aren't 'full'.
If you are feeling hungry but it isnt time for supper or lunch, make sure you are hydrated.
Alot of people mistake being hydrated for being hungry because your body gives
you some of the same clues. I think that these types of problems that I have had are
more the norm for a person who is new to the Raw Lifestyle or a person that is not
over feeling the cravings of cooked food. The real problem though is when I would CRASH
and eat 2 times more junk food then I did when I wasn't Raw. Don't let it get to that point.
When you are in the transitioning period, try to come up with some fall back items that
maybe aren't Raw but are healthier then a big bowl of ice-cream or a half of a pizza.
Don't feel like you are cheating yourself out of being healthy.
We are all in a constant transition, reaching different levels of enlightenment whether
it is regarding our eating habits or relationships with people.
Think of training for a marathon, or even a 10k race; you don't start out running 5 miles a day.
You begin with a mile the first day and build on that.
After a few months, you may even be up to a comfortable 10 mile run.
It is a progression that you can be proud of. With being raw, just try to make improvements.
Extend your progression but have realistic expectations.
For some, moving from even Vegetarian to Raw Vegan can be easy, but that is not the norm.
Give your self the right to get smarter and try to re-program your mind and body.
Progression doesn't = ALL or nothing.
-Aaron
Is this a midwest thing? I feel the same way about cleaning my plate.
Jeez...I'll even clean off OTHER people's plates. Without hesitation.
I think all my mom's lectures about "The starving children in Africa" really hit home with me.
Case in Point...
A group of us went to dinner at Quintessence the other night,
and 2 of the lovely young women had the common sense to
stop eating their pecan sundaes because they were full.
In comes the human garbage disposal (Me).
(Not that Im saying that Quintessence is garbage..FAR from it).
They offered...because Ill never ask. But true, I wanted to
finish their ice cream sundaes. Just seeing those unfinished
works of art just sitting there..melting away...something had to be done.
Is this deep Midwestern conditioning?
I had a friend once (yes, its true...) and if you didnt
finish your dinner at his house and you were staying the night,
his mom would make you eat it in the morning.
You HAD to finish your supper...come hell or high water.
I think this is why changing our eating habits is harder than kicking
many other vices...they are LIFE-LONG.
We saw a mom feeding a hot dog to her one-year old daughter on the subway today.
She was obviously unconscious about what she was doing to her precious child,
but she was cultivating an addiction, as crazy as that sounds.
I, like Aaron, never leave food on my plate. I would consider it a waste
of food and an insult to those who cant afford to eat like this.
Sure, I could put it away for later, but it just doesnt happen with me.
Whats your take on this? Is your family upbringing similar?
What is this really doing to us?
Thanks Aaron for the great post...much appreciation.
-Anthony
33 comments:
I definitely think it has to do with upbringing. I am fortunate that my mother used to blend up whatever food my parents ate for my baby food. Probably why I always enjoyed/craved veggies and fruits.
Now, I have to admit that I too ate more than I needed recently. I was visiting NYC last week and stopped at Quintessence....yum!!! So, I brought my mom with and the food was amazing. I was getting full and couldn't finish my meal, but that wasn't going to stop me from eating pineaple and prune ice cream. It was sooo amazing and I made sure I ate all of it. I was full after, but so worth it. And with the vanilla cream and strawberries I went to the hotel to dream about it!
i've been struggling with this for a long time---and again tonight! i made raw food real world's chocolate ganache tart and ate way too much of it; five hours later, i still feel a bit uncomfortably full. i grew up in a household where i was taught that it's unacceptable--or more specifically, rude, whether the hostess be my mom or anyone else--to leave uneaten food on the plate. and now i'm having the WORST time trying to undo that training.
Maybe it is Midwestern. Then again though, our family was not only low income, but we still "tithed" and gave 10% of everything we owned, & were taught to be grateful in every way possible for what we had. I was reminded that Russian children didn't have much, if anything, & that anything is possible, and perhaps we too would not have anything at some time in our lives so we should enjoy it now. I didn't EVER enjoy chemical macaroni, or ramen noodles...or that TERRIBLE casserole. But I did stuff every last bite into my mouth and became very grateful no matter how ill or disgusted I was. I do think that heavy feeling I was used to effected the way I ate for a long time.
