72 Bitter-Sweet Hours
What could have been bitter? Over the past 72 hours, I…
As if that wasn’t all sweet enough, last night was a blast, too. We had family friends over for dinner. There were hors d’oeuvres…
I snacked on raw carrots and grape tomatoes and these Food Should Taste Good chips I had to try after hearing them referred to as Doritos. I disagree; they’re much classier and mroe sophisticated than Doritos. but they definitely have that Mexican tang that regular cheddar chips don’t. Anyway, yum!
I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of all the food; there was a lot! But this was my plate: potato fries(I made these for myself because there were only sweet potatoes otherwise and I wanted white), roasted brussels, and chipotle marinated Amish chicken. The chicken was remarkably good, and that’s coming from someone who usually thinks poultry is too “bland”. I suppose we would have expected no less from something grabbed from Whole Food.
My mom made chocolate covered strawberries for dessert while I baked these blondies and our guests brought ice cream. It was all plenty rich for us.
This was my first plate. I get the irony of Talenti gelato on a dairy-free blondie but I don’t care; this was too good for words. The blondies came out so moist and everyone loved them.
I didn’t really take pictures of what else I ate but just assume I kept picking at the blondies and that’s why there’s less than half the pan left. After everyone left, I turned on Iron Chef and curled up with this:
Buying chocolate in bulk was a genius move. I have no idea how much chocolate this was, but it was all excellent. And there’s something so satisfying about biting in to a chunk of chocolate.
Today is being devoted to leftovers:
Lots and lots of leftovers:
I wasn’t “feeling” greek yogurt this morning for protein, so why not chicken just to get it out of the fridge before it goes bad? I’m curious how this is going to play out on a run…
So what’s been bitter? Over the past 72 hours, I tried going without stevia. I don’t use any artificial sweeteners, but have often used natural stevia in tea and coffee and a few other things. I’ve never gotten a bitter taste to it; it’s always been sweetness. And I think it’s perfectly fine in moderation and all. But, trying to go without it, I noticed my sweet tooth in general grew smaller and I discovered so many other pleasantly-bitter flavors.
I’ve been drinking black coffee, unsweetened iced tea, and dry seltzer, all of whose flavor I’ve been enjoying more and more without added sweetness. It took just a little getting used to, but I don’t really miss anything.
I did get one craving for a sweet drink, so I just had one sweetened with cane juice. This wasn’t my favorite beverage, but that was because of the flavoring and not the sweetening. I’m totally open to trying more, too.
Plain yogurt has become less repulsive in all its tart-glory. It helped to find Fage on sale, which is creamier and dreamier than any other brand in my opinion, but the same holds true for Oikos and Chobani plain.
And, of course, my favorite bitter treat is, was, and always will be, dark chocolate, which doesn’t need much to taste juuuust right. Have you ever had/used stevia? Like it? Hate it? I do enjoy it and think there’s nothing wrong with using it. But even now that the 72 hours are up I’m not rushing to throw some in my drinks.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 20 so far )Fussy Dining And Grocery Success
I can’t believe the weekend’s gone; where did that time go? I hope you had a good one. My Sunday was fantastic and I’m absolutely exuberant to blog about it, so I’m going to dive right in.
Similarly, I dove right in to these jolly beans right before my run. I wasn’t really hungry for them, but I kept telling myself “You can have more jolly beans next time you run. You can have more jolly beans next time you run” So, I had more jolly beans the next time I ran. I was thankful for the extra energy, because in all honsety this was probably the toughest run I’ve had so far. Even before hand, the distance–11 miles outside–kept making me lose my focus. Could I do it? Would I do it? Just run!
I’ll save any run recap where I could tell you everything went through my head at one point: incredible joy, wanting to quit, etc. The important thing was I did it! And could not have been more pleased(or wanting to stretch and collapse) at the end. But the finish line wasn’t my dorm room. No, today it was different:
I was running to meet my family for brunch again at Garden Grill Cafe! A free meal out? Yes, please! I think my grandmother was most happy to eat here again 😉 And it was packed! I think it took 15 minutes to get a table. In hindsight, this was actually awful planning on my part; I’m very particular about how I like to recover and refuel, and going somewhere where I couldn’t pick out the ingredients or cook had me a little crabby. Really, I just needed food in me! So I was very happy when they got the ball rolling and we ordered.
