Cooking healthy, restaurant quality meals on a budget can be a challenge, but one that can be met with a little planning. I have experimented with several cuisines over the years but have found my best success with Japanese home-style cookery. I base this statement on several factors: the food must be nutritious, easy to prepare, economical to prepare, and tasty. It should also make an attractive presentation because we "eat" with our eyes first.
The first thing that comes to mind for most when thinking of Japanese food is sushi. While I love sushi and have had good success preparing it, it does not fit the requirements of being easy or economical to prepare as it is somewhat labor intensive and requires a bit of practice to get it right. Sushi grade fish is around $3 an ounce and isn't easy to find. While tasty sushi can be made with surimi (imitation crab) or shrimp, the labor required to do it makes it appropriate only for special occasions, not feeding a family of 5 on a daily basis.
Most Japanese style meals include rice so making it properly is essential. While you can make rice on the stove top, I would recommend a rice cooker. It basically makes rice cooking foolproof. This does not have to be an expensive piece of equipment. The one I use is a 6 cup rice cooker from Aroma that I purchased for $14.99. This is a very basic model without any bells and whistles, but it prepares rice perfectly and automatically. Unless you are feeding the neighborhood, a 6 cup maker is more than sufficient.
Rice is the primary dietary staple for more than half of the worlds population. Rice is nutrient dense and contributes over 15 vitamins and minerals. It is an excellent source of complex carbohydrates, which are the best kind, stored in muscles and used to give us energy when we need it. Compared to other grains, rice contains high quality proteins and has all 8 essential amino acids. Of course brown rice will have more of these as well as other B vitamins and minerals, than white rice. Long grain white rice, though the most consumed variety in the US is the least nutritious of all varieties and must be enriched after processing to meet minimum nutritional standards. Short and medium grain white rice retain much more of their nutritional value after processing, but try to stick with the brown unprocessed rice. It requires more water to cook and takes slightly longer, but if you are using a rice cooker it will come out perfectly every time and the additional vitamins, nutrients and fiber you receive will be worth it to your health. For the diet conscious, rice is also considered a low-calorie food and is cholesterol and gluten free. If you are budget conscious as well, a serving of rice costs less than 10¢.
What does all of this have to with martial arts you might ask? Well obviously fueling your body with nutritious food is important if you undertake any physical activity, and rice provides a great source of energy.It is also known to trigger release of serotonin in the brain, which elevates mood and contributes to a positive attitude. As our martial arts originated in Japan, it may be interesting to note that the Samurai were paid in koku (a measurement equal to about 5 bushels) of rice. A koku of rice was considered to be a years supply for one person. The number of Koku your land could produce determined how wealthy you were as rice was also used as currency. A wealthy Daimyo (land holder) could raise a larger army and conquer more land from his neighbors, hence rice is the reason for the development of more and better military weapons, tactics and techniques in feudal Japan. These are many of the same techniques we train in to this day.
The first thing that comes to mind for most when thinking of Japanese food is sushi. While I love sushi and have had good success preparing it, it does not fit the requirements of being easy or economical to prepare as it is somewhat labor intensive and requires a bit of practice to get it right. Sushi grade fish is around $3 an ounce and isn't easy to find. While tasty sushi can be made with surimi (imitation crab) or shrimp, the labor required to do it makes it appropriate only for special occasions, not feeding a family of 5 on a daily basis.
Most Japanese style meals include rice so making it properly is essential. While you can make rice on the stove top, I would recommend a rice cooker. It basically makes rice cooking foolproof. This does not have to be an expensive piece of equipment. The one I use is a 6 cup rice cooker from Aroma that I purchased for $14.99. This is a very basic model without any bells and whistles, but it prepares rice perfectly and automatically. Unless you are feeding the neighborhood, a 6 cup maker is more than sufficient. Rice is the primary dietary staple for more than half of the worlds population. Rice is nutrient dense and contributes over 15 vitamins and minerals. It is an excellent source of complex carbohydrates, which are the best kind, stored in muscles and used to give us energy when we need it. Compared to other grains, rice contains high quality proteins and has all 8 essential amino acids. Of course brown rice will have more of these as well as other B vitamins and minerals, than white rice. Long grain white rice, though the most consumed variety in the US is the least nutritious of all varieties and must be enriched after processing to meet minimum nutritional standards. Short and medium grain white rice retain much more of their nutritional value after processing, but try to stick with the brown unprocessed rice. It requires more water to cook and takes slightly longer, but if you are using a rice cooker it will come out perfectly every time and the additional vitamins, nutrients and fiber you receive will be worth it to your health. For the diet conscious, rice is also considered a low-calorie food and is cholesterol and gluten free. If you are budget conscious as well, a serving of rice costs less than 10¢.
What does all of this have to with martial arts you might ask? Well obviously fueling your body with nutritious food is important if you undertake any physical activity, and rice provides a great source of energy.It is also known to trigger release of serotonin in the brain, which elevates mood and contributes to a positive attitude. As our martial arts originated in Japan, it may be interesting to note that the Samurai were paid in koku (a measurement equal to about 5 bushels) of rice. A koku of rice was considered to be a years supply for one person. The number of Koku your land could produce determined how wealthy you were as rice was also used as currency. A wealthy Daimyo (land holder) could raise a larger army and conquer more land from his neighbors, hence rice is the reason for the development of more and better military weapons, tactics and techniques in feudal Japan. These are many of the same techniques we train in to this day.
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