Jennilicious: She's delicious and nutritious!

Since Veganne has been so freakin' prolific as of late, I figured I had to at least post something! I guess I'll start with a little introduction.

I, too, come from a home where the term "portion" was considered whatever you could ingest without becoming violently ill, or even including that. I don't have many memories of not being fat, though there are pictures that prove I was once "normal-sized." One particular memory epitomizes my childhood eating habits. I was on vacation with my family in Florida (vacations in my family have always been centered around where we are going to eat next, not the sites to be seen). We went to a popular seafood restaurant and gorged ourselves. Because it was vacation, we "had" to get dessert, so, my dad and I ordered the brownie with vanilla ice cream, even though I was pretty much sickened by the mere thought of it. I can't remember if we finished all of it, but I'm sure we came close. Needless to say, by the time we got to the car, I had undone my pants and was groaning with pain and wanting to puke. Ironically (or fittingly), Duncan Sheik's "I Am Barely Breathing" came on the radio on the way back to the hotel. I don't think I ordered dessert after that for years. I still can't eat a brownie without thinking about that. Though this is an extreme version of my eating habits when I was young, it epitomizes my family's lack of food boundaries. I rarely ate only because I was hungry. I ate because it was comforting and, for the most part, was encouraged or wasn't really discouraged.

Once I got to college (in "crazy" Austin), a new food world opened up to me, though I was still addicted to my old eating habits, so I mostly just watched from afar as some people I knew shunned meat, dairy, fried foods, or what-have-you and ate what I thought were exotic fruits and vegetables because they didn't come from a can. I'd never seen things such as Thai food or sushi, except on TV or in magazines. I tried a bunch of different foods that I would've been scared of if I were still living at home. I've never been a picky eater, but I'd never been very adventerous unless someone else was there to hold my hand. I began drinking coffee, whereas before I'd mocked my mom for drinking "bean juice."

When I began living with roommates, my eating habits were once again controlled by what everyone else wanted to eat, or so I thought. I liked the convenience of us going to the store together and picking out food for the week(s) and preparing most of our meals together. The downside was that we always got the cheapest and easiest to prepare foods, mostly canned or boxed (PastaRoni, anyone?) and loaded with carbohydrates and fat. We also were guilty of enabling one another to eat unhealthily and foregoing any form of exercise. Our motto: If some cheese is good, more cheese is better!

When I moved across the world (or to Abilene), I began cooking for myself. I had a real job and real money for the first time and lived by myself for the first time ever. However, my odd schedule -- I worked nights and slept most of the day -- had detrimental effects on my social life and my eating habits. When I got off work, hardly anything was open, besides the bars and Wal-Mart, and the bars closed about an hour after I got off work. Most of my co-workers were years older than me and had families, so I didn't really do much besides work, sleep, and drive to see my now ex-boyfriend. I spent many nights wandering the aisles of Wally World searching for the thing that was going to fill me up emotionally and physically. I was trying to make better choices, i.e. less bread, more whole grains. I began experimenting with tofu and fish. But without someone else around to keep me in check, I was eating at weird hours and eating just about anything I could get my hands on because no one was watching me or judging me.

I've always had an underlying paranoia that people were watching me while I ate and thinking, "God, how can she do that to herself? Why doesn't she just quit eating for a while and see how that works out?" I've never really considered myself that bad of an eater, in that I don't really like food that is rich, sweet, or salty, and I'd take vegetables over just about any other food in the world. Most of my friends are baffled as to how I could've ever become overweight. I'm sure most of it stems from the fact that I pretty much disdain any form of physical exertion.

Over the past year, I've been re-examining my health and have come to the realization that I'm too young to be this damn old. My dad has high blood pressure and growing up around chemical plants surely has given me a predisposition toward cancers of all types. And after learning about Veganne's own experience with cancer, I've had a heightened awareness about it. I suffer from hypothyroidism, which most likely was one of the factors in my becoming overweight in the first place (though I know it's NOT an excuse). I have to take a pill for it every day for the rest of my life and have always felt rundown because of it. This is a bad foot to start off on when you know your health and happiness depends on being more physically active, but getting out of bed in the morning can literally be physically exhausting.

