Pizza Rice Casserole

Recipe #10: p. 129, Pizza Rice Casserole--Myrna Schmidt, Lakewood, Colorado

rice
ground beef
onion
tomato sauce
garlic salt
sugar
salt
pepper
oregano
parsley flakes
cottage cheese
shredded cheese

This meal was simple to make, but I burnt the rice the first time, which was frustrating.  It tasted very good and was like a lasagna with rice instead of noodles.

This weekend, the women of our church had our annual women's retreat.  This year, it was a silent retreat, and it was my first experience with one.  We had common meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner eaten in silence.  At each meal, we had a prepared, written litany to read, but there was no spoken communication during the meals.  It was my first time eating with people in complete silence, and I enjoyed the experience.

I prepared the following for the litany that we read during our silent lunch.

Silence that leads to Awareness

Ephesians 3:17-19

“So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

During this lunch, please read the following excerpts on mindfulness and try to practice mindfulness during this meal.  The goal with mindfulness is that it will lead us to an overall awareness of the love of Christ for us.

What is Mindful Observation?

“Being mindful means that you do not attempt to change your thoughts and feelings.  You do not try to distract yourself, and you do not try to numb your experiences.  As a mindful observer, you simply take note of whatever it is that your mind serves up for you.  You watch your thoughts and feelings come and go without attempting to change them, hang on to them, or make them go away…The key to mindfulness is your willingness to observe and experience your thoughts and feelings without trying to hold on to them, change them, or run away from them…As you develop willingness, you will give yourself space and room to maneuver in different directions.  Through mindfulness, you open the door to taking action so that you can move toward the most important values in your life.”

p. 65 The Anorexia Workbook

What is Mindful Eating?
Mindful eating involves paying full attention to the experience of eating and drinking, both inside and outside the body. We pay attention to the colors, smells, textures, flavors, temperatures, and even the sounds (crunch!) of our food. We pay attention to the experience of the body. Where in the body do we feel hunger? Where do we feel satisfaction? What does half-full feel like, or three quarters full?
We also pay attention to the mind. While avoiding judgment or criticism, we watch when the mind gets distracted, pulling away from full attention to what we are eating or drinking. We watch the impulses that arise after we've taken a few sips or bites: to grab a book, to turn on the TV, to call someone on our cell phone, or to do web search on some interesting subject. We notice the impulse and return to just eating.
We notice how eating affects our mood and how our emotions like anxiety influence our eating. Gradually we regain the sense of ease and freedom with eating that we had in childhood. It is our natural birthright.
The old habits of eating and not paying attention are not easy to change. Don't try to make drastic changes. Lasting change takes time, and is built on many small changes. We start simply.

Pick your mindful eating homework:
(1) Try taking the first four sips of a cup of hot tea or coffee with full attention.
(2) If you are reading and eating, try alternating these activities, not doing both at once.  Read a page, then put the book down and eat a few bites, savoring the tastes, then read another page, and so on.
(3) At family meals, you might ask everyone to eat in silence for the first five minutes, thinking about the many people  who brought the food to your plates.
(4) Try eating one meal a week mindfully, alone and in silence. Be creative. For example, could you eat lunch behind a  closed office door, or even alone in our car?

Enjoy your meal!
 http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mindful-eating/200902/mindful-eating

Six-Layer Dish

Recipe #5: p. 137, Six-Layer Dish--Bonnie Zook, Leola, PA; Martha Buckwalter, Lancaster, PA; Fern Lehman, Kidron, OH

potatos
carrots
uncooked rice
onions
ground beef
canned tomatoes
brown sugar



"Much of the what's-wrong-with-us material relating to world food needs centers on overconsumption of protein.  While protein is widely lacking in poorer countries, most people in Candada and the United States eat much more than necessary.
    Much of the protein we eat, in contrast to poorer nations, comes from meat, milk, and eggs.  Beef cattle are poor converters of grain to food protein." More-with-Less, p. 20-21


 http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2004-03-18/news/0403180191_1_pedro-alvarez-cattle-cuban-economy

"In communist Cuba, only the state is allowed to slaughter cattle and sell the meat. Citizens who kill a cow--even if they raised it themselves--can get a 10-year prison sentence. Anyone who transports or sells a poached animal can get locked up for 8 years.
"My brother-in-law got a 12-year prison sentence for killing 12 cows," said an accountant who lives in the cattle-raising region.
But it's not unheard of for Cubans to sneak into a pasture at night and butcher a cow on the spot. Residents have been known to descend on a cow struck by lightning, carving it up in minutes even though the meat often is charred and they risk a fine if caught by police.
The same thing can happen if a cow is hit by a car or dies of illness or malnutrition, in giving birth or of old age, even though residents admit the law requires them to leave the carcass alone and notify local officials."


Last week, I cooked this Six-Layer-Dish that had one pound of ground beef for 4 people.

Recently, I learned about the rarity of beef for Cubans.

Granted, Communist Cuba does not accurately reflect the same realities of all of the poorer countries in the world, it does highlight the extremes with regards to protein-consumption between the U.S./Canada and many poorer countries.

As a person who has battled Anorexia Nervosa (AN) for years, beef has been for me one of my "scary", "off-limit" foods due to so many news stories and conversations about red meat being bad, ads for double quarter pounders with cheese, and the idea of the typical fatty high school lunch of burgers and fries sending me into near-panic-attacks about gaining weight.

So, when I read Longacre say that people in the U.S. and Canada need to limit their intake of beef, it is easy for me to rationalize that this statement pertains to me specifically.  It is also easy for me to live out this limitation since I probably eat beef one to two times a year.

But my restriction of beef is not with the altruistic motive of helping people in other countries have access to more protein.  It is based on fear of being fat or unhealthy.  It is just as self-focused as someone who chooses to eat a double quarter pounder with cheese a few times a week.

In Cuba, the government is choosing to restrict beef.  In the U.S., the government chooses not to restrict the overconsumption of beef. 

Restriction and overconsumption (or lack-of-restriction) have the same outcomes:

obsession, numbness, selfishness, greed, sadness, hopelessness

Somewhere between the extremes of having unlimited access to beef and scraping a lightning-charred hunk of beef off a road is a healthy, faithful way to eat and enjoy beef.  And I hope to find it one day.


*By the way, this recipe was amazing, and I enjoyed the little bite of beef that I allowed myself.