Flint Foodie

Restaurant Review: Blackstone's Pub and Grill

2011-09-20T06:05:00.000-07:00

First let me say that I think Blackstone's is great. When I moved to Flint three years ago, the downtown strip was still pretty pathetic-looking, but there was lots of construction going on for the upcoming opening of Blackstone's. I think it's great that they were one of the first to take the leap of faith in opening a new business on the otherwise mostly decimated Saginaw Street. Only a couple of year after being open, they're now one of the busiest and well-known restaurants downtown. Blackstone's is classy, historical (the building used to be a men's clothing store with the same name), and a great addition to Flint's culture today.

Cameron and I decided to give it a try when they first opened a couple of years ago. We were pleased to see a black bean burger on the menu, along with a breakfast pizza consisting of eggs, cheese and "Italian sauce." The burger ended up being very bland and disappointing (not that we really had our hopes up- see my post about my Great Black Bean Burger Search), and whoever typed the menu must have had to sneeze or something and forgot to type "Italian sausage" instead of "sauce." That left a bad taste in our mouth, so to speak.

Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware that Blackstone's is an Irish Pub and was not intended to cater to those with a meatless diet (including sausage). But the purpose of these restaurant reviews is to guide fellow vegetarians through the restaurants in the Flint area, regardless of the type of cuisine offered.

My husband's parents wanted to try out Blackstone's for the first time on Saturday night and invited us to come along. Despite our first bad experience (and a few other half attempts here and there since), we decided to give it another chance. Besides, even if we didn't particularly appreciate the menu, at least we knew Cameron's parents, who are not vegetarian, would surely enjoy it.

When we were seated, we were handed a menu that was very different from what we had seen before. Perhaps it was a specialty menu specifically for the weekend (if you go to their website you can see their full, extensive menu). The menu was one page, and much more expensive than before. It definitely narrowed Cameron's and my options down even further. Cameron eats fish so he was able to pick out a fish sandwich. I was deduced to an individual sized cheese pizza or a salad.

Since Blackstone's is also a pub, they have an extensive drink menu. Although I would have liked to see a wider selection of Michigan beers, I was glad to see a couple of bottled beers from Short's Brewery on the menu.

I settled on the Blackstone Salad, which consisted of mixed greens, dried cherries, grape tomatoes, Asiago cheese, red onion, and croutons topped with raspberry vinaigrette. For the price, I was expecting a pretty hefty salad to fill me up. But when it arrived, it was about the same size as the side salads my in-laws received with their entrees. The "mixed greens" were actually mostly chunky stems of romaine and iceberg lettuce. The vinaigrette was so thick and sweet, it tasted more like cough syrup than salad dressing.

Cameron was a bit disappointed with his fish sandwich, which he said was basically "fish and chips on a bun," which would have been fine except that the batter on the fish was soggy and wet, not crispy and fresh.

So now it was time to get an opinion from those who the menu is actually toward. Cameron's dad ordered a pricey seafood pasta dish that was a lot smaller than we all expected for how much it cost. He had to send it back at first because it wasn't hot enough. However, he seemed to enjoy the flavor and after digging into it for a while, admitted that it was a heftier portion than what first met the eye. Still not worth the price, though.

My mother-in-law ordered the drunken chicken which was supposed to be tequila lime glazed, but she said she couldn't even detect said flavors. Her entire dish was bland, dry, and fifteen bucks.

Let me clear the air about one thing: it wouldn't have been so bad if all of the dishes weren't so expensive. You can't jack prices up if your food sucks because when you raise prices, you also raise expectations. If the quality of the food doesn't go up with everything else, you're going to lose customers.

Our waitress was attentive and pleasant, but very robotic and lacked personality. This just added to the mediocrity of the whole experience.

It's good to know I can grab a couple of semi-unique Michigan beers at Blackstone's (finally, something other than Oberon!), but I won't be giving their food another chance if I can help it, nor would I recommend it to others, vegetarian or not.

As a last disclaimer, I will say that I do know a lot of people who rave about the food at Blackstone's. But after my last experience there, I guess I just know a lot of people who like to overpay for mediocre fare.

Flint Foodie Gets With the Times!

2011-09-12T11:41:00.000-07:00

Last week I was interviewed by the Tri-County Times about being a vegetarian. Of course I had to plug the blog!

Check out the article here: Going Vegan

Great to see the community showing more interest in an animal-free diet!

Restaurant Review: Steady Eddy's Cafe

2011-09-05T06:55:00.000-07:00

Another appropriate title for this post would be...

The Search for the Great Black Bean Burger

Many restaurants have their default veggie burger. Many times it is a black bean burger. Many times it sucks, or is very average. That is why I decided to take myself on a quest to find the greatest black bean burger in Genesee County.

And for a moment, I thought my quest had ended, and I didn't have to search very far.

Steady Eddy's is a quaint restaurant located on the second floor of the Flint Farmer's Market. It's been around for over fifteen years and almost every time we go, we end up on a waiting list. Part of this is due to its popularity, and the other part is due to the fact that it is a very small place: one main room with a dozen or so small tables and a coffee bar, and a patio overlooking the outdoor market in the summer time.

When we can afford it, Cameron and I like to go to Steady Eddy's on Saturday mornings for breakfast. Their south of the border omelette is our favorite morning meal, and Cameron loves the tofu reuben for lunch.

You can see why I love this place so much simply by taking a look at their menu. A large section of it is vegetarian- and vegan-friendly. I think I've tried just about everything by now. But what I truly love most about Steady Eddy's is their spicy black bean burger. The first time I ordered it, I expected it to be about as average as any other, but instead it ended up being my favorite menu item.

At this point I unfortunately have to begin speaking in past tense for reasons that will soon be explained:

What I loved about the burger was the fact that the patty seemed to be homemade. If you've ever made your own veggie burgers (or any kind of burger for that matter), you know that it's never a perfect circled shape. It's a bit clumpy and very meaty. This was the texture of Steady Eddy's burger. It just looked and tasted homemade, and even if it wasn't, I was happily ignorant in my assumptions. It was incredibly flavorful, albeit not "spicy" as the name implied, unless by spicy they meant "filled with flavorful spices," not "spicy hot."

The toppings are great too; fresh avocado, red onion, tomato, a dollop of sour cream and a slice of melted cheese all sandwiched inside an onion roll. They were the perfect complement to the flavors already inside the black bean patty.

The chips on the side, however, are always stale and the salsa is completely the opposite of the burger: tasteless. So I never eat them (which is rare for me. I always eat the sides!).

On Saturday Cameron and I decided to have brunch at Steady Eddy's before stocking up on market veggies. I was excited to blog about (and eat) the burger and sing its praises. But then it arrived, and I saw that something was wrong...

This was not the spicy black bean patty I was expecting. It was quite literally the "cookie cutter" type patty you'd find in a Boca burger box. I took a bite and was relieved to find the flavor still great, but it wasn't as great as before. Regardless of whether or not the patty they used before was homemade, something definitely changed.

Don't get me wrong, it was still delicious, but I definitely felt a slight pang of disappointment, especially since I knew I was going to have to be honest when writing this blog post. I had intended on ranting and raving about how my search for the greatest black bean burger in Genesee County had finally ended, but now...I don't know. I may have to start looking again.

I asked our server if she knew of any changes made to the dish and she wasn't sure, but she knew what they used now was a Gardenburger. Gardenburgers are, in my opinion, the best quality brand vegan burger on the market. But now that I know that's what they are using, I can't help but think about the fact that I could easily assemble the same burger at home. It's not as special anymore to enjoy it at a restaurant.

However, this will not deter me, nor should it deter anyone else, from visiting Steady Eddy's in the future. They have plenty of other high quality, homemade dishes that include ingredients from the market downstairs. The waitstaff is always cheerful and attentive. The environment is warm and friendly.

Although my journey toward the greatest black bean burger may not be over, in the meantime I can still enjoy a great omelette or a bowl of homemade vegan chili at Steady Eddy's Cafe to fuel me along the way.

When life gives you tomatoes...

2011-09-04T06:30:00.000-07:00

Make tomato soup! And salsa!

My first shot at a garden has been unabashedly much more successful than I expected. I have Big Boy tomatoes the size of a two year old's head, and dozens and dozens of Romas developing faster than their poor plant can support.

Unsure of whether I had the time, equipment, or will to try canning this year, I decided to instead use up the tomatoes as best as I can while they're fresh and give away the rest.

Fresh salsa ingredients. (some from my garden, some from the market)

Meijer salsa's got nothin' on mine.

It was admittedly way too hot last night to drink tomato soup (maybe I should have made gazpacho) but I made it anyway and it was totally worth it. All I was missing was a grilled cheese sandwich.

Still waiting for these babies to ripen up...

Restaurant Review: Happy Valley Oriental Restaurant

2011-08-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Cameron's and my one year anniversary. We hadn't made any big plans since we already hosted a celebration party last week, so for our actual anniversary day we left it low key. Cameron served me breakfast and coffee in bed, then we went for a leisurely bike ride along the Flint River Trail. It was a beautiful breezy, sunny day.

On a whim we headed up to the Birch Run Outlets so Cameron could look for a new pair of jeans. After perusing around for a while we decided it was time for dinner.

We were feeling a little burnt out on all the regular places we usually go, and we weren't feeling up for driving extra to somewhere further away (and there certainly wasn't anywhere to eat in Birch Run unless we wanted fast food).

So we got back on the freeway in the direction of home, trying to make a dinner decision along the way. When we neared the Flint area, Cameron exited at Corunna Rd., hoping a bright idea would appear just in the nick of time.

An idea appeared, alright. But it wasn't a bright one.

As soon as we stopped at the light at the end of the exit ramp, we found ourselves facing Happy Valley. It's a little "hole in the wall" place that we have always been curious about but were never brave enough to try. We'd never heard of anyone eating there so we had no idea what it was like, other than what we could assume by the intriguing offering of Cantonese, Thai and Szechuan style cuisine.

A flicker of adventurousness and the grumbling in our stomachs led us to bravely go where no Flint Foodie had gone before. As we pulled in, Cameron said, "Maybe this place will be awesome, like a hidden treasure!" I had as much hope as he did, although for a moment I thought that if it were that great, we would have heard about it already. But still, I was willing to be the guinea pig either way. It would be a great story, I thought, to remember that on our one year anniversary we discovered an awesome Thai restaurant.

Rule #1:
When you walk into a restaurant and it smells weird, TURN AROUND AND WALK BACK OUT.
No joke. When we walked in, I immediately noticed a strange odor. I couldn't pin it down but it vaguely reminded me of a gas station bathroom. You know what I'm talking about. I didn't smell yummy peanut curry sauce, I smelled bathroom.

The ambience was plain, but fine. Several tables were neatly set up in a small room, with a giant flat screen TV in the center of it all. The place was completely devoid of customers other than us, and there was no one around to seat us. We took it upon ourselves to find a table (which wasn't hard because they were all available) and finally an elderly gentleman brought us menus. He did not greet us or seem particularly enthused that we were there to give him business.

The menu was predictable and unimpressive. Nothing on it made us go, "oooh!" There was a small vegetarian section with the usual dishes. I'm a big rice noodle fan and prefer it over steamed rice, but none of the vegetarian dishes were offered with any kind of noodles, just rice. I settled on a Thai curry vegetable dish and Cameron decided to get some sort of noodles with vegetables and shrimp (he eats seafood now).

We were then greeted by an elderly lady. We assumed that she and the gentleman were the owners of the restaurant. Anyway, when I ordered my meal, I inquired if it would be possible to substitute rice noodles for the steamed rice. She peered at me over the rims of her glasses and shook her head like I was a silly child and said, "No, those are two separate items."

Alright then.

Rule #2:
If your intuition is telling you to leave...LEAVE.
While we were waiting for our food, Cameron started getting a weird feeling like this was a bad idea, that something wasn't right. We should have paid heed to this intuition, but we didn't. We stayed the path.

You know what they say about hindsight, and as soon as our food arrived, I was saying it to myself.

Looking at this picture, the food doesn't appear that bad. But if you saw it (and smelled it) like we did, you would understand.

Let's start with Cameron's meal: As soon as she set the plates down, I caught a strong scent of bad fish. Cameron did not order fish, he ordered shrimp. Shrimp is not supposed to smell like fish.

Everything on his plate looked gray. The shrimp was gray, the noodles were gray, even the vegetables were pale and pathetic looking. Even with our noses pinched this meal would not appear appetizing.

The taste was bland and overly spicy at the same time. Nothing on the plate had any flavor except for the blast of red pepper flakes mixed throughout. Cameron had prudently ordered "medium spicy," even though he usually likes it pretty hot. But when we're at a new place and we don't know how they measure their spicy factor, it's a good idea to place it safe. But this was unbearable even for him. He took three bites and waved his white napkin in surrender to the fire infiltrating his palate.

My dish didn't have any redeeming factors either. The vegetables looked and tasted like they were dumped, frozen and pre-chopped, out of a giant industrial sized bag and thrown into a pan to defrost. The sauce was watery and bland and completely incapable of adding any flavor to the vegetables. I didn't even taste any curry. Even the steamed rice looked strange and had an unusual, chewy texture. How do you screw up rice at an Asian restaurant? Oh and my dish was also almost unpalatably spicy.

We found ourselves in a situation we'd never been in before. We were both convinced that if we had taken any more bites of these dishes, we would be seriously ill. Were we really contemplating sending our food back? Was it really that awful?

Yes.

The lady came back a few minutes later to check on us and asked how everything was. Cameron eased into it by first addressing that his dish was too spicy for him to possibly eat.

If you want to get an idea of what this lady transformed into at this point, picture what your mom looked like after you did something very naughty as a kid, put her in the body of an older Asian woman, then give her three heads and giant, poisionous fangs. Breathing fire. And shooting laser beams from her eyes.

This whole Happy Valley facade was clearly a scam because now, suddenly, we were feeling more in the midst of the Valley of the Shadow of Death. The three headed dragon lady had lured us into her lair with her false offerings of delicious Szechuan cuisine and instead, I was convinced, had planned on having us for dinner.

Rule #3:
Never criticize The Creature From Happy Valley's culinary creations (or disasters, more appropriately).
But criticize we did. The lady first chuckled uncomfortably and asked, "why did you order medium?" Cameron shrugged and explained that we go to a lot of Thai places and medium is usually plenty tolerable for him. She offered, after a little protest about how each restaurant cooks differently, to rinse the pepper flakes out with water. Uhh...gross?

I think at that point, if the food was actually good, it would have been fair for us to admit fault and just remember to order mild next time. But it was time to break the news that it wasn't just the spiciness we weren't fans of.

Cameron admitted that he didn't like anything about the dish, that it was tasteless and didn't look or smell fresh. He kindly but honestly said that he didn't care to try something else, nor did he want to pay for the meal. The lady was so upset that she kept leaving and coming back in the middle of his sentences. She started ranting about how she wasn't going to pay for our meal because we ordered medium spicy when we should have ordered mild (completely ignoring the fact that we just told her it wasn't just the spice- the food sucked!). Cameron said that that was fine, but he would be sure to tell all our friends not to patron her restaurant. "That's fine, tell everyone on the street!" she replied. I was trying to do the math in my head and determine if she would lose more money by taking our plates back or by losing potential future customers.

Then she looked at me and demanded, "what about you?" At this point I feared her wrath so much that I almost valued my life more than standing up for what was right but I still sheepishly admitted (of course not looking at her in the face for fear of being laser-beamed), "I could eat it...but I would rather not." She stormed away and came back with a compromise: the bill for one dish instead of two.

In hindsight we probably should have just booked it without agreeing to pay for spoiled food that we had barely touched, but we wanted to keep our heads in tact (I could picture her coming after us in a terrifying, Happy Valley monster truck) so Cameron slapped a bill down on the table and we got out of there in one piece.

Cameron was determined to not let this unhappy experience thwart our anniversary, so we went to a trusted standby, Salvatore Scallopini, and were spoiled with good food and service by our friend Cheryl.

Rule #4:
Do not enter a suspicious looking restaurant unless you have been expressly advised to by a guinea pig (not you).

Three-headed dragon lady was so kind as to still leave us a fortune cookie. Cameron ate it with spite, notwithstanding our suspicions of it being laced with poison.

We won't go so far as to tactlessly coin the restaurant Unhappy Valley, or Crappy Valley. We just want a piece of our souls back that we feel were taken away in that treacherous den.

Dear Three-Headed Dragon Lady:

How to Lose Food and Alienate Servers

2011-08-15T07:26:00.000-07:00

If you want to leave a little bit bigger footprint on the earth, visit a restaurant. At least, this is the conclusion I've come to after several observations throughout my recent dining-out experiences.

But I figured out a way to cheat the system a little bit. And no, despite this blog post title, you still get the same amount of food and, usually, the same good (or bad?) service. For me, the only guilt I come home with is how much I probably stuffed myself, not the envorinmental impact I made throughout my meal.

The only sacrifice you may have to make is a small slice of pride, as you will receive strange stares and perhaps a raised eyebrow or two.