I wasn't at first, but now I am glad you have more transition-y type food up, because I have been discussing alot with my cousin(She feels ill alot and has some of the same problems I did before eating living food). Anyway I believe the HB&J sandwich will be helpful to her and her children. I'd like to show her how very simple it is. Thank you, as always, for sharing and inspiring me.
i always clean my plate, because i make sure i only put on it what i know i will eat! And in restaurants i will always stop when i'm full, and take the food home - i'm totally with you on the waste thing, its crazy how much food is wasted in restaurants, supermarkets, people's homes, etc etc
Hey Anthony!
I have had this huge problem with Hemp lately. I had been it using for protein and other essentials. I loved it. Now you're talking about Manitoba Harvest Hemp Seed Butter and I'm drooling!
My problem is, I have a pending urinalysis with my next job. I have cut out hemp of all kinds for the last 3 months because the job means so much to me. It is a government position, so needless to say, I think it would be awkward to ask this question of them because it might seem shady.
Can hemp seed effect my test results? Is there any or enough THC for that?
I love your blog!
ps. I've taken your beauty tips and I eat a lot of cucumbers. My skin is a smooth and even as desert sand. Thank you!
Thanks,
Deb
Hello Anthony!
It was wonderful to dine with you and the lovely Dawn on Wednesday. Overeating is definitely something I am negotiating in a post-juice feasting world. My new mantra in this paradigm is quality over quantity. Easy to think about, hard to do. Gauging "fullness" has always been a challenge, and my plate has always been cleared. But the truth is that as we clean our bodies, we simply don't need to eat as much. Now the task is convincing myself of that task on every level--I have a lot of attachments to delicious foods.
xo B
I used to feel that way as well. Throwing out perfectly good food was guilt-inducing. (I am also in the Midwest, coincidence or not.)
Then one of my friends changed my perspective. She said that once you have eaten enough, doing ANYTHING with leftover food is wasting eat. If you throw it out, you're wasting it. If you eat it, you're wasting it, because it isn't going to any use. And eating it is actually the WORSE form of waste, because it can do harm to your body.
Putting "perfectly good" food into a compost bin actually isn't harming anyone at all, but putting it into your body when you don't need it is harming you.
One more thing! There was a psychology study where people were given soup to eat. Some just had a normal bowl of soup, while others had soup that was covertly connected to a tube under the table that would gently refill the bowl of soup so the people didn't notice. The people with the trick bowls of soup ate almost twice as much soup! It just shows that people are so conditioned to eating how much they're given instead of listening to their bodies.
Look at you Anthony with all those lovely ladies!
I was making a smoothie the other day, and my grandmother was at my house. After I poured the last of the smoothie into my glass, I went to rinse out the blender. My grandmother came over and said that I was wasting the remainder of the smoothie (that was stuck to the walls and bottom of the blender). So, she rinsed down the sides of the blender with water, and drank the rest!
My grandmother grew up during the depression, and had NOTHING. A dirt floor. She eats everything off of her plate, and everything off of ours, and saves every possible scrap for my dog Coco. But, she's still so healthy (and 91). She was also telling me how she boils endive and drinks the water afterwards. Who knew? Waste not, want not.
~Anna
There are so many aspects to this...
so many of us can hear that "Eat Up' voice in ours heads that we grew up with... its disconnects us from our real needs in relation to hunger & appetite... that can so easily transform into eating when we aren't hungry for food... the hunger then may be emotional & we can stay an entire lifetime avoiding those difficult emotions & using food - of any sort to fill that hunger...
I saw the connection so clearly a few years ago when i went on a meditation retreat... absolutely all distractions are taken away including all talking writing reading etc & a hundred of you are sat observing the landscape of your own mind for 13 hours a day for 10 days.. there are 2 meals both eaten before mid day - simple healthy vegetarian food prepared for us.. And when the meditation gets tough you're just longing for the next meal, food seems to offer the only comfort available but then...back to the cushion & your mind & - well it hasn't worked ! the feelings are all there just as they were... so you go deeper & the real healing comes when you finally see that the peace we're seeking lies within us & is always available...
Apologies if that sounded like a sermon !!