Veganne and I have always been excited for each other's eating adventures, so when she told me she was starting to incorporate vegan practices into her diet, I started researching more about foods and diets. I've experimented more, trying to choose organic over the regular. I've taken pride in the fact that every time I pulled out my lunch, my co-workers rolled their eyes and asked what weird food I had that day. I've also come to learn that many people just plain don't understand not eating meat (I used to be one of them). I've encountered ridicule for attempting to phase meat out of my diet from friends and family. I guess I just got used to the Austin-y, laissez-faire attitude about food, where just about anything and everything is accepted. Though I rarely go out to eat, it seems more of a hassle than a convenience because no one seems to get that "no meat" means just that. Most of the time, I just eat it anyway and feel guilty later because I don't want spit food. That's why I prepare most of my food, so I don't feel like I'm getting the third degree about everything. Also, I'm cheap and hate spending money on things like food. Furthermore, like Veganne, I don't care about making my food "pretty" or "appealing" and I'm sure most of it would be considered inedible by many. I don't care. I'll eat it anyway. Though I doubt I'll ever be able to call myself 100% vegetarian or low-fat or vegan, I know that I will continue to make better decisions with regards to food. And slowly, but surely, I will incorporate that she-beast called exercise into my life. After all, I'm worth it.

My Philosophy on Life and the Most Important Part of It- FOOD!

While a long post, the following explains the inspiration behind my relatively new philosphy on life that is the foundation for everything I contribute to this blog.

Ten years ago I was a typical American teen- overweight, underactive, and addicted to all things trans-fat. With our culture's obsession with supersized products, there was no portion control in my house. Whatever packaging food came in was what I considered a single serving...an entire pizza, a whole bag of chips, two rows of cookies...We never drank water, only soda. And gallons of it each week at that. We had some vegetables, though not nearly enough, and they were often prepared with butter or cheese.

Two weeks after turning 15 I found out that the strange lump on the back of my neck was cancer. I spent about 210 of the next 420 days (14 months) in the hospital getting poisoned with chemicals so toxic that the nurses had to wear gloves when anywhere near the bags of liquids that would bring me to the brink of death to give me life. I was wheeled down to the dark, gloomy basement where I was then burned severely every single day for 6 weeks in a room where no one else was allowed in, or if they were, they were covered in special gear to protect them from the radiation that will eventually kill me. During my 3- to 6-day almost-weekly hospital stays (one week for chemo, the next week because I needed to revived from the poisions and burnings, then one week off to gain enough strength to start it all over again), I happily slurped up any milkshake I could get my hands on and scarfed down food from every takeout place within about 5 miles of the hospital. And then I spent quite a bit of time eating anything I could get my hands on from the McDonald's that sits right smack dab in the middle of the hospital. To this day I cannot handle the smell of McDonald's and I have to try my hardest to control the instant nausea from one small whiff.

After surviving the poision, the radiation, the life-threatening infections, the incompetent doctors, and the extreme isolation, I resumed my life as a typical American teen. Though I was underactive before treatment, I did enjoy sports, especially swimming. Cancer, however, brought that to an end. By the time I got to college, I couldn't control myself around the constant supply of food and beer and cut out most physical activity outside of walking the short distance to my classes. In fact, I believe Jennilicious and I would wait 10 minutes for a bus to pick us up and drive us up the big hill that we were too lazy to walk up. Luckily my metabolism kept up with me enough, but I was overweight and utterly unhealthy.

When I went to graduate school I became involved in a research project examining news coverage of obesity. I poured over hundreds of articles to code who was cited as responsible for the obesity epidemic and what solutions were offered. (The article will be published this year in the Journal of Health Communication!) As I read each article I learned more and more about how important it is to be aware and in control of the things you put in your body. I slowly changed my eating habits to include more fruits and chose more lean meat and sometimes added extra vegetables into my diet. Internally, I appluaded how healthy I was becoming and felt really good about my efforts. While it was a decent start, I would eat gigantic portions all day long. Eating a banana is great, but blending a banana, 2 cups of strawberries, 2 cups of 2% milk, and a large helping of powdered vanilla mix and drinking that in 2 minutes just before dinner is not great. And, at the time I was living with someone who strongly influenced the food we bought so I didn't have much control (or thought I didn't) over how I ate.