So this is what I am trying to implement into my regular dining-out routine:

1. Ask for no water. This is how it always goes: your server asks you what you would like to drink. You say, "just water, thanks," he or she promptly brings it to you, and it sits there sweating all over the table throughout the whole meal. You maybe take two or three sips out of it, probably only because it's sitting there and you're bored waiting for your meal.

If you are in the minority of people who actually do suck down all their iced tap water with a straw, then you may ignore this entire suggestion, and keep on suckin'.
Consider our water crisis. Why do famous actors tell us in PSAs that if we want to conserve water, we should turn off the tap while brushing our teeth. Think about how much water was wasted from sitting at all the tables you've dined at in your life, and don't forget about my favorite superfluous staple, ice!
And while we're on the topic of superfluous things...straws. Talk about a complete waste of energy and resources. Have we devolved so much that we can't pick up our cups with our hands and drink from the rim anymore?
There is plenty of evidence indicating that drinking water during your meal isn't even a good idea anyway. Drinking water dilutes the enzymes in your food, stomach and saliva, making it harder to digest. Get hydrated before and after your meal.

2. Bring your own container for leftovers. This one gets the best reactions. How many meals do you actually finish from a restaurant? Ok, I have a voracious appetite too. But sometimes I want to save the rest for lunch tomorrow.

Let's not even get started about the amount of waste that results in take-out containers. It gets worse when you think about the fact that most take-out containers are made out of styrofoam, which is difficult to recycle and no recycling facility that I know of in the Flint area accepts it. It goes straight to the landfill.
To add insult to injury, we are often given plastic bags to put our take-out containers in. Again with the can't-use-our-hands-anymore phenomenon.
The only hard part about bringing your own container is actually remembering to bring it, so I always keep a couple of them in my car as back-up in the case of an impromptu lunch, or a slip of memory. I even wrote on the lids: "CAR" so that after I washed them I would remember to put them back in the car.
It's fun to leave your plate half full, then put the rest in your container, then watch how confused your server will be when she comes back, wondering where your food went.

3. Order vegetarian. :)

Restaurant Review: Sagano Hibachi

2011-08-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

A while back I wrote a review on the "sushi side" of Sagano. The Japanese Bistro and Steakhouse offers both sushi and hibachi, at their respective areas of the restaurant. Last night Cameron and I decided to sit on the hibachi side for dinner.

I remember Sagano being one of the first places Cameron took me when we were dating. I had never seen a hibachi so it was quite a thrill for me the first time. The chefs are funny, highly skilled, and seemingly creative (although after your third or fourth visit you'll discover they all do the same tricks and tell the same jokes). At some points your dinner seems to borderline on becoming a theatrical performance. On a really good night, a few of the chefs will come out with drums and tambourines and make everyone at the table dance and sing Happy Birthday.

We were a little tired and more interested in the food than the performance last night, which our chef promptly picked up on and toned down the wisecracks. He still made the flaming onion choo-choo train (see below), which I admittedly never get sick of.

Being a vegetarian in Sagano is quite precarious unless you know how to swindle your way through. Here's a run down on the food for my fellow non-meat eaters:

First of all, if you're the type of vegetarian who likes their food to be prepared far, far away from any meat whatsoever, don't come here. All the food is cooked on the same grill; although they keep the food groups separated, it's possible (but unlikely) that a piece of chicken could venture into the vegetable pile.
The only vegetarian hibachi option is "assorted vegetables." All the other entrees have seafood or other meat. It would be nice to see a grilled tofu option or something a little more exciting than just vegetables, but alas...
Soup, salad and shrimp come with every dinner entree. The soup they automatically give you has chicken broth in it, so make sure you order miso soup instead. Also you can ask for no shrimp but I always forget, so after the chef grills it you can just tell him "no thanks," and he'll distribute it among everyone else. Sometimes the chefs will give you a hard time about it and make fun of you, but it's all in good sport.
When your server asks you if you would like fried or steamed rice, ask for steamed. The fried rice is mixed with chicken.

Cameron enjoying his miso soup.

The contents of the salad are typical and nothing to write home about- iceberg lettuce, shaved carrots, etc. It's the delicious asian sesame dressing they adorn it with that makes it something to look forward to!

Lighting the onion choo-choo train...

I tried to take a picture of the onion on fire before it exploded but I was too late...

Time to eat!

Bottom line, the food is okay. Looking at the dinner plate, it's not exactly something I couldn't easily whip up at home. In fact I was kicking myself a little bit when I saw the zucchini in the stir fry blend, knowing that I have two fat ones from my garden, sitting on my kitchen counter. I guess the theatrics of the production makes up for the mediocrity of the food. The yum yum and ginger sauce they offer you on the side kick it up a notch, though. But for a vegetarian, especially one who enjoys cooking, I think I would rather stick to the sushi side of the restaurant.

I would definitely recommend it for someone who has never been to a hibachi restaurant. The first couple of times are thrilling and fun. But after a while, as B.B. King put it, the thrill is gone, and the food is blah. (Ok that last part was me, not the king of blues).

For my vegan friends, you will unfortuantely not be able to enjoy the hibachi. Everything, including the vegetables and noodles, is grilled in a seasoned butter, and I don't think there would be any way out of it. Maybe you could ask for your food to be separated and grilled in just oil, but that would be very tricky, and since everything is on the same grill, chances are high that some form of animal product will come in contact with your food. I'm thinking everything that is served throughout the evening, save the miso soup, is probably not vegan. I haven't asked, but it's possible the asian dressing on the salad has dairy in it. The yum yum sauce is definitely not vegan, but I don't see why the ginger sauce wouldn't be. You can order vegetarian sushi from the hibachi side, so if you get stuck there with friends and you're hungry, at least you have that option.

Let's talk prices. The assorted vegetable dinner costs $12.50. If you go there during lunch time, from what I remember, it's almost half that price, and seemingly close to the same amount of food. I told my husband that if we ever go there again, I would only want to go during lunch time. Otherwise, I don't think I'd consider it to be worth the price.

It's nice to have a somewhat more exotic place to eat on the weekend, but when it comes to being a vegetarian at Sagano, I would say stick to the sushi.

Thank You, Borders

2011-08-04T19:09:00.000-07:00

As most of us know by know, before very long there will be no more Borders Books. This makes me sad on a number of levels; I have fond memories of the Borders store locations both in Ann Arbor and Flint. I have made connections to many important people in my life because of the open mic that was held for many years by an old friend, Brian Pobocik. Although saying that Borders is a Michigan company is kind of like saying Walmart is an Arkansas company, it still stings to watch a once successful Michigan-"originated" business go under. I'm sure Barnes & Noble is having a heyday.

This does has something to do with food, I promise.

I decided to check out the Flint location after work tonight and browse the liquidation sales. It was pretty chaotic in there with all the people and bright, noisy clearance signs. I poked around for a while until I spotted something on my way out.

It was a book that I have borrowed from the library probably at least four times within the past year -and renewed each time. It was the biggest help out of any other book that I have scoured in its genre. My dinner last night wouldn't have been the same without it.

I figured I should get my own copy since I would undoubtedly need it again come fall, winter, and next spring. It was 25% off and probably cheaper than I would find anywhere else besides online.

So thanks, Borders. When I look up how far apart I should space carrot seeds, or what type of soil pepper plants prefer, I'll be thinking of you. May you rest in peas.

The Art of Eating In

2011-08-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, nearly a year later...the food blog has been resuscitated. There are several reasons why I've been "out of season" for so long, the biggest one being the fact that we haven't had dependable Internet access at our house for several months, and I just didn't have enough dedication to blog regularly at the library or coffeeshops. But for the time being, we are online, and hopefully this will motivate me to post more, since I definitely am not lacking things to post about!

Onward. Cameron and I both had the day off yesterday so I decided to cook him a fancy dinner as an alternative to the usual night out. It was also a good excuse to try out some interesting recipes I found in a book called The Art of Eating in, by Cathy Erway.

Cathy writes a food blog in New York and at one point did an experiment of not eating out for two years and instead cooked everything herself. Then she wrote a book about it, which I found a couple weeks ago while perusing at the library.

The book itself was pretty dull but I'm not a book reviewer so I'll just cut to the chase and focus on the food: she included several recipes for some of the things that she cooked along her journey. I picked out four of them that seemed to go well together in a four course dinner and set out for the ingredients.

I found most of the fresh ingredients at the Farmer's Market, which was excellent since the growing season is in full throttle and the market is brimming with produce. The rest of what I needed I found at Meijer (except for one thing that I got at Ojibwa and will explain later).

Since I wanted it to be a somewhat "formal" dinner, I made my poor husband put on a tie in our unairconditioned house on a 90 degree day. I hoped he would find it worth it after dinner was through.

So here's what was on the menu:

APPETIZER
Grilled Peaches with Spiced Goat Cheese and Caramelized Shallots

I was definitely the most excited for this dish, which, in the book, is meant to be a main course, but I thought it would be a cute appetizer. I used a grillpan for the giant, juicy Farmer's Market peaches and whipped the Zingerman's goat cheese with some cumin and lemon zest. I added a little bit of curry powder too, which unfortunately gave it a yellowish hue due to the turmeric. I sprinkled some paprika on top for presentation and by the end I realized how much the dish resembled deviled eggs, which was not was I was going for. Oh well. Cameron thought it looked and tasted delicious.

SALAD
Artichoke, Avocado and Watercress Salad

The recipe originally called for asparagus but since it isn't in season anymore I got broccoli instead. The market didn't have watercress so I guiltily bought some at Meijer; even though I have lettuce and chard growing up a storm in my garden, I wanted to stay true to the recipe. Since I'm a big fan of color, I thought the salad was too "green" and needed something else to make it more attractive, so I threw some artichokes in a skillet along with the broccoli and sauteed them together for a few minutes. It was a good idea.

MAIN COURSE
Moroccan Cous Cous with Mint and Ghee

This dish was a little strange. I think the measurements were off because it called for two cups of cous cous and only one cup of vegetable broth. I ended up having to add a lot more water which made the flavor a little bland. The fresh mint leaves were a nice touch, though, and the combination of unusual ingredients at least made the dish interesting. There were tons of leftovers so we'll be eating cous cous for a few days.

DESSERT
Fresh Basil Panna Cotta

This Italian custard would have been the easiest dessert in the world if I weren't a vegetarian. I had to find a substitute for the gelatin. I heard that agar agar, a seaweed, was a common one, so I ended up finding the last one on the shelf at Ojibwa, on sale for about 50% off. It came in these weird, spongy bars that become soft and "rippable" when soaked. I had a hell of a time figuring out the agar agar to gelatin ratio and even after filling the ramekins and letting them cool and set in the fridge, I still had no idea if it would turn out okay. Not only did it work, it was delicious! The texture was great, just like Jell-O, and the flavor was marvelous. After steeping the basil leaves in the cream, I thought some mint would be a nice addition, since I already had some on hand for the cous cous, so I added a few sprigs. The last touch was a little bit of vanilla extract. I'm glad I added these extras because I think it would have been a little boring with just basil. Regardless, the combination of flavors and textures were surprising and delicious!

We paired the meal with a bottle of our favorite cheap wine, Smoking Loon cabernet, and by the end of it our bellies and taste buds were pleasantly overwhelmed.

Fancy dinner at home = success!

If Cameron decides to take on this challenge, I promise I'll wear a tie next time.

Baby Got Bok

2010-10-12T07:26:00.000-07:00

Choy, that is.

A few days ago I plunged myself into an Asian style extravaganza.

All the recipes came from Veganomicon so if you have this recipe book (you should get it if you don't), this is what a couple of the awesome dishes look like.

Left to Right: Baby bok choy with crispy shallots and sesame seeds (pg. 105), creamy asian pear and tempeh salad with wasabi dressing (pg. 90), butternut squash and pumpkin seed rice paper rolls (pg. 50).

None of these dishes were difficult, although I imagine the only issue anyone would run into would be with the rice paper rolls if you've never worked with them. They were easy for me since I've made spring rolls before and knew what I was getting into.

A few alterations I made... we couldn't find pumpkin seeds anywhere so I toasted and salted some sunflower seeds instead. They worked just fine. My cilantro already went to seed and I didn't want to go buy some at the store, so I just used a couple sprigs of baby spinach instead for color. The dipping sauce was awesome, but too watery and oily for me. I wanted it thicker so I added peanut butter. It was tangy and awesome.

If you are having trouble finding some of the ingredients... the best place around here that I know of to get obscure asian cuisine ingredients is Seoul Oriental Market on Corunna Road. It's a dusty little mom and pop shop, and a lot of their stuff is expired and kinda gross looking, but as long as you check dates and are careful about what you buy, it's a really fun place to explore. That's where I got my rice paper rolls, rice noodles, sesame seeds and asian hot chile oil.

The rest of the ingredients, for the most part, are from the Farmer's Market, although we had to get the bok choy from Meijer (wah wah wah).

Everything was incredibly delicious! The bok choy was probably my favorite. It reminded me of a dish you would find at a Chinese buffet, except free of hand germs, msg, and heat lamps. The tempeh salad wasn't really my thing. Mayo grosses me out whether it's vegan or not. Cameron loved it though. And of course it's hard to mess up spring rolls as long as you have a good dipping sauce.

I found some more pictures on my camera of a few other things I've made the past few months and never blogged about...

Blurry tempeh sushi (thanks Chris and Lisa for the sushi kit wedding gift!)

Vegan breakfast in disguise: "sausage," homemade biscuits and gravy, potato hash, homemade almond anise biscotti.

Vegan Truffles

2010-08-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

Rolled in chocolate powder, coconut and hemp seeds.

And somethin' I found at Salvation Army.

Southern Style Spread/Mexican Fiesta

2010-08-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

I'd been itching to try out this recipe of sweet potato burritos I found a long time ago, so I decided to try it out Monday night. I went a little crazy and ended up adding all sorts of other side dishes too...

Homemade hot salsa, green onions for garnish, sweet potato burritos, spanish rice, and friend green tomatoes.

Almost all the ingredients are from the Farmer's Market, friends and neighbors' gardens, my garden, or local grocery stores (Got the tortillas at Witherbee's, although I wish I could say I made them myself).

Cameron didn't say much during the meal, which means he's too busy chomping, which means success!

Sweet potatoes, kidney beans, black beans, onion, corn, and various spices. Yum!

The meal was accompanied by a somewhat out of place German doppelbock. We tried to make it feel welcome.

Mostly Raw Bars/Cereal

2010-08-09T14:49:00.000-07:00

I've been making these no-bake protein bars a lot lately and thought I would share the process in my first fantastic photo recipe blog!

They're not 100% raw because you have to melt the sugar and peanut butter to make the "glue," but nothing else is heated or roasted, except when it comes in contact with the glue. But I don't think the stuff gets hot enough to the point of not being considered raw anymore.

The cool thing about this recipe is that it is very, very flexible. Don't have hemp seeds? Use sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds. Have whole almonds that aren't slivered? Just crush them up a little bit before adding so they're easier to chew. You can substitute and adjust the recipe however you like. The only thing you have to be concerned about is having enough glue to keep everything together. I have trouble making it sticky enough to keep them formed into bars without falling apart, so I usually just leave them in clusters and eat it like cereal with milk.

Anyway, onto the pictures...

First of all, I figured I would take a picture of my recipe so if anyone wanted a more condensed and readable version, they could just save the picture and look at that. I'm too lazy to rotate it so it's right side up, but I didn't resize the photo, so just click on it to make it bigger and you can rotate it yourself.

Add caption

Here's a picture of all the ingredients you'll need. Those are cashews in the yogurt container. Did I mention this recipe was vegan?

In a large mixing bowl (my ghetto version would be a dutch oven pot), combine 2 cups oats...

1/2 ground flaxseed. I grind mine in the coffee grinder. It still had some leftover grounds in it from this morning's coffee, but I didn't bother cleaning it out first because I kind of like the idea of a subtle coffee flavor. Sorry if you think this is gross.

Voila! Milled flaxseed.

If you don't have a way to grind the seeds, that's okay, just put them in the bowl whole.

Next add 1/2 cup hemp seeds. This is my favorite raw source of protein ever.

3/4 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened

1/2 cup oat bran

1 1/2 cups slivered almonds

1 1/2 cups cashews, raw and unsalted

1 cup raisins or other dried fruit, which I didn't have today, so I didn't add. No biggie.

Then, in a separate sauce pan, heat...

3/4 cup of sugar. I prefer turbinado but when it all breaks down, it's still sugar. Sucanat is yummy to try too.

1 cup agave or honey. If you're a true vegan, obviously you'll use agave (or even maple syrup if you want). I used both because it's what I had.

When the sugar is all melted and not gritty anymore (and this may take a while and quite a bit of stirring), add...

1/2 cup peanut butter
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

After everything has melted and looks and smells lovely and thick and syrupy, remove from heat and add 1 tsp of vanilla extract, then stir together.

Pour glue mixture over the dry goods and mix together. I prefer to do it with my hands but be careful because it's kinda hot! Make sure everything is evenly coated and sticky. It's okay to lick your fingers.

Spread on a baking sheet and press firmly to make bars, or just spread loosely to make cereal clusters. I usually then freeze it to harden it up, then store in plastic containers in the fridge.

The best part is that there's minimal clean up!

