Setbacks... but chickpeas!

I think I gave myself tendinitis the other night at Body Pump. My right arm is swollen above the elbow, and aches a bunch when I move it. Gosh darn it! My legs are still sore, and my arms are out of commission. Abs it is... for days... haha.

With an injury to my cuttin' hand, and a day without cardio, I needed to make a dinner that would be fast, involve minimal labor, and wouldn't ruin my streak of healthy eating. Pizza fit the bill for two of these three criteria... but not the last and most important one!

I made some bulgur last night and threw some chickpeas in the slowcooker overnight, so I already had some hardware to work with. Here's the chickpea salad I concocted:

Chickpea and Bulgur Salad

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp dijon

1 tbsp olive oil

salt & pepper

berbere (totally optional, I just had this in the cabinet)

1-2tsp cumin seed

Equal parts chickpeas and bulgur (I used about a cup each)

1-2 cups baby spinach, chopped

5 sundried tomatoes, cut into 1/2" chunks

1 small shallot

2 minced pepperoncini

1tbsp pine nuts

Make your vinaigrette with the first six ingredients, then toss everything together! Add some fried scallions (from your local Asian grocery) for fun. This salad is beautiful, tastes amazing, and it's perfect for an after-workout recharge meal. Full of healthy carbs and protein, and WONDERFULLY flavorful-- what more could you ask for? :)

This I Believe

Soup is some kind of magical wonder-food sent from on high to heal all earthly wounds and soothe all tired souls. I attempted to go to yoga today, arrived late and was greeted with a locked door. Lesson learned. I got back on the subway and headed to Trader Joe's to pick up a few things for the rat men. I wandered around for probably 45 minutes in a congested haze before walking out with a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, some multigrain hot cereal, a box of vegetable broth, and a bag of baby spinach. I trudged home in the rain and came up with this pot of deliciousness.

Vegetarian Chicken Noodle Soup

3 celery ribs, sliced, greens and all

1 medium sweet onion, small dice (any yellow onion will do)

1 carrot, small dice

1 bag Trader Joe's "Organic Foursome," or a bag of mixed veggies with corn, carrots, peas, green beans, or other similar vegetables

3 cups baby spinach

3 cloves garlic, minced

thyme, rosemary, za'atar, oregano-- whatever herbs you like. I used about a teaspoon of za'atar and a teaspoon of dried thyme

1 package Trader Joe's Chickenless Strips (optional)

noodles (I used a nest of egg noodles from the Vietnamese grocery. any noodles you want will work)

3 bay leaves

1 box vegetable broth + 1/2 box water + 2 tbsp Better than Bouillon No-Chicken Base OR 2 boxes Imagine No-Chicken Broth and water as needed, to taste

Throw the carrot, onion, and celery into a big pot with a little olive oil or butter/margarine and sweat the veggies down over medium heat for 10 minutes.

Add the minced garlic. Season with salt and pepper and cook another 2 minutes.

Add the entire bag of frozen vegetables, season again, and add the herbs and bay leaves.

Pour in broth, water, and base, and bring to a boil. Add as much water as you want, to taste, and to the consistency you want. Make sure you add a little extra liquid to take the spinach and noodles into account!

Add the chickenless strips and noodles. Boil until noodles are cooked through.

Stir in spinach just before serving.

I added a little Bragg's to my bowl when the soup was done. This is so wonderfully warming, and it's got me feeling better already. Enjoy!

God damnit.

Uh, well. I'm sick again. And it looks like I've injured my left elbow from too much lifting/resistance training. Woops. Can't stop me though-- I'm still going to go to Core Yoga tomorrow and get my cardio in at the gym. However, it's still a huge bummer that I can't continue my strength training for the rest of the week. I can still do my jumping jacks, 8-minute abs, and stretches in the morning!

Today was the first day of class! It was great! Nothing much to report other than this... just wanted to make sure I posted about the setbacks to my exercise routine.

Make your own life!

Hey y'all! So I know this blog is mostly supposed to be about, like, food, or whatever, but I do more than eat and work out! Lately I've been trying to find ways to become less reliant on chemical-filled products like commercial deodorants, laundry detergents, shampoos, and conditioners. I want to do this because 1) I am broke, and homemade alternatives are literally always cheaper; 2) I want to eliminate weird artificial stuff from my life as much as possible because it just feels better, and 3) ... I'm really broke. Saving up for a giant trip after graduation means the next five months will be Brokesville, PA.