One of the great benefits of ending my run here was I knew I could get fresh carrot juice to refuel. As I’ve mentioned, a cup has more potassium than a banana! This was my first time having carrot juice fresh squeezed; because it was a little more fresh and fiberous, I don’t think it was as sweet. But it was still tasty. I also managed to impress people by guzzling more water than is holy throughout the meal 😉
Speaking of the meal, I ordered the “American Breakfast” which was “2 eggs served any style, hash, and toast”. Well, what I ate was a far departure from that. Unfortunately, they were out of gluten-free toast, which I wanted to give a shot(and craved the carbs of) :-/I also found no appeal in the eggs, even though usually I’m all over perfectly cooked sunny side up eggs. Boo. After some finagling, I got the meal I wanted. I traded my eggs for most of my mom’s hash, and asked the server to bring peanut butter on the side. I managed to turn my “American breakfast” into hash with peanut butter; how American 😉
I’m not complaining, though, because this was amazing and just what I wanted. You wouldn’t think fatty, salty hash(which is the best in the world, in my opinion, at Garden Grill) would work with fatty peanut butter, but I’ve never had a problem with fat on carbs 😀 I also stole some maple syrup from my dad’s vegan cinnamon roll french toast(yes, you read that right, but unfortunately it was far from gluten-free :,-() to also flavor this.
And I wiped that plate clean, leaving a little of the peanut butter behind. The peanut butter was also really good; it tasted like it had brown sugar or some great sweetness in it that made it taste like Reeses’. Who knows? It might have been Reeses’. I was just hoping and praying a good establishment like this wouldn’t use hydrogenated peanut butter(there entire pantry is Bob’s Red Mill so I’m guessing they’re honest and good people).
After that we ran back to my dorm so I could shower and change and then went to do some grocery shopping. At Whole Foods, Zevia was on sale for 3.50 a 6-pack, and by signing up for their newsletter I had a $1 coupon, so I was able to get 6 Root Beers for $2.50–score! It’s so easy to pair manufacturers coupons with the store sales if you’re patient.
The rest of the groceries were pretty standard. I grabbed some coconut milk yogurt since it’s a sale item. The one grocery item not on sale or that I had a coupon that I “had to get” was my favorite dark chocolate bar by Endangered Species. I like to think that if I’m going to eat it and not let it go to waste, then it’s worth it. And have no fear that I’ll eat that 😉
I also tore up the bulk bins; I looove the bulk bins for things that you might want odd amounts for. I always get my steel cut oats from them, since they’re cheaper and organic and I can get a lot. I also get Sunspire peanuts and jolly beans because it’s better to buy candy in bulk so that you decide the amount for a lesser cost. And I got some sunflower seeds and dried cherries, since I wasn’t looking to invest in big bags of those. I also spotted spelt flour while I was snooping the selection, which I’m now curious to pick up for some gluten-intolerant baking over break.
Of course, the grocery I saved for last was ice cream. I mentioned picking up a flavor I really didn’t want on Friday night but convinced myself sounded good at the time Well, I was able to trade that one in for one I would eat. This afternoon, in fact!
Oh. My. God. Where to start? You could read my review for it here. Or, perhaps we could start at 10 years ago when I would eat way too much of Turkey Hill’s peanut butter chocolate ice cream at my grandparent’s house. Nowadays, me and the Turkey aren’t best friends because of the ingredients he uses 😦 This was just as good, or better, or–I don’t know how to describe it other than amazing with gooey peanut butter swirls.
Since I was hungry but not starving after that goodness, I decided to throw dinner in the oven a little early and make it a little bigger rather than snack on. Of course, being human I’d rather eat dinner later and make my ice cream bowl bigger. But I think keeping the real food in your diet high is 90% of “healthy eating”
I love roasting; you don’t have to do much but wait. I roasted brussels cooked from last week, fresh sweet potato, and some quick-pressed tofu in maple syrup. The tofu needed longer pressing but I was short on time. Apparently, peanut butter on the side of every meal is going to become my “thing” now that Garden Grille endorsed it. I felt free to add some mighty maple from PB&Co. on the side. Without even realizing it until now, all 3 of my eats since breakfast have had peanut butter; I think that’s the sign for a great day.
