I'm talking about food.
For the past few days I've been considering purchasing a few cookbooks to educate and familiarize myself with a certain cuisine. I'm thinking French or Japanese, but probably French, for now. I'm debating between Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table, but I have yet to actually flip through them at a bookstore before making any rash decisions.
I feel like I'm taking a really big risk. I mean, really, French cuisine? It sounds daunting and kind of impossible for where I am now, but I want to be challenged. I want to experience something new, so maybe emerging myself into the depths of a new style and culture--a new level of food and sophistication--may be good for me, maybe...
And then there's this other thing on my mind. In the past month I began--I guess you could call it this--a lifestyle change, not just a come-and-go health kick or one of those fad diets. I'm actually paying more attention to what foods I put in my body; I'm discovering healthy alternatives to be used in place of things like butter and sugar and unnatural oils, while all at the same time trying to make the food still just as delicious. I'm not saying healthy can't be delicious, but I have a lot to learn before I really try to come up with anything on my own.
And so this brings me to my confusion and slight feeling of guilt. I want to attempt more challenging recipes and experience cooking and baking foods of another country and culture, but I also want to learn about healthy alternatives and stick to my initial goal to cook and bake things low-carb, gluten-free, almost sugar-free, etc., which I have been doing so far, but I'm afraid it'll be affected if I turn my attention to French cooking.
I think what I'm most concerned about is the baking portion of my foodie adventure. So far I've been replacing all purpose flour with almond meal and coconut flour, and I haven't laid a finger on sugar or butter. But I know that most recipes out there still call for butter and all purpose flour and sugar, and thus the carbs and the calories and all. If I went back to that would I be defeating my own purpose of why I started my lifestyle change, or am I just over-thinking things?
Yesterday I bought a cookbook filled with healthier recipes to supposedly help women lose a dress size if they cooked through the book, but that's beside the point. The dessert pages still had words like "all purpose flour" and "sugar" and "butter" and my heart sunk a little bit, but I think I may be going a bit extreme with my version of healthy. So as I'm deep-thinking while typing this post, I've decided to just be open-minded about it all. Okay so maybe it is alright to occasionally toss in a bit of butter and use white flour (though I'd prefer wheat, or better yet, gluten-free), but I'll do my best to stick to my goal of using healthier alternatives while trying out something new too.
Green Pancakes
yields 1 serving
Ingredients:
1 egg
1 handful of spinach
1/4 of an avocado
1 tbs Greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup rice milk (soy, almond, or plain milk works too)
2 tbs coconut flour
1 tsp ground flaxseed
1/8 tsp baking powder
Directions:
- In a blender or food processor, blend together the spinach, avocado, and Greek yogurt until it becomes a smoothie-like mixture.
- In a small bowl, whisk the egg, spinach mixture, and vanilla extract until combined. Then add the coconut flour, ground flaxseed, and baking powder.
- Add in the rice milk. If your mixture is still a bit dry, continue adding the rice milk until it reaches a smooth consistency.
- Heat a pan and spray it with nonstick cooking spray. Spoon the pancake batter onto the pan, press and smooth it out with the back of your spoon. Cook on low heat.
- When the batter begins to bubble, carefully flip the pancake to cook the other side. Take your time!
- The batter makes about 3-4 small pancakes. Remove and serve with a drizzle of honey or yogurt, and your favorite fruit(s).
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