Thanks for the use of Orthorexic (Wherever you said it… :P) too. I had no idea about the disorder.

But anyway: Thanks for another display of your eloquence. :)

I’m one of those people who weighs my time into considerations of what the “cheaper” option is. Even setting aside the hourly rate I could make if I were actively editing right now, the fact is, I don’t enjoy cooking that much (I like it some, but only some), and I really don’t like fussy, time-consuming cooking that makes a big mess.

I agree, and I’m glad I’m not the only one! I do enjoy cooking but “Cook’s Illustrated” type cooking where it takes you 2-3 hours from start to finish is too much for me most of the time. I love the food that results but the additional time required to clean up the mess, in particular, makes it too daunting for me except on rare occasions.

That 1-2-3 cookbook is really interesting. Minimal-ingredient, streamlined cooking that doesn’t appear to rely solely on a bunch of strange and expensive convenience foods. I might have to check that one out!

What I really need to read, though, is Glassner’s book. The descriptions here are really intriguing. People are so quick to scapegoat fast food (disclaimer, I am not praising fast food here, but I think the premise of Super Size Me, for example, is pretty much pretentious and absurd and just gives people who don’t eat fast food very often one more opportunity to feel self-righteous).

I remember once I got in an argument with someone on Salon Table Talk who seriously thought that eating a McDonald’s burger ONE TIME in your LIFE could impact your health (although to be fair, she didn’t specify how) in the long term. I asked her again to make sure I was reading right, and she confirmed that was what she was saying. I think if our health and lives were that fragile we would have died out a long time ago. Not, again, that it’s probably optimal to eat fast food every day… but there is such hysteria surrounding it.

lauredhel, that does sound delicious… and I love “shove a slashed lemon up its jacksie,” it sounds adorable and sort of violent at the same time. :)

But then, I confess that I do my own stock, too – chuck all the chicken bones and scraps back in the crockpot with whatever’s leftover (sweet potato skins, parsnip ends, whatever), maybe add a leek top or an onion if there’s one lying around, cover with water, and crock overnight. (The original chicken recipe? Buy pre-seasoned, pre-stuffed chicken if possible. If a non-prepped chook, shove a slashed lemon up its jacksie. Put in the crockpot, turn it on, walk away. Come back when it’s done.)

Both of these are minimal overall efforts for a dramatically taste-superior product (especially the curry paste, I’m surprised it’s even called the same food). It’s all about ROI.

Totally, spacedcowgirl. I mean, I love all the suggestions in this thread, but the reality is, I’m never going to dry or grow my own herbs. I’m never going to make my own trail mix, let alone granola bars, if I can buy one bag that already has everything in it.

I’m one of those people who weighs my time into considerations of what the “cheaper” option is. Even setting aside the hourly rate I could make if I were actively editing right now, the fact is, I don’t enjoy cooking that much (I like it some, but only some), and I really don’t like fussy, time-consuming cooking that makes a big mess. So my quality of life is substantially improved if I buy a jar of Thai curry paste instead of following Lauredhel’s awesome recipe up there. (Following that recipe is something I’d do, like, once a year, for the novelty of making something with a lot of ingredients. Most nights? No way. And yes, I know, many of the people here will not think that counts as “a lot” of ingredients, but it’s all relative. I am all about this. )

In fact, I think maybe this topic needs a whole post.

I take the goveg.com link with a grain of salt because PETA doesn’t want people to eat meat or animal products at all, so of course they are going to turn a much more critical eye toward any producer of those foods. That doesn’t mean that the information in the link is wrong, just that I need to do more research on this issue. YMMV.

I do hope we get more local options as time goes by (for all the reasons given in this thread and because the food tends to just plain taste better), and I’m confident that we will. We have a CSA nearby and although it is not run that well and my friend had a fairly unsatisfactory experience with it… so I have been hesitant to join… it was probably not that long ago that even having one around here would have been unheard of. So that’s a positive thing.

and yes, Glassner is a food snob, in that he likes great restaurants and amazing food. But i like that he’s not so quick to jump on the “whole food = good” (which seems to imply, makes you thin) and “fast food = bad” (makes you fat) schtick.