Processed Food

I decided to eat less processed food because it has come to my attention that it is really really bad for you.
Like, the reason Americans are fat and dying bad.  Also, I have long suspected that my stomach is sensitive to something in it (specifically wheat based breakfast cereals).  I can't help but wonder: If I eat healthier, will I feel better?  More energetic?  Will I stop getting headaches?

In any case, this sounds like an awesome idea in my head.  But in practice it isn't so easy.  What counts as a  "processed food"?  For example, last night I made myself sauteed chicken with honey-grapefruit sauce over a bed of romaine with vinaigrette.  Sounds great, right?  Except that I used panko breadcrumbs to coat the chicken, and those are surely processed. In fact, I'm not even sure what they are, except that they make an awesome breading.

Anyway, I've decided to start small.  First on the chopping block, the easy ones: Ramen noodles, packaged soups, frozen tv dinners, pop tarts/eggos/frozen french toast things, and bottled/powdered salad dressings.  Things I don't eat often anyway, but never outrightly "banished."

Pho is for Fail

No pictures to accompany this one, just a general tale of desperation and woe.  I tried to make homemade pho.  It seemed so simple!  A jug of beef broth, some rice noodles, and roast beef.  There you go.  My downfall was in the other ingredients, which were a "chile" and fresh ginger, which you cook a little before adding the broth.  My problem is I'm not entirely sure what the hell Asian recipes mean whent ehy call for a "chile," but I know that my grocery store does not have these mysterious chiles in the produce section.  I usually use jalapeno, but I have found this does confer enough spiciness.  So I decided to test out a serrano pepper.

That was mistake.  The pepper's red hot spiciness expanded into the whole dish, making it a steaming tureen of sweaty, cough inducing, devil-broth.

I ate it anyway, but I am afraid of the leftovers.