Thursday, January 21, 2010

Mme Pepin: "Real" Food and BBQ Picante Chicken

I recently read a book by Michael Pollan called "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual". I was drawn in by the well designed cover (Yes, as a graphic designer I do judge books by their covers). It was a quick read, and aside from Tim Gunn's book "A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style", I've never been so influenced by a book before. Pollan's concept wasn't anything novel or original, yet in today's day and age I suppose it bore repeating: eat REAL food. Not over-processed food, not food with ingredients that make you scratch your head, but food that is fresh, healthy and actual food. There were some other very informative parts of the book, including HOW to eat (insert smart-ass comment here), but rather than jilt Mr. Pollan out of book sales, go read it (I had it done in a matter of hours and it cost me about $7).

So what does this have to do with me, and cooking? Well, after reading Pollan's book, I evaluated the Cheez-it's that were tucked away in my purse. As I ate (one of my favorite snack foods) I noted what Pollan was saying about too much salt, too much to the point where it was artificially and unnecessarily salty. I looked at the fake bright orange color. I looked at the ingredients. Now things didn't click right away for me, I was on vacation and was subject to whatever food was going to cross my path (including my grandmother's delicious biscotti).

But when I got back to my natural habitat something strange happened: I really wanted an apple. I wanted that apple for several days, until I finally made it to a grocery store, purchased that apple (and several others) and ate it. Of all things I was full afterwards. Well go figure. Apparently, not only are apples filling and low calorie, they are incredibly good for you, they are probably one of the healthier fruits you can come across. So, I decided to adopt the old "apple a day" policy. So far what I've noticed is that I'm not craving chocolate and sweets very much anymore. I'm not eating when I'm not hungry. I'm not eating processed foods as much. I think Mr. Pollan may be onto something here... more to come as more happens.

Well, tonight I finally hit rock bottom in terms of the amount of consumable dinner food at my apartment. There was a lot of 'fake' mac & cheese (another old fave) which had lost it's magical pull over me. Some sherbet, apple sauce and a whole host of things that should (and since have) be thrown away living (and breathing, haha just kidding about the breathing part) in my fridge. I decided I really wanted real food. So I walked to Jewel (I don't own a car) and picked up dinner for the boyfriend and myself for Friday night (more to come on that after Friday night happens) and dinner for myself tonight.

I decided that since the boyfriend and I were going to have beef on Friday, I'd have chicken tonight. SINCE WHEN IS BEEF CHEAPER THAN CHICKEN?!?! Ah well, can't overdo it on the red meat thing, so I bought some chicken breast. I've been seeing those commercials lately for Pace Picante sauce, and since I do enjoy salsa, and could recognize/pronounce all of the ingredients on the label, decided that that would be the topping to my chicken. When I returned home I checked online at Pace's website to assess the situation and they even suggested BBQ sauce mixed in, hell's yeah! I do enjoy my BBQ as much as my salsa.

I started to heat some olive oil in the pan, putting A LOT more than usual in (the boyfriend did it the other night when he made pork and it turned out really juicy). Even with oven mitts on once I put the chicken in the pan I was getting burned. I turned the heat down, still popping, gah it was a bit of a mess. I then started to paint the chicken with the BBQ-Picante mixture until I decided that the chicken was done (several years ago I turned chicken into rubber, so now I'm always careful not to cook it too long). I had two thin chicken breasts with the mixture on it, and it was really good. And filling.

For dessert I mixed fresh blueberries into plain yogurt and drizzled honey on top. It's been several hours now and I'm not hungry, I'm not scouring my place for chocolate and I don't feel bad about what I ate. Awesome.

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