The Grazing Lamb

Getting Into The Routine

2012-01-10T15:55:00.000-06:00

This is a glass of a whole very fat cucumber and a small-to-medium navel orange. It was delicious and worthy of my novelty ShareBear Care Bear glass.

I'm still in the process of trying to get into the whole juicing routine. Juicing for meals that aren't breakfast just isn't an easy process for me right now. Every thing I read said to store the juice in over-filled mason jars but squat little jars aren't easy to drink out of and are definitely not easy to pour liquids out of. Also, I have a habit of forgetting to bring a mug or cup to drink out of and end up using one of the... not-so-eco-friendly cups on hand at my office.

Also, it makes me kind of looks like the office vampire if I've added too many beets.

But I'd really like to get the whole bring-juice-to-work thing figured out so that by the time my work day is over, I'm not starving and also not so worn out. One day, I'd like to have the energy to go from work to a gym and then still be alive enough to go home safely.

There's also the whole issue of still having to adjust combinations and flavors until they're drinkable. I've got a wonderful gulp-and-grimace pattern down for most of my juice drinking (other than the above lovely cucumber and orange combo). I'm hoping that will get fixed with the package that I received today of some extra little goodies, but if not- I'll be playing with the sugar levels for a long time to come on these juices because beets and carrots? Not the right kind of sweet for me. Too much of one kind and not enough of the right kind.

But, in the mean-time, I've got a nice little morning routine building. Just before 6 AM every morning, Olive the Cat and I trot down to the kitchen and start assembling the juicer. I grab what items I'm thinking of putting in, and I put my headphones on and start listening to Pandora. The juicer is, in comparison to a blender or food processor, quiet. But when compared to, say, quietness? Really freakin' loud. So: music.

I juice enough to fill a small-to-medium sized glass for breakfast and, if there's time and means, I juice some more to hopefully try to gulp down at work. While this is going on, I have no idea what the hell my cat is doing. Every so often, she shows up and meows at me and then disappears some more. But she's super happy to not be in my room anymore, I know that.

After drinking the first glass, I'm now fast enough that there's also time to make a cup of tea to follow it up. I've got a lovely new IngenuiTEA loose tea pot/cup/filter/awesomething so I've been doing some loose brewed herbal tea first thing in the morning. It's kind of a big step for me to go back to herbal after being a straight-up green and white tea drinker for years. But now I get to enjoy a whole cup and to make googly eyes at my cat before I need to rush out the door.

Of course, I'm able to do this because, for some reason, traffic has yet to reach the horrible level it was at a month ago with making it so I had to be out of the house by 6:30 to be at work by 8 - but that time will come and for now I'm enjoying having some time to recover in the morning.

And... rambling. In conclusion: still trying to figure the juice thing out. Not quite ready to go all juice all the time total detox yet.

I Shot A Man In Reno, Just To Drink His Beets.

2012-01-06T08:19:00.002-06:00

I might've over-extended myself yesterday with a whole pint of celery juice. And didn't get to the pint until it had started to lose that beautiful neon color. So, today, I've got two half-pints of beet, cucumber, and zucchini juice.

... and a pint of celery, cucumber, and beet juice.

Hopefully, I managed to get all that pesky beet juice off of everything in the kitchen before I left this morning. For a while, it looked like I had killed someone. Especially when I was peeling the beet.

Also? Zucchini? Not very juicy.

A few notes about my first day of juicing, though: I had a very difficult mid-morning. Possibly due to a blood sugar drop or just being tired.

Or maybe the half of a sleeping pill I took the night before.

Either way, I was really struggling to stay alert and awake from about 8:00-10:00 yesterday morning after having a glass of cabbage juice at 6:30 AM for breakfast. Even breaking out the emergency energy drink at my desk didn't help until I took a brisk walk around my building. And not getting to the celery juice until 3:30 pm did not go over well with my stomach when 5 pm rolled around.

But now I've gone through 80% of the veggies I bought to juice on Wednesday night. And I really wish I had started all this back in July when my house was buried in free cucumbers from our garden. Oh well, something to look forward to for this summer.

We shall see how today goes...

Morning Juicing

2012-01-05T12:30:00.000-06:00

I gave myself about 40 minutes this morning to get some juicing done, to see how much I could accomplish before I needed to leave for work.

This adorable little vibrant green pint was the majority of what I got done. So... not much.

It's almost a whole bunch of celery with a few carrots and some lime thrown in with it. I packed it in an old soft lunch box with lots of ice packs and we'll see how it holds up until I'm reading to drink it.

After I filled the jar and refrigerated it, I made a small glass-worth of cabbage-based juice. And here's a lesson: cabbage is kind of difficult to juice. The rubbery leaves don't like to easily make it down the feeding shoot on my Omega. I had hoped to get another pint made, if not more, but it just took too long.

I ended up throwing in a few carrots to that as well and the rest of my lime- which I don't think I proper de-skinned enough. The juice felt like a punch in the face! I ended up watering it down significantly and chugging.

I really wanted to try cabbage juice after hearing that it has some unknown miracle vitamin in it that's super beneficial when juiced and drank immediately.

And then spent the next ten minutes sneezing.

I might've forgotten a minor allergy to cabbage in the process of wanting to test the benefits of its juice...

2012? It's going to be...

2012-01-04T22:11:00.001-06:00

JUICY!

That is 1 cucumber, 2 small whole carrots, half a lime, and a teeny bit of a too-soft apple.

I bought a juicer for myself after reaching one of those glorious/horrible end of my ropes. I have low energy, chronic pain (still), low focus, low memory, and it seems like everything I eat upsets my system no matter what.

I'm hoping to be able to get pretty obsessive about juice for a while and do a juice fast that involves intaking 1200-1500 calories a day in raw juice form (giving your digestive system a break).

*fingers crossed* that I get in the habit! Then I can go on and on about all the lore involving juicing and whatnot.

Juicy New Year, everybody!

5 Things To Do During A Very Short Return To Tucson:

2011-09-24T09:00:00.000-05:00

Countdown...

5. Bring Chicago's rainy weather with you and be treated like a god.

4. See your friends' awesome hilarious zombie movie on the big screen.

(WARNING: R-Rated Trailer)

3. Go to Geeks Who Drink at Hotel Congress with these killer fools.

2. Go to Bookmans. Which was the best bookstore in AZ even before Borders died.

In comparison, Borders:

1. Food. El Charro Cafe.

The original El Charro Cafe. Where I got possibly the kindest and most openly helpful service at a restaurant EVER. I asked about vegetarian options and then found out that they even have vegan options and they had a gluten-free menu. Our waiter was so amazingly sweet and knowledgeable about which beans to put on the plate and which rice and... AWESOME MEAL.

Veggie Fajitas. Not actually on the menu, but amazing and look at that awesome display!

Meal-A-Palooza 14: Better than it looks!

2011-09-22T09:00:00.000-05:00

This is a raw vegan burger.

It is actually tasty, despite the fact that it looks like, well, looking like it came from a certain fictional establishment I had managed to forget about for 20 years... (my apologies in advance to the over 35 demographic for linking to this)

But, really, it was oddly tasty. And the embodiment of how most of these meals have been better when making sure to combine the various elements rather than eating them separate.
The bread is two large flax chips, which are not fun when not combined with any other flavors. The patty is a mixture of nuts and seeds with a bit of miso and nutritional yeast for extra flavor. Then there's some nut cheese on top. And some funky looking sprouts. And some sundried tomatoes (a good step for tomatoes!).

No, really, it was pretty good. I would eat that again voluntarily.

Its side salad, however, I can not say the same about. Bland, dry, and blah. And this is from someone that usually orders my salads dry.

But the burger was good! And easy to eat at work (other than getting stuck in my teeth).

And, yes, it is pretty damn ugly looking. But... so are beef patties. Especially fast food ones that are all grey and look somewhat like faded asphalt. SO THERE.

I don't know why I'm now defensive about finally liking something.

I'm on a weird emotional food journey, apparently.

Meal-A-Palooza 13: You Know What Fruit I Dislike More Than Banana?

2011-09-21T09:00:00.000-05:00

MELONS!

So, take three guesses as to what the flavor of this shake was!

The weirdest part? The flavor started off melon-y, then became savory, and finally would feel like something was rotting in my mouth. Hurray! Yeah, I couldn't finish this one. Not even close.

It's like they somehow knew.

Meal-A-Palooza 12: Too Little Too Late

2011-09-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

Not really a "meal" so to speak.

This is one of the three desserts that came with the second half of meals.

Yes, this is one of three. Pictured twice. I find tiny raw desserts very annoying, have I mentioned that enough?

Maybe it's not supposed to be like a donut hole. Maybe they think it's like a truffle. That might make it seem more like it should be savored and be only one, right?

But, beyond the issue of what it's supposed to be mocking, let's get to the important part: how did it taste?

Kind of like a donut hole, really. If donut holes were made from dates. No, really. I mean that honestly.

And, to be fair, it was pretty dense and therefore easy to savor and eat slowly. But, as the title says, "Too little too late" to make me get over my annoyance with the providers. I'm a very grudge-y person.

I was aiming for the food, and instead got a picture of my scar. Yay.

Meal-A-Palooza 11: I Swear, It's Not A Rerun

2011-09-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

Really, I swear, it's a whole new meal.

Well, it's a second meal, at least.

Although, judging by the look of the guacamole that came with it, you would think it was prepared at the same time as the last "Why is this in a corn husk?" Mexican-y thing with mango salsa and guacamole on the side.

Again, I wonder why they didn't just squeeze a little lemon or lime juice onto the guacamole before packaging. Am I crazy?

And the guacamole wasn't even very good this time around. Might've been just a bad avocado, I guess.

Once again, I find myself dealing with a meal that is decent if you make sure to combine a few parts of it but that those parts can't hold up on their own. The tamale-y nut-seed-y thing, this time, was really only good when eaten in with the mango salsa.

And the side salad was a super odd one. Chard (I think?) with coconut shavings, currants, and walnuts. First of all: FINALLY, something sweet. But it was also dry and funny. Maybe the mango salsa was meant to involve it as well?

The currants were good, though. Really good. So, that's a plus.

Not A Meal-A-Palooza Entry!

2011-09-17T09:00:00.000-05:00

My cat snuggling my external drive.

This is just a little interlude to say "thank you" to everyone that reads (and a special "Hi! Love you! Sorry for any bad language!" to my Grama, because she's awesome and does read this).

Thanks for coming back even though I basically disappeared for a year. I'm trying my best to come up with as much new content as possible while I have the time (like spreading out a week of raw meals into about 2.5 weeks worth of posts, maybe) and scheduling as many posts into the future as I can to account for things like going out of town and whatnot.

The intention of this current run I've been calling "Meal-A-Palooza" has been to go through all the possible options for having prepared raw meals made for me in the span of a couple months and then finding the one to stick with now that I can afford such a luxury and to give the facts about them all and my opinion in a final conclusion review.

However, there may be a noticeable gap between this first disastrous run of meals and the next, as I both have a trip out of town coming up (that I will be getting back from by the time this posts) and... some other stuff that is sort of typical to how my life goes (and will hopefully be resolved soon).

I should also soon be pulling my lightbox out again for some of the food photos to prevent ugly indoor lighting issues in home-taken photos at least. I've switched from my Nikon to mostly using my iPhone 4 for photos and have been pretty happy with the results.

I'll be updating the template and lay-out again soon, once I decide on what I like. And now that blogger has mobile design options, I'll be looking into that as well. So, that should be thrilling for everyone, I'm sure.

One of the interesting things about the internet is that you can leave and people will continue to discover what you left unattended. The updated version of blogger's stats has shown me just as much. You know when I hit my readership all-time high?

April 2011.

Did I ever post anything in April 2011? Nope. Sorry! Thank you for reading, though!

Fun things The Stats also tell me:

The most common google search that leads people here, other than "grazing lamb" is "spiky fruit". And my post on lychee is by far the most popular.
I have a bigger audience in Russia than in the UK or Canada. And keep getting views from Andorra. Hello, person from Andorra!
Understandably, I have no audience in Africa, it seems.
Most people visit here using Internet Explorer (sad!). And, like, 4 people apparently still use Netscape!
I have a very mobile audience- lots of phones and tablets being used. Hence the mobile design.

Anyway, I just wanted to take a moment to say "thanks for hanging around!" as I'm getting back in the groove and trying to figure out what direction my life, my food, and this blog are going to go in next. Feel free to send any feedback, ponderings, questions, suggestions, comments, quemments to me via twitter (@kmlamb85) or email (kmlamb85 at gmail).

Meal-A-Palooza 10: The Second Half Begins.

2011-09-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

I made my second and final pick up of these raw meals that I paid for in advance. As you can probably tell from the previous 11 posts, I'm less than thrilled with both the food and the service from this restaurant during this trial.

I had been told at the first pick-up that for my second one, I just needed to call two hours in advance. So, I called them three hours before I was going to show up.

And then had to stand around for 15-20 minutes at the restaurant for my food to be ready. As a ticked-off woman huffed around badmouthing the other people that worked there. There's definitely something going on at that place that wasn't the last time I ate there. I won't be naming them, however, due to seeing that the owner is no kinder than most of his staff and responds to all not-happy reviews on Yelp with personal attacks on the reviewers. Yay!

I take criticism just about as well as he does anyway, so I don't want to even bring that hostility over here.

Besides, maybe there's something personal going on and they don't need the negative press adding extra stress. You never know. So, I'm just going to keep their name out of it, keep the search engine matches of them and this blog low, and continue to feel free to be honest about my interactions.

Anyway... to top things off, now I realize that normally the meals do come with labels on them. Mine just didn't the first time around. And half of them don't this second time around, either. Because it was going to be at least another five minutes of standing around if I let her put the labels on.

So, here we have raw ravioli. The cashew cheese in these is actually processed down enough to be like ravioli cheese and has spice and flavor to it similar to what ravioli filling should taste lik. The ravioli wrappers are made from radishes. And there was a little container of sauce that came with these that I just barely dipped each ravioli in to add a tiny extra bit of flavor and balance to. They were pretty tasty, although the radish was somewhat bitter (as it tends to be) and the cashew cheese didn't taste that much like cheese.

However, the reason I chose this meal as the first of the second half was a rather pathetic reason: the salad that came with the ravioli appeared to be browning already. And then wasn't very good tasting anyway, of course.

But, really, is it too much to spritz a lime slice over the salads before packing them?

Although, this was by far the "smallest" entree I've received and the first to not totally fill me. So, that was a different experience after dealing with all these meals that have been so big that I lost interest in finishing it.

Meal-A-Palooza 9: That's Using Your Noodle!

2011-09-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

It's hard to tell but, yes, a spaghetti-style dish. Again.

Shockingly, this one went much better. Rather than zucchini noodles, this dish was using one of my established favorites, kelp noodles. Clear, chewy, springy kelp noodles. Which, for once thing, explains one of the problems with the zucchini noodles: not enough texture. That is, a problem in addition to the tomato issue I already wrote about. An issue that, now that I've had the kelp noodles, I'm reminded that I had previously with a raw spaghetti dish of my own making a few years ago- a dish I made with kelp noodles.

And this dish had major flavor. And, like most of the dishes that had any flavor, after a while it got to a point where the flavor was just too much and my mouth was kind of burning from... something. I don't really know where the heat was coming from. I think maybe just raw garlic. Again.

There was also raw broccoli and cauliflower in the dish. Which again- good at first, but overwhelming after a while. I want to be able to taste my food the whole time I'm eating it and continue to like the taste- is that so much to ask for?

Mixing in the spinach side salad was a nice combination with the dish, though. So at least they do seem to include these side salads with some pre-thought to them to purposely be complimentary to the dish. But I would prefer it if the parts of the meal could stand on their own.

I was actually able to eat most of it (in two sittings) a big difference from the zucchini spaghetti dish.

I do adore kelp noodles, though. I need to check the local Whole Foods to see if any of them carry kelp noodles. The two in Tucson definitely did but I never ended up buying them while living there. I had to order them online previously. Maybe times have changed, however. Between now and the last time I was living in Chicagoland, they started carrying actually good non-dairy cheese- so you never know.

Meal-A-Palooza 8: Seriously?

2011-09-14T09:00:00.000-05:00

Raw Lasagna. The most prolific gourmet dish.

Basically every raw restaurant you go to will have lasagna on the menu. It's colorful, it's easy to make in large batches, and it's one of the first "impressive but simple" recipes most raw food chefs learn.

It should be foolproof to any professional, then.

Or so I thought. After the spaghetti and the cheesecake, I knew there was a lasagna in the fridge and I was just holding on to the thought, "The lasagna. That will be the high point. That will make up for all the others."

The "cheese" layer at the bottom- the only cheese layer- was basically soggy cashew halves. It's supposed to have some chunks to it, being like ricotta, but this was ridiculous and lame.

However, the lasagna was the second of the six entrees from this first patch that I actually finished in one sitting. So... good for it!

And it actually did have some flavor to it, unlike the zucchini spaghetti.

Which isn't saying much. It was basically all from the spinach filling and the soggy cashews, as otherwise it was zucchini and tomatoes, just like the spaghetti.

Also, the side salad helped a lot with making it palatable. There were apples and dried tomatoes in it that had, you know, flavors. So mixing the ingredients together made the meal edible. But... basically made it "a salad that was served partially shaped in a square ".

I mean, technically, all raw food dishes are just structured salads. But there should be some flavor to them. Especially when this is all your business does. Actually, the odd thing is that this restaurant does a lot with dehydrators and, other than that first tamale thing, none of these meals seem to have much that was dehydrated. Which is probably part of the problem.

