Some thoughts on food

It seems unlikely that we'll return to this experiment. At least, not in the sense that it started.

Paying so much attention to food like I did in January-April has really changed the way that I look at my food now. My opinions have changed, my preferences have evolved.

We eat dairy, we eat meat, and yes, we most definitely eat gluten. We are lucky enough that we can spend more than $83/week if we want to.

We used to shop at Whole Foods. We still do, but we also have been shopping at PCC. However, because it is summer and produce here in the Northwest is available and delicious, we have begun buying what we can at the Farmers' Market.

What this means is that each week I plan meals and make a grocery list. I've been paying special attention to planning meals in season, but I don't always hold myself to that. We start each grocery shopping trip by going to the market. There we see what the farmers in our area have available and purchase as many things from our list that we can.

Our meat we buy from a local butcher.

Our dairy (especially our milk and butter) we have been getting mostly from Golden Glen Creamery (available at our farmers markets, as well as at PCC and Whole Foods).

This weekend we're taking a trip about an hour north to check out a farm that grows their own tea.

I even discovered that I can source saffron (!!) from a farm in Washington.

This experiment may have worn on me but it has given me a deeper appreciation for the food I prepare. It encouraged me to read more as well and I'm doing what I can to be a more conscious eater. On top of buying local, we've also been trying to stay meatless on Mondays.

We're even growing (in containers) some plants to use in the kitchen.

This style of eating that we've adopted isn't for everyone, and that's fine. I also don't want to come off sounding preachy. This feels right to me and when it doesn't anymore I'll stop.

Two books I've really enjoyed that have helped to encourage my eating habits are as follows:
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Food Matters by Mark Bittman

Hiatus

You'll notice I haven't posted about what the May challenge is. That's because there isn't one.

Alex and I are tired. Planning a different style of meals each month is difficult, particularly if your kitchen isn't equipped for that lifestyle.

This experiment has definitely changed the way I think about the food I eat. But I needed a break from this because my relationship with the food I was cooking was deteriorating. I love to cook, and part of the reason why I love it is because it gives me freedom to explore. Being restrained took the fun out of it for me.

Alex needed a break because he was just tired of the changing diet each month.

I don't know if we'll pick this project back up. Definitely not in May or June. Maybe July, but I don't know for certain. And in the fall, I'm starting graduate school (in addition to working) so my time is going to be limited enough without having to figure out a different way of eating.

So we'll see. For now, we're taking a hiatus.

Food Stamp Budget: A summary

Our grocery shopping is done for this week. Assuming we don't need to buy more (and we shouldn't) I can now give you a breakdown for the month.

Not counting the week that was a wash because I was sick, based on a maximum benefit for food stamps in King County, we had $245 to spend on food. We spent $183.44, leaving us with $61.46 left for the month.

Week One:
Spaghetti with Sauce, Italian Sausage, Homemade Baguette
Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwiches, Tomato Soup
Fusilli with Creamy Pancetta and Pea Sauce
Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese with Roasted Tomatoes
Sandwiches with apples for lunch
Lemon blueberry muffins for breakfast

Week Two:
Wash, I was sick

Week Three:
Pork tacos with homemade corn tortillas
Buttermilk Oven "Fried" Chicken, Roasted Asparagus
Barbecued Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes
Sandwiches with apples for lunch
Lemon blueberry muffins for breakfast

Week Four:
Shrimp tacos with homemade corn tortillas, Mexican rice
Spaghetti with sauce and Italian sausage
Oriental Steak with Asparagus and Wild Rice Pilaf
Parmesan Chicken and Rice
Sandwiches with apples for lunch
Lemon blueberry muffins for breakfast

As food goes, this isn't an unusual month for us. I suppose we wouldn't have sandwiches as often for lunch, but we might. It just depends on my whims. And, other than our spice cabinet and other pantry items being off-limits, this wasn't terribly hard. We do typically go out to eat more often than we did this month, but, overall, it wasn't that bad. I think the hardest thing, at least for Alex, was that we couldn't buy alcohol (so no beer with his tacos!).

I'm grateful that we make enough money to buy what we want and eat what we want. But it's nice to know that, with a little effort, if we had to stick to a budget for food we could do so and eat how we like.

A wash

I have to say, last week we came in on budget. We had great meals planned. Everything should have gone well.

