Last night, I went with a few friends to a wine and cheese class at Cheesetique. The class was called "The Great Unknown" and the goal was to introduce the class to eight wines they probably had never heard of before, and they were paired with six "exotic" cheeses. My favorite wine of the night was the Valle dell'Acate Il Frappato, a slightly chilled, light red wine... perfect for summer. I enjoyed all of the cheeses (of course... I don't think I've ever met a cheese I didn't like), but we had a Norwegian cheese called Gjetost that, I swear, tasted and looked just like a caramel. It is so unusual, but I think it would be amazing paired with a crisp apple, so I am going to keep an eye out for it at Whole Foods until the next time I get back to Cheesetique. (The line was too long last night to scope out the cheeses, so I only bought the Frappato.)

What really impressed me about the night was how much the cheese shop owner and the wine guy (I'm not really sure what his official job is) were into what they did for a living. I mean, with jobs like theirs, how could you not love what you did? How does someone become a cheese shop owner, traveling around the country and world to try different cheese? That is a job I would love. I don't enjoy wine enough to want the wine guy's job, but the idea is the same... finding a hobby you are passionate enough about to turn it into a career. It sounds so much more rewarding than a boring old desk job. I'd love to learn about all the different types of cheeses, the best ways to serve them and pair them, the history behind different cheeses (like the Gjetost!). Not to mention, "cheesemonger" is such an awesome word.

Maybe in my next life.

As I mentioned in my last post, we've been getting eggplant pretty regularly in our CSA and I've been stumped with coming up with new ideas for cooking with it (that are appealing to me, anyway). Today, our dinner looked very much like bar food... fries with a variety of dips. Only, it was actually pretty healthy and we didn't feel totally gross after, as I often do when eating lots of fried food.

Eggplant and Zucchini Fries:
(you could do this with one or both vegetables)
1 eggplant, cut into strips
1 zucchini (or 2 tiny ones), cut into strips
Extra virgin olive oil
Panko breadcrumbs
additional seasonings of your choice (we used Penzey's 4/S Special Seasoned Sea Salt)

Salt eggplant strips and place in colander over bowl for 10-15 minutes to get some of the liquid out. Rinse very well (otherwise you will end up with way salty eggplant). Place eggplant and zucchini strips in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat.

In a shallow dish, stir together bread crumbs and additional seasonings. Coat strips and place on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 400* for 20-25 minutes.

The vegetables themselves don't get very crunchy, but more like sweet and nutty from the roasting. The breadcrumbs add a nice crunch, though.

Okra Oven Fries
okra
olive oil
seasoned salt (we used 4/S again)

Toss whole okra in oil and rub on seasoned salt. Bake on parchment lined baking sheets in oven at 400* for 20 minutes. (We just threw ours right on there with the eggplant and zucchini.)

I made two dips to go along with our "fries." (We dipped in some Dinosaur Barbecue sauce as well.)

Curry Dip:
1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt (I'm a fan of Trader Joe's brand)
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoons grated onion or shallot
1/2 teaspoon red curry paste

Sriracha Dipping Sauce:
1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
Sriracha sauce to taste (about 1/2 - 1 tsp.)
2 T fresh-squeezed lime juice

For both dips, mix all ingredients in bowl until well combined. Chill if you have time, or serve right away.

This dinner was super fun to eat. We just piled all the "fries" onto a platter, used sandwich sized plates and dipped straight into the bowls at the dinner table. Both of the dips were really yummy and would work well with crudite, chips or crackers.

We've been getting eggplant in our CSA for the last 3-4 weeks and are getting even more today. I checked previous years and it looks like we'll be getting eggplant pretty much all summer. That's a lot of eggplant, especially for someone (me) who is kind of picky in how she likes it prepared.

So far, we've made baba ghanouj (delicious!), baked eggplant parm (twice), and an eggplant tomato sauce that we've used over fried polenta rounds and tortellini. We don't usually eat much Italian food and we're getting a little tired of the same preparations, over and over. Unfortunately, I have a real texture thing with eggplant (and yellow squash, while we're at it), and seem to only like it when it's sliced reeeeally thin or completely mashed up. Grilled hunks or sauteed cubes of eggplant are just too mushy for me.

Anyone have any great vegetarian (or vegetarian-adaptable) eggplant recipes to recommend? I know there are a lot of eggplant curries out there, but most of them seem to use cubed eggplant... anyone know of any non-mushy variations? (And yes, I salt the eggplant before using it; still not a fan of the texture.) Thanks!

We didn't take any photos of last week's and today's vegetables, but it's so nice to finally be getting real veggies! (Instead of just all that bitter nasty lettuce we were getting in the beginning.) We used up all our veggies in Week 7 pretty easily, except two iffy looking tomatoes. Hopefully we'll use (almost) everything from this week as well!

