I figured out today that the rest of my life will start when I lose some more weight. Being smaller is such a visual indicator that I have enough self-control to effect a real change in my physical body that it translates into all sorts of opportunities opening up. Not to mention I can walk around much easier.
The key for me is avoiding like the plague any form of refined carbohydrate, and focusing on eating lots of protein and lots of non-starchy vegetables--broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, tomatoes, onions, spinach, romaine, greens, etc.
When I eat simple carbs my brain gets fuzzy and I get bone-tired.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
"THE NEW TAMALE"
Toasted Nori seaweed sheets filled with short grain brown rice and...almost infinite choices!
I am talking about making a new "tamale", a "Renegade Wrap" (John Boswell's label), something portable to eat on the move that won't kill you.
Imagine this one--toasted nori sheets filled with organic short grain brown rice, pinto beans, sharp cheddar cheese, and sliced jalapenos. Some bits of umeboshi salted plum for those who favor the sour and salty taste.
I don't see any sushi tuna swimming around the Lubbock area, but pinto beans are plentiful. This combination has a lot of what current science is saying to eat--whole grains, complex carbs, spicy food, trace minerals.
Portable, replicable, tasty, easy to make, understandable, simple.
Menu item Number One--NORIMAKI SUSHI--West Texas style.
Sushi means "rice sandwich" in Japanese. The filling doesn't need to include raw fish.
This is fun. Keep on rolling...
I am talking about making a new "tamale", a "Renegade Wrap" (John Boswell's label), something portable to eat on the move that won't kill you.
Imagine this one--toasted nori sheets filled with organic short grain brown rice, pinto beans, sharp cheddar cheese, and sliced jalapenos. Some bits of umeboshi salted plum for those who favor the sour and salty taste.
I don't see any sushi tuna swimming around the Lubbock area, but pinto beans are plentiful. This combination has a lot of what current science is saying to eat--whole grains, complex carbs, spicy food, trace minerals.
Portable, replicable, tasty, easy to make, understandable, simple.
Menu item Number One--NORIMAKI SUSHI--West Texas style.
Sushi means "rice sandwich" in Japanese. The filling doesn't need to include raw fish.
This is fun. Keep on rolling...
Sunday, March 18, 2007
NO JUDGEMENT
One of the most liberating aspects of the Christian faith is the command not to judge others. This attitude needs to be present in any business that seeks to educate the masses about the value of a proper diet. I do not want to attack the popular ways of eating that are prevalent in society at large, as that is a waste of energy, but rather I want to present an alternative way of eating, and stand ready to give a defense of its various and sundry merits. Nutritional evangelism if you will. From even a brief consideration of the state of America's health at large, it is evident that our current dietary practices are causing millions to suffer through life and are sending other millions to an early grave.
People are confused about what to eat, but things are not as complicated nor as contradictory as they first appear. The main issues confronting most people are a lack of time to cook at home and a lack of healthy eating choices that are both convenient and affordable.
To be honest, I don't have have much time to cook at home, or more accurately, I don't seem to take the time to cook at home. I would just as soon go purchase my food prepared by someone else, but the lack of convenient and affordable healthy prepared food choices drives me back to my own kitchen.
I think America is ready for a restaurant concept that prepares food simply, healthfully, affordably, and conveniently, at least for those who live in its surrounding areas. Subway is a concept that comes to mind, as it contains all of those aspects, though its healthfulness is relative to a Big Mac. There is no doubt a Subway sandwich is not as damaging to one's health as french fries and double-meat burgers, but there are still foods to eat that are even healthier than a Subway sandwich on white bread with processed deli meat and nutritionally empty iceberg lettuce.
I am not being judgemental here either, just factual. Subway deserves a lot of credit for giving people a better alternative to some fast food items--I just want to raise the bar. I'd like to see an affordable natural food franchise model develop that resists the tendency to become top-heavy in corporate management and expensive for the operators and customers.
People are confused about what to eat, but things are not as complicated nor as contradictory as they first appear. The main issues confronting most people are a lack of time to cook at home and a lack of healthy eating choices that are both convenient and affordable.
To be honest, I don't have have much time to cook at home, or more accurately, I don't seem to take the time to cook at home. I would just as soon go purchase my food prepared by someone else, but the lack of convenient and affordable healthy prepared food choices drives me back to my own kitchen.
