The Real Life Cooking Strategy Guide Blog: Ancient Rome; Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Breakfast
Grape Juice
Roman Bread
Goat Cheese
Sausage
Bacon
Beans
Preparation Time about 5 - 10 minutes.
No marinating required.

Ingredients and Shopping List:

1 glass of Grape Juice (really watered down wine, but grape juice is healthier for the brain)
Slice of bread of any kind, Roman Meal brand is OK
A Slice of Goat Cheese
Two of four pieces of left over cooked or uncooked Link Sausage (easy to cook), or any other kind of sausage
Two or four pieces of left over cooked or uncooked Bacon
A cup of canned or leftover Beans of any kind
1/4 cup of Honey or Raw Honey (raw honey is not sold at Walmart; at health food store or from farms)
1 teaspoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Equipment:

Microwave
Paper towels or wax paper to cover microwaving food.

Put everything on a plate and eat it cold, or cover it with paper towel or wax paper and warm it up for about 2 minutes in the microwave, first.
Or if your meat is raw, put onto a microwaveable plate or dish, cover with a paper towel, cook sausage, and bacon in the microwave for about 3 minutes.
Put beans on another microwavable plate, cover, and cook for about 1 to 2 minutes.
Add sausage, bacon, cheese, bread and beans to the same plate.
Sprinkle olive oil on bread.
Pour honey over meat.
Pour grape juice into a glass.
Eat. (You can soak the bread in the grape juice to eat it Roman style.)

Note: The brain foods in this meal are olive oil and raw honey. Raw honey should not be fed to children under 1 years of age, or people with a compromised immune system.

Note: for a healthier brain and heart, let the grease from the meat drain on a clean paper towel for about 10 minutes.

Note: for an even healthier brain and heart turkey sausage, and turkey bacon is lower in fat.

Note: Romans loved lots of raw honey sauce on their meat, but we are using honey because its easier. They also preferred olive oil on their bread instead of butter. To them, butter was for salving wounds before wrapping them.

Note: You may always marinate raw meat if you choose. Its healthier for the brain, immune system, and intestines.

Note: Meat that include nitrates, such as bacon and lunch meats are not as healthy as meats that don't include nitrates. Eating a small amount of nitrates once and a week or less is OK. Eating nitrates daily is not a good idea.

Note: Some bacon and sausage contain a small amount of sugar. The amount is so small that it doesn't affect most people, unless they have trouble digesting sugar.

Lunch
Grape Juice
Roman Tuna
Spaghetti Squash
Preparation Time: About 20 minutes
No marinating needed.

In the early centuries of the Roman Empire the Romans hated fish, even though they were surrounded by seas. In the later centuries the Greeks taught the Romans to catch and eat fish, so Roman fish is like Greek fish (served with lemon), but with Roman spices instead of Greek spices (like Italian seasoning).

Spaghetti Squash courtesy of Forrest and Kim Starr

Ingredients and Shopping List:

1 glass of Grape Juice (really watered down wine, but grape juice is healthier for the brain)
Spaghetti Squash (not butternut squash)
¾ of Spaghetti Sauce
½ cup or two slices of Mozzarella Cheese
1 can Tuna
½ teaspoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
¼ teaspoon of Italian Seasoning
½ teaspoon of Lemon Juice (from a lemon cut in half or the little bottles that look like a lemon with a green cap.)

Equipment:

Microwave
Paper towel or wax paper to cover microwaving food.

Cut spaghetti squash in half. It will be hard to do, use the tip of the knife. Be careful. It's OK if the cuts are not perfectly straight. We just need the squash to lie sorta flat, like an upside down bowl, on the plate. Scrape out all of the seeds with a spoon, and save them in the fridge for a snack of microwaved, salted, seeds with olives, nuts, and dried fruit -- later.
Put a little water in a microwavable plate.
Microwave for about 10 - 15 minutes. Until the squash shell is much more pliable.
Take a fork and scrape the spaghetti-like strings of squash onto the plate.
1/2 of a medium sized squash should be enough for one person.
Pour spaghetti sauce over the squash on the plate, put the Mozzarella cheese on top.
Open can of tuna and put it on the plate next to the squash, spaghetti sauce and cheese.
Mix Italian seasoning into tuna.
Cover with paper towel or wax paper.
Microwave for about 3 1/2 minutes, until cheese on the spaghetti squash is melted.
Add olive oil and lemon juice to tuna.
Pour grape juice into a glass.

