Why is it, when we most need nutritious, healthful meals to fuel our increased activity and mental overload, that we cut corners in the kitchen? Maybe you don't fall into this rut. If you don't, please, what's your secret? When I hit overload, the last thing I want to do or have the wherewithal to do is whip up the kind of fresh, delicious meals I crave. Quickness and ease are what I need, and when it comes to food prep, I degenerate to variations on carbs and cheese. Cheese sandwich. Pasta. Going out for pizza (sorry, flatbread.) While filling and tasty, it's not the fuel I really want and need.
I intellectually understand that making a salad takes less time than boiling up a pot of pasta, and yet I reach for the pasta. One pot, one ingredient, easy-peasy. Or so my ingrained habits would have me believe. I've even found myself complaining to my friend, a chef no less, that there's a lack of variety in produce available in the city. That there's only so much I can do with carrots and bell peppers. Now how's that for mental gymnastics? I manage to blame my loss of creativity and lack of inventiveness in the food department on the lack of produce at my disposal. A lack of variety which simply isn't true in a city the size of Philadelphia.
I intellectually understand that making a salad takes less time than boiling up a pot of pasta, and yet I reach for the pasta. One pot, one ingredient, easy-peasy. Or so my ingrained habits would have me believe. I've even found myself complaining to my friend, a chef no less, that there's a lack of variety in produce available in the city. That there's only so much I can do with carrots and bell peppers. Now how's that for mental gymnastics? I manage to blame my loss of creativity and lack of inventiveness in the food department on the lack of produce at my disposal. A lack of variety which simply isn't true in a city the size of Philadelphia.
I find it interesting that a lack of variety in food feels disheartening and physically tiring while continual variations on one shape and subject are endlessly stimulating in the studio. Only
yesterday I re-opened one of the library books that inspired the launch
of Year of Yoni, a book I stumbled upon serendipitously while aimlessly
wandering the stacks, and am fired up with more potential ideas for new
yoni pieces than I can hold all at once in my pea brain. Thank goodness
for sketchbooks. I scribbled down images and phrases and symbols and
goddesses and page numbers in a frenzy last night. All of which may come
to naught, but currently feels rich and juicy and exciting.
And yet, rather than unearth the wool and floss to get to it, I spent my free hours in the kitchen prepping vegetables. Because once they're prepped, reaching for them at meal time is like reaching for the pasta, easy-peasy. And, really, that's all I'm looking for in meal prep. Ease. Fresh, unprocessed ingredients and uncomplicated ease in creating a variety of meals from said ingredients. If you have any tired and true simple vegetarian recipes to share, bring 'em on. Those green beans are destined for this marinade - delicious on their own; atop a salad; or tossed with rice, quinoa, buckwheat soba noodles, or rice noodles.
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