Then I woke up Monday with a sore throat. By Monday night I was freezing and exhausted. Tuesday morning I woke up with a fever of nearly 102. It was pretty much downhill from there. Strep throat knocked me off my feet, and not in a good way. I got antibiotics on Wednesday, but I haven't been interested in eating since last weekend. Today is the first day I have really even thought about it.

I'll be honest. We didn't hold to the meal plan. When you're sick like I was, it's a matter of what your body can handle as well as what you want. I said from the beginning that our health was most important. So I allowed myself to eat on whim.

We're back on track for this week. The medicine is doing its job, and I've been fever-free for over 24-hours. (Fever started Monday, didn't go away until Friday morning). I feel wrung through the wringer. But as of this morning, we were on plan.

Food Stamp: Week Two

We went to the grocery store tonight to save ourselves some time tomorrow (we have errands to run out of the city). We spent $68.59 at QFC, and we're counting $6.50 as pantry items (corn masa, some spices, sesame oil).

Here's some of the menu for week two:
Raspberry Muffins
Shrimp Tacos
Panko crusted chicken with brussels sprout slaw
Pork tenderloin with homemade bbq sauce and roasted vegetables

As for week one, here was the breakdown:
$69.58 at QFC
$2.39 for extra milk (at QFC)
$3.62 for extra apples (produce stand near my work)
Total: $75.59, $8.41 left

Lesson to be learned:

Don't always try to get the best price.

I know that sounds silly, but hear me out.

We wanted to have apples with lunch. Fujis at the grocery store were $1.99/lb (and they were big apples). There was another apple that was $1.79/lb. I'd never heard of it, but I figured an apple was an apple so I got it because it was cheaper.

Now we will be eating the cost of them rather than the apples. They're terrible.

I used some of our leftover money for the week to buy better apples. The fruit stand across from my work was selling fujis for $0.89/lb. I used $3.62, leaving us with $10.80 for the week.

Lesson learned.

First week: menu

We spent $69.58 at the grocery store, leaving us with $14.42 for the rest of the week. Alex happily pointed out that we could probably have pho or order a pizza if we wanted.

I wanted to share with you the meals we're having this week so that you know that we're still eating well, despite cutting spending. (Our bill included coffee and flavored syrup, so our food costs were even lower!)

Saturday night, Alex made some baguettes, and we had Spaghetti (with Italian sausage cooked into the sauce) and roasted garlic bread.

Sunday morning, we had French toast with leftover baguette.

For breakfast this week, we're having lemon blueberry muffins.

Our dinners this week include: a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with tomato soup (one of my favorite comfort meals), pasta with creamy pancetta and pea sauce, and stove-top macaroni and cheese with roasted tomatoes.

It's a pretty gluten heavy week, but we're celebrating since we can eat it again.

April Challenge: Food Stamp Budget

The less said about being gluten-free the better. Neither of us liked it. We felt irritated a lot. We cheated (and it was worth it). I did enjoy experimenting with gluten-free flours (and adapted a kick-ass muffin recipe) but I'm glad to be done.

Which brings us into April.

Alex and I shop at Whole Foods. We indulge in exotic spices. We thoroughly enjoy eating out. We [unintentionally] waste food.

Not this month.

In April (starting on Saturday, to give us four full weeks, Saturday-Friday) we will be eating on a food stamp budget. The maximum benefit for a family of two in King County is $12/day or $84/week.

This was a blogger challenge back in January but I found out about it too late to join in. So we're doing it for a full month.

The challenge said you couldn't use any pantry items, couldn't accept food from anyone, and the only "free" spices were salt and pepper.

We're fudging that a bit, because, while it's fine for a week challenge, I think it's unreasonable for a month.

We will use pantry items on a case by case basis. AP flour, sugar, and white vinegar are some examples of what we have that we will continue to use. Our "fancy" flours and our extensive spice cabinet are off-limits.

We will accept food when it's offered. Easter dinner, for example, will be eaten at my dad's house.

We have pre-determined exceptions:
-April 23rd we're having an Iron Chef dinner. It's been planned for months. That dinner is exempt from the budget. (Meaning we only have $72 that week for food).
-If I get into graduate school, we are celebrating.
-I make cakes for people, for money and as gifts. If I need to exempt those ingredients, I will. But whenever possible I will include them in the budget. (I have two coworker birthdays, a baby shower, and Easter to supply baked goods for).