I think America is ready for a restaurant concept that prepares food simply, healthfully, affordably, and conveniently, at least for those who live in its surrounding areas. Subway is a concept that comes to mind, as it contains all of those aspects, though its healthfulness is relative to a Big Mac. There is no doubt a Subway sandwich is not as damaging to one's health as french fries and double-meat burgers, but there are still foods to eat that are even healthier than a Subway sandwich on white bread with processed deli meat and nutritionally empty iceberg lettuce.
I am not being judgemental here either, just factual. Subway deserves a lot of credit for giving people a better alternative to some fast food items--I just want to raise the bar. I'd like to see an affordable natural food franchise model develop that resists the tendency to become top-heavy in corporate management and expensive for the operators and customers.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
ST. PATRICK'S DAY
I have a Charles Stanley daily flip calendar. Today's quote is Matthew 5:16--
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
Charles adds this commentary, which, in light of yesterday's post, is fitting--
"The life characterized by the fruit of the Spirit cannot help being noticed. It stands out like a candle in a dark room... Today, our world desperately needs to see men and women whose lives transcend the norm. The world needs to see husbands and wives who really love each other. The world needs to see Christian businessmen and businesswomen who put honesty before profit and integrity ahead of a paycheck.... Our world needs to see some fruit. Real fruit."
The world also needs to see more real vegetables and whole grains served with love. A simpler way to eat, for nourishment, not endless entertainment. A cleaner diet that frees the mind for higher purposes and energizes the body for the work of the Lord. The Simple Cafe.
I went shopping at WalMart today with wife and daughter. We went in for an area rug and left with the rug and $300 worth of other stuff we did not know we wanted. Unlike some, I do not have any bad feelings towards WalMart. I figure their size actually creates opportunities for others. The stores that go out of business because WalMart is selling the same stuff cheaper could be replaced by new stores that are selling what WalMart is NOT selling at all. Case in point--I wanted unhulled sesame seeds to make gomasio, but there were not to be found at WalMart except in the bird seed bags. It's off to the local health food store, which is a tiny little footprint compared to WalMart, but they do have sesame seeds, and several other things I want that WalMart does not sell and probably never will.
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
Charles adds this commentary, which, in light of yesterday's post, is fitting--
"The life characterized by the fruit of the Spirit cannot help being noticed. It stands out like a candle in a dark room... Today, our world desperately needs to see men and women whose lives transcend the norm. The world needs to see husbands and wives who really love each other. The world needs to see Christian businessmen and businesswomen who put honesty before profit and integrity ahead of a paycheck.... Our world needs to see some fruit. Real fruit."
The world also needs to see more real vegetables and whole grains served with love. A simpler way to eat, for nourishment, not endless entertainment. A cleaner diet that frees the mind for higher purposes and energizes the body for the work of the Lord. The Simple Cafe.
I went shopping at WalMart today with wife and daughter. We went in for an area rug and left with the rug and $300 worth of other stuff we did not know we wanted. Unlike some, I do not have any bad feelings towards WalMart. I figure their size actually creates opportunities for others. The stores that go out of business because WalMart is selling the same stuff cheaper could be replaced by new stores that are selling what WalMart is NOT selling at all. Case in point--I wanted unhulled sesame seeds to make gomasio, but there were not to be found at WalMart except in the bird seed bags. It's off to the local health food store, which is a tiny little footprint compared to WalMart, but they do have sesame seeds, and several other things I want that WalMart does not sell and probably never will.
THE STORY CONTINUES
This is not a new story, but an old one that has been under construction for my whole life, after my birth in 1953 in Fort Worth, Texas. The food part of the story probably began when I ate sourdough bread in San Francisco on a trip there with my parents around 1964.
The journey began in earnest when I traveled around the eastern United States in 1976 after graduating from Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas with a degree in business management. I remodeled a 1971 VW SuperBeetle with a bed on the passenger side and toured for six months. I read WALDEN by Henry David Thoreau 14 times on a hillside while backpacking in the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I later read his journals in the Library of Congress that fall. You could say I am a fan of simplicity.
That trip was so successful, I took a beautiful young lady I met in Lubbock (she pulled me into her bedroom the first time I went to her house and rocked my world!) after I returned, on a month long trip the following summer of 1977. We spent a couple of weeks hiking in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, visiting one of her aunts in Atlanta, Georgia, and recovering from a bad case of tonsillitis at her other aunt's house.
In the fall of 1977 I found myself a Tom's Toasted Peanut route truck driver. I also baked whole wheat bread in a small rent house I shared with my girlfriend in Lubbock, Texas, and delivered it to a collection of 45 friends and regular customers each Monday night. I wanted to feed the world better food, so I started looking for a place to open up a natural food bakery. The first location I called thought I would cause too many parking issues at lunch, and the second call I made eventually led me to a partnership with an Italian restaurant owner, Mike Cea, June 6, 1978. My girlfriend designed the logo around an Italian plate, and I was a restaurateur. She later moved to New York to pursue her dreams as a design artist (after I cheated on her--my one and only indiscretion in a serious relationship). She runs her own respected design firm today.
