Category: A to Z: Dr. Plastic Picker’s Less Plastic More Plants Cookbook for Kids!

December 4, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I don’t know why the salmon was particularly amazing yesterday. I didn’t intend to make something special. I pulled into our garage at 230pm. Yesterday was a half day of work and I actually left the office semi-on-time. I had talked to Mr. Plastic Picker earlier in the afternoon and told him to not order out. Since Fridays are usually busier days for us and take-out is a treat, I could figure out something for dinner on a Thursday. I pulled into the garage and plugged in my plug-in hybrid. We have an extra freezer and frigerator/freezer in the garage. There are a lot of people who live in my house, and it’s mostly my parents-in-law who store their bulk food there. I used to feel guilty about all the appliances but they are sunk cost, and they are powered by our solar panels anyway. There is not much of our food there, but sometimes I’ll store some frozen Costco bulk food. Thinking about dinner, I shopped in my own garage and found a packet of salmon fillets from Costco.

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December 3, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I used to think Costco was the answer to life. Costco wanted us to think that it was the answer to life. Costco is still a great place, and pays good wages. But I am reminded that Costco is not the answer to life. It’s just a warehouse store that generally runs an ethical business but usually pushes us to overconsume and has too much plastic packaging. I have a lot of self-control these days and I can walk into Costco without leaving with three giant Olaf plushies. Yes, we once did that. The last plushie went to a good highschool friend who also re-homed/bought our extra care. No one needs an extra car. I was trying to find that bloglink, but can’t find it. I’ll try to link it later.

Anyway, last weekend my college sweetheart and only ever boyfriend now husband of almost 20 years Mr. Plastic Picker and I went to Costco. It was very romantic. We bought mostly things in bulk but I was tempted by a crate of mangos. I have family in our southeast Asian homeland that has a mango tree farm, and mangos ripe from the tree are delicious. Here in southern california, we make due with Costco. But do we really need to? The mangoes on the outside looked decent, and I am well aware due to my ethnic heritage how to judge the ripeness of a mango. The ripeness was about right to eat the next week. Our daughter loves mangos. So we bought a crate. Last night I had a semi-tiring day at work. Mostly dealing with some adminstrative things again in my non-adminstrative off time. When everyone has left the office, I was still sitting there. But I also had a conversation with someone I care about and the conversation was very similar to conversations I’ve had prior to becoming Dr. Plastic Picker. Filled with gossip and some catching up, and some pettiness. I felt myself reverting to pettiness. It’s funny that when I join again with old intermittent acquaintances that have not been with me on this journey, I get to starkly look back at who I was before this blog – before I just decided to really care. I did not like that version of myself.

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December 1, 2020

by drplasticpicker

How beautiful is the sweet potatoe? I didn’t realize last night when we each had a half baked sweet potatoe that it matched the edging of our well-loved silicone baking sheet. Mr. Plastic Picker and I went to Costco last weekend, and I find great joy is buying food in bulk now. We hardly ever purchase the ready made foods and now cook real food. This has mostly been to avert plastic packaging and to avoid palm oil which is in most frozen or prepackaged foods. The flip side is that it has really inspired me to be more creative in the kitchen. It’s amazing what you can learn on the internet if you are motivated.

Yesterday was a semi-normal non-frustrating day at work. I had a minor scheduling issue to work through with one of the young pediatricians, and she was patient enough to listen to my nonsensical rantings about Human Resources and Policies and Procedures. Trying to navigate the real world needs of physicians, rules and regulations and also common sense – can be challenging. It helps that Dr. Plastic Picker is very rule orientated and have common sense. It helps most that I am fiscally responsible and good with numbers. Mr. Plastic Picker is working with his sisters on finalizing his parent’s trust and estates. I am CFO of our family, and have nothing to do with my in-law’s finances and take just passing note of things I hear about. They buy onions, eggs and rice for our family and that is it. He asked me what I thought their networth was. I thought for 15 seconds and said a number, and I was almost right on. My dear husband paused for a second in astonishment. Yes, I am that good.

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November 30, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I really like Retireby40’s recipes. I had seen this recipe and watched his video a few months ago. Click here to read his recipe or watch him cook in the original https://retireby40.org/sahd-cooking-pad-thai/. If you want “authenic” pad thai, cook it Joe’s way. What I loved about this blogpost was when he explained “Pad Thai requires quite a few specialty ingredients. It might be hard to cook a 100% authentic Pad Thai. But Pad Thai is an adopted dish anyway so I think it’s perfectly fine to use local ingredients.” And with that blessing from the financial blogger who is authenitically Thai-American, your pediatrician felt at liberty to experiment. I’ve now made Modified Pad Thai three times, and yesterday it turned out really well. The kids were very happy.