Everything else falls into the purview of the budget. We will eat breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks on $12/day. If I get ambitious, I'll scan in our receipts for each week.

So that's the deal.

Food Revolution

Hey everyone. One of my favorite chefs (with amazing blue eyes) is trying to petition to get better foods into schools. This is something I wholly support and I hope you will do.

Please sign Jamie Oliver's petition to serve our kids better food and pass it along!

Petition can be found here.

Oops, I cheated. On purpose.

Being gluten-free sucks, at least for Alex and me. It sucks even worse when you're sick and the only thing you want to eat is saltine crackers. Of course, want is a pretty strong word.

Alex and food were not good friends last night, or today. I offered him several things to help (ginger ale, brown rice, applesauce oatmeal muffins) but in the end all he really wanted were saltine crackers.

When I was talking to him on the phone, he told me that saltines were all he thought he could handle. I said that was fine. Then he said, "But I can't because we're gluten-free." And I replied, "Eat some crackers."

Our health is more important to me than this experiment. Which is why I bought him some crackers. If that's all he thought he could eat, that's what I wanted him to eat. He needed some food, after all. (He also ate a single tater tot, but even that was too much for him). He did eventually eat some of a granola bar, but today he's been subsisting on crackers and Vitamin Water.

Oh yeah, and I couldn't resist eating a cracker. Just one. I wanted to smother it with peanut butter, but I refrained. I could have resisted, it's true. But I really wanted one, so I had it.

Alex had an excuse, but I didn't. Oh well. I enjoyed it.

So there you go.

Half-way point

While I enjoy the challenge presented by gluten-free baking, neither of us is very happy. We both agreed that dairy-free, while difficult, was manageable and acceptable.

However, half-way through March, both of us are gladly looking forward to April when we can eat gluten again.

Alex, who I think is taking this far harder than I am, told me today: I LOVE GLUTEN, AND I DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS IT.

Dairy-free we could live with. I doubt we'll ever be gluten-free by choice again after this month.

The ease of not needing to think

I've mentioned before how lucky Alex and I are. Excepting for tasting cilantro as soap, we don't have any good sensitivities or allergies. That means if we end up eating something we've chosen not to, we won't notice. That's not true of people with allergies or sensitivities.

We went to PF Changs yesterday for lunch. Since most asian foods contain soy sauce, they're typically a no-no for gluten-free folks. However, PF Changs has a gluten-free menu. It wasn't the most amazing food I've ever had, but it wasn't bad at all.

We went and made a point of ordering off the gluten-free menu. Our waiter saw and acknowledged that we were ordering gluten-free. When our food arrived, I asked for GF soy sauce, and the woman who brought our food looked at us and then at our waiter and asked, "Is it all supposed to be gluten free?" We responded that yes, it was, and they both profusely apologized and said they'd remake our food.

It came back, and was gluten-free and wasn't bad.

When we were paying, our waiter brought us fortune cookies. I raised my eyebrows and asked politely if the cookies, too, were gluten-free. The waiter, stunned, said no, they were not. Smiling, we gave them back (they were in packages, not loose). I explained about our project (he was worried about an allergic reaction) and he felt better. But you could see that he was thinking hard about he fact that he always brought cookies, even if people had specifically requested everything gluten-free.

For most people, the cookies wouldn't be a problem. And our waiter never really thought about what they were. Like I said, we're lucky that we don't have the allergies or sensitivities because nothing bad happens if we consume our "tainted" food. But this experience made me think, and I hope it made our waiter think too.

An interesting side effect

Well, we're gluten-free now. After my initial devastation at realizing I can't really go out for asian food, I'm doing okay. I've already attempted GF cookies (I wasn't pleased with the result, but Alex liked them) and GF buttermilk biscuits (which are awesome).

We're still mostly dairy-free, at least I am, but it's by choice now. The fact that I lost 3.5 lbs in February without eating dairy was really a wake up call.

But here's an interesting side effect. I buy one latte a week from Starbucks (on Thursdays, which are my long days) and this week I got it with non-fat milk since I didn't want to pay extra for soy milk. Upon drinking it, however, I realized I felt guilty. I have no reason for feeling guilty, but I definitely do. I suppose that means that next week I'll get a soy latte.