Do you “Pick your plate” eating out and drive the servers mad? I generally detest fussiness as a quality and would consider myself pretty adaptive. I always try to make sure there’ll be something in a dining situation I’ll eat even before going in. At the same time, if I’m eating out I really want to enjoy my meal, so I don’t sweat the little things like asking for a side of peanut butter if the server will oblige. And do you utilize the bulk bins? Clearly, I consider them a necessity. But after getting home I read Averie’s post about who and what has actually been near them–yuck! It has me second guessing…
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 21 so far )Welcome To The Weekend
Welcome to my weekend, at least! I can’t think of a more perfect way than with a new Survivor season starting in 20 minutes! I’ve been watching the show since season 1 when I was only around 8 or 9 years old. Has it really been that long? Anyway, It felt soooo good getting out of my class at 4pm this afternoon. If you’ll remember, last Thursday it was out of class and off to chocolate fest so there wasn’t much “downtime”. This afternoon, however, has been nothing but. Speaking of being lazy, I really didn’t want a “real lunch” this afternoon. All I cared about was dessert. I ended up doing something sloppy and simple.
What can I say? I’m a college student 😛 I scrambled 2 Eggland’s Best Cage Free eggs in a little pasture butter and topped with ketchup–OMG. I seriously forgot how satisfying just scrambled eggs are. My grandma would make them for me all the time; I’ll need to do them more often. On the other hand, I’ve decided pretty firmly that I just do not care for pumpkin anywhere but in my oats. It tastes bland and nasty, in my opinion. Blech. But I was also out of fresh, fiberous vegetables and was in a pickle(Mmm… pickles). More importantly, I just wanted my dessert.
Banana whip! Oh how I love thee. So smooth. So creamy. So delicious. I’ve been keeping bananas from the dining hall in the dorm fridge for this; it’s free for me and takes up common space 🙂 For the topping, I meant to make a peanut sauce but didn’t use enough flour so it was more like dough. That doesn’t matter; what was important was that I realized peanut flour is something that upsets my stomach. It’s weird to think something that’s only peanut would do that to me, but it does. And it sucks that it’s a perfectly vegan source of protein 😦 I don’t even know what I’m going to do. Thoughts? Any lactose intolerant ice cream eaters out there?
During my 2nd of 2 classes this afternoon, I broke open this bar from Honest Foods. Honestly? It was pretty fantastic. I’ve come to notice that anything that’s supposed to taste like peanut butter with grains in it usually doesn’t; thankfully that wasn’t the case. I think any walnuts/sunflower seeds in here would have been better off being more peanut halves, but beyond that yum!
I could have been dancing getting out of my last class this afternoon; it didn’t quite matter that I didn’t do all the homework for it because we never get that far in translation courses. To celebrate the afternoon, I had some raw chocolate avocado pudding with Tropical Tradition‘s coconut oil. Welcome to the weekend indeed! If this is any indication, this weekend will be fattening 😉 After that I mostly vegged out doing some potential online shopping(aka filling a shopping cart with foodie finds but not hitting “check out”) and planning a comforting dinner.
I think that pretty much sums up my comfort foods: brussels sprouts(or broccoli–either will do), sweet potatoes, maple syrup, fatty meat, salt, and anything roasted! Actually, the vegetables were a bit of a disappointment in that respect; either the fact that they were cooked in the dining hall(with no apparent fat) or my lack of patience meant they weren’t well roasted. This flavor of Al Fresco all natural chicken sausage cooked in a pan with some pasture butter made up for it a bit.
Fat Talk
Since I have a bit of time, I thought why not address some fat talk. And not the kind that we all snickered about in High School! I want to talk about fat in your(or my) diet. I was turned on to different and new fats and ways of thinking about them by bloggers like Heather and Averie. If today can be seen as an average day, then I get a good deal of mono- and poly-saturated fats from almond butter, peanut butter, and avocado, and my saturated fats from coconut, grass-fed butter, and hormone-free meats.
