Thanks to Hulu I just realized a second season of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution has already started. I never watch regular television, but if I can catch something on my time on the computer I will watch the occasional show. I was horrified by the first season. Children in a elementary school had no idea what a tomato was. Many could not distinguish corn from broccoli. It was really sad, and amazing too. It opened my eyes to how corporations have changed our nation, how much control we have given over, and how helpless many of us would be in a large disaster or emergency.
I truly feel inspired to make a few changes in my own kitchen. I already do a lot of from scratch cooking. I visit a fruit stand to get a good price on vegetables, although I really can't afford organic meat. I would love to be able to do this but the price is too high at this time.
I recently purchased "Jaime's Food Revolution" cookbook and have been joyfully trying new recipes each evening after work. The chicken leek stroganoff was okay, the spaghetti Bolognese was amazing, and today's burgers were so delicious even the grandbaby who doesn't eat hamburgers normally gobbled one up. I've been having fun.
I bake from a cookbook not a mix, I make my own white sauce for soups instead of relying on a mix or store bought cans of soup. I am usually good about preparing things myself although sometimes there are a lot of work hours, and mixes for things are on sale, and the budget is tight. I will admit I have never mastered gravy, and spaghetti sauce has usually come from a can or bottle then doctored up with seasonings and vegetables. I'm going to make steps to stop this. I enjoy being in my kitchen too much and I owe my family better. I have the skills to do better.
I wandered about after work gathering what I needed for dinner that night and randomly read a few labels for products I had recently purchased out of thrift or laziness. Second ingredient high fructose corn syrup, third ingredient corn syrup, and that was on just one jar of pasta sauce. Added together what are all of these products doing to us? I deserve better as does my family.
After the extreme success of the spaghetti Bolognese sauce I will be making my own pasta sauces instead of just dumping a jar in a pot to heat.
This is one show I can get behind 100 percent. We really need better food education in this nation. We say we are rushed, tired, poor....but we really need to wake up. Thank you Jamie Oliver for inspiring so many of us to do better.
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I am on the waiting list for his book from the library. If I really like it then I will buy it..you make it sound so good though
ReplyDeleteJudy
I adore Jamie Oliver and all he has done for kids! I had dinner last night with a woman who is a school cook and is APPALLED at what has evolved in school kitchens over the past couple of decades.
ReplyDeleteI am jonesin' for Jamie's cookbook now!
And wouldn't it be fun for the two of US to hang out in one another's kitchens, cooking Oliver style? WOW.
Thanks for another great post, WP!
Hugs
Mother Connie
I will have to look on hulu for that documentary. Thanks for alerting me. I can make white sauce, spaghetti from scratch, and really delicious brown gravy. But, for some reason, ignorance, I suppose, I do use canned soups some, not much, because I have never made any soups like the canned ones or even tried. Also, I do used canned food. You cannot have a stash and just let it sit and go out of date. Usually, I only use three cans of food each week. Maybe that is not too bad. I know it is hard to work all day and still have to cook a meal from scratch. I often wonder how the truly poor and overworked can manage when their dollars are tight. Yes, how many ways can manufacturers name and include sugar? The other day, I read a lable that had three kinds of sugar! The corn farmers must be really happy.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! While I do keep a jar or 2 of spaghetti sauce on teh cellar shelves for an emergency meal, I make a quick marinara from scratch almost every Wed: 1 20 oz can tomato puree/crushed tomatoes, 1 15 oz can no salt stewed tomatoes or a pint of homegrown/canned tomatoes, chopped garlic/onion/celery, bay leaf, black pepper, Italian seasonings. Into the crockpot, it simmers all day while I work. Precooked ground meat/sausages/meatballs can be added, if desired. I've done the math, too. My version is cheaper than the prepared stuff. : )
ReplyDeleteCTonabudget.blogspot.com
Excellent thoughts, especially your conclusion. Even on limited budgets and stressed time schedules, we can all do better. Thanks for reminding me!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a great cookbook too - and Im glad the show is back on as well. I couldnt believe what some of those kids ate and didnt know about! IT was absolutely amazing. I wish him luck.
ReplyDeleteMost pasta sauce does have corn syrup! Check out Marcella Hazan's books--the recipes are so easy. A little onion, a can of tomatoes--and very little else is how they do it in Italy.
ReplyDeleteReally glad that you're enjoying our Jamie in the US! He's not 100% appreciated in some quarters here in the UK - you might know that our media deals with celebrities using the 'tall poppies' method....build 'em up then when they get too popular cut 'em right down again. Some papers have taken great delight in Jamie's banning by the LA (I think) school board. The lad's trying, you've gotta give him that. Also he has grown up on British TV so he has a lot of fans here. If you can get your hands on 'Jamie's Italy' the Spaghetti Tetrazzini is to die for!!!
ReplyDeleteK xx
My kids always ask at church what is for dinner? They are bored and will pass down the program with a pen, my cue to write the menu. Sunday it was chicken thighs on the barbecue 88cents a lb. Hand picked, asparagus, Corn on the cob 3/100,strawberry/rhubarb cake(homemade/homegrown) shrimp salad, basil/tomato mozzarella bread.(home grown basil.) We eat like this all the time. Many of there friends will come to the house and have never seen 1/2 the vegies we eat. But they always come back. I cooked enough for a thrashing crew yesterday and it was all gone today. Why? the neighbor hood boys came over last night and cleaned us out. Kids are craving home cooked food. They just don't get enough. Tomorrow, pork chops, broccoli, salad (from garden) mashed potatoes, asparagus. Home made ww bread (I grind the wheat) I know a little over kill. But most of the girls friends will say what is your mom cooking for dinner?
ReplyDeleteJudy, I know you will love this book.
ReplyDeleteConnie, that sounds fun!
Practical Parsimony, three cans a week doesn't sound bad at all. :)We are certainly sugared up with all of our ready made foods. If you ever find a recipe that tastes like the canned bean with bacon let me know. I love that and haven't been able to copy it.
Anonymous CT, I've never thought to make sauce in the crockpot. I'll have to try this.
April, thank you. With your gardening, I know you are doing well already!
Jeff, I'll never forget that one family that ate nothing but but brown fried foods. the school lunches were quite scary too.
Frugalscholar, I will have to find her cookbooks too. It's scary how many cookbooks I already have. I have a book addiction problem.
Keshling, I'm loving this book so much, I plan to get them all.
Out my window, I do mostly homemade myself. I've just been lazy with sauces and gravies. My husband used to take his lunch to work and there were two young people who didn't know what an orange was. I was shocked when he told me, but now I know that the situations on the show are not made up.