Staples

I think I'll make this an ongoing part of my blog. Since I stopped buying chips, birthday cake, doughnuts and extra large coffees with extra cream and extra sugar I had to find other things to put in my body that were more acceptable. I'm not following any diet plan(s). I'm just going with my gut and my smarts. I've done plans before only to be lost when I stopped them, so I figure that the best way for me to make changes would be to make them on my own. So my "Staples" posts will be lists of foods I find to be incredibly satisfying and palatable yet go hand in hand with the way I envision my future eating, which is, for the most part, healthy.

I'm fortunate in that I love healthy foods and vegetables just as much as I love the unhealthy crap. It's really all about the chemical reaction in my brain when my taste buds fall in love with something. Here are some things my taste buds are currently in love with:

Hummus

I lived in the Middle East for four years in the early '80's where I was exposed to hummus. I loved it then and I love it now. Where we lived in Yemen there was a small restaurant up the road from our apartment complex and they served hummus on a plate with paprika sprinkled over it, a small depression in the middle for hot sauce and a side of shami bread (sort of like naan). I was thrilled when I found hummus hitting the shelves in the supermarkets here in the States. I've tasted almost every brand available to me in the Northeast and I've settled on Joseph's original hummus tahini as the most similar to the hummus I ate in Yemen. All their flavors rock, with the exception of spinach and artichoke (some things are better left to a hot appetizer loaded with Parmesan cheese). Today I eat hummus with celery or baby carrots and I'm always surpised by it's nutritional values when I enter it into my FitDay food journal. It's also pretty good on a decent whole grain cracker.

Tzatziki

When my parents were stationed in Yemen I went to boarding school in Cyprus (in Nicosia on the Greek side of the island). The chefs in our kitchen were all Cypriot, so it was surprising that one of the favorite dishes that they served was schnitzel. Schnitzel is delicious in itself, but the clever, clever Cypriot chefs paired it with tzatziki, a garlicky cucumber and yogurt sauce. I've got two Mediterranean restaurants within five miles of my house and they both have excellent tzatziki, but who wants to spend a zillion dollars just for a sauce? Earlier this week while I was perusing the hummus section at the supermarket I spied a container of tzatziki made by none other than the aforementioned Joseph's! Needless to say I snatched up the container and when I opened it and tried it...Heaven. Nirvana. As an afterthought I looked at the nutritional values and was suprised to find that it was more than fairly decent for me. Their version is made with sour cream, but I couldn't detect a difference.

Cheese

I love cheese. Can't give it up for anything. Chocolate I can give up. Cheese -- no freakin' way. Stop & Shop offers a block of white cheddar at 50% and 75% less fat. The 50% is wonderful. 75% not so much. I don't know how far away Cabot cheese can be found, but if you "hanker for a hunk of cheese" I highly recommend their 50% white cheddar. Since I linked to that video I now realize that I have 70's era ABC Saturday morning cartoons to blame for my cheese fetish. I also blame them for forcing me to buy the "Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks" CD. OK, so I admit it...the CD is freakin' awesome! /lameness