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November 27, 2020

This is the second year we cooked on this National Holiday. Last year we cooked our first Thanksgiving Turkey and had the resulting yumminess of turkey broth and turkey soup afterwards https://drplasticpicker.com/cooking-a-turkey-saved-money-used-less-plastic-and-finally-felt-at-home/. The entire home-made feast cost us $22 with plenty of leftovers for my parents house and our large household of six.

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November 24, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Flaxseed and Raisin Muffins. I have ground flaxseed that I needed to use up. We also have too much wheat flour and organic raisins. I offered Dr. Dear Friend a new 2 lb bag of Organic California Grown Sun-Maid Raisins, but I discovered that Dr. Dear Friend does not like raisins. She also does not like mushrooms, but loves cucumbers. We were going on our walk around the HMO parking lot, visiting the three wild rosemary bushes, the guerilla composter project soon to be succulent garden, and the new breezy shaded nature path I found. This is when I learned about how she does not like raisins. So with that excess of ingredients, I was inspired to make muffins today. I Ecosia (not Googled) a recipe and modified a recipe from Diabetes Forecast http://www.diabetesforecast.org/2009/feb/recipes/flax-seed-and-raisin-muffins.html and opted out of the splenda and just put in real sugar and honey.

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November 17, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I’m not sure when drplasticpicker.com became a semi-food blog, but it has. I’ve been motivated due to the deliciousness of my creations and also various cooking projects have let me to new and different ingredients. Yesterday was likely the first time I ever created my own dish. I call it “Costco Rotissierre Chicken and Cous Cous and a Whole Lot of Stewy Vegetables!!!” It was really good and even Mr. Plastic Picker loved it (he loves Jambalaya type dishes). My mother-in-law was asking me about the recipe.

I’m not sure how I developed the dish. I got home after a decently busy day in clinic. It was just an off day for Dr. Dear Friend. She had 3 complex cases in the morning. I was busy but with the normal outpatient pediatric issues. I empathized with her so much that I went to the coffee cart and picked up lunch. Wearing my mask and a faceshield, I got in line and bought way too much plastic encased food. I bought the chimichanga, tuna on whole wheat, pesto pasta salad and a soy latte. As I was carrying it back to Pediatrics, I walked by one of our RN-workers and I confessed, “I bought the whole cart. ” Dr. Dear Friend was still talking to Child Protection Services when I brought in the booty. We split the lunch as she finished her call and we chatted about her complex cases. She’s had COVID already which is why I eat with her. I have to eat with her first before other doctor friends try to snag her as a safe lunch companion.

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November 3, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I am almost out of Dr. Plastic Picker reusable tote bags! It’s been fun over the last year giving them out randomly to my patients and people I’ve met. Yesterday I gave one to Priscilla, the nice HMO staff who works on updating iPhones for MDs. She spent over an hour updating my new phone and backing up all my data. As she walked away, there was the Maui Blue Turtle themed Dr. Plastic Picker bag peaking from her small trolley of things. I think those bags are everywhere! They were a group project made from the art of a patient Daniela, my sister’s logo she designed for the blog and about a $1000 a paid to get them done. I just gave them away over the year and it has been great fun.

But it’s time to think about something else to have at work to give away to my families! I have decided to live my dream and finally write a book! I’ve always wanted to be an author. I had tried to write a romance novel back in medical school during our first year, it was Pass-Fail grading system, but I got distracted and only wrote two chapters. I have realized it’s better to write something useful. Since I am a pediatrician and refocused on plantetary and pediatric health, I really ought to write a cookbook. I have never desired to write a cookbook until now. Now I want to write a cookbook because I have learned more new skills in the kitchen, and I want to encourage my patients to eat more plant-based and less processed and less plastic. When I was younger, I had saved enough UPC codes from some company and sent them in for a free kid’s cookbook that was baked goods A to Z. I loved that cookbook. Unfortunately that is probably what derailed me from cooking more because I was in adolescence and making a lot of baked goods and eating a lot of it. I gained probably an unhealthly amount of weight from all that sugary baked goodness.

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