But, seriously, how do you mess up raw lasagna's cheese layer? Even I know how to make a good ricotta-style nut cheese!

We're not even halfway through, folks!

I'm really sad and disappointed by these meals. I don't like being negative in this blog- but I'm a little bit stuck. These meals are a joke and a huge rip-off. While I am, for once, actually getting food in me and fresh food at that- the flavors and textures aren't any more diverse than when I was eating fruit-in-gel cups every day. And at least I knew those were going to be tasty.

Not-A-Meal-A-Palooza: Vegan Nutrition? Myths, Facts, and Someone Else Did the Work:

2011-09-13T09:00:00.000-05:00

There is a fantaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaastic article by Nil Zacharias on The Huffington Post that busts the biggest of the "vegans are malnourished wackjobs" myths out there. Making it so I never have to do a similar list here. It doesn't hit every issue (and doesn't bring up nutritional yeast for some reason) but is a nice reference for anyone that has been asked "BUT HOW DO YOU GET PROTEIN?!" and responds with "Broccoli" only to have people think she's being sarcastic. Not that that's a specific example or anything.

So, anyway, GO READ! It has actually references and doctors and stuff involved with the facts!

Meal-A-Palooza 7: Just Desserts

2011-09-12T09:00:00.000-05:00

I can't probably explain how difficult it was to take this picture. This is a super shallow container, the slices are very small. There was no good angle.

I was hoping that the desserts would finally be something with some major flavor and sweetness while the rest of the food has not. Six giant entrees.

Two itty-bitty nut-based desserts. Seriously, I went back in my posts and pulled up this picture from 2009 of a raw dessert in the exact same size container:

This dessert from 2009 was at least twice the height and thickness of the raspberry cheesecake.

Well, there was flavor in the cheesecake at least. The cashew spiced whatever that is the square beige thing was just mildly flavored. And not at all sweet, just savory. Screw that. You can't give me all savory shit except for an apple, orange, and a handful of cherries on a salad (which, don't get me started on how silly it is to have stem-and-pit-containing cherries on a salad).

"The raspberry cheesecake," you may be exclaiming, "You just said it was full of flavor!" And I will respond with, yes, it is full of flavor. TART flavor.

Bullshit. I've been looking forward to this little sliver of raw cheesecake for days and it was just tartness.

And this thing. I like spice cake. I like cinnamon. I like the flavor- I just wanted something actually sweet. I wanted something with a flavor explosion.

I know this place makes better food that what I've been given. I guess that stuff is left only to the people that don't get their meals in bulk?

No wonder it was so disorganized to get their food. I doubt very many people stay getting their meal plan for very long.

This is the type of raw food that would make anyone complain if they were eating it as a diet. I remember a couple years ago actress Amanda Seyfried was talking a lot about how much she hated being on a raw food diet and how it was torture and yada yada yada. Well, if her food was as bland as that spaghetti I had, I now completely understand!

The annoying thing is that I'm only half way through this place's plan and then I'll be going out of town (and will have been gone for a while at the time this goes up. Yes, I've been pre-blogging. Probably explains all the ones where I'm ticked off recently- I've written them in the same one day.) for a week and, hopefully, will be able to find a new easier and tastier raw food provider once I get back.

In the mean time, more of this crap is to come. I'm hoping I'll be wooed back into loving raw food before this is over...

Meal-A-Palooza 6: This Is Not The Flying Spaghetti Monster

2011-09-10T21:00:00.000-05:00

This is zucchini in noodle form.

Or, more accurately, this is the embodiment of one of my other picky-eater-food issues: tomatoes.

I have made AMAZING strides with my tomato issues in my life time, let me tell you. When I was a kid, my family would somewhat regularly go to this really nice Italian restaurant where my sister and I would get their amazing cheese ravioli that was four ravioli squares that were each individually bigger than my adult woman size palm. The four raviolis came with an amazing baked cheese on top and, for most people, marinara sauce.

Except for me. Other than on pizza, I didn't like tomato sauce. Or tomatoes at all. Too slimy, too bland, smelled funny, and so on.

I would get my ravioli without sauce so much that it was pretty known that it was our family ordering if there was two orders of cheese ravioli and one was without sauce. When a waiter decided to make what he probably thought was good natured ribbing about the ordering without sauce, I was too young and/or just too sensitive to realize he wasn't actually giving me grief about my order.

I was so embarrassed and felt like I must be such a nuisance and burden to everyone involved with making my meal- convinced that it must be such a pain in the ass to remember not to ladle the marinara sauce onto one of the ravioli plates before baking the cheese on top.

And that was probably the day where I developed my "only order anything that you don't have to special order" mindset that I still have trouble over-coming in the name of my own well-being. I try to break it, but sometimes I just don't want to be "the special one" or "the exception" and would rather just not order anything and watch everyone else eat than have to order a cobb salad with no bacon, no chicken, no eggs, no cheese, no crutons, and no dressing (and then just eat around the tomatoes) because it's the only salad on a menu- not to mention the only item that isn't covered in cheese or bread on the menu.

But that's a tangent for another day.

So, anyway: tomatoes. My sister loves them to a ridiculous level and these days I can tolerate them as long as there's some other major flavor assisting them. A good oregano-y and garlic-y marinara sauce? I'd eat it every day. Salsa? No problem. Stirfry? Sure! Gluten free bruschetta? Only if there's enough seasoning going on. But a big piece of tomato that's going to end up in my mouth with nothing else? Only if it has been cooked enough to remove most of the tomato-y taste.

Which is where I run into problems with raw food. You might notice that this post is coming with no breakfast post before it. Because it was another raw soup- which looked just like the first one. And the first one was tomato-y. There is just something about the taste of raw tomatoes and the texture of their slimy parts that make me barely able to put them in my mouth without gagging.

So, good thing today's meal was raw spaghetti!

I tried. I really did. But the zucchini noodles are so bland and soggy. The sauce seems to barely have any seasoning in it at all. And that mass of sprouts on top is clovers and just gives me a sense memory of being a kid and not washing my hands between playing in the yard and eating my lunch.

Oh, well.

I really do think I'm just in a bad mood about the source of these meals. I need to pick up the other half of the week I paid for, but first I need to call two hours before I pick up. Which is about thirty minutes before I need to leave. And then it takes forever to find parking and then trying to get people to understand that my name is not "Karen" and then before you know it, I don't get home with the food until five hours after calling about picking it up. That's if they don't suddenly go, "Oh no, you're a special order. You can't pick up until tomorrow." Because I'm a nuisance, remember. And have been treated like one.

So, I'll be working up the courage to call tomorrow. The effort, emotional stress, and money required to deal with the place far outweighs any possible benefits, I've finally decided. Especially since the food seems to mostly be pretty bland and unenjoyable.

Meal-A-Palooza 5: I Think That's Cheating!

2011-09-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

It kind of looks like an alien egg sack, doesn't it?

Delicious vegetable alien embryo goodness.

As you might remember, my first lunch item on this pre-made meal set was a big pile o' mystery. So, I was planning on putting a tad more thought into noticing what I grabbed from the fridge this time.

And when morning rolled around, I did. But in the "hey, that looks like it'll be easy to eat while working!" way and not the "hey, I know what this is!" way.

Well, I knew what part of it was- a kelp salad. And I knew the other part obviously had something green in it. But even as I was taking the pictures of the food, I was wondering, "Is that a rice wrapper? Or is it the most amazing lettuce wrapper every made? Rice paper isn't raw, is it? Is it something else? Is it some raw version of a rice wrapper? HOW DOES THIS WORK?!"

Finally, I bit into it.

It was a rice wrapper.

I think?

I don't know how that works, but I'm okay with it. On the inside was a coarse walnut meal and many tasty veggies. It was a lot easier to munch on than Marjory the Spinach Heap the day before, but the rice wrapper was falling apart pretty quickly (the boxes have been picking up a lot of moisture during my commute that turns into condensation in the fridge).

So maybe it was a raw version of a rice wrapper, though, since it was falling apart.

Maybe. I don't know. I'm really kind of at a loss for not knowing what my food is made of. I NEED TO KNOW THINGS.

Anyway... once again, I wasn't capable of finishing my meal. I was hungry still, but just sort of... tired of eating. It's so much food and so much chewing and... I just don't have the time! I can eat a kelp salad like it's nobody's business in the right setting (I had a great one in Oklahoma City back in May and I need to find the pictures of that and write about it) but it wasn't happening here. Also, it's a lot of savory with very little sweet.

But maybe that's me just still feeling shafted about the portions of the dessert compared to everything else.

Meal-A-Palooza 4: 'Sup, Soup?

2011-09-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

So, the non-banana-shake breakfasts I was given are... soups. Spicy and savoring cold and mushy soups.

The texture was not-so-good, as you can probably tell from my description. And the pictures. There were a lot of stops and starts- sometimes the texture would be why I stopped. Sometimes it was just the heat of the spices. I couldn't even begin to tell you what's in this bowl. Well, I assume there's a pepper or two of some sort- but that's like saying that there's "something alive" in a house.

I think raw soups are just not for me- at least not when eaten like soups. Even when it was at room temperature, it wasn't appetizing. The second soup will probably end up being eaten as a sauce with some of the giant salad I've still got on hand.

That's not to say I finished this first soup.

After spending four hours trying to like it, I still had half the container left. So, I put it in the fridge at the office and pulled out my lunch an hour later.

Then forgot the soup in the fridge for the holiday weekend.

Because I'm me.

Ta-da.

I'm concerned that my poor experience with the restaurant personnel is altering my opinion of the food. Because I can be so wordy about how much I love some raw foods some times and, so far? Not so much. Or maybe it's an issue of it not being food I specifically ordered?

Or maybe they gave me food that wasn't out-right crappy but just uneventful as a way to ensure that they wouldn't have to deal with me, either. Hmm...

Meal-A-Palooza 3: The Never-Ending Lunch (Story)

2011-09-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

When I picked up my food from the restaurant, I was advised to eat "the light stuff" first, as the heavier entrees would keep better.

Great advice!

Except, I couldn't figure out which ones were the lighter meals. So, screw that. I went with the first one I could grab!

This was the first entree I took to work as my lunch. It features zucchini pasta and... a large mound of flavored spinach and sundried tomatoes on a piece of lettuce. I have no idea what it's supposed to be impersonating. They didn't label anything in the slightest, obviously.

Maybe it's not spinach. Could be collard greens. Both parts of this dish were super-flavored. Maybe a little bit too much raw garlic. I think they were aiming for Italian-esque flavors. Yeah, I'm just completely mystified by what the mound was supposed to be. As I was eating it, I was alternating between which part of the meal actually tasted better. The mass of greens and sundried tomatoes was intensely flavored, but good in small doses. The zucchini pasta was mild and easily boring. I guess that's actually how a meal is supposed to go, though, isn't it? Complimenting each other and no part is the star (except that mound is totally the scene stealer).

Also, it was a lot of food in that compact little mound! I finished most of the pasta-ish stuff, but the pile of greens (and the side container of a marina-esque sauce that I wasn't too impressed with) were still left after two attempts to eat it at the office.

And so, when I started writing the first Meal-A-Palooza post on Thursday night, I had put the remainders of the meal in a bowl with a little bit of the giant salad that is supposed to go with my breakfasts (but it's so big and I don't want to use baggies to take parts of it to work and, also, salad? For breakfast? Too early. Too much crunchiness), because I didn't want to put a mostly-empty container back in the fridge nor dirty a new container.

Okay, in all honesty, I still haven't finished this lunch as of this writing. I'm working on it, though!

Meal-A-Palooza 2: Drinking Sludge Again.

2011-09-04T18:34:00.000-05:00

Man, there is just no way to make the things I drink look good in a pinch.

This was the first breakfast I had on this set of meals. Described simply as "shake".

And, as I discovered the moment I opened it, is probably about 90% banana. Yuck. I couldn't even tell if it was that color because of some raw cacao or not, that's how lost my tastebuds were under the weight of the banana grossness.

But, it was less questionable than some of the super-veggie-filled smoothies I've made in the past year, so there is that. And the fact that I paid for it and was, dog-gonnit, going to get my money's worth by drinking it!

It took me just under two hours to finish it. I guess that's healthy. Except for the part where my stomach was gurgling as I was drinking it. I don't think that's supposed to happen.

Also, probably would've helped if I had a straw on hand. The best I could manage was a coffee stir to keep it from separating.

Oh, and there's an Ood in this picture. Because he's the one decoration I have in my cubicle at the moment. Duh.

Meal-A-Palooza 1: Poor Lighting & a Tamale-y Thing!

2011-09-03T18:36:00.000-05:00

Okay, let's just say it's smooshed spiced sunflower and/or walnut mush in a corn husk.

'Cause that's what it is.

The thing that most people remember about gourmet raw food is that it is made in "mock" versions of cooked food. Spiced, marinated, and run through a food processor or dehydrator until it sort-of tastes like something familiar. But, in most cases, does not.

That's not to say this whatever-it-is-in-a-corn-husk wasn't delicious. It was very delicious. As was the surrounding pica de gallo-style salad. And the awesome mango salsa. And the guacamole. But when isn't guacamole amazing?

I just think the corn husk is silly. It's just... there. If you're going to use a corn husk, shouldn't there at least be a raw version of the masa part of a tamale on the inside? Not just the meat equivalent?

To be honest, though, I wasn't really too focused on the taste when I ate this meal. I hadn't eaten in about 30 hours when I ate this. Normally, if I don't eat while at work I'll try to grab something on the drive home, but this was the day that I was picking up the food. As well as the day I was visiting the Apple Store (where I had AMAZING customer service from the Genius Bar yet again. Despite being out of warranty- but that's neither here nor there).

And it doesn't help that the restaurant providing the food this week is in an area with some questionable street parking choices. And is an hour away from my house (but only 20-30 minutes from my office). But I was coming from the Apple Store that's halfway between.

So, combined with the lack of meals, by the time I had a car full of food, I felt like I had been making the journey to collect my food for 5 million years. Especially on top of how I initially wanted to get this food two weeks ago. But let's not go into that now.

But, basically, I had to drive an hour home with a car full of heavily seasoned raw food after having not eaten all day and having been up for 15 hours.

So, I hope you'll understand when I can't remember much about this enchilada/tamale/nut meat thing other than "good and had guacamole".

A Teaser: Pre-Prepared Raw Meal-A-Palooza

2011-09-01T20:31:00.000-05:00

I believe I've mentioned my dislike of bananas previously. Yet, I managed to drink this whole raw shake this morning, even with the strong pungent taste of the vile fruit in it.

So, two and a half weeks after making the initial steps towards getting a week of pre-prepared raw meals from one of Chicago's many (seriously, there's like five in Chicagoland) raw restaurant- my food was finally ready.

Yeah. There's a a whole other story here. Possibly to be told in the near future.

But, for the mean time: this is a teaser to what will be many pictures and descriptions of raw meals to come. I highly recommend looking back through the archive to learn about my previous experiences/obsession with eating raw food. It's a concept (eating food never warmed above 118F, sometimes never above 105F because once heated beyond those points the food starts to lose nutrients), an art form, and also something that some people can get a little too obsessed with. The type of people that you want to smack. I've been that type of person. And I've wanted to smack many of these type of people as well.

Basically: I stuck to raw food for a month a couple years ago and while it was a good experience, it was exhausting to prepare all the food even while only part-time employed. Now I'm working a lovely 55-60 hours a week and don't even have the time to make pre-cooked rice. But maybe spending the money to get pre-made meals is the step I need? We shall see.

A quick breakdown of my initial thoughts:

OMG, this is an insane amount of food. It's after 8 pm and I'm still trying to finish breakfast and lunch's food. It would take insane effort to eat all three meals.
On the other hand, they sure were skimpy with the dessert portions considering raw dessert doesn't really need to be skimpy. I'm saving my teeny tiny little slice of raw cheesecake for later.
While I do already feel better, I wasn't planning on shopping around and trying the different raw meal plans in the area until I was forced to deal with this entity's poor set-up and organization. It'll take a miracle to have me ordering from them for a second week any time soon.

Stayed tune for many pretty (and not so pretty- I need to re-learn which lights in this house should not be used for pictures- ie, 99% of them) pictures of weird looking non-cooked veggies and nuts. And maybe a story or five.

The Non-Expert Guide To Being Gluten-Free:

2011-08-28T13:39:00.010-05:00

This is not a gluten-free cake at all. It is a lie. I was short on picture choices, though.

I've been noticing a lot more people in my every day life have become Gluten-Free. People that have been eating normally for 40+ years are suddenly getting diagnosed with Celiac's Disease. Or people that have suffered from chronic headaches that have decided to try anything to stop them... they go gluten-free and realize that it helped.

I recently was also talking to a friend of mine (the maker of all those delicious meals I had while in Tucson) and she was talking about trying to see if a gluten-free diet would help manage her MS.

In the span of three years, the response I've been getting about saying "I don't eat gluten" has gone from a bewildered "But you eat pasta, right? That doesn't have gluten, right?" to the other people getting quiet and close to ask, "Do you think I should stop eating gluten? Do you think it will help with my [blank]?"

Now, I'm going to say this first: Gluten-Free isn't a quick fix. It's not a miracle diet. And you shouldn't consider it a diet- consider it as being you woke up one day and decided that you can't stand the taste of anything with gluten in it. And it's not the only option. In this lovely age of genetically engineered food and feeling the need to involve a leeeeetle bit of corn/soy/beef/"natural flavoring/soylent green into EVERY packaged food, we are all developing some super weird food allergies. Go to the old standby of getting a food diary and keeping track of what you're eating every day and see if you can find a pattern. It might be an allergy to tomatoes and nightshades. It might be lactose intolerance that you've just been trying to ignore. It might even be an allergy to artificial smoke flavoring that is in a lot of meats.

