Two Food Items I Cannot Possibly Live Without
Once again, here is a blog posting that really has nothing to do with writing, reading, fantasy, adventure, fiction. Really, it has nothing to do about anything—except for food. Not only does food keep us alive, but food is amazing, as evident by my expanding waistline. It is delicious. It defines our culture. It speaks to who we are, what we like, our interests. Food can even tell other people how adventurous we are, where we’ve been, what our preferences are. This then, much like our “What three books would you take with you to a deserted island?” is much like those many childhood what if games we all played. My favorite foods, the two foods that I cannot live without, truly define me. But they are not just about my taste preferences. They speak to my childhood. They speak to my upbringing. They speak to my likes and dislikes.
My two foods—Eggs and Cottage Cheese.
Okay, before you gag at my choices, let me explain why these are my choices.
Eggs – first of all, eggs are a super food. They are high in protein. They are high in good cholesterol. They are high in calories, so in a situation where calories are hard to come by, they would be a great source of energy. Unfortunately, eggs have gotten a bad rap over the last three decades. In fact, they whole, low fat dieting craze has demonized eggs, falsely. Scientific studies now show that, in moderation of course, eggs can be a very important part of a person’s diet. Despite all the scientific evidence, eggs were a very important part of my diet. I grew up a vegetarian. Being a vegetarian, I didn’t have very many ways of getting protein. My mom wasn’t a huge lover of eggs, and she is fairly lactose intolerant, so dairy wasn’t readily available in my house. My mom turned to soy based products, veggie dogs, veggie burgers, tofu, etc. for our protein. My grandmother—my dad’s mom—grew up on a farm. She was a meat and potatoes kind of woman. Tofu and veggie dogs were not her thing. So my protein staple at my grandmother’s house was cheese and eggs.
When I started lifting a lot, competing in powerlifting and bodybuilding, eggs became a great source of protein, especially for those cutting periods. Even during wrestling, when I was trying to maintain a certain weight, hard boiled eggs were a staple of my diet. Two or three hardboiled eggs helped curb some hunger, gave me some energy, and didn’t pack on a bunch of weight.
Cottage Cheese – So many people think cottage cheese is disgusting. Its rotten cheese. Curdled cheese. Old cheese. Its got a weird texture. Its watery. But, much like eggs, it’s a super food. Its high in calories, high in protein, and, even though it’s a little higher in saturated fat, the fat in cottage cheese is not completely bad for you. Much like eggs, also, it was a main source of protein for me when I was younger.
Like eggs, when I started lifting heavy, cottage cheese, at 15 grams of protein per half cup, became a ready source of protein, and on the days when I could stomach low sodium, low or non fat cottage cheese, it was fairly low calorie as well.
Why these two together then? Well—and this may sound super gross for most of you—my grandma used to mix my eggs with cottage cheese. The cottage cheese cooled my eggs down quickly and I, still to this day, typically mix my eggs with cottage cheese. It’s amazing. Gross? Maybe. But growing up a vegetarian in the 80’s, when being vegetarian wasn’t very popular and we didn’t have all the meat-free foods we have today, I got used to weird textures.
So, there you have it. A relatively short post about food, my two favorite foods. Every time I eat eggs and cottage cheese, I am reminded of my grandmother and it makes me smile, and makes my taste buds love me.
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