Anyway, so far I've made laundry detergent and deodorant based loosely on The New Architects: Make Your Own Life series (which stops short its journey toward liberating Americans from their dependence on large corporations, unfortunately, as these are the only two videos they made about product alternatives).

Here's the laundry detergent tutorial:

I used Fels Naptha laundry soap instead of random chunks of soap from around my house (because I have none, and because Fels Naptha smells damn good and is an awesome stain remover). This stuff works SO WELL!! So excited about it. I've washed my own laundry and my rats' laundry in it, and it's done a stellar job on both. Never going back to the old stuff again. This was stupid easy, took me about 20 minutes (not counting the overnight-sitting-time), was very cheap, had my apartment smelling like a bubble bath, and the ingredients I bought will last me another zillion batches. I really could not be more pleased.

As I said, I also made homemade, all-natural deodorant based loosely on the Make Your Own Life video. Let me come right out here and say it. I am a stinky, stinky lady. I sweat quite a bit, and that sweat smells extraordinarily unpleasant. I haven't had a lot of luck with commercial deodorants-- they always make my poor pits feel uncomfortably dry (before they wear off and I'm sweating fountains again), and I've never found something that actually keeps me from smelling. I've tried it all. Dove, Dove Clinical Strength, every Secret product there is, multiple Degree products, BAN, Mitchum, Arid, even Old Spice. Nothing has worked for me for more than a couple of hours. The best I can hope for with a commercial deodorant is that whatever scent I've chosen will overpower my body's natural stink. Usually, this does not happen. However, I know now that there is hope, and IT IS CHEAP, and IT SMELLS GREAT, and SO DO I!

Here's the tutorial from The New Architects. My measurements differed and are included after the video.

My recipe:

1/2c extra virgin coconut oil

1/2c baking soda

1/3c corn starch

a bunch of drops of grapefruit essential oil

*Basically, use equal parts baking soda and coconut oil, and a little less corn starch or arrowroot powder. Add as much essential oil as you want-- stop when it smells good to you!

Thomas and Jason used arrowroot powder, but I didn't have any, and I know I don't react badly to cornstarch, so I just used what was in the kitchen. I've seen recipes including lavender and/or tea tree oil, and, provided you like these scents, these could work equally well. Grapefruit essential oil is what smelled good to me at Whole Foods two days ago. Also, it's relatively cheap as essential oils go, and has antibacterial and anti-fungal properties that I thought my armpits could use! The bergamot oil smelled luscious (but at $15, I wasn't about to buy it!), and I imagine there are others that would work well. Find what scent or scent combination works for you-- just make sure one of the oils you choose has anti-bacterial properties! Pour it into a container (I'm using a small tupperware container), stick it in the fridge for half an hour, and just rub on a little every morning!

Folks, this is the BUSINESS. For real. I worked out today for 45 minutes-- running, free weights, ab stuff, whatever. I left the gym, went home, took off my shirt, sniffed my pits, sniffed my shirt, and had LITERALLY ZERO B.O. This has never happened to me in my life. Holy crap. I have found the holy grail of deodorants, and it smells lovely and makes my armpits all soft. I really truly hope you try this!! 16oz of coconut oil and the little bottle of grapefruit essential oil cost me $16 at Whole foods, and each of these can be found for cheaper online; a more realistic price would be about $14. This will yield me four batches of deodorant (including the one I just made), at $4 each, but I use so little of it I can see this lasting as long as two or three commercial sticks would. So, let's call it $2/stick if we're comparing to the commercial stuff. That's REAL CHEAP, y'all. And it works better than anything I've ever tried. I am so very pleased!

Okay I need to go to sleep. First day of class tomorrow! Night y'all, and cheers to self-reliance!

So it begins

Well, I went to my first personal training session today. My trainer's name is Frank, and he is a very warm, encouraging guy in his 40s who owns a gym in Old City. He absolutely blasted my arms to smithereens on some kind of cable machine thing called Kinesis. I deserved the total work-out punishment-- I've eaten pizza for two of the last 3 days and had Burmese for lunch! Things will get easier now that I'm back in the city and I'll have a really structured schedule. My first winter CSA delivery will be coming in a week, which will supply me with a TON of great fresh, organic produce to keep me healthy! I need to lay out some solid goals for this week, right here and now, so I have some direction and something to work toward during my exercise sessions.

