Your cooking knowledge is outstanding and fascinating! Have you eaten squirrel, raccoon, gator, possum, and other dishes well known to the Cajun region? I always envied folks who could be that self sufficient and off the land. Living in a city or suburban area my entire life has been rough.
I love cooking eating Asian (Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean) ...but stopped stir frying a while back as the prep was a chore. As I age, and work long hours, have tiny kitchen with no storage, and have severe pain from arthritis and spine, I gotta keep things easy. I make my own soups with rice noodles, or “glass” noodles made from sweet potatoes; or any number of fascinating and healthy items found in Asian grocery stores. I throw a bunch of produce in the pot with some Asian condiments like Memo, Miso, and fresh lemon grass.
I juice a lot....even uncooked oats mixed with raw peanuts, sunflower seeds, chia seeds (or ground flax seed), plain yogurt, berries, carrots, honey (or stevia) and maybe cinnamon. All might be in one smoothie!
I even make “savory” lunch/dinner green smoothies with dandelions, spinach, broccoli, kale, beets, onion, garlic, lemon, raw peanuts, apples and Braggs Liquid Aminos. I am good at creatively taking nutritious foods and throwing them together for great taste and colorful visual appeal. Textures and strong flavors are a “must” for me. I used to make great salads, but my teeth are problematic and I must juice instead.
@tree, I would love some simple recipes for using nutritional yeast as I am really missing cheese (won’t eat that anymore) and Cheetos. I miss mac and cheese too. I could eat a whole box (4 servings) of Kraft or Annie’s Mac and Cheese at one sitting. Since changing my diet, I lost 50 pounds, and have totally changed a life long problem with very high cholesterol into having a 100% normal cholesterol level. Whoopee!
My new job starts in a week from now, and I will have to make one meal per week for our clients at the recovery center. I will have to submit a recipe one week in advance. I am worried, as I have not had to deal with this kind of executive organization in years. I am pretty sure things will work out ok, as I do remember how to make a few things from my past that people like. Maybe I just have new job jitters.
I have never learned to make basic stuff like most females have though. For example I never cooked a turkey or roasted a chicken in my whole life. I just cooked a fish for the first time in my life (pan fried and I did not care for it). I have never deep fried anything, nor broiled anything. I have never baked a cake, but I did make corn bread twice, a long time ago. I have never baked a cake. I have made meatloaf once and did not like it (the ketchup- bleh). I don’t know how to make basic American foods (growing up, I always found the “classic” American foods quite boring and unhealthy) as my family was extremely dysfunctional and I never was taught. I really never had the desire for “girlie” home economics stuff like cooking. I vowed early in my life to never get married, nor have children, so that cut out a lot of the neccessary homemaking skills. Plus, I hate the preparation and clean up of cooking. I hate all the steps. My brain hurts.
I am on an anti- inflammatory diet and try to not eat tomato’s, anything with wheat, white flour anything, and definately no sugar. No processed packaged foods. No pizza or breads. No cheese. I should not be having any dairy, but I do have cow milk and yogurt. (Too expensive and difficult to switch completely to nut milks and nut yogurt). I do eat brown rice occasionally. I like potatoes, but I just microwave, as my oven stores all my cooking pots, and it’s a hassle to “bake” potatoes.