Really hope your Sapote is fine
Peace
kate
LOL- Yes, I am originally from Ohio. Yes, I was taught to clean my plate. I was a chubby child, a fat teen and an adult with an eating problem. But raw has changed a great deal of this. I find that after you detox,it takes several years because the stored fat on your body is filled with the cooked remains of prior years and as it dissolves it goes through your system. (Read "The Hundred Year Lie" by Randall Fitzgerald). His detox journey was by design, but it will show you how an American on the SAD diet used raw to detox his body. (I must warn you, a great deal of this book is scary, but it is our world now) Anyway as I went raw, I found as the months progressed, my body was cleaner and cleaner and my eating habits changed. But I also feel that this country is out of control with our eating. I have read extensive research on the mental aspects of eating. There have been many studies and in this country, it is a programed norm. When you read "French Women Don't Get Fat" their cultural background is eating smaller high quailty food portions, at a slow pace. They stop when they are full. I did extensive research on the American population's eating habits and sure enough, we eat more by the clues in our enviornment, not by our body telling us we are full. It is our culture. In the same research, they polled several hundred french people and they stopped eating when they were full. In our country the motto is "bigger is better". The restaurants keep piling it on. So, what I have done, is realize that my eating program has been put in through childhood and as an adult I need to reprogram myself. Yes, it is hard, but I will tell you, I eat slower, savor my food, and eat the best tasting food that I can possibly eat in the world. I slowed my family down (5 siblings). I served smaller portions on several plates. By the time they get to the last plate, they are stuffed (it took them more than 20 minutes to eat) and.. I experienced a miracle that happened on my last sister's birthdy. Now mind you, we could go to the Cheesecake factory and she could eat a whole meal, finish off her cheesecake and everyone's at the table. So, I served her a raw 5 course raw meal (small portions several plates) and I had a special whole raw cheesecake made for dessert. I couldn't eat the cheesecake, but she ate one peice and tried to eat another. She paused and looked up and said "I'm full" I was so shocked that I asked her to repeat the words. She said it again. She told me several weeks later that she froze the cheesecake and could only eat a peice every few days. So, raw slowed down the eating machine. Life is a journey, even though we live in the best country in the world, there are things that we are lacking. Quality in our food supply is a really big one. This causes us to eat more just to nourish our bodies. So as we all try to reprogram ourselves we have to give thanks that we have the opportunity and be kind to ourselves. I now buy less, but spend on super high quailty products and eat much less. I don't clean my plate, because at times, I cannot.
I was raised to clean my plate too no matter if I was going to burst or not. However, when I started living on my own I serve myself less than I think I will eat so if I neeed more I could just get it, if I don't I can always save the rest. I am a lot less wasteful this way. With my kids, though, I let them eat when they are hungry so they are not trained to have to eat at a certain time or to clean their plates. We do have family meals, because I believe this is a good opportunity for family time, but if they are not hungry they can always come back to it when they are ready.
That is such a beautiful sandwich. Thank you SO much for explaining how to make the bread.
so weird..just thinking about that..but i WONDER if it REALLY is a mid-western thing...or more of a 'mom' thing. ^___^;; my mum always put in that 'guilt trip' of ..."you better eat all your food! there are starving children in Africa!" people must KNOW that one. i used to say to mum, sometimes when i was brave "here. send it to them'. oooo i was a cheeky one.
also, was it not something we also were conditioned to believe that IF we cleaned our plate we would be "rewarded' with the dessert.
that is another great thing about being raw..makes us look at why, how, about our food too.
LOVE what Aaron said.
and, Anthony...OMG you are like a RAWFOOD knight in shining armour!!the RAW HB&J...SOOO utterly yummy loooking! this will soo help with some of my transitional cravings. not to mention that 'comfort food' thing. ^__~
though, not too keen on hemp butter...bit getting used to, i guess. can we use another raw butter of our choice?
thanks again Anthony and forward a thank you to Aaron for his contribution.
dead brill!!
Hey Double A's! (anthony and aaron!)
I will tell you this went on a lot with my parents. My dad was really the enforcer and I sat in front of a cold plate of mushy green beans many a time.
Perhaps the punishment I remember most re: food and dinner was sending us with our plate full of food to eat it off the toilet lid, wow, yum:( made eating very stressful.. as a parent I encourage but NEVER force my kids to eat anything, and never ask them to "clean their plate.". My mom was a child of the depression era, you just did not waste food. I do scold my kids about that cuz wasting is just not good for us or the earth.
Thanks for the sandwich too, got to try it!
deb
PS hope you have a good time in La la land Anthony, I hope to see Philip when he gets here!