Week 7:
lots of potatoes -- We turned these into hash browns two nights. One night we had them with a corn, tomato and basil salad and baked tofu; the other night with some over easy eggs. These fresh potatoes are so, so good.
tomatoes -- Made corn and tomato salad from Men's Health. (Mix 2 cups raw corn kernels, 2 large seeded and diced tomatoes, 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, and 1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar. S&P to taste)
yellow squash -- Made a variation of Zucchini Garlic Soup from The Kitchn. I am really not a big fan of cooked yellow squash, so we've been trying to find new ways to cook with it. We really should have peeled and seeded the squash before adding it to the soup because the texture was kind of gritty.
zucchini and cucumbers -- Sliced thin on a mandoline; tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Italian seasoning, and halved grape tomatoes.
eggplant -- Baked eggplant parm. YUM!
garlic -- We throw garlic in just about everything.
Italian Basil -- PESTO! (Umm... I forgot to put the garlic in the pesto, of all things.)
peaches -- Ate about half of them straight (I prefer mine peeled... don't like the feeling of chewing felt), and made a peach-blueberry variation of the Fresh Peach Crumble from The Kitchn. This was so good, although I'll definitely dial back the sugar next time.

Week 8:
tomatoes -- Added a couple to a T.B.M. salad we had tonight. Add some fresh baguette and olive oil on the side. Simple, delicious dinner. The rest will be eaten with dinners throughout the week.
squash -- This yellow squash looks exactly like a zucchini, only yellow. Completely straight, smooth skin. I might have actually liked this yellow squash cooked, but we're making squash muffins.
cucumbers -- This will top some chickpea burgers and hummus sandwiches. Probably eaten straight, with a sprinkle of salt, as well.
eggplant -- I am going to try my hand at baba ghanoush to bring to book club.
bell peppers -- Not sure what we're going to do with these yet.
ground cherries -- These are the weirdest things ever! They arrive looking like mini tomatillos in a papery husk; they look like tiny yellow heirloom cherry tomatoes when you take them out of the husks; and they taste... like pineapple. We read that they are often used like tomatoes, so they were an interesting addition to our T.B.M. salad.
garlic
Italian basil -- The "B" in T.B.M. salad. Not sure what we'll use the rest for...
Thai basil -- We're making tahini tofu steaks from Mark Bittman's 101 Fast Recipes for Grilling. (We've gotten Thai basil quite a few times and really haven't used much of it.)
peaches -- Probably eat most of them as is, but may try to come up with another peach dessert.

Week two of the CSA was a little disappointing. The food was all delicious, but I want more!!!

In our bag this week:
bok choy
salad greens (just a couple of small handfuls -- enough for 3 individual salads)
garlic scapes
chives
basil
oregano

We also got a zinnia. I don't want flowers... I want veggies! Oh well, I need to get a planter to put it in and hope that I don't kill it. :-) It's going to live in our guest room. We only have windows against one wall of our apartment and the way we have it set up, there really aren't a whole lot of places for plants to live.

No photos this week, but we've tried three new recipes with 2/3 success. Well, technically one new recipe and two new "techniques."

I'll start with the good... the other day, I wanted some ranch salad dressing to put on our salads for lunch (using up those salad greens!), but we didn't have any in the fridge. (They sometimes include suspect ingredients anyway.) So, I decided to give it a go myself and I have to say... it was AWESOME.

Homemade "Ranch" Dressing:
(measurements are approximate as I just glopped them in a bowl and stirred)
1/2 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt (I used Trader Joe's)
1 tbsp. mayonnaise
juice of half a lemon
LOTS of chopped chives, oregano and basil
1 tsp. finely chopped shallot (I think onion or garlic could be substituted, or totally left out altogether... Adam was just already chopping up some shallot for dinner)
couple of shakes of garlic powder
S&P, to taste
milk

Mix all ingredients except milk in a bowl or mug, then add milk a little at a time to get the consistency you want. Shazzam! "Ranch" dressing!

We also made another bok choy stir fry and tonight we're going to have roasted garlic scape mashed potatoes! (We'll see how that turns out.)

We received a slow cooker off our wedding registry and are breaking that in. Yesterday, we made black beans in the slow cooker... threw them in with some water, garlic, and the aforementioned shallot, set it to low, and when we got home from work we had a pot of amazing black beans. I've made black beans on the stove before in a pot, which is so much better than the can, but I had no idea how much of a difference a slow cooker could make! Our black bean tacos last night were delish!

On our black bean making high, we set out to test how our slow cooker did with cooking oatmeal overnight so we'd have breakfast already made for us when we got up. I did some research online and found all sorts of conflicting methods for making oatmeal in the slow cooker, so I tried to cobble together what seemed like the best advice from the various recipes and comments and ended up with... oatmeal soup. Blech. I salvaged some of it by nuking it in the microwave for a minute to firm it up, but the texture was not good. We each ate our bowlful and dumped the rest out. I think we'll try again with some heartier oats and less water, but oatmeal is easy enough that if it doesn't work out, it's not that big of a deal.

Anyone have any vegetarian slow cooker recipes I should try? I love the idea of having dinner all ready by the time I get home from work or the gym.

One of my 101 in 1001 goals was to join a CSA. We had our first pick-up this week! Everyone we've talked to that has done one before warned us that we'd be getting SO many vegetables and that it takes some getting used to. We were expecting tons of veggies, but were a little disappointed with the amount. I'm hoping that it's just because we're only into the first week of the season, because we easily got through all of our veggies in just a few days.

