Feasibility?

Hey yall! Been a while since i've been on here....
I've had such a busy week...full of school, music, work, parties of all sorts...and I haven't had any time for my insect diet.
The diet of insects and vegetal products was supposed to last for 30 days. I have come to realize that I am too busy to be killing and cooking my own protein on a daily basis. So, my conclusion for the feasibility of myself being able to commit and complete this diet is that I have failed, and it is not quite so feasible for me to do this with my current lifestyle. Out of the 25 days that I have been on the "diet", I have only made 3 recipes, and used the insects as a supplement for protein for 11 of the approximate 75 meals that I have eaten in the 25 days. Furthermore, I have eaten conventional animal products a multiple number of times (probably like 5 or 6 times). Even though I was a vegetarian for 2 1/2 years and work at a completley vegan bakery, this commitment was rather hard for me. Maybe it is because I live with complete carnivores, and I have a hard time turning down delicious food. Or maybe I just don't have enough self control.  Perhaps insects just weren't satisfying my cravings for animal (particularly bacon). I dont know. But what I do know is that I am no longer completley omitting animal products from my diet. I am now commiting to a "what feels right for me, is right" diet. No more labeling my food and drink intake, its too much to handle. If i feel like being creative with bugs, then i will. If i feel like eating a steak, i will. Or if i feel like having a raw food day, then i will. But no more labeling....i just let myself down.

As for the feasibility of the average american consumer supplementing their regular protein intake with insect protein: it IS feasible. The problem that will need to be solved in order for this to happen is that insect products need to become a more readily available. Also, the psych factor of insects being "creepy", "nasty" and "unknown" needs to dissolve from society. This could be achieved through professionals in the culinary industry, whom influence the menus and products available to the general public. I feel that if a student in culinary arts is NOT willing to try a food product, then they are in the wrong industry. Creativity is a huge part of a career in culinary, baking, or nutrition, and if you are not willing to get over any weird fears of a food product for a chance to be creative, you are DEFINATLEY in the wrong industry. An insect is like a new varietal of tomato. Why would you not try it? Wouldn't one in this industry want to know how to manipulate and create delicious meals out of every possible product?


So...with all of that said, there is good news! I will continue the blog, but moreso as an experiment of new flavors than a statement for waste efficiency. As Arnold via Terminator would say...ill be back!
Peace and Love!
Heather

MEALYroni!

It just so happens that my large mealworms fit perfectly inside of penne pasta, which is where this idea was developed from. The sauce that I made for this recipe is completley vegan, for I am trying to limit my animal product consumption. So, if you aren't so much into mealworms, disregard that part of the recipe and  it becomes a great macoroni for a person following a vegan diet.

MEALYroni

50 mealworms, blanched, and patted dry

3 cups almond milk

1 tsp nutmeg

Pinch of salt

50 pieces of penne (or enough for the amount of mealworms that you have), cooked al-dente
1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/4 cup vegan cheddar spread (I used the Wayfare brand, made from oatmeal)

5 large mushrooms, chopped fine

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

 

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium sized pot, bring almond milk, nutmeg and salt to a simmer. Poach mealworms in almond milk for 8 minutes, or until color has changed from a brownish-yellow to a cream color. Remove mealworms from milk and pat dry. Transfer them to a olive-oiled sheet tray and toast the worms until slightly browned, about 10 minutes.

Add nutritional yeast, vegan cheddar spread, and chopped mushrooms to the almond milk. Simmer these together until a thick cheese sauce has formed.

Stuff each penne pasta with a mealworm. If one mealworm does not fit snug inside of the pasta, then stuff it with two. Toss the stuffed pasta shells in the cheese sauce. Transfer to a casserole dish, and top with breadcrumbs. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, and enjoy :-)
Mealworms are the larva of the Tenebrio molitor, otherwise known as the mealworm beetle or darkling beetle. They go through four stage of life: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Commercial growers of mealworms add a juvenile hormone to their feed in order to keep them in the larva stage of life. This is because they develop the most amount of protein in this stage of life.

To rear a mealworm into an adult beetle, you must keep your worms in a well-ventilated area eight-ten inches deep with smooth sides to prevent escape. They will begin to molt, and go into the pupa phase. They stay in this phase for an average of 20 days, until they molt again, regrown their exoskeleton and repeat the process until they are fully developed beetles.

Happy Holidays :)

What a crazy week it has been. First I would like to say Happy Easter, Merry Earth Day, and Happy Ganga Day to all! Crazy stuff went down this week...

On 4-20 my mealworms were knocked over in the fridge. I found them after the night of festivating amongst a few containers of leftovers....it was not a fun mess to clean up. They were at the bottom of the fridge (thank GOODNESS) or else all of our other yummy food would have been eaten by the mealies. I was able to salvage most of them and decided to no longer keep them in the fridge, but instead in a terrarium! So with my imagination and various green inspirations, I created 2 terrariums. One is out of a Motts applesauce box, and the other is made of a clear mixed salad container. Now my insects can roam around in dirt like they like and that makes me happy.

I had a crazy thought while making my terrariums: what if the food that I feed the insects affects their flavor in any way? So with this thought, I created a control set of mealworms that eat oats and lettuces (a regular meal worm diet), and the other set feeds on raisins, berries, walnuts and honey bunches of oats. I'm gonna let them feed for about a month and record any results I get. Hopefully my raisin and berry fed worms will be sweeter and more succulent :)

I made mealworm macoroni last night. I'll post a recipe and other fun things on another day...gotta go to work!