I don't know if it's exclusive to us Midwesterners - but I was lucky enough to have a mother who actually fought my dad on this topic. She had always been forced to clean up her plate, and it led to obesity and a lifetime addiction to dieting. Wisely, she always let me stop when I was done. When my dad would say "there are starving children in China", my mom would say "tell him to name 3 - we'll pack it up and send them the leftovers."
Eating the extra food and throwing it away are both wasteful. If you eat it, your body just turns it into extra fat and causes you to waste extra energy on digestion. If you throw if away it is being wasted in the trash can. You just have to decide where you want to store the "wasted food"...in your body or the trash can.
The sandwich looks great! Thanks for sharing this very easy recipe, I have only been on the rawpath (lol) for 6months now. Loving every bit of it!
Thanks as well for posting Aaron's musings. I was raised like this as well in Southern California, so not sure about the mid-west thing... I sat for many hours in front of a plate of food that had some 'offending' ingredient, and still catch a hard time now and then for not making my kids do it! Family is awesome, just coming from a different perspective & not willing to break the programming I suppose. Thank God for freedom.
hugs and smiles,
Joanna RawTn
ps: I am intrigued by your sustainability project! Please keep us updated, I am learning so much from your research!
In response to the poster waiting on a job--Hemp has NO THC that could get detected on a test--you seriously stopped eating it!? No, enjoy! If it did, it would get you high, and be illegal. It's only illegal to grow for (ridiculous) political reasons.
Bashar
Let me know what you think.
Thank you.
If I had that amazing looking raw sandwich, I am SURE I'd have to clean my plate! I am going to make that bread right away!
xo...Penni
This post hits home on a couple of levels.
First, I just returned from a weekend trip out to Indiana, to visit some of my family. The amount of overweight to severely obese people is out of control.
Second, I have definitely been a part of a few epic bings. Whole bags of potato chips, 2 bagels for breakfast, vegan chocolate chip cookies. My best advice to make smoothies and salads your staples but learn to make some raw treats so you don't get bored and start craving other foods.
Third, I just made my first trip down to Quintessence for some takeout and based upon your advice I tried Big Moc. I'd have to say this might be the best raw meal I've ever had. And it's a solid portion. Good sized salad, great chips and easily the best veggie burger I've ever had. A+
I might try to sign up for one of his classes.
Be well and turn down the heat :)
My grandpa was always the "finish all your food" kinda guy and my mom grew up that way with him, but as much as he said it to us (when we went out to eat), I really only followed it when he visited. I do realize how much I would finish everything I made but lately I haven't had much time to make a lot anyway.
I recently re-thought of the saying "Eat to live, don't live to eat." And if you think more about it, it really makes sense. There are SO many things you do in a day and only three of them should be eating. Why should you have to focus on food ALL THE TIME?! I guess the idea is to keep yourself busy (or hydrated) or if you need to keep yourself busy (with food) then learn how to make healthy foods.
You're doing an awesome job. I'm going to go juice something right now with the 3 biggest cucumbers I've ever seen.
I remember when I was a kid I didn't have a big appetite till I hit 8 years of age. Although I wasn't hungry she'd force me to finish my plate or get mad because I poured to much food and put it to waste. I had such frequent occurences growing up of going to dinner parties and the hosts would constantly push us to eat more food even though we were stuffed.
I think because of the rise of various health issues such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease ect, people don't make or push their guests to eat as much. My sister has never had a weight problem because my mother learned not to push her to finish all her food. This is a huge deal. The other mistake is giving someone food when their down (for the exception of cacao).
Several people told me that food addiction is different than other addictions because you eat for survival. You can't just stop eating for the rest of your life. You don't need heroin, cigarettes and the like to survive.
I think it's really sad that children are becoming obese. I think the parents of these children don't realize how hard life will be once they grow up. Food corporations don't care. Millions of Americans watch television and think that they're getting advice on how to loose weight when they are being misinformed for a reason.
All we can do to stay successful is to lead by example. I've learned that eating isn't just a physical experience. Food nurtures the soul. I think raw foods should be called soul foods.- Rebeka
I know you don't rep the entire raw community, but I was wondering what your thoughts were on maryjuana/canabis/weed whatever you want to call it. I was wondering if you have read up on it at all, and what your thoughts were on moderational use. It has been toted as one of the best "natural" remedies for cancer patients, as well as several other illnesses and studies have shown as long as it's smoked in a pipe that it doesn't cause physical damage... thoughts?
Hi Anthony...