Goals:

- Avoid cheese all week!

- Drink 3 full bottles of water per day.

- Go to the gym twice this week.

- At the gym, do 25 minutes on either the treadmill or elliptical each time.

- Learn to use one new machine at each gym trip.

- Start each day with jumping jacks, sun salutations, and 8-minute abs.

- End each day with 8-minute abs.

Okay. So. These seem doable, and they give me something to visualize each day. Awake, stretch, cardio, 8-minute abs, healthy breakfast (whole grains? smoothie?), gym time, shower, lunch, readreadread, blahblahblah, dinner, 8-minute abs, bed!

Here's to new beginnings! Let's do this!

Well...

Hi guys. I have been AWOL for many a month now, it's true. My bad. Blogging about one specific topic and I don't seem to get along well, so I'm trying this again. I need to flex my writing muscles more often (outside the context of writing papers and personal statements for grad school applications), so by George I'm gonna do it. This blog will still have a ton about local/sustainable agriculture, my CSA share (winter 2012!), and whatever foods I make, but I'll also give myself a chance to talk about whatever the heck I want in order to, hopefully, make this blog successful.

So, here's what my day has been like so far! I got up, read a little Giles Goat-Boy, by John Barth, made a poached egg and had that over a very small piece of oat bread, along with a mango, a clementine, and a mixed greens-and-raw-beet salad and a cup of green tea. Awesome way to start the day. I've been putzing around on the Internet (silly meee), but I'm about to get down to business. I'm going to do half an hour of yoga, half an hour on the treadmill, some strength training stuff with free weights, and then take a shower. I will then bake pumpkin-cranberry muffins, pumpkin-ginger molasses cookies, and read to page 275 of GGB.

I'm putting all of this out here because I need to be held accountable to some vast swath of Internet eyes-- I am more likely to be productive if I tell someone what I'm going to do!

And, as this is shortly after the dawning of a new year, I should say at least a little about my intentions for the year. I mean to live deliberately; I intend to create an improved version of myself each day. I intend to care for my body, listen to it, and strengthen it each day. I intend to get the heck off the internet-- when not blogging, of course! I intend to live compassionately. I will think not only about the content of my diet, but its origins, and I will strive to eliminate food items for which any animal has suffered.

I also intend to cultivate my mind. I will strive each day to become a better educator, to heal my own wounds and challenge my assumptions, and to keep my mind and heart open to any source from which I could learn important lessons about my life's calling. I intend to grow as a writer as well, pushing myself to write each day, even if it's just a few lines of reflection or a haiku. I intend to continue to make art; this past semester has awakened a creative spirit in me that lay dormant for years between the end of high school and now, and I do not intend to stifle it again.

Well, this got real deep, real quick. I basically just want to get better this year, and actively pursue getting better.

My mantra for the year:

And on that note, I'm gonna go work on this body of mine! Later!

Tofu Banh Mi (Vegan, gluten free)

Y'aaalllll I have had the craziest craving for banh mi today but I didn't feel like spending $6 on a sandwich, or feeling like crap after eating all that gluten. So, I came up with my own solution. I made all the stuff inside a typical banh mi, and topped some brown jasmine rice with it instead. My entire apartment smells like the marinade I used for the tofu and it's making me salivate like a nervous St. Bernard. I am SO excited to eat this in class later. Here's the recipe:

Tofu:

1 package firm sprouted tofu, or 1/2 package regular firm tofu

1/4c Bragg's or tamari

3/4" piece ginger, grated or minced very fine

Squirt of sriracha

1-2tbsp mirin, to your liking

2 tsp turbinado sugar

Juice of half a lime

Slaw:

Napa cabbage, carrot, beets, English cucumber, jalapeno, and red pepper, sliced into matchsticks and mixed to whatever proportion you like. You could also add daikon, but I didn't have any on hand at the moment. Make about 2 cups of veggies.

1/4c rice vinegar

2-3tbsp granulated sugar

1 tsp mellow white miso paste

Juice of half a lime

Other ingredients:

Brown rice

Cilantro

Mint (optional)

Portabello mushrooms (optional)

Directions:

Stir all the tofu marinade ingredients together in a microwave-safe bowl or shallow baking dish and heat for 25 seconds. This will release some of the flavor of the ginger and heat the liquid enough for the turbinado sugar to dissolve. When you take the marinade out from the microwave, stir again.