Foodie Funk

2010-06-24T11:11:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Remember me?? I hope so. I've been in somewhat of a funk lately as far as blogging goes. I still cook all the time but I've been forgetting to take pictures and blog about them. Restaurant reviews have been scant as well as I haven't been eating out much lately (tryin' to save some dough).

Another reason why you haven't heard from me is because I moved! Ok, just down the street a little bit...but still! Cameron and I got a place together and have been in it for a little under a week. We love it and the best part is that the kitchen is about twice the size of my old one. You know what that means.......EVEN MORE COOKING.

However, in the midst of all the organizing and unpacking we've been doing the past week, we're getting ready to repack some things as we prepare for our vacation up north next week. There will no doubt be many a picture taken, and more than likely some delicious food to brag blog about.

Until then, don't forget about me! Flint Foodie's still kickin and cookin.

I leave you with some pictures of a delicious vegan asparagus quiche I made a couple months ago (Thanks Veganomicon!).

Eating Out: Soyla's Mexican Cuisine

2010-05-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm not the biggest Mexican food enthusiast. I like it, but it's not something you would normally find me yenning for. I'd rather migrate toward Asian or Indian cuisine.

But that doesn't mean I can't tell whether or not a Mexican restaurant is serving a legitimate product.

Cameron and I were riding our bikes around downtown when we decided to hit up Soyla's for lunch. We'd never been there before and it had been on our "to dine" list for a while.

We were impressed by the place when we walked in. Big, open room with lots of windows and high ceilings. Some of the decor was tacky, like sombreros and cacti that looked like Soyla snagged out of a closed down Chi-Chi's or Chili's dumpsters. Other than that, though, the place was beautiful.

The front row view of the Capitol Theater wasn't bad, either.

We waited at our table for a while before anyone resembling a server greeted us. We weren't even sure if we were supposed to seat ourselves or not; nobody was around so we just picked a spot and waited. Eventually our server showed up. She was nice, I guess, but very impersonal, barely informative, and hardly helpful. Maybe she was hungover. I'll give her that benefit of a doubt.

The menu was confusing. Kind of impersonal, uninformative, and unhelpful. Hey...

Aside from those less-than-desirable qualities, we weren't very pleased with the prices. They seemed a little expensive for what the vague descriptions were offering. Vegetarians can usually survive pretty well in a Mexican place since there's plenty of beans to go around. But vegans it seems will hardly stand a chance. There's cheese on everything. And since I'm trying to forego cheese, I found myself with a dilemma. Cameron ended up ordering a cheese chimichanga entree. I got the lunch special with a bean tostada and a bean burrito.

I forgot to mention that one of the first things our server greeted us with was an offer of some chips and salsa. Of course we said yes please, but then she asked, "half order or full?" Wait a second...is my lack of Mexican restaurant experience kicking me in the butt or am I thinking that usually chips and salsa are on the house? Chips and salsa are to Mexican places as pita bread and garlic dip are to Indian joints...right?

But alas, no, this bad boy baby batch of chips and salsa is apparently worth two and a half bones. Don't get me wrong, the chips were actually very good (salsa not so much). But $2.50 for a handful of them? No thanks, I'd rather buy a bag of Tostitos.

Here's another sneaky thing I noticed on the menu:

See where it says "Andreas"? The queso blanco cheese dip is $3.29. By itself. If you want anything to actually dip in it, you have to pay more than double that for chips. Can someone explain this to me? I'm Mexican cuisine illiterate. Maybe some people like to order just the dip to go with their other food? I don't know. I'm completely puzzled.

Anyway, the wait for our food wasn't long, and I think I know why.

Chimichanga "entree"

Lunch special: Bean "burrito" and bean "tostada"

I think it was so quick because they have a secret Taco Bell hidden in the basement.

Seriously, though. I should have put a quarter next to our plates so you could understand the portion sizes to scale. I've seen more beans stuffed in a Taco Bell burrito than that. And the tostada probably could have fit in my mouth in one bite. Stop snickering.

And there was still cheese on it.

The flavor? Good. Not great, but not bad. I'll give them that much credit. But for the price? Terrible. It doesn't make any sense to charge seven bucks for a fast food quality meal. I'm willing to pay a little bit extra for a kick ass meal, but this just wasn't even close to kick ass. In fact, I felt nauseous and had a sore throat for the rest of the day. So it was more like kick digestive system.

Our server never once checked on us after our food was served. There was one or two other occupied tables in the entire room, in the middle of lunch hour, and our server took way too long to bring us the bill. In fact, she was bussing other tables while we were sitting there, waiting for her to check us out. As a server with ten years of experience, Cameron was especially unimpressed with her lack of professionalism and prioritizing.

Nonetheless, we gave her a fair tip and hopped on our bikes towards home. We were glad we finally crossed the place off our To-Do list, but now we have added Soyla's to a new list: To-Don't-Ever-Again.

Veganomicon

2010-05-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

Insert Hallelujah Chorus!!!

Haven't had much to say on the cooking front lately. I've been lazy about preparing anything exciting beyond pita sandwiches. I just stocked up on all sorts of stuff today, though, and am planning on preparing a few things out of this vegan cookbook that Cameron and his roommate just bought. Super excited. Also I will be posting a new Flint restaurant review in the next day or two. Don't worry, I'm not dead.

Eating Out: Amici's Living Room

2010-04-23T07:43:00.000-07:00

Cameron and I had tickets to see Devotchka and Gogol Bordello at the Royal Oak Music Theater on Wednesday. Since we both had the whole day off, we decided to head down to that area earlier in the day to eat and tool around before the show. My friend Zac who has a pizza blog wrote an entry about this place called Amici's and I was fascinated because he said it catered towards vegan and vegetarian pizza. I've been wanting to try really good vegan pizza and I thought this would be the perfect place to do it. The best part was that Amici's is in Berkley, right outside of Royal Oak!

Finding the place was a little confusing, probably mostly because both of us are directionally challenged, to say the least. The area around it was beautiful so we decided to stretch our legs and walk around Berkley for a little bit.

The inside of the restaurant is pretty small, but they have a nice bar area, and an even nicer patio. The weather was perfect so we decided to sit outside.

We picked the perfect night to go because on Wednesdays their cosmos are $5 and their draft beers are $3. So we got one of each. I wasn't very impressed with their beer selection, but they specialize in martinis anyway.

The pizza came with an order of pesto breadsticks, which were pretty fantastic. I liked how they had a doughy pocket of air inside so that you could scoop the marinara sauce up into them.

We were tempted to order one of their cheesy pizzas, but I was determined to try a vegan one, so we went with the #11, which had pesto, tomatoes, garlic, broccoli...and I can't remember what else. Just lots of good stuff.

Cameron wants to know where the cheese is.

The pizza was really good. And okay, I'll admit, I was missing the cheese. Even with lots of pesto and sauce, the pizza tended to be a little dry. We did have the option of adding tofu mozzarella but I think tofu imitation stuff is gross. Maybe next time we'll try it just for kicks. Anyway, the pizza was definitely packed with flavor, it just lacked the texture you normally expect from a cheese engrossed pie.

It was definitely a great place that I would go back to next time I'm in the area. The service was good, the atmosphere was casual (although we didn't really enjoy getting smoked out by everyone else on the patio), and the food lived up to its name. It's always refreshing to find places that cater to healthier, less animal-involved eats.

After dinner we decided to kill some time with more drinks. We headed to Royal Oak and parked by the theater, then walked around, looking for a bar. Since we didn't know the area, we didn't know where to go. All the bar places we found seemed to be really expensive and ritzy. Eventually we found one called Mr. B's Pub.

This place was awful. The beer selection was awful. The bartender was awful. Everyone in there seemed to be really depressed and unhappy. I got a Blue Moon that only came in one giant size that took me a while to choke down. Later I found out from a friend that Mr. B's is apparently a chain restaurant. We were hoping to find a local dive of some sort with at least a little bit of creativity to offer. This wasn't it. As soon as we finished our beers we got the crap out of there.

Do I have to drink it?

Looks like Cameron thought the place was just great. Juuuuust greaaat.

We found a cantina a little ways down the street that wasn't much better drink-wise but at least the vibes were better.

And then we finally went to the theater!

Devotchka! Ok, I have to admit, my favorite part of the whole show was this crazy rope thing that these two girls did during one of their songs. They just started climbing up the ropes and dancing with them. In the air. It was insane.

Cameron LOVES paying seven dollars for a Budweiser!

Gogol Bordello.

Hey look it's that guy!

The Perfect Hummus Recipe

2010-04-21T07:17:00.000-07:00

My sister just asked me for this, so I'm going to post it real quick.

This is the best traditional hummus recipe I have found. It's easy to remember, and even easier to make. It's also flexible enough to be creative with. Add some spinach if you want. Toss in some roasted peppers. Whateva.

1 15 oz can of chick peas (garbanzo beans)
1/4 cup of drained liquid from can of peas.
2.5 tablespoons of tahini
2 cloves of garlic (or more. Go crazy.)
3-5 tablespoons of lemon juice (which I have found is usually the same as half of a squeezed lemon, for easy measurement)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tsp of cumin (or more. I love cumin.)
Salt and pepper to taste

You can also add any other spices you want. The idea is to be creative and keep adding things until you get it just how you want it.

Throw all ingredients in a food processor and blend. That's it. You can also do it in a regular blender but it doesn't usually work as well.

And that, my friends, is the secret to the best hummus ever.

A Rant on a Fat Rant

2010-04-16T19:18:00.000-07:00

First, watch this video:

No, stop reading and finish watching the video. Yes, the whole thing. Oh give me a break, it's less than eight minutes. Okay, finished? Now you can read.

Then, let me just say that I love this girl. I love her attitude, I love her confidence. She's smart, witty, talented and gorgeous through and through.

But, I do have several rather large bones to pick with her argument.

One of the first things she opens with is this statement: "I'm fat, and it's okay."

I tend to not agree with that. But before you get in a huff, hear the rest of what I have to say. I do agree with her next statement: "It doesn't mean I'm stupid, ugly, lazy or selfish." Obesity has no reflection on a person's personality. I've got nothing to argue about with her there.

What I have a problem with is that she is saying that being fat is normal. That it's something we are simply born with. It's natural. Like race, height, age, sexual orientation, whatever. They're all the same.

This is a dangerous assumption to make, and it's unfortunate that the obesity rates in this country have become so outrageous that being fat really is, well, normal. After all, one in three people you pass on the street are going to be overweight.

This is not normal, and this is not okay.

You may be wanting to fire a few questions at me, such as "Well, are you fat?" No. I've always been a tall, gangly bean pole. Have I always been in shape and healthy? Absolutely not. My diet up until a couple of years ago was your run-of-the-mill Standard American Diet. My exercise habits were nonexistant. If you asked me to take a jog around the block or try to touch my toes, I would have scoffed at the suggestion and made you take me out for ice cream to make up for it. I was just like one of those one in three overweight people, just without actually being fat. I have a fast metabolism, or maybe it's genes, who knows. Doesn't matter. The point is, I was a sheep in wolf's clothing. Being thin, exclusively, has absolutely nothing to do with vitality and well-being.

When I realized that I wanted to be responsible for my own health, I did my own research and discovered a hidden passion for the true meaning of "diet and exercise." I knew that eventually I wasn't going to be able to keep eating pizza and french fries every day and stay skinny forever. But it wasn't just about staying thin. It was about feeling healthy, the way our bodies were originally intended to feel.

Joy gives a modest nod to good eating habits next in the video; "Obviously, diet and exercise are vital. I'm saying that if you do those things, eat right and exercise, and you still aren't thin, your life is not over." I'm glad she mentions this because it seems that more often than not, people who are obese will diet and exercise only for the sake of losing weight. They don't necessarily want to be healthy. They just want to be skinny, no matter what it takes. So when they do their time at the gym every day and choke down a Slim-Fast for lunch but don't see a difference on the scale, of course it's going to be disappointing and maybe even devastating.

That's because dieting and exercising for the wrong reasons will not make everything right. Living every day hating yourself now and striving towards a commercialized "ideal" glamour shot of what every perfect man or woman's body should look like will get you nowhere.

Eat well because it makes you feel better. Because it gives you more energy. Exercise because that new energy makes you crave it. Don't eat Jenny Craig's processed, nutrient-depleted prepackaged meals just because she told you to on a commercial. Don't kill yourself every day with an hour in the gym because someone told you that in order to be skinny you have to feel like shit first. It's not about that. Because guess what? When you eat well, and I mean truly well, not the media's idea of well, the pounds will naturally fall off. If you decide to commit to transforming your lifestyle into what should be the norm but is sadly, in America, is the opposite, your body will automatically fall to its own natural, comfortable weight. The weight you were designed to have, whether it's 100 pounds or 200 pounds. There is no standard healthy weight number.

The part of Joy's video that really made me cringe was when she started addressing "dieting." I knew there was trouble coming when she spit that word out like it was a question, then let out an uproarious cackle. What follows are a bunch of statistics on obese people who go on diets and almost 100% of them fail or gain the weight back.

Obviously the "dieting" that Joy is talking about is the Jenny Craig kind of dieting. The fake, nutrient-depleted food. The kind of food you eat to get skinny, not to get healthy. But I don't know if Joy realizes this is what she's talking about, nor do I know if her viewers do either. What concerns me is that she and those who watch her video will interpret her depressing statistics on dieting as this: Eating "healthy" will not make me skinny. It doesn't matter what I eat. Being fat is normal and I have no reason to do anything about it and I should just embrace it instead of embrace a healthy lifestyle.

A diet, by definition, is simply the food a person eats. If your diet changes depending on whether or not you're trying to lose weight, you might want to rethink why you're trying to lose weight. Healthy, wholesome foods aren't supposed to only be eaten when we feel too fat and think we should "punish" ourselves with a celery stalk. Wholesome foods are intended to be gifts to us as a natural, permanent diet(with, of course, the totally allowed occasional not-so-wholesome treat). You don't see Slim-Fasts growing on trees. That's not normal, and it's not right for the human body.

I'm not saying that embracing a healthy lifestyle is easy. I'm not saying that accepting your obesity and being confident about it is easy either. Neither Joy's nor my proposals are quick, easy fixes. (And guess what, skinny people get picked on for their weight too, often by fat people. Looks like everyone is insecure about themselves. Seems like a vicious, petty circle doesn't it?) You may be thinking, "Easy for you to say since you're skinny and automatically look healthier than a fat person." I suppose that's true. Some people aren't so "lucky" (although I'd hardly call it that) by having bodies that more quickly reflect a poor diet by easily putting on weight. But my diet wasn't good for my health either. There were several years where I felt that I was too skinny, and terribly insecure about it too. My butt was too flat, my wrists were too bony, my face was too thin, my legs were too gangly. It wasn't until I started educating myself on eating right that I gained and achieved a healthy and normal weight for my height, not to mention learned to love and accept my body and bone structure.

Joy's advice for staying thin? "Choose two thin parents; ideally choose four thin grandparents as well." What is she saying? That you can't be thin unless you are genetically lucky enough? Here we go again with the "being fat is normal" thing. Obesity is not an ethnicity for crying out loud. Who's the one making excuses here?

Whether or not you're too skinny or too fat, if you're going to obsess over it, try shifting that focus to the quality of your life instead of the size of your body. Stop watching TV and reading weight-loss magazines. Those media mongers are there to make a profit and they don't give two shits about whether or not you succeed after taking their advice. It's a success to them either way after they've deposited your check. Spend that TV and magazine time to instead read up on how important a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables are. Do your own research on the fact that an incredibly large percentage of excess body fat is actually bowel back up, and that your digestive system is pretty much the "decider" on your overall health. Learn about alkalizing your body, cleansing, drinking water, breathing, stretching, walking. Nothing that is really truly an important factor in human health can possibly be endorsed by any company, and don't let anyone try to tell or sell you otherwise. Be your own doctor, personal trainer, teacher. Learn and be enlightened. Then go out and live it.

The thing I liked most about Joy's video (yes, there are many things in it that I like) is at the end when she gives examples of a typical fat person's excuses for not fully enjoying their life: "I'll go dancing when I can wear this dress again," and "I'll go to the Bahamas when I look good in a bathing suit," and "I'll get my wedding dress fitted as soon as I lose 30 pounds." To which Joy vigorously responds, "No! Now!"

Yes, enjoy your life now, not when you're skinnier. Lead a life towards well-being and the weight will soon become a co-factor, maybe eventually something not even of much importance at all.

Joy then positively proclaims, "It's all you've got!" I disagree, but we can work on that. We've got a lot more than the fat between our skin and bones.

Vegan apple banana muffins

2010-04-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

Vegan muffin recipes seemed hard to come by for a while. They were all full of mystery tofu ingredients to replace the eggs and I would sooner just go to the farmer's market and buy some eggs than go through all the trouble of buying all the substitutes.

Then I found one. An easy one. A really really simple one. And it turned out awesome on my very first try (and I'll be honest, I'd never made muffins before).

So I tried to make them again today but this time I substituted the sugar for honey and agave syrup. This was my first time baking with agave and I should have done more research beforehand because...well, you'll see.