In our loot this week:
bok choy
broccoli
salad greens
sorrel
garlic scapes
chives
basil plant (yes, a plant... in a little container)
cilantro plant (ditto)

Monday night, we made a bok choy and broccoli stir fry (we added in some tofu, soba noodles and shredded carrots).

Photos taken by Adam with our fancy new camera!

Tuesday, we made some garlic scape soup from one of our favorite cookbooks, Super Natural Cooking. Garlic scapes are the stalk of the garlic plant, which have a more mild garlic flavor. They look pretty funky!

We added some of the sorrel to the garlic scape soup and added the rest to the salad greens. We ate the salad greens for lunch with a creamy chive dressing. (We only made the dressing from this recipe, using it on the mixed salad greens and sorrel, plus some additional veggies we picked up from the grocery store.) We have a little bit of salad greens left, which I'll probably take for lunch tomorrow.

Our basil and cilantro plants have gone untouched so far, but are going strong! We're keeping them near our Aerogarden instead of by the window, because the Aerogarden is in our kitchen. Our other option would be to put the herbs by the window in the living room, where we'd probably neglect them.

I'm excited to see what we get next week! It'll probably be pretty similar to what we got this week. I'm hoping that as the summer goes on, we'll get more veggies each week. I'd like to avoid buying too many vegetables in the grocery store this summer if we can.

The week before last, I ate like crap. I binged (although my "binges" are no longer several thousand calories in one sitting, but mostly consisted of several handfuls of Emily's chocolates and a few giant bowls of cereal) and I didn't bother tracking calories. I also skipped several workouts. It was just a bad week, and by Friday I'd put back on the weight I'd lost the previous two weeks (although I'm sure most of it was water weight) and felt gross.

One of my 101 in 1001 goals is to eat whole foods (nothing processed) for a week. There isn't one specific, official definition of what eating whole, unprocessed foods means, but for me it means eating (1) no refined sugar or flour, (2) mostly whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes, and (3) "processed" foods so long as they contained no refined sugar or flour and I knew what every ingredient was. After last week, this seemed like the perfect week to attempt this goal. I planned our meals mostly out of the Super Natural Cooking cookbook (I mean, it has "whole and natural foods" right in the subtitle!). So, for example, I still ate whole wheat pita, yogurt, granola, whole wheat pasta... things I would be able to make if I had the ingredients, time and know-how. If it was an ingredient listed in Super Natural Cooking (like cheese or pasta), it met my standard of "whole foods" for this goal. (Exception: I ran the GW Parkway Classic 10 miler this morning and ate sports beans during the run. Considering I sweat a LOT when I run and have had issues in the past with unbalanced electrolytes when racing in humid weather, I was not going to mess around with that again.)

Today is my last day and I have to say, it has been working out great. We tried a bunch of new recipes this week. I lost the weight I'd put in the week before, plus an additional 3 pounds... and I'd eaten more calories this than I had in other weeks where I only lost a pound. I cut back on eating sweets a lot this week, eating more fruit (including dates, which I have just discovered... yum!). Adam baked up some whole wheat sandwich bread from this cookbook yesterday and today (it required some fridge-time overnight), and it smells awesome! I can't wait for it to finish cooling so I can try a slice. I knew I was going to be starving after the race and unable to eat the bagels and commercial granola bars at the finish line, so I made Alton Brown's granola bars yesterday. It's kind of sticky and crumbly, but really good. I used a Mediterranean dried fruit mix from Trader Joe's with cherries, apricots and figs. (Had to chop up the apricots and figs.) They really hit the spot... I've eaten three already! (Oh, and I get to check that off my 101 in 1001 goals too!) (Oh, and I also get to check off my goal of going an entire week without buying any food or drink out (excl. grocery shopping)... pretty easy when my entire week of meals is planned in advance!)

I really like eating this way. We planned this week's menu using the same approach. I may not be as strict, but I think as a general rule, I am going to try to keep as much of the junk out of my diet as possible. I already eat fairly healthy, but there is definitely some room for improvement. I'm not going to go totally crazy though... I am going to a baseball game on Wednesday and you can bet I'm gonna buy some funnel cake. :-)

Spices is one of my favorite restaurants in DC, not necessarily because there is anything especially fancy or spectacular about it (although it is always a solidly good meal), but because they have a fantastic comfort food dish that I crave whenever I am sick... vegetable hot pot. Rather than trek all the way up to Cleveland Park just for this dish, I decided to try to recreate it at home tonight. I have to say, I did a pretty good job.