*Prepare your tofu however you like-- fresh pressed works best for this dish, I think, but you could also use it frozen and pressed. Anyway, slice the tofu into six even slabs.

Lay tofu flat in a baking dish or tupperware and pour marinade over it. Shake it around to make sure it's well-coated. Set aside for 15-30 minutes, or overnight if you're not in a hurry.

Stir the slaw marinade ingredients until miso has dissolved completely. Toss the thinly-sliced veggies with the slaw marinade. Set aside for 15-30 minutes.

Start the brown rice in your rice cooker, or on the stove top if you're brave. I made about a cup of brown rice for this dish.

Heat a non-stick pan on medium with 1tsp canola oil, or spray with canola oil cooking spray. Sautee tofu (don't bother patting it dry) 3-4 minutes on each side, or until crisp on the outside.

When the tofu is done, sautee sliced mushrooms in canola oil or water with a bit of the leftover tofu marinade.

Spread rice on one even layer in a plate or a tupperware and top with slaw, tofu, and mushrooms, and sprinkle cilantro and mint over.

Enjoy!

Vegan Breakfast Quinoa!

Gooood morning! So, y'all may not be aware of this, but I absolutely hate oatmeal. I cannot stand the stuff. Rolled oats on top of an apple crisp? Lovely! Oats in granola? Fantastic! Oats cooked in milk or water into a slimey, inedible muck? Noooo, thanks.

Because I hate oatmeal, but want desperately to enjoy it (or something very similar), I've been searching for hot cereal alternatives and have found one really, really great one: QUINOA! This recipe combines quinoa and amaranth into a whole-grain, protein-packed hot cereal base, which you can freely customize with your choice of fruits and nuts. Here's how I did mine this morning. This recipe makes kind of a lot, so you might want to split it with someone or save the leftovers!

1/4c dry quinoa

1/8c dry amaranth

~1/2c soy milk + a few tablespoons water or orange juice

1tbsp applesauce

pinch of salt

teaspoon maple syrup

1-2tbsp oat bran, wheat bran, or wheat germ (I used oat bran today)

2tbsp whole rolled oats (These really make the whole dish cohesive. Can't taste 'em though)

2tbsp organic dried dates

1tsp organic raw shelled pumpkin seeds

1tbsp organic walnuts

Cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc.-- your choice of spices

Half an apple, cut into manageable pieces; I've also used peaches and bananas so far with great success!

Instructions:

1. Stir the first group of ingredients together in a small pot. Heat over medium-low for about 5-8 minutes, or until the quinoa begins to soften. You'll know it's softening when you notice a transparent ring around its white center.

2. Add the second batch of ingredients after the quinoa has begun to soften. Stir to incorporate very well, reduce heat a tad, then simmer another 5 minutes until quinoa is almost totally transparent, and is no longer dry and crunchy (try a small spoonful to check this).

3. Remove from heat, stir in apples or fruit of your choosing, and serve!

I made a big batch of this ahead of time, sans fruit, so I can just heat it up quickly in the mornings with soy milk and add the fruit. Soooo glad I did! Saves me a ton of time and I get a delicious, extremely nutritious, vegan breakfast in about 2 minutes. Enjoy!!

Doin' My Thang

Hey y'all. Decided to take a couple days off cooking through The Vegan Table to do a few recipes of my own. A couple nights ago, Martin and I whipped up the most DELICIOUS midnight dinner. We used Gardein Beefless Tips, Pink Lady apples, dijon mustard, dry white wine, dried rosemary, and garlic. Mart has the full recipe (we actually wrote it down afterwards-- this was seriously amazing), so I'll post that later, but here's a peak at how it turned out:

Folks, welcome to Yumsville, PA.