Here's my tweaked version of the recipe:

Vegan Apple Banana Muffins

2 cups flour (I used spelt)
1/2 cup oat bran
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup agave or honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups milk (almond, rice, soy, or even apple juice like the recipe originally called for. I always use almond.)
1 small apple
1 banana

- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Lightly grease muffin tin.
- Put all ingredients except the fruit in a mixing bowl and blend. (I don't have a Kitchen Aid or anything so I just use a blender, which works great and is easy clean up)
- Peel, core, and dice the apple into little bits (but don't throw the skins away because they're full of nutrients! Just munch on them while the muffins are baking, they're delicious.)
- Peel banana and cut up into small pieces or just mash it.
- Add fruit to batter and blend on low for just a couple seconds to make sure its all mixed up and any big chunks are chopped smaller.
- Pour batter into lightly greased muffin tin.
- Bake for 35-45 minutes.

My ignorance about agave syrup resulted in me having to repeatedly take the muffins out, check the center, and put back in. The outsides were turning browner and browner but the insides just weren't cooking up very well. I learned afterwards that cooking with agave requires less liquid in the recipe, so I have adjusted that above. Also I think my banana was too big, which contributed to the mushiness.

However, the texture didn't mar the taste. These little one-and-a-half-bite-sized buggers are delicious! They don't fluff up much because of the spelt flour and the agave, but I don't mind. In fact, that's why I like them. Dense, nutritious, moist, fiber rich mini muffins. Perfect as a mid work snack.

My muffin tin is very tiny and only has six cups so I got to tweak each batch as I went through it. Since the first two were crap texture, I decided to throw the rest into a baking dish to make little cake squares instead. I also realized at that point that I had forgotten to add the oat bran, which was working as my thickening agent last time. So I added that to the baking dish and it cooked up much better. However, I also forgot to do another thing...grease the baking dish. So I'm going to have a lot of fun scraping that out. I just can't win with this whole baking thing, can I?

Ugly fork markings to check the center.

I doubt this will help. I'm pretty much an idiot.

Aaaaaaaaaaand...I made vegan ranch dip. Booyah!

Will post the recipe if you ask for it. Maybe.

Eating Out: The Union

2010-04-05T08:03:00.000-07:00

The Union is a restaurant in Clarkston, and I know this blog is supposed to be about Flint, but whatever, this is where we went on our anniversary.

Price is Right pose.

So Cameron and I celebrated our one year anniversary at The Union, which we used to go to every now and then we he still lived in Fenton, but now it's too far away.

It's a pretty cool, unique place. The building used to be a church, and it's pretty obvious with the tall ceiling and pew benches. The place is always packed every time we go there, but the service is still good and genuine.

We decided to split their famous baked mac and cheese (I know, I really suck at this whole vegan-at-a-restaurant thing) and eggplant parmesan. We also got a couple beers. Cameron got a Wiehenstephaner and I tried a new doppelbock called Bavarian Heller. It was much lighter and less malty than doppelbocks usually are. In fact, I probably wouldn't have been able to tell it was a doppelbock if I didn't know what it was called.

Drowning my sorrows after a whole year of hell.

Cameron dwelling on the turmoil of dealing with me for a year.

Then came the meal...

Fresh salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

Eggplant parmesan with green beans.

Baked penne mac and cheese.

After dinner we went to a very bad place and gorged on a very bad thing for dessert. I'm not even going to divulge all the details there.

When we got back into town we decided to rent a movie at Family Video, where I discovered this:

Unfortunately it was checked out so we settled on All Dogs Go to Heaven (which didn't even work! Thanks a lot Family Video for your free kids movies!)

All in all I'd say it was a successful date.

Eating Out: Red Robin

2010-04-03T11:42:00.000-07:00

I forgot to write about this a couple weeks ago. Wanted to try to get a discussion going about it.

My awesome sister scored me a free burger coupon for my birthday from Red Robin. If you don't know, Red Robin is a gourmet burger chain that I remember going to only a couple of times before. Obviously I haven't had any interest in visiting them since I became vegetarian, but I knew that they had a couple of veggie burger options, so I thought, "Hey, it's free, why not?"

Cameron joined me on this expedition. I admit that I felt a funny uncomfortableness being in there. I felt out of place, and my conscience was heavy. Kind of like when you went to a party that you knew your mom and dad wouldn't approve of. Just general uneasiness.

I was a little anxious looking at the menu until I found that any burger could be substituted with a Garden or Boca burger. That's nice of them. But my next batch of anxiety came when I reminded myself that I want to try to eat vegan when I go to a restaurant. I eat eggs and dairy products when I buy them myself and know where they have come from, but in a restaurant, it's almost guaranteed that they came from a factory farm. Looking at all of the burger varieties on the menu, it was also almost guaranteed that there was some form of egg or dairy in them, mostly because of the sauces. Instead of letting myself feel overwhelmed and guilty, I just picked one that sounded the best and didn't worry about the ethical battle going inside my head.

Cameron and I each split the Burnin Love and...something else I can't remember. They were average as far as taste goes. Creative, yeah, but the flavor was sort of bland and tasted like...well, like a corporate chain restaurant does. Defrosted and processed. The bottomless fries were a plus and we probably ate our weight in them. We could have gotten a free sundae since it was the week of my birthday, but we already felt stuffed and gluttonous enough. Plus I wasn't in the mood to pay the price of having all the servers sing to me (I guess the sundae is never really free). And then there's that whole not-eating-dairy-in-a-restaurant thing.

I was thankful for the free burger, and the service was nice and everything. But I couldn't help the persistent uneasiness about the whole situation. Just a couple of months ago I wrote an entry complaining about people who eat at chain restaurants on the same strip where there are plenty of wonderful family-owned places that serve fresh food. Now there I was, perched in a booth, mowing down on some endless and practically free steak fries at Red Robin. Granted, the only reason I was there was because of the coupon.

I guess I'm just wondering if it makes sense for someone who is trying to promote fresh, local food to ever be voluntarily found in a corporate restaurant when there are other, better options for the same price?

Please let me know what you think.

Ratio

2010-04-02T09:28:00.000-07:00

Since this song is food-related, I thought it would be appropriate to post it here.

See my previous post for an explanation on my songwriting project this week. This is the first one I wrote on Monday.

Songwriting Marathon

2010-03-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

Going to be taking a break from blogging for at least the next week. I'm cracking down on songwriting and making a goal of writing at least one song every day for the next week. This could get ugly.

The good news is that I already wrote one for today. And it's about the pounds of grain to beef ratio (16:1, if you were wondering). Sounds pretty nerdy, but it's not. I really dig the song and am hoping to video record it then upload it, along with all the other ones I write this week.

Until then...

Birthday Presents

2010-03-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

I got pretty spoiled on my birthday this year.

Cameron bought me two books that I have been wanting.

I was reading a library copy of this and didn't get to finish it before I had to take it back. Now I can add all my little underlines and notes too!

I skimmed through most of this short little manual at a Borders in Ann Arbor and was really intrigued. In fact, I think I'm going to start expounding on some of it in my blog.

Cameron also got me a gift that ended up being just as much for him as it was for me:

A grill pan! I don't think we have cooked vegetables any other way since he brought it home. Yesterday we made grill pan yam fries. ZOMG.

Good birthday.

Three Free Things You Can Do to Feel Lightyears Better.

2010-03-19T08:05:00.000-07:00

As my 22nd birthday approaches, I have been thinking back to a year ago when I turned 21, contemplating on how I have changed physically, emotionally and mentally in one year.

Last winter I was pretty miserable. I had self-diagnosed myself with Seasonal Affective Disorder, rendering myself a pathetic pile of pitiful mush every time winter came to rear its ugly head. I was depressed, unmotivated, stressed out, and, to top it all off, constantly ill. I don't usually get sick, maybe a cold once or twice a year, but last winter I was sick probably up to eight times. Just within six months. It was pathetic. I was even sick on my birthday, which is why my birthday this year seems so significant to me.

Over the course of a year I have made dramatic improvements. I have cut out meat completely, cut way back on dairy, purified my diet, reduced the stress in my life to a minimum, learned how to react to surprise stress much more affectively, learned how to enjoy exercise, and have become more in tune to my body and myself in general. I just feel better. I only got sick one time this year and it was on Christmas Day, after I had spent the entire month gorging on holiday sweets.

I've been realizing that so many people in America feel just like I did. So stressed out, so miserable, and not being able to figure out why.

Although some of the changes I have made are profound and required a lot of commitment, I realized that I could probably sum them up into three simple, almost completely free actions.

1. Drink more water. Ok, so most of us get a water bill. I guess this one isn't completely free. But it is simple. Most of the time when we feel like crap, is isn't that we are sick, it's simply that we are thirsty. Our bodies require much, much more hydration than we usually provide it on a daily basis. We substitute water for coffee, soda or alcohol, all of which actually starve your body of water, as well as leach important nutrients out of your system. Simply drinking water (at least half your body weight in ounces) will make more of a profound difference in the way you feel than you can imagine. I think people don't believe it because it is just so simple. "Drink lots of water and I'll feel like a million bucks? Don't you mean I have to spend a million bucks to feel better?" No. Drink water. Lots of it. Every day. Can I go so far as to say that the kind of water you drink is incredibly important as well? Tap water today is more closely related to chemical soup than a life saving spring, so please drink purified or distilled water, or, at the very most ideal, alkaline water. Alkaline water is the way water is supposed to be. It is the most cleansing, purifying, and, of course, alkalizing way to treat your body well. I get mine by the gallon at The Grainery on Church St. and it is just as important to me as the food I buy. But, if you can't get access to alkaline or purified water, the tap is still better than starving yourself of hydration. No excuses!

2. Breathe. Many of us go our whole lives without having taken hardly any full, diaphram stretching, lung filling breaths. When I started doing yoga I realized how important this simple act really was. Taking five to ten minutes out of the day to sit in a quiet, peaceful place and simply breathe is probably the most profound change I have made in the past year. Since stress was one of the biggest things bogging me down, once I started quieting my mind and allowing myself to feed my body the air that it needed just as badly as the water I spoke of above, the calm that came over me was incredible. I went through the entire winter this year with nary a breakdown (ok, maybe I cried a little the first time it snowed). That is an accomplishment that I think only myself and those closest to me can appreciate. So please, wherever you are, sitting here reading this, close your eyes and take a slow, full breath. No, even bigger than that. Push your belly out, not your chest. Bigger, bigger, bigger, feel it hit the top of your throat and the bottom of your gut? Now slowly, slowly breathe out...wait, even slower...you're going too fast. That's better...aaaand....rest. Doesn't that feel good? Do that several times every day. Simple. Free.

3. Stretch. How many different positions does your body find itself in on a daily basis? Unless you're a gymnist or a yoga instructor, it's probably only three: laying down, standing up, and sitting. Kind of pathetic, don't you think? I'm not judging, these were my trusty three for years as soon as puberty hit and I stopped climbing trees and was too cool to build forts in the woods anymore. Give your body the privilege of four different positions a day. How about five. Six? Go crazy with ten. All I'm saying is get on the floor of your bedroom and stretch. You don't have to be a yogi, you don't even have to know what in blue blazens it is you're doing. Just move. There's a reason our bodies have so many joints and muscles and ligaments and tendons. We're supposed to use those things. You don't have to use all of them. Just use more of them than you usually do. When I started stretching, it was like I was suddenly reacquainting myself with my body. When I sat on the floor with my legs out and bent my torso forward in attempt to touch my nose to my knee (failure, by the way, but that's ok), it was like I wanted to say, "Oh, hello right knee! How have you been?" It seems silly, but I really think that one of the reasons people feel so miserable in their bodies is because they are either strangers or enemies with them. Make friends with your joints and muscles. Re-learn how they work and how it feels to let them do what it is they are designed to do. And by the way, you don't have to try to touch your nose to your knee. Simply throw your arms up towards the sky and stretch them as high as you can. Bend forward while standing to *try* to touch your toes, but you by no means have to actually get there. Just get your body moving in ways that you normally don't.

Three simple things make multiple profound and positive changes. Please do yourself a favor like I did. Maybe by your next birthday you can be proud of how far you've come along too.

Mom threw the best birthday parties.

Eating Out: 501 Bar and Grill

2010-03-10T09:15:00.000-08:00

I forgot to blog about this last weekend.

It was my turn for "date night" and I decided to take us out to 501 Bar and Grill, right downtown on Saginaw Street. It's been open since last summer but neither of us ever got around to checking it out since we're usually lured by their neighbor, WizeGuys Pizza.

I liked the way it looked inside; cozy, chic, but not too snobby or modern. Our server was, ironically, someone who had also worked at Salvatore Scallopini's with Cameron (which is the restaurant I last blogged about).

I was very pleasantly surprised to see, at the very top of the menu, a section of vegetarian tapas (even though one of them had shrimp in it...). It's rare and nice to see accomodations like that. We went with the hummus and pita chips and spring rolls.

The food was real tasty but sort of expensive for how small the portions were. I know that's the point of tapas, but it still seemed a little cheeky. There were three different types of dip on the hummus tray (which, as an exception to what I said before, were actually pretty heaping piles), all delicious, and the pita chips just kept coming whenever we ran out. The spring rolls were very hot and fresh, but bite sized and gone before we knew it. The dipping sauce was superb too. I wished there was more!

As far as beer goes, the options were pretty limited with what was available on tap. They didn't have anything dark, which is what I usually drink, so I ended up with a Shocktop, which was alright, but nothing to write home about.

Overall I think it's a nice place to stop for a snack and an average beer. I think the hummus tray was actually a pretty good buy considering that there was a lot of it, and the chip refills were free. But other than that I think the place was a little more overpriced for what it was. I'm glad we went, though. Only a couple more new Flint restaurants left to knock off our list!

Suzie Homemaker or Hippie Long Stockings?

2010-03-08T06:48:00.000-08:00

You know what they say about trying new things...they come in threes.
Actually I just made that up. They don't say that at all.

But I did try three new things in the kitchen this weekend:
- I made vegan blueberry pancakes
- I made my own chapstick
- I made my own ketchup

First of all, Saturday morning I made some more vegetable broth, which I've done before. Except this time I tried this new technique of not putting a container underneath the strainer and dumping half of it down the sink so I could start all over. Probably won't try that again.

Photo from VeganYumYum.com

Vegan Pancakes
Anyway, while my *first* batch of broth was simmering, I was thinking about what I wanted to make for breakfast. I like to indulge in something a little more unforgiving on the weekends, since my usual weekday breakfast is a fruit and spinach smoothie. I remembered seeing a recipe for pancakes in a vegan cookbook called Vegan Yum Yum that I was perusing at Borders the other night. It looked really easy and simple, so I found it on the website and got myself ready for some doughy goodness.

The ingredients were simple and minimal, and there was very little mess to clean up since I could mix everything together in the blender. I thought the batter was a little boring so I added some frozen blueberries and crushed walnuts and pecans. They turned out GREAT. Delicious. And, ok, it wasn't completely vegan. I drenched them in organic butter. So shoot me. I didn't have any maple syrup but honey and agave sufficed.

I'd never made pancakes before, let alone from scratch, let alone vegan. So go me for success on the first try!

Photo from marthastewart.com

Chapstick
If you've been reading my blog for some time you know I'm bound and determined to eventually make from scratch everything I consume or put on my body. I'm pretty neurotic about keeping my lips moist so I go through chapstick like lightning. This gets expensive, especially when you're only buying chapstick with natural substances in it.

So I ventured to make my own.

Found this recipe and was pleased to see how simple it was. I found a quarter pound of beeswax for $2 at the Farmer's Market (it seems kind of romantic, putting local beeswax on my lips). I used castor oil for my carrier oil. Not because I think castor oil is ideal, but because Cameron had some that he wasn't using. I decided to use tea tree oil as my scent/flavor.

It really was quite easy to make. Just let it all melt and mix it together pretty much. I don't like using tins because, again with the neuroticism, I don't like putting my finger in it and then wiping it on my lips. I prefer tubes because they're more sanitary and convenient. I saved and washed two empty tubes as my guinea pigs. The melted wax poured into them quite smoothly. I stuck them in the fridge to cool and harden.

They work great! Taste good, smell good...the only thing that made this project suck a little was the clean up. Do you know how hard it is to clean oily, half-hardened wax off of your dishes? Do you know an easier way to do it?? Please tell me.

I had a bunch of wax leftover so I poured it into a separate container and will re-melt it when I run out again.

Photo from eggsonsunday.wordpress.com

Ketchup (Also Vegan!)
I'm not a huge ketchup fan. I could go with or without it, honestly. Cameron loves it though. We decided to make our own french and yam fries last night but realized that I didn't have anything in my kitchen to dip them in. Thus the ketchup idea was birthed.

Found this homemade ketchup recipe (on ketchuprecipe.com. Yes, a website entirely dedicated to...ketchup.) and decided to give it a whirl. I didn't have regular onions so I used green onion and some dried minced onion. I also didn't have brown sugar, so I used honey. Nor did I have cider vinegar. So I used balsamic. Basically I pretty much bastardized the recipe.

