Ode To My Small Brownie

I just had the most delicious brownie. I made this brownie using some aged baking chocolate in my refrigerator, leftover chocolate chips and walnuts. The purpose of this post is to discuss two huge behavioral changes in my life as a result of this whole band journey thing. I now create high quality foods and I savor them.

I used to be a fast food girl. I frequently ate cheeseburgers at McDonalds. I liked them. I had pizza at Papa Johns or Round Table or Godfathers. I ate Mexican food at Taco bell or from a frozen burrito in my freezer. I also ate at nicer places. Red Robin, Stanfords, Newport Bay...Occasionally my husband and I would splash out the extra cash to eat out at local gourmet places with 'fine' foods made by hand.

Since the band I care about what goes into my mouth. I am getting perhaps two cups of food a day. Although it was not a conscious decision I have gradually come to the place where I refuse to let substandard food to pass my lips. Too many times in last year I have grabbed the first thing I could get my hands on to fill hunger and then found that my quick thoughtless grab of something ended up being all I could eat for dinner (because I filled the space in my stomach). Worse than that..this quick grab of food did not stick with me for long enough and I was then rooting madly in the kitchen 2 or 3 hours later looking for an equally bad choice to shove into my gullet again. If I had just hung on and waited for the real dinner I would have gotten to enjoy my portion of food and adequately eaten enough protein to keep me full for a longer period of time.

The cooking fest that David and I have been on in recent weeks has really forced this idea home for me. This new better way of eating has highlighted how we were eating very badly before (both in quality of food and healthiness of that food). Tonight David and Julia Child made delicious eggs Benedict for dinner. Yes the sauce was fattening (I limited my serving)..but my 3/4 of a normal human serving had protein, it had fat, it had lemon juice (can I count that as a fruit or vegetable?? haha) and a bit of carbohydrate. Most importantly it had taste!

A year ago We would not have made the thing...too much work, too messy in my already messy kitchen and we would both have been too tired to cook anything after a long day at work. A year ago we would have gone out to some location to eat some even more fattening meal mad from low quality ingredients. I would not have even tasted the thing because before the band I did not like poached eggs or vegetables or seafood or ..(you fill in most anything you can think of here).

Conversely This meal was made from fresh eggs and real butter. There were no powdered or frozen ingredients and it cost less than $5.00 for all of us to eat. We have more energy because i am lighter and David is lighter and we now fit in the kitchen at the same time without threatening to kill each other. I now try foods I have never tried before as I try new activities I have never tried before or even have tried and writren off my list (This is crazy but I really think my tastes have changed!).

I made dessert before he came home. It was easy it was quick and the result was eye poppingly delicious. So the question is...does the weightloss and resulting body fight to stay fat cause our brains and taste-buds to make food taste better? or have I gone through some sort of a quantity detox and I now take the time to savor my food and enjoy it? Whichever is the case both David and I have now decided to stay in twice when faced with the opportunity to dine out. We just prefer home-made food more and are willing to go to the work and make it.

This whole post my seem foreign to you foodies..but it is soooo completely outside my realm of life before now that it has me blown away with the idea of it. If you only get a little amount of food make it the best damn food you can get in you..such a simple idea and such a long road to it...what took me so long!!!