Years ago—decades, actually—we had this couple and their kids over for Sunday dinner. That was a thing back then: After church, invite people over for Sunday dinner. We did our share; though, looking back, I often wonder why.
Anyway, our children were about the same age and our boys in the same third-grade class. We also had home-schooling in common (we were still home-schoolers, but our boy went to school for one semester, specifically for recess) and we attended the same church. Oh, the ties that bind and gag!
Story short, it didn't take too long to realize that this family saw ours as a missionary project, and I was done. However, we did have a funny conversation around the dinner table about skinny food—the entire family seemed obsessed with their mother's girl-like figure. But, to our credit, we put aside any thought of calculated motives on their part and enjoyed the game: spaghetti; hotdogs; string cheese; twizzlers . . .
This spring, as we began eating the first offerings from our garden, namely asparagus and rhubarb (both of which we have been consuming in copious amount since early May), I chuckled as I mentally added them to my almost-forgotten list of 'skinny food.'
Way back, before refrigeration and the option to freeze garden produce to be enjoyed year 'round, people ate what was in season. Summer was obviously the glory days of innumerable greens, fruits, and berries. Autumn would have added it's own glory to the lagging late-summer harvest. Abundant squash and root vegetables carried the family through the long, cold months. And, of course, asparagus and rhubarb would greet the winter-weary, soon after the last snow disappeared.
I imagine how simple life could be if we still ate like this. (An observation and not a suggestion, by any means.)
Our favourite way to eat rhubarb is in a crisp. Hot from the oven. With vanilla ice cream. For breakfast—and then all day long or until the pan is empty.
And we easily make an entire meal of sautéed asparagus with garlic, several times a week.
As I have yet to discover the perfect way of preserving either of these (rhubarb is passable if chopped and frozen; or added to strawberry jam, I suppose), we'll just keep eating these skinny foods fresh and freely, until they're done and the spinach is plentiful.
Bon Appetite!
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused. —author unknown