My boyfriend has been on a culinary literary bender for the past few months, reading books by Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle, Mark Bittman, and that Julie Powell, living up to his New Years resolution to eat and cook better. As the people who enjoy my NSFW reading lists might remember, I've read most of these authors but I haven't made nearly as drastic changes to my daily life as he has. He's been steadily improving his recipes, incorporating smaller portions of meat and more grains (quinoa, lentils, brown rice), staying vegetarian for breakfast and lunch, and promises to include local produce when the weather improves (the farmer's markets in Wisconsin don't have much to offer come February).
After reading in one of the books that the body processes sugar and white flour the same way, he freaked out. In kind of a ridiculous way.
And so, as the designated baker in our relationship, I've gone through five bags of whole-wheat flour in the last month, trying to find the best and easiest homemade bread recipe (we don't have a breadmachine, so I've done a lot of kneading--a lot), and other baked goods, like scones and tortillas, with mixed results. I don't get as much joy out of cooking as he does, but I don't mind listening to NPR online and mixing things together in a big bowl when the sheet of paper tells me to, which is 80% of baking. (The other 20% is preheating the oven and doing that toothpick test.)
Last night I made a whole wheat carrot cake that was delicious; never mind that there was 3 cups of brown sugar, a stick of butter, a package of cream cheese and a cup of oil (including the frosting). It was 100% whole wheat!
Despite his reading list, I don't think my boyfriend fully comprehends nutrition yet.
