Jamie Oliver or How I Almost Became a Vegetarian

My apologies for my lack of posting over the last three or four days. In between my “adopted” brother visiting, a massive amount of work, general tiredness etc. I haven’t had the urge to blog as much. Especially after watching “Jamie’s Fowl Dinners” last night and another documentary on how we eat wrong, too much, unhealthy and how farming could go back to organic if only the demand was there and the customer would dictate it.

Jamie’s Fowl Dinners first. We’ve all come to know and love Jamie Oliver. I am not sure he’s as famous in the US as he is here in Europe but I have seen enough of his TV shows and I find the “Naked Chef” very amusing and refreshing. He seems down to earth and he makes stuff that isn’t too fancy. Stuff that every average person can do, even if they aren’t that much into cooking. Over the past years I have enjoyed his tv cooking show ‘Jamie at Home' and I shook my head at ‘Jamie’s School Dinners’.

Apparently British Kids didn’t know the difference between an onion and a stalk of rhubarb anymore. Their school dinners consisted of processed food and most of them hardly ever had any vegetables at all. Jamie urged the administration to spend more money on school dinners per child and stop the madness with the processed food or parents would outlive their children in the near future. It was shocking and informative. You could literally see hyperactive kids go from problem child to calm and well behaved after they had a nutritious meal. They were more attentive and alert in school and not as aggressive and tired. After seeing how processed food was made and of what it consisted (in that case chicken nuggets) most of them were so disgusted that I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry.

Last night’s story was entirely different. Jamie invited an audience to a gala dinner in a television studio to educated them and the viewing public on the condition of rearing chicken and its true cost. The hubby almost wouldn’t let me watch it as he knows I get very emotional when animals are involved. Funnily enough I am no vegetarian. Go figure. Anyway after each table got a box of chicks the dinner guests then had to separate the male biddies from the female and then the box of male fledglings was brought forward and they were killed with carbon monoxide as they have no use (they get made into pet food etc.. Live. In the television studio. The audience was shocked as was I and I am sure my husband hated me for watching this, I was on the brink of losing it. Oddly enough I knew everything that was shown on the show. It wasn’t news to me but God knows that this was a wake-up call to buy the best welfare bird I can afford the next time we’re having chicken.

The show that followed after that raised another issue and while I agree that we need to go back to organic farming or we’ll all die of obesity or cancer or both, the demand has got to dictate the cost. And has that documentary showed so well the argument that organic farming costs much more because the harvest isn’t as big is absolutely void. At least in the European Union produce more food than we can consume. So if only organic farming was allowed we’d produce still enough food so nobody would have to go hungry and all the idly laying fertile fields could be used for farming. We could not only eat healthy but have less additives, preservatives, antibiotics or pesticides in our food.

The most interesting part was though that right now eating organic is just way too expensive. They sent out a mother to do the weekly shopping for a family of four and she spent € 481,- on organic food. That is a whopping $ 762,- a week! For a household of four! That is just f***ing insane! Normally you’d spend about € 100,- or $ 158,- and it seems that once again healthy eating and fresh organic food is for the well-off.

So I want to know now, do you buy organic food? Do you buy normal food? Do you try to shop for healthy food and you leave the processed stuff behind? If you had enough money would you go all organic or do you think it is a load of crap?

Jamie Oliver shows chicken to plate hell - Telegraph.co.uk
Jamie's Fowl Dinners page on Channel4
Know Your Chicken - blogs.menupages.com
Jamie's Fowl Dinners - official website
Jamie's School Dinners - Jamie's offical site
Jamie's TV Shows - Jamie's official site

Hmm yummy, yummy cooking

We just had a friend over for dinner and it was yummy. I started preparing the meal last night so the meat would have enough time to marinate in the almost ready sauce, which enhances the flavor. I just love it when I have enough time to cook. Picking and preparing the fresh ingredients. Just yesterday I read an article that there's currently about 50 cooking shows on German television each week!!! Yet less and less people cook. Something to do with those shows substituting for the actual cooking part.
Last week we were watching a show where a 28 year old woman who willingly admitted that she was not able to cook. I always thought that meant she can cook but it doesn't taste good. Could I have been any more wrong? She meant she could not cook - literally. She didn't even know how to boil potatoes.
I was shocked. She explained that she was never thaught how to cook nor was she interested in watching her family prepare a meal. So mommies all over the world, let your kids help in the kitchen!
I do however get a kick out of standing in a steaming kitchen to prepare a nice and hot dish for my family. And so we had an enjoyable Sunday evening with great food and even better entertainment.