Clean Food, Messy Life
/The eve of these 2022 holidays is also the eve of the launch of my first memoir, “Clean Food, Messy Life.” While the title may evoke our visions of seasonal feasting, how might we balance the desire to eat well with indulging just enough? As the big moon illuminates this week’s long nights and the holiday lights sparkle under fresh snow, I reflect on ways to remain present to what lights us up while not getting caught up in the messiness of the festivities.
If you know me personally or have been reading this column for a while, you’ll also know what brightens my world: simple meals with wholesome food grown as naturally as possible, shared with friends and family. You might get the same buzz from such endeavors – you might not. This way of cooking “clean” centers me. My ritual in an otherwise muddled day, it’s become rhythmic. Sacred. Tradition.
Maybe your own food traditions are not centered around local food or even cooking from scratch. Perhaps your grandmother’s Matzah ball soup brings you joy. Perhaps just placing any home-cooked (or reheated leftover) dinner on the table summons the faintest smile despite your fatigue – I have those moments, too.
It’s not always the food itself that nourishes us. Life is messy; and agonizing over the perfect meal will not help us enjoy it. In fact, eating when stressed promotes inflammation, compromises our digestion, and results in poor nutrient metabolism (and often abdominal upset). Hence, we don’t optimally break down or utilize the nutrients we’re consuming. How does a perfect quinoa, winter green, and cranberry salad nourish us when we’re Scrooge?
On the contrary, if your favorite fudge recipe with marshmallow crème and two cups of white sugar illuminates your bah-humbug, why not make and eat some? It’s equally enjoyable to make a whole batch and give some away – eating an entire batch of fudge probably isn’t what lights you up, anyway. Let’s clean up our perception of tradition with joy in preparing, reveling, and sharing.
In my kitchen I alter ingredients from my family’s holiday recipes, finding merriment in eating buckeyes and peace in witnessing my kids make gingerbread houses without food dye. While we can recreate recipes in a way that feels right to our values, being tuned into traditions is the recipe! The resultant mental and digestive harmony are worth celebrating!
In “Clean Food, Messy Life: A food lover’s conscious journey back to self”, each chapter is named after – and ends with – a life recipe. In the spirit of my writing ritual and seasonal food, please enjoy this RECIPE for DECEMBER:
Serves: You and everyone around you
Time: Timeless
Ingredients:
· Warm, glowing lights
· Bing Crosby music or soft instrumental
· A cozy sweater and slippers
· The scent of real pine
· Homemade or family holiday decorations
· Your favorite beverage
· Your favorite holiday treat
· Anything else that lights you up
Instructions:
· Mindfully plug in the lights or build a fire, turn on soft music, pull on your snowflake sweater and fleece slippers.
· Marvel at the décor which has already been thoughtfully placed.
· Mix yourself a cocktail, hot cocoa, or tea.
· Light candles.
· Place a messy, stocking-shaped sugar cookie with frosting and sprinkles on a plate, alongside a morsel of gingerbread or candied pecans.
· Sip, savor, light up.