My recipes & food posts are for readers, writers, gamers, artists, bloggers, scholars & other paranormal people.

The food posts and recipes you’re likely to see in future Body Preservation posts are meant for a specific audience (see title). I am not a nutritional expert, nor a gourmet cook.  (The web is festooned with great blogs by such people, and Google is your friend if that’s what you’re looking for.)

I am a good cook, however, and I have experience coping with the unique needs of creative / obsessive types. (Like me.)

Each food post that appears from now on will have an unobtrusive text link to this post – in which I’ll explain what I’m trying to do and why. (A section about my food philosophies appears at the end of this post.)

First, though, some quick reference material, to minimize future scrolling.

SYMBOLS KEY:

(Trust me, there will be symbols. I’m just not completely done with the concept yet. This is one of those foundational posts I warned you about when I decided to expand my subject matter to include Body Preservation. Categories may be refined and/or expanded without warning. Apologies for the rough edges.)

Food for Writers / Artists / Other Obsessives

• Healthy food for one or two, quick and easy to make, eat & clean up. Accessible anytime, day or night. Most won’t mess up the keyboard or work table. These “recipes” will draw heavily from the superfoods list (below) to maximize nutritiousness & tastiness, while minimizing blandness & weirdness.

Decadent / Gorgeous Food

• Food meant to delight the senses. Best for luring the muse, inspiring the artist, apologizing to neglected children, friends & lovers, and rewarding goal accomplishment. Think chocolate, honey, cream, blood oranges, bourbon, etc.

Getting Away With It Food

• Forget to make dinner again? Gotcha covered. Need something that looks like you slaved over it to take to a potluck? No problem. Know you’re not going to be in the kitchen much in November and you don’t want your dependents to starve? There are strategies.

Heritage / Minnesota Food

• A sub-category of Getting Away With It Food. Usually cheap, marginally-nutritious, and cooked in large quantities – just like Mother used to make. Comfort food to die for. Could absolutely be converted to a healthier version, but that would change the taste. Likely to contain cream of chicken soup or lard. (But rarely both.)

Many food articles and recipes will fit into more than one of the above categories.

MY CURRENT BODY PRESERVATION FOOD “RULES”:

• alternate between flavored beverages and plain water
• eat at least one meal (or mini-meal) every day without doing anything else – taste the food
• eat as many foods from the superfoods list (below) as possible

I’ll be adding in additional healthier habits as I move into the future, and I’ll document them in future Body Preservation posts.

THE SUPERFOODS: high-octane fuel for creatives and hedonists alike.

FOOD PHILOSOPHIES:

If you’ve found your way here, you probably spend a lot of hours lost in your passion(s). For you, that might mean reading, writing, gaming, creating art, studying, or otherwise obsessing over at least one topic. (And that topic is likely of a dark or supernatural nature.)

If that’s true, then it’s likely you fill your “extra” hours to the brim. You seek out things others consider dangerous, creepy, or even “sinful”. You deprive yourself of sleep. You stay in one physical position until various parts of your body go numb. You forget about food for long stretches, and /or you graze on whatever comes to hand when hunger strikes. If you are responsible for feeding others, you forget. Or you delay meal-times, so you can just finish this one last thing.

If any of that sounds familiar – no matter what particular type of obsession owns you – you might be living a paranormal lifestyle.

Para- / par-ə / Prefix. ”Alongside, near, beyond, altered, contrary to.”
normal / nawr-muhl / Adjective. “Conforming to the standard; usual; regular; natural.”

I know I am. And, that’s OK.

I’ve come to realize and accept that I’m not going to become a health-nut any time soon. Not because I don’t respect that choice, but because I have only so much time and energy to expend, and I have chosen to focus on other things.

That said, I worry about my habits coming back to bite me in the butt as I get older. For now, at least, I’m making an effort to do what is comfortable for me, but to do it just a little better than I used to.  And that’s where Body Preservation comes in.

I figure I can’t be the only one that wants to continue to give most of my attention to other things, yet take reasonable care of myself and my loved ones.

Just FYI, I have a few personal quirks, which you’ll see reflected in my food posts:

• To me, food should be: whole, nourishing, tempting, varied and (usually) easy.
• I love dairy products.
• I love bread.
• I like sweet things, but not super-sugary things.
• I love nuts, and seeds.
• I don’t eat a lot of meat.
• I love seafood and fish, but don’t get enough of it.
• My husband eats extremely low-carb 6 days a week, so I have a lot of low-carb experience.
• I try to avoid high fructose corn syrup.
• I don’t use many prepackaged  foods and mixes, but I do use some, some of the time.
• I drink a lot. And by that I mean I ALWAYS have something at hand to drink. Usually it’s diet soda, coffee or tea. Sometimes it’s liquor. Occasionally it’s milk. Not often enough, it’s water.  I’d like to rearrange that list.
• With the ridiculous exception of my soda, I prefer natural sweeteners – sugar & honey mostly.