The obvious question would be “How do you feel?”. My answer is “Pretty darn good”. The fat is definitely delicious and filling. I haven’t had any stomach issues save the peanut flour which is actually only 12% fat. And–for what it’s worth–my skin and complexion seem smoother and clearer. If I had to sum it all up and be catch, I’d say “Fat is here to stay”. And I still think that getting the mono/polysaturated fats as well as the “bad” saturated fats. These really aren’t so bad if you stick with sources like coconut and grass-fed meat and dairy options.
Well that’s just my 5-minute 2 cents. But without further ado, the winner of the Yogurt Maker via Random.org is…
Erika!
Congrats! I can’t wait to see what she cultures up. And, if you didn’t win this, you can win Chobani from Anne in her giveaway here.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 16 so far )Meals And Moving
Woo, I am beat. So much for a somple Sunday. Can I fall asleep now? Maybe a post(and dessert) first. For lunch we ewre roasting half of an all-natural turkey, which raised a little dilemma in my head. I knew I didn’t want meat, but I hated the idea of not eating good meat when it was cooked. In the end, I decided I knew what I knew and I should make my own meat-free lunch if that’s the way it should be.
I did some research and found the generic ingredients for something bacon-like in flavor. After toying around I came up with this combo:
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon liquid smoke
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
This was much more marinade than I needed for 1 serving of tempeh, but the flavor came out great–very bacon-like! I’ll make an actual recipe page for this soon enough. I ended up skewering and grilling the tempeh, which also really helped out the flavor.
Like I said, the tempeh came out delicious. My grandmother made me give her a piece even though she had no clue what it was, and approved of it highly. Well that should be all the convincing you need 😉 Apparently the “sweet yam” was marketed as different from a sweet potato. It got really caramelized from roasting for an hour and definitely tasted sweeter than normal.
After lunch, I kind of knew what had to be done even though I didn’t want to admit it: We had to start moving things back into my dorm. A pain? Majorly. But if we didn’t do this today, we’d either need to make an even bigger trip down Tuesday or 2 trips. Yeah, there was no winning here, so we went with plan A. We loaded up the car, drove down, and got to Providence quick. I made us stop at Whole Foods because I was hungry.
The perfect snack. I had to get this to celebrate National Peanut Butter Day. It was also 50% off so it was only 1.50, eats like a complete meal, and has a great(though tasteless) green body to it. We also found nutritional yeast at the bulk bins!! This was excellent, since I was thinking we’d need to go to Dedham again to get more. When we got to my room, it looked so sad 😦
The athletes who had lived there left a little present: some champagne stoppers on the floor. Joy. Besides that, it was all pretty well clean, and the closet hadn’t been broken in to. We de-iced the fridge/freezer, set up the TV and microwave, made the bed, put away some food, clothes, and books, and 75 minutes later it looked more lively.
Ignore the sketchy pillow on the floor; I just didn’t want it touching my bed since it’s the random pillow the school provides and had hair all over it. Now, I don’t really believe in New Years Resolutions mainly because I’m constantly changing my mindset/prerogative. I like this, though, because it lets me make many “mini” resolutions throughout the year. One of these resolutions will be to make better use of my dorm’s kitchen.
It may be small. It may be ugly. And it may definitely smells like too many bottles of Bud Light have spilled on the floor. But it’s a hell of a lot more functionable than my little microwave, and I do want to get away from the dining hall as much as possible this new semester for several reasons. So hopefully I’ll be able to make friends with these burners. Hopefully.
On the way home, we just stopped at a local grocery store quickly because, once again, I was hungry.
I don’t understand how I eat the most out of my family; they need to start shoveling it in to compete! This Cortland wasn’t organic, or even washed because I just needed to get it in me. That being said, I’d still argue it was a better decision than 90% of things in any standard grocery store–just saying. This didn’t have to last me long, anyway, because it was about dinner time.
