another one bites the dust!

Actually, another five. Pounds, that is. Down ten in total so far!

It's really satisfying to see some movement on the scale going down instead of up. It's always slower than I'd like, but I'm just glad it's happening.

The weekends are more challenging for me since there's more time around the house for snacking and such, and more opportunities to feel like I'd like to indulge, but all in all, I did okay. I did splurge on making pancakes on Saturday morning, which didn't seem so bad until I entered them in the recipe calculator. And, there were other, more reasonable splurges, like some homemade vanilla-coconut frozen yogurt with fresh mango (with the 0% Fage Greek yogurt).

Tonight I have my monthly "Queers: They're What's For Dinner!" dinner, and I'm not sure what the menu will be, but i just have to keep portion control in mind, and I think I'll be okay.

the first week

So, today officially marks a week into the Health Quest 2009! (I started a couple days still in 2008). I am planning to weigh myself each Monday morning to chart the progress, and this morning I was down by 5.4 lbs! Woot! That's encouraging to see! I attribute this all to all the water I've been drinking. And, I was thinking that I'd start to keep a list of some tips that are helping me.

1. Drink LOTS of water. I'm trying to make sure that I drink, at bare minimum, 8 cups of water per day.
2. Track everything I eat. For one, I find this fun, for two, I'm less likely to mindlessly snack when I know that I have to log everything.
3. Try to be flexible.

Number Three is a hard one for me. I'm rigid by nature, and I find this trait to be both a positive and a negative, depending on the circumstance. When I began my Health Quest in 2007 I was so strict that I ate no (zero) processed foods. I didn't eat out. I didn't eat at other people's houses. I spent pretty much all my time cooking and logging and blogging. Which did help me learn to cook a lot of things that I'd never attempted before, but also contributed to my feeling of being so completely invested in the strictness of my program that when I fell off the wagon, it felt overwhelming to have deviated from the plan.

So, I'm trying to be much more relaxed about it this time. The truth of the matter is that it's going to take a long time to lose the weight and gain the health that I want, so I need to be realistic in settling into something I can live with for a long time. So, if I eat something out that is higher in fat or calories (or whatever), then I just need to balance that the rest of the day(s) to make sure that I'm continuously heading in the right direction, but not feeling constantly hungry or deprived. I don't want food to be a reward or punishment tool anymore. Instead I want it to just be something that I love--to cook, to learn about and to eat.

To those ends, I did a little cooking this weekend. Just some simple things. I made the Caesar Salad from Veganomicon (just tweaked a tiny bit to cut back on some of the oil while retaining the fantastic flavor), some egg salad (replaced half of the mayo with greek yogurt), and some awesome peach frozen yogurt that I made with some home-canned peaches I got as an xmas gift (in the work Secret Santa exchange from Chef Bill Fuller). I love yogurt. I especially love frozen yogurt. And, I especially-especially love having the taste of REAL peaches in the dead of winter.

Here's my uber-simple peach fro-yo recipe. I use a Cuisinart ice cream maker, but here's a great article by David Lebovitz about making frozen treats even if you don't have a machine.

Peach Frozen Yogurt
makes 6 servings

8oz 2% Fage Greek Yogurt
8oz 0% Fage Greek Yogurt
4 peaches (separated)
1/4 c. sugar
1 T. freshly-squeezed lemon juice

Using a food processor or blender, combine the yogurts, 3-3.5 of the peaches, the sugar and the lemon juice. Taste, and adjust sugar and lemon juice as necessary.

Freeze in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer instructions. About halfway through the freezing, throw the remaining peach (cut in small chunks) into the mix.

My machine finishes in about 20 minutes, and comes out the consistency of soft serve. If I can wait to dig in, I freeze it for about a half hour to firm it up a little.

.........

Oh, and Number Four is a big one: Plan my meals for the week in advance! I've always just sorta cooked by inspiration, and by digging around in the pantry, but I tend to WAY overbuy groceries and often don't have that one ingredient I'd need for whatever it is. But, again, I don't have to be super rigid in the plan. Things can change. The loose sketch for this week's dinners is:

Monday: Beans & Greens with pasta and a salad
Tuesday: Butternut-Bean veggie burgers
Wednesday: Big Salad
Thursday: Thai Pineapple Curry over jasmine rice
Friday: leftovers or a stir-fry or big salad
Saturday: Wheatberry Salad & Sloppy Janes
Sunday: Veggie Chili and corn bread

I'm trying to think about what ingredients may be used in various meals, as well as planning for lunches to take to work. Another project for this week is that we're going to start washing and prepping all our veggies to have them ready at a moment's notice for salads, stir-fries, etc.

