chew on this

As I sat down to a steak and stringed bean dinner tonight, I appreciated how uncomplicated it was.  It was satisfying and complete.  Clearly, my tastes are simple.

Sure, I really appreciate all the beautiful pictures of food that people post on FB, that I see in magazines, that are plated for me when I go to a restaurant, when friends have Laurence and me for dinner, or even when I cook more fancy either just for us or also for friends. It's fun to experiment with food.  It's appealing when the food on your plate looks the part of delicious as well as tasting delicious.  But for me, it doesn't have to be allllll the time. 

Sometimes I just want good food.  Maybe it stems from my upbringing.  There were six of us kids and our mom always cooked plenty of food for us all.  It was rarely very fancy, although she sure could put on a fantastic spread when she needed/wanted to.  I came to learn in later years that because of the simple act of cooking *from scratch*, my mom's cooking was considered something of a hippy-ish wonder by many of my friends.  To me, she just cooked good food. 

best when frozen :)

Granted, I don't cook all the foods I used to cook when I was raising our girls, but except for the rare occasion, I've also always cooked *from scratch*.  I've come to find out that because of that simple act of cooking that way, I was known by some of my kids' friends as something of a hippy-ish wonder.  I mean, chew on this: just because I cooked for my family, my own friends were always shocked when they found out  gasp, i ate chocolate along with my girls that my girls were allowed to have some occasional chocolate, as if I was so *pure*!  I always got a good chuckle out of that.  If they could see me now...a little chocolate most every day...usually four to five choc. almonds.  (Honestly, I'd eat more, but because I like them from the freezer, my jaw gets too tired to eat more...go ahead, eye roll here!)

So yes, I think my simple food tastes are not forced upon me because I don't like to cook, but because I don't see the problem with a simple looking plate the majority of the time.  Even adding some tasty side items to my plate is done with little splash. 

I kind of love that my food choices ~~which are the result of both the nutrition espoused by the culture of CrossFit and therefore by the learned practice of, among other things, omitting grains~~ allow me to keep my cooking simple and uncomplicated.  It only gets complicated when I'm out of my daily fix of chocolate almonds!