The Weekly GOOD, vol. 28
Why is cooking a “breakfast with no hog” even considered a “good thing”?
April 21, 2018
Some Good Bits: One of the great things about social media is that self-care strategies abound. Lee from America has us gushing over the simplest form of life and energy; Clean Eats by Tay has us drooling over plant-based tacos; Men’s Health (and the great Jackie Robinson) reminds us that this life is not a spectator sport.
GOOD ADVICE
Read: The jamón went down to Georgia. Literally. “We were staring at pata negra, or ‘black footed,’ pigs, the raw material for one of the most precious, cured meats in the world — jamón ibérico de bellota, the free-range, acorn-fed, dry-aged Spanish ham — but we were knee-deep in damp grass at 330 feet above sea level in southwestern Georgia, 4,200 miles from the pigs’ origin in the mountains of southwest Spain.” A long-odds bet on raising an increasingly-popular — and traditionally Spanish — delicacy in southern Georgia. Swapping out acorns for pecans and walnuts to raise a delicious ham that’s in demand.
ON SUSTAINABILITY
Read: “God made dirt, so dirt don’t hurt.” I remember hearing that expression a lot as a kid. It’s one of those sayings that stuck with me into my… ahem… wiser years. And it’s only in recent years that we’re actually coming to embrace that sentiment.
Turns out, we have a lot of opinions on nature — how much damage we’re doing to it, how it can help us, how much exposure we should have to it. But how much time are we actually spending in nature to speak intelligently about it? Glamping, weekend hiking trips to merit the brewery visit later (is that me?), walking the dog (and picking up its poop to put in a separate receptacle that ends up at a dump), playing rec league sports on leveled playing fields… And along the way, we avoid germs and bacteria, seemingly, at all costs. We are super-hyper-clean. And it’s getting worse. You know what’s important that comes from nature? Food. And the farmland used to grow plants and animals has the potential to give back to the rest of nature. If we really want to help prioritize that. So, what to do? Does it make sense to take farming indoors? Or find more reasons to exist in nature.
> How cleanliness and efficiency obscure our relation to nature
EATING WELL
Read/Make: Breakfast is typically the last meal folks think about preparing. So, it’s the first one they skip. Here’s a great way to set yourself up for success. Make these delicious nuggets to grab on the way out the door all week. “Quiche tends to be very heavy on grains and milk. But this mini quiche recipe features a crispy crust engineered with your favorite cruciferous friend, cauliflower, and pasture-raised bacon for good measure. Adding spinach to the party — specifically when it’s been cooked down to reduce oxalates — really levels up this recipe on the micronutrient front, adding vitamin K, vitamin A, magnesium, iron, vitamin C and a slew of B vitamins. Spinach is also a great vegetable-based source of protein, which rounds out this dish nicely.” And here’s an idea on what to do with that leftover bacon grease.
> Cauliflower and Bacon Crusted Quiche Bites (h/t Bulletproof)
Or, for a larger portion or bigger crowd to feed, try the above-pictured hearty breakfast casserole (h/t The Good Kitchen)
DOING GOOD
Read: “Today, less than one-tenth of one percent of the world’s electricity spends any time in a storage battery.” We use a lot of batteries. Small batteries. What if we used batteries to store naturally-occuring energies of solar and wind? With the decreasing cost of batteries, that might happen sooner than we think.
A BIT MORE GOOD (AND SOME BAD)
> Burden of patients with multiple diseases could sink health systems around the world
> How an overweight 40-year-old became a top ultra-athlete
> Local courts lift Arkansas weedkiller ban, creating chaos
AND… ONE LAST THING BEFORE WE GO…
> All the things you’re doing wrong when you travel: Anthony Bourdain goes rogue
Originally published at The Ethical Omnivore.