Today's Sustainable Feast in the Garden of Eden
It's a special day in the Garden of Eden, and it's time to share a special feast!
Every day is a celebration in our ecovillage, but today is someone's birthday!!!
For many people, birthdays feel like a great opportunity to cut loose or indulge in all your favorite things. Ours is an amazing life, because we're aware that we are always free to do whatever we want to do - in a lot of ways, every day feels like a holiday! However, because we've been observing a fairly strict anti-candida diet for a few weeks, today's special birthday observance felt like quite a luxury for all of us!
Our birthday girl wanted eggs benedict, so she took to the outdoor kitchen to make enough for our whole community!
Hot, rich, creamy, smooth, saucy, eggs benedict with crunchy sourdough toast...mmmmmmm!!! All prepared in our sustainable outdoor kitchen of course, cooked over fire on stoves we built by hand out of Earth itself that burn "trash" wood for fuel. The self-sufficiency and honor that go into our meals make them significantly more delicious to us!
We toasted the sourdough bread in a cast iron skillet over the flame.
The next layer in a classic eggs benedict is ham/Canadian bacon, so we made a pan for those of us who want to eat meat.
Poached eggs are a most vital element in this yummy dish! We enjoy farm fresh eggs from our chickens, and there are a few tricks to poaching them just right.
First, heat a pot of water to bubbling but not quite boiling. Add a tablespoon or so of vinegar for each egg you want to cook. Stir it up vigorously to get a little whirlpool vortex going.
Then, crack the egg into the vortex so the swirling water will wrap the egg white around the yolk. Cook for about 3 minutes, though the exact time will depend on the temperature of your water and the degree of doneness you like for your poached eggs. Some of us like runny yolks, and some like a bit drier, more cooked yolks.
Lift them out of the water with a strainer when they are cooked to your preference!
For eggs benedict, the hollandaise sauce is key. It takes a lot of butter to make enough of this thick, lavish sauce! We melted a couple pounds of butter.
We add the melted butter to egg yolks in a magical emulsion alchemy. A squeeze of lemon juice really brightens up the rich, heavy, fatty flavor, and we like to sprinkle just a touch of cayenne pepper too!
We made a bunch of fried potatoes on the side.
They turned out crispy, golden, beautiful, and delicious!
But we didn't stop there - we mixed them with some sautéed onions, bell pepper, and fresh rosemary from the garden.
This was a feast fit for royalty!! It was glorious, and very well received by everyone.
Some of us even enjoyed a root beer float to top it all off 😄
We believe that all things may be beneficial in moderation, and this meal was a beautiful example of that. It was extra appreciated by everyone because we've been following a no sugar, no meat, no dairy, and no bread diet for a few weeks! It is technically our "off" day from following the anti-candida treatment protocol, and various members of our ecovillage chose to indulge to different degrees, but everyone is diligently recording their digestive experience for our candida eradication diaries.
This was indeed a special feast for a special day!
Food is important and we hope to inspire people to really take time to eat, enjoy it, and share it with someone you love. We also hope to inspire more and more sustainable practices in regards to food. We want to remind everyone to let food be your medicine too!
If you would like to know more about our unique and super sustainable connection to our food cycle, please check out our previous post here.
www.intothegardenofeden.com
Wonderful feast! With meat! Such a cheat-meal!
Give me advice please: what period of time between cheat-meals should be done?
Good question, @burmistr - that's not really something that has a one-size-fits-all answer. We've been following the anti-candida protocol for 2 weeks, and this was the first "cheat" meal for some of us - and it certainly was a splurge!
Others have been observing the diet strictly for the 4 days of following the treatment protocol but indulging on the 3 days off with sugar, coffee, alcohol, meat, wheat, etc. Everyone is recording their results and experience, and we look forward to compiling & sharing all the data so we have some evidence as to what works best.
Health and nutrition is a very intimate communion with your own body, and requires tuning into what works best for you - every body is different. The healthiest person here (gauged by the fact he hasn't been sick in almost 2 decades) has been relatively loose with the dietary restrictions on the 3 days off, and that is because he still feels his body can run very well even with less nutrient dense inputs...and he's still healthier than the ones who are strictly following the protocol, because again those individuals feel it is in their own best interest to be a bit more disciplined.
Lifestyle changes like this are often a mental challenge, and a "cheat" meal can do wonders towards keeping morale high. As long as you know you can treat yourself every so often, it's potentially easier to delay your gratification until that time rather than just giving up and eating something unhealthy right now.
All that said, once a week or two weeks for a "cheat" meal is doable for some people. Others enjoy following the 80/20 idea - eat healthy 80 percent of the time, and have whatever you want the other 20 percent. It's all about using yourself as an experiment and being aware and honest with what works best.
It's way more helpful mental posture to focus on your favorite "healthy" foods and fill up on those things, rather than to focus on the things you "can't" have and then resent the regiment you're following. It's a lot easier to follow something like this when you're celebrating getting healthier and happier rather than just counting down the days to the next "cheat"!
Thank you, @gardenofeden! After your answer I decided to have 80/20 way of forming my ration. It turns out that the Pareto principle works in dietetics too. But not in the main essence of course :)
I wandered off in the comment section and i really like what you said here:
My girlfriend is currently on a no carbs, no sugar diet and she's having a hard time. That meaning she had her chest day yesterday and I believe it's only been a couple of days haha. Maybe it is time to assign a specific day (once a week or so) in which she can cheat.
Thanks for the insights!
You're welcome! The body is very capable, but the mind - with all its programming and cravings and addictions - often gets in the way of what's in the body's best interest. Cheat meals can make a diet feel more doable, but again we really recommend just filling up on & celebrating all your favorite healthy foods first! Cravings are really not much of an issue when you are properly nourished in the first place.
I think this says it all....
All that butter!!!!!!!!! homer drooling sounds hahahahaha
Amazin' post.
Thanks!
glad you didn't up vote that guy, probably a bot.
Now you are making me HUNGRY!!
Mmmmmmmmhhhhhmmmmmm
You got that right!!
This is a great gourmet dish and I share your fun and appetite. Thank you @gardenofeden
You're welcome, @serkagan! Thanks for sharing the feast :)
Wow now i’m hungry ! Poached eggs I love my success rate is 50/50 and improving :)
They are very delicious but can take a little practice to get right every time. Hopefully you are enjoying as you hone your technique!
Ah yes getting better slowly, have to eat more to get it perfect though. Which I don’t mind.
That looks wonderful! I can almost smell it! :-)
Mmmmm all that yummy butter and the delicious smoky fire....mmmmmm
Santo cielo las imágenes despertaron mi apetito. Es cierto, dentro de una alimentación saludable es posible comer con moderación ciertos alimentos, y hoy era un día especial, bien hecho. felicitaciones a quien cumpleaños hoy. Enjoy!
Gracias @samic! Fue una fiesta especial y disfrutamos cada bocado :)))
Thanks for sharing. Looks so tasty. Upvoted and resteemed you post :-)
Thank you @athenabree08!
Awesomeness! It looks delicious and Happy Birthday to the person concerned!
Will tell her, thank you!!