What's cooking?

As someone whose system was just cleared out rather forcefully (ugh) by some kind of virus going around, I'm trying to use this 'fresh start' (did I say UGH) yet to change some eating habits. There's nothing like an antagonized system to make one carefully re-examine what one is eating-- just think about eating it, and you get instant, gut-level feedback saying 'yes!' or 'aieeee! no!'.

Somewhat old news, but still not widely known-- the Harvard School of Public Health Healthy Eating Pyramid, a real contrast with the USDA food pyramid we all learned in school. The pyramid is depicted here, but go read the really good stuff, explaining the research behind it and contrasting it with the USDA one.


If you're more ethnically or culturally inclined, the Oldways Institute has traditional-diet pyramids for the Mediterranean, Latin American, Asian (seems like a BIG category for just one pyramid to me, but hey), and vegetarian.

Eh? Where were these 'traditional vegetarians' from, anyway? Ah. Variations of this traditional healthy vegetarian diet exist throughout the world, particularly in parts of North America, Europe, South America, and most notably, Asia. Given these carefully-defined parameters, the phrase traditional healthy vegetarian diet is used here to represent the healthy traditional ovo-lacto vegetarian diets of these regions and peoples.
...
For persons who wish to improve their diet, this model provides a highly palatable, healthful framework for change. Equally positive results can be obtained either by entirely adopting a vegetarian diet, or by alternating meals based on this vegetarian model with meals inspired by healthful dietary traditions of other cultures in other parts of the world, such as the Mediterranean, Asian, and Latin American diet models. Evidence is clear that people enjoy the foods of other cultures, and partake of these foods to enhance and augment their knowledge and understanding of different cultures. This food guide pyramid is the fourth in a series that has been developed during the past few years to illustrate graphically the healthy traditional food and dietary patterns of various cultures and regions of the world. This initiative is a result of a multi-year conference series, Public Health Implications of Traditional Diets, jointly organized by Harvard School of Public Health and Oldways Preservation Trust. It is an element of the Cultural Models for Healthy Eating project, a long-term Oldways educational program.

In that spirit, last night's dinner was a simple rice-cooker meal that I seem to have handled ok.

1 'cup' (rice cooker cup, about 1/4 c english measure) brown long-grain rice

1 'cup' (ditto) yellow split peas

5 - 6 'cup' water

dash each of thyme, basil, paprika, bell's seasoning

about quarter tsp of whole yellow mustard seed

2 - 3 tablespoons light olive oil

double handful frozen chopped tomatoes (2005 garden)

small handful frozen chopped green onion (2005 garden)

7 dried apricots

Came out very nice. Keep an eye on it, the crust will brown/burn when the water is gone, so when the dinger dings, scoop it out of the cooker into another dish. If your rice cooker is nonstick, attempt warily.