So, How’s That Raw Diet Going?
Posted by Moose on August 28th, 2008. Filed under: Uncategorized.
This is what falling off the wagon with an abrupt thud looks like. Warm, cheddary goodness that tastes like the souls of kittens, gently baked by the breath of Blake Lively.
My guilty expression. I also look like this when I return a library book late and tiptoe out the door without paying the fine. The shadows portray the darkness of my soul. The drycleaning that appears to be hanging from my ear portrays the moldiness of my closet.
Hastily concealed evidence. Don’t ask me why I needed a ladle to make biscuits. Possibly to ladle up the remnants of my resolve before they make my biscuits all soppy.
The problem with eating raw is everything you put into your mouth is, by definition, uncooked. Which is great, until you want something warm and cheddary. Or a coworker decides to leave, and her going away party offers you the option of being the jerk with the raw carrots or relinquishing the ethics you’ve cherished since last Tuesday. (Or since brunch on Sunday, when you may have eaten a delicious pesto scramble with sausage and downed a mimosa bigger than your head.)
I love eating, I love baking, I love the communal nature of food. So the implications of this diet are complex. Think about what you do with your friends. How often is food involved? If you said EACH AND EVERY TIME, then you are a member of my tribe. I can’t really envision giving up dinner parties or four forks in a slice of flourless chocolate cake for the sake of an uncooked bell pepper.
Many of my favorite memories of my ex involve eating – being greeted at the door with a sidecar in a sugar rimmed cup, making stirfry after a particularly unfortunate day, thumb wars over lobster. Sure, it doesn’t matter whether food is straight from the vegetable patch or did hard time in garlic butter sauce over a high flame, but we eat a certain way in this culture and escaping that is fraught with consequences that have little to do with nutritional needs.
I was about to say something about “embarking on this experiment”, but that sounds unbearably pompous, even for me. My pomposity is quite bearable, thank you, especially if you hold your nose and think about blueberry muffins. Anyway, I’m doing this to force myself to look at food differently. Mission accomplished. And if I slip on the sidewalk and fall face first into a plate of hot cheddar biscuits, so be it.
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August 28th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
If you’re eating more mindfully even half of the time, that is huge. Heck, if you’re eating the same old non-raw things but thinking more about what you put in your mouth, that is a step in the right direction. You’ll muddle your way through and get where you need to be in the end.
Those cheddar biscuits look really yummy right about now.
August 28th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Scott and I have instated nightly Moosely Readings: Good for the Soul, Bad for the Waistline. This one had us running to the nearby Lucky for…what exactly is needed to bake biscuits again? (You can tell how often I use the kitchen.)
August 29th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Can you toss a few of those in your Miette package? PLZTHX.
August 29th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Everything in moderation! I’ve been a vegetarian for more than 16 years, but try not to go crazy. I now eat seafood. And, I subscribe to the “what I don’t know can’t hurt me” when it comes to restaurants. If there’s a touch of chicken broth in something, I’m not going to lose my shit (however, if there’s more than a touch, I’ll absolutely sense it and be turned off!).
Life’s too short!
August 29th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Good heavens, going raw is a huge undertaking, and not one to be jumped into whole hog I’d think. Transitioning to veganism took me over a year and actually was kind of unintentional. Mindful eating, yeah, that’s the thing. I debate about the raw thing. I have a friend who we get together and make raw food and it’s a lot of fun. But it definitely involves forethought. Knowing how you like cookbooks however, Everyday Raw by Matthew Kenney has a lot of great ideas that don’t take a ton of work. You’re doing great.
August 29th, 2008 at 10:59 am
If cheddar biscuits are wrong, then I don’t want to be right.
And speaking of blueberry muffins, you should try the muffins at The Sentinel (http://www.thesentinelsf.com/). They will blow your mind. Seriously, I’d always though blueberry muffins were overrated, not anymore!
That didn’t really help with the raw foods did it? Sorry.