This is a really great post and something I think a lot of people don't think much about, raw or not. It comes at a really great time for me, my life has reached a new level of hectic no matter how hard I try to move toward simplicity... what usually falters first is my eating habits.
Aaron saying "Progression doesn't = ALL or nothing" really spoke to me because I am an "all or nothing" girl to the bone... treating myself with compassion and reminding myself it's a journey is sometimes easier said that done.
What this post really made me realize is that it's about being present when you are eating, about listening to our bodies. I think at times, we even get too caught up with if the piece of food is vegan or raw and forget everything else and then eat a whole honeydew melon and 2 mangos at one sitting (yes, guilty as charged).
Anyways, as always, I am grateful to you for the information you share with us. Please extend my gratitude to Aaron as well for the thoughtful post.
Hugs and veggies xoxox
There are two kind of plates : the common plate where someone prepared your food (for example your mother or a cook) and your personal plate where you decided how much you want to eat when you did full it up or let full it up. In the first case someone submits a suggestion to you, in the second you choose knowing about the capacity of your stomach and/or being carefull with a new and unknown dish. You kwow that you can allways can 'come back'to the common plate.
It is a good thing to learn that awareness to a child. But we have not to force them to eat something they dont like.
In Swizerland where I grow up I also got also the bad reflex cleaning up all plates in order to be kind with my Mom or "that the weather will be nice the next day" as they said.
Now, going closer to what MotherNatur teaches, I see the principle of abundance that is inherent in and that leads me to some reflexions....
GotoR
I like to remind myself, "It either goes to waste or it goes to waist!" Read that somewhere a couple of years ago.
What provocative questions! Thanks for asking them Anthony & great to hear everyone's thoughts on this..
Well I dont think it's a midwestern thing, as Im Taiwanese and grew up in NYC. I was also always taught to clean my plate but that's because my grandparents and parents grew up during martial law where food was scarce. Even when I was growing up, food was often scarce.. My father would tell me stories about how as a barefoot little boy, it would make him ecstatic if he could have just 1 egg a month! Most of the time they were hungry..
Also, as physical/verbal affection was scarce in the traditional asian culture, food was the primary method of showing love. I remember my grandmother's greatest joy was cooking heaps of MSG-laden food for us and watching us eat with a huge shining smile on her face. G-d forbid we didnt clean our plates! (And G-d forbid she caught me sneaking my leftovers into my older brother's bowl -- the ultimate disrespect as he was the boy, but that's a whole other issue!)
For some reason, they also always told us if we didnt clean our plates, we'd come into the next life as cats. Now what that meant, I still dont know..
But anyway I always try to clean my plate (or happily invite someone else to!)
: )
Hey Anthony,
Beautiful sandwich!
And about Q the other night,
I'm sorry if we made you stuff yourself silly with the extra ice cream! You'd said you were on your way to the gym anyways so I figured your engine would burn it off within 5 minutes of being there.
I hope you don't consider me and Erin abusers or enablers. We'll stop eating with our eyes next time. Greedy greedy.
And, no, cleaning off your plate is not just a Midwestern thing. I'm Colombian-American from NJ and my mom was the same way. Must not waste food. And since she was the only girl of 7 brothers, she cooked for all of us the same things, which is basically farmer's food. The signature Colombian dish is called 'bandeja campesina' or farmer's dish. Beef, rice, beans, eggs, plaintains, etc. All on one dish! It's really no wonder my sister and I struggle with our weight.
Thanks for everything. See you when we get back to Guatemala!
nc
Yep! Born and raised in Iowa and I can also say that I have always been expected to clean my plate.
Now that I'm a mom, I'm very aware of the damage that one simple rule can have over a persons life and I never force my daughter to eat everything on her plate.
It's been hard to break that mentality in my own life - one thing that helps immensely is that since we've begun composting NOTHING goes to waste! If we don't consume it, our gardens will and it will in turn nourish us through our home grown food! I love it :)
If you have time and are curious you can check out my urban homestead wanna-be blog (as urban as Iowa City can be, Ha! ;)
www.driscollurbanhomestead.blogspot.com
Cheers!
that raw hemp cherry jam sandwich looks amazing. thanks for sharing! continued bliss living the raw life. xoxo Cy
If I can save the food for later and it will still taste good, I save it. If the food won't preserve well, i finish what's on my plate. I've also learned to take smaller portions from the beginning.
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