Everything was going dandy until I looked closer at the recipe and saw that is was supposed to simmer for an hour. Are you kidding me? We want to eat our fries NOW! It said that the ketchup would thicken after an hour but mine was still pretty soupy. More like barbeque sauce really. I stuck it in the fridge to chill and when I checked on it this morning it thickened up a little but...let's just say you wouldn't have to maniacally shake the ketchup can for ten minutes at a diner if it were my ketchup in there. It would come right out.

Maybe it was because I didn't use a regular onion. Maybe it was because I didn't use sugar. Maybe it was because I didn't use the right vinegar. Either way, the flavor turned out pretty good, for ketchup anyway. Like I said, I'm not its #1 fan. Cameron gave me the thumbs up though so I guess I did alright.

Whew. Busy weekend! Half the time I didn't know if I should feel like June Cleaver or a granola hippie. I guess I'm a pretty contently apathetic combination of the two.

The Food Was Terrible

2010-03-01T18:57:00.000-08:00

Recently I rediscovered a musical gem that I had mostly overlooked in the past:

Malvina Reynolds.

I had heard a little bit of her music a while ago but never really listened to it until this week, and now I can't get enough of it. Most of her songs are about things that I care deeply about: being kind to the earth. We've all heard our fair share of hippie protest songs but Malvina did it in such a cleverly poetic and slightly humorous way that I greatly admire. I'm especially excited about it because lately I've been feeling convicted about picking new and important subjects for my own songs. I want to write about something that means a lot to me, moreso than usual. And I've been looking for a way to connect my passion for the earth with my passion for music; Malvina has inspired my first steps. I've already arranged a cover of God Bless the Grass, and will hopefully soon be working on writing my own songs with similar intentions.

Since my blog is supposed to mostly be about food, I want to post the lyrics to one of my favorite Malvina songs I've come across so far:

I stopped into a restaurant and oh, it was a dream!

From a half mile up the highway you could see the fixtures gleam.
They heated up the coffee cups with extra pressure steam,
But the food was terrible.

The waitresses were charming, they had such lovely eyes,
Their smiles all matched exactly and their uniforms likewise,
Their hair was piled as sweetly as the topping on the pies,
But the food was terrible.

The décor was a symphony in orange, gold and white,
The silver and the crockery would fill you with delight,
The menu was a masterpiece, so witty and so bright,
But the food was terrible.

They must have spent a fortune on the furniture and such,
On the place mats and the napkins, just like linen to the touch,
So the budget for the kitchen really wasn't very much,
And the food was terrible.

Another generation will forget the taste of meat,
Of tomatoes from the garden and of bread that's made of wheat,
And they'll never even notice, when it's plastic that they eat,
That the food is terrible.

Root Soup Riot*

2010-02-27T15:10:00.000-08:00

I just whipped together a rather awesome creamy soup that I created from scratch and on my own. No recipe involved here. I basically threw together a bunch of vegetables with split peas as a texture base; however, the main flavor contributors were three different root veggies: parsnips (my new favorite), potatoes, and carrots.

*That was a bad play on words from a Cherry Poppin Daddies song if you didn't catch it, or if you didn't listen to the radio in the mid 90s.

Food Matters: A film about education, not medication.

2010-02-25T11:36:00.000-08:00

I just got back from The Good Beans Cafe where I was finally able to catch one of their several showings of a recent documentary called Food Matters.

I have been wanting to watch it, but honestly, I didn't expect to learn much. I thought I would gain a little reinforcement, but other than that I assumed the film would be preaching to the choir. I've read all about the food industry, factory farming and nutritional healing. I do it for a living, after all. I've seen Food, Inc., I've read Silent Spring, The Ethics of What We Eat, and am in the process of going through John Robbins' and Michael Pollan's books. What could this new documentary have to tell me that I don't already know?

I wasn't completely off-base. The film did, in fact, reiterate things that I routinely assure my customers of at the health food store I work at: cooking food makes it harder to digest, we should ideally be getting all of our nutrients from our food and vitamins are intended to supplement and fill in the holes, diseases are predominantly caused by nutrient deficiency, etc. But this film took those little nuggets of information and blew it up to the tenth power, and I was gently reminded that there is always more to learn about food politics, vitamins, and the body's ability to heal itself.

I was really blown away by how articulate and eloquently these nutritionally oriented doctors (orthomolecular physicians) were in explaining the importance of vitamins and how virtually any disease can be reversed simply by eating the right foods. I liked the emphasis they placed on raw foods. I liked how they addressed the fact that the reason nobody seems to know about these truths is because the pharmaceutical companies don't make any money from it. Like one of the doctors put it, "vitamins make a lot of sense, they just don't make a lot of dollars."

I loved the film so much that I bought a copy of it and can't wait to share it with as many people as I can. I think exposing one's self to this information is absolutely critical; the more people know about it, the more of an affective change we can begin making in the way our country and our world views food and disease.

Here's the trailer, but don't stop there. Go to Good Beans and watch the film for free, or if you don't live in the area, you can buy it online or try to find a screening of it near you.

Eating Out: Salvatore Scallopini

2010-02-20T11:32:00.000-08:00

Things have been quiet on the cooking front, other than a couple of nights ago when I made a sweet potato, apple and pear soup. I had it cooking in the crock all day and when I got home from work I ran it through the food processor. I guess I put too much in to blend because in a few moments I had sweet potato, apple and pear soup all over my kitchen (which, to add, I had just thoroughly cleaned two days before). I have experienced more delightful activities than cleaning that mess up. The portion of the soup that didn't run down the cracks of my stove and cupboards, however, tasted alright.

Anyway, Cameron took me out for a date last night at Salvatore Scallopini's on Miller Rd. I had only been there once, years ago, and he used to be a server there, so we both decided it was time for a revisit.

It was nice and romantic when I met him there because he already had a bottle of wine waiting for us. I liked the atmosphere of the place; quaint, somewhat elegant but not stuffy. A lot of the decor is outdated and tacky, but I almost preferred it that way. It gave it more character.

We stuffed ourselves on complimentary bread (white and refined, but Cameron said at least they bake it on location at the restaurant) and awesome dipping marinara sauce while we waited for our entree. We split half of the eggplant parmesan and cannelloni dinners. Holy smokes. It was good. Incredibly flavorful, great texture. I had actually never had eggplant parmesan before so it was a perfect first experience. And I could tell that the cannelloni pasta was fresh, another huge plus. As far as price goes, the dinner entrees teeter between average and somewhat expensive, running around $13 each. But the servings are giant, and since we split two entrees in half, we both left feeling very satisfied, for the price of one. It's easy to get stuffed on pasta, bread and cheese real quick anyway.

Our server, Lauren, was really gracious and attentive; Cameron requested to be seated in her section because he remembered enjoying working with her. It was fun getting the inside scoop from Cameron on some behind-the-scenes anecdotes at the restaurant; almost all of them were positive. Really the only negative thing he had to say about working there was that it just wasn't busy enough to make much money in a shift.

It's a shame this little Italian gem doesn't get the business it deserves. I think it's because it's buried within an assembly line of corporate chain restaurants along the rest of Miller Road, such as Applebee's, Mongolian Barbeque, Chili's, etc. People tend to prefer patroning restaurants where they don't have to guess what's going to be on the menu, or how it will taste. They know what Ruby Tuesday's food tastes like because they've been there before, and they all taste the same. Salvatore has about five locations within the state but the one on Miller definitely maintains an intimate spirit of making you feel like it's the only one. I wish more people would step outside of their Red Robin routine and enjoy something that tastes more like a home cooked meal; fresh, flavorful, and with love. Mangia!

(I don't even know what mangia means but it seemed like a good corny way to end this blog post.)

(Ok I just looked it up. It means Eat!)

Make Your Own: Hot Cocoa!

2010-02-14T12:22:00.000-08:00

I've decided to do a Make Your Own type series on different things around the house that we usually buy pre-made but are actually very simple and much cheaper (not to mention more environmentally friendly) to make ourselves.

Today I discovered how easy it is to make hot cocoa- sans the sugar, overprocessed ingredients, and unnecessary wasteful packaging!

I realized that I had some Ghiradelli chocolate baking squares in my cupboard from who knows how long ago when I was making some kind of chocolate cookies. I also have a little tub of powdered dutched cocoa from the same baking expedition. Neither of these contain any sugar since it is just pure dark chocolate.

I measured out some almond milk into a saucepan and slowly heated it up on the stove while adding one of the chocolate squares and mixing in a big scoop of the dutched cocoa. I also added a few drops of liquid stevia to make it sweet. Everything melted together into a lovely velvety texture and tasted wonderful.

Just don't do what I did and get too excited by taking a big gulp before checking how hot it is.

So all you have to do is buy unsweetened, 100% chocolate, stevia, and add milk (almond is preferable; the texture is much creamier than cow milk). You can make dozens and dozens of cups of cocoa with these simple ingredients, as opposed to six prepackaged cups of pathetically flavored processed junk. And the bonus is there's no sugar in it aside from what's naturally in the milk! Everybody wins! Everybody loves chocolate!

Spinach Artichoke Dip made a baby with Tofu Quiche

2010-02-14T12:08:00.000-08:00

I love spinach artichoke dip.

I love eggless tofu spinach quiche.

I've been cultivating in my mind lately a way to marry the two. And then of course consummate them.

Yesterday Cameron and I went to the Farmer's Market and got a chunk of smoked gouda and mozzarella cheese.

What I ended up doing was mostly following this recipe that I used back in December with extremely good results. Here are all the ingredients I threw together:

fresh organic spinach
14 oz package of organic tofu
garlic cloves
almond milk
green onion
dried minced onion
artichokes
asparagus
mushrooms
gouda cheese
mozzarella cheese
feta cheese sprinkled on top (I had a little leftover from when I bought it for the quinoa toss)
fresh basil
salt/pepper/cayenne/garlic powder/etc.

I got to use my new food processor to blend the tofu with the milk, herbs and spices. God, I love that thing. Anyway, everything mixed together really well and it was in the oven for about 12 minutes before I realized that I had forgotten to put the artichokes in. Of course I took it out and mixed them in but that ruined the pretty feta cheese topping.

The consistency wasn't what I was hoping for. Too mushy and watery, which was probably because we added more milk at the end. I wasn't crazy about the texture and flavor, either. At least Cameron loved it. It wasn't bad, I just think we could have done a better job. It tasted pretty good with the homemade pita chips Cameron roasted in the oven right beforehand.

Warm and Fuzzy Factor: 6/10
How It Could Have Been Better: A thicker consistency would have made it better for dipping. More seasonings would have made it more flavorful (crazy for me to say because I usually over-season things).
How It Could Have Been Worse: I refused to buy cheese from the grocery store and I think that was this dish's only saving grace. You could really tell the difference in the cheese flavor, especially the smoked gouda. Totally worth the higher price. I'm also glad I used fresh spinach instead of frozen like the recipe called for.

I'm bound and determined to get this recipe just right. Just you wait.

Sin Horton's

2010-02-09T19:29:00.000-08:00

Let me explain.

A student gave me a $10 Tim Horton's gift card for Christmas. This isn't an establishment one would normally find me waltzing into on any given day. But the money was already spent, so one day back in December we decided to treat ourselves (in a sort of sadistic way) by indulging in refined sugar heaven.

A month went by, candida got kicked out of the house, and now here I am with half of a gift card to Tim Horton's still taking up space in my wallet. Any smart and truly health conscious person would simply toss the thing and forget about it. Not us. We love free stuff too much.

So we swung by Timmy's on the way to work today and racked up a few thousand empty calories with glazed donuts and "mochas." I put mochas in quotation marks because I'm certain they were about as similar to a real mocha as a pineapple is to a parsnip. I think chocolate covered sugar coffee would be a more accurate label.

Nonetheless, we enjoyed every last crystal of sweetness but only for a few moments before the stomach pains set in. We both felt like crap for the rest of the day and I found myself feeling shaky and dizzy until 9:00 when I got to eat dinner.

Again, a smart person would have tossed the card in the garbage. But we love free stuff too much.

At least I can say that I won't ever be tempted to stroll through those doors again. Unless I get another gift card...........

Looking around to make sure I don't see anybody I know...

Vegetarian Stuff.

2010-02-09T19:13:00.000-08:00

I have to share the hilarious conversation I had with my thirteen year old brother today via text messages. I hope he doesn't mind or think that I'm making fun of him, because I'm not.

Cameron and I were sitting at The French Laundry ("working," but not really. Snow storm. Long story.) when all of the sudden I receive a text message from my little brother, stating:

"Im gonna start eating alot more vegies and stuff like that."

If you have met my brother and can imagine him saying this out loud, it would have brought the same stream of guffaws from your mouth as it did ours. We really couldn't stop laughing. As funny as it was, though, I was touched by this statement and encouraged him in his recent endeavor, suggesting a couple of different recipes. The hilarity didn't stop there, though. His next text came through:

"So do you have any vegetarian stuff"

The image above was the first one conjured in our heads, and more laughter ensued.

I asked him if he meant vegetables and he said yes. I'm very excited now to share with my little brother all of the vast options that vegetables can bring to the table. Stuff included.

Good News/Bad News

2010-02-09T06:46:00.001-08:00

Bad News: I'm an idiot when it comes to assembling kitchen appliances.

Good News: The food processor works!

Warm and Fuzzy Factor

2010-02-07T09:35:00.000-08:00

I decided that I'm going to start rating the food I make based on the "Warm and Fuzzy" factor. This is not limited to hot foods. Even if a dish is served cold, it has just as much of the ability to make me feel warm inside. And not to mention fuzzy.

For example, the peanut butter and honey toast snack I am currently enjoying would get a warm and fuzzy factor of 9.9, 10 being very warm and fuzzy, 0 being cold and...you get the idea.

Also I want to rate food for things like,

How It Could Be Better: If the toast were my mom's homemade bread.
How It Could Be Worse: If I didn't have local honey from Howell, or was using commercial peanut butter instead of the organic one from my store (albeit a little expired...that's the only reason I have it. It's still good!).

I will probably not be very diligent with this scoring but this was fun anyway. Now I want more toast.

Summer in February

2010-02-07T05:59:00.000-08:00

First of all, a couple of short tidbits:

1. Cameron and I went Goodwill hunting yesterday for some new kitchen supplies. I got a couple new pans, glasses (including a wine glass and a snifter!), and...drumroll...a BRAND NEW FOOD PROCESSOR FOR ONLY $9.99!! We've been wanting one for a long time and we were so excited to find it, hardly used, and with all the parts.

2. Went home, tested the food processor. Doesn't work. Should have done that before we bought it. Major disappointment. :(

3. I made up for the disappointment by making own vegetable stock for the first time! It turned out really nice and I got to use some of it right away.

Ok, so then I cooked up a recipe that my friend Tracey passed along to me. She had snipped it out of a magazine and thought I would be interested. I was! Check out the ingredient list: quinoa, corn, chickpeas, beets, onions, feta cheese, basil, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil.

I went to the farmer's market earlier in the day to get my broth ingredients and the feta cheese.

The quinoa toss was easy to throw together (pun intented) and I cooked it with my fresh broth. I tasted it when I just put the corn, chickpeas and quinoa together and it was already really flavorful before I even added the herbs and spices. The recipe called for chopped sweet onion but I used scallions instead, and I'm glad I did. The final product ended up being probably one of my favorite dishes I've ever made so far. I couldn't put my finger on an ethnicity for it; it had shades of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Mexican, even African. The best part was scooping it up with fresh romaine lettuce. All I could think about was how great it would be as a cool, hearty, refreshing lunch on a hot summer day at the beach.

The lame phone camera picture makes it look mushy and weird but the texture was moist and light.

I waited until Cameron got home from work before I ate a full bowl (although I practically already filled myself from taste testing so much) and he brought a bottle of Tamas Estates Double Decker red wine. They went great together with a new Office episode.

So thanks a bunch for the recipe, Tracey! I'm going to be making this over and over, especially in the summer time!

Eggplant Soup

2010-02-03T09:31:00.000-08:00

I cooked with eggplant for the first time last night. I made creamy eggplant soup. It was really yummy. The end.

All Fun Whatsoever

2010-02-02T06:13:00.000-08:00

Twenty-five days of no sugar, starches, dairy, yeast (beer), and caffeine. Sound impossible? Well I did it!

Aside from a few occasions of error throughout those three weeks, I did it.

I think I accomplished my goal of overcoming my desire for crappy, refined, sugary food. If someone were to offer me a Hershey's Kiss, I'd say no thank you (whereas before I could hardly resist saying "yes please!!"). However, I don't feel I'm much better off on the more relatively "wholesome" sweets such as homemade chocolate muffins Cameron brought home from the chef at his work. I devoured one and a half of those little guys yesterday.

I think the next few days will be toughest, because now that I can eat whatever I want, my desire for whatever I want is strongest. But I feel that craving the most intensely now because it's much heavier on my conscience. We'll see how well I can bounce back.

In the meantime I'm feeling great and excited to go back to cooking delicious meals with whatever ingredients I desire. I have a recent inspiration to start baking, too. Especially breads. I'm excited!

As I polish off my breakfast fruit smoothie, I look forward to enjoying one beer tonight at French Laundry and the rest of my days in hopeful healthful moderation. At least until the next crazy no fun whatsoever cleanse.

NFWC: One more day!!