Last night, I decided to clean out my fridge and whipped up a few different things. Sauteed veggies, baked eggplant parm (minus the parm), and I made some seriously bangin' vegan meatballs. Check it:

This was a silly amount of food for me to try to eat. Martin's plate was much more sensible:

But, now I'm sleepy, so I'm going to go to bed and I'll post these recipes later. :p

Fuuuuuu

Sup y'all. I'm sick. Tonight's dinner consisted of V8 Butternut Squash Soup from a box with crispy sage leaves, and Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's Herbed Scalloped Potatoes. I was really skeptical about the whole non-creamy scalloped potatoes thing, but hot DAMN these jawns were bangin'. Martin and I ate them straight from the pan; we couldn't wait for our leftovers and soup to finish heating up in the microwave before we dug in. Soooo so so good, and it was exactly what I needed on this coughy, phlegmy evening.

When I was at the grocery store buying a completely senseless number of oranges, I picked up this stuff:

(Excuse my general state of dishevel.) So, chamomile usually makes my mouth go completely numb, which apparently isn't all that abnormal. Hopefully this will do something positive for the annoying cough I've got going right now. And hopefully the oranges will have me in decent enough shape to hit the gym tomorrow; I slept 10 hours last night, took a three-hour nap this afternoon, putzed around the house this evening, and now I'm basically going to flush out whatever's sick-ing me with vitamin C. Germs be damned.

Oh, right, also-- my CSA share this week was kind of a let down compared to last week. My share-mates and I split a pretty small head of bok choy, some cute radishes, a bunch of dandelion greens, more rhubarb (what the hell am I going to do with rhubarb?!), two heads of lettuce, mustard greens, red scallions, I took a package of cremini mushrooms and my share-mates took the shiitakes, and a bunch of white scallions. We were supposed to receive a bunch of spring garlic as well, but somehow it didn't end up in our share. Huge bummer! I'm excited to do something with the dandelion greens. I've wanted to cook with/eat them for a while now but I've never found them in a supermarket and definitely wouldn't eat the ones on the side of the road.

ONE MORE THING- One of the houses on my block has an enormous amount of mint growing in their little front dirt plot (it's probably 6'x4'-- not enough to call a yard). I'm totally going to snag some later this week and stick it in a pot. Woo!

Vegan Blackberry Muffins with Ginger Streusel Topping

I wasn't going to post this recipe because I was so busy over the weekend, but I think I'd be doing y'all a major disservice if I let it stay in my archives, never to be shared. On Sunday, Martin and I made a really gorgeous lunch spread for his mom for Mother's Day. The menu consisted of:

- Egg and arugula tartine on French boule
- Spinach and sundried tomato frittata
- Cheese platter (Saint Andre, double creme brie, bleu d'Auvergne)
- A gorgeous fruit plate
- Roasted veggies with orange muscat champagne vinaigrette (the vinegar is from Trader Joe's and is delicious!)
- A bountiful salad
- And my vegan blackberry muffins.

Unfortunately, Martin's dad isn't too keen on the whole vegan thing, so we had to construct a menu he'd actually eat. Otherwise I would've left all the eggs and cheese out-- I ended up with a tummyache after all that stuff. Anyway, on to the muffins!!

** This recipe is modified from The PPK's Brown Sugar Peach Spelt Muffins. I kept most of the wording the same and changed the ingredients around. Isa's instructions are clear and concise.

Vegan Blackberry Muffins with Ginger Streusel Topping

BATTER

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup organic unbleached sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2tbsp ground flax seed
1/3c wheat germ

1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup almond milk (or your nondairy milk of choice)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/4c canola oil
3tbsp vanilla soy or coconut milk yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
zest of one large lemon
1 1/2 cups fresh blackberries (or, if you use frozen, thaw them out and squeeze out most of the liquid before adding to batter)


STREUSEL TOPPING:

1/4c demerara sugar
2tbsp dark brown sugar
1/4c rolled oats
3tbsp margarine
1/4c flour
1tsp ground ginger


Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a muffin tin with baking cups and spray them with cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and flax, and wheat germ. Make a well in the center and add the applesauce, almond milk, vinegar, canola oil, yogurt, lemon zest, and vanilla. Stir with a wooden spoon until mostly combined. Add the blackberries and combine until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.

Scoop batter into muffin tins; they will hold their shape a little bit if you use an ice cream scoop. The batter should almost fill the entire tin.

Prepare your streusel topping-- Use your fingers to mix all the ingredients together until everything's sort of pea-sized. Like you're making biscuit dough. Sprinkle a little onto each muffin and gently press into the batter.

Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick or butter knife inserted through the center comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes in the tin then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely, or just flip them up in the tin to cool.