August 29th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Food is complicated, messy, wonderful stuff, isn’t it? I love thinking about food and I love your posts about your own journey as of late. Even if there are stumbling blocks of warm, oozing cheddar along the way.
I doubt I could do a raw diet if for no other reason than I really like WARM food. I’d cave for biscuits any day.
Your biscuits look divine and now I am bummed I don’t have time to whip up a batch before heading out on this weekends camping trip. They would be so yummy around a fire!
Maybe I could. They couldn’t take THAT LONG to make, right?
(And flourless chocolate cake! I am dying over here.)
August 29th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Seriously–health-health-health, be damned. Falling off the wagon onto a plate of heavenly, cheesy, carbtastic objects would, quite possibly, be a dream come true. Sure, I might wake up from that dream as I’m being wheeled into my post-op room after bypass surgery, but who cares??? CHEESE!!!!!
August 29th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
I cry FOUL! How is it fair to post pictures of those biscuits and not include a recipe for those of us who have cheddar sitting lonely in our fridges right now, and a houseful of happy mouths that would love to chomp on those for breakfast?
I realize this is not a comment supportive of your raw food efforts — which I do, in fact, admire, though I could not replicate them. But, seriously, I could barely read the post because I just kept looking at the photo and drooling on my keyboard…
August 29th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
I had a gal at a health spa recently tell me I would stop breaking out if I gave up milk products. I CHOSE CHEESE!
In fact, I would like to make that a license plate.
Please send recipe. I am about to embark on a tofu smoothie diet due to roiling energy levels. I will need something for falling off the wagon!
August 29th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
If you can sustain your comment to going raw, eating mindfully, or anything other than NOM NOM NOM CHEESE NOM after both baking and, I assume, tasting those biscuits… well, you’re kind of like my hero. Seriously, those look SO GOOD.
August 29th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
I’m pretty sure you could “sustain your comment” pretty easily, now that I think about it. Commitment. Commitment is what I meant.
(DISTRACTED BY CHEESY, FLOURY GOODNESS. SEND HELP.)
August 30th, 2008 at 5:40 am
mmmmmmm! I love cheddar biscuits! And, now I’m going to have to dig up a recipe and do some baking this Labor Day holiday.
And, as an aside to a small comment you made; I’m a librarian and it seems like a LOT of people get very embarrassed and uptight about library fines. I am here to officially tell you – do not sweat it. We actually LIKE you to run up some fine money; our budgets are being cut and we can frankly use every dime of your fine money that we can get. (Apparently our city government types – who decide how much money to give us – have heard of this new invention called Google, and then arrive at the illogical conclusion that there is no need for those pesky libraries anymore. Boo!)
You may occasionally get a crabby part-time circulation clerk who does not quite get the big picture and is all hung up on “due dates” and “rules” and things, and may give you a small frown. (I do not understand these people and why they are drawn to library work; I’m assuming they are too crabby to be Wal-mart greeters and choose to work for (generally) minimum wage in a library instead.) Ignore these losers; the real librarians and administrators in the library understand that you can not always get a book back on time – we pretty much all love books or we would not be doing what we do! – and, again, we are happy to have your money.
So rack up some guilt-free fines, but please do come back and pay them when you get a chance. And – check out some more things while you are there!
August 30th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Please share your recipe! They look delicious.
I’ve decided to follow intuitive eating. Eating what I want when I’m hungry and stopping when I’m full. I’m much much happier and I haven’t gained any weight so I must be doing something right.
I always figure if I mess up anything on one day I have another chance the next to get it right.
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:06 am
Cheddar biscuits! WANT!
Yeah, I try to be conscious of what I eat, but I could never do the raw thing.
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I could never do the raw thing. One, because burritos have cooked meat and melted cheese in them.
And also, I love refried beans.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
I have tried like 15 different times to do the vegan thing and or the raw thing or even the vegetarian thing hell I even bought a CRAZY juicer to help me out and every damn time I realize that I SUCK and have absolutely no self control… none!