Sunday, January 24, 2010

"And remember, don't drive like my brother..!"

I love sunday afternoon Car Talk study sessions :)

and slacking off on saturdays! I went to Border's downtown and read the entirety of The End of Overeating, by David Kessler... and now I'm menu-planning, to prevent deviation from The Plan!

[The Plan: drop at least 5 pounds by spring break (march 17) in order to be far sexier than christmas-break-sugar-fiend mary and make the BF want to lavish and ravage all day long.]

The Plan has me gluten-free (not a big deal, actually!), mostly vegan (vegan except for the MASSIVE tub o' Nancy's I bought before starting the plan), and raw as much as I can (ugh.. fiber bloat).

but this book..! I liked it, all in all. I feel like Kessler gets it. he seems to have had a few love-affairs with food of his own, so he knows what it's like. I gained some tricks, including the planning - if I've got all the food I'm allowed for the day written down, there's no rationalizing food outside of it!

today was:

--Bob's Red Mill hot cereal with jam&brown sugga' for breakfast... and ho-made tabouli and a minneola for lunch! the tabouli is dank: half a bunch of IP (italian parsley, y'all), 1/4 cup of uncooked quinoa, cooked.., a roma tomato, a slice of diced red bell, a celery stick, and a tablespoon of raw pistachios. I doused it in lime, and put half aside for lunch tomorrow. WIN. I wanna make this this summer for my family!
--also, ho-made greek yogurt. oooh baby. with moreia's meyer lemonz and maple? yesh preese.
--dinner's gonna be a mish: roasted sweet dumpling squash with broccolini and sun-dried tomato pesto and navy beans.
squash: microdestruct it 'til it's soft, peel it, slice it, rub it with italian spices and salt and pepper, roast it, dice it.
broccolini: steam it, baby!
pesto: foodprocess SD tomatoes (5 of them?), clove elephant garlic, tablespoon raw pistachios, drop of oil, and red pepper flakes.
beans: maybe. I'm not sure I'll want all that, yet.





sigh... these guys make me feel so much better about my education, haha. I wanna hang out with click and clack :) they're about as seedy as my minneola I ate with lunch! ba dum chh!

Monday, January 18, 2010

"Gimme that Christian Side Side-Hug!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Oj0-splZw

I'm going to murder my boyfriend! this damn thing is going to be stuck in my head for YEARS!

ANYWAY

I'm starting the The Raw Divas 7 Day Detox tomorrow - an all day fast to kick it off! - which is going to keep me raw and vegan for all meals for 7 days. I'm using this blog to document everything I eat and to keep me honest... and if that doesn't work, well, I've got them rough riders filled up with christ's love to keep me straight!

WOOP!

Monday, January 11, 2010

"So, with his passion to kill still keen and unabated, Venters lived out that ride, and drank a rider's sage-sweet cup of wildness to the dregs..."

I have become a cowpoke.

SERIOUSLY. I have fallen in love with the american western tradition. yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a west coast girl, and have been all my life, but dude, if you haven't gathered this from my grommy vernacular already, I grew up in a socal beach town. I'm more likely to get maytagged in a gnarly rip (get tossed underwater like the spin cycle of a washing machine) than straddle my hoss and ride off'n to the sunset.

so read RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE (and thank you, google books!). it's sooo romantic, both in the historical/literary and sentimental sense of the word. those are two of my favorite things, fyi. if only my man'd figure this out. le sigh.


it has been inspiring me to light out into the territory on my own a bit, which has been fun. the other day, I mished to woodland and picked up chiles de arbol, the cheapest avocado I've seen in ages (and to think they're five for a buck in SD...!), maria's galletas, and the most amazing pan dulce ever. seriously. they were so good. I need to rework my receta. ANYWAY, yesterday's ride (astride my faithful peugeot) was to the international market, where I got some super cheap henna, delicious pistachio nougat candies, and ZA'ATAR!

for those not in the know, za'atar is this amazing middle eastern spice blend of thyme, marjoram, oregano, sesame, salt... the combinations are mutable, but the taste is undeniable - zingy and almost lemony from the thyme, but toasty from the sesame. it's bomb dusted on pita that's been oiled and then broiled, but yesterday, I did a good thing for LD and me. I dredged some tofu in it, pan fried it, and served it with cauliflower broiled with garam masala and cilantro and a dish of tomatoes sprinkled with lime, cumin, and sea salt. YUM.

for dessert, we had baked pears, but not just ANY baked pears! no sir, these were stuffed with all kinds of things: muesli, dried figs, crystallized ginger, and chocolate chips. soooo good.


a taste:
"He had shot a masked outlaw the very sight of whom had been ill omen to riders; he had carried off a wounded woman whose bloody lips quivered in prayer; he had nursed what seemed a frail, shrunken boy; and now he watched a girl whose face had become strangely sweet..." how can you resist?!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

"You're a senior, double major, you've got such big ideas..."

ho man, my hungarian ancestors would be so proud of me tonight.

I got some NC patty-pan squashies at work today. it's completely and utterly the wrong season for them, but hey, they were free and organic. I like both of those things.

I had grabbed an NC red bell pepper intending to cook them squashies my favorite way: a horribly untraditional goulash. it's usually got gypsy peppers (yeah, I'm part gyspy, what now!), sweet onions, soft squash, tomatoes, and TONS of paprika. it's pretty much one of my favorite ways to use summer squash - paprika is one of those magic spices, like cumin. you can't go wrong.

with that in mind, I sauteed my onions to a nice brown, mixed in my garlic and spices, and was well on my way to having perfectly cooked squash and peppers. however, being the lazy-ass cook that I am, I didn't check to see if I had any cans of tomatoes to simmer the other ingredients in into saucy oblivion. I like having canned tomatoes on hand in winter over real tomatoes, because at least I know the canned stuff is picked when it's ripe. you never know with the fresh ones in winter...

all this is fine and dandy, but there were no tomatoes to be found. drat. I improvised. here's the results - I served it with shredded cucumber mixed with "mediterranean" (which is different from "greek", I've learned) yogurt and cumin and salt and pepper. super yum.

fava bean goulash great-grandma hates me for

1/4 of medium yellow onion, sliced
*1 clove of garlic, chopped
generous pinch each: *paprika, *oregano, *thyme, *cayenne, *black pepper
*2 patty-pan or other summer squash, roughly chopped
*1/2 of large red bell pepper, sliced thick
*1/2 can of fava beans + some of their liquid
*more paprika
pinch of chile molido - totally not traditional, but I love it with beans


saute the onion on medium 'til it begins to get brown, then mix in garlic and first set of spices. stir until it's aromatic, then add squash and peppers. saute for another 10 minutes (or as long as it takes to change your laundry), then add the fava beans and their liquid. sprinkle in more paprika (I'm a fiend) and the chile molido, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

makes enough for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow




*dude, everything I starred was free. so was my cucumber. the yogurt wasn't, but the blueberries and blackberries that'll be on my fro-yo after dinner will be!