Anyhow, keep on keepin' on, peeps. And again, please share any little words of encouragement or tips you have up your sleeve. It really does help.

more summery goodness

Last week a co-worker got to talk to Lynne Rosetto Caspar! He'd called in with a question, left a message, and then got a call back with a time to call in and speak to Lynne herself, to possibly be aired on The Splendid Table. So cool! He suggested I call in about my mint conundrum/fascination. Speaking of, I asked a farmer from Goose Creek Gardens (a local herb farm) at the Firehouse Farmers Market (where he was selling spearmint, peppermint and chocolate mint--and who'd supplied the spearmint in my CSA last week). He said that spearmint was his default, and he felt like it just went better with most things. So, the debate continues...

And, speaking of the Firehouse Farmers Market, I got some delicious stuff this week in the Strip:
-Next Life Farms: poona kheera cucumbers, a mix of baby tomatoes, a bunch of red and purple (I think Cherokee Purples?) tomatoes
-Blackberry Meadows: a big basket of white (?) potatoes with this odd peel-y skin (pretty starchy and really tasty, yellow-y flesh), a bunch of parsley, a bunch of Thai basil
-Goose Creek Gardens: some little greens that I was really excited about, and now can't remember what they are for the life of me
-Mushrooms For Life: chanterelles
-Najat's Cuisine: the best hummus EVER
-Puckerbrush Farms: some really fantastically sweet bread and butter corn and a small bag of fresh figs

And, not at the market, but also in the Strip:
-those unbelievable flour tortillas from Reyna
-some Cheddar-Onion bread still hot from the oven from Sunseri
-yummy coffee from 21st Street Coffee

In a word: Mmm.

So, beyond just hunks of bread, and thick slices of tomato, I did a little cooking this weekend. More from the vein of my summer cooking style--don't mess with it too much because it's hot in the kitchen and already pretty perfect the way it is.


D'oh, that dinner got rabbit ears!


dessert:


That dinner is potato taquitos--based on the Mad Mex version that I constantly crave, tomato salad, cucumbers with dill, Mexican street corn (Ellen calls this "goopy corn"), and carrots with a honey-dijon glaze. Fresh peach frozen yogurt with blueberries for dessert. And mint iced tea (spearmint, fyi).

The peach frozen yogurt is SO easy, and it's a peach party around here right now! To make yourself some...

4-5 ripe peaches
1 32oz container of your favorite organic plain whole-milk yogurt
about 1 cup of sugar (more or less depending on the sweetness of the fruit)
1/2 t. vanilla extract
a big squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Puree in a blender or food processor most of the peaches (save a couple for the end so you'll have some chunks) with all the rest of the ingredients. When the mixture is well blended and the sugar is dissolved, add in the last 1-2 peaches and puree for just a few seconds so you have some fruit chunks. If it's already well chilled, put it right into your ice cream maker, and follow your manufacturer's directions. (mine takes about 20 minutes!). If you don't have an ice cream maker, you can follow David Lebovitz's instructions here.

Wow. I was just looking around this site, and this recipe jumped out at me. Dang. (E-dawg--this sounds like one for you, too). Barbara got me his book (along with my fantastic ice cream maker--mine actually came with two freezer canisters. so awesome) for my birthday. It's so amazing. I need to make some ice creams--I've been fixated on frozen yogurt for months, but ice cream's good, too, right? I need to make this SOON.

Oh, and the corn that I mentioned above--in the style of Mexican Street Corn? I think I've mentioned this before (recently), because I'm obsessed with making corn this way, but here's what you do:

Boil some water (I put in a bit of salt and sugar in the water; I'm not sure why), and cook the shucked corn for about 5 minutes in boiling water. Remove it, and slather on some crema (Mexican sour cream. You can find it locally at Reyna--make sure to get the sour, not the sweet, kind), crumble or grate some cojita cheese (again, you can find this at Reyna--2031 Penn Ave in the Strip; don't forget to get some of their housemade tortillas while you're there), sprinkle with some kind of chili powder or cayenne (I've been using a chipotle chili powder), and serve it with wedges of fresh lime. Give it a squirt, and eat it up until you're too full to move. Such a wonderful flavor--the sweet corn, the sour, creamy crema, the saltiness of the cheese, and the bite of the lime. Perfection.

