In the Kitchen

When I have time, I love to cook, pore over cookbooks, and study about nutrition and the properties of foods. It’s fascinating to me. Meanwhile, my husband couldn’t possibly be more uninterested unless we were talking about clothing for him.

This quirk came honestly; Mom was always studying up on nutrition before it was even popular. We often had unusual things for breakfast like:  Goetta, a grain and sausage gruel, which was chilled sliced and fried; peanut butter toasties predated fast-food drive- throughs—pb and bacon on toast; and even fried chicken occasionally appeared on the menu. (My brother put in his best track run in gym class after a chicken breakfast.) Mom was unconventional, and she was my example.

When you’ve had cancer, you also think a little differently about the environment, what you put in and on your body, and how you live. It goes with the territory. So this week I’ve been messing up the kitchen again.

Here are some of my creations

Personal deodorant (It’s wonderful. Really.)

The best homemade onion soup I ever made (and I’ve made a lot) created with—

Homemade Worcestershire sauce

Chicken salad from Sunday’s roasted chicken

Kale chips (move over, potato chips)

Yogurt cream cheese, after I made the yogurt, of course*

Crackers

Sauerkraut*

My husband is going to yawn through this blog until I remind him that he’s a beneficiary of all this culinary creativity, study, and kitchen mess. We could eat junk, and junk does taste good. I confess to being a recovering potato-chip addict, actually a salty-crunchy addict. But junk just doesn’t satisfy nor does it provide any significant nutritional benefits.

Real food does. I notice the more I stay on the path of eating real food, the more satiated and better I feel.  I eat less because I am not trying to fill a nutritional deficit that’s raging for something I’m not getting. I even find myself looking forward to rather simple meals that I enjoy and fully taste.

Real food: Homemade sauerkraut and fruit

Spiritual life is like that, too. Sometimes I feed myself junk. Do you? Here’s some junk: God is answering everyone else’s prayers except mine. God isn’t doing anything about this situation. I can’t see anything, so nothing is happening. God doesn’t love me. God plays favorites, and I’m not one of them. It can’t be that big of a deal, even Christians are doing it. One time won’t make a difference and, besides, there’s always forgiveness. Is it really worth being a person of integrity, kindness, humility, ______ (you fill in the blank)?

Does any of this sound like some of the spiritual junk you’re on?  When that kind of munching goes on, we need to get in the kitchen and change our diet.  This week I thought again about something I’ve been waiting for for some time (at least to me it seems like a long time). I was so tempted to start eating the spiritual junk food. This is what I fed on this time instead:

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast? And have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget, I will not forget you!  (Isaiah 49:15, NIV)

I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. (Jeremiah 31:3, NIV)

If you believed, you would see the glory of God. (John 11:40, NIV)

It was good to feed on this spiritual food. It sustained me when I was leaning again toward doubt. Pastor Charles Stanley often says: “The truth is.” Sometimes I’ve gotten irritated at how much he says it. But God’s truth is sustaining and life-giving every bit as much as good food is for our physical bodies.  Let’s get off the junk. What do you say?

*From Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon, published by NewTrends Publishing, Inc., 2001