Cravings, lessons learned

Dairy-free month is coming to a close. We've been remarkably good, and frankly it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. There were a couple of things I really wanted but couldn't have, but for the most part, I hardly missed dairy at all. Which is remarkable.

That being said, as we're getting ready to transition into our new challenge (March: gluten free) I find myself craving things I can't have.

I want tiramisu. I want buttered popcorn. And, for the second month in a row, I want a grilled ham and cheese sandwich like nobody's business.

Since Alex and I technically cheated on Valentine's Day, we forfeit our amnesty day. Which means we transition directly from dairy-free to gluten free with no free day in between.

I'm planning on trying my hand at gluten free sandwich bread, but I don't know how well it'll turn out.

For the most part I'm not worried about being without gluten. Gluten is Alex's downfall, not mine.

I survived dairy-free. And I learned something very important - I can do without. I didn't miss cheese with a passion. I couldn't have cared less about not having milk. Butter is well loved, but not needed.

I plan on cutting down on my dairy intake from here on out. I'm still going to eat cheese because I love it, but I'm downgrading it from a necessity to a treat. I'm switching to almond milk lattes (less than 40 calories a serving!).

So, wish us luck as we transition, and if you know of any tried and true gluten-free sandwich breads, please let me know. I've got a hankering for a good grilled cheese sandwich.

Decisions, decisions

Sunday is Valentine's Day. I'm sure you're all aware of that. For us, Valentine's Day has typically been a day where we indulge and treat ourselves to a nice meal.

There is a restaurant here in Seattle that is wonderful. It's called Tilth. We've eaten at Tilth many times and have always thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. This year, they are having a prix fixe menu. When Alex called to ask if they would be willing to make ours dairy-free, they readily agreed. They're just awesome like that.

However. We have given ourselves one amnesty day per month. And Tilth is rather expensive. Why, Alex asked, would we pay all that money and not eat what we want?

Why, indeed?

We are very lucky. We have no food allergies. We make enough money to eat what we want. That's the whole point of this exercise.

But Alex was right. It seems silly to pay a lot of money for a dinner that, while I'm sure we would enjoy, isn't what we'd really rather be eating.

So Sunday is Valentine's Day. It is also our amnesty day. And we will enjoy it. But the most important thing is this: we will appreciate it for what it is. And that is actually what this is all about.

The reality of the situation

I commented last month about how I was aware that dairy was everywhere. I was worried about sinning unknowing.

Here's the reality: it happens.

Alex's latte got mixed up with someone else's on Tuesday, and he got one made with milk. He sipped it and knew right away it was wrong (though it had more to do with the fact that it was flavored, and less to do with how the milk was).

Last night, I baked a cake for a coworker. The cake is fine for me to eat because it doesn't contain any dairy (remember, for our purposes eggs are not dairy). However, when I went to make the icing, I realized I had three choices: make the icing and put it on the cake untasted, make the icing and snatch someone from outside to taste, or taste it myself.

I take a lot of pride in my cakes. I most definitely wasn't going to put it on the cake untasted. Icing is finicky, and it has to taste just right. I didn't want it to be too tart (it was cream cheese frosting) but I also didn't want it to be cloying. No way to tell without a taste.

I could have grabbed someone to taste it. It might have been difficult, it was 9:30pm after all, but I'm sure I could have done so. However, again, this is pride in my cake. I know what the cake tastes like so I know what I need the frosting to taste like.

So I tasted it myself. I only had two small tastes (think the size of a nail head). It was enough to get an idea what the icing needed.

Day three and I had dairy. But you know what? I don't regret it. I'm sure my lactose-free friends would back me up.

The second challenge: dairy-free

Well, we were successful. Vegetarian month came to a close with both of us feeling good about our progress.

During the course of the month, we decided that each month we would have one amnesty day. This, of course, is dependent on our adherence to the monthly challenge. Our amnesty day for vegetarianism was the 31st and we reintroduced ourselves to land animals and said goodbye to dairy.

Alex and I both agreed that we would return to vegetarianism later in the year and give it our full effort. In January, we were helped along by eating fish. When we return, we will be completely animal-free.