Pay attention to what you're eating, all the parts of what you're eating, and think of what you should try to cut out of your diet for about a month. Maybe take a month to make all meals home-made, non-pre-packaged, and using recently purcahased only-organic-high-quality-seasoning. Make your own bread from an organic flour rather than buying store-bought bread (including those fancy nutty expensive store bought breads). Buy raw cuts of meat rather than hotdogs. No Heinz ketchup. No pop. No Kraft macaroni & cheese.

Sounds tough, right? But it's essentially throwing out the clutter of what you eat. If you continue to have problems, you then have fewer suspects to eliminate. And at that point, you're going to want to eliminate items one by one. Have fun!

Also, there's the really annoying fact that I usually say "give it a month" when really you should give it 6+ months, as sometimes that's how long it takes to feel results. But what I really mean is "commit to a month. If you're okay with it, then commit to another month. If you mess up, it's not the end of the world (other than the intestinal duress)- just start up again when you're ready. It's your body, don't let anyone tell you that you're screwing up. Gluten free is so totally not for everyone. But if you want to try it out, I'm not going to stop you.

So, anyway, if you're pretty damn sure you need to get rid of gluten... here is my I-AM-NOT-AN-EXPERT Guide on the subject (for all people, not just those that are also avoiding animal products).

1. Don't start with items that are specially made to be gluten-free versions of breads/pasta/cake/chicken nuggets/whatever.
- Think of the foods that you like that are just naturally without gluten: rice dishes (sans soy sauce), grilled meat and vegetables, ice cream, fruit, nachos, M&Ms, sushi (again, without soy sauce) and so on. See? Doesn't have to be healthy! Start with the foods you know you like that don't require any breading or soy sauce of any type and see how you do before testing out the GF baked goods. Try to make it a week like that.

2. But I miss sandwiches/pizza/cookies/funyuns!
- Me too!

- Sandwiches: do what your friend on the Slow Carb/Atkins/Name Brand Diet Plan does: lettuce wrap that fucker. I go for romaine leaves, but most people would find bibb and iceberg more useful. It'll fair better than any GF bread will, since those breads tend to dissolve upon touching any grease/liquid/condiment/human.

- Pizza: Okay, there are TONS of GF pizza crust options out there (often with eggs and/or milk in them)- even in grocery stores. Some are mixes. Some are pre-made crusts. Some are premade whole frozen pizza- which are better tasting than the frozen pizzas my sister lives on, if nothing else. Some of these GF pizza options are actually edible. 99% of them, you just need to remember at least one very key factor: extra seasoning. You need to add extra oregano, basil, salt, pepper, and maybe some frankincense and myrrh while you're at it. It also might be worth it to brown the pizza crust a little on a cast iron skillet in a dash of olive oil before eating- at the very least, it will make sure the crust is not a pale and dealthy white.

-- Another option for pizza is to do personal-sized Mexican pizzas. Use a hard corn tortilla and pile on the sauce, cheese, and toppings.

- Cookies: Just eat chocolate chips with some ice cream. Be glad you can at least have those.
-- Or, rather, this is where you're going to want to first find a GF bakery and see what quality they can make cookies in. Then try to replicate and/or best that quality yourself with making small batches of different recipes. In a pinch, as you get used to the odd taste of GF flours, you will be okay with the quality of the pre-packaged GF cookies found at Whole Foods and health food stores. Don't expect miracles in these. Remember, Chips Ahoy don't taste like home made cookies, either. I will say that KinniToos taste pretty much exactly like week-old stale Oreos. Only developing an aftertaste if you eat half a package in one sitting (don't judge me).

Basically, think of the parts of the thing that you want to eat that are naturally gluten free and work from there. If that's too much work or if you really just want a french dip... fine. It's your body.

3. READ THE INGREDIENTS and ALLERGEN INFORMATION. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING WITHOUT READING THE INGREDIENTS.
- Most tortilla chips are GF... except for a few that have oat bran in them. And while oats themselves do not have gluten, the growing and harvesting practices for oats make them a very risky venture and prime for gluten contamination. This sort of nonsense becomes very common place in what your brain knows. But always read the ingredients before buying, even if you think it's something with only one or two ingredients listed.

4. Gluten-Free Blogs Are Your New Bibles.
- Listen to the queens of GF blogging (that does NOT include this blog!) for recipes and factoids about gluten more than anyone else. They are especially key to listen to if they are the mothers of children that are gluten free- because they go full-on Momma Bear about not letting anyone make their kid sick. These women are fantastic.

Where to start:

1. Karina's Kitchen. Best. Recipes. Ever. Huge collection. And the height of "food porn" writing and photos of gluten free food. She is not called the "Gluten Free Goddess" for nuthin, folks!

2. Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom. Name says it all. And a recent post is a much better breakdown of how to test for food sensitivities.

3. Book of Yum. A duo of food bloggers and recipe writers with a major GF slant (one writer has been GF since childhood, the other just likes to find GF recipes). Great mixture of styles and also a great way to find more Asian-style dishes since one of them lives in Japan.

4. Triumph Dining. For when you're exhausted and want to actually go out to eat. Triumph Dining is not a blog, but a great source for keeping track of which dishes and which restaurants are still edible to you. And they'll often be the ones to break the news about a restaurant chain adding GF options (Subway is currently test marketing GF breads in some cities! California Pizza Kitchen has GF crusts!). You can purchase their guide books, purchase GF dining cards (cards to explain to your server about what you can and cannot eat- they even make them in multiple languages. There are also iPhone apps for this function out there, btw), follow them on twitter, and get their newsletter emails. A great resource.

Okay? Got all that? Welcome to the new epicenter of your every thought!

One day, I might cover all the rules for going gluten-free while avoid meat products. But not today.

Holy Crap! It's 2011!

2011-08-22T21:05:00.003-05:00

So... yeah. I know. Hi!

A lot has changed since my last post. I'm back in Illinois (*mumble incoherently*), I'm working somewhere north of 50 hours a week (every week!), I have a new car (it's green! Literally!), and... I don't feel so great.

There's a lot of pieces to why I'm not feeling super, but the main issue is that I've been having a difficult time finding foods that are easy to eat at my desk at work that don't feel like jagged rocks sitting in my stomach. LARA Bars were quickly ruled out. Nuts are okay every so often, but more than once a week and it's not good. My solution the past few weeks has been to take fruit cups and "fruit gel cups" (non-gelatin), but my stomach ends up gnawing on itself before the day is over. Also, all that acid gave me canker sores. Ew.

It doesn't help that my commute is just long enough to make it so breakfast and dinner end up being eaten in the car, too. Especially since they end up being really crappy meals. There's just NO TIME to put any effort into anything! NONE! I'm too tired because of all the crappy food I've been eating.

Oh, vicious cycle...

Anyway, I had a moment back in July, where I got all determined and decided that I was going to buy brown rice tortillas and take hummus & veggie wraps to work. That's healthy! It has variety! And I could eat it in the car! IT WAS PERFECT.

Then I bought brown rice tortillas.

And remembered why they weren't ever a staple of my diet.

They taste like sadness and dissolve the moment anything touches them. Not ideal for any meal, let alone a packed meal. You lose, brown rice tortilla.

I also seem to have some issues with avocados. Buy them unripe, wait for them to ripen a little, cut into them, find a mass of fuzzy horribleness living inside. Every. Single. Time. I haven't had a store-bought avocado all year because of this issue.

So, I decided to bite the bullet and pay for pre-made raw meals. Two months ago, there were two restaurants that I was looking at that provided such programs. One was expensive, but close. The other was far but more reasonable. Then, the expensive one stopped being offered.

So, last Monday I finally ordered a week's worth of meals online from the one restaurant.

And waited.

And waited.

And by Friday, I realized that the confirmation email (not to mention the food) wasn't coming. So, I sent an email to the address on the PayPal receipt asking what was up with my order.

No response.

I went back to their website again and found their info email account and sent an email to that as well, with a copy of my previous email AND the PayPal receipt.

AND I GOT A RESPONSE!

It was the Mailer Daemon. The info account's mailbox is full.

So, looks like I need to try again. And maybe call. Or maybe just drive the hour in the wrong direction after work to talk to someone in person. Because that's how much I hate talking on the phone.

I just want food, man. Super expensive food that will make me feel not so horrible all the time. Please, can I have it?

Otherwise, I need to get up the energy to make nori rolls to take to work. And read up on if sprouts are deadly or not these days (because I'm not throwing my opinion into that ring- just mentioning that it's a thing to think about). Or maybe not. Just thinking about that is making me tired.

In fact, I'm too tired to even tag this post. It's time for bed.

Nice seeing you again, world.

It Really IS a Conspiracy!

2010-11-22T15:48:00.003-06:00

Follow up to the previous post-

A few days after making the post about the dolmas of legend, I had managed to give myself a craving for them again and I headed over to Whole Foods to get a jar... only to find a giant empty space on the shelf where they used to be.

A visit to the other Whole Foods in Tucson revealed that all the dolma choices had mysteriously disappeared.

AGAIN.

So, now the closest thing to the real thing is to get dolmas at Lovin' Spoonfuls (which is right next to a Greek restaurant and yet has better dolmas then the Greek restaurant. Weird) on the hummus plate.

Like so.

It was good hummus, too. And I'm very picky about my hummus (Trader Joe's hummus is disgusting, if you ask me). Although, being me, I picked off the olives (ew) and avoided the slaw, despite it being vegan slaw. And that's millet bread underneath it all in place of the traditional pita.

It's a Conspiracy!

2010-11-05T11:00:00.003-05:00

So, I had a very strong and terrible addiction to these dolmas that Trader Joe's used to carry. No other store-bought dolmas could compare. They were sold in jars, for one thing, rather than cans which make the dolmas taste tinny. Also: they were packed in really nice quality olive oil that I used to use for cooking after finishing off the dolmas.

But last winter, they up and disappeared from every Trader Joe's I've walked into in the past year. I assumed that I was the sole person in the country buying them.

I gave up on them ever returning when I realized that they were gone from Trader Joe's outside of Tucson. I tried other brands. And then I gave up on dolmas almost entirely.

Then, one day I was wandering the aisle at Whole Foods (yes, evil Whole Foods) that has their canned dolmas and... a familiar looking jar was on the shelf next to them. It was the same shape, but with a different label. Could it be?

I turned the jar around and read the silly little description about how they were hand rolled in Turkey and yada yada yada... definitely the same ones!

HOWEVER... they were now over $4! They were $2.69 at Trader Joe's. Shenanigans!

Also, the jar seems to have gotten even worse about leaking after it has been opened once. And the dolmas just don't taste as good now that they're no longer awesomely cheap.

Bah. But, hey, at least I did find the long lost dolmas!

If The Air In Your Mouth Tasted This Good, You'd Hyperventilate.

2010-11-03T22:31:00.009-05:00

Mmm, fake ice cream. I like it a lot. And I respect it's various forms and brands. From the cheapest of rice milk slush to the creamiest and richest of amazing food voodoo (which is what this post will end up being about).

But it gets a bad rap. If I talk about enjoying some Purely Decadent Coconut Milk Ice Cream with certain friends of mine, someone will undoubtedly quote an episode of The X-Files where Scully was eating a "non-fat tofutti rice dreamsicle" and Mulder responded with "I bet the air in my mouth tastes better than that."

Oh, they think it's hilarious. But what they're forgetting is that Mulder than lunged at the dreamsicle, trying to steal it from Scully.

And he really should've. Fake ice cream is awesome- except for how overpriced it is.

Yeah, there's the low quality ones- rice milk ice cream and FreeZees "nutcreem" (I hate that alternative spelling crap) tend to be on par with your basic generic brands of ice cream from the grocery store. For the same price at half the size, mind you. If you're lucky. They're low on flavor and creaminess but also tend to not have strong "off" flavors to them- just mild normal ones.

There's a huge variety of soy ice cream available, of course. The only one that I think is really worth it's snuff is Trader Joe's Cherry Chocolate Chip, though. Most soy ice creams get a funny after taste to them and some, but not all, have a bizarre "dry" consistency to them. Almost like it's reconstituted freeze-dried ice cream. But other soy ice creams are properly creamy like your average name brand ice cream that you can buy in large quantities at the grocery store.

And then there's the coconut milk ice cream which is about as close as you can get to the premium stuff in the pint containers- you're never going to get the flavors of Ben & Jerry's, of course, but it is a rich and creamy product. Better than Bryer's, at least.

But that was about as good as it got. Even homemade or restaurant made vegan ice creams weren't really good.

And then, one day a few months ago, I saw an odd little freezer next to the raw section at my local Whole Foods. And it was filled with something amazing: Raw. Gelato.

And it's REALLY good. Really. Disturbingly "Is-This-A-Prank-Label" good.

I got the mint chocolate flavor and it had this ooey-gooey mint chocolate goodness in the middle of the whole container that was amazingly rich and the perfect consistency. Organic Nectars has some super secret to their raw chocolate that makes it unlike any other raw chocolate I've had and they're putting it to good use in this gelato.

The thing that really surprised me was that it tasted as good as it did while being made with agave. Without going into the politics of agave (what it does to the plant, what it does to your liver, blah blah blah), my issue with the sweetener has always been the odd flavor. It's too sweet and just ends up tasting off- especially if you eat or drink too much of something that has been sweetened with it. It's one of those flavors that is destined to make me feel extremely ill if I taste it while having a migraine (the smell of gasoline does so as well).

But that doesn't happen with this product. Maybe because Organic Nectars is a large agave nectar producer they figured out how to wrangle the stuff properly in their products? Whatever the reason, they've struck gold with this stuff.

It is, however, ridiculous expensive. I believe it was $8.99 for one pint and therefore I haven't tried another flavor or even bought another pint of it since this first one- despite how much I would like to try it.

However, it's worth pointing out that this stuff is also only 150 calories per serving. Which, as "ice cream" goes- is a freakin' miracle. Because, despite cashews being "fatty" nuts (which is why they work so well for making non-dairy creams and cheeses), they're not actually "fatty" in the long run. They're not quite as slandered as avocados ends up getting some time for their fatty content, but every so often I feel it just has to be said. So, there, it has been said.

Closing thoughts: Organic Nectars needs to make a Raw Gelato Stand franchise! I want this stuff sold in the mall, damn it! Hell, I want to just live off this stuff for life.

Back To Basics

2010-09-26T21:14:00.003-05:00

I'm highly amused at how back at the beginning of September I thought that I was going to have more free time once the temporary job was done with. Hah!

I've been a bit of a mad woman this month. Lots of things coming up, starting September 30th, and I need to be on my game.

It's been difficult trying to keep my life running smoothly for... a very long time now. The biggest issue currently being that I moved out of downtown Tucson and into a very remote section of west Tucson near the Tucson Mountains. It's beautiful, quiet, affordable, laidback... and infested with ants. There's also quite a few crickets, moths, and spiders that get in even when I leave no windows open and even after I've sealed every wall and opening I'm capable of sealing.

But the ants are the worst. I've been waging a minor battle with them since I moved in two months ago but at the beginning of September I was house-sitting for a co-worker and when I returned home... the ants had taken over.

I didn't want to use chemicals because I didn't want them lingering around for the rest of my time living here. And I didn't want to use things that killed the colony because I had a very irrational fear that they would turn out to be super-smart ants that would retaliate and kill me in my sleep.

But after finding a slew of them in one of the bags of my cat's food* and then listening to both my parents nag me about giving up on the natural pest control... I went to Ace Hardware today and got a 4-pack of those little ant bait traps that are supposed to kill the whole colony. I highly doubt that 4 of them is going to do the trick, but it's a starter.

Anyway, the ants have made eating at home very difficult. VERY DIFFICULT. I can't leave dirty dishes sitting out at all, I can't eat anything that causes a lot of crumbs, I can't leave any food at all sitting out, and anything that is messy garbage is a disaster as well. I feel like I can't even do proper food prep on fresh food- I'm just terrified that the ants will get to the food before I'm finished. I even moved my utensils into the fridge to keep them safe, just in case.

And I'm so tired of constantly cleaning just parts of my house. It's still annoyingly hot in Tucson for eight hours every day and cleaning in that heat is taxing on me.

So... I'm going to be incredibly busy for the next five weeks and I need to not have a meltdown about the freakin' ants. Hence the bait traps. And hence me going, "okay, time to get your head back on about nutrients".

Somewhere in the past year, I lost my shaker cup from Amazing Grass. And during the last move, I had to throw out my Superfood powders because of a lack of refrigeration at one point. So, I haven't had any of the powders all summer and I think I was really feeling that loss. Plus, they'd be a super easy way to get a meal without crumbs or mess- especially with the tight seal on the shaker cup and being able to rinse it easily and put it back in the fridge for the next time.

Which is why today, after buying Olive the Cat some more holistic cat food, I went and bought a new thing of Chocolate Superfood Powder and grabbed a shaker cup from a nearby display as well. I haven't been using my drinking glasses out of fear of creepy-crawlies getting invisible germs all over them, no matter how much I clean them. And I learned the hard way that my awesome funky curved glasses aren't the easiest to clean after having a sludge-y smoothie in them.

So, new shaker cup. Which actually calls itself a "Blender Bottle". Because it has a slight improvement over my previous shaker cup. Can you guess what that is?

A stainless steel whisking ball for mixing!

And it's not halfbad at helping the mixing process. Although, since in addition to the powder, hazelnut milk, and water I also put in a couple spoonfuls of a chunky multi-nut butter... there was a big chunk of nuts in the middle of the whisking ball at the bottom of the otherwise empty cup when I finished.

