By ANNIE BLEWETT
Farmer’s Market Coordinator
Every couple of months, I’ll be eating my “old standby” meal when I realize mid-bite: I am in a food rut. It happened most recently over a bowl of oatmeal. Oats had become my staple in my morning. And I made them the exact same way every single time. The predictability of my morning meal was starting to grate on my nerves so greatly that I decided to take a break from the mundane oatsy mush I found myself forcing down.
I can’t possibly be the only person this happens to. There must be others that find something so enjoyable that it is overdone to the point of sickness. It’s sort of like when you hear that new Justin Timberlake song and you think, “I like this song! I should listen to it as many times as I want because I can’t imagine not enjoying it after the 34,554,546,890th time.”
This thinking is wrong because two months later you find yourself scoffing while changing the station when that song comes on the radio. Since I am on the cutting edge of “food rut” research (I did invent this terminology, after all), I have brainstormed a few suggested therapies for coping with the issue:
-Forage for a new recipe to try. Adding some flair to your meals will help you to re-appreciate a mundane meal. For example, I started eating oats again, I added blackberries and it made all the difference. Try and be realistic, though, find a recipe that is doable while still takes you a bit out of your comfort zone.
-Buy a new piece of produce as inspiration. It wasn’t until a few years ago when I became a lover of all things farm and vegetable that I discovered that there are delicious items sprouting from this earth that I have never tried—beets; kohlrabi (yea, I bet you’ve never heard of that one. Go Google it); patt pan squash. When you buy this new and astonishing vegetable, don’t be shy! Ask the farmer that you are buying it from for suggestions on how to prepare it. They are experts and more than happy to help.
Variety is the spice of life. Your body can certainly benefit from trying something new, your family may appreciate a different dish and your palette will enjoy a new host of flavors. There are so many foods that have yet to be explored, so I challenge you to connect with nature, and nutrition, by purchasing a novel item at the Farmer’s Market. Even if you don’t end up becoming a huge fan of beets, at least you’ll have given it a try and have an informed opinion of the root vegetable.
I recently stumbled upon this quote and I find that has a lot of truth in it:
“Cooking is like love; it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” –Harriet Van Horne
I challenge you to pull yourself out of your food rut, be brave and try something new– and Virginia Grown!