And now I’m full, tired, and lounging on my couch at home. This meatloaf never fails to get better with age; if you go to the recipe page you’ll see I included the full nutritional info for a slice! It’s quite a balanced portion of protein, fat, and fiber for something began. It might change with the rice you use(I use a brown rice medley from Trader Joe’s with some seeds in it), but it should come out similar enough. Since dinner, we’ve been arguing about my meal plan, how much I ate first semester off of it, and what to do with the new year. Is it possible that I used over $450 in flex points in 3 months? I don’t really think so, but they do charge 2.69 for 1 freakin‘ Chobani, so who knows. If that’s the case, I’m screwed. Let’s hope that’s not the case.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 15 so far )The Seeds Make It Crunchy
Well I completely caved on that whole “rest day” thing after breakfast. I think all I needed was a little fuel in the tummy for some energy because I was raring to go right afterwards. I did my core(which you can just search and find for in some older posts if you’re interested) and 200 flights. I must say, highlights include(and are pretty much limited to) the “dance” action I was doing to Tik-Tok and contorting my neck to try to see what the mailperson was bringing through a window. Good news: It was a package from Crofter’s Organic! Bad news:
Not everything survived 😦 When I reached in and felt something gooey, I knew that couldn’t be good. Thankfully, I had some senses and realized to feel around too much and cut myself. The other 3 superfruit flavors arrived in good condition and I look forward to reviewing them. And lucky me won some of these jams from another giveaway so hopefully those will all arrive in one piece and I can review Asia, too 🙂
As for something I did review today…
These weren’t from the company or anything; these are just chips I like a lot and have featured quite a bit, so I thought I’d write up my love for them here. Of course, they made an appearance at lunch…
With some more “healthy” stuff. Boo 😛 I squirted some lemon on the brussels sprouts just to give them a little kick of flavor, and added dehydrated onion to the beef and sauce just to make my breath smell awful. This didn’t really taste like “beef” but it was decent enough for a protein; I think it would have been a lot better if I were using a real sauce I was into but alas that was just tomato sauce from a can. But really–what can’t you do with a can of tomato sauce? I needed it this afternoon to make up a vegan meatloaf.
I’ll admit I had little-to-no interest in cooking anything for dinner, and that my mind was on some juicy, red grass-fed beef from Tomasso’s. This was a far cry from red meat but I had mouths to feed and I figure what goes around comes around(so here’s crossing my fingers for that beef sometime soon :-)).
While I was cooking I was sipping on this flavor Steaz. It really needed a bit of a kick so I added some stevia to each tiny glass I poured. Things are just more fun when you pour them into other glasses; now why the hell didn’t I use a wine glass? Man, that would have been better in hindsight.
Since it was Friday, I decided to let my sweet-tooth run ramped. Instead of cookies, however, I was thinking of brownies. And instead of baking, I was thinking of keeping them raw 😀
After trying this brownie from The Raw Bakery, I wanted to try to make my own. To put a fun spin on things, I used raspberry agave syrup. I loooove raspberry jam in brownies and this was essentially the same thing. And it was all organic! Except the dates, which we’ve already established were cheap and yummy 🙂
Raw Vegan Brownies
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (160 grams) dates
- 5 tablespoons (105 grams) agave nectar
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup flax seeds, ground
Make sure the flax seeds are ground. If they are not, add them to the food processor first and pulse a few times. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until well blended, or about a minute. Scrape into a square container and refrigerate for 10 minutes or so until cutting into.
I made one mistake here, which I tried to make clear in my directions not to do just in case anybody tries these: I mixed the flax seeds in with the other ingredients whole. As a consequence, the batter got really thick before they had a chance to break up. Oh well. If you like “crunchy” brownies then these would have been perfect for you 🙂 I didn’t mind a little extra chew. For my afternoon snack, I made a tray of brownie and goat milk yogurt.
They don’t really hold together very well, either, but there flavor is superb! Maybe the just need a chance to sit out so some of the water from the syrup comes off. No lie, though, this was some of the tastiest chocolate I’ve had; I think the raspberry worked perfect with the dates for a fruitiness to it all. And it complimented the creamy, slightly fatty goat milk yogurt well. There’s something about raw food where I can eat less and feel more energized and more satisfied, even if all that is is pudding and brownies. Dinner, however, was not raw; dinner was actually cooked by 4 and then just reheated for supper time.