But, other than that, it worked pretty well at mixing. Especially considering how dense the nut butter was.

Also, it felt really good to have the stuff back in my system. I had been considering buying the Kids' version, but I had forgotten how good it was on its own. Hopefully, making these drinks again will not only help me get some more energy and brain power, but will also take away a lot of the anxiety I've been having about having food in my place.

Finally: Speaking of my busy month: If you happen to be in the Tucson Area during October- there are some awesome events going on this month (some that I can't even talk about yet!) and I hope you don't miss out. One of the best ones is on October 15: An Evening With Doug Fine at Tohono Chul Park. It's free and Doug is incredibly engaging and personable. Check out his website to find out about his awesome efforts to live sustainably.

* The Humane Society gave me a bag of Science Diet when I adopted her and then after seeing a vet, I also bought her a bag of Holistic grain-free dry food. Yes, my cat is gluten-free as well. The two bags are side-by-side on the top shelf above my sink. The ants only went after the Science Diet, for whatever reasons.

Dip, anyone?

2010-09-08T17:55:00.003-05:00

Raw artichoke dip with flax crackers from Borrowed Earth Cafe. Taken three months ago.

Yeah, my bad.

Things that have happened since my last post:

I moved. Twice.
I put 5000 miles on my car.
I went to Chicago and back.
I picked up some additional regular work.
Discovered what living in Southern Arizona during the summer without Air Conditioning is like.
I began waging a 24/7 war against ants, crickets, scorpions, and other bugs and insects menaces. While staying determined to not use harmful chemicals to get rid of them.
I took a temp job, on top of all the other jobs.
I got a cat.

However, I am hoping that as the temp job ends tomorrow and I'm feeling the need to just clean and renew everything around me once I have the time (this weekend, hopefully), that I'll be able to re-devote myself to the mission of this blog and start finding tastier food that I can eat again.

Because I have been eating so very very boring this summer.

Oh, Hello there...

2010-05-26T20:16:00.003-05:00

Yes, I know, I've been gone for ages! But life has been busy, Tucson has been warming up, and my food has been so, so boring.

Rice, vegetables, curry sauce.

Rice, tvp, vegetable, bbq sauce.

Rice, vegetables, tamari.

Really, not a lot of variety on my part.

A few weeks ago I did manage to mix it up a bit by having some of Laura's Wholesome Junk Food.

Super rich little morsels of GFV goodness. Like having a normal super-dense and rich brownie! No, really. Really.

Although, not the greatest price in the world, of course.

And there's hope for the future of this blog, I should also mention. I have just a handful of days left on my current lease and a new place waiting for me to turn its power on and move in completely.

Why does that really matter? Well, the new place actually has an oven and stove that work. It's sort of amazing. My oven here worked once in November and never again. Although using an oven during the summer in Tucson is close to crazy, I'm ecstatic that I'll be able to bake! And make Amy's frozen pizza!

Also, since it's essentially a little house rather than an apartment, I'll be able to use the blender and food processor without worrying about disturbing the neighbors. If I want to make a nut paté or some avocado pudding at two AM, I'll be able to. That will be very nice. I doubt I will be doing such things, but it's having the freedom to do them that really matters.

And I'll be on the road for a bit again in June. I'm heading to Chicago for a little family time. Hopefully, I will be treated to many GFV meals by people that are desperate to spend time with me while I'm in town (HINT, HINT) so that I can share them here.

Just Rolling Along...

2010-04-23T00:26:00.004-05:00

For the first time in ages, I ended up buying some raw nori sheets recently. I've been feeling like I haven't been getting the right nutrients and that I was in a food rut, so I splurged and got some sheets, figuring I'd start making my own veggie sushi rolls.

And, because I was going to be making my own sushi, I also bought a jar of pickled ginger. Which is the only food with the word "pickled" in it that I like.

I'm still horrendously bad at rolling nori. I either over-stuff or under-stuff. But I'm liking what I've been making- short grain brown rice, avocado, clover sprouts, and pickled ginger.
And, despite the poor rolling, I was able to cut them and they came out pretty nicely. The clover sprouts don't lend much to the rolls sticking together, but they sure are tasty and healthy.
Even when, like last night (not the night these pictures were taken), I end up breaking the nori sheets in the middle and end up- it's still a good meal to dip in some Wheat-Free Tamari sauce. And a good meal for when you don't want to get too overheated from hot food.

In conclusion, here's a picture of Biosphere 2 from the Earth Day Festival they had April 17th:

The Return of the Sludge:

2010-04-16T13:38:00.002-05:00

Arizona has hit the 90s and it is gorgeous. And with that return of the true warm weather, I am finally getting back to drinking my "sludge".

Last week I just ended up getting fed up with how half my meals just felt like they were sitting in my gut for forever and ever and the other half didn't fill me up at all.

So, I finally broke down and started buying rice milk again. Then I bought Trader Joe's chocolate flavored hemp protein powder. And broke into the last container of my Amazing Grass super greens.

The hemp protein powder isn't totally disgusting nor extra gritty (it's a little gritty, though) and is a good way to fill me up without being a heavy meal and gives me a little boost of protein, fiber, and omegas. The Amazing Grass, as always, provides lots of essential nutrients that I feel like I'm not getting. And, in addition, is super alkalizing and great for making it so I don't feel like my meals are just sitting in my gut anymore.

And hopefully getting this stuff back in my system on a regular basis will also keep me running during this very busy month while I'm also desperate to find a new place to call home. By the way, if anyone knows of a reasonably priced furnished guest house for rent in a neighborhood within easy biking distance of 4th Avenue... my email address is in the sidebar.

Any Excuse For A Road Trip

2010-04-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

I think it's pretty well known that I'm a big fan of the road trip. So when a friend of mine needed to go up to Payson, Arizona to get her new dog? I was there to offer my help on making the journey as long as she brought the blankets to protect my car from the dog on the ride back.

It didn't hurt that Payson is in the middle of Tonto National Forest, either.

Spring has sprung! So, I packed up some cashews and a water bottle for myself (and maybe picked up a box of Jelly Bellys at a gas station at one point) and we made the three hour drive up to Payson to see a woman about a dog.

Payson, by the way, is one of those great little towns that knows it needs tourist kitsch to make people stop and spend money (those not aiming for the Humane Society, that is). And, not only that, they know they need to have the kitsch outside.

Yes, that's a blue metal rooster in the background. Behind the trailer selling meat. It was pretty awesome.

As for the point of the roadtrip:

And when I got home that night, after a few stops for dog necessities of various types... I threw some quinoa, fresh basil, vegetable broth, carrots, and garlic in the skillet for twenty minutes and had a nice hearty meal perfect for after a long day on the road.

Totally Awesome Tamale Twist

2010-04-04T14:44:00.003-05:00

Oh, Tucson Tamale Company. You are too awesome.

This is the "New Delhi" Tamale. It's a curry tamale. Yes, you read that right. Curry. Tamale.

Carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, corn, onions, coconut milk, and yellow curry in a delicious lard-free gluten-free vegan tamale. I bought a two pack of the New Delhi tamales from one of the local retail locations that sells them and steamed them up along with some white basmati rice and wheat-free tamari sauce. It was amazing.

I love the Tucson Tamale Company. They have four or so vegan tamales, another five or so vegetarian, and then meat ones that are said to be pretty good as well for those that are so inclined. All the tamales are lard-free and gluten-free. You would think it would be so simple for the rest of the world to do the same- as these taste like heaven. But it's not and therefore the world is a sad place.

When you buy tamales actually at the Tucson Tamale Company location, you also can get some of their great salsa (the mild almost is a hybrid between a really good marinara sauce and salsa. Quite tasty). And most of the sides are vegan and I believe they are all gluten-free as well.

Really, it's difficult to understand how if a company like the Tucson Tamale Company can provide such delicious and trouble-free gluten-free and vegan food... why doesn't everyone? Would it really make that big of a difference? I mean, you can't even get a pre-made salad at the grocery store without it being covered in cheese if not a meat and crutons as well. But I'm getting off track here.

The point: Tucson Tamale Company? Rocks.

Wild Thing, I Think I Love You.

2010-03-20T09:00:00.002-05:00

Last weekend I was at the Tucson Festival of Books and really wish I got to spend more time actually listening to authors. But I had a blast working a booth and had a front-row seat for all the children's book characters coming through. And my love of children's books knows very few bounds.

Two thumbs up to the people that volunteered to be in those costumes all weekend, as they had the right amount of playfulness and energy to get kids to approach them rather than them trying to approach the kids (something that every single Disney character I ever encountered in Disney World as a child really needed to learn. I believe my mother still has the pictures some where of my sister and I looking very not amused at a character pancake breakfast where Chip & Dale wouldn't leave us alone and we just wanted our mouse-shaped pancakes, dammit... this is quite the tangent I've gone on, isn't it?).

But the TFOB was a great experience to have in my first year of being in Tucson and I hope to still be around next year when it happens again. As I mentioned elsewhere, it's like Comic-Con with fewer pictures. There were so many interesting panels with authors going on that there was no way to catch all the good ones.

Meanwhile, as I've been getting busier and busier, I've been able to buy more and more fresh produce and make more interesting dinners. I splurged on getting some organic clover sprouts last week. I love sprouts and their mighty compacted nutrient-rich sassy ways. They put lettuce to shame, my friends.

One of the ways I had them was this huge dish of a dinner on one of those days where I just kept going and going all day until it was mid-eveing and I realized I hadn't had any real food all day. So, I cooked up some (frozen) potato wedges topped with spicy GFV soy chorizo that was cooked with loads of caramelized onion and peppers.

And in addition to the sprouts I also chopped up a fresh avocado and put it on the plate as well. Because if you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you're probably aware of how much I love avocado (I still smile at the fact that my mom sometimes goes out of her way to mention that she had something to eat with avocado in it because she knows how fond of them I am).

Oh, food. You are good. Especially when you're fresh on the plate. The avocado, sprouts, and fresh onion put the frozen potato wedges to shame when it came to tastiness.

Life Rolls On...

2010-03-18T09:00:00.005-05:00

Oh, the back-log of food photos I have is really not doing justice to how long I keep going between posts. I've been wonderfully busy and love the work I'm doing right now so much that I keep waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me.

But I'm also determined to enjoy the life I'm making for myself these days. At the beginning of March, I went with a few friends for the free day at the Reid Park Zoo. Because the word "free" is awesome and animals are, too. It was a much different experience from going to the Brookfield Zoo just outside of Chicago, which is probably better funded to have larger enclosures for the animals- but it was still a great way to spend the day (and, being me, there were plenty of fun signs to take pictures of).

After the zoo, I insisted on treating my lovely neighbor that always makes so many great goodies for me to sushi. I had a craving for an avocado roll and finally had the means to give in.

Vegetarian sushi, as long as you bring your own Wheat-Free Tamari in your bag, is one of the easier dine-out foods to enjoy in with little worry. You might run into trouble when it comes to rolls with tofu in them (often the tofu will be marinaded in some sort of sauce that has regular wheat-y soy sauce in it), but the ones that are purely vegetables are pretty darn safe.

Since we spent the day wandering around the zoo and had worked up quite the appetite, I ordered the craved avocado roll, a vegetable roll, and a cucumber avocado roll.

My neighbor went mainly with the more traditional seafood-y sushi and I marveled as how some of it looked. I never really liked fish to begin with, but sushi is pretty cool looking. But I didn't take pictures of her food. Only mine.

Check out those asparagus spears in the huge vegetable roll (that was impossible to pick up with either fingers or chopsticks without it falling apart) along with the lettuce, seaweed, and avocado. Very tasty, all of it.

And the restaurant didn't mind my smuggled sauce, either (since they not only didn't have the wheat-free tamari, they barely comprehended what I was inquiring about and pointed towards the low-sodium soy sauce. Yikes.) despite how funny I felt about bringing it into a restaurant.

Another Bar, Another Buck.

2010-03-16T16:56:00.002-05:00

Yes, Dad, another entry for your to admire the results of all those years of dental work.

On a recent trip to Trader Joe's, I noticed that they were carrying a raw food bar brand I wasn't familiar with. Which... well, there was no way I was going to let that just be.

Pure bars come in a few different flavors and, like LARA bars are made of dates and nuts more than anything else. But, unlike LARA bars, they're only 99 cents per bar. Which is a huge deal!

I'm not really sure about counting "organic rice protein concentrate" as a raw food but the list of ingredients is definitely a friendlier one than most bars out there. The taste wasn't too bad, either. Not exactly wonderful, but that's what I get for getting the chocolate one. Next time I'll try one of the fruitier flavors.

Also, there is the usual "produced in a facility that processes..." warning to look out for. So buyer beware. They are a supporter of the Celiac Disease Foundation, which makes me wish that they could find a way to produce the bars in a clean facility. But I know that would drive costs up. Oh well.

I Dream of Baked Goods.

2010-03-16T15:00:00.003-05:00

It's not uncommon in the first few months of being gluten-free to have dreams of the flour-y foods you are now denied and denying. Many many years ago, before I realized just how much of an issue gluten was with my system, a doctor switched me to a diet where the only bread I was taking in was sprouted bread.

I dreamed of club crackers for a week straight when I made that switch. I never really liked club crackers before then, but suddenly I could no longer have them and it made them something desirable in my dreams.

A few weeks ago, I went with a friend on an early Sunday doughnut run to Dunkin Donuts so that she could get a fresh batch. And the moment I walked in I was punched in the face with the smell of sugar and highly processed white flour. It smelled divine. And she suddenly admitted to feeling guilty for not being able to give me one of the dozen she was buying.

But it wasn't much longer that I had to wait to get my own sugary confection. Because my neighbor decided to flex her GFV baking skills again and whipped together some dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free cupcakes that were so good by the end of the experiment that everyone was having some.

They started off a little scary. Deathly pale, in fact. Part of the reason I gave up on most alternative baking (besides an oven pilot light that won't stay lit) is how GFV baked goods tend to not brown.

Check out that Alabaster Batch. Albino cakes. Anemic Treats.

But, thankfully, they didn't taste too bad. In fact, they were very close to Angel Food Cake, it turned out. Very lightly textured, too, which freaked me the hell out. Since when is gluten-free dough light and soft?! Usually it's gritty, grainy, heavy as a medicine ball, and tastes like chemicals.

Over the Christmas holidays, I remember talking to an old childhood friend for the first time and she was telling me about how her adorable niece needs to eat gluten-free and how she herself tried some of the kid's gluten-free bread one day... and then showed me the hilarious disgusted face she made the moment the bread hit her tongue.

It's an experience many are familiar with. But- light and fluffy? Sweet and just a touch of buttery richness from the Earth Balance used in the mix?

It was quite the shock.

But it was not good enough for the baker's standards. Me, I was thrilled that I was not only eating a cupcake but eating a cupcake that was actually more enjoyable than a regular one (I'm not a fan of the typical denseness of a cupcake and am definitely a fan of Angel Food Cake). And while my neighbor was annoyed at how her dairy-free twist on dark chocolate buttercream frosting was separating on her, I didn't mind because it was still pretty darn delicious.

But she was not done. Oh no, she was not.

After a bit of discussion, a bag of frozen mixed berries in the back of the freezer was remembered. Pastry bags were adjusted. A saucepan, potato masher, and some cornstarch were gathered... and before long a berry filling/topping was created.

And white dairy-free frosting was added for a finishing touch. And these decadent creatures received joyous responses from all that tasted them. Most of which didn't even know if they were gluten-free and vegan.

And by the time they reached this glorious stage, I had been the guinea pig for enough of the stages that I was happily bouncing off the walls in a sugar-fueled bender. It was wonderful. I will be getting the recipe before my beloved neighbor leaves the desert in the summer, oh yes, I will (although I doubt they will turn out anywhere as good as she can manage. She has special powers. I'm certain of it).

Soupy Sales

2010-03-02T09:00:00.002-06:00

It is no secret that I love Trader Joe's. And one of the great things about Trader Joe's is that cheap items are even cheaper through them.

Like these soup bowls. For 99 cents I can have a big bowl of rice noodles in a garlic broth that leaves other brands in the dust. There's actually a lot of rice noodles in them and the bowl can function as a meal. Just empty all the seasoning packets into the bowl with the dry noodles, turn on the kettle, pour hot water in the bowl, cover, and you have a good GFV soup.

I do feel slightly guilty about the plastic bowls when I purchase $5 worth (or rather $4.95 worth) of them, but I try to re-use them for various things (keeping change in them!).

There's also a Spring Onion flavor and a Mushroom. The Spring Onion is okay. The Mushroom... well, I don't like mushrooms so I barely acknowledge its existence.

What Does One Eat When They Disappear Off the Face of the Planet?

2010-02-26T17:04:00.004-06:00

Lentils.

Lots and lots of lentils. And brown rice. And lentils. And white rice. And lentils.

Did I mentions lentils?

I've spent the past few weeks being super busy as well as being eating super-cheap. As you may have guessed, I've eaten a lot of lentils. Since they fit into the category of "super-cheap" and all.

I just rinse them, pop them into the steamer basket with double the water, and cook until soft. Or get fancy and put in a third of lentils with two-thirds of rice and make a meal in one go.

A dash of wheat-free tamari sauce or even some vegetarian BBQ sauce later, you've got some taste to your meal. And if you're really lucky, there are some frozen vegetables you can toss in towards the end of the steaming as well.

Aren't you thrilled that I've been making such interesting meals during my time of disappearance? I've gotten a few e-mails wondering what happened to me. As well as a voice e-mail from my own father nagging me about how he was sick of seeing the two-legged carrot (unpossible, sir! One can never be sick of seeing a two-legged carrot!).