Vegetable Hot Pot
Ingredients:
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth (I used No Chicken Broth from Whole Foods)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp. (or more to taste) red pepper flakes
2 carrots, thinly slices into disks
1/2 medium green cabbage, shredded
1.5 cups bean sprouts (I used a can, which wasn't that bad, although I'd prefer to have had fresh)
1 can water chestnuts (I think I might leave these out next time... I didn't really notice them)
1 block extra-firm tofu, diced into approximately one inch pieces
4 scallions, sliced
1 tsp. sesame oil
2 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. rice vinegar

Directions:
1. Pour broth into a pot and add garlic and red pepper flakes, bring to a boil, then reduce to a fast simmer.
2. Add carrots and cabbage and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add bean sprouts and water chestnuts and cook for a few more minutes.
4. Add tofu and cook for a few more minutes.
5. Add scallions, sesame oil, soy sauce and rice vinegar and cook for a few more minutes. (I know, "few more minutes" is not very helpful, but I didn't check my watch or anything.)
6. Serve (with Sriracha sauce if you like it extra spicy, like I do.)

This was the perfect thing to eat with my cold... I could actually taste it even through my dulled taste buds! It was so easy, I may not have to go out to Spices anymore. (Just kidding... they make yummy spring onion cakes and I haven't figured those out yet!)

Adam and I had the most romantic Valentine's Day ever! We just ran a bunch of errands because we had been snowed in for the past, oh, forever days and desperately needed to do a Target run and some grocery shopping. Then we cleaned the house, I went to the gym and he helped a friend move.

You know, your average Sunday.

We're not really Valentine's Day people. We don't do gifts. We don't make reservations at a fancy restaurant. No chocolates or roses. But we did decide we were going to make a "fancy dinner," which basically means it's not a one-pot meal of some sort and we were even going to have dessert!

We decided to make Rachael Ray's "You Won't Be Single For Long" Vodka Pasta. We left out the chicken stock (obviously, but we didn't substitute anything for it and I think it would have been too watery a sauce if we had), used whole canned tomatoes (all Trader Joe's had) that we crushed ourselves, and added some crushed red pepper flakes and freshly grated parmesan cheese at the end.

It was really good! We don't eat a whole lot of pasta, but vodka cream sauce is one of my favorites. I would probably add the crushed red pepper flakes into the sauce while it's cooking next time for the flavor to be more incorporated throughout the sauce.

On the side, we had another Rachael Ray dish... Arugula Salad with Pear, Blue Cheese and Apricot Vinaigrette. We used apricot preserves we already had on hand instead of the "all fruit" spread, and used all arugula (one bag) for the salad greens. It was so yummy. It made a huge bowl of salad, but we ate almost all of it! (Two helpings for me, and three for Adam.) The only mistake was that I dumped the whole amount of dressing on the salad and it definitely didn't need that much.

Dinner was served with some champagne we received from the jeweler from whom we got my engagement ring. So sweet!

Finally, for dessert, we made a modified version of Martha Stewart's Meyer Lemon Mousse Cups. (Our version is after the jump.) Main modification: serving it in bowls, rather than hollowed-out lemons.

It may not have been as pretty as Martha's, but it was delicious.

I got up early and went to the gym today and it felt FANTASTIC. Makes me more than a little annoyed with myself for coming up with so many excuses/just lying on the couch for the past week. I actually wished I had even more time at the gym this morning, but alas, I had to go get ready for work.

And the winner of the peppermint bark giveaway is...

#5 -- Kate! I will be sending you an email to get the address to which you'd like me to send the peppermint bark.

**Winner chosen using Random.org. I make Adam do the random number generation for me, because even though I know it's random, I feel weird being the actual person putting the numbers in because I know who is what number. He pays no attention to my blog, so I know it's totally and completely impartial. Why yes, I have a serious complex about fairness... suppose that's why I'm in the legal profession. (No, seriously.)

The past few years, I've given homemade peppermint bark to some relatives, who (each year) ask my mom where I bought it from! Peppermint bark is SO easy to make and WAY cheaper than buying it at Crate and Barrel ($15.95) or William-Sonoma ($26.50) or any of those places.

Because I don't think anyone should have to pay those crazy prices for something that is so easy and inexpensive to make, my peppermint bark recipe is after the jump.

But wait! Because I love Christmas, miss being an elf (that's another story), and am making a bunch of peppermint bark this weekend anyway, I am going to give away a tin of peppermint bark to a lucky commenter! (Um, as long as you live somewhere that I can send USPS priority mail.) Just leave me a comment telling me your favorite holiday treat by Thursday, December 17. I will randomly choose and contact the winner (by the email you leave with your comment) for a shipping address. I will send the bark out by Monday, so with priority shipping it should arrive at your destination by Wednesday or Thursday. Anyone can enter, but please only enter once!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As a vegetarian, I have been asked many times, what do I eat for Thanksgiving? Really, the better question is, what don't I eat? The answer: Turkey.

This year is the first year I've been with Adam's family for the actual holiday. It's interesting to eat Thanksgiving at someone else's home, because everyone has different traditions. For dinner tonight, I ate butternut squash soup, vegetarian cornbread stuffing (which Adam's dad was kind enough to throw together this afternoon when he realized I wouldn't be eating any of the other three stuffings they had), mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, broccoli pie, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, corn, and challah bread. My family doesn't have soup or bread at our Thanksgivings, so that was new to me, although Adam has made that butternut squash soup recipe for me several times. We still haven't even had dessert, for which I've counted three pies, a pumpkin roll, four breads, and some candy and cookies.