I finished grad school, broke up with the boyfriend, and moved away to a new city where I knew no one. Because I was on my own for the first time in my life, I decided I finally had control over myself and I wanted to make substantial changes in my life. The hundreds of articles taught me a lot about nutritition and I felt knowledgeable enough to move on from my psuedo-healthiness to an entirely new lifestyle that promoted physical, mental, and emotional health.

My cross-country move was for an amazing opportunity to work for the National Cancer Institute where I learned that the poison and radiation that "cured" me would almost certainly kill me in the long run. In the ultimate irony, my cancer treatment will give me cancer. I'll probably suffer from heart, lung, and thyroid problems. I might develop osteoperosis and have the bones of an 80 year old woman by the time I'm 30. My ovaries, if they are even functioning properly now, may stop working and I might hit menopause by the time I hit 30. It became increasingly clear that I needed to do everything I could to give myself the best quality of life possible.

It started with a carton of soymilk. I'd read some articles about milk that questioned its place in our diets. Don't get me wrong, I love cheese. Jennilicious and I enjoyed many a giant bowl of queso (though I'm not sure there's actually any cheese in it) and cream cheese and sour cream formed the basis of most of the sauces I used to pour of anything I could. But I decided I'd phase it out of my diet as much as possible. At my new job several of my coworkers were vegetarian. Before that point I thought vegetarians were freaks of nature, much like the general population believes. Something about seeing other people not eating meat made it so easy for me to cut that out, too. Which left me, basically, a vegan. It wasn't overnight, and I'm still not 100% vegan. I eat seafood maybe once a month and very occasionally I'll eat meat or dairy or things that include animal products. People become vegan for a variety of reasons- for me it was purely health. Which is why I'm ok with occasional "slip ups." However, the longer I am "almost vegan," the more that I recognize and embrace other reasons for being vegan.

In addition to changing what I ate, I changed how I ate. No more enormous portions and fewer meals out. Since I changed my lifestyle in July of 2005, I've lost and kept off 30 pounds, awoken from the dark depression I suffered with for years, and become a much better person inside and out. I am hyper-aware of (obsessed with?) what goes into my body and how I treat myself. I choose to count calories and I choose to expend them. I choose to walk the mile to the grocery store and back with my groceries in tow, and I choose to take the dog on long hikes through the woods as often as possible.

When you don't eat meat, dairy, or processed/packaged food, you basically have to start enjoying cooking or find someone else who does. Luckily I found that spending hours in the kitchen on a Saturday afternoon was quite enjoyable. So I went from opening a package and nuking it to creating elaborate, healthy, tasty meals with my own hands. Over the past year and a half I've learned a great deal about cooking since I personally prepare 95% of everything that I eat.

That being said, I'm incredibly unknowledgeable about how to cook. All I need is a spoon, just a regular spoon. I own a cheap knife set from Wal-mart (which I've also given up because the place is evil) and the knives can barely cut through peanut butter. Luckily I got some much better knives that someone I know had just sitting around, but I'd be content to continue using my dull knives. Until this past Christmas, I did not have a ladle or tongs of any type. I don't have spatulas or wooden spoons and I didn't even have oven mitts until Christmas either. My pots and pans are hand-me-downs from my parents and are older than I am. There are no Pyrex measuring cups in my aresnal, only two sets of cheap plastic ones that seem to measure just fine. Expect cupcakes from me, but no cakes since I don't have any cake pans. I do have a waffle iron, though...it was a gift.

By nature I'm not one for following rules just because someone made them. Which poses a problem with recipes. I get inspired by any number of recipes and use them to create my own concoction. Lucky for me I don't have a particularly discerning palate because I'm pretty sure other people might be horrified at some of the things I make. I'm sometimes horrified. But I'll eat it anyway. I can only think of 2 things in the past year that I've made and thrown out. And 80% of the rest of it is really good and the rest is still pretty tasty.