And combine the super-cheap eating with being SUPER busy this month in a quite wonderful way as well as being SUPER careful about uploading pictures when using my Verizon Wireless card rather than a free wifi signal and then throw in a few moments of "Damn, my camera's in my other bag!" and you've got my super excuses for where I've been.

I'm sorry. I'm going to try to fix that.

In the meantime, I do have a few posts on their way hopefully will soon reach a point where I can start making and buying more interesting food again. And possibly start doing more raw food again. That would be a lovely way to start the spring.

But, until then, I'm going to be spending most of my time investigating a possible alien invasion that I believe is on the verge of happen. Check out the evidence that one of my favorite alien races is on its way here:

(kidding! Well, the Ood are one of my favorite types of aliens ever, but... yeah.)

Food Isn't Just For Eating!

2010-02-02T09:00:00.003-06:00

I somehow never shared the carrot here. I showed it off in other parts of the internet, but not here. Shameful, self. Shameful.

So, I found the carrot pictured above in a bag of carrots that had been sitting in my fridge for well over a week. I was chopping up a few to throw into my dinner and went to pull out another... to find that.

I was immediately reminded of a bit from one of my favorite comedians, an Australian gentleman named Adam Hills. It is one of my favorite stories and I just adore the kindness and optimism in his message (which is so not normally my thing, but he makes optimism seem cool and funny. Seriously) and just how gleeful unashamedly goofy it all is.

Here's the part of his show I was reminded of:

So, obviously, the carrot did not make it into my dinner. Instead, I put it aside until I could show it to someone.

And then my neighbors were hanging out.

And, well, improvements were made upon the carrot's already awesome way of being. Cheryl, you're awesome.

Oh, and that's a groundhog made of coasters the wee little carrot gentleman is hanging out with (and possibly picking the nose of, from the looks of it). Perfect timing!

Blessings.

2010-01-28T09:00:00.000-06:00

As I type this post (a week before it will post, eek), I'm listening to the very unusual sound of wind sweeping through the leaves of the palm tree in my apartment complex's courtyard.

Southern Arizona has been hit with it's version of winter.

It's windy. It keeps clouding over every few hours. It has rained for a few minutes several times. And it's only getting up to the mid-60s every day.

FRESH HELL.

Kidding. I don't like it, though. I'm glad I'm not still in the Midwest, where they've just peaked over 32 degrees and therefore are getting slush rained down on them for a change. And probably haven't seen the sun at all in weeks. But this was not what I moved to Arizona for.

And I whine and complain about it every time it happens, however brief it is. The locals love it. They go for walks in the rain. They wait and hope for rain. A little interlude from their usual sunshine and blue skies.

I do not like rain. It does not like me. I'm not a huge fan of sunshine, either, but sunshine doesn't mess with the air pressure the way rain (or any form of wet stuff falling from the sky) does.

And so, I'm reminding myself that I'm in southern Arizona and the sun will come back soon. I just have to be patient and remember how lucky I am to be able to be in such a place where I don't have to worry about scraping the snow and ice off my car if I want to go anywhere in January. Or constantly wish I had a dryer sheet in my pocket because my coat, scarf, hat, thermal vest, two pairs of tights, and two pairs of mittens have turned me into a giant ball of static cling.

I'm lucky. Things get bad sometimes, but I'm doing okay and am hopeful for the future. I have wonderful family members that love me. Friends that stick by me. People that take pity on me. And way more people that believe way more in me than I believe in me.

It's... I'm lucky.

Part of that luck, is that I just happened to move in next to some of the best neighbors I could ever hope for. They have no problems challenging me to get out of my shell (I may or may not have butchered "Karma Chameleon" publicly at karaoke night at Club Congress a few weeks back) and are never short of ways to keep the wheel of kindness for each other going.

So, once again, I have another goody that my neighbor baked up.

Gluten-Free Brownies, my friends.

Pamela's Gluten-Free Chocolate Brownie Mix was used. Using the "fudgey" recipe that just calls for oil and water to be added to the mix. The mix might not be everyone's thing- there is a warning on the label that it may contain trace amounts of milk. But I took the risk. And it's not strictly vegan. The mix has honey in it. So, if you're not a honey user... sorry.

And on top? Why that's avocado pudding as the frosting, of course.

Oddly enough, I think the brownies got better tasting on the second day compared to how they were immediately. Which is usually not the case with brownies. But that little touch of "ooh, it's a leeeetle chalky and fake-flour-y" that was there originally was gone in the second day. And the avocado frosting stayed awesome. Never drying out or getting tacky.

I would've never gone and made these for myself. I would've talked myself out of it. Insisting that it wasn't worth it and that they'd probably taste horrible. But... then she got the itch to make brownies to put the avocado pudding on as frosting. And wanted them to be brownies I could have as well. Who am I to turn that down?

And, well, I haven't had a brownie in quite some time, my friends.

Blessings. Chocolately, fudgey, crunchy-edged, frosted, melty-chunks-in-the-middle blessings.

Miso? Me? So Soup.

2010-01-26T09:00:00.001-06:00

So, last week I finally got hit with some bug like the rest of the world.

And so, while suffering from that bug, I became very fond of instant soup. Like Miso-Cup. Minimal standing. Minimal involvement. Helps make your nose run like crazy.

Miso-Cup is a brand that kindly puts it's Vegan and Gluten-Free certifications right on the front of the box. You get four envelopes of instant soup mix per box and a box for less than $4.

It's the closest thing to the cheapness of Ramen that I've found for the GFV diet.

One packet. One kettle of hot water. One big mug. Sometimes some leftover brown rice thrown in as well. Takes no time at all to whip up.

It tastes like miso soup- salty, earthy, and whatnot. It's hard to mess up miso soup.

Not too shabby, for what it is. It tastes good. It's not super filling, but it's good for when you can't really stomach much and just need another form of liquid in you that you can also convince yourself is a meal.

Chilly? Chili!

2010-01-24T09:00:00.001-06:00

Here's some chili my wonderful neighbor whipped up last week. I think she's finding a lot of inspiration coming with the possibilities of having to stay GFV and therefore keeps making food that I can eat so that she can give away extras. And I'm not complaining.

TVP, beans, tomatoes, peppers, and a whole lot of chili powder went into this homemade chili. And that's just what I can remember off the top of my head. She was putting sprinkles and touches of more seasoning in it right up until the end.

I stretched out what she gave me by eating it on top of brown rice and spinach for a few meals. Which also perfectly cut the smokey smooth slow heat of the chili spices.

Good stuff.

Let's Pause the Shopping Cart For a Moment:

2010-01-22T09:00:00.006-06:00

I feel the need to take a moment to focus on what my goal is with this silly little blog.

First of all, what is not happening here:

1. I'm not giving diet advice or promoting a diet plan.
2. I'm not really giving any advice at all, come to think of it.
3. I'm really not trying to "spread the word" about vegan diets or morals.
4. I'm not going to post about everything I eat.
5. I'm never going to take requests about what I should post about.

How the blog came about:

I no longer consume animal products. I no longer consume gluten. They don't agree with me and I decided to break up with them. I do, luckily, love vegetables and fruits. A LOT.

Then I kept getting asked by people about what was left that I could eat. Which was frustrating for me.

And then when I could find food I could eat, I would get excited in a very silly way. Which was frightening to the people around me, I imagine.

So: Blog.

It answers the question about what I can eat, gives me a place to "squee" about the stuff I find and discover and love, while also keeping track of my personal journey.

I started this blog almost a year ago, after visiting a little raw food restaurant in St. Augustine, Florida and being so excited about how good everything was and wanting to share it with the world. So, I made up a public blog for just that purpose.

Then I realized: the next time someone asks me "Well, what can you eat?" I could just point them in the direction of this URL and save myself some trouble.

Since then, I have made many many more posts about raw food (even doing a 35 day 100% raw diet) but have also posted entries about pancakes and Crazy Core Skittles.

In recent months, it has been slightly more difficult to do posts.

I, rather dramatically, moved to the other side of the country a few months ago and started life from scratch. Now I'm trying to start my own business, which has a lot of ups and downs and has me being very cautious about how much I'm going to spend on food and cooking supplies. Not to mention that it tends to eat up a lot of my time and effort, making it so I don't have as much time to put into potential dinner ideas nor into blog entries.

When I moved, I brought: one cast iron skillet, a rice steamer, some measuring cups, and a small kitchen knife. That was it.

Since then, I have picked up a few more odds and ends, but what I can make is still limited compared to when I had access to all the pots, pans, and knickknacks that my parents had gathered in 35+ years.

Oh, and an old oven that has a pilot light that doesn't like to stay lit for more than a few days.

And, I'll be honest, a lot of what I'm making these days is really friggin' boring, simple, small, and stuff I've posted about before.

I'll have a green smoothie (thank you again, Paula, for the Target giftcard that I got my blender/processor with!) most days, getting in a few servings of fruits and vegetables in one go. I've already done several handfuls of entries about green smoothies, so no need to talk about those constantly anymore. But they still happen.

I'll have at least a whole pot of hot tea (thank you, Mom, for the beautiful kettle) during the day. Either white tea or herbal these days. I like tea. A lot.

Depending on when I have a smoothie, I then also have a small meal for either breakfast or lunch. It's usually something like... some fruit and nuts. Three clementines and a handful of almonds. An asian pear and some brazil nuts. Carrot sticks (okay, a vegetable- not fruit) and natural peanut butter. Or just a few spoonfuls of peanut butter on its own with some hot tea to wash it down. I'm classy like that.

Then, towards the late afternoon or early evening, I'll have my big meal of the day. The big meal is what usually gets photographed, since it's not as boring (you can only post so many love letters to fruits- and I have done many if you go looking through all the back entries) and usually involves me going, "Well, I have this and this- they don't really go together but let's see what happens!"

The big meal is, also, usually is meant to be three things: filling, edible, and cheap. Of course, it's also gluten-free and vegan, but that goes without saying.

Every so often, I'll aim for more than that- but those are the backbone principles of what I'm making.

Usually, I'll try to have at least one (if not two) fresh vegetables in the meal. And at least two (if not many more or just A LOT of one. Mmm, roasted brussels sprouts) vegetables total. Not including the fresh greens I almost always mix into my evening meal in place of a salad. I'll try to have a bulky protein in the mix- usually beans of some sort. And the rest will just be up to what's on hand at the moment and what I feel like having.

Sometimes they end up inspiring new ideas (I'm still not done trying out that potatoes au gratin idea) and a lot of the time they end up looking absolutely disgusting when I photograph them. But it's what I've made with my limited supplies and even more limited skills.

And, of course, there's always the odd day when I end up completely not sticking to this pattern for whatever reason.

Anyway, I just was starting to get the feeling that it was about time to pause and do an overview of stuff and to put out another round of thank yous to everyone for reading.

I also have decided to add a donation button in the sidebar under "Fund the Feed Bag".

You can completely ignore it if you like, but if you would like to donate a dollar or two towards the funds for future adventures in GFV foods- feel free. I feel weird putting it there, but I'm putting it there nonetheless.

In the meantime, feel free to take a gander at all the posts I've made since February 2009. You'll find them in the righthand sidebar as well. There's quite the slew in there! Enjoy! Or check out any of the awesome blogs I follow that are also listed in the sidebar if you're looking for something that you're not going to find here. I highly recommend them all!

Or, you can keep looking at the photo at the top of this post of my neighbor's cat in a shopping cart until the next new post is made in a few days.

Spoonfuls, Indeed!

2010-01-20T09:00:00.002-06:00

Another restaurant review! It's a January Miracle!

Today's review: Lovin' Spoonfuls in good ol' Tucson, AZ

A few days ago, I was out with a friend and we ended up going out for lunch and decided to finally give Lovin' Spoonfuls, a 100% vegan restaurant, a chance.

In fact, if I backtrack a bit... when I was planning on making my move, the first thing I looked up in all the potential cities was if they had a restaurant I could eat in. And Lovin' Spoonfuls was what Tucson's google search resulted in before all other options. Because not only is the menu 100% vegan but they have a bevy- yes, a BEVY- of gluten-free options. Including GFV waffles. Which, one day, I will try.

In the meantime, though I've finally had lunch there! It only took a few months to get there.

From the descriptions I've read, I was expecting something a lot more sterile and bland feeling on the inside. It's in a strip mall and you order at the counter and then your food is delivered to you. But upon stepping food in the restaurant I quickly realized that it was much nicer than either of those factors would lead you to believe.

Soothing earth tones, warm lighting, and a spacious lay-out. Definitely not what I expected. My friend did point out that the little plants in every booth were artificial, but other than that... it was really rather swank.

They have menus near the counter that you can go through before ordering- and even have some GF menus set to the side listing all the gluten free options and emphasizing in red how to properly order the gluten free version of a dish.

We started with appetizers- an order of dolmas and an order of cashew-mushroom paté.

The cashew-mushroom paté can be served with GF bread, but since I don't do mushrooms and therefore wouldn't be snacking on it, it is shown here with non-GF bread.

My friend loved it. Describing it as more cashew-y than mushroom-y. And she ended up using the left-over pate to add to her main meal when it came.

The dolmas, were a surprise. I love dolmas- but I also can hate dolmas. I don't like vinegar and I don't like dill- which are frequently two overwhelming ingredients of dolmas. So, the dolmas that Whole Foods sells? No good for me.

But these? If tastes could be beautiful, that's what these would be. Very flavorful. That slice of lemon on top is no lie- they have a great citrus tang to them instead of the vinegar that makes me cringe. And I think they might've added tempeh or some sort of meat replacement to give them a little extra zip.

The rest of our food came pretty quickly. Granted, we had beat the rush- arriving right at 11 o'clock. By the time we left, we were happy to see how it was filling up with the lunch crowd. Even though it's in a very restaurant-heavy area on Campbell.

My lunch companion's meal was the daily special- a tempeh rueben.

Which could also be made GF on request. It came with an option of three different vegan slaws... and she sweet-talked them into giving her a little bit of everything. She ended up putting the rest of her cashew-mushroom paté and some of the vegan sour cream that came with my lunch on the sandwich for extra deliciousness and I was so happy to be dining with a friend that enjoys vegan food without actually being vegan.

My lunch was the beans and rice. With GF bread replacing the tortilla that traditionally comes with it.

Short-grain brown rice and lightly seasoned black beans. Never a failure for me. Especially when I mixed in the sides of salsa and guacamole that came with it.

The dish also came with a small green salad, which I got without dressing and mixed into my main dish like I usually do at home. Lovely stuff. Simple, comforting, and filling. And the GF bread wasn't half bad, either! Definitely not the stuff that most people think of when they think of gluten-free bread!

Thankfully, we were both too full when it was time for dessert. Yes, they do offer gluten-free dessert items as well, my friends. Although they go fast, apparently. Nothin' wrong with that, if you ask me.

In addition to that, the prices aren't too horrible. They're about the same as the coffee shop across the street from me that sells canned rice and beans and store-bought (vinegar-y) dolmas.

Final Rating: ****1/2 out of *****

Always Trying to Simplify Things:

2010-01-18T09:00:00.000-06:00

So, I had thin rice noodles in my cabinet.

And carrots in my fridge.

A can of coconut milk.

And then some Thai Kitchen green curry paste left.

But only one pan.

So... I simmered two tablespoons of the paste mixed with the coconut milk (because, really, the recommended 1/2-1 tbsp is not enough) and tossed in some carrots that I sliced at funny angles. After the carrots had a chance to soften and soak in some of the flavor, I added some water to the mixture and finally put some rice noodles on top of the mixture in the pan and then used a plate to cover the pan.

Slowly the noodles fell into the coconut milk and started to soak it up while getting soft. I added a little bit more water to help the noodles along and to keep things from sticking.

And that's how I ended up with curried noodles and carrots. So much better than they had any right being for not being properly soaked. But the noodles perfectly soaked up the curry flavor in a way that can't be beat.

Yeah, I'll be doing that trick again.

Toffed Off!

2010-01-16T09:00:00.004-06:00

Another wonderful entry courtesy of my neighbor that's fond of experimenting with food!

She was in a whirl of candy making recently and was whipping up all sorts of delicious omnivore goodies to give to people and making her apartment smell amazing and like sugar. I was happy to just observe what she had made, but she's so sweet that she couldn't help but try to think of what she could make that I could also eat.

And then, it came to her. She wanted to try making toffee using Earth Balance in the place of butter. Simple enough, right?

Yeah, actually. She literally just used her toffee recipe and used Earth Balance in its place. The only problem, as she saw it, was that it was too salty since Earth Balance has salt in it and usually she uses unsalted butter.

But I like salty. And then the more we talked about it, we talked about the greatness of the salty/sweet play in kettle corn.

And then she had the epiphany of pouring the toffee onto homemade popcorn like caramel corn. Which was a brilliant idea, if I don't say so myself.

So, I assisted (poorly) in the pouring and mixing and the final product was so delectable that she ended up using it for the goody bags she was making for all the normal eating people as well!

Best of all, she gave me a big bag of the popcorn to have all to myself.
Seriously good stuff! Definitely hitting the salty/sweet spot. Not too much popcorn and not too much of the toffee.

What are the odds that a recipe conversion would be so easy?!

A New Era for the Grazing Lamb!

2010-01-14T09:00:00.000-06:00

So, in the posts to come, you might notice a change around these parts.

Yes, my friends, better pictures!

Why is this? Well, I got quite the killer little portable light box set-up for Christmas this year.

I will no longer be a victim to the setting sun nor poor artificial light!