This month we're dairy-free. My hardest vice to give up will definitely be cheese, but I'll be strong. We even found a restaurant willing to make us a dairy-free dinner on Valentine's Day. Lucky us! (More on that later in the month).

Easy choices and difficult ones

Vegetarianism is a relatively easy food choice. It's well understood and fairly easy to work around when you're going out. As Alex put it last night, "There is not a lot of hidden meat."

Excepting the few times that I've already mentioned, not eating meat has not been difficult. And even my cravings were easily avoided.

Next month we're going dairy free. No milk, no butter, no cheese.

I'm not worried about my daily latte because I'm fond of almond milk. Since Alex and I typically make them at home, it's an easy switch.

No, the area where I'm most worried is butter, cheese, and milk and going out. Restaurants use them in everything.

I've rather enjoyed being a vegetarian, though I do appreciate meat a lot more now. But I'm afraid of being dairy-free. Not only do I love dairy, but I am worried that if I go out to restaurants, I'll sin unknowing.

Any recommendations?

The emotional experience of food

What food do you reach for when you're sad? When you're happy? When you're bored? The answers to those questions really tells you a lot about how you think of food.

When I didn't get into graduate school in 2009, I was devastated. I wanted nothing more than to curl into a ball and disappear. And when Alex sought to coax me into eating dinner, the only thing I wanted was pork dumplings. Today, when I was distressed about graduate school, all I wanted was bacon and hash browns.

When I'm happy, all I want it popcorn or Thai food (sans meat, for the record).

What does this say about me? Meat is my comfort. What else did you learn about me? Graduate school drives me crazier than anything else.

Thankfully, I have a wonderful boyfriend who supports me in all things in my life. He also is a big part in this year of conscious eating, because we dreamed it together. While I curled on the couch and stressed out and raged, Alex cooked the vegetarian dinner we were supposed to have tonight. Had it been left to me, I likely would have turned to meat, in the form of pizza or carpaccio, or bacon, or all three.

We're in this together, Alex and I, and I'm thankful for that. I'm proud of myself for not succumbing to my need for meat comfort. Though, to be honest, had I cooked dinner, I likely would have cooked up the chorizo in the fridge.

On cravings and unforseen difficulties

"I think that allowing ourselves fish has made me not really miss land animals," Alex said to me, when I questioned whether or not he'd had any cravings.

He's right for the most part. I think we'd both be a lot worse off (craving-wise, anyway) if we'd decided to cut fish out. I have a lot of respect for people who are able to do this, but we were being realistic when we outlined the first month of conscious eating.

We have, however, been more thoughtful with regards to the fish we've eaten. Check out the sushi post for more details.

We went out for dinner last Friday with a friend of ours and her friend who came with us ordered a steak. Smelling it and seeing it (and hearing him rave about it) was definitely hard, but we stayed strong and persevered.

My only flirtation with undoing (so far) came in the form of a tweet from a delicious pizza restaurant in Seattle. It was simple but it made my mouth water.

I immediately reported it to Alex, part of me hoping he'd say, "Okay let's go!" But, when it comes to carpaccio, he has more will power than I do and held strong. The sad thing is that I won't even be able to eat it next month because I think we'll be dairy-free.

The hardest thing so far has been finding lunches to take. This seems like such an easy thing, but has proven to be difficult. We used to take leftovers for lunch the next day but since I started volunteering we stagger our dinners and eat leftovers the next night as dinner. This works fairly well, dinner-wise, but makes lunch difficult. We may reevaluate this soon.

The first week we thought we'd make it easy and just take cans of soup. As we stood in the aisle, reading ingredients, we were surprised to find just how many vegetable soups contained some form of meat, if even just chicken or beef broth. We managed, but it was an eye-opener.

This week we've been taking pitas and that has been tasty and filling. I already have a recipe to try for next week to mix it up. But, like I said, I have a new respect for those people who live this lifestyle.

Sustainable, Delicious, Sustainably Delicious

A few months ago, I read an article in the Seattle Times about a sushi restaurant in Seattle that, after being open for nearly 15 years, was closing their doors and reopening as a 100% sustainable restaurant. I was intrigued and filed it away to investigate further.

Now that we are eating more consciously, I thought it was time to check out this restaurant.

I did some reading about sustainable fishing prior to our visit and the most important thing I learned was that if things don't change, the oceans could be empty by 2048. Here's an article from the National Geographic about it. That's a staggering fact. Of course, that's someone's speculation, and may not necessarily be true, but it's something to think about in any case.