Peace and Love!
-Heather

Sick :-(

Got super sick this weekend...nausea, migranes, massive cough...the works. So consequentally, this project went on a 3 day standstill (I was NOT craving bugs in the least bit). I went against my rules for the 30 days and ate a BLT that my roomate made for me. It was damn tasty, and was one of the only things I could keep down during my sickness. Feeling a bit better now, so hopefully i'll get the project up and running again within the next couple days. I'll keep yall posted!
<3 Heather

Mealworm Stir Fry!

Mealworms today! I was a little more squeemish with handling these bugs. They wrap around your finger when you pick them up, and they were a little more resistant to blanching than the crickets were. Many of them attempted to climb up the sides of the pot to escape a boiled defeat. Cooking live bugs is very similar to cooking live lobster. The smell is especially similar to lobster and shrimp.
After I blanched the worms, I decided I would make a basic stir-fry, which is a traditional preparation of this bug in many Asian cultures.

Below is a recipe I concocted from the random produce I had in my fridge. If your going to make this stir-fry, feel free to use any produce you would like. The base flavors and the worms are what make the preparation a traditional one.

Mealworm Stir Fry
30 mealworms, blanched, patted dry
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 small white onion
1 small carrot, cut rondelle on the bias
1/2 cup rainbow swiss chard, cut into thin strips
2 cups kale, cut into thin strips
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp hot pepper flakes
2 tsp soy sauce
1 1/2 cups cooked jasmine rice

In a hot pan, saute mealworms, garlic, onion, and carrot in sesame oil. When worms and veggies are seared well, deglaze pan with rice wine vinegar. Add rainbow swiss chard, kale, soy sauce and hot pepper flakes. Toss stir fry until the chard and kale are wilted and cooked. Serve on jasmine rice.

When sauteed, mealworms have a crunchy exterior and a chewy interior. When bitten into, the insides of the mealworm melt on the palette, giving a sensation similar to butter. The flavor is fish-like, and slightly earthen and nutty. The worms that I purchased were .5 grams in weight each, meaning I used 15 grams of mealworm in this recipe. The nutritional value of this amount of worms is listed below:

141 calories
4.26 g fat
17.48 g protein
6.9 g carbohydrates
2 g dietary fiber

Mealworms also provide ample amounts of vitamin C and calcium.

Cricket Pecan Granola!

So I went to PetCo a couple days ago and bought me some mealworms and some crickets! Crickets are 9 cents a pop, which I think is pretty steep. But the mealworms were fairly reasonable in price, only 7 dollars for 1000. Talk about munchies :) Here's a recipe I concocted for the crickets!


 Cricket Pecan Granola

30 crickets, blanched, patted dry, and chopped fine
1/4 c. pecans, chopped fine
1 1/2 c. oats (I used the cinnamon apple oatmeal packets, but any oat will be yummy!)
2 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 c. agave nectar
3 tbsp. raw cane sugar
Pinches of nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and allspice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together until well incorporated. Transfer to a well greased sheet pan and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until golden brown and crunchy. Serve with coconut yogurt and fruit as a breakfast parfait, or however you eat regular granola!

Crickets are from the family Gryllidae, also known as true insects. They are related to grasshoppers, and even more closely related to katydids.There are about 900 species  of crickets. They tend to be nocturnal and are harmless to humans. The cricket's chirp is created by the stridulatory organ, a large vein running through the bottom of each wing. There are four types of cricket song. The calling song attracts females and repels other males, and is fairly loud. The courting song is used when a female is near, and is a very quiet song. An aggressive song is triggered by the chemoreceptors on the antennae that detect when another male is present and a copulatory song is chirped for a brief period after a successful mating. 

30 Days of Insects!

Hello intraweb!
I am the Lady Insectivore, aka Gypsy Heather, and starting tomorrow I will begin my 30-day dive into entomophogy, which is the practice of consuming insects. Catepillars, crickets, mealworms, ants, and many other species of edible bugs along with plant products will makeup the majority of my diet.
 
So why Insects?  Humans have consumed insects out of neccessity and in luxury since the begnning of human existence. They are a sufficient source of vital nutrients, vitamins and protein for the human body. Insects are a widely available and diverse food product, with over 6 million different species roaming throughout the world.

In the United States, products from  animals comprise 70%. of the total land used for agriculture. This includes land for grazing, factories for commercial farming, and land used for feed production (predominately genetically modified corn and soy)..  World populations have been increasing by a third on average per decade since mid 1900's. If the population rate continues to increase in this way, we will increase our world population by 133%. If the people of the world continue to consume the same amount of animal products that they do, then the land will have to supply an increase in the production of animal products by 166%. If all of these statistics stand true in the future, the world consumption of conventional meat and animal products will have to decrease in order to be able to feed the population. Less conventional animal product production would equal less protein intake for the majority of the population. A possible solution to this problem would be to consume insects.

Insects can be found just about everywhere! They thrive on all sorts of lands and in many different climates. They nourish themselves from the vegetation, soil and rain in their habitat.  The only places in the world that are not the homes of insects are in the tundra zones. Cows, pigs. chickens, ducks, geese, fish and other commercially raised animals can live naturally in the wild. But, they do not live naturally in such a broad spectrum of places, or consume as many varietals of vegetations. As populations increased in the world, production of meat has increased, and is showing to be not only bad for our environment, but will not be sufficient to feed the world population. Why not Insects is my rebuttal.  .