It's amazing the difference the light box makes some times. Seriously beautiful pictures. And the mini-tripod for the camera also helps since I no longer have to deal with how shaky my hands are.

Anyway, when I was playing with my new toy... I mean, tool- I pulled out a few clementines to take photos of. I might as well talk about them as well.

Clementine season is almost over- only lasting from November to January. I go back and forth about how I feel about them because... seedless fruit is freaky. Really freaky. And yet... so handy and tasty and fun to eat.

Usually when I buy clementines, I'll eat two or three in one sitting only to end up with the last one being bitter or "off" tasting... which requires one more to be eaten as well, to end on a good note. But the latest batch I bought has been sweet all the way through. Wonderfully impossibly sweet.

Earlier this winter, I had tried to get away with buying another variety of small oranges but they weren't anywhere near as delightful tasting and were jam-packed with seeds. Ridiculously so, in fact.

So, I gave in and purchased Cutie brand clementines. They're too good to not get at least once before going out of season again!

New Friends and New Food!

2010-01-12T09:00:00.002-06:00

I recently was introduced to a new friend that is also a vegetarian that likes to make food and talk about it. And, to be honest, I think she's probably a lot better at it than I am. She's also no stranger to gluten-free and is familiar with the trappings of how I eat.

She also has lived in Tucson all her life and knows the best places to eat. Like Oregano's Pizza Bistro. A very popular, unassuming, and friendly restaurant on Speedway that I've driven past half a million times but have never stopped at since I don't even bother trying to find something in a pizza place for myself unless someone else has better knowledge.

It's part of a Phoenix-based small chain that has a few locations in various parts of Arizona, which shows since everything is pretty tightly run like a chain, but don't let that scare you off- it's actually pretty good.

Now, don't expect me to be talking about pizza or pasta here. They're not quite that advanced. But the truth of the matter is that Oregano's has some freakin' fantastic salads in addition to great Italian dishes (and also being one of the many places in Tucson to claim to do Chicago-style pizza. Which makes me sort of wistful, as I'd like to test that claim if I could without feeling very ill).

And I'm not just being nice- the salads are really flavorful. And HUGE! I got the junior version of their "Oregano's Favorite" (minus the olives, feta, and dressing) and couldn't finish it all. The full-size versions are mountains of vegetables that would require more than one person to conquer in one sitting.

My salad was piled high with lovely sundried tomatoes, red peppers, pine nuts, raisins, onions, and some very crisp romaine lettuce. A wonderfully complementary mixture of flavors and at a great price, too.

As we were eating, I was thinking about how if my parents were ever to visit me in Tucson, Oregano's would be the perfect place to take them. Informal enough to be comfortable,with a ratio of food to price that my father would find to be a good deal, and apparently the pasta sauces touch on religious experiences for the tongue.

Junkie Goodness.

2010-01-10T09:00:00.002-06:00

Every so often, I just need some junkie food for comfort that's disgustingly unhealthy, even though it's not as bad as the original. Too many memories of all the wonderful crappy foods I used to eat and far too many of them don't have any easily obtainable GFV versions and it gets annoying sometimes.

Back in December, Tucson was starting to get annoyingly cold. I had to turn the heat on at night! Yeah, it wasn't nearly as bad as when I went home later in the month and my nieces had to be bundled up like this:

(although, how cute are those paw-shaped gloves? Absolutely adorable, I think)

But it's annoying none-the-less due to the fact that daytime hours in Tucson remained pretty pleasant, but there'd be a twenty-to-thirty degree drop once the sunset and it was a pain to adjust to every single day.

So, while adjusting to the cooler weather that refused to go away, I was craving some chili with cheese and chips. Which, thankfully, was something I could obtain.

I actually didn't go for the easiest method of just getting a can of vegetarian chili. I instead had some kidney beans that I mixed with diced tomatoes, peppers, a touch of cumin, some garlic, and then a large helping of vegetarian BBQ sauce. I cooked it in my rice steamer, of all things, which was a nice slow way to make all the flavors blend together without fear of burning.

I then added some of the cheddar version of Daiya's Vegan Shredded Cheese. I wasn't as impressed with the cheddar version as much as the Italian blend- but it still worked pretty well and melted beautifully.

I ate it with some Frito's. Which of all the things to be okay for me to eat... eh, I won't complain. Like I said, not a healthy meal. But a comforting one.

Well, Shepherds ARE Part of the Lore of the Day.

2010-01-08T09:00:00.003-06:00

As I mentioned before, I was commissioned to make a vegetarian dish and a dessert for Christmas Eve dinner at my aunt's house. I was asked about the dish right after Thanksgiving, when I was still in love with all the food that my neighbor had made for that meal- and immediately thought of making the Shepher'd Pie she made.

So, I got the recipe from her, which was an adapted version of Linda McCartney's recipe and took it home with me. The recipe is vegetarian not vegan, originally. But with some almond milk and Earth Balance butter it easily became vegan. And with the use of TVP (textured vegetable protein, a form of soy), GF tamari sauce, and cornstarch instead of flour- it was kept gluten-free with the greatest of ease as well.

The recipe:

1 ½ lbs potatoes
6 tbsp margarine or butter (I used Earth Balance)
1-2 tbsp milk or milk alternative (I used unsweetened almond milk)
1 large onion, chopped
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 large carrots- thinly sliced
4 oz package TVP mince (lentils would also work nicely)
2 tbsp soy sauce (tamari for the gluten free)
1 ½ cups vegetable stock or water
Peas

I actually ended up doubling the recipe vaguely by eye, which was a good idea and actually worked for once. The only thing I didn't double was the onion- I actually only used about half of an onion, once I realized just how much chopped onion I had.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Boil the potatoes and mash them in a bowl with 4 tbsp of the Earth Balance margarine and enough almond milk to give a good mashed potatoes consistency.

The directions then say to put the potatoes to one side and then go on to do the rest, but I'm such a slower cooker that the potatoes dried out between mashing them and when I got to adding them to the rest of the dish.

Melt the remaining Earth Balance in a frying pan and saute the onion. Then add the TVP mince, soy sauce, and vegetable stock (My neighbor recommends marinating the TVP in the vegetable stock before adding it to the pan to add some extra flavor). Add the vegetables as well. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Season to taste.

If desired, thicken the mixture with from cornstarch or arrowroot to create more of a gravy. The general rule about adding a thickening agent is to not add it directly to the dish- add it to some extra vegetable stock first and then add the mixture to the dish.

Cook until thickened to your liking, stirring constantly. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and cover with the mashed potatoes.

Bake for 30-45 minutes, until the potatoes are nice and brown. Although my potatoes refused to brown, even after spending a decent amount of time under the broiler. And I had forgotten how much TVP plumps up when cooked.

And then, because I am me, I got to my aunt's house and realized I didn't have my camera. So, when dinner rolled around, I borrowed my father's iPhone and took pictures with that and had him e-mail the photos to me.

And, of course, as we were walking out of my aunt's house at the end of the night, I realized that I had, in fact, brought my camera. It had fallen through the hole in my winter coat's pocket and into the lining (aka: friggin' Narnia).

There was enough left over for me to have another meal of some and then take the rest to Christmas Day to be served again for dinner and finished off. Christmas Day (which was at another aunt's house) had so many people at it that not everyone knew what it was- I believe I saw some Shepherd's Pie on the most unlikely of plates during dinner that night. That was pretty amusing.

Detour to Deliciousness

2010-01-06T09:00:00.004-06:00

When I made the drive from Arizona to Illinois for the holidays last month, I had a friend that needed a ride to Austin, Texas. Since I was planning on going through Texas anyway to avoid winter weather, Austin wasn't too far out of the way for me. And it was nice to have some company on part of the journey.

Plus, it made it so I could check out the Austin Whole Foods. I had heard tales of it over the past couple years- namely, of it's raw food bar. But I didn't quite understand what a massive store it was going to be. It was like being in the Marshall Field's Building of Whole Foods! It took me a good fifteen minutes to find the raw food bar while moving at a fast pace! There were specialty bars all over the damn place and, being a week and a half before Christmas, it was packed.

It has been a while since I was in a properly large Whole Foods. The Tucson ones are very small compared to the Chicago-area ones- but this one was much larger than any of the Chicago ones I have managed to go to! I'd imagine the downtown Chicago Whole Foods is probably that size, but I don't think it has the raw food section.

In addition to the little cafe-like bar, there was a whole little refrigerated section of pre-made and pre-packaged food to snag as well. Not all of it was raw, but most of it was vegan. And all of it was well labeled. What a beautiful concept. I ended up grabbing some ominously named "broccoli cashew salad" that had a nice combination of ingredients listed on the container and then I went up to the counter and, after taking in the possibilities of nori rolls, raw pizzas, and all sorts of fun gourmet goodies, I decided on ordering some raw pasta.

Beet noodles with a pesto sauce with other veggies mixed in as well. Then a parmesan-like sprinkling on top. There were about four different types of sauces offered and three different types of raw noodles. You could also get it non-raw, apparently, which... defeats the purpose.

It was all mixed and made right in front of me customly for me. And was friggin' awesome. So awesome, I ended up eating it with my fingers because I couldn't find a fork. And so wonderfully filling that I had some left over for the next day. The perks of doing a road trip in the winter: no need for a cooler. Even in the south (as long as you keep the food in the trunk).

Also the following day, I tried the broccoli cashew salad and was surprised at how very tasty and mildly sweet the dish was.

It wasn't the easiest of dishes to eat while driving but was tastier than anything that is easy to eat while driving. As well as broccoli and cashews, there were raisins in the salad as well and a mild creamy sauce that was probably a raw mock coconut-based version of something I'd despise in it's real form.

I should really look around to find a recipe to make something similar myself. I imagine it should be easy enough to whip up on my own.

Cran-Apple-Riffic!

2010-01-04T09:00:00.004-06:00

Hello, lovely people!

Sorry for the long hiatus. I was a very busy fool in December and didn't have the time to post very often. And then I was running around like crazy and forgetting my camera! Or thinking that I forgot my camera!

But you know that you've fallen into a terrible habit when you get an e-mail from your concerned mother wonder if she's doing something wrong because she can't find any blog entries from later than early December.

But I do have some back-stocked goodies for you, no worries. I went back home to Chicagoland for the holidays, getting to see my family for the first time in a few months. It was just long enough of a visit for me to realize that I do not, in fact, miss winter at all. It snowed and rained and snowed some more the whole time I was there. Ice and wet and coldness... not to mention that after seeing the sun set in Arkansas on the drive, I didn't see the sun again for over a week. And that was only as it was setting through a layer of clouds over Texas on my drive back!

I can't stand it anymore. I like my new home in the desert. Especially since it has warmed back up in Tucson this week, hitting 70F during the day and being full of wonderfully warm sunshine. And nighttime having the wonderful starscape all year round. It was slightly disturbing to be reminded of how nighttime in the midwest isn't very dark. Between light pollution, clouds, and reflectiveness of snow- nighttime has a constant slight orange glow.

Which is nice some times, but I'd much rather see stars.

So, anyway, being home meant a lot of family parties everywhere. I was commissioned ahead of time to make a dish and extra dessert for Christmas Eve dinner this year. And, hilariously enough, the dessert was forgotten in the kitchen at Christmas Eve! I was too full from what I made for dinner (which will be another post) and no one else really cared.

So, Christmas Eve dessert became Christmas Morning breakfast! My sister and I were very pleased.

Yes, you read that correctly. My sister actually liked food that I made! Other than a time about six months ago where she was craving meatloaf so much that she tried to convince me to make a lentil loaf for the two of us to share (which I didn't give into), it has been a long time since she and I ate the same food.

In my omnivore childhood, she and I were both picky eaters but never picky about the same things. We would get Egg McMuffins and I'd give her my egg and she would give me her Canadian bacon. She loved tomatoes, I disliked them to the point where I always had my pasta without sauce until I slowly started to tolerate them. She despised butter, I slathered it on with glee. She liked baked beans at family holidays, I went for the baby carrots. So on and so forth.

It was a big deal that we both liked something, is all I'm saying.

Anyway, the dessert, as you can possibly guess from the picture, was a Cranberry-Apple Crisp. Relatively simple and fitting for the holiday.

All the gluten free crisp recipes I found required using actual gluten free flours. Which... seemed cruel to do to my normal eating family members.

I would’ve done a raw recipe, but I wasn’t sure how raw cranberries would end up tasting.

So, I took some notes from raw recipes and adapted them into a traditional crisp recipe.

I peeled and then thinly sliced 6 small apples until my four cup measuring cup was filled. Then I mixed them with a heaping half cup of frozen cranberries, a few spoonfuls of raw honey, a heavy sprinkling of cinnamon, and a teaspoon of cornstarch to thicken the juices.

Then for the topping, things were a tad difficult since I was working with what was available at my parents’ house for the holidays. So, seeing as I killed the food processor that was here back in August and pre-made almond flour apparently isn’t findable in the Chicago suburbs... I ended up putting almonds and brazil nuts in the blender and just watching them dance around like jumping beans inside the blender until I had a cup of a flour-like substance with some chunks of nuts still in there as well.

I don’t recommend doing that, by the way. The chunkier pieces were far better than the flour-like parts, it turns out. It would've been perfect if I had just pulsed the nuts in a real food processor.

I added some Earth Balance margarine to the flour and bits, maybe 1 ½ tbsp. Then a spoonful of raw honey. And finally I added in a few handfuls of dried cranberries and mixed it all with a fork, letting it clump and stick.

I put the fruit in a large greased pie pan, spread the crumble topping on top of that, and popped it in the oven for 40 minutes at 350F (when it was bubbling and the topping was browning) and then reheated it Christmas morning in the oven for about 20 minutes until it was warm again.

It was really good. The right amount of cranberry tartness with the sweetness and the nuts and cinnamon a nice touch of flavor. Very simple and very delicious. And also very worth re-making properly.

And, thanks to Christmas, if I ever find myself without my camera again, now someone else can take the pictures for me:

Quinoa of a Different Kind.

2009-12-11T12:06:00.003-06:00

I recently snagged a Quinoa Bar by Oskri Organics for a snack while out shopping. Oskri is the same company that made the odd coconut fruit bars I had back in the spring.

The quinoa bar is made with rice syrup, quinoa, sesame seeds, and date syrup. There's three in a package for 99 cents. They're not the most appetizing of treats, but are good for when you want something with a combination of sweet and savory.

And something that gets caught in your teeth for the rest of the day.

B-B-Fu

2009-12-05T12:00:00.001-06:00

ß

I'm finally done with leftovers from Thanksgiving and have just been living on simple stuff that isn't too interesting.

But here's a couple pictures of the BBQ'd fried tofu my neighbor whipped up the other night while we were watching the Pee-Wee Herman Christmas Special and Elf. She made the sauce herself and then with a bit of cornstarch, onion powder, and garlic powder she fried up some tofu and then glazed it in the sauce.

And then she insisted that I try some, since I could eat everything in it. It was fantastic, of course.

Although, living near her points out just how hilariously bad I am with making food. And yet... this blog.

Happy Food Coma Day!

2009-11-27T16:30:00.001-06:00

Last Thanksgiving was my first Thanksgiving being gluten-free and vegan. And, at the time, I had only been eating that way for a couple months.

Last year, I made myself some quinoa casserole, a sweet potato, and one of the most disgusting pumpkin-based desserts I've ever tasted. I packed it up and took it to my huge family Thanksgiving and chewed on it while everyone else had all the traditional fixings. It was good (other than the dessert), but awkward and a hassle.

But this year I'm on the other side of the country, and I knew when I made the journey to Tucson that if I stayed I wouldn't be able to go back home for Thanksgiving for the first time in my life.

So, I had been thinking I'd just do something on my own and not make a big fuss. Maybe go on a car trip or something and come back and have some GFV frozen pizza.

But that was before I got to know my new neighbor. A woman that not only loves to cook and cooks very well, but has made GFV food in the past and was excited to possibly have a chance to flex her GFV muscles for the first time in years.

I kept telling her to not go out of her way, but there was no stopping her. And once she knocked on my door yesterday afternoon with a, "Hello, Guinea Pig!" and handed me a spoonful of the gravy (yes! Gluten-free and vegan gravy! And it's not mushroom based!) she made for me to taste and then there was no way I was going to stop her anyway.

In return for her generosity, I let her use my fridge for extra storage as well as my oven to cook the turkey while she made the rest of the sides. I couldn't help but find it amusing when my apartment smelled strongly of turkey and my fridge was full of very-not-GFV pumpkin rolls (pumpkin cake pinwheels with cream cheese) yesterday. They were so out of place and yet fun to have. Despite my non-meat-eating ways, it was nice to have a home smelling of turkey on Thanksgiving.

Eau de Turkey, anyone?

And I also ended up making a raw cheesecake for another dessert option. Which she was thrilled about.

I think she was happiest when she saw me nearly slipping into a food coma after eating a giant plateful of everything that was me-appropriate, though. It has been a loooooooong time since I had that experience myself. I think the copious starches got me there, more than anything. Lovely, lovely starches.

So, let's see! What was on the plate:-Homemade cranberry sauce.
-Scalloped Sweet Potatoes with Apple Slices (SO AMAZING!) and Almond Frangipane (the fragipane was my making- just almonds, water, vanilla, and honey in a blender until smooth)
- Baked potato
- Gluten Free "Scarborough Fair" Stuffing made using the Pamela's mixes that is vegan.
- Which is covered with not nearly enough of the GFV "sausage"-flavored gravy
- And last on the right is the absolutely-amazing-no-matter-who-you-are Shepard's Pie.

Not a lick of animal product or gluten anywhere on that plate. And there's bread on that plate! Lovely, lovely bread! And gravy! That tastes like sausage!