Most of the sushi served in restaurants is not sustainable. Just read about unagi and bluefin tuna, if you want to know more.

But back to this sushi restaurant. It's called Mashiko and is in West Seattle. We went because we love sushi, and because we're trying to be more conscious. I'm so glad we did; everything we ate was delicious (including things I never thought I'd like) and I didn't miss any of the non-sustainable dish.

We got omakase. That means the sushi chef, who also happened to be the owner, got to choose what we ate. We told him "no land animals" and that we'd eat anything else he put in front of us.

This is what we had (raw, except where noted):

Oysters, kumamoto and gold creek
Geoduck with yuzu tobiko
Nigiri consisting of: albacore belly, spotted mackerel, and toro
Kombu marinated rockfish
Grilled oyster with sake butter
Cooked geoduck with uni butter
Fried shiso leaf with uni
Pacific saury roll with shiso and salmon roe
Baked black cod
Albacore poke (with seaweed, pine nuts, and onions)
Black cod liver*
Salted squid with fermented cod eggs
S. Carolina catfish, tempura sweet potato, and avocado roll**
Fresh jasmine pearl creme brulee
Satono homare sake

*Black cod liver is a substitute for monkfish liver. In my opinion it is way better than monkfish liver. I didn't like monkfish, I liked black cod.
**South Carolina catfish is an unagi substitute. The way it was prepared, I wouldn't have noticed a difference. The beautiful thing about it is that the supplier of this catfish strives to make a good environment. The water is recycled and whatever can't be recycled is used for irrigation. The fish are fed a vegetable based food. There are no pesticides, no herbicides, no hormones, and the water is filtered to prevent algae blooms. The sad thing? This catfish is more expensive than the nearly extinct unagi.

Our dinner was three hours long and it was blissful. We got to talk to Hijame Sato about the fish and sustainability. We talked about global warming and the environment.

I can't wait to go back. And if you're in Seattle and like sushi, you should go too.

I can't personally vouch for these (yet!), but check out other sustainable sushi restaurants: Miya's Sushi in New Haven, CT and Tataki Sushi in San Francisco, CA.

On eating on the couch

Alex and I are really bad at eating dinner at the table. We used to do it every day, but our dining room table turns into a storage shelf and we're both pretty lazy... What I'm trying to say is that we eat more meals on the couch than we should.

When you eat dinner on the couch, while watching TV, it can hurt you in many ways. You don't typically talk to the person you're eating with, for one. Another way that it hurts, especially in relation to conscious eating, is that you don't pay attention to your food. This means you're mindlessly consuming so, in addition to ignoring your meal, you may also eat more than you mean to. So, eating on the couch isn't conducive to conscious eating.

It was Alex that pointed this out. And he was right.

So I made it a point to clean off the table and we've eaten our dinners there. So far. I'm not saying that I don't expect us to revert to bad habits, but hopefully it will be a conscious choice rather than just something we do because it's what we did the day before.

The first challenge: vegetarianism

Alex and I are avid meat-eaters. Sometimes I flirt with vegetarianism, but then I remember how much I love carpaccio (this one is from Seasons in the Park in Vancouver, BC) and t-bone steaks. And chorizo. And salami. And, well, a lot of things. And Alex? Well, he loves steak and hamburgers as much as the next guy.

And don't get me started on bacon.

But I digress.

This month we are eating vegetarian only.

We'll see how it goes. If you know of any good recipes, please send them along!

A first

Conscious, adjective.
1. aware of one's own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc.
2. fully aware of or sensitive to something.
3. aware of what one is doing
4. deliberate; intentional
5. acutely aware of or concerned about

There are more definitions, of course, but these are the ones that best represent what Alex and I are trying to do in 2010.

We are spoiled when it comes to food. We have enough money to buy what we want (and waste it, which I've found we do often). We can go out to eat whenever we feel like it, pretty much where we feel like. Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, and we do enjoy food, but I feel like we consume without really appreciating the things we are eating.

Hence conscious eating.

In 2010, we are going to try a new way of eating. We are going to think about the things we eat, and enjoy to eat, so that we are better able to appreciate them.

Stay tuned. I'm still not entirely certain this will work.