Join
me for fun and entertaining explorations into culinary
and brewing realms. Plus all the other stuff that impacts
what goes on in the kitchen, including raising chickens
and gardening. My purpose here is to share my very practical,
low cost, hands-on approach to living a good life. And,
it doesn't hurt that all of the advice and ideas here help
to provide a healthy diet for you and your family!
What
makes my kitchen so bitchin? It is always full of yummy
stuff. Food & drink that really satisfies our hunger
and nourishes us, body and soul. We are blessed with a
wonderful quality of life filled with things we make ourselves
that are more satisfying than mass produced cheap goods.
We are always hard at work hard cooking, brewing, and making,
thus we have more control of our personal environment.
In our bitchin kitchen, modern scientific knowledge and
traditional wisdom blend gracefully for flavor & delight.
Here we celebrate life in harmony with the world, with
a lower impact on the earth and all the critters that share
it with us.
Ask
just about anyone what they want most, and it usually boils
down to living a happy, long life.
In my experience, the secret to this is equal helpings
of 3 key ingredients:
Balanced
and SATISFYING nourishment
Having
fun and enjoying life
Plenty
of love, fresh air, sunshine, and exercise
The Bitchin
Diet:
There are as
many diets as there are stars in the sky! I have been through
many different diets both in my childhood and
through
my adult life, from macrobiotic to over 10 years
as a vegetarian
to a very brief flirt with the Atkins diet. Through
all these explorations I have learned a few basic rules that
have led
much to a much higher state of happiness and satisfaction
with my food:
Rule
#1: If you don't enjoy it, it probably won't work. Something
as basic and primal as nourishment should be enjoyable,
and forcing yourself to eat foods you do not enjoy will
make you unhappy.
Rule
#2: There is no sense in reinventing the wheel. Human
beings have learned over millennia what foods will nourish
and give good health. Studies of so called primitive cultures
have proven that carefully prepare traditional foods can
provide the foundation of excellent health. I recently
discovered the book Nourishing
Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct
Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats This
book solidified my approach to healthy cooking and opened
my eyes about several misconceptions I had about modern
ingredients.*
Rule
#3: Balance, Moderation and Variety is Key. Too
much of any one thing is generally not a good thing. Even
if it is a healthy ingredient, there is really no true "superfood".
And who wants to eat algae all day everyday anyway? True
balance and satisfaction comes from a variety of healthy
vegetables, dairy, grains, and meats. Too much of any one
thing can also lead to health problems. Many books have
been written on such matters, but many of us know on an
instinctual level that too much or not enough is bad. Each
of us has to learn to find the proper balance that works
for our own body. Every body is slightly different! Lucky
for us, the variety of healthy ingredients is huge, and
modern access to variety is abundant, so finding our own
balance is easier for us than it was in ancient times.
Rule
#4: Be your own judge. Learn to identify and address
your own cravings and ideals. Become happy with who you
are, not who you are not. Good health is both a bodily
state and a state of mind. If you try to measure yourself
against the standards of health and beauty imposed on you
by someone else, or by society, that will set you up for
unhappiness. So what if you are a size 14? If you are healthy,
and basically happy, you will live a good life.
*If you
order this book from Amazon by clicking the above
link, I will earn a small commission, which supports
my writing, blogging, and this website. Thank you!
I am in the
process of starting a micro farm and catering business. To help
support myself during this startup I earn a tiny bit of income
through commissions on sales of products I recommend. I only
recommend items I personally own or have owned, that I find essential
in my Bitchin Kitchen. I wholeheartedly support shopping locally
as much as possible, but if you live out in the boonies like
I do, Amazon is a super easy way to shop for the harder to find
stuff that you need.
I
totally welcome your feedback. Thank you for your support!
Howdy
Friends.... Come on in!
This
book solidified my approach to healthy cooking and opened
my eyes about several misconceptions I had about modern
ingredients.* 