Fresh Soy Milk / Ratatouille with White Beans

My walls are lime green. This soy milk is limey-mint green. It is also the best soy milk I have ever had. I procured this lovely delight at Viet Tofu during my seven-mile walk around the city today. After hearing from a friend that they have enormous blocks of fresh, homemade tofu for $1 each, and they also sell pre-fried tofu with cilantro and lemongrass in it, I knew I had to make the trek to South Philly and see what was up. I wasn't super hungry so I didn't get the bahn mi that everyone on Yelp raves about, but I did pick up a couple blocks of tofu, a container of the cilantro tofu, and a bottle of green soy milk.

This stuff tastes like drinking deliciously sweet, nutty, smooth, refreshing rice pudding. I'm thinking of going back down to Viet Tofu tomorrow to pick up half a gallon of it. Soooo good. And I can't wait to see how cool it looks with my Weetabix in the morning! =D


Anyway, this whole post wasn't supposed to be about my soy milk adventures. I began my quest to cook through The Vegan Table tonight with Ratatouille with White Beans. Let me be plain-- I did not have high expectations for this dish; I decided on it simply because I knew I could find all the ingredients for cheap at Reading Terminal Market and it seemed like the lightest, easiest thing I could begin with. I have had a ratatouille on a couple of different occasions in the past and have not been the slightest bit impressed. However...



This ratatouille was AMAZING. Oh my sweet baby eggplants so amazing. I did make a couple of changes to the recipe though. I added carrots, opted for sage instead of oregano (I think this made a huge difference), garnished with parsley, basil, fresh lemon juice, and cumin seed, and Martin and I enjoyed the stew over couscous. Such a filling, delicious dinner. I even let my rats have a little (before the lemon was added, of course), and they loved it too!

Also, Martin wanted me to include this picture of him squeezing lemon on his ratatouille.

Summer Fun Project!

Hey y'all! So tomorrow, Tuesday, May 10, 2011 will be the first day of my Summer Fun Project: cooking through Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's The Vegan Table. The book has 200 recipes, which means I will almost certainly not get through the entire thing, but I'm damn sure going to try! I'll focus on lunch and dinner menus more than breakfasts and desserts, simply because I won't have a lot of time in the mornings this summer, and I don't eat a whole lot of sweets. I'll also attempt to make every recipe as close to fat-free as possible.

This project will be documented here as well as on a group blog specifically for summer 2011 projects. Check it out here.

Tomorrow, I'll begin with Ratatouille with White Beans. Woohoo!

A recipe from another blog.

Hey y'all, just wanted to back-post a few recipes I did for my and Martin's blog, Fude Blawg (And a Semester Abroad). We didn't do much with it while I was abroad, unfortunately, but hopefully I'll be able to convince him to pick it up again this summer. :)

Anyway, here's the first recipe I did for Fude Blawg. Sorry about the weird line endings; I have no idea how to fix that formatting!

Veggie Laksa

1/2 regular package tofu or 1 package SprouTofu

1 generous handful whole wheat spaghetti noodles

2+ tablespoons Thai curry paste (I adore the Maesri canned curry pastes. They're all vegetarian and super delicious.)

Various veggies-- I used red pepper, kale, broccoli, zucchini, and asparagus in mine.

One can of your favorite coconut milk*

Fresh cilantro or fresh Thai basil (optional)

Cashews, lime wedges, julienned jalapeno for garnish (optional)

• Cut your tofu into 1/2" slices. Press for 20 minutes, then slice into 1/2"x1/2" sticks.
• Cook the spaghetti noodles in a pot of boiling water. Save about two coffee cupfuls of the cooking liquid in a bowl.
• Drain the noodles and put your pot back on the stove, but with your burner turned to medium.
• Add a tiny bit of vegetable oil to your pot. Add the tofu and sautee until just barely golden brown.
• Add the curry paste and asparagus to the bottom of the pot along with the tofu and stir fry about 2-3 minutes.
• Add half your water and half your coconut milk. Stir until curry paste has incorporated. Add all your veggies and turn the heat up to medium-high. Simmer for about ten minutes, or until veggies have cooked through but still retain their bright color.
• Add your noodles and the rest of the liquid and simmer an additional 3-4 minutes. Ladle into bowls and stir in cilantro or basil right before serving. Garnish with jalapeno, lime, and cashews, and eat with chopsticks.

