Be food obsessive!

Me: No mom, you don't need to come over, I'm just feeling blah. Crappy but not totally sick. This is like the 3rd time since I started school.
Mom: Maybe you should change your diet. Maybe you should try eating more junk food.
Me: (head cocked in confusion/disbelief) Are you being serious?
Mom: Well, yes Jenny. We think sometimes you eat too healthy...

So I get it. As in, I get what my mom was trying to say. It's typical mom stuff: Eat a well rounded meal with protein, carbs, a veggie or two. Don't worry about dessert every once in a while.

I started listing off what I ate today: tea, broccoli with organic mayo (an age old pairing), forkfuls of almond butter out of the jar, a whole small avocado with salt, more tea, a pear, a few corn chips, a few bites of spinach from thinning my garden, a sip of Kombucha, and finally dinner.
Instead of ordering pizza or stopping by KFC, I ate some of my leftovers from last night: A veggie melange of kale, onions, broccoli stalks, zucchini, spinach sauteed with some soyrizo (soy chorizo). I scooped this into a corn tortilla and topped it with my new favorite sauce: Purslane, spicy peppers, garlic, and blended cashews. I topped this all with a farm fresh egg over easy. I guess you could say the soyrizo brings in a slight junk food aspect but overall it was pretty healthy. And pretty balanced. Considering I felt sick today and didn't have much of an appetite overall, I'd say I did pretty well.

I know why she worries. I'm always talking about veggies. I refrain from eating bread (for gluten reasons). I'm not a huge meat person (but I do eat it on occasion). I urge her to eat fresh veggies instead of canned. To eat sauteed zucchini instead of zucchini bread (which I admit to eating oh about a half loaf of this weekend). To cut out nightshades like tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and potatoes to reduce inflammation. To try calendula salve to relieve pain.
I talk about food, the farms, herbs, remedies. A lot.

So yes, I can be a bit food obsessed.
And picky.
And bossy.

But I think being picky about food is a good thing. I don't want the chemicals and GMOs and antibiotics found in most conventional foods in my body. I've already had parasites and major bouts of dysentery and have worked un-gloved with boat chemicals far more than I should have and I simply don't need to do anymore damage to this relatively young body of mine.

And I like food that tastes good. And to see (be) the face that grows it.

Be picky and bossy and obsessive about how this food system works in our country! Be picky about where you buy your food and from whom you buy it. Talk to your family (I try not to sound bossy but well, sometimes it comes out, um, bossy) about information usually concealed from the general public (like upwards of 70% of antibiotics sold in this country are used in our conventionally raised livestock) or about beneficial "weeds" you can eat (purslane has more Omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy veggie) or about detrimental food for certain conditions (nightshades can exacerbate inflammation in those with auto-immune issues).

I can't say I don't crave and eat what I consider junk food: a burrito bursting with carne asada or beans and cheese and guac, Etna pizza, a big juicy hamburger with crispy fries (from a real restaurant- if I have a burger, I want it to be good!), a chocolate peanut butter milkshake from Corvette Diner. There's nothing wrong with a little extra fat and salt and sugar sometimes. Sometimes and as long as it is intentional. Unfortunately, or fortunately for my thighs, I can't eat like that all the time. I get sluggish, I break out in rashes, my body and brain shut down and scream for fresh veggies. So as much as I love french fries, I will skip my mom's suggestion and go for the greens. I have a feeling this sickness of mine is more from lack of sleep than lack of proper nutrients. Oh, and perhaps a bit of stress thrown in there (see "Three Feet" blog entry)?
I think lavender chamomile tea is good for that....

Here's the recipe for the spicy purslane cashew sauce if you want to pig out on deliciousness.

1 cup purslane, leaves and stems
1 cup cashews, soaked in water 30 minutes (reserve water)
1 hot pepper
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste

Blend it all together adding water as needed to desired consistency. Use it right away or let mellow for a day or two. Pour over salmon, veggies, or kale and soyrizo tacos.

Sick day garlic

I am standing in the kitchen squeezing mushy brown cloves of garlic from their papery caccoons into my mouth. Eyes heavily drooping, sinuses aching, I lean against the counter and decide to finish the whole bulb. Why not? What harm could it do.

I'm already sick.

At least the garlic is roasted- sweet and lightly pungent with a consistency of pureed parsnips doused in olive oil. When I'm well it is a taste I crave. Right now I can't taste much at all. I did the raw garlic thing last night and while I can down a half clove or two at a time (next time I'll remember to freeze them), I'm pretty sure that eating a whole head of roasted garlic has the same immune enhancing effect as one raw, stomach-clenching clove.

I make some tea. Green tea, cinnamon tea, lemon tea. I have several cups going at once because I feel like the more I drink the faster this- whatever it is- cold, allergy attack, sinus infection- will dissipate under the increased vapors.

Being sick sucks.

The idea of it seems great when I'm healthy: time to lay on the couch and drink tea and read and snooze. Like a perfect Sunday right? But with the added bonus of people feeling sorry for you and asking if they can bring you chicken soup or soda crackers or a towel for your forehead. And you can get away with acting like a five year old for the day (late in day two or early in three the gig is up and whining just gets a roll of the eyes and a damp cloth thrown at your head).

Reality: you wake up with a dry throat and swollen eyes and a body aching from temples to toes. There are classes to attend and chickens to feed and people to hang out with and very important emails to write and now you are not in the state to do anything. On the couch you stare up at the ceiling, out the window, you try to read but the words leap before fuzzy eyes and you doze for a few hours. You wake up sweaty and smelly late afternoon and you still feel like shit. You're not really hungry but your stomach is growling so you contemplate ordering pizza but that would make things worse so you cook up whatever half wilted veggies are in the fridge hoping their life-force will enliven yours and later deal with the ramifications of ill-digested cabbage under two sheets and a comforter.

Stare at the ceiling, try to read, email close friends nonsensical reports on your ill health, try to blog and give up, stare out the window. Now you're up at 2am because you slept all day and all you want to do is go to sleep and wake up well.

You promise god you will never wish to be sick and have the "day off" again.

I would tell you how it ends but I'm still swollen faced and achy hence the garlic slurping episode in the kitchen not too long ago.
At least I'm too the point where I am attempting to blog even if this too is nonsensical.

Oh virus/bacteria in my blood, begone! Let the couch be free of me! Garlic, go get em!

Roasted garlic recipe:
One head of garlic
Olive oil

Slice the pointy top off of the garlic. Douse with a glug of olive oil. Wrap in foil and bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. You'll be able to smell the deliciousness and neighbors may come over to share but only let them in if you're no longer contagious or they offer to re-dampen your forehead cloth. Spread on crackers, toss cloves into stir frys or soups, or stand barefoot in your kitchen squishing the whole thing niblet by garlicky niblet into your mouth.