Ch-ch-ch-changes

Can you hear it in your head? Good. It’s a good blog post if I get a song stuck in your head. Welcome to my world.

I’m writing today as a break from the three other kinds of work and homework going on over here chez Laura. weirdly, I can’t share my recent favorite recipe creations. Since they’re being tested by fellow classmates anonymously, if I post them here I may let the cat out of the bag! You’ll have to wait for that particular deliciousness.

So, as I was creating these delicious and healthy meals and treats, I was standing by the fridge, and what fell out of the sheaf of papers clipped to the side? My first recipe creation. The one that started it all.

Once upon a time, I was new to New York and unemployed and a new wanna-be foodie. While flipping through Food & Wine Magazine I ran across a contest to create a recipe that would be good with coffee using only 5 ingredients. Well, clearly I needed a project because I got right on it. I baked about a gazillion batches of brown sugar meringues with pecans and espresso powder and the BHH and I sampled them, and sat up and vibrated with sugar and caffeine into the wee hours. Ah, those were the sweet oblivious days!

Anyway, astoundingly enough, my Speckled Coffee Kisses won. One day I got a delivery of a bunch of gigantic boxes with $1,000.00 of Black and Decker kitchen tools inside. Every major appliance in their new line. A passion had begun. 

The funny thing looking at this recipe is that while I’m still proud of it, and while I may still make it for some party or other, it is so far from my lifestyle now. It’s not that it’s terrible (unless you’re diabetic), but I wouldn’t want to eat more than one of these speedballs every once in a great while. Looking back at it just points out how far I’ve come in my thinking. And how much things are the same.

When I created this recipe, I was more concerned with calories than with content. More concerned with fat than with whole foods. And more concerned with flavor than with health. What’s different? Well, today I would rather eat plenty of good fats, eat whole foods and not worry about the calories, and I’m still pretty concerned with flavor.  That’s right, I’m passionate about making healthy things taste really really good.

One of my relatives recently asked “why spend so much time and money making a ‘deal’ out of healthy food?” Why not just eat a plate of veggies and leave it at that? Isn’t it frivolous to spend so much time and money on food? And who cares? Good question. It made me re-examine and refine my own thinking.

It’s like this, if I can eat healthy food that tastes amazing or healthy food that tastes like sawdust, I will eat the great tasting version, and I think most people would prefer that. Also, many people would choose bad-for-you food that tastes great over healthy food that tastes like sawdust. And so, to get the most people possible eating healthily, I think it’s important to spread the word that whole, organic, healthy, immune boosting, nutrient dense, energy producing foods can taste even more amazing than all of the processed, fake, unhealthy foods of the world. And, if it takes a little more time to make them, I think the sacrifice of time on social media or watching tv or whatever little habits we all spend our “extra minutes” on might be worth it.

Most of us crave deliciousness, satisfying meals, and at least occasional treats. And I think the great majority of people need to connect to friends and family over holiday meals and weekend dinners and treats from time to time. Although it is also important to be able to enjoy the simple things, our human nature craves colors and flavors and textures and celebration. Wouldn’t it be great if we could indulge those cravings  without “eating away” at our health? I think we can.

Yes, I just went on a rant there. But this is the key point of A Life Delectable. You can have your cake and eat it too, from time to time anyway. And on the days that call for kale instead of cake, well, let’s make that taste amazing too.

My Speckled Coffee Kisses have been sent to the back of the “to make “ file. But that doesn’t mean I won’t make them some time when I have many many people to help eat them.

For now, here’s to eating our way to vibrant health together! Now, tell me, what decadent recipe would you like to healthify?

-L.