So yeah... I find food to eat at Thanksgiving. :-)

I'm looking forward to our second Thanksgiving at my parents' house on Saturday. My dad will make vegetarian stuffing and gravy. (His vegetarian gravy is SO good, and it's kind of funny, because their turkey gravy usually comes out of a jar so it's one less thing for them to worry about.) There will be cranberry jelly and cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans (not casserole, though), corn, brussels sprouts and creamed onions. Creamed onions may seem sort of odd to most people, but for some reason we have them every Thanksgiving, so I'd miss it if they weren't there. (Also, I never see creamed onions in the grocery store down where I live now... is it just a northeast thing?) The only food I won't eat is the turkey (and the turkey stuffing and gravy that accompany it). And of course, we will have at least four desserts... for 12 people.

I'd have to say my favorite Thanksgiving food is my dad's stuffing. It's really hard to choose though... those creamed onions are SO good... and I love cranberries... and now I can add butternut squash to the contenders. Luckily, gorging yourself on food is totally acceptable this one day of the year. :-)

What did you do for Thanksgiving? And what's your favorite food?

I didn't eat the candy.

This afternoon, I told myself I was going to run 3 miles in 30 minutes. This may not seem fast to most people, but I haven't run that fast since before the stress fracture. I told myself:

My legs are strong enough to run 10 miles.
My legs are strong enough to have run three 11-minute miles, and then finished 7 more.
My legs are strong enough to have run a single 10-minute mile last week.
My leg does not have a stress fracture.

Just because my legs get tired, doesn't mean I can't run 3 miles in 30 minutes.
Just because my legs burn, doesn't mean I can't run 3 miles in 30 minutes.
Just because I'm breathing hard, doesn't mean I can't run 3 miles in 30 minutes.

If I don't push myself, I won't improve.

I can do it.

I will do it.

. . .

I did it.

29:58.

(Tomorrow, I'll post my take on Thanksgiving dinner... as a vegetarian!)

There is a big box full of candy sitting in the office kitchen.
The office kitchen, which is where I fill up my water bottle several times a day.
The office kitchen, which is where the copiers are located.
The office kitchen, which is where the printers from my computer are located.
The office kitchen, which is directly across the hall from my office.

I will not eat any candy today.
I will not eat any candy today.
I will not eat any candy today.

(Luckily, most of the good stuff is already gone... unfortunately, with my help yesterday. Doesn't mean the sub-par candy isn't sitting there, tempting me, every time I have to go in there, which is probably 3-4 times an hour.)

(If you haven't already done so and want to add your question(s) to the mix, you can do so here.)

Nick asked: Why did you put so little soy sauce in your fried rice recipe? I ended up having to use a lot more as seasoning after the fact.

Honestly, I don't use measuring spoons when I add soy sauce to the fried rice, so it's a total guestimate that I add a teaspoon at a time. But, three teaspoons (which is what I listed in the recipe) equals a tablespoon of soy sauce, which seems like a lot of shakes from the bottle, so I think it's actually pretty accurate.

If I was making it just for myself, I'd probably add more soy sauce during the cooking process, because I think it does taste better when it has the time to be cooked into the veggies and rice. But, Adam does not like things as salty as I do, so I go easier on it during the cooking process and add more after it's done. (He usually does not add any more soy sauce.) It's all about your personal preference, but I go easy on it in the recipe because I didn't want it to be too salty for some people -- you can always add more, but can't take out.

Oh, and I use low sodium soy sauce, in case anyone is wondering.

Kowala1000 asked: (1) May I have that recipe for the giant crusty and creamy white beans with greens? (2) Does that cookbook have anything to do with demons or the Winchester brothers? (3) Nick can cook fried rice?

(1) Yes, but I don't feel right posting it here, so I will email you a copy of the recipe. If you like it, I suggest you check out 101 Cookbooks, which is Heidi Swanson's website. There are a lot of recipes that we also make from there, some of which are in the cookbook. (The white bean recipe I referenced is not on her website, though.) One favorite, which I've mentioned before and is also in the cookbook, are the chickpea patties, but there are many, many recipes on there I've loved and others in my queue to try.

(2) The cookbook does not have to do with demons or the Winchester brothers, but I do think of that show pretty much every time I say the name of the cookbook... even though I haven't watched since the first season.

(3) So he claims.

(Man, this NaBloPoMo thing sure is starting to get difficult... and we're not even halfway through the month!)

Adam and I both really like to cook and, as a result, make most of our own meals. But, we don't usually have tons of time at night to make elaborate recipes because we go to the gym after work. (Perhaps more on that in a later post.) Most of our meals can be put together and on the table in a half hour or so. One of our easy, totally yummy meals is fried rice. It's so easy, I call it "Cheater's Fried Rice."

Cheater's Fried Rice
Makes 2 (HUGE) portions as a main dish. (But very healthy and not a lot of calories for a dinner, so we tend to eat it all up over the course of the evening... yum!)