I had some great goopy corn at Kaya last week, too. The corn was roasted, and given a generation slather of chipotle aioli, sprinkled with Idiazabal cheese and served with lime. I'm going to (finally!) check out the Vegetarian Dinner at Kaya this month on the 20th. The menu has me drooling already.

ramp, ramp, ramp it up!

I know I'm probably sounding like a broken record, but I have been busy! All good stuff, but still. Blogging has been a diminished priority. And, I'm sorry, dear readers. I do miss you, and going forward I'm going to try to post twice a week. Try, I said. We'll see. At least once. Okay.

There definitely have been some good times and good eatin' going on. Some have been photographed, some not so much. One of my favorites, which was coincidentally photographed, was brunch last Sunday. Barbara and I went over to Maggie and Ellen's. Mags made her famous french toast, I made some fresh frozen yogurt and sliced some strawberries, and we put that on top of the french toast for a beautiful breakfast sundae kinda thing. Isn't it lovely?




I also got to have lunch on Monday afternoon with the chef from Casbah, Alan Peet. I'm such a nerd when it comes to writers, chefs and artists. It was super fun, and the food was great. We started with some hummus, muhamara (which I learned how to say, and then promptly forgot), and eggplant spread (that was super light and fluffy, and the texture reminded me of pumpkin pie filling). Then I had a tomato and grilled vegetable sandwich and a small salad. Annnd, I wrapped that up with the Strawberry-Rhurbarb Mille Fueille. Wowza.

And, since spring has officially sprung, it's time for ramps! Barbara, Mags, E-dawg and I are hitting the festival in Helvetia this year. Helvetia is a magical place, and I haven't been for many years, so I'm really looking forward to it. Plus, my parents are meeting us there. Which, incidentally, will also be there first time the 'rents meet Barbara. Or, uh, any girlfriend. (gulp!)

Here's a great article that E-dawg found on Helvetia. And, here's a recipe for Ramp Pizza I made last year (and a confession about harassing Alison Bechdel...).

Okay, will report back about the festival and the ramps!

NYC or bust!

We had a fantastic time in NYC! Spent time with friends (though not enough, never enough), ate fantastic food, shopped 'til we dropped (literally), racked up walking miles like they were going out of style, laughed until our armpits hurt, enoyed one another to the fullest, showed the meerkat the sites, got the most use out of a whoopie cushion ever in the history of whoopie cushions, and generally had the Best Trip Ever. I [heart] NY. For sure.

Here's a little run-down of our adventures, day-by-day style.

Thursday:
We arrived in the afternoon, and headed straight for Kensington to visit pal Sarah, drop our bags, and start the eating tour. We walked down to a 'hood haunt called the Vox Pop Cafe for some eats, while the Meerkat read (with a little help) and laughed it up over how we'd used the whoopie cushion on the plane.

Then we wandered over to Park Slope to check out the ladybar Ginger's where they were not having karaoke, despite the advertisement that proclaimed they were. Still a good time, though. But, after a beer, our travelin' caught up with us and we retired back to Sarah's to have a chill evening and get some rest.

Friday morning we met up with my pal (and Beach Baby!) Doggie. She showed us around her 'hood in Williamsburg. We lunched at Bliss (where a mean Heidi Klum-ish waitress deigned to serve us between sneers). The food was eh, but it was a great time catching up with the Dog and people watching. Then we set out touring the nabe. Doggie showed us her favorite shop, Fuego (formerly Loveshine) which featured all kinds of awesome little things and Alex, the friendliest shopkeep ever. He had a little lotteria game that we got to play when we checked out that earned us 20% off. And, then he threw in an extra 5% because he wanted to play, too. Seriously, one of the nicest guys I've ever met. If you find yourself in Williamsburg any time soon, definitely stop in. Definitively a Good Time.


