Squash Plans( and other rambles...)

On the way into the grocery store this morning, I passed a huge bin of heirloom squash varieties. I've been fixated on them all day now, and am going to pick a few up to go into the freezer. Most recipes I found call for totally cooking and then pureeing the flesh before freezing it, but I have cubing it in mind. The hubby and I are going to start upping our veggie intake, and I think that having bags of squash in the freezer would make for a quick and tasty breakfast skillet hash (plus, squash is way more nutritionally dense than white potatoes). I think mixing it with some organic sausage or bacon, rosemary, and onion would be a perfect winter meal :). SO, I'm going to try peeling it, cutting it into 1/2" cubes, blanching, and freezing in quart size bags. Can't wait to see how it works out!

On the eat-more-veggies note, we watched this documentary called "Forks Over Knives" that really advocates eating a vegetarian diet. I don't agree with that entirely, especially since the majority of the research supporting their diet was done in an Asian population. They have eaten a primarily plant based diet for thousands of years, and their genetic makeup is programmed for it (or maybe it's the other way around, maybe their diet suits their genetic makeup). Either way, I don't believe you can take one way of eating and apply the entire style to a completely different ethnic group. For instance, the Eskimos traditionally ate a diet that consisted almost entirely of high fat animal foods, yet they thrived on it. It was only once they adopted the standard American diet of processed foods that their health began a serious decline.

I think one of the central problems with animal products in the USA now is that from the time an animal is conceived, throughout its life, and after it is butchered, we fill it with hormones, steroids, medication, and food that it was never intended to eat...and then we expect our bodies to thrive on it.

Next year, the man and I want to raise our own beef steer here on our land. We're still figuring out the whole process, but I'm up for anything and would feel so much better eating something that I took care of and was responsible for during its life than consuming something that came off of a shelf in a plastic wrapped package.

I was also really excited yesterday to pinpoint a resource for...fresh, unpasteurized cow's milk! I can go back to making my own butter and even take a whack at cheese! (Could get interesting. I might poison myself on accident. If I do, and if I die, Megan gets my killer awesome magnolia bakery cupcake cookbook).