What’s this about food on the road?
I grind my coffee every morning. No, I don’t mean I push a button on a grinder. I put the beans in a little cylinder in my Java Press grinder, attach the grinding handle and grind away. Then I make a wonderful cup of coffee with my Aero Press coffee plunger thingy.
Right now, I am in a Bullet Proof coffee phase, so I am not only grinding the beans and doing the plunging, I am also tossing all of that into my blender with unsalted butter, some brain oil and some protein powder. Seventeen seconds later I have coffee bliss.
Why? Why does she go to all that trouble for a damn cup of coffee? Just make it already. Buy a Keurig.
I’m down to one cup of coffee a day. More than that and bad stuff happens. I want that cup of coffee to be memorable.
I’ve done this so often that now I am on automatic, and while I am grinding, I am outside looking at the dawn slowly change the sky, I’m smelling the crispness of the air and listening to the soft morning bird twitter and figuring out my day. I’m sitting at my computer checking out what came in over-night. Still grinding.
This little ritual allows me the space and time to transition from waking up to moving into my writing. It slows me down from the hurried pace I used to put myself through with doing ten things before starting my list.
Now I take time to think about each meal in the same way. And I am down to two a day with an intent to get down to one meal a day. Really, that is all this body needs. That and water and a few almonds and veggies for snacks.
I wish I was a vegetarian. For animal humanity reasons. But I’m not. I’m a hypocrite through and through. If I had to kill something to eat it, I would just fall over and rot and become mushroom fodder. I used to be able to go fishing. Now I can’t even do that.
I’m hanging out at the green corner of the grocery store and during the garden season I am searching out those fresh markets and if not buying then looking and thinking about what I could cook with some of those ingredients.
Space. Fresh things are big and bushy and proud of themselves. And not smooshed in stuffy plastic bags. I love that. I’m not sure the color dark green exists in the grocery store but it sure flaunts itself in the fresh outdoor markets. And with limited space and a small refrigerator I often need to ask if the vendor will do a Samurai James Belushi style whack to a large head of cabbage or leaf lettuce and they agree. Or maybe I intimidate them, or they just want to get rid of me and do it.
I love variety too which means a handful of beans, one zucchini, some kale leaves, one pepper, one artichoke, 4 mushrooms, this much cilantro, etc. You know what I mean.
Yes, I am living in my small caravan but I’m not off the grid or even boon docking as they call it in the RV world. Nope. I am still within shouting distance (20 miles) of some berg or city that has supplies.
I did stay at a place in the desert maybe Arizona or New Mexico and the only grocery store had 3 carrots, 2 potatoes and dead lettuce in the fresh food section. But that was the only place like that. I am not sure where they went for good stuff but no one was sharing.
I do not have an oven. I have two propane burners and a microwave. My meals are usually simple with ingredients consisting of one or two words. Salmon, blueberries, steak, rice, salad, spinach. That kind of stuff. I gave up menu planning. And I love to cook. I am always cooking up fancy stuff in my head, but the plate is simple.
There is also the clean-up and storage issues. If clean-up takes more than 5 minutes, I am doing something wrong. And if what I want to make doesn’t fit in one of the pans I have, then it goes to the “maybe later” file. The cooking can take up to 10 minutes but anymore and I am off for a walk and takeout.
I fully buy into the “you are what you eat” philosophy. I am asking a boatload of stuff from my body. Walking 3-5 miles a day, writing a few hours a day, exercising 30 minutes a day, thinking a bunch of time during the day, learning new things all the time and doing a bunch of mindfulness. That screams good healthy food, don’t you think?
Do I have potato chips from time to time? Yep. Do I have desert from time to time? Right on. Do I eat pasta sometimes even though it doesn’t like me? Yes I do, thank you very much.
And for the most part I take good care of myself because I want to do a lot of things with this life I have and enjoy doing them. Am I disciplined? Sometimes. But if you called me up and wanted to go out for a glass of wine and a burger, I would be out the door right now. Good friends and conversation beat a lot of discipline. Have fun.