We stopped into the Bedford Cheese Shop. All I can say is: wow. I've been lucky enough to try cheese from this shop when the NYC Beach Babies have brought some to the beach. It surpassed all my hopes and dreams. The shop is fairly small, but was packed with fantastic, unusual and interesting cheeses, cute-funny-snarky signage, and uber-knowledgable staff. I tasted several, and lamented not being able to throw away everything I'd brought with me to stuff my bag full o' dairy delights. Another must see/try.


After that we bid Doggie farewell for the afternoon (although she and her pup, Java, did make another brief appearance!), and sat in a cafe for a bit. The one we wanted to try was filled to the gills, so we went across the street and settled in at New York Muffin. Perhaps we were asking for it by shunning the muffins in a muffin-based establishment, but our snacks were kinda grody. Great people-watching, but bad eatin'. Eh. Barbara fears and loathes any kind of wetness on a bread, and her eclair was actually dripping. However, I have a theory on how it got that way:


After that we made our way over to Nowlze and Bdub's. I love the Wolfinellis! They're in B-Burg, too, so after we made their dog, The Biscuit, sit on the whoopie cushion (and he called us "jackholes"), we hit the town for a dinner of fancy pizzas and more whoopie cushion hijinks. Dinner was at Fornino, and was fantastic! We each got a small pie. I had the special which was fresh mozzarella, gorgonzola, spicy olive oil, arugula and figs. Barbara got the Spinach Pie with olive oil, garlic (she swears she didn't taste any, but I swear it was loaded with garlic), mozz, spinach and pine nuts. Nowlze got the Margherita Classica, that was straight-up classic and delish. Bdub got the funghi misti with mixed wild mushrooms, truffle oil, thyme...and I forget what kind of cheese. We split a salad of baby greens, frisse, walnuts, dried cranberries and humbolt fog cheese, with some little cheesy crackers on the side. And, we had a pitcher of some of the best sangria I've ever tasted. Yum and yum.


The Wolfinellis had to work on Saturday, but we met back up with Doggie for a lovely breakfast at the Roebling Tea Room. The restaurant is housed in a gorgeous old building (I'm really curious what it used to be). The service was plagued by hipsteritis, but the food was interesting and exciting, and the food was so good the blasé attitude of our waitress ceased to matter. I had the Scrambled Egg with wild mushrooms, thyme and marscapone on brioche with a side of grits served with a sharp white cheddar and chives. Seriously fantastic. It tasted like a highbrow version of my favorite breakfast my mom made as a kid (called "egg gravy"). The eggs were creamy without being overly wet, the mushrooms were perfectly toothsome, the brioche was perfect, the grits divine. Really super. Plus they use as much local and organic ingredients as possible, which I always love. Yumazing.


Afterwards, we hopped the train with Doggie to Union Square to hit the market. So great! We almost skipped it, and I'm so-so-so glad we didn't! I bought several small prints at great prices from friendly and talented artists, we got the most hostile looks so far from some yuppies when we used the whoopie cushion and then howled about it, bought several flavors of locally-ish made maple candy (pure, pecan--my favorite, coconut and ginger), and looked at some gorgeous produce and other various offerings. It was sunny, and the perfect afternoon activity.

We then bid Doggie adieu, and hit The Strand--18 miles of books! Heaven! It was so packed that we didn't stay awfully long, but had a great time browsing. It's amazing to see that many books, and even though navigating the stacks was difficult, it was inspiring to see so many people in a book store.

That night we checked into a hotel (courtesy of my Marriott points!), dropped our bags, relaxed for a bit, then headed out to the East Village trekking to Kate's Joint. This place is a vegetarian/vegan dream! It's all about the comfort food, and has a huge menu of mouth-watering choices. We both started with an awesome caesar salad (that tasted like the one I made from the Veganomicon recipe) I went with the Meatless Loaf Hero, a "meat"loaf sandwich on foccacia with grilled onions and "special sauce" with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy. Barbara got her favorite, the Tofu Francese. It's a "crispy pan fried tofu in a lemon, herb, caper, garlic wine sauce" with mashed potatoes. This was definitely one of my favorite meals of the trip.