I tried making the whole wheat bread at Orlando's, but the market was not yet ready for natural foods, especially inside an Italian restaurant, and I ran out of world-changing steam. Before I quit as a baker though, I met my wife Karen when she came into Orlando's to get a menu for her employer, Bob Skibell, the owner of Gardski's Loft. What kept her at the bar taking to me as a luscious loaf of freshly baked banana nut bread. To give you an idea of the quality of the bread it was made with Arrowhead Mills expeller-pressed corn oil, raw local honey, stone ground whole wheat flour, eggs, real bananas, pure vanilla, and raw walnuts. It was dense, moist, and evidently good enough to secure me a wife.
I did open and run a health food store called The Alternative Food Company from 1981 to 1984, funded with $7,000 from my new wife Karen's car accident settlement, which she loaned me after I signed the note payable to her. I sold the health food store in 1984 to help fund the construction of a second Orlando's location. The AFC still stands and is now operated by its fourth owner. I still get a founder's discount there!
In 1997 we opened the Caprock Cafe, a fun little neighborhood burger bar.
Now, as our board discusses what to do next, I am beginning to want to do something new, something healthy, something that will help people find a better way in life. I want to feed people something that is good for them even if they ate it every day.
The Simple Cafe is such a place. The world's first open-source restaurant with all its recipes available to anyone on the cafe's website. You read it here first. The first example of my Internet Copyright Theory.
The journey began in earnest when I traveled around the eastern United States in 1976 after graduating from Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas with a degree in business management. I remodeled a 1971 VW SuperBeetle with a bed on the passenger side and toured for six months. I read WALDEN by Henry David Thoreau 14 times on a hillside while backpacking in the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I later read his journals in the Library of Congress that fall. You could say I am a fan of simplicity.
That trip was so successful, I took a beautiful young lady I met in Lubbock (she pulled me into her bedroom the first time I went to her house and rocked my world!) after I returned, on a month long trip the following summer of 1977. We spent a couple of weeks hiking in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, visiting one of her aunts in Atlanta, Georgia, and recovering from a bad case of tonsillitis at her other aunt's house.
In the fall of 1977 I found myself a Tom's Toasted Peanut route truck driver. I also baked whole wheat bread in a small rent house I shared with my girlfriend in Lubbock, Texas, and delivered it to a collection of 45 friends and regular customers each Monday night. I wanted to feed the world better food, so I started looking for a place to open up a natural food bakery. The first location I called thought I would cause too many parking issues at lunch, and the second call I made eventually led me to a partnership with an Italian restaurant owner, Mike Cea, June 6, 1978. My girlfriend designed the logo around an Italian plate, and I was a restaurateur. She later moved to New York to pursue her dreams as a design artist (after I cheated on her--my one and only indiscretion in a serious relationship). She runs her own respected design firm today.
I tried making the whole wheat bread at Orlando's, but the market was not yet ready for natural foods, especially inside an Italian restaurant, and I ran out of world-changing steam. Before I quit as a baker though, I met my wife Karen when she came into Orlando's to get a menu for her employer, Bob Skibell, the owner of Gardski's Loft. What kept her at the bar taking to me as a luscious loaf of freshly baked banana nut bread. To give you an idea of the quality of the bread it was made with Arrowhead Mills expeller-pressed corn oil, raw local honey, stone ground whole wheat flour, eggs, real bananas, pure vanilla, and raw walnuts. It was dense, moist, and evidently good enough to secure me a wife.
I did open and run a health food store called The Alternative Food Company from 1981 to 1984, funded with $7,000 from my new wife Karen's car accident settlement, which she loaned me after I signed the note payable to her. I sold the health food store in 1984 to help fund the construction of a second Orlando's location. The AFC still stands and is now operated by its fourth owner. I still get a founder's discount there!
In 1997 we opened the Caprock Cafe, a fun little neighborhood burger bar.
Now, as our board discusses what to do next, I am beginning to want to do something new, something healthy, something that will help people find a better way in life. I want to feed people something that is good for them even if they ate it every day.
The Simple Cafe is such a place. The world's first open-source restaurant with all its recipes available to anyone on the cafe's website. You read it here first. The first example of my Internet Copyright Theory.
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