2010-01-30T19:24:00.000-08:00

Cameron and I both had today off so we decided to spend it in Ann Arbor.

...Problem is, he's done with his cleanse, and I've got one more day to go. We spent some time drinking tea and studying at Crazy Wisdom, then decided to get a snack at Seva (we're having trouble branching out from our usual A2 spots). I decided that instead of stressing myself out over what I was going to be able to eat, I would kind of go with the Grand Rapids attitude and just pick something wholesome that appealed to me. I went with a bowl of butternut apple bisque. Delicious. Of course neither of us could resist a heaping basket of yam fries so I admittedly indulged in those as well, which, of course, tasted especially more wonderful than usual.

Unfortunately I felt a little icky later after the starch overload.

Cameron and some other friends are going out to see what's up with Flint tonight. I feel a little left out since I decided to stay at home instead of watch everyone else drink beer, but this is the what I signed up for, and I'm going to see it to the end. Especially since I cheated a little at lunch.

But really I don't feel that bad because I can't stand how cold it is outside right now and I want to avoid any unnecessary amount of time spent in it. I say party at my house. That way I don't have to leave it.

How to Keep Your Kid Sick

2010-01-29T17:16:00.000-08:00

While I was at work today, a woman came in with her daugther, who was probably around seven years old. The mother said that the girl was sick and she needed something to help her get better. I suggested a few things that she promptly rejected because they were either in forms that the child wouldn't tolerate swallowing, or she would refuse to eat them if she didn't like the taste. The girl was coughing and sounded very congested so I suggested some natural cough suppressant and decongestant, so eventually she was convinced to try it, as well as a chewable immune booster complex for kids.

It wasn't until the mother said, "I want to get something that will help boost her immune system so she can kick the cold," that I noticed what the girl was carrying and sipping on. A big, bright blue slushy from Burger King.

People, come on. Wake up.

It was hard to resist saying, "Oh, you want to boost her immune system?" then taking the slushy out of the girl's hand and throwing it in the garbage. I could have at least suggested to her that staying away from sugar and fast food and feeding her lots of fresh and wholesome foods would do wonders for her health, but I didn't.

It's really starting to amaze me that people are so flabbergasted about being sick, tired, fat, constipated, depressed, and generally unhappy all the time. The last thing they think of that could be the cause of any of it is food. Food is just there to keep our stomachs from grumbling, right? It doesn't really make much of a difference in our health and wellbeing.

It's attitudes like this that keep me passionate about my job. If I can just plant a little seed in someone's mind about better diet and lifestyle, I can hope that seed will soon sprout and grow into liberating life changes.

One seed at a time.

NFWC: Day 23 (And a few words on eggs)

2010-01-29T07:00:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been easy, then tough, then annoying, then nauseating, then great all over again.

This candida cleanse has really taken me for a loop and has taught me more about my mind than my physical body, I think, because I have felt more mental convictions than phyisical changes within the past few weeks.

I've finally nailed down breakfast (now that I'm almost done, of course). Yesterday and today I sauteed some asparagus in garlic and butter, then added two fried eggs over easy. Easy, simple, delicious, and not as filling or overwhelming as my previous egg meals have been.

I've been thinking about eggs a lot too. I avoid eating commercially produced eggs (even the ones that say "free range"), and I even feel sort of iffy about the ones I've been getting at the Farmer's Market. Even though I can talk to the farmers and tell they're legitimate, committed and caring, I don't really know much about where my eggs are coming from. I suppose I could just ask more questions about them, but even then, I don't really know. So I've decided, that someday when I have a place big enough, not to mention enough money, that I want to raise a chicken. Maybe two, since they are very social creatures. I've been doing research on hens and I came to the question of because hens lay eggs whether a rooster is around or not, what happens to all the eggs? Since they aren't fertilized, they cannot become another chicken. There's no baby chick fetus inside, they're just nutritious, organic eggs that otherwise go to waste. What could be even relatively unethical about raising my own chicken, treating her with love and respect like I would any other pet, and taking advantage of her gift of a daily protein nugget? I think it would be great and a very rewarding, symbiotic sort of relationship.

That's all I've got to share today other than I would like to encourage more feedback from my readers. I know you're out there because you've told me you like my blog! So let me know why you like it! Give me some feedback, let's start a conversation!

Make Your Own Toothpaste!

2010-01-27T07:57:00.000-08:00

I stopped using commercial toothpaste a while ago (fluoride, artificial flavors, colors, preservatives...isn't this supposed to make my mouth clean?). When I switched to natural versions (my favorite is Nature's Gate anise flavored), I was happy and feeling much cleaner, but I was spending a lot more money. I'm kind of neurotic about keeping my mouth clean, so I go through a tube pretty fast. I started looking for another alternative.

Well whaddaya know, there are plenty of recipes online for making your own toothpaste! And the best part is, it's easy and cheap!

Here's what I did:

1. Pour some (like my scientific measurement?) baking soda in a little container.
2. Add a pinch of salt (real, unrefined salt is better than table salt).
3. Add several drops of your favorite essential oils. I used peppermint and tea tree oil (which is an antiseptic). If you use essential oils, be careful not to swallow them. The ones I have are for topical use only and are not "food grade." I'm assuming that no harm is done by me swishing and spitting with them but I guess I should do more research first.
4. Mix water in, slowly, until you have achieved a pasty texture.

I think I put a little too much salt in my first batch, because it is very, well, salty. Which can be gross or refreshing depending on how you like it. The mixture does not get foamy, but it's nice and gritty which I think is what really gets your teeth clean. My teeth feel polished and grime free afterwards. And the oils do a pretty good job refreshing my breath too.

So I guess if you don't have any oils, the initial purchase can be a little pricey. But essential oils are so valuable and versatile, you can use them for a hundred different things, and it's good to have them around anyway. Plus, 99 cent package of baking soda, a dash of salt, a couple bottles of essential oils and a few drops of water are going to end up stretching your dollars a hundred times more than buying tube after tube of toothpaste, no to mention less packaging waste!

I Love CBC

2010-01-27T07:34:00.000-08:00

This post is dedicated to one of my favorite Flint locations: CBC Recycling Center.

I went about a year of living in Flint without even knowing about it, probably because I'm really stupid because it's hard to miss if you're going south on Saginaw St. The big brick building with an entrance on 13th St. looks scary and kinda shady, but after my first visit there I've got nothing but good vibes coming from it.

I am responsible for gathering up all the recyclable material from the health food store I work at in Fenton, in addition to all my own recycling, which isn't too big a task for my Ford Ranger pickup. I just toss it all in the back and unload when I get a chance. There have been several times where the people who work there have offered to help me unload. Everyone is incredibly cheerful and genuine there, and how could you not be if you're working for such a noble cause?

The place isn't glamorous, though. On a warm day it's muddy (don't wear flip-flops, I learned the hard way). On a cold day it's icy. Sometimes it's hard to tell if you're separating things into the right bins because it's a little disorganized and is pretty much a glorified junk yard. But it's still completely worth the trip, especially since it's free.

They're a little picky about the things you should and shouldn't drop off. Here are a couple guidelines:

- Corrugated cardboard boxes only; no plastic coated cardboard or paper, such as cereal boxes. (Although, whenever the workers help me unload, they have taken my stacks of cereal boxes and what not and thrown them onto the pile with everything else, so I'm not sure if they really take it or not)
- #1 and #2 plastic bottles only; no garbage bags, yogurt containers, etc. Check the numbers on the bottom of your containers.
- They do accept tin and aluminum cans
- Supposedly they also take newpaper and junk mail but I have yet to find the proper bin for that.
- NO GLASS WHATSOEVER.

The last one is a bummer, but you can take your glass to the Flint Township Center on Dye Rd. The crappy thing about that is that they only collect it from 9-Noon on the third Saturday of every month. Make sure you get there early enough because we tried going there last week and they were already gone.

If you aren't recycling, you should be, and you don't have any excuses, especially if you live in Flint. Imagine everything you throw away being dragged off to that landfill by Grand Blanc Rd. you get to smell every time you hit US23. And no, the but-my-cardboard-is-biodegradable argument doesn't hold up: it will not break down in the landfill. It will sit there for years and years, contributing to all sorts of pollution that we and our future generations will have to pay for.

So please, take ten minutes out of your week to swing by CBC and be good to yourself, your family, and the earth!

The Best Lentil Soup You'll Ever Taste or Make (And it's Vegan!)

2010-01-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

After many trials and tribulation, I believe I have finally pinned down the best combination of ingredients for the most superior lentil soup recipe. I am going to be so gracious as to share it with you all.

Special Equipment: blender

Ingredients:
- 1 cup lentils (red or green)
- 1/2 cup split peas
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- 2 tomatoes, chopped (can be substituted with canned diced tomatoes, or tomato paste. Use what you've got!)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 cups vegetable broth or stock
- 2-3 extra cups of water
- 1 cup milk (almond, soy or rice is preferred)
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley (or cilantro, or whatever fresh herbs you've got on hand)
- 1 whole garlic clove
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 2 cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- dash of cayenne
- salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
- slivered almonds (optional)

Directions:
1. Thoroughly rinse lentils and peas, sifting through to pick out any bad guys.
2. Combine all ingredients except milk into large pot.
3. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer, uncovered, for 30-45 minutes, or until lentils and peas are cooked through. Add more water if needed. Sometimes the beans soak it all up before they're done.
4. Work on your juggling skills while you wait. Maybe brush up on your Shakespeare.
5. Remove cinnamon stick and cloves.
6. Working in batches, pour mixture into blender and blend until smooth, or until desired consistency.
7. Return pureed soup to pot and add milk.
8. Turn heat up until entire mixture is hot.
9. Dish into bowls and sprinkle with slivered almonds.
10. Serve with pita chips, warm naan bread, or just eat the soup by itself like there's no tomorrow.

If you want a thicker, heartier soup, you can always just cook everything until it's done and eat it without blending. But my favorite part about it is the smooth texture. To each his own. Also, I must admit that I was mostly following this recipe but I ended up straying away and concocting my own sort of thing. I hope that isn't plagiarism.

NFWC: Day 19

2010-01-25T06:57:00.000-08:00

Things are getting better.

Cameron and I both felt really icky after our night of debauchery at TGI Friday's. All the greasy, cheesy, carby stuff we ate that night did not have anything nice to say to us the next morning. It made getting back on track with the cleanse a little more encouraging.

I don't feel guilty at all for our "cheat" day. I had one beer, but it was a good beer. I had one cup of coffee, but it was good coffee. I had a veggie wrap, but it was all raw, except for some jalapeno cream cheese dressing, and the spinach wrap was thin and wholesome. The veggie chili didn't have much in it that I wouldn't have eaten otherwise, plus it was a small cup that we shared. The seasoned fries were probably the biggest no-no. I'm not even counting the TGI Friday's stuff because that was practically forced upon us since we didn't think we had any other choice.

So even though I gave myself free reign to eat during that trip, I didn't even desire to indulge that much. I still preferred healthier, more wholesome food than the junkier menu options. I could have gotten a sugary latte at MadCap, but instead I wanted a plain, robust cup of black coffee. This is a good thing.

I've been noticing the past few days that I have definitely lost weight. The pants I wore to Grand Rapids were dragging along the ground and I had to tighten my belt an extra notch. Since I don't exactly have extra weight I can afford to lose, I'm a little concerned about this and am trying to eat more. I'll admit I have been lazy and tired this week and have skipped several meals because I just don't feel like cooking anything and it's easier to just munch on nuts. I'm sure my weight loss is due to my lack of eating and not my food changes.

Only one more week including today. I'm on the home stretch now!

A Day in Grand Rapids

2010-01-23T20:00:00.000-08:00

We're back from our short weekend in Grand Rapids! We took pictures of our adventures there...

When we got into town, we wanted to go to HopCat, which is the #3 beer bar in the WORLD.

Me being obnoxious in front of a bottled beer display in HopCat.

Our friend James, who I was gigging with, joined us for a beer and good conversation. I got a Dead Monk on tap and it was heavenly, mostly because it had been so long since I'd had a beer of any kind. I felt so dirty! But in a good way.

Cameron and I were a little hungry too so we split a hippie wrap (which was exactly what it sounds like) and some veggie chili and crack fries. It was all delicious! And our waitress was very cool and chill and seemed genuinely excited to guide us through our first HopCat experience.

After the late lunch we decided to meander the city a little bit...

Pretending to be a tourist who freaks out and wants to take pictures with the most insignificant things.

We were parked right next to Schuler Books so we hung out in there for a bit. I thought it was a kind of cool bookstore since you could order and drink beer there.

Soon it was gig time, so we walked around the corner to Mad Cap (Grand Rapids is full of funny name places...Hop Cat, Mad Cap...). This is not your ordinary coffee shop. This place was legit. I love this excerpt from their website: "We develop relationships with farmers. We purchase as much of our coffee directly from the farmer as possible. If we have not traveled to the farm, all of our coffee is traceable to the farm and location. We ensure our interactions with the farmer are sustainable and transparent." That alone made me love this place, and the product was proof of their commitment to the trade. I normally put cream in my coffee, but I felt that I would be tainting something already perfect, and drank it black. Wonderful.

The gig was fun! I opened for a band called Open Land, headed by Dean Wiers-Windemuller. Fantastic musicians with even more fantastic stage presence.

They knew how to put on a good show and connect with the audience. The audience, by the way, packed the place out! It was definitely a success, and I even sold some CDs.

Dean and his wife were so gracious as to host us for the night so we wouldn't have to make the two hour trip back home until morning. But first, our goal was to get something to eat. Our light lunch at HopCat was yummy, but not completely satisfying.

Unfortunately, it was 10:45 p.m. and every restaurant we thought of was closing its kitchen in fifteen minutes. We didn't do our research first to find out what good eateries would be open late on the weekend, so instead we decided to find one old school-style.

Which means we just drove around until we found one.

The only place we could find was...prepare yourself...TGI Fridays. Now let me tell you, under any other circumstances, we wouldn't have wanted to set foot in a corporate chain restaurant like that, especially one so centralized on factory farmed meat. But we were hungry, it was getting late, and we had no idea where the hell else to go.

We didn't feel too daunted by the place -everyone was very friendly, considering how busy they were- until we looked at the menu. Literally, and I do not exaggerate, every single item on the menu had meat of some kind in it. There wasn't even a veggie burger option! There's always a veggie burger or something that a vegetarian can fall back on in the worst case scenario. Not at TGI Fridays. Even the mac and cheese was sprinkled with bacon and "served with chicken breast." Who puts chicken in mac and cheese? We went ahead and ordered it, hold the meat, along with some spinach dip (I guess I lied, that was the only thing that didn't have meat in it).

The food was expensive, and not even that good. Our waitress was awesome, though, and very understanding of our situation. She even rang our mac and cheese up as a side instead of a main dish since we didn't get any meat in it, which made it almost half the price.

So TGI Fridays gets a 0 for ethics and a 10 for service, which you would think would go hand in hand, but in this case I suppose not. At least I can say TGIFNGTA: Thank God I'm F****** Never Going There Again.

Me feeling gross after eating microwaved spinach dip and mac and cheese. Keep in mind this was way off our diet, so our bodies weren't exactly happy about the sudden change.

We stayed at Dean and Cicely's house for the night and headed out this morning. Other than the meat fest nightmare it was a very relaxing and rewarding mini vacation. Full of good food (for the most part), good beer, good coffee, good friends, and good music! Best combination ever!

NFWC: An Exception

2010-01-21T20:34:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my previous entry, I was a little nervous about my overnight trip to Grand Rapids this weekend. Mostly because I was bummed that I was going to be in such a cool city with great restaurants, and playing in an amazing, completely legit coffee house. But I wasn't going to be able to enjoy any of it. At least not on my palate.

I shared these woes with my mom today, who is also on the cleanse, and she told me that I should just forget about it and give myself a day to enjoy whatever I wanted. She suggested that I go to Grand Rapids, enjoy the city and its offerings, cheat a little but not feel bad about it, and when I come home, get right back on track with the rest of the cleanse.

I think that sounds like a good idea. Not a cop out.

So here I go, feeling like a little kid sneaking a cookie from the jar. Will I have a cup of "real" coffee? Will I maybe enjoy a nice beer? Will I eat something with sugar or carbs in it? Who knows and who cares!

But I promise, when I get home, it's back to the rules for me.

Maybe I'll finally have something fun to write about other than this stupid detox!

NFWC: End of Week 2...I think...what day is it?

2010-01-20T06:38:00.000-08:00

Nothing too incredibly exciting to report for this two-thirds-of-the-way point except for some physical observations...

- I have lost my appetite in the morning. My usual routine, before the cleanse, was to whip up a fruit smoothie with flax oil, fresh spinach, and a green food powder. My morning routine now goes something like this......oh wait, there is no routine. That's because I haven't quite pinned down a breakfast staple yet other than eggs. Sometimes I'll just eat leftovers from whatever I made for dinner the night before. But I've noticed that when I cook eggs for breakfast, I start to feel this odd wave of nausea before I eat. I lose my appetite and I have to lay down for a few minutes. It goes away seemingly as randomly as it appears. But I think this is a way of my body telling me, "This is wayyyy too heavy of a meal first thing in the morning. Where's my fresh fruit??"

