What?! No microwave?

Cooking food in the microwave isn't good. Shocking I know. Neither is zapping leftovers for a quick meal on the go. As it turns out, microwaving kills the nutritional content in foods and leaves you with a mushy meal devoid of all the good stuff it had going for it on the first place.

I've been attending an Eat to Live book club since March. It is hosted by a concierge physician specializing in functional natural medicine, clinical nutrition and food therapy. This microwave business was one of the latest bits of knowledge he's dropped on us. It makes complete sense, but not microwaving anything is hard. Practically impossible. I mean, it's sitting right there on the counter, how can I not use it heat up that bowl of soup or the remnants of last night's supper?

Since I have repeatedly fallen off the "no microwaving" wagon in the past few weeks, I was excited by the prospects of living a week in house without one of those wretched temptresses. I'm house-sitting for a family this week while they're on vacation and they don't have a microwave. They told me I was welcome to bring my own if I wanted to use one during my stay, but I decided this was the perfect opportunity to see what a life of microwave-less cooking practices is like.

Turns out it's quite easy. My lunches are consisting of a lot of sandwiches and salads, but that's just fine with me. My suppers are baked or boiled on the stove.  I simply adjusted my meals to fit the appliances I have and voila, no unhealthy speed cooking. When this seven day microwave detox is over, I have very high hopes that I won't feel the need to microwave again.  Or at least not surrender to it.

Here's a snapshot of today's lunch. That's a sandwich with baby greens, alfalfa sprouts, and a chickpea spread on toasted 100% whole wheat bread next to potatoes roasted with olive oil, Herbs de Provence, and a dash of sea salt.  Mmmm...