On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 6:51 AM, tamaratornado <tamaratornado@yahoo.com> wrote:
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There's other, better sources of information on how hunter-gatherers lived. The archaeologists I know tell me over and over that hunter-gatherers had an easier life than people do today; they could get all the food they needed working 2 or 3 days a week. The rest of the time they spent having dances and religious ceremonies.
But, there's too many people and not enough wildlife for us to revert to hunting and gathering.
But even if you bought the food: the amount of food you NEED to buy (some vegies and a few ounces of meat a day) is pretty cheap. Doesn't take 40 hours of work a week to do it! Esp. if you are doing Fast-5. OK, I cook one meal a day for our crew ... that means 2 cups of rice, 3 cups of vegies, and a pound of meat.
50 lbs of rice = $30, so call it 75 cents a lb. 2 cups is probably half a pound, so let's round it to 50 cents.
Let's say I use 2 lbs of vegies. The most expensive organics are like $3 a lb, so call it $6.
And a lb of meat can be $2 to $10.
So our food bill for meals would be say, at most, $20 a day. $140 a week. If I was working a $10 an hour job, that would be 14 hours of work. (And I could do it a lot cheaper than that, since in truth I buy in bulk etc.). Which isn't actually a whole lot different from what the hunter-gatherers did. There are people who actually lead that kind of lifestyle today ... just kind of bumming it. You can even live off the land in some places, although that was never easy in North America (even the Indians starved at times, and they were good at finding food!). The people who had it easy were living more toward the tropics, or by the sea (only an idiot can starve by the sea!). The ranch families and cowhands and Mexicans etc. would live off rice and beans though with occasional meat scraps and do ok.
The problem is ... it's not the life we really want, nor the way we have our society structured. The biggest bills I have are the house mortgage and health insurance (being self-employed). If I move a few miles north I won't have the 2nd one, and the first one would be a lot less. But of course we buy toys and cars and clothes and all that too. And I really appreciate our public services (roads, water, sewage, electricity, Internet, schools, not having to worry about roving gangs of people attacking our houses) and am happy to pay taxes for them. And some foods I'm happy to pay other people to prepare for me or import from other countries. Yeah, I'm spoiled. So I work way more than 14 hours a week!
Hunter-gatherers were content to live with only what they could make, and their food was very basic. People CAN still live like this. I would love to write a book someday about "minimal family feeding" ... how to feed a family of 4 in a good way, with minimal resources or time spent in the kitchen. I think if we went back to the "one big meal a day" model (with whole fruit as snacks for those that need them, even), then it would be a lot easier to get a handle on what people really need to eat, and people could eat a lot less of the prepared snack garbage, and people could eat homemade food without spending all day in the kitchen. And people would be a whole lot healthier.
It's a fun challenge though. Sure, you can't gather food probably (although there is a surprising amount you CAN gather in most places, starting with dandelion greens!). But go to your grocery the next time you shop and pretend that all you can buy is plain eggs or fish or meat or fruits or vegetables, or sacks of seeds or nuts. I'm not talking about the controversies of what is really Paleo or not: just, buy foods in the form you would gather or store them in, which for rice etc. means they've been threshed or polished first, but that is a minimal processing overall. I "cheat" and also add an easy fat source (Paleo folks would have candlefish or beaver tails or bear fat probably, or coconut oil: I get coconut oil). Avoid foods like hamburger where you don't know how it is made, and flour products: get things in big chunks. Then try to figure out how to cook a meal. For some people it is easy, for others it is a real challenge. Do that for a month. You will notice a few things:
1. Your food bill will drop dramatically
2. You will feel fuller after you eat
3. Most likely you will feel healthier
What I have found with this kind of cooking and eating pattern is that the controversies over macronutrients (carbs vs. fats etc) just kind of disappear. Yes, each meal has fat and carbs and animal protein of some sort. But I just don't worry about it ... human beings eat some combo of seeds/tubers/fruits/animals all over the world and do ok. Somehow when the food comes from tangible sources (rather than from cans and boxes) it changes the equation at a really basic level. I believe part of it is because your brain actually knows what it wants. So when a meal consists of some rice, some meat/fish/eggs, and some vegies ... my family tends to take more rice or more meat, depending on what they actually NEED that day. I've seen my daughter eat nothing but rice one day, and nothing but steak the next.
When the food is all mixed up together, the person doesn't have the choice to tailor the food intake according to their body's needs. Or if the meal consists only of, say, flour and corn syrup (cookies as they are made today: they don't put eggs in them commercially much at this point, so there is little protein content in most baked goods), then the body eats the calories but still wants more because it isn't getting the right nutrients.
The other thing I do is keep a list on the refrigerator of the "hits". The foods that are easy to make and also people just LOVE them. I figure those are the foods that make their brains happy, that have the right stuff in them. Moo goo gai pan is a big one, oddly. Basically a stir-fry with chicken, celery, onion, chicken broth, and some chopped roasted nuts, over rice. Usually served bibimbap style with an egg over easy. Easy, cheap.
We actually do make brownies and do buy processed foods. Thing is: my family eats them less and less, and the kids tend to ignore sweets. The one processed food that my kids really like is dairy, mainly cheese and cream, although they'll only eat the really good stuff.
Moo goo gai pan, Heather style (since someone always asks when I say stuff like this):
1 Costco pak of chicken thighs (whole, bone in, 4 thighs. Usually 99 cents a pound, maybe twice that if not in bulk).
2-3 sticks celery, chopped in big slices
1 onion, chopped in big slices
Other vegies you happen to have, or something from your garden (dandelions, collards, etc)
Garlic, eggs (if you want)
1/2 cups chopped roasted almonds (I keep a big bag of freshly roasted chopped nuts in the freezer. They keep that fresh taste for a LONG time if you freeze them).
Take the skin off the thighs, and chop the meat off the bones, leaving a fair bit on. Toss that in a pan with some water and let it simmer. I use that broth for *tomorrows* meal, usually: it makes enough broth for several days. But if you don't have any broth in the fridge, you can use it for today's meal too if you do the simmering in advance. Add some poultry seasoning (or a sprig of thyme/rosemary/ whatever from your kitchen garden) and some salt.
Stir fry the chicken meat in small batches. As each batch gets done, toss it into a second pan ... something bigger and deeper on the back burner. Then stir fry the vegies. Clean up the kitchen while the batches are frying ... you want them to get nice and brown on the outside so don't rush the process. Use small batches so they don't just "steam".
Now that it's all fried up, and the kitchen is clean, add a cup or two of broth and some thickener (if you want: I use cornstarch because people like a thick Chinese-restaurant style sauce). Add salt and spices ... I use Penzy's Ozark seasoning because, again, it tastes like Chinese restaurant style Moo Goo Gai Pan). Let that simmer. Add almonds.
Then just before serving over rice, I make up a few over-easy eggs. Eggs add some kind of satiation factor to a meal. I add fresh-squeezed garlic to the MGGP just before serving, so the garlic doesn't cook much.
Serve rice, MGGP, then egg on top.
Shheesh ... that got too long!
-- Heather
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