Ingredients:
onion, finely diced
bag of frozen mixed vegetables (We use Trader Joe's Organic Foursome -- green beans, carrots, corn, peas.)
2 cups already cooked rice (We use Trader Joe's brown basmati rice.)
soy sauce
sesame oil
2 eggs
Sriracha (rooster sauce) (optional)

Directions
In a very large skillet, brown up the diced onion with a bit of olive oil over medium-high heat. Once the onions brown, add in the bag of frozen vegetables. Sprinkle about a teaspoon soy sauce over the vegetables and cook until the vegetables are just warmed through about 3-5 minutes, depending on size of the veggies), stirring occasionally. Add in the cooked rice and stir. Sprinkle on another teaspoon of soy sauce and a teaspoon of sesame oil. Let the rice and veggie mixture sit for a few minutes, then push the mixture to the side of the pan.

Beat the two eggs in a mug or small bowl, then pour into the cleared portion of the pan. Turn the heat down to medium. Let the egg start to firm up a minute, and once it starts to become opaque, scramble it up a little and then mix it in with the veggie and rice mixture. Add another teaspoon of soy sauce and of sesame oil. Let it cook for another minute or two until the egg is cooked.

Serve heaping platefuls, with soy sauce, sesame oil and sriracha on the side.

One half of this entire recipe (using the ingredients I stated) is 426 calories, with 17 grams of protein and 10 grams of fat. And, we think it tastes better than veggie fried rice you'd order from your local Chinese place.

I almost missed posting for today, until I sat bolt upright at 11:15pm and remembered I had to post today. Considering I'm down and out with the flu (what, you haven't heard?), this is some serious dedication to NaBloPoMo. (Or just fever-induced insanity.)

So, a quick and dirty recipe for you. Our building had a bake-off today and we came in second place with our peppermint cheesecake with chocolate peppermint ganache.

Ingredients:

Okay, so I definitely did NOT run those germs right out of my body. I felt pretty good for a couple of hours, then all of the sudden I was exhausted yesterday. I took a couple (yes, a couple) brief naps in the afternoon and then eventually TS and I went to Chinatown to grab some dinner and meet some friends for a drink. (I had a yummy, non-alcoholic mango limeade. Delicious!)

Tonight, we're having some friends over to watch the Giants-Cowboys game. I'm making some of my world-famous chili, TS is making some wings, and I made some beer bread to have with the chili and some yummy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for dessert. I've spent most of the afternoon watching football and baking, a pretty perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon if you ask me. Usually, we go out to a bar so we can watch all of the football games on at once, but since we have people coming over tonight we stayed in to watch and clean up the apartment a bit. Plus, I still feel kinda icky and figured that lounging around the house would be better than hanging out in a smoky bar. (Yes, you can still some in bars in Virginia... it is so disgusting. Smoking ban goes into effect December 1... I cannot wait!)

Go GIANTS! :-)

Dinner tonight was grilled tofu, grilled asparagus, grilled peaches (OH MY YUM!), and leftover green onion slaw. It was colorful, summery, and super delicious. The grilled peaches were like juicy pieces of heaven they were so good.

Work has been really stressful lately. I've had a lot of deadlines over the past couple of weeks in this one REALLY BIG case, plus a few other smaller fires to put out here and there. I realize it still doesn't compare to the hours lawyers who work for Big Firms have to put in, but it has been a lot of intense hours, meetings, and work for me. My stress level has been really high and I've cracked and lost it a few times over the past few weeks (not at work, thankfully, just the confines of my own home). It definitely goes to show that I am not someone who could be happy in Big Firm life. Hopefully things are dying down a little bit and I won't have to work this weekend. I could really use a three-day weekend to recharge.

We're currently 4.5 weeks away from the Army Ten-Miler. We've been following a slightly modified version of Hal Higdon's novice half marathon training, because the 10M/15K training only had us do 8 miles before going into the race. There was no way I would be able to make the jump from 8 to 10 miles on race day, so I'm doing the half marathon training up through week 10 (a 9 mile long run), then doing week 12 on race week (so skipping week 11). This Sunday I will be running SEVEN MILES, which will be the furthest I've ever run. Since I'm breaking into new territory here, I figured I'd try to document my workouts for the next four weeks so that I have this to look back on.

Today's workout was a 4.5 mile run. I ran on the treadmill today and finished in 53:00, which if I did my math right is approximately 11:47 mile pace. I walked the first 5 minutes and then took two other walking breaks during the run. My calves have been getting super tight lately and take forever to loosen up while running. I stopped after 2.5 miles to stretch them out a bit and then was able to pick up the pace a bit for the last 2 miles. I wish I could figure out exactly what was going on with my calves... I stretch them well after I run, but it still doesn't seem to help much. I'll have to look into some additional stretches.

Well, TS and I have started a new daily cleaning schedule so hopefully we can break it up during the week and not spend 2 hours of our weekends cleaning. Time for me to go clean up the kitchen from making lunch and do the remaining dishes!

Anyone who's been reading here for a while knows that I am more than a little obsessed with food. I read a lot of cooking and baking websites, watch all kinds of cooking shows, and I like trying new recipes. I'm also busier than ever these days with work and training runs for the Army 10 Miler, so I need to find quick, healthy, vegetarian meals for dinner. Here are a few recipes that TS and I have made lately that we really enjoyed... some new, some old favorites.