So, this incredibly long post is my way of saying that my philosophy on life is to be healthy, be creative, and be daring. But don't be pretentious.

Why Blog?

jennilicious: i'm making lentil/split pea soup
veganne: I had some lentils today...I'm making bean burgers
jennilicious: damn you
veganne: can you make me dinner, I'm so f*ing tired
jennilicious: haha, only if you stir my lentils
jennilicious: ooh, that sounds kinky
jennilicious: we should start a recipe club or something
jennilicious: kinda like jennifer shmoo's web site
veganne: let's do it!
veganne: how do we start
jennilicious: don't know...a blog?
jennilicious: i should come up with some ideas b/c i am the one with free time nowadays
jennilicious: but i think the blog thing would be interesting
jennilicious: we can do pics, recipes, etc
jennilicious: ratings
jennilicious: i wish i knew some more folks around here who liked to cook or who even like the same stuff i do
jennilicious: well, my friend diana is pretty much up for trying anything like me
jennilicious: but she doesn't cook
veganne: we need to do something that's slightly different from all the others
veganne: a slant
veganne: the thrifty veggie
veganne: or the Not So Chef
veganne: "we aren't gourmet, we are cheap, we try to be vegetarian/vegan"
veganne: "I'll probably eat it anyway but it's bonus if it tastes good and looks pretty"
veganne: THE PHILOSOPHER'S SCONE
veganne: filled with our cooking philosophies
veganne: giant whiff of chipotle
veganne: oh my god
veganne: I can't breathe
jennilicious: hahaha
jennilicious: the philosopher's scone
jennilicious: inspired by van morrison
jennilicious: and our retarded cooking
jennilicious: or "cooking"
veganne: yeah
veganne: let's do it lady
veganne: how do you get a blog
jennilicious: um, blogger.com?
jennilicious: haha
veganne: haha
veganne: we can't get stuck on the first step
jennilicious: i want to try these: http://www.gnufoods.com/ourproducts/
veganne: ok I hate pan frying things, so I need advice
veganne: I'm about to pan fry my bean burgers
veganne: I'm just going to spray the pan and the bottoms of the burgers
veganne: should I let them sit in the pan and try my hardest not to touch them?
veganne: is that the best strategy?
jennilicious: probably
veganne: strange, my kitchen is filled with smpoke
jennilicious: uhhh
veganne: let's open those windows right up
jennilicious: did it clear out?
veganne: I have our first blog
veganne: "In the course of me trying to cook one meal, I managed to:
veganne: overcook and oversalt my snowpeas
veganne: take a giagantic whiff of chipotle peppers, which made my lungs burn uncontrollably and made me want to pass out
veganne: burn my toast in the broiler (I have no toaster)
veganne: drop a piece of toast in the dog's water bowl as I struggled to removed the burned toast from the oven with my bare hand"
jennilicious: awesome
jennilicious: i managed to eat a slice of toast w/ cream cheese and a veggie patty while waiting for my soup to cook
veganne: oh and fill the apartment with smoke
jennilicious: i'll probably just eat a little bit of it and freeze the rest
veganne: I'm bad about eating other stuff while I'm cooking
jennilicious: me too
jennilicious: now i just want coffee and cookies
veganne: I love coffee
veganne: but I can't drink it
veganne: I had 3 sips of some majorly watered down coffee today
veganne: and was shaking
jennilicious: haha
veganne: you should buy 8th continent lite vanilla soy milk- best latte ever
veganne: it's unfuckingbelieveable
jennilicious: i am still undecided on drinking soy
veganne: I love it...but it depends on the type you get
jennilicious: yeah
veganne: I am ok drinking a glass of it, but it takes a little getting used it...it looks like milk but doesn't taste like it
jennilicious: yeah, i think that's my main thing
jennilicious: though i have no problem with soy stuff that is supposed to imitate meat
jennilicious: i never drink a glass of milk anyway, so i'm sure if i just started using it, i wouldn't even think about it
veganne: buy the 8th continent lite vanilla soy milk and try it in some coffee
veganne: it's heavenly
veganne: how about blogspot for our blog?
veganne: blogger.com