I consider myself to be a sweet potato connoisseur of sorts and the sweet potatoes with apples were phenomenal. She said she used a little Earth Balance (vegan fake butter that's good for you) and a little brown sugar- which are the magic ingredients when it comes to making sweet potato heaven. And the apples were just a subtle enough touch of sweetness and texture contrast to work properly.

The fragipane was simple and went really well with the sweet potatoes as well as with the cranberry sauce. Not too sweet, very creamy, and I even got the texture right.

The stuffing... oh, stuffing. I am a life-long lover of stuffing and I missed it dearly. It did get a bit congeal-y but it tasted and felt like the real thing. Not a hint of funny business going on there. She made a loaf of bread using one of the Pamela's baking mixes (I can't remember which, just that I made sure to check it was one that was vegan) and then dried it out and seasoned and turned it awesome. But the night before, when it was baking in the (super-duper sterilized and cleaned) bread maker, it smelled devine as well. It was seasoned with parsley, rosemary, and thyme (hence "Scarborough Fair") and tasted like a comforting stuffing on a holiday should taste.

The gravy, as I mentioned earlier, blew my mind the most. There's TVP (textured vegetable protein, which is soy) in it that she got to just the right texture and seasoning to make it seem like sausage. Absolutely amazing. It over-thickened itself a bit when it cooled down but was still awesome and tasty. She used arrowroot and some of the left over GF flour from the stuffing to thicken it. And it's going to take a lot of willpower to keep me from eating the leftovers of it like a soup.

And then there's the Shepard's Pie. I highly recommend doing Shepard's Pie for holiday meals. It was a tweaked version of Linda McCartney's recipe and almost the whole dish was eaten by the whole group. It hit all those notes of the right warming holiday spices and textures and mashed potatoes and... just beautiful.

I can't get over how out-of-the-park she managed to make the whole meal. I have a lot to learn from my dear neighbor. And I'm getting that Shepard's Pie recipe very very soon.

Oh, and then there was dessert:

This picture is probably after it had been sitting out for over an hour, but it even had the consistency of cheesecake when first taken out of the fridge.

I tweaked Ani Phyo's raw cheesecake recipe from her dessert book. I made the crust by combining a cup of raw almonds in the food processor with enough pitted dates to make sort of a dough consistency and then pressed it into a springform pan. Then for the cashew cheesecake part, I swapped the lemon juice and zest in Ani's recipe for lime juice and zest.

Oh, and the next day (because I made the cheesecake on Wednesday), I took the cheesecake out of the freezer and put a layer of frozen berries on top.

Aaaaaand then did another full batch of the cashew filling ontop of the berries. Put it in the freezer again for a few hours, and then put it in the fridge to defrost around four-five hours before we ate it. Worked perfectly! And got that lovely middle layer to it with the berries underneath. It turned out to be a hit, too. Much to my surprise.

Here's my hostess/neighbor enjoying her slice at the end of the night:

Oh, and then there was what was handed over to me when I finally went back home for the night:

I'll be eating well for a few days, my friends.

Oh, yes, I will.

What's Japanese for "Kitsch"?

2009-11-25T09:00:00.000-06:00

At last, a restaurant review!

Today restaurant: Yoshimatsu in Tucson, Arizona

In a nutshell: Japanese food and... difficult to nutshell beyond that.

All restaurants should have a display case at the entrance of plastic versions of the food they offer.

Thankfully, Yoshimatsu does just that.

Yoshimatsu is a place that everyone kept telling me I had to check out. It's part casual Japanese diner, part nice sushi restaurant, and the the rest is just filled in with kitsch and anime. Lots of Lupin III stuff. Lots of figurines in display cases on the walls. And a TV constantly showing either anime or old Japanese action shows, it seems. Which explains why everyone kept saying that I'd love it.

And they even have a little gift shop! That, oddly enough, had one lone VHS copy of Top Gun on the shelf as well as all the Japanese little gift-y items. The gift shop also happesn to sell plush Totoros with suction cups on the paws ala Garfield.

Which I want.

Eventually.

So, the issue with Yoshimatsu was that the menu on their website refused to download properly. Or, at least, it would download and then would claim to be corrupted. So I went in there blindly hoping that I'd be able to find something gluten-free. I knew they had a lot of vegan stuff- but the gluten (or, more so- the soy sauce made with wheat) was a fear lingering in my mind even as we walked in.

I was going to take a chance. Go with a curry and just hope for the best. Because there was nothing on the menu at the beginning of the line (because you order at the counter, sit down with a number, and have the food brought to you) about gluten.

And then I was in the process of ordering when I saw that they had a "Wheet-Free" menu posted hap-hazardly to the side of the counter. Completely out of view until you were actually at the register.

So, I changed my order to the vegetable bento with the ol' reliable wheat-free tamari sauce instead of soy sauce.

And this giant creature arrived while I was trying to figure out what ancient anime was showing on the TV near us.

That's a plain salad in the front, with the dressing (which I didn't touch) in the container. Sticky white rice next to it. Something akin to kimchi in the little square next to the rice, stir-fried veggies (broccoli, bamboo shoots, cabbage, carrots and so on) in tamari behind it, and then cold edamame pods, rice noodles, and some seaweed in the last square.

My dining companion for the night ordered some inari with her meal, which she then confirmed was just fried tofu around white rice and insisted that I try one. They were fantastic. Slightly sweet and very carb-y. A great sort of side junk food- like sweet buns in western food. Next time, I need more of these.
Oh, and before our food arrived there was the complimentary miso soup. Which had lovely seaweed in it but didn't have any tofu in it for whatever reason. But was very nice, comforting, and savory to have since I'm still getting used to how much the temperature drops at night in Tucson. It's so warm during the day! And then so cold at night! Bah!

Now, the issue: I woke up the next day with my stomach feeling very unhappy with me and the lingering of a headache. I felt I was getting a headache before going to Yoshimatsu but I do wonder if I did get glutened. Hmm.

But now I also know that they have vegan sushi on the sushi side and they do have wheat-free tamari (or I can always bring my own)- so even if I did get glutened, I can do the sushi side of the restaurant next time instead. And still get inari.

Final Rating: ** and 1/2 out of ***** for now. May change upon a second chance. But I would give it a second chance, mind you.

Acquired My Taste

2009-11-24T09:00:00.003-06:00

One of my neighbors (the owner of the tubby kitty in yesterday's post) was having a bad day last week, so to make her happy my other neighbor wanted to buy her one of Vosges Chocolate's famed Bacon Bars.

And while we were out, I grabbed a way over-priced chocolate bar for myself. Their Red Fire Bar- chipotle peppers and cinnamon in dark chocolate. You have to let the square melt on your mouth or else you almost don't taste the smokey heat of the chipotle pepper until after the chocolate is gone and it sneaks up on you.

If you let it melt, the chipotle just slowly comes into play as the dark chocolate coats your mouth and the cinnamon sort of soothes it all together.

It was very, very good. I think it's no secret that I'm a fan of spice in my chocolate. And chocolate in general. But I don't think there's much point to paying that much for a chocolate bar, to be honest. I can't savor it all in a slow enough pace- even with the heat of the chipotle pepper in there. Which is why avocado pudding is more my style.

It was a fun novelty, though.

Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

2009-11-23T09:00:00.004-06:00

They were putting up lights in the shape of a Christmas tree at the downtown library last week as I was walking around one morning. It's weird to think that the holidays are coming up and yet I'm slathering myself in sunscreen (still not even a tan, by the way, I'm as pale as ever. Yay!).

It used to be that by the time the bell ringers for the Salvation Army were out with their donation buckets, I would be wearing my heavy wool pea coat and would have oodles of jingling change weighing the coat down so that I could just reach in my pocket and dump a handful of coins into the donation bucket. Not the case this year! I guess I need to get used to putting my change in a certain spot of my purses, because I'm not wearing a coat unless I'm out late at night here in the desert.

Anyway, I discovered this little issue as I was out running errands with one of my new fabulous neighbors (the same one I shared my avocado pudding with) as she was getting things together for her big "Orphan's Thanksgiving" this week- which I'm going to, since it's about four feet from my door.

Well, there's also the fact that she's very keen to stretch her alternative baking and cooking skills and therefore will be making quite a few dishes that I can eat. She's no stranger to gluten-free or vegetarian cooking, and she's game for seeing what she can do.

I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn't be swayed. She really likes cooking for others.

And right now she's having some car trouble and she's been so nice to me, so I've been driving her anywhere she needs to go for errands (as well as preparing for her big Thanksgiving to-do).

So, continuing the cycle of niceness, she insisted on making some GFV curry for me the other night.

And, holy moly, was it good.

A few days later, I was talking to my mom and telling her about the curry, to which she asked, "Do you like curry?"

"Yes, I do." I replied.

"I don't." My mother then said.

"Yes, I know." I then laughed.

She especially wouldn't like this one, since it was chock-full of lovely peas. My mother can't stand peas. But I can!

But this curry was so amazing. Very, very mild, too. But just a beautiful comforting mixture of flavors and vegetables and... amazing. I have no words for how happy this curry made me.

There's tofu (obviously), peas, baby corn, and bamboo shoots cooked in the green curry sauce
. Sticky rice under it, soaking up the good stuff, and sprouts on top to add a nice touch of texture. So simple, and yet so wonderful.

We ate it outside and very late at night and the contrast of the cold of Tucson in the middle of the night against the cozy warmth of the curry just made it all the better.

And then there's the fact that it was just so freakin' filling!

And that there were leftovers! Just the stuff she gave me made several more meals! I ended up having it on a bed of fresh spinach on my own. I put the Ziploc container in my rice steamer and steamed the leftovers back to hot and wonderful goodness that way. Which worked a lot better than I thought it would.

A few of the other neighbors also had a taste of the curry. I'm really in a wonderful little complex here. Everyone is so nice and friendly and helpful!

Even the pets!

This is my other closest neighbor's sweet and tubby cat in the grocery cart kept in the complex to get groceries (or whatever else you have) from the parking lot to your apartment and vice versa. The cat was very intrigued by the cart, so we put him in it. And then he decided he was actually comfortable in it. Weirdo.

It's Baaaaaaaack! And So Am I!

2009-11-22T19:41:00.005-06:00

I finally got around to buying a blender!

In fact, I bought a combo unit made by Oster so now I have both a blender and a food processor.

It's about time! I really should've replaced my food processor months ago, come to think of it.

But it took getting a Target gift card in the mail (from a woman I think of fondly as almost being another mother to me and is possibly the sweetest person on Earth. Hi, Paula! Thank you! ) to give me the kick in the butt to go get one. I really don't function properly without a blender and food processor. And my food choices are much more sensible when I have them.

I christened the new appliance with my favoritest healthy recipe ever- the avocado chocolate pudding. Of course.

I used actual raw cacao powder this time, making it true chocolate pudding. And, good galoshes, that cacao powder smells devine when you open up the pouch. A thing of beauty.

I did the standard recipe:

The flesh of one avocado
1/4 cup of cacao powder
3-4 tbsp raw honey
1 tbsp coconut oil

And I think I over did it with the honey and possibly just needed to pulse the mixture slightly longer to get the flavors to all gel. Every so often, you can still taste the avocado under the chocolate. I think I need to go back to adding either cinnamon or vanilla to it to tweak it just enough.

But when it was smooth, I scraped it into two of my little ingredients bowls and took one over to one of my new neighbors. She's very into alternative recipes and has some similar health problems- like muscle cramps. So, I thought she'd very much appreciate the avocado pudding with all it's potassium goodness, since I'm a big fan of it for helping with my muscle cramps and spasms.

And she was very impressed with the pudding and very excited about it! She couldn't believe that she was eating something that was actually good for her. She noted that it was more like buttercream frosting than pudding- much more rich. And that she wants to now make me GFV brownies and use the pudding as a frosting on top of them.

She and I get along fabulously, if you can't tell. And are very dangerous to be around when it comes to playing with food and recipes.

But I'm so glad I can get back to having the pudding regularly. It quells my chocolate cravings like nothing else and is much better for me than the other options out there. And it also fills me up pretty well, which reminds me of how I managed to stay not hungry so well while on all that raw food back in June. I need to get back to all that.

Oh, yay! I'm so happy to be getting into my groove here in Tucson. I'm getting back to my food making regularly scheduled programming and getting my mind back in the right place (I've been sort of in sensory overload just from all the changes going on- in a happy way, but still disruptively) and now maybe I can focus enough on all the other stuff I need to get into a good pattern.

And then maybe I can actually decorate and furnish my little apartment in the near future. Right now, it's looking like I might be looking for a way to get classic comic book covers and splash pages of my choosing blown up to be wall art and such. There's an awesome little store near my complex that has all this "recycled art" which includes a few furishings with comic book and classic movie poster art on them and I'm definitely digging that look.

Anyway, that's what's new in Tucson. And I have many new posts coming this week as well. Yay! And I'll be attending a Thanksgiving dinner this week that will have some GFV dishes available, so hopefully I'll have my camera charged and ready to capture it all for most posts.

The power of the pudding. I'm in gear now, my friends. Watch out.

(Heh, and then I went and posted without uploading the pictures. Maybe I'm not quite as in gear as I thought. Or just overly excited. Whoops!)

The Joys of Living Alone

2009-11-18T09:00:00.002-06:00

Brussels Sprouts. Refried Beans (vegetarian). Salsa. Extra Garlic.

Not a single comment from anyone about the smell coming from my kitchen.

A Smoothie After My Own Heart

2009-11-17T09:00:00.001-06:00

So, I now live across the street from a 24 hour cafe with free wifi. It's kind of awesome. The cafe isn't the chic-est of places- the paint on the tables is chipping, most of the furniture is obviously donated, and some of the food is questionable. It's a bit of a hole in the wall, but it's great to have around. Plus, while I'm still shopping for a new blender, I can get my smoothie fix over there.

The smoothie pictured is a base of cranberry juice with strawberries, mango, and spinach blended in perfectly. It made my mouth happy, indeed.

They also have vegan dolmas! My addiction to those little rice and grape leaf concoctions has been brought back!

Living in Tucson, I'm now constantly shown that my way of eating is actually not too bizarre once you're in this part of the country.

It's both wonderful and sort of sad.

I hate it when people talk crap about the Midwest. Or, even worse, when they patronize what they remember the Midwest as being like. "Fly-over States" and whatnot. There's a show on ABC this year called The Middle that's supposed to be a comical look at a Midwestern family and for some reason it drives me absolutely crazy because the main character, played by Patricia Heaton, is so condescending about the Midwest.

Why is it that I can easily find more places to eat and more products to buy in Tucson than in Chicago? Is it just because the Midwest is "behind"? "Old fashion"? "Slow"? "Too in love with crappy food"?

NO.

Some of it is as simple as the fact that a lot of the commonly used new products are native to desert areas- like Agave and Mesquite. So, of course, they're in abundance here.

Then there is also the fact that Tucson is a destination spot for the sick, disabled, and elderly. Mild winters and no shortage of Holistic and Traditional practitioners make it that way. And a lot of the sick, disabled, and elderly can't eat traditional foods anymore. So, there's a higher demand for it here and then normal people get into it as well.

I really don't think it's a case of this part of the country being more "enlightened".

Interestingly enough, while Tucson is more friendly to my diet, there isn't a single raw food restaurant in Tucson, while the Chicago area had three and a few more that had raw items every so often.

There is the famed Tree of Life institute an hour and a half south of Tucson, but nothing in Tucson itself other than the Whole Foods and Health Food Stores having rather nice selections of products that are Raw.

Hit-The-Spot Cooking

2009-11-16T09:00:00.002-06:00

When the weather was changing last week, I was just craving certain foods- feeling like I was missing the nutrients from them horribly.

One of the meals I ended up throwing together was this one. I threw some frozen peppers into the skillet with some olive oil then added some of Trader Joe's Ready-To-Eat lentils and a touch of crushed garlic. I topped it off with the last of some salsa I had bought last week, and then, finally, I decided that I didn't want the crispness of fresh spinach with the meal- so I threw some baby spinach into the skillet as well and let it wilt.

I love using Trader Joe's lentils as I have no way currently of making my own. And the meal was super fast to throw together once the peppers were thawed- nothing else had to really "cook". I just had to get it all warm enough for myself to like.

Don't Let Them Eat Cake!

2009-11-15T09:53:00.005-06:00

The past week in Tucson has been... okay, not exactly thrilling. But I have been busy at least. I've met some more people, learned some new things, and have grown as a person. It's been like living in an episode of Full House. Just without the house or the creepy troll-like children.

Yesterday it drizzled in Tucson, making it so far my least favorite day ever to have lived in Tucson. But this morning I pulled out my yoga mat and did a gentle routine for a little bit and now feel better for it. It helps that today is a crisp and sunny day again. Although the change in the weather that came at the end of this week definitely did bring in the cool air. Which means that even though today's high is 66F, since it's only just after 9 AM, we still have 22 degrees to go to get to that high. Oh, Tucson, your weather is weird.

Earlier this week, a good friend of mine sent me a NuGO Gluten Free Carrot Cake Bar that she had found and thought of me when she saw it. And then, before she sent it to me, she bought a second one for herself, being so intrigued by the concept that she wanted to try it herself.

To say she wasn't overly thrilled with the Carrot Cake Bar would be an understatement. The word "vile" came up. And she offered that instead of torturing me with it's taste she'd "give it to a homeless person or something, to make his or her day...a whole lot worse."

Well, now I was so intrigued- how could I not try it?!

I had previously had NuGO's Gluten Free Dairy Free Dark Chocolate Trail Mix Bar, which I still think is pretty decent. But dark chocolate can make anything seem decent.

