Jamie Oliver

I know I am supposed to hate this contrived reality show, produced by none other than Ryan Seacrest but Oscar and I have watched it loyally on Hulu each week and damn, it is inspiring. I personally think Jamie Oliver is the real deal, and is authentically consumed with changing the way we eat. It is well aligned with Food Inc. and the local food movement and I am indeed appalled at the school lunch program in this country. So we are trying. What does this mean for our lives? When we moved to Brooklyn and I joined the Park Slope Food Coop, it made some very big changes in our eating. Out of my shopping cart, there are maybe 4 or 5 packaged goods, mostly healthy. The boys snacks are much better; we have healthy, creative meals. Yay me. But, we still do takeout or eat-out, probably one or two nights every week. I would like to reduce that. It's not great on wasteline, environment, budget, or health. Ironically, while I can throw down easily on 4-hour gourmet feasts, I am not great at really fast meals or meals that the boys would think are exciting so that is my challenge. Last week, I made Bittman's pork vindaloo which was 1 hour but only about 10 minutes of prep time and really easy. They loved it. Today, we went retro and I tried homemade, healthy, sloppy Joes. I must say, I think I nailed it. Start to finish, 15 minutes. Recipe: 1 lb, lean, organic, grass-fed beef, olive, oil, 1/2 onion- diced, 2 carrots-finely diced, 2 cloves garlic-minced, 1 bell pepper-finely diced, 1.5 TBSP dijon mustard, 3/4 can organic crushed tomatos (obviously easy to use food processed fresh tomatoes too) 1.5 TBSP maple syrup, dash of smoked paprika. Heat olive oil in saute pan, add onion, garlic. Saute for a few minutes, then add carrots. When carrots have softened, add ground beef and saute until brown. Pour off excess fat and then add crushed tomatoes, mustard, maple syrup, paprika. Simmer for 5 minutes. I served on these really good Brioche buns with sides of edamame and sweet potato fries (just sliced sweet potatoes with some olive oil and salt in oven. Happy boy food.