I really need to get to Dedham Whole Foods again to buy a pound of nutritional yeast; sprinkle that on a led pipe and it’d be delicious, I tell ya. This was not juicy red meat. But it was pretty good. There’s about 4 servings left and as we all know this is MUCH better after a few days of sitting so I’m pretty excited for some leftover action 😀 And now… I could use coffee(and chocolate). Maybe that Steaz has caffeine in it? Because I feel like I’m dragging. That’s the beauty of a single-cup coffee maker, my friends. Happy cookie Friday night!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 15 so far )I Wanna Be “That Guy”
I’ve decided that I want to be “that guy”. Not “that guy on the bus”,
Or “that guy who got screwed by NBC”,
I want to be “that guy” who, when he’s 80 and grey, his grand kids can recite all the rituals he did every day. I want to be “that guy” whose routine you can set a clock to. Basically, I want to be boring. But I don’t see it as boring. Other people see it as boring and tell me I should want to switch it up and try new things. Great. Fine. But here I am knowing what I want to do; and last I checked, when somebody knows what they really want, that’s something to celebrate, right? So rather than fight my routine, I’ve decided to start embracing it. For instance,
I want to be “that guy” who has something chocolate every night after dinner. That seems to be the theme, as of late. I’ve had raw things after dinner. I’ve had yogurt after dinner. But, in the end, they’re all chocolate. Does anyone want to argue with me that that’s a bad thing? Didn’t think so. Last night’s treat was a raw cacao brownie from The Raw Bakery. I definitely didn’t need something composed of dates and agave right before bed but c’est la vie. This was OK, but it tasted oddly figgy and not chocolate enough. It had a great texture–better than most cooked brownies I’ve ever had. I’d definitely have it again, but, in all honesty, I could probably make a recipe for these or find a better brand.
I want to be “that guy” who has his shows and is always up to date on them. How could I ever show my face at the water cooler if I didn’t know how hilarious Modern Family was last night(seriously, wasn’t that good?).
I want to be “that guy” who has oatmeal with nut butter every night before going to bed. I’ve fought this one before and it’s just not worth it; I love it, it’s good for me, and I’m going to do it. Last night, I even got to try a brand new nut butter: Justin’s chocolate peanut butter. I bought this with my Christmas money, skeptical of how it’d be since I haven’t had a chocolate peanut butter I like before. My verdict? YUM-O! This is seriously one of the best peanut butters I’ve ever had, and the first chocolate peanut butter one I’ve liked. You can taste both flavors, and they aren’t mixed into one; it’s simply perfect. I can’t wait until these are in every Whole Foods, at which time PLEASE get yourself a jar. And it’s organic–my heart be still.
I want to be “that guy” who sleeps 11-7, so long as he can help it. Sure, once and a while I’ll be up later than that, or have to hit the snooze button. But I’m not letting anyone convince me that I shouldn’t be asleep that early at my age. It’s just how I am.
I want to be “that guy” who gets up and exercises! To be honest, I’ve fought myself on this one. I mean, really, who’s thinking anything difficult is “fun” 10 minutes after waking up? But you know what? After I do it, I feel energized and ready to tackle the day, and sooo much better than when I don’t or put it off. Sometimes, we may need to tell ourselves what we want, but that’s just how it is. This morning, I told myself I wanted to do full core and 200 flights, and that’s what I did. And I felt so good afterwards.
I want to be “that guy” who sets the record straight. For months now, I’ve been calling the all-natural Fluff I’ve been using vegan. Well, a little while back I double checked the ingredients and saw egg whites top the list. Oops. Turns out it wasn’t vegan, just all-natural. Because it wasn’t breaking news, I didn’t think to make a point of it. Recently, Suzanne’s sent me some of their goodies to review. And their ricemellow creme is vegan. There. Record straight.