- I am nuts for nuts. Almonds, macadamias, pistachios, pecans and walnuts have been my little kamikaze angels. I bring some with me everywhere. I snack on them at home. I even had them for dinner last night. I crave them when I don't have them. I love them because they're delicious, crunchy, salty (I have yet to find unsalted nuts sold in bulk), and, best of all, filling. Lots of protein and good fats crammed in these little guys to keep me going.

- I still can't seem to motivate myself to get more creative with recipes. I think at this point I've been subconsciously telling myself, "You're almost done now, might as well just keep making what you've been making instead of doing the extra work to find something new."

I'm playing at show in Grand Rapids on Friday and Cameron and I will be staying there overnight. I'm worried about this because what if we can't find anything we can eat while we're there? I don't want to inconvenience the people we will be staying with. And it's not like we can just go out for breakfast at a local diner and load up on omelettes, because I sure as hell am not buying or eating eggs whose origins are ambiguous. I'm afraid we'll have to cheat. And no, I am not using this as an excuse. I don't want to cheat. I suppose we will see what happens until we discover what our options are.

NFWC: The Halfway Point

2010-01-18T18:44:00.000-08:00

The worst is over and I'm halfway there! Celebrating with this funky looking lentil soup recipe.

NFWC: Day 10

2010-01-16T13:22:00.000-08:00

Sorry for that sort of depressing last post.

I've been feeling much stronger since then. I've gotten into the swing of my new diet and instead of looking at it as an inconvenience, I just look at it as something that simply has to be done, so I just gotta deal with it and enjoy it.

I have, however, been lazy, at least creatively. Instead of digging for fresh recipes, I've been tending to fall back on the usual vegetable stir-fry, scrambled eggs, lentil soup, etc. staples. Which is starting to get a little old, especially for Cameron. Maybe tonight I should try coming up with something a little more exciting.

But then again, who am I to complain when I get to eat things that look as delicious as this??

Only 15 more days to go...

NFWC: End of Week 1

2010-01-13T17:12:00.000-08:00

I made it through the first week.

I think I'm having the opposite experience that my mother is having. She said the first week was the hardest for her, the cravings and physical withdrawals were the most intense. For me, the first week was easy. It was fun and challenging.

Now I'm starting to get frustrated, mostly just by the inconvenience. It's incredibly hard to avoid all sugars, starches, cheese, yeast, caffeine, etc. when everything on the market contains those things. Sure it's easy for me to cook at home and make a really tasty and satisfying meal, but I can't go out to eat anywhere. If I'm hungry at work and forgot to bring my own snacks, I'm SOL because nothing within sight is acceptable.

It's encouraging to know that I'm a third of the way through, but I won't pretend that I'm not getting a little tired of it. It really makes me appreciate the times where I am able to eat whatever I want.

I'm still not experiencing any intense cravings, but instead I'm feeling something more like a longing. Right now I long the most for bread and all pastry foods. I keep running across delicious recipes I want to make like samosas and naan bread but I have to put them off for post-cleanse because they involve flour and such.

I guess I was expecting my first week post to be a little more uplifting but I guess I feel sort of worn out at this point.

However, I'm still holding out hope for the next two weeks and four days. It's inconvenient and it's hard, but it's still worth it.

Coffee Alternative Tip

2010-01-12T08:21:00.000-08:00

Since I cannot have coffee on this cleanse (and ultimately would like to completely eliminate my consumption of it), I have discovered this hot cozy beverage alternative with the help of my mom and Cameron.

Just heat up some milk (rice milk in my case) and steep with any variety of black tea (Cameron likes chai the best). Sprinkle with cinnamon. My mom likes to sweeten with stevia.

Sure it doesn't compare to the robust flavor of a hot cup of joe, but at least it takes care of the desire for something warm and cozy in a ceramic mug. And it's tasty too!

NFWC: Day 5

2010-01-11T18:38:00.000-08:00

A fifth of the way done and I'm still alive!

I think of all the people around me who are also doing the cleanse (mainly my boyfriend and my mom), I am the least physically affected so far. I don't feel any intense withdrawals or cravings(other than the usual, "I want to eat that bug bar sample"), no mood changes, no physical differences. I guess I was expecting something more dramatic to happen five days in, especially after hearing of my mother's first week woes. But so far I still feel strong, maybe because I'm trying not to allow myself to think of this diet as an "inconvenience." It is a blessing to me. It is a positive change, not a horrible thing I just need to get over with.

For breakfast we made leftover scramble. Basically I scrambled up some eggs and threw in leftovers of a bunch of stuff in my fridge, such as quinoa stirfry, artichoke and mushrooms, etc. It was really delicious, actually. I'm surprisingly not getting sick of eggs yet, which is strange since I went from virtually never eating them to eating them virtually every day.

The only physical difference I've noticed so far was this morning when I had a glass of rice milk with breakfast. It was plain rice milk, but it tasted surprisingly sweet. Plain rice milk has never tasted sweet to me before. I'm glad my taste buds are already adjusting; hopefully after 25 days, intentionally sweet things will be overbearing and I won't even like them. Hopefully.

Sorry if people are bored with these clease updates, but this is pretty much the most interesting thing happening to me right now!

Fuji Bistro: Not the Place for a Vegetarian on a Candida Cleanse

2010-01-10T17:43:00.000-08:00

So as I mentioned in my previous post, Cameron's parents wanted to take us out for dinner as a birthday present to him. We suggested Sagano, since even though it would be partially cheating, we could sort of eat sushi on the cleanse (the rice would be the cheating part). We couldn't really think of any other place to go that would be a valid option, so we decided to go there and cheat a little. Unfortunately, we showed up at 12ish and they didn't open until 3. We decided to try out the new Japanese bistro buffet on the corner of Linden and Lennon, called Fuji.

We had heard from a friend that there were many vegetarian options there, so we were confident of a satisfying dining experience.

Well, sure enough, there were plenty of vegetarian options, but they were all either rice or pasta dishes, or smothered in some sort of sugary sauce. The sushi bar was the biggest disappointment. There were tons of delicious looking rolls surrounding the chef who was making them fresh on the spot, but they all had fish in them. All except one lonely dish labeled, "veggie rolls." Granted, the veggie rolls were pretty yummy, but it was a little disappointing to have only one option out of the entire bar. We considered asking our server or the chef if there were any other options, or if they would be willing to custom roll some for us, but the place was really busy and we didn't want to inconvenience them too much.

So we cheated by eating our fair share of some sushi rolls wrapped in totally-not-allowed white rice, and even the few other options we could eat, such as the seaweed salad and steamed Chinese broccoli, were yummy, but I could tell they were marinated in some sort of sweet sauce, but of course we couldn't tell until we had already tasted it. I guess that comes with the territory of the buffet scene.

Being on the diet made it extremely difficult to eat our money's worth (or rather, Cameron's parents' money's worth). When we left, I felt full, but still kind of empty with disappointment. Usually when new places open up around here I find that they are becoming more and more accomodating to vegetarian diets, but this place definitely didn't have us in mind when they planned out their menu. Granted, if we weren't on the diet we would have been able to enjoy a much greater variety of vegetarian dishes. But the sushi bar was the biggest disappointment for sure.

Next time I think we'll stick with Sagano and try to memorize their store hours.

NFWC: Day 4

2010-01-10T17:16:00.000-08:00

Still going strong. I think yesterday was our best day so far, with a no-cheating breakfast, lentil soup from the Farmer's Market for lunch, and a whole bunch of yummy and totally allowed stuff for dinner.

I wanted to make a yummy salad dressing and dip that didn't have sugar in it, so I found a recipe for raita (roy-tha), a traditional Indian dish that is mostly composed of yogurt and cucumber. The recipe I found I think was supposed to be kind of thick and chunky but I wanted to use it as a salad dressing, so I ran it through the blender for a couple of seconds.

Internet image, but basically looks just like mine.

After that I blended up some more of the avocado hummus I'd made over the new year, so now I have a fresh batch of that to dip my veggies in. Both recipes turned out very flavorful and with a good consistency.

Since I'd had a lot of cooked food for breakfast and lunch, I made a spinach salad tossed with the raita for a dinner appetizer as I waited for Cameron to get out of work so I could start dinner.

Dinner was the best part since it was my first experience with cooking artichokes. Alright, so I mostly cheated since they were canned, but still, I felt like I was breaking new ground. I found this really cool recipe for a vegan baked artichoke and mushroom casserole. I freaking love artichoke, but Cameron's not a big fan. Still, he was open to eating them and he liked the casserole because it had lots of mushrooms, something he does love. I'm really excited to make more dishes with artichoke.

Today we didn't do quite as well...Cameron's parents wanted to take us out to lunch as a belated birthday present...I think I'll make a separate entry about that since it's more like a restaurant review.

For dinner we had falafel patties with tomatoes and cucumbers. I definitely overindulged in them.

I'm starting to notice more the foods that I normally allow myself to eat but haven't been able to. Random things I see throughout the day will set off crazy cravings because they look and smell delicious, such as...

- Coffee

- Baklava

- Pita bread

- Hot cocoa

- Anything with honey

Nothing has been too intense yet, though. Just silly, fleeting desires that go away as soon as I think about something else. Like delicious falafel!

NFWC: Day 2

2010-01-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

So I survived day one, mostly because I unintentionally cheated. Yesterday was day two and it went a little more smoothly.

Cameron made us vegetable omelettes in the morning, filled with asparagus, mushrooms, green onion and the like, and smothered with fresh avocado. And here I was thinking we couldn't eat anything fun on this diet!

The omelette was so filling that I didn't feel hungry for anything else, except snacking on nuts during work.

When I came home I decided to make some quinoa vegetable stir fry.

Quinoa is a grain, which I know isn't allowed, but since I am not eating meat I need protein from elsewhere. Quinoa is extremely nutritious and by itself provides a complete protein. And it's delicious tossed with crisp, warm veggies!

Don't feel much of a difference in my body yet. I miss sugar, but I haven't had any intense cravings yet, other than when I went to the GFAC last night for the artwalk and they had those awesome cheesecake bite squares that I love. But I easily resisted, undaunted by their allure.

I am also taking a candida cleanse supplement that I hope will assist in my dietary efforts.

Today is day three, and so far for breakfast I've had some leftover quinoa stir fry, which tasted even more flavorful after sitting in the fridge overnight. Heading back up to the Farmer's Market today to get some more supplies for more recipes!

No Fun Whatsoever Cleanse: Day 1

2010-01-07T17:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Cameron's birthday, which was the reason we waited until today to start our cleanse. We both wanted to be able to drink some good beer on his birthday (and we did, at Ashley's in Ann Arbor- only place around to get Aventinus on tap!).

So today was the official first day. No sugar, no fruit, no starch, no cheese...nothing good, basically.

We went to the Farmer's Market to pick up some local eggs, something we normally don't eat but for the sake of the cleanse, will need the extra protein.

So for breakfast/lunch we scrambled up some eggs and vegetables. We didn't make much, so soon afterwards we were hungry again, and did a really dumb thing. For some reason I forgot that potatoes weren't allowed. So we had some roased yams and redskins. They were delicious......but totally not allowed. So I guess we sort of screwed up our first day.

During work I munched on some nuts, and now I'm going to toss together a spinach salad to try to make up for the erroneous lunch.

It's going to be a tough three weeks, but I'm up for the challenge.

Seeds

2010-01-05T08:52:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't been very good about updating lately. It doesn't mean I haven't been cookin'! In fact, I made some pretty awesome avocado hummus (I call it guaca-hummus) for our New Year's party last week. I also fried up some yummy thai curry tofu the night before last. I haven't been taking pictures because I don't have a functional camera right now and if Cameron's not around, there's no camera available. I'm working on getting mine fixed.

Anyway, what I really wanted to update about today was my sprouts! My lentils that started poking above the soil surface a week and a half ago are now almost a foot tall! The thing I love the most about them is that they slightly bend towards the window, reaching for sunlight; I think it's so fascinating how smart plants are.

I gave up on my green beans and ginger; neither did anything aside from sit there and look stubborn. So I gave up on them and instead planted some coriander, celery, and caraway seeds. Tomorrow I'm going to plant a redskin potato. Hopefully these guys will be a little more eager to get up and do something!

I so wish I had pictures of my lentil plant...

Ketchup

2009-12-29T05:30:00.000-08:00

I haven't been writing much lately because I started feeling under the weather again. Thought I had nipped it in the bud but it came back to nip me in the bum!

Thus, I haven't been doing much cooking the past few days and have instead been completely spoiled by Cameron taking over and fixing the majority of our lunches and dinners. The other night he concocted his own linguini, tomato, fresh mozzarella and asparagus combination that was very delicious. He thought it would be a good idea to try eating half a raw clove of garlic and subsequently reeked of it for the rest of the night.

Hopefully soon I will be doing some more cooking because I feel right as rain again (knock on wood). We are starting our candida cleanse on January 7th so we need to be getting ready for that soon. I guess I didn't do as much research as I thought I did on the diet regimen, because I didn't realize that we can't even eat fruit, because there are natural sugars in them. So basically anything that is relatively sweet and could possibly have any sugar content is a no-go. Also I read somewhere that fermented products were not allowed, which is a bummer because I was planning on drinking a lot of kombucha. I guess it just depends on each person's body and how they react to the cleanse. I figure if I at least just stay away from all sugar and yeast I should be okay.

P.S. Did I never mention that my lentils started sprouting??? They are almost an inch high right now!! Still waiting for the green beans and ginger root to catch up...

Hunch

2009-12-27T14:20:00.001-08:00

I just want to share this website I found:

http://hunch.com/dinner-ideas/

It's an awesome website that helps you narrow down recipe ideas when you want to make something but you're not sure what to do.

Eating Out: Sushi Coma!!

2009-12-27T08:54:00.000-08:00

First of all, I understand that my pictures haven't been working in the last couple of posts. I think it's because the files are too big. I'm working on getting that fixed soon. The pictures are the best part, after all!

Yesterday I was feeling pretty good after spending the entire morning on the couch watching old Scrubs episodes. Cameron asked me if I felt well enough to be taken out for dinner. Of course I said yes! After much delegation and elimination of which restaurant we were going to visit, we narrowed it down to Sagano, the awesome hibachi place on Linden Rd. We normally sit on the hibachi side, but last night we had hankerings for sushi, so we ventured to the other side of the restaurant.

The last time I had sushi was with my uncle in Los Angeles this past summer, which is pretty hard to beat, but Sagano's sushi is nonetheless amazing, especially since we got all vegetarian varieties so we didn't have to worry about the freshness or legitimacy of the fish.

We didn't take any pictures of our meal, I just swooped this from the Internet.

We ordered four rolls of sushi goodness, in addition to a vegetable tempura appetizer, not to mention a glass of wine and a French mojito. We really let ourselves indulge by topping it off with some --ok, a giant mound of-- tempura ice cream, which Cameron practically defeated by himself like a champ since I wimped out after just a few bites.

All in all we left the place feeling more than satisfied and happy about our dinner experience. Our server, Jared, was helpful and sincere. The whole vibe in the room was positive and uplifting, as it usually is. We rarely go out to eat anymore since we cook at home all time, which is great, but it's also nice to get out of the kitchen and let others do the work every now and then. Not to mention pay for it. Thanks Cameron. :)

We didn't realize how inexpensive it could be to eat there someday if we just wanted some sushi but weren't incredibly hungry. With just waters, no dessert or appetizer and one less roll than we ordered (four was filling enough!), one could get by with less than ten bucks a person probably. Not bad for fresh, artistic food and sincere service!

Christmas Day Cooking Extravaganza

2009-12-26T07:37:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I decided that I wasn't going to celebrate Christmas this year. It's just not really my thing anymore and I hate the idea of feeling obligated to treat your loved ones with superficial objects. I'd rather do that when I want to, not when Walmart wants me to.

Anyway, I thought that instead of buying gifts for my family on Christmas, I would treat them by cooking dinner for them. I decided to make the roasted potatoes and ginger garlic green beans that I blogged about a few weeks ago. The meal that caused Cameron to spill wine all over the place because it was so good.

I have a big family with big appetites so it was quite a challenge to more than quadruple the recipe. Fortunately I had my mom's help which made things a lot easier. Of course my family insisted on still having a ham, so I completely left that job up to my mom. ;)

That's right, two baking sheets full of potato and yammy goodness.

Green beans, ginger, garlic, and shaved almonds. A heavenly quartet.

Everything turned out lovely and everyone enjoyed the food. We didn't get pictures of the salad, ham, wine or dinner table because the camera ran out of batteries.

The only bad part about the day was the fact that I started getting sick around 11:30 that morning when I got to my parents'. I have been incredibly healthy this year and was hoping I wouldn't get sick at all during the winter but I guess I got sneak attacked. I'm feeling much better today, though, after downing some Silver Shield and Wellness Formula (and an awesome massage from Cameron) and have a roaring appetite for some leftovers from yesterday.

Christmas Eve Quiche Capisce!

2009-12-25T14:51:00.000-08:00

Last night I was browsing through vegetarian meals and came across a bangin' recipe for....dun dun dun...eggless quiche! I received much chagrin from Facebookers, claiming that it's not quiche without eggs, but I was determined and sent Cameron to the store for a few ingredients that I didn't already have.