Edamame Soup from 101 Cookbooks -- We just ate this tonight. The fried shallots really take this soup to another level.

Ten Minute Couscous Soup from 101 Cookbooks -- This is going to be my new go-to soup for when I'm under the weather.

Spinach Quiche from Smitten Kitchen -- I made this for a book club brunch and now I get requests to bring it all the time. It is so, so good. TS and I made a crustless version of this quiche a couple weeks ago to have for breakfasts all week.

Zucchini Carpaccio Salad from Smitten Kitchen -- A delicious summer salad.

Black Bean and Corn Salsa from Ordering Disorder -- It's delicious as a salsa/dip for tortilla chips, a side dish for a barbecue, or on top of some lettuce with some shredded cheese for a Mexican salad. I added some diced jalapenos or chilis to this for a little heat.

Chilled Avocado-Cucumber Soup -- I've really gotten on a soup kick this summer. This is the first chilled soup I've ever made other than gazpacho. Speaking of gazpacho...

Gazpacho -- Makes a HUGE batch... enough for lunches for a week, plus some leftover to freeze. (Or eventually dump down the drain, if you are wasteful like me, but seriously it makes SO MUCH.) I usually top it with some crumbled feta cheese.

Ultimate Veggie Burger from 101 Cookbooks (also called "Sprouted Garbanzo Burgers" in my new favorite cookbook, Super Natural Cooking, which I recommend to everyone these days) -- TS is totally in love with these veggie burgers and I must agree that they are pretty gosh darn tasty.

Sushi Bowl from 101 Cookbooks and Super Natural Cooking -- Totally the lazy (wo)man's sushi.

Chickpea Salad with Lemon and Parmesan by Orangette -- I've mentioned this recipe on here before (as well as the previous chickpea burger recipe). Was in heavy rotation for my lunches for a while, but I think I overdid it on the chickpeas... it's so good, I know I'll be making it again though.

Farfalle with Zucchini from The Pioneer Woman -- Okay, not so healthy, but super delicious and an excellent way to use up all that summer zucchini.

And lest you forget that I love to bake, let me add two more of my favorite recipes...

Banana Bread with Chocolate and Cinnamon Sugar from Orangette -- My favorite banana bread recipe. (Sadly, I overbaked this last week.)

Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake from Smitten Kitchen -- I love the combination of orange and chocolate. This cake got RAVE reviews when I made it. I don't usually make too many cakes from scratch (I have, and use without apology, The Cake Mix Doctor for many cake recipes), but this one was well worth the extra effort.

Whew, okay... I'm getting a little hungry just thinking about all this yummy food. Let me know if you try one (or several) of these recipes, or if you have any other recipe/food website you would recommend.

Twix: eat the cookie part from the bottom first, then eat the remaining caramel whole (like a giant Rolo)
M&Ms: eat by color until I have the same number of each color; then eat one color at a time in twos
Oreos (now): dunked half in milk until barely above disintegration, eat that half, repeat with other half
Oreos (as a kid): take tops off two Oreos and eat them, then mash the remaining two cream-topped halves together and make my own double-stuff Oreo (sometimes I did this two or three times, creating a triple- or quadruple-stuffed Oreo)
Kit-Kats: each wafer, layer-by-layer
Pringles: lick off the powdery flavor-coating first, then eat the chip
Chocolate Cherry Cordials: (it is kind of embarrassing how involved this is; it was one of my favorite candies as a kid, so I found a way to realllllllly prolong the eating process) bite small hole from the edge, suck out the cordial filling (leaving the cherry), bite off and eat the flat chocolate bottom, eat the cherry, eat the rest of the chocolate
Corn: going left to right, eat around (not across) the corn in a series of circumferences (there's probably a better word than circumferences, but I can't think of one) (also, how people eat there corn is a frequent topic at family barbecues... are you a typewriter, or around the corn, or a mix of both?)

(Wow, the above list makes it look like I eat a TON of junk food. I really don't; maybe it's because I eat it so rarely that I have these strange rituals.)

Other strange food habits/preferences:

What about you? Do you have any strange food habits/preferences?

(Bonus points to anyone who can identify the source of this title.)

No, really, this is a post about chickpeas. The garbanzo. The ceci bean. Sounds boring, but trust me, you'll want to keep reading... and then get into the kitchen and begin eating.

I was always sort of ambivalent about chickpeas. I mean, sure, I love hummus and falafel, but plain? They were just a bland, mushy item I'd skip over on the salad bar. I never really bothered cooking with them either. (My one attempt at falafel was less than impressive.)

But oh, how that's changed. Now, I am obsessed with the chickpea. There are two recipes that have changed my view of them entirely: Orangette's Chickpea Salad with Lemon and Parmesan and 101 Cookbook's Ultimate Veggie Burger (it has a different name in her Super Natural Cooking cookbook, which is where we first found the recipe, but this one appears to be exactly the same). There are so many other recipes based on the chickpea on 101 Cookbooks... I can't wait to try them!