*I used Goya brand coconut milk, and I wish I hadn't. It's not as sweet as say Trader Joe's or the various brands you'd find in an Asian market, and it's certainly not as thick. It separated into little particles when I added it to this dish, and you can see it in the pictures. I won't be using Goya coconut milk again.

Almost a year later...

Well, that obviously didn't work the first time! I've had a crazy year-- spent a semester in London, moved twice, changed my career path-- but now I'm settled and ready to do this. I got my first CSA share delivery today and decided that talking about it would be the perfect way to begin my blog!

If you're clueless about what a CSA share is, check out this explanation.

My friend Ivy and I decided to split a full vegetable share from Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative. I'd gotten good recommendations for this co-op from my boss, who writes for FarmToPhilly.com and has done a little CSA shopping around. She said LFF gives you the best bang for your buck-- and she was NOT kidding!

Ivy and I split the share, dividing each item we received today in half, and I still have a ridiculous amount of produce. And it's only the beginning of May, when shares are at their most scant-- I am so excited for what the coming months will bring!

This week, we got a huge bag of komatsuna (Japanese spinach), young mustard greens, parsley, asparagus, rhubarb, mesclun greens, a giant bag of (the SPICIEST) arugula, and a big ole head of bok choy. After filling my two biggest tupperware containers with mustard/mesclun/arugula/komatsuma, I still had a ton of greens leftover, so I decided to whip up a really quick stir fry for dinner. Here's what I did:

1/2 pack firm tofu, sliced, pressed, and marinated (I sprayed mine with some Bragg's)

1 yellow bell pepper

1 orange bell pepper

1/2 yellow onion

A few handfuls komatsuna, or you can use spinach. I found the komatsuna really similar to spinach, but definitely markedly sweeter.

3 cloves garlic, sliced

2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce or tamari

1/2tsp crushed red pepper

pinch of ground ginger

1/4c Mushroom or veggie stock (I used mushroom), orange juice, or water

Sesame oil

1. In a wok, add 1-2tsp vegetable oil and sautee the tofu until golden brown. Set aside.

2. Julienne the bell peppers and onion. Add a tiny bit more oil to the wok, and sautee until tender. Add 1/3 of your liquid near the end. Set aside.

3. Mix together soy sauce, crushed red pepper, ginger, and the rest of the liquid.

4. Add all of the greens and garlic at the same time. Toss around until the greens begin to wilt and the garlic becomes fragrant, then add the liquid mixture. Sautee 1 minute.

5. Return the tofu, peppers, and onions to the pan, and sautee, tossing frequently, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the greens are completely wilted.

Drizzle with 1 tsp sesame oil and serve. I didn't bother making rice with this because I had soooo much vegetable matter and wasn't really craving carbs tonight, but you could serve this over brown rice or soba noodles for a more filling dish.

Later tonight, I roasted up some beets and turnips to throw into the gazillion salads I'll be making this week.

First post, finally!

Never thought I'd actually get around to doing this. I'm not even sure how first posts on food blogs are supposed to go! I guess this should be a mission statement of sorts. So here we go.

When I first started seriously cooking at fourteen, I did so because I had to. I had decided to stop eating meat-- poultry, fish, and shellfish included-- and my very steak-and-potatoes family more or less stopped inviting me to the dinner table. What was I going to eat? Salad? I don't think I'll ever forget the evening my grandfather said I could eat with him and my grandmother, because "chickens aren't animals." As frustrating as it was to get my family used to the fact that I wouldn't be dining on turkey with them at Thanksgiving and I would be making my own non-meat-marinara sauce on spaghetti night, I am pretty grateful for their resistance to my lifestyle change. If I hadn't been more or less forced to fend for myself, I would not have discovered my life's greatest passion.

This is the most cliche thing I think I've ever written, but it's so true. When I'm in the kitchen, baking vegan blueberry scones or whipping up a soba noodle stir fry, I feel so at home. I find so much fulfillment in preparing meals for myself, my family, and my friends. I love working with my hands, I love discovering new techniques and ingredients, and I love the gratification of having a delectable finished product at the end of an evening's work. Hopefully the recipes, product reviews, meal plans, and grocery lists I post here will inspire all my readers to eat compassionately, healthfully, and most of all to get in the kitchen and create!