While I was waiting, my good friend Pat called me and said he was in town for Christmas, so he stopped by. Good timing for him since we let him stay for dinner!

The quiche was so easy to make, I basically just had to combine all the ingredients and pour it into a 9" pie crust. The recipe used tofu to replace the eggs. I'm not a big tofu fan but I'll use it if I have to. I was wary of the tofu sort of ruining the flavor of the pie so I made sure I added a lot of garlic. I also added mushrooms and used fresh spinach instead of frozen.

The pie crust Cameron bought came with two, which was good because the "batter" filled up both of them! So we ended up with two spinach quiche pies.

Me entertaining with a bit of uke while waiting for the quiche to bake.

When the baking time was up, the consistancy of the pie was still pretty runny so we let it bake for probably about fifteen minutes longer than the recipe called for. Even after we let it set, the top was golden brown and firm but the inside was still too soft, so it didn't look that appetizing when we cut it and dished it up onto plates.

However...the way the quiche looked had nothing to do with the way it tasted. All three of us were completely blown away by how great it was. I've had a lot of quiche in my day, and I've never tasted anything as yummy as this.

Pat considering staying in Flint and never going back to Marquette.

We couldn't even tell that there was tofu in it. It was very rich and flavorful, but not too heavy like eggs tend to do to regular quiche. It was lite and delicious and perfect. I just have to master the consistency next time so it will hold form better. The only other downside was that it wasn't vegan because we used cheese. I think this might be the first non vegan recipe I've posted here so far, other than the caprese salad. Oh well, maybe next time I'll try to find a cheese replacement.

Cameron says: "I can't believe it's not eggs!"

The quiche was so good that between the three of us, we polished off both pies within about ten minutes. It went excellent with a couple of our favorite doppelbocks, too. What a great way to spend Christmas Eve.

That second pie didn't stand a chance.

Boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew

2009-12-23T07:55:00.000-08:00

I got home from work last night pretty tired and yenning for something hot and cozy to eat for dinner.

The perfect remedy? Potato soup.

I mostly followed this recipe (I don't trust myself quite yet to do it on my own) but I added some creativity with extra ingredients like fresh basil, parsley, ginger, and green onions. I also mixed sweet potatoes with redskins, and added carrots. It turned out awesome and was the perfect companion to some old Scrubs episodes. Unfortunately I gobbled it up before getting a picture. Oh well.

P.S. I made a new addition to my houseplant family...leftover ginger root! I'm getting impatient waiting for them to start sprouting...and it's only been one day.

Grow and Sow

2009-12-22T11:50:00.000-08:00

This is another book I got from the library last week:

I love this idea. Instead of going out and buying expensive houseplants, I'd rather plant my own from things out of my refrigerator. I've been wanting to spruce up my apartment with some greens. The only living plant I have right now is an aloe sprig my mom gave me that I have sitting in a mason jar with nothing but water in it. This guy just keeps growing and growing and I rarely ever have to refill the water.

Anyway, I happened to have a couple of 4" flower pots that I used over the summer, along with some leftover potting soil that's been on my front porch since May. I'm assuming it's still usable...just a little dry and...frozen. But I warmed it up and added a little water and followed the instructions in the book to get my first DIY houseplants started.

I decided to go with the ones that looked the easiest: green beans and lentils. Supposedly they will sprout within a few days. I hope so! I can't wait to have my own baby plants to liven up my depressing, winterized apartment. Maybe if I get enough plants going it will help freshen up and clean the air in here.

Holy Squash Soup Batman!

2009-12-21T10:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I finally went grocery shopping. Cameron came with me and suggested that we get ingredients for squash soup. He looked up a recipe on his phone and we gathered everything we needed for this yummy vegan soup.

The soup involved lots of chopping of vegetables with my very dull knives (see sharpener on my kitchen wish list). Neither of us had cooked with squash before so we had a hell of a time peeling and cutting through the tough veggie.

Eventually we ended up with a wonderful smelling pot on the stove. We were supposed to mash it all up but I didn't have a masher so we "blenderfied" it, as Cameron said. Great idea. The soup turned out smooth, creamy and extremely flavorful.

He came over today for lunch as well and we decided to have leftovers, in addition to caprese salad. I love it when I just happen to have ingredients for things I didn't know I needed.

All in all, it's been a very yummy, nourishing couple of days, and I can't wait to get started on some more recipes now that I've got a fully stocked fridge!

Momma

2009-12-20T05:57:00.001-08:00

My mom blogged about me!

No Fun Whatsoever Cleanse 2010

2009-12-19T09:49:00.000-08:00

So I sort of self diagnosed myself with an owergrowth of candida. I did research on it, read the symptoms, and matched 95% of them. Candida albicans is a form of yeast that we all should have normal levels of, but poor diets and lifestyles, among a gazillion other things (like simply being a woman) can easily allow it to get out of hand and overpopulate, snuffing out the good guys like acidophilus and lactobacillus, etc.

The main reason I know I need to purge myself of candida is because I have insatiable sugar cravings. I know, that's what everyone says. But really. It's not just a sweet tooth, or a chocolate lover's lament.

I am addicted to sugar.

I get to the point where I literally need a fix and I can't concentrate on anything else until I get it. I can't keep sweets in my house because I won't be able to enjoy it over a period of time. I must consume all of it. Right now.

This is bad, and I can feel it. I feel like it's the only thing holding me back from the state of health I should be in right now. Other than the sugar part, I have an excellent diet, I take the right supplements, I exercise, I practice meditation and deep breathing...but most of the time, my energy levels are low, and I still feel blah. A case of the blahs is also a common symptom of a candida palooza going on inside you.

SO...this quest for a candida purge lead me to desire something a little more intense and thorough.

Starting the first week of January, for three weeks, I will not consume the following:
- Sugar
- Yeast products (including beer, bread, etc.)
- Starches and foods that convert to sugar quickly
- Caffeine (which irritates the colon and can exacerbate the candida issue)

This cleanse can also be referred to as the No Fun Whatsoever Cleanse. But I have faith in the fact that afterwards I will have found it to be worth it, especially if I can stick to it. My mom went through a similar diet several years ago, which she claims to have cured her sugar addiction as well, even to this day.

So what can I eat on this diet?
- Lots and lots of fresh, raw vegetables.
- Lots of protein from beans, nuts and eggs. (I do not usually eat eggs but for the purpose of this cleanse I'm going to find some local eggs to help me with the extra protein I'll need.)
- Lots of probiotics. (yogurt, kombucha)

So I guess there's still a little fun left since I already eat lots of raw veggies and I love beans and nuts and kombucha. But it's going to be incredibly tough to completely eliminate sugar, beer, and coffee for three weeks. I decided to start after the holidays because I think it's simply impossible (and probably ungodly) to abstain from all sweet Christmas treats. My piano students have already given me a ton of chocolates. What am I supposed to do, look into their sweet, dewey eyes and say, "No thanks darling, you're totally screwing up my cleanse"?

Trying a New Food

2009-12-17T07:47:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make:

I have never eaten asparagus before.

...that is until last night.

Let me explain. When I was growing up, asparagus just wasn't one of those food items my mother dared bring into the kitchen (along with Brussels sprouts, etc.). She was too smart for that, knowing that her picky eaters for children simply wouldn't accept it. Besides, we had all grown up watching Veggie Tales. How could one bear the thought of eating someone like cute little Junior Asparagus?

After I moved out and started cooking on my own, I guess I just forgot asparagus existed. If I saw it in the produce section I kind of just ignored it as a sort of exotic, foreign object.

Last night I went to Cameron's and he decided to cook us up some fresh asparagus he had bought earlier in the day. We cooked them similarly to the green beans I cooked a couple weeks ago, except without the ginger. At the end we added a little bit of a honey glaze.

It was awesome! I loved it! They tasted almost just like green beans, with a more buttery, slightly bitter flavor (which the honey did a phenominal job complementing), and a more interesting texture than the beans. Not to mention all the vitamins packed inside them. I can't wait to buy some myself.

Sorry, Junior. Looks like you'll be joining your friends Bob and Larry from now on...in my belly.

Hardcore. Raw. Uncensored.

2009-12-15T08:32:00.000-08:00

I'm so geeked about this book I picked up at the library yesterday:

I swear it's porn for the vegetarian. I've already learned a ton just from browsing through it last night. I can't wait to start using some of the recipes! Damn, I wish it were summer and so I could get fresh local produce!

Refrigerator Stir-Fry

2009-12-15T08:19:00.000-08:00

It's grocery shopping time, but I haven't gotten a chance to go to the store yet. Last night when I got home from work I decided to make a stir fry with whatever I had in the refrigerator. I surprised myself with all the ingredients that showed up:

- Carrots
- Zucchini
- Bella mushrooms
- white onion
- green onion
- parsley
- ginger
- garlic
- baby corn (yeah, I know, how often do you find baby corn in your fridge? I bought it for the asian stir fry I made the other day but I forgot I had it, so I didn't get to use it)

Then I got a little seasoning-happy and ended up dumping everything I found that sounded like a good idea. This is a tendency of mine. Whenever I make anything that doesn't follow a recipe, I grab more than I should. Soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, curry, cayenne, black pepper, yadda yadda yadda...eventually it becomes just a conglomeration of so many different flavors that there's no real distinction between them. This isn't a good thing. I need to work on my self control when it comes to the seasoning part.

Ann Arbor Retreat

2009-12-13T18:40:00.000-08:00

Cameron and I retreated to Ann Arbor for the day. We used to do it a lot during the summer but not as often anymore.

We went to our favorite restaurant, Seva. Every time we go here, we gorge ourselves with their fantastic yam fries and secret dipping sauce. I can't even describe how fantastic this guilty pleasure is. The guilt stops there since pretty much everything else on their menu is fresh, healthy and vegetarian. Yes, yes, and yes. Everything I look for in a good place to eat.

After lunch we went to our next favorite Ann Arbor stop, Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Tea House. It's always nice to go to a tea house instead of a typical coffee house every now and then. I love that all their teas are loose leaf. The atmosphere in the store and teahouse is so calming and creativity-friendly; we sat there for two hours, during which I finally finished Bob Dylan's autobiography and got a third of the way through a scarf I'm crocheting for Cameron. They have live entertainment on the weekends so I'm trying to get a gig there; it looks like a fun place to play.

Anyway, when we came home we ate some of the pasta salad I made last night, which turned out pretty awesome, although I think it would taste better on a hot summer day at the lake. I'll have to make it again when winter is over.

new favorites

2009-12-12T13:45:00.000-08:00

I'm in the middle of a new recipe, which has sparked a few other new favorites:

New favorite flavor combination: garlic and ginger
New favorite texture to touch: cold wet noodles
New favorite thing to listen to while cooking: Andrew Bird (particularly the Fingerlings 3 album)

Whabam, CHOCOLATE.

2009-12-12T12:11:00.000-08:00

Last night at the healthfood store I work at, one of our regular customers named Victor came in. One might want to stereotype him as being Amish just by looking at him (long gray beard, round wide-brimmed hat, suspenders), but he's not. I really don't know a lot about him other than he works on a farm and really, really, likes Reed's ginger ale.

Anyway, Victor walked in last night (in his usual shortsleeved shirt and sandals...the man never wears a coat, not even in this crazy winter weather) and came right up to the counter and asked me, "Do you like dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or almonds?" I responded, "...all of the above." He laughed and said he would be right back. So he went outside and came back in and tossed three big bricks of chocolate on the counter! One was dark chocolate, one was milk, and one was milk chocolate with almonds. I about doubled over with glee. Seriously, how often does someone just walk up to you and give you a week's worth (ok, for me it's more like two days' worth) of CHOCOLATE?

I told him I would share it with my friends and family, and thanked him over and over. He just said, "it's not from me, it's a gift from God." He was right, chocolate can't be anything other than heaven sent.

Kitchen Wish List

2009-12-10T06:29:00.000-08:00

Since I just started cooking about a year ago, my kitchen utensil supply is a little pathetic. Ok, a lot pathetic. Here's my wishlist of things I need to get for my cooking and baking endeavors. Some are practical, some not so much.

- Kitchen-Aid (in my dreams)
- Muffin/cupcake tin
- Rolling pin
- Mixing bowls
- Wine glasses
- Cocktail shaker
- Wok
- New set of pots and pans (non Teflon)
- Vegetable steamer
- Espresso machine
- French press
- Food processor
- New garlic press
- Knife sharpener
- Juicer
- Salad spinner
- Food chopper
- Mortar and pestle

My kitchen is about the size of a walk in closet, so I suppose I might be better off without these things since I wouldn't have any room for them anyway!

Beer Night

2009-12-09T10:09:00.000-08:00

Last night after work I went to French Laundry for their $2 off draft beer special. Jon had me try a few different things but I liked this the best:

Bell's Sparkling Ale. It was yummy.

Food coma

2009-12-07T18:30:00.000-08:00

The potatoes and green beans turned out FANTASTIC. Cameron said it was the best meal he can remember eating, ever. Go me. :)

The poopy camera phone pictures don't do justice to the way it really looked.

I made adjustments to the potato recipe my mom gave me by adding the zucchini and mushrooms, then mincing fresh basil and parsley. The texture and flavor was absolutely perfect.

The green beans turned out awesome too. The ginger worked amazing with the flavors of everything else. I added a few almond slivers.

The best addition to the whole meal was the wine Cameron brought. It was a perfect fit for the meal, but I don't know much about wine so I'm going to let Cameron talk about it: Chateau D'Oupia is from the Minervois region in Southern France. It is a blend of Carignan, Grenache, and Syrah, the latter two being considered "barnyard" grapes because of their soil-laden flavor. D'Oupia is a light bodied, moderately spicy, and very earthy flavored wine and was wonderful paired with a vegetative dish full of ginger and garlic. This pour brought out the herbal flavors of the dish without overpowering them.

The combination of everything was apparently so good that it caused Cameron to fall asleep later on the couch with his wine glass in his lap...which shortly thereafter ended up in my lap. This was after he accidentally kicked the wine bottle over onto my white rug. Granted, he had only had one and a half glasses of wine at this point. That's when you know the food is good. It makes you do clumsy things that you would normally only do inebriated. Yes. Drunk on food.

I want to add that this meal was 100% vegan, which I didn't even realize until after Cameron asked me if it was. I love it when that happens by "accident."

I made some really crazy intense bean, barley and vegetable soup this morning that's been in the crock pot all day. It's pretty yummy and I will be eating it for the next three months because I made so much of it. Anyone want to come over for some soup?

Roasted sweet and redskin potatoes

2009-12-06T17:31:00.000-08:00

I'm making dinner tonight for me and my boyfriend. He won't get here until ten because of work, so I'm kind of just sitting around, twiddling my thumbs and getting anxious because I want to start COOKING!

So this is what's on the menu:

Roasted sweet and redskin potatoes with olive oil, garlic and herbs. I was talking to my mom on the phone today and she suggested this. She said to cube the potatoes and put them in a ziploc bag with olive oil and the garlic and seasonings and roll it around so they get nice and covered, then just throw them in the oven for about 30 minutes. Sounds easy enough. I accidentally bought a little zucchini today, which I thought was a cucumber, but that's okay because now I'm going to add it to the potatoes and see what happens.

Garlic-ginger green beans. I bought fresh green beans today for a different recipe but I got some extra so I could cook them tonight. I found this really awesome-sounding recipe that I'm going to try, using vegetable stock instead of chicken. I've never cooked with ginger before (I happened to buy ginger root today for something else) so I hope I don't screw it up. I know Cameron loves ginger so it should go over well!

Salad of some sort. Since the other things are going to be cooked, I want to add a little side salad for some raw goodies. Not exactly sure what it's going to be yet. Maybe I'll make the spinach, apple and walnut salad I brought to my parents house for Thanksgiving. It was really awesome and I think it will tie in well with tonight's meal since each recipe has an element of subtle sweetness to it.

Cameron said he would bring some wine so at the very least, there will be something good to drink!

What's for din din?

2009-12-06T16:57:00.000-08:00

So I realized about five minutes ago (this blog was created by the seat of my pants. Wait, I think I did that wrong) how much I really love food. I love talking about food. I love growing food. I love preparing food. I love learning about food. I love sharing food. But of course, most of all, I love eating it.

I decided to gather all these food factors together into one place instead of blabbing about it everywhere else in real life and in cyberspace (even though I guarantee the previous blabbing will still continue).

At first I thought I would just post recipes and pictures of meals I've cooked, but then I decided that this blog will be rampant with all things food related. This includes...

1. Recipes (I'm vegetarian; sorry carnivores. You'll still like them!)
2. Pictures of my food creations (both successes and failures)
3. Reviews of Flint restaurants/grocery shops
4. Food as nourishment
5. What I'm craving at the moment
6. Natural ways to keep the body healthy and whole
7. My favorite beers
8. Nutritious foods that I think taste yucky (I'm just not that into you, peppers.)

Anyway, I'm pretty excited to get the juices going so I'll probably blog again in a little bit about what I'm making tonight. I'd love to hear any feedback or suggestions from whoever may be reading this, so make yourself known and be a fatty with me!