Eat. (You can soak the bread in the grape juice to eat it Roman style.)

Note: The brain foods in this meal are olive oil and tuna.

Note: To make a snack from squash seed. Toast squash seeds and mix with any kind of olives (preferably dried, but dried are not available at Wal-mart and are very difficult to find elsewhere), any kind of nuts, and any kind of dried fruits. This mixture is similar to some of the food that Ancient Roman and Greek soldiers ate while on active duty. To toast seed the quickest; wash off remaining squash strings, add 1 tablespoon of canola oil to taste, microwave for 2 - 4 minutes. Don't burn. Salt to taste when crisp enough.

Note: Spaghetti squash really didn't exist in Ancient Rome, neither did spaghetti. Spaghetti was first cooked in Rome during the Medieval Era. Spaghetti squash is a fun, modern recipe made in the US, in honor of Italy. I chose it because it is a low-fat, easy, alternative to junk food.

Dinner
Grape Juice
Sausage
Bacon
Beans
Italian Veggie Bake
Italian Ice
Preparation Time: About 20 minutes
No marinating required.

Ingredients and Shopping List:

1 glass of Grape Juice (really watered down wine, but grape juice is healthier for the brain)
A Slice of Bread, Roman meal is OK
1 teaspoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
A Slice of Goat Cheese
Two of four pieces of cooked Link Sausage (easy to cook), or any other kind of sausage
Two or four pieces of cooked Bacon
A cup of canned or leftover beans of any kind
1/4 cup of Honey or Raw Honey (raw honey is not sold at Walmart; at health food store or from farms)
2 cups of frozen broccoli/cauliflower/onion/and peppers aka stir-fry vegetables
1 cup frozen or canned green beans
Spaghetti Sauce
1/2 can of Olives
Mozzarella Cheese
Italian Ice (hopefully from the Ice Cream Section of Walmart)

Equipment:

Microwave
Paper towels or wax paper to cover microwaving food.

Sprinkle olive oil onto the slice of bread and set it aside.
Put frozen vegetables and green beans on plate.
Cover with paper towel or wax paper.
Microwave for about 6 minutes.
Add spaghetti sauce, olives, and cheese.
Cover with paper towel or wax paper.
Microwave for about 3 minutes
Put everything else on plate, cooked meat, beans, and goat cheese
If meat is raw, put is on a microwavable plate, cover with a paper towel, cook for about 3 minutes, then cook the vegetables, and put everything on the vegetable plate when vegetables are done.
Pour honey over the meat.
Pour grape juice into a glass.
Grab a container of Italian Ice.

Eat. (You can soak the bread in the grape juice to eat it Roman style.)

Note: The brain food in this meal are eggplant, olive, and raw honey. Raw honey should not be fed to children under 1 year of age, or people with compromised immune systems.

Note: for a healthier brain and heart, let the grease from the meat drain on a clean paper towel for about 10 minutes.

Note: You can add chopped tomatoes either fresh or from a can to the vegetables if you want to take the time to do so.

Note: You may also add cubed eggplant to the vegetables, if you know how to do that.

Note: The main difference between Italian ice and ice cream is that Italian ice doesn't have any milk in it.

Note: You may always marinate raw meat if you choose. Its healthier for the brain, immune system, and intestines.

Note: Meat that include nitrates, such as bacon and lunch meats are not as healthy as meats that don't include nitrates. Eating a small amount of nitrates once and a week or less is OK. Eating nitrates daily is not a good idea.

Note: Some bacon and sausage contain a small amount of sugar. The amount is so small that it doesn't affect most people, unless they have trouble digesting sugar.