And, then afterwards all my hopes and dreams and prayers to the baby jesus were answered when we spotted a Pinkberry! I LOVE frozen yogurt, and it's hard to come by in the 'burgh. The craze has definitely hit NYC. There were gagillions of fro-yo spots newly popped up on every corner, but none compared to Pinkbery. It's freakin' awesome. Seriously awesome. I'm now officially an addict, or groupie as the case may be. I gotta get a new ice cream maker so I can make my own every single day. I got Pinkberry twice while we were there (and one knock-off pinkberry). I could probably live on it for every meal forever. I like the original with strawberries and mangoes. Dang.


Sunday we were going to stay with another friend, but loved staying in a hotel so much that we decided to keep on keepin' on. However, that particular hotel was a little rich for our blood so we checked into the Comfort Inn in Park Slope. The rooms were small, but it was great! Really good location, super-friendly (and predominantly queer) staff, free breakfast--what more could you ask for? Highly recommended! I love hotels. I could live in hotels 4-eva, TLA.

We got up early, and combed the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood for a breakfast spot, and found Teresa's, a Polish cafe near The Promenade. It was fine--not bad, not great. The Promenade was lovely. Then we went to Vegetarian Dim Sum House in Chinatown for lunch, but it was disappointing. (Nowlze and Bdub were planning to join us, but poor Nowlze got some kind of flu-ish nastiness. Suck.) It's long been one of my go-to spots when visiting NYC, but it was really just kinda eh, and after fighting our way through all the foot traffic in Chinatown it made me grumpy for a moment. But, then we walked over to Soho and did a little shopping at Pearl River, another of my must-hit spots--which lived up to my rememberance. We peeked into the MoMA Design Store, the Paul Frank store, and Babeland, but were so tired, we just hopped a train back to Brooklyn to rest a while before dinner.


For dinner we met up with Sarah again, and hit Veselka for some delish Ukranian food--pierogi (potato and an arugula-goat cheese special), vegetarian borscht, challah, and Barbara's favorite--baked chocolate custard. Afterwards I hit up Pinkberry again (love!). Then we retired back to Brooklyn to a nice little neighborhood bar, Great Lakes (with a fantastic jukebox). By a weird coincidence I'd actually been to both Veselka and Great Lakes before!

Monday morning we strolled in the drizzle around Park Slope starting with a great diner breakfast at Dizzy's where I had some (really, really hominy-y) grits, hashbrowns, and chocolate-almond stuffed french toast. Plus, we were greeted by a friendly dyke when we walked in, our waiter looked like The Jesus from The Big Lebowski, and a little girl at the table next to us infiltrated our minds with her sing-songy chant of "yellow tur-tle, yellow tur-tle".


We wandered around afterwards, popping into any shop that caught our eyes, got some tea at Cousin John's, and then stopped next door at La Taqueria for some giant burritos and street-style corn (mmmm). Then a quick stop to YogoMonster for a Pinkberry-style knock-off (good, but you sir, are no Pinkberry).




After that, it was time to depart. Sarah picked us up at our hotel, and hauled us out to JFK where we had the only real bummer of the trip. Our flight was repeatedly delayed, so we didn't get home until 3 or 4 in the morning. (I lost count at that point). But, the rest of the trip was so great, that even that was pretty okay when I was in the company of the finest lady in this here township or all of NYC, and the cutest meerkat in the land. All in all one of my favorite trips of all time.





[p.s. darn it. i had some really cute slide shows included in this post, but i keep getting errors about the html. hmm. perhaps i'll try again tomorrow from another computer...]

work is no place for a diva on a monday

Okay, I'm no diva (since I gave up after a couple attempts), but it is almost diva-time, if you know what I'm saying, and I think that you do. And, this guy (i.e. me) is starting to get crompy. Also, I'm trying to decrease my cigarette intake (only one so far today), and that is also one of the ingredients in the recipe for crompiness. I found this guy on the internets, and it sounds like he can pretty much hypnotize you to do anything, or to NOT do anything, as the case may be. I'm waiting to hear back from his office about rates and such. Maybe it'll be covered by insurance, he'll have an opening for tomorrow, and he will cure all that ails me, and all my dreams will magically come true!