Bananamon Oats With Justin's Chocolate Peanut Butter, Suzanne's Ricemellow Creme And NOO's Cinnamon Grahams
I want to be “that guy” who has yogurt and oatmeal at breakfast everyday. Predictable? Definitely. But what’s wrong with that when you’re getting protein, fiber, probiotics, whole grains, and healthy fats? Nothing. And occasionally things do change, like trying out my new vegan ricemellow creme. Honestly–I loved it. Fluff who? This was an identical match. It was airy and gooey and sweet. I only wish it had improved on the vanilla flavor of Fluff rather than match it. Definitely not a disappointment by any means, though.
I want to be “that guy” who watches gets his news from Regis & Kelly and The Today show every morning. It’s pretty much how I stay on top of things. I think it’s a lot more reliable than The Jay Leno Show these days, don’t you?
I want to be “that guy” who tries new things from time to time, too. On today’s plate(literally): seitan. I had had seitan jerky but never seitan as a main part of a dish. I bought pre-prepared seitan and just heated it up.
I want to be “that guy” who brings you fun flavor ideas, like wheat-free tamari and liquid smoke brussels sprouts. Seriously, every time I hear a commenter say that putting certain flavors together was a great idea or that they tried it and loved it, it warms my heart. Really, I don’t think too much about things. I just throw them together if they sound good, and thankfully these came out amazing with the honey barbeque chips and seitan. But also sometimes they don’t work out; that’s one of the benefits of having a dog 😉
I want to be “that guy” who’s a hoot to watch shop, moving slowly and picking up and feeling every product. Yes. I shop like an Italian grandmother, which was ironic today because it was my Italian grandmother who drove me to the natural food store down the road. But I totally encourage shopping like this, because how else would you know if a fruit is ripe? Or nut properly roasted?
I want to be “that guy” who people trust for good recommendations. I’m kind of hoping to be that already, and I’m hoping you’ll trust me when I say this is the best stevia I’ve had to date. I was sent this along with other NuNatural products over the Summer to sample and review. I’ve boughten 2 or 3 of this particular product because it is truly the purest, least bitter stevia I’ve found. If you think it’s pricey($14 for 1 ounce), know that you get at least 200+ servings out of it so it’s not so outrageous.
I want to be “that guy” who raises his family right but never deprives. I like to take cues from Mama Pea. She’s so popular, I’m sure I don’t need to plug her. But if you haven’t heard of her, you must check her blog out; she’s raising her two girls so well, giving them wholesome snacks that they truly enjoy(like chocolate banana ice cream), and if I raise kids half that well one day I’ll be happy.
I don’t want to be “that guy” who calls his dad in a whiny voice complaining how we have no dinner for tonight and our back-up restaurant randomly completely closed due to a private engagement(seriously, how often does this happen?), but I was that tonight. I’m just trying to keep us all fed, people.
I want to be “that guy” who has all the crazy cool nut and seed butters. Can I be that guy already, with this organic pistachio seed butter I ground with Tierra Farm‘s organic salted pistachio meat? There’s something kind of fun looking at a bowl of what should be oatmeal and peanut butter and seeing all orange and green–just saying.
I want to be “that guy” who wins this giveaway for Chobani, so don’t enter.
So there it is. That’s just the kind of guy I want to be, day in and day out. Why the word “want”? Who’s stopping me? That’s the guy I am.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 23 so far )The Banana Soft Serve Diet
I loved learning from this post that American Chop Suey is primarily a New England meal; I never knew that! It sounds like you either grew up eating this 3 times a week(guilty and proud of it ;-)) or have never tried it. Really, it’s just pasta(usually elbow macaroni) with ground beef, green pepper, onions, tomato sauce, and some seasonings, but it’s one of those dishes that is 10 times better than the sum of its parts; you would not believe the flavor it can have.
Another thing I cannot believe the flavor of? Fried Rice. I admit I’ve had this from a restaurant maybe once in my life, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to make it with my leftover organic brown rice. Of course, I had no idea what I was doing, but that’s never stopped me before 😉 I heated maybe a tablespoon of earth balance in a pan, then added the rice and tamari until it was mostly absorbed. Then I added steamed broccoli florets. I couldn’t figure out if eggs were traditionally added as a necessary ingredient, or a protein source(still unclear on this), so I threw in 1 egg white and cooked until that was well set.
