Milk Adventures!

So, just so you all know, I've been reading a LOT about the "real food" movement, specifically Nina Planck's book Real Food: What To Eat and Why. In short, we are taking small steps toward eating a diet that more closely resembles the one described above: avoid processing (apart from natural processing, like creating yogurt at home) at all costs, avoid vegetable oils (excluding olive oil & coconut oil), grass-fed/pastured/organic meats, eat whole milk (raw is preferable) foods, eat eggs and their tasty yolks, lots of fresh vegetables, sea salt, fermented foods, and such. Our first adventure: trying whole milk!

I have never in my life drank whole milk, and there is a gallon sitting in my fridge right now, staring me down. Mr. Cheap is at work, otherwise I'd try a glass right now, but I want to try it together (oddest couple activity ever?). We'd ultimately like to connect with a farmer so we can drink full-fat, unhomogenized, unpasteurized, raw milk straight from grass-fed cows, but baby steps, people! Baby steps! According to the real food diet (similar to the Paleo diet, if you're familiar -- the two are often equated, it seems), whole milk is better than skim because it doesn't skim off the nutrition. Those fats are good for you, and you should eat them. So, before raw milk comes the small transition from 1% to whole. Additionally, the majority of skim, 1% and 2% sold in stores is actually flash-dried milk powder re-mixed with water. Gross -- by then all the living enzymes are DEAD and you're drinking milk void of most of its inherent nutrition. Anyway, here we go...

THE VERDICT

Mr. Cheap: "Pfft, it tastes exactly the fucking same. (heavy on the sarcasm) Verdict, awesome!"

I, personally, can tell that it tastes fattier, but it's not impossible to drink. I was worried that it would taste like straight cream, and gross me out. But, it is quite delicious and almost...filling? More like a tiny meal than just a beverage, like skim and 1% seem. A bit anticlimactic, but give it a shot, everyone! If the real food movement appeals to you like it does to me -- "Well, heart disease literally began as food become industrialized...I trust whole foods we've been eating for hundreds of years more than Soy Tofu Cream Cheese Replacement with Added Vitamins! Robot Food, I say!"  -- then switching to whole milk (preferably unpasteurized and unhomogenized and raw, but my current gallon is neither of the three, and I'm still going for it!) is a great way to start. 

Forest of Beech Trees by Gustav Klimt, 1903

Fall is finally here. Yesterday, it was in the high 70's (boo!) but for the rest of the week, it's going to be in the high 50's/low 60's (yay!). To me, this means cooking more comfort food because my semester is filled to the brim with stressful responsibilities. It means less fresh fruit and vegetables, and more canned ones, which is depressing, but it also means more melty casserole type things and pumpkin and cinnamon and warm beverages!

I'm keeping this post short because I have a big post coming (more cooking adventures: pizza and tacos -- with lots of delicious secret ingredients that I will reveal upon posting), and because I have homework to do.

Today, I recommend taking time to read and drink some hot tea, or hot chocolate. It will do your soul some good, especially if you're a student of any kind dealing with the torrential downpouring of new stress that comes with starting a new semester! I recently finished "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" by Harriet A. Jacobs for my Black Women's Autobiography class, and I highly recommend it. It's not a light or fun read, but it's an important one: can you remember ever reading a slave narrative written about a woman, much less by the woman herself? Probably not, because this is one of the only ones. It was published in 1861, by the way, and initially under a pseudonym, because Harriet didn't want those who helped her escape to get in trouble upon its publication. What a woman! If you're looking for something light, steer clear, but I truly believe that the most rewarding part of being a reader is the discomfort one feels when having to grapple with a challenging text full of difficult ideas and thought-provoking insights. Make yourself uncomfortable, and feel your brain grow.

Also, feel your stomach grow as we transition into fall, the season of comfort food! Next post soon!