I'm--I mean, my uterus--is craving frozen yogurt. And, some searches on the internets and calls to various spots, I've found that the Mrs. Fields shop in the Ross Park Mall has a TCBY fro-yo machine. Which is unadvertised, and comprises approximately 10% of their business (I spoke to someone chatty). It's not exactly what I want, because I want some plain, super-tangy fro-yo, but this may be the best I'm going to get until I get a new ice cream machine or Pinkberry comes to the 'Burgh. I'm choosing to blame Luke Ravenstahl that Pinkberry isn't here. You may say it's not his fault, but I say, can you prove it beyond a reasonable doubt?

oh man, oh man, oh man

I become a nervous wreck before trips. I don't know why. I think it's because I'm a freak for a plan and there are just so many unknowns or something. But, that said, I'm always willing to try new things, but still. I don't know. But, I do know that I haven't even packed yet! So, I just announced that I'm leaving work at noon today so I can do that because I have this meeting/training thing this evening, and then I'm getting up at the cracka the ungodly hour 3:00-ish a.m. to hit the road to York, PA to meet up with my lady Schwatts, then we head on to Philly to scoop up our lady Dra, then to the beach!! We should be there by 3:00 p.m., and I'll already have some good lady-time under my belt by then.

But, all my big plans of making a buncha food in advance did not happen. The only prepared thing I'm taking is the raspberry vinaigrette, I think. Maybe I'll whip something up this afternoon if I can pull myself together. Phew!

Last night Mags came over for dinner and dish-doggin' (my god, this is the best arrangement of my life!). I made a big salad with lettuce and the most tender baby greens ever (thank you, CSA!), broccoli, orange bell pepper, radishes, strawberries, red onion, basil (fresh from Ani's garden and delivered in the most beautiful packaging ever--all basil should get this kind of a treatment!), cucumber, avocado and the lovely raspberry vinaigrette. We had that with a beans-n-greens dish that I based around a Heidi recipe.



Giant Crusty and Creamy White Beans with Greens
(from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking, p. 152)
serves 6 to 8 as a side dish

1/2 lb. medium or large dried white beans, cooked
3 T. clarified butter
fine-grain sea salt
1 onion, coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
6-7 big leaves chard, preferably rainbow chard, leaves cut into wide ribbons and 1/2 stems cut into 1/2" pieces
freshly ground black pepper
extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
fresh grated Parmesan cheese, for topping

Drain the beans, then heat the butter over medium-high heat in the widest skillet you've got. Add the beans to the hot pan in a single layer. If you don't have big-enough skillet, just do the saute step in tow batches or save the extra beans for another use. Stir to coat the beans with butter, then let them sit long enough to brown on one side, about 3 or 4 minutes, before turning to brown on the other side, also about 3 or 4 minutes. The beans should be golden and a bit crunchy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside. Salt to taste, then add the onion and garlic and cook for 1 or 2 minutes, until the onion softens. Stir in the chard and cook until just beginning to wilt. Remove from the heat and season to taste with a generous dose of salt and pepper. Drizzle with a bit of top-quality extra-virgin olive oil, and sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan.

Heidi's note: I've tried this recipe with canned beans of different varieties, but I always ended up with a mushy pot of bean mash--tasty, but not what we're after. Ther freshly cooked dried beans manintain their structure much better during saute-ing. Giant corona beans, cellini beans or white cannellini beans are the best choice here.

Okay. So, I changed this a bit. For one, I didn't have any big white beans, so I used some great northern beans. I soaked them overnight, then cooked them for about 45 minutes with a piece of kombu and some onion (also Heidi tips!). I didn't take the time to make the clarified butter, so I just used 1/2 butter, 1/2 evoo. I also didn't have any chard, so I used spinach. And, I left off the parmesan and evoo drizzle. They were still amazingly delicious!

For dessert I had some of yesterday's vanilla frozen yogurt. I set it out to thaw on the counter for about an hour before I could scoop it, and in the meantime I squished some strawberries with a tiny bit of sugar (like 1/2 t.?) and some minced fresh mint and let it sit while the fro-yo was softening up. It was some seriously tasty stuff. That fro-yo is amazing. It's hard to believe it was so simple to make! It's just got this incredibly creamy texture and the taste is really tangy and just slightly sweet. Man, oh man!



Okay, I'm sorry, but I don't have time to do the recipe calculations today, but here's today's breakfast and lunch!