The chickpea salad with lemon and parmesan has become a lunchtime staple. It is so easy (5 ingredients!), requires no cooking, and is SO fresh and flavorful. I have to be careful not to steal too many forkfuls when I make a batch or I won't have enough left for lunch. I use Trader Joe's organic chickpeas, which is one of the ones Molly suggests in her recipe, and they are perfect. Not at all mealy and mushy... I can eat them straight from the can (after a quick drain and rinse, of course). Perhaps it is actually finally finding a good brand of canned chickpea that has made all the difference in my opinion.

The veggie burgers are just as delicious as the salad, if not more so. It's a bit more work than the salad, of course, but well worth it. The first time we made them, we ate them as suggested -- cut in half with the fillings stuck inside. We ended up freezing and reheating the leftovers, which left them less firm than when they were freshly cooked, so we just topped those patties with the fillings instead and it worked just fine. Our toppings of choice were pea shoots, avocado, havarti and sriracha, but I can imagine a variety of toppings would go well with this burger. I think they'd also be delicious tucked into a pita with some cucumber yogurt sauce and sliced tomatoes, like falafel.

By the way, I would highly, HIGHLY recommend buying Super Natural Cooking, or at least checking it out of your local library. It is currently my favorite cookbook. It makes healthy, whole-food cooking very accessible.

Let me know if you try out either of these recipes or check out the cookbook!

I've been trying a lot of new recipes lately, so expect to see some of them on here. My goal is to try at least one new recipe a week. We've been getting kind of repetitive in our meals and seeing as I have a zillion cookbooks, I really need to start trying more recipes out. Of course, most of the ones I make I find online, not in my cookbooks, anyway. :-) This is actually a recipe that I've made several different times, but I tried to make it as healthy as I could this time. Well, I guess not as healthy as I could... I did include chocolate chips. And I have yet to find a suitable substitute for the stick of butter. Still, they aren't nearly as bad for you as muffins you get out at your local Fourbucks. And they received rave reviews at the brunch I went to on Sunday.

Ahh, nothing like a good meme when you're stumped for ideas. (Stolen from Monkey.) (This one required a fair amount of googling on my part.)

The rules are pretty standard:
A. List of 100 items
B. Bold items you've eaten
C. Cross out items you'd never consider eating (hmmm... as a vegetarian, I am guessing there will be many strikeouts.)

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos Rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (which leaves me wondering, who eats cigars?)
37. Clotted cream tea (I've had it in Devon, no less.)
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (not on purpose, but who hasn't accidentally swallowed a gnat? blech)
43. Phaal
44. Goat's milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini (Now, if that said vodka martini... )
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (Maybe I have? Wiki tells me it's a food additive and sometimes found in toothpaste.)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs' legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I've mentioned before my smiley-face-sticker-strategy ("SFSS") for motivating my lazy ass to get to the gym. Basically, every time I go to the gym and burn a set amount of calories, I get a smiley face. If I burn double that set amount, I get a star. (There aren't too many stars on there.) If I get there twice in one day and meet my goal both times, I get two stickers. I put them on my monthly calendar I have hanging above my desk in my apartment, and when I see more than two or three days go by without a sticker, I start to feel guilty. So far, the plan has been working pretty well... I go to the gym more frequently now than I did before implementing the SFSS.

However, I'm still not seeing the results I'd like to see. I'm sure that has something to do with (a) the fact that I don't plan my meals in advance so I end up just snacking (although mostly healthy stuff) all night long, rather than eating a balanced dinner, and (b) I really have just been meeting my minimum calories-burned requirement for the gym.

So, in order to drop those ten extra pounds I managed to pack on since this time last year (we'll work on the remaining ten extra pounds I put on the year before that later... baby steps), I have to make some changes. First, I am upping my minimum requirement of calories burned in order to get a sticker. And, if I can manage to get 20 smiley stickers for the month, I'm going to treat myself to something fun. (Not sure what yet, but something.) Second, I am adding a new sticker for doing weight training at the gym. (It'll have to be a heart sticker, since the smileys and the stars that came in my pack are already claimed.) Third, I signed up for this to plan three or four dinners a week, which I am super excited about. I already bought the groceries to make four of this week's dinners. Hopefully eating regular dinners will mean that I won't snack so much at night, but I am also going to try to be very mindful of the extra calories I absent-mindedly consume after 9PM. (I even bought super strong mint gum to help out with that.)

Aside from my weight-loss goal, I have also decided to motivate myself by signing up for some races. I am going to sign up for the Race for the Cure 5K here in DC in June, and then hopefully for the Marine Corps Marathon 10K (like I could do a full marathon anytime soon... yeah, right) in October. I know I could go out and run a 5K right now if I was so inclined, but a 10K? I've never run that far without stopping ever in my life. So that'll actually be a bit of a challenge for me. I know I can do it, it's just going to take some real motivation for me to get there. And it's not even physical fitness... I could probably do it tomorrow (albeit, painfully) if I had to. It's really about the mental stamina more than anything else. But if I am ever going to run a real marathon, I've got to get over the boredom factor.

Plus, runners can eat anything and look great. Who wouldn't love to be able to do that?