1 egg white was not my protein source so I had the rest of my Lightlife buffalo wings, too. I realize the flavors don’t work here at all; I could have thrown in some tofu. But damn if those wings ain’t delicious. Now if only they weren’t an arm and a leg 😦 The fried rice came out delicious! I mean, anything with added fat and sodium is never bad, is it? I think next time I’ll add a full egg or two for some yolk-flavor(Oh, and there will be a next time). Along with lunch I was watching television and guzzling down a new-to-me beverage.
This Steaz was a lot better than the other two I’ve tried. Instead of just tasting like flavored green tea, this actually tasted like raspberry. I don’t think I’d buy it over Zevia again, though, except for that we got 2 4-packs for $2.66; that was such a good sale at Whole Foods I think I’ll be dreaming about it.
Did I mention it was still snowing after Days? In fact, it snowed all day, even though it wasn’t supposed to at all. Weird. It was a nice snowfall to watch, though–very light and fluffy. For whatever reason my grandmother dropped by and proceeded to try to convince me it was “warm” out. Warm? Really? From what I’ve learned, it doesn’t snow when it’s “warm”. Then again, I wasn’t about to argue with an 81 year old(now, if she were 82, that would have been a different story).
The one thing I did not like about lunch was that it did nothing for my hunger. It really is true what they say about Chinese food: You’re just hungry an hour later. I could have eaten my arm off, but instead I decided to have an early afternoon snack.
So much to say–where to start? Number #1: Anything put in a food processor with cocoa powder comes out good. It’s a fact. This was 6oz banana, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, and some vanilla stevia, and it came out amazing. I was thinking of adding Xanthan Gum but was sooo happy I didn’t. Look how thick it was all its own! #2: As good as this was, it wasn’t a Frosty from Wendy’s, which I was craving. This would be more like a frosty if it had less chocolate, and some milk, and some ice, and came from Wendy’s. Yep. That’d make it more like a frosty. #3: Whereas my meal of fried rice and buffalo wings didn’t hold me over for an hour, this held me over 3 hours until dinner. Does that mean there’s some truth to the banana diet? I’m totally up for it, so long as that banana comes in soft serve form.
Among the things I did in the afternoon was play with my food processor, while it was out.
Among the package Tierra Farm sent me was these pistachio meats. Because I’m 99% more likely to eat seeds and nuts in their butter form, and didn’t have a pistachio butter, I set 1/2 an ounce aside for dinner and shoved the rest into the processor.
Nut and sed butters are, unfortunately, not the sexiest one at the party, but this was pretty bangin’. It was so easy to grind these, probably because Tierra Farm knows what they’re doing in roasting them unlike this nut. I can’t wait to put this over oatmeal. Pistachio and pumpkin? Sounds good to me. Speaking of being a nut…
I ate those buffalo chicken wings at lunch fully knowing I was making the real thing for dinner. Obsessed? Just a little. These were really simple. I cooked the chicken breasts fully. While those were working, I melted 2 tablespoons earth balance and franks red hot sauce in a pan until melted. When the breasts were done, I let them sit in the butter mixture for 5 minutes or so.
The chicken came out good and flavorful, but I don’t think the sauce was thick enough or took to it well; maybe add a tablespoon of flower next time? Still, it was an upgrade from what would have been all-white meat. It’s good to have some sort of fat on or with meat, and since I used earth balance it was trans-fat and cholesterol free 😀 I smeared goat cheese on my brussels, to change them up, and had 1/2 an ounce Tierra Farm organic salted pistachio meat to review. Umm, yum! Maybe I just forgot how good pistachios were, or maybe these were just that good, but I loved them! Nice and salty 🙂 I can’t wait to try my seed butter now!
I have to tell you: Tomorrow morning will not be pretty. Our big coffee pot died this morning 😦 It’s not so much a problem for me because I have my Keurig single cup brewer. The key words there are “my” and “single” 😉 And now I’m flipping between American Idol and The Biggest Loser right now. Why do we have to choose things like this? It’s not fair.
Here’s a superfruit spread giveaway.
A giveaway for vegan ice cream! How fun.
And a giveaway for Q.bel chocolate–one of my faves!
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