Okay, I won't have internet again until...the 18th? Maybe before that, but probably not. But, when I get back I'll have lots of good eatin' to report. Two of the beach babies are chefs, and the others are all great cooks!

Mwah!

breakin' legs

Don't worry; it's the *good* kind of breakin' legs! I went to the audition yesterday, and it was really, really fun! I loved reading for the part, and I got to see a couple other people audition, and that was really interesting, too. The film project is for a pilot that a friend of mine is pitching to the premium networks (like hbo, showtime, etc.). I stuck around to do a complete read-through of the script afterwards so they could time it, and it's a great story. I'd totally watch it. I hope it gets picked up! I mean, I, obviously, wouldn't be in any kind of finished version that would actually air on the TV, but still. It's a great story, great characters (all the main characters are women), and I think it's going to be great. I volunteered to help out with whatever is needed because it's just super interesting and fun. Go, Dominga!

Before heading out for that adventure, I stopped by home and made a quick salad and an awesome salad dressing. The dressing was a raspberry vinaigrette, and I got the recipe at the raw foods "cooking" class at Whole Foods a couple of months ago. This is a recipe that Matt devised when he was trying to recreate the raspberry vinaigrette from Sand Hill Berry Farms. I haven't had theirs, and in general I'm just kinda over raspberry vinaigrettes, but this one is so amazing--in taste and appearance. Seriously. A show-stopper. And, really easy to make.

I should've taken the picture before I coated it in a fine layer of pepper, but you can still see the gorgeous color:


Here it is in its jar with an orange and lemon for color gauging:


Matt's Fresh Raspberry Vinaigrette
(keeps up to 2 weeks refrigerated)
1 c. raspberries (that have been frozen and thawed, so they're releasing their juices)
2-3 dates, pitted
4 1/2 t. apple cider vinegar or 3 T. lemon juice [ek-I used the lemon juice]
1/2 c. - 3/4 c. water
1/4 c. flax oil [ek-I used extra-virgin olive oil]
2-3 cloves of garlic [ek-I used 3, but I'd use 2 next time]
3/4 t. sea salt

Place all the ingredients except the oil into a blender and puree. Drizzle in the oil while the blender is running to emulsify the dressing. (per serving, cal: 27, carbs: 2, fat: 2, protein: 0)

Yum. I'm going to take this to the beach with me.

And, after returning home last night I was craving some vanilla frozen yogurt. I'd read a post on Heidi's blog about a recipe for vanilla fro-yo from David Lebovitz's book The Perfect Scoop (which is right now, at this very moment, waiting for me to pick it up from the library). This is the most simple recipe ever. And, freakin' delicious! I used Fage Total (full fat) because I kept reading that you couldn't make it with the fat-free (not sure why. maybe the texture doesn't freeze well?). Next time I'll try it with the Fage 2%. I think that'd be fine.

I just used 2 containers of Fage Total greek strained yogurt, 3/4 c. organic sugar, 1 t. pure vanilla extract. Mix it all together until the sugar dissolves, and throw it in your ice cream maker. It's done in about ten minutes. I ate half my bowl of it before I remembered to snap a picture, which didn't come out too well, but here it is. You should look at the photo on Heidi's site. That is what made me Have To Have It.


So, at the end of the day I stayed in my nutrition ranges. I ended up at:
Cal: 1273 (range 1200-1550)
Carbs: 194 (range 135-252)
Fat: 45 (range 27-60)
Protein: 43 (range 30-136)
Water: 7 (goal 8+)

And, I wasn't hungry at all, and didn't really think about it that much.

It's CSA Day! I love CSA Day! Ellen picks hers up on Tuesdays so I get a little preview. She said it was lots of greens, strawberries!, pea shoots, herbs (oregano, thyme, sage), garlic scapes, lettuce. Yummy freshness!

Here's today's breakfast-n-lunch pack:


From the top, clockwise:
-salad with romaine lettuce, red onion, avocado, hardboiled egg, orange bell pepper, bac'uns, and raspberry vinaigrette (cal: 298, carb: 17, fat: 21, protein: 11)
-grape nuts, Fage Total 0% yogurt, strawberries and 1 T. honey (cal: 335, carb: 72, fat: 1, protein: 13)
-otsu (cal: 186, carb: 25, fat: 7, protein: 9)

And, three glasses of water so far.