So, the other night I cracked the Carrot Cake Bar open and gave it a shot.

Now, I personally wouldn't describe it as "vile"... but I can see how she came to that conclusion. It certainly does not taste of carrots, cake, or carrot cake. If anything, it tastes like crunchy root beer. Which isn't exactly the greatest combination in the world, I must say.

Would I buy it again? Most likely not.

Did I finish it completely? Yes, I did.

Same Song, Different Verse

2009-11-10T18:09:00.002-06:00

I haven't forgotten the blog! I promise.

I'm working on a few projects and meeting new people and being distracted, but I'm still trying to take photos of various food items to share here.

This weekend, for example, was pretty cool. My new neighbors introduced me to the famous Tucson All Soul's Procession and I got to see a lot of people decked out in face paint and great macabre costumes. Sadly, my camera decided that it was going to die just as I got to the sidelines of the parade, so my pictures didn't turn out too fantastic. It was still a pretty awesome experience, though.

And then there was karaoke afterward, to top things off.

In the midst of all this fun, I haven't been cooking too much. Lots of simple little things here and there.

But I have kept a stock of quinoa going. And when I run out of it, I can just walk down the street to the Co-Op and buy some more from the bulk bins. So, this week when I did just that- I realized that I could get red quinoa for the same price.

The thing is, though, that the red quinoa doesn't seem as keen to cook in the rice steamer. Even with plenty of over-steaming, there are still a few little seeds that don't have tails sprouting out. And then they sit in your stomach for ever, it feels like.

Still tastes good, though. I had it with some pre-made curried lentils the other day. And also just on its own in vegetable broth.

I'm more than a little curious as to why it's not cooking as easily, though.

Nori On The Go:

2009-11-04T09:00:00.000-06:00

I was running around town like a crazy person the other day all day. At one point, I did need to stop in Aqua Vitas, the health food store. So, while there, I checked out the refrigerated section to see if there was, hope-against-hope, anything pre-made that I could eat as lunch.

Oddly enough, there was. Nori rolls with quinoa, tempeh, and various vegetables with a side of wheat-free soy sauce. What are the odds of that?

I believe these are made by a woman that's at the St. Philip's Plaza farmer's market. I've seen them before but couldn't get a look at the ingredients. Also, they're the same price as getting a hot lunch anywhere else- so they're not exactly savvy spending. But they were a good lunch for a once-off change.

The only real problem was that the nori sheets were way too soggy to eat with my hands and therefore were getting little black lines and spots stuck to my fingers that wouldn't come off. Huge pain in the butt. And then one of them fell apart, but at least stayed in the container.

But it was more than enough to keep me going for the rest of the day and get what I needed to get done. And I got that extra boost from both the quinoa and the nori- lots of good nutrients there.

And, as a last note: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!

Simple Soup For Breakfast

2009-11-03T09:00:00.003-06:00

Late other night, my neighbor and I were sitting out in the little alcove near our apartments and just chatting about various things. And then the topic of quinoa in soup came up and we both got excited about how much we love quinoa.

Well, that made it so the next morning, I woke up with a craving for something resembling a soup made with quinoa. But I didn't want to put any effort into it at all.

So, I put a third of a cup of quinoa in my strainer for a while as I filled the bottom of the rice steamer with the same water. Then I put the quinoa and about 1 cup and an extra 1/3 cup of water in the steamer bowl and squeezed a tube of vegetable broth concentrate into it as well.

Half an hour later, most of the quinoa had cooked (you can see some are still not quite there in the picture) and there were some abandoned tails of the seeds floating around on top of the broth. I emptied it all into a bowl and sat down near my window to enjoy some warm soup as the morning sun started to warm up the desert once again.

Actually, it was a pretty good way to start the day. Nothing like quinoa to get the brain functioning.

Greetings From the New Kitchen!

2009-11-02T17:51:00.005-06:00

Okay, that title is a lie. I'm actually across the street at my new local coffee shop. But I do have pictures of the new kitchen.

It's small but perfect. With plenty of space to put things.

These were taken while I was still moving in. I currently have all my spices on the built-in pantry (until I have something pretty to put there) and the rice steamer is on the counter near the sink while my cast iron skillet is chilling on the stove.

To celebrate my new location, I walked to the Co-Op because I saw somewhere that they carry raw cheesecake in their deli case.

And it was true! Strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry raw cheesecake slices, pre-made by a California company, lined one shelf of the little deli case. I took a raspberry to have as my move-in dessert.

The stuff was much closer to true cheesecake in tangy taste than the raw cheesecakes I've had in recent months. Probably because of the lemon and the fact that they were probably at least a couple days old and therefore were able to culture a little bit like how raw vegan yogurt is made.

Good stuff. Although, for $5.99 a slice, it's not an every day treat.

In Defense of the Potato!

2009-10-30T14:44:00.003-05:00

b
I'm surprised that I haven't done a post of this sort before. Surely, it can't be true!

Potatoes get a bad rap. They seem to be doing better now than they were earlier this decade during the low carb craze, but most people still shy away from them these days.

I currently like potatoes because they're cheap, filling, and have a decent amount of nutrients to them if you leave the skins on. Plus, part of starch that makes up potatoes is something similar to insoluble fiber and is ideal for proper digestion and also can help prevent colon cancer, improve glucose tolerance, and even lower plasma cholesterol.

So, take that you nay-sayers. Potatoes are good for you!

I bought 10 lbs of potatoes for $3 a couple weeks ago and have been slowly making my way through them in various meals (including the continuing work in process of potatoes au gratin).

I love cutting them at odd angles and roasting them in oil (olive or coconut, depending on what flavors I'm going for) and spices until both soft and crispy at the same time.

Anyway, just a heads up- I might not be updating too regularly for the next week. My internet situation will be changing and it might be a few days before I can be back to uploading pictures and talking about the food in them again. Hopefully, once things settledown, I'll be back to more regular blogging.

Stay tuned!

In Search Of:

2009-10-27T20:16:00.002-05:00

Sunset over the Sonoran (not Sontaran, as I keep continue to want to type) Desert Cacti. I drove around Sunday evening in search of how to get a picture like this. And got it just in time.

It looks like this leap of faith I had about coming to Tucson is going to result in me getting to stay in Tucson. I came in search of weather that was kinder on my system, and that is indeed what I found.

I joked before leaving that with my luck it would mysteriously rain in Tucson for the whole month and be mild and warm in Chicago. Well, I had some good luck, it seems. Because all it has done in Chicago is rain, rain, and rain some more this month. And Tucson has been beautiful and nearly completely lacking in humidity.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be under 60 degrees all day (after a month of 80+), but it has been beautiful and the sun has been warm and healing. Even for a girl that practically lived in sunglasses before moving to the land of constant sunshine.

I came in search of a lot of things, really, and I hope to continue to discover and claim more. I found peace and quiet, I found a fridge of my own, I found work that's well-suited to me, and I found a city that is just as obsessed with zombies, odd movies, and eating weird as I am.

Speaking of eating weird, I'm not ready to post a recipe yet, but here's a preview of what I believe is the absolute easiest way to make potatoes au gratin outside of a box. I stumbled upon it over the weekend on accident. And it just happens to be gluten-free and vegan. The added daiya cheese in this picture is un-needed, just so you know.

The Cheese Solution!

2009-10-25T10:33:00.004-05:00

Vegan cheese is a pain in the butt.

Making your own requires a ridiculous amount of ingredients with mostly dodgy results. Looking through the internet to find the best packaged types results in people claiming that Follow Your Heart is the best brand, which is very depressing.

FYH is basically a block of flavored tofu and, as I've said many times, won't melt for any temperature short of a nuclear explosion despite proudly stating "It Melts!" on the packaging.

Well, I have experienced another one of the beauties of living in a very vegan-aware part of the country. I actually bothered to look into the vegan cheese section at the local Whole Foods and was completely surprised to find something that didn't exist in any of the ones back in Chicagoland: Daiya Vegan Cheese.

And, amazingly enough, it's not soy based!

And it's a source of B12 as well as live (vegan) cultures and enzymes!

And there are no artificial ingredients! Plus it's still much healthier than real dairy cheese!

In addition to that and most importantly, Daiya's cheese has not a hint of casein, gluten, eggs, wheat, barley, corn, whey, rice, or nuts- for those with numerous allergies.

They had both a cheddar version and an "Italian" version in little weight-based packages at Whole Foods. According to the site, it's not actually in retail markets yet (or maybe they're just not packaging it for retail yet, is what they mean). So I guess it's just the idea of some beautiful person that works at Whole Foods to make it available to the local masses.

But you can purchase Daiya cheese online through Vegan Essentials and other sort of places. But it's a good thing it's available at Whole Foods here, since sending items that require refrigeration to Arizona is, I imagine, a troublesome thing to do.

I bought the Italian blend and used a small amount of it last night to make Italian Nachos with corn tortilla chips, marinara sauce, and sprinkling the Daiya Cheese on top. I put it all in a skillet and stuck it all under the broiler for five minutes and pulled out a beautiful picture of perfect meltiness.

And the taste? Amazingly good. I've tasted worse real cheese. And it kept it's melty texture and acted like real cheese as it cooled. It's no wonder VegNews named the stuff Product of the Year this year.

Long live Daiya!

More Noodling Around.

2009-10-22T20:27:00.004-05:00

Rice noodles are just so easy to cook with, I can't stop using them frequently. Plus, they're super cheap.

At Trader Joe's earlier this week, I found a jar of Curry Simmer Sauce that looked interesting and like something I could have. So, I bought that.

The simmer sauce was handy because it was made to be watered down. The directions said to use the whole jar with a cup of water.

So, I used about a third of the jar with a cup of water. I cooked up some of Trader Joe's Ready-To-Serve lentils with the last of my kale in the sauce, while boiling some rice noodles in a separate pot. When the noodles were al dente, I put them in the skillet with the rest of the ingredients.

Tons of food. All really good and comforting. The curry sauce smelled slightly too sweet and mild, but had a nice touch of spice when I actually ate it. I had some for dinner and the leftovers for lunch.

The following night, I used more of the simmer sauce with some vegetable brother to simmer broccoli and some more of the lentils. Cooked up noodles again. Then topped with the last of my sunflower sprouts as well as some alfalfa sprouts.

Still Crazy About Quinoa.

2009-10-20T22:02:00.002-05:00

While today was a nearly chilly 80 degrees in comparison, over the weekend it warmed up quite a bit, to the point where I finally turned on my air conditioning unit on in the evenings. Then the air conditioner would proceed to dry the air out to a disgusting degree if it was on for more than an hour.

One way I dealt with this was using my steamer more than the stove. Not only did it keep the casita cooler but it put some moisture in the air.

So, I've had a lot of quinoa in the past few days. I still love it so much. And feel better when I've had it during the day. I had it with the last tamale today for lunch.

Quinoa is easy to find in bulk bins in Tucson, thankfully. So I can spend $2 on enough quinoa for several meals. It steams up quicker than rice and I can flavor it with more ease. Plus, it works great for breakfast- the other day I had some quinoa with avocado as breakfast. It really worked nicely, too.

And with my little hand-strainer to rinse the quinoa with, I've gotten into a good routine of throwing at the most a half cup of quinoa into the strainer, running water through it for a few minutes, tapping the rinsed quinoa into the plastic steamer basket, running water through the strainer to collect the pieces that didn't fall off while at the same time filling up the measuring cup for the water, then pouring the water over the upside down strainer to get the last few pieces to fall into the basket.

Best of all, at one of the local Trader Joe's today, I discovered that they still carry the boxes of vegetable stock concentrate! Yay! I love that stuff and it's a lot more cost effective than the large cartons of vegetable stock.

The Land of Tamales!

2009-10-18T18:19:00.004-05:00

Today I went to the Tucson Farmer's Market at St. Phillip's Plaza, which was the biggest one I've been to in Tucson so far. And, if you haven't noticed, Tucson has quite a few of them. I haven't even been to half of the ones that there are!

I really liked the St. Phillip's Plaza one, too. Lots of stuff appealing to the vegan/gluten-free/raw/healthnut part of me. Some nice music. And lots of things to look at, too! If I could've, I would've stocked up on tons of stuff, but I played it a lot safer.

One of the first places I stopped at was a stand for the Tucson Tamale Company because they had a giant sign up that said both "Gluten Free" and "Vegan" and it drew me in like a moth to the flame. They were offering both hot tamales to eat while walking around and cold ones to take home.

Except... it just happens that they had a refrigerator mishap on Thursday and didn't have any vegan ones left (although the very kind man did dig around and find one of the vegan options, but it had mushrooms in it. So not meant for me). So, I moved on, saying I'd try to be back next week to try them again.

The one thing that I did end up purchasing while at the Farmer's Market was a bag of sunflower sprouts from a lady selling her fresh sprouts. Very good stuff. I expected them to be somewhat bitter, but they're very very mild and easy to eat. A texture similar to mung bean sprouts but with a spinach-like little leafy part at one end. They're super easy to just throw on top of a dish and barely notice that they were there while reaping the benefit of their healthiness.

Sunflower sprouts also happen to be one of the most nutritious greens you can eat. They're 25% protein! Not to mention chock full of vitamins A, B (complex), D and E. And a whole slew of minerals as well.

So, I had my little bag of sprouts and headed back to my casita... before remembering that I should detour to the health food store that was pointed out to me yesterday, since it was on the way anyway. Just to check out what they had.

The place was a great little find, it turns out. I expected it to be much smaller than it was- but it actually had a good size fresh produce section, bulk section, and freezer.

And what did I happen to find while walking around? Tucson Tamale Company tamales!

In the refrigerated section! Vegan ones that didn't have mushrooms, to top it all off! More selections than what there was at the Farmer's Market, too!

So, I purchased a duo of the "Berkeley" tamales to try at home.

I stuck one of them, still in the corn husks, in my rice steamer for twenty minutes and then unwrapped it and served it with some of the sunflower sprouts. Fantastic little meal. Shame I don't have any tamale sauce, but I wasn't feeling like I was missing out on much. And the tamales are missing nothing from not having lard or butter used to make them. A great flavor combination going on extremely well without either fat.

The tamales are pricey (2 for $4.99), so not something I can purchase on a regular basis right now. But were a good treat for the day. I'm so happy I was able to find them. And I really like that not-so-little health store, Aqua Vita a lot.

To Market, To Market.

2009-10-17T11:17:00.003-05:00

This week I stopped by a few of the local farmer's markets in Tucson.

The first one I went to was on Thursday afternoon- The Santa Cruz Farmers' Market. It's a unique one due to the fact that they've made it so food stamps and WIC stamps can be used at the farmer's market. Making it so everyone can get good, high quality, local produce. How cool is that? Very cool.

It was a fairly small market, though. Most of the vendors all selling the same items, although nice items that they were. And there was a good selection definitely when compared to what is usually available to people on food stamps, from what I know of it. There was one lady that was selling baked goods made with chia, though. So that was nice to see- although I couldn't buy any since they were made with wheat flour and eggs.

On Friday morning, I went to the Friday Farmer's Market on Broadway. Which is an indoor year-round market. There were more crafters at this one, with a lot of really fun looking jewelry for sale. There was a table full of really nice loose teas (which I'd love to buy when I have a nice tea set to have loose tea in), several tables just selling ready-to-eat breakfast and/or lunch items like breakfast burritos and so on, a reiki massage area, and so on.

One of the tables was manned by a nice gentleman named Steve, and Steve got me to try some of his Locally Arizona brand dried fruit and candied nuts.

Good stuff! I really like the cherries, which were plump and tender rather than being flattened stick-to-your-teeth raisin-like creatures. So, I bought a bag, along with one of the bags of candied nuts (after confirming that the ingredients and I would get along). And Steve even gave me a few tips on where to look for jobs!

People in Arizona are so nice. It's weird.

I had to leave the farmer's market a bit earlier than I wanted to due to a phone call, but enjoyed some cherries and pecans as my late breakfast/early lunch for the day. Like I said, good stuff!

The Power of Salsa!

2009-10-15T15:04:00.004-05:00

I'm quite proud of this one, actually.

Yesterday, I was in the mood for something taco-ish. So, I bought some locally made soft corn tortillas, some locally made salsa, some vegetarian refried beans, and some pre-cut and washed kale.

Mmm, kale.

I know, I know. No one really likes kale. Or they get it confused with kelp. Which they also don't like. But I say it's worth a try!

The biggest roadblock with kale is that it's a tough and dry green. It's not exactly one that you can just replace the romaine lettuce from your salad with one day.

The raw foodist way of dealing with kale is to "massage" it into wilting with salt, oil, and/or something acidic and then add something else to it to improve the flavor.

The soul food way of dealing with kale is to cook the ever living hell out of it until it's limp and soggy.

I decided to go somewhere between those two extremes.

I heated up my cast iron skillet and threw in some olive oil. Then heaped in some of the chopped kale until the skillet was brimming with the stuff, then drizzled some more oil on top, and finally I topped it off with some salsa.

Yup, salsa.

I covered the kale for a while, until it started to turn a more brilliant green and the lid started to fog. Then I took to stirring and smooshing the leaves around in the skillet every few minutes, getting the salsa all over the leaves and making it so the acid in the salsa broke down the tough leaves.

And the final result was fantastic. Easy to chew, juicy from the salsa, and didn't taste or feel like canned spinach. I topped the salsa'd kale with some doctored refried beans in a corn tortilla and munched away happily at my dinner. It was the perfect twist of flavors and was better than just having romaine lettuce (or, even worse, iceberg lettuce) in a taco instead.

The only downside was that I didn't make nearly enough of the kale to have more tacos!