Recent eats

7 Mar

I’ve definitely gotten behind on food posting, darn it, so prepare for a brain dump.

Restaurants

The day before my wedding, Mom and I went to the downtown flower market (you must do this if you live in LA!) to, well, get flowers for my wedding. I did a ton of reading on Yelp about the best way to approach it, and several different commenters said you must go to Urth Caffe after. So we did:

They are famous for the above-pictured Spanish lattes (cringe at Anglicized pluralizing of an Italian word), so I ordered one dolce-style (less strong, since at the time I was trying to cut back on caffeine). It was incredibly delicious! It’s made with milk and sugar, so it’s decadent, but if you’re a coffee lover looking for a treat, order one!

I was in the mood for something light (e.g. not a massive omelette), so I ordered the Urth Breakfast:

It is “A butter croissant with the choice of Brie, Jarlsberg, Feta or Gouda, butter & jam.” I chose gouda and blackberry jam, and didn’t use any of the butter. My mom apparently panicked and ordered the same thing, plus a “side” of fruit:

Massive and glorious! This breakfast was absolutely perfect on a temperate morning after wheeling and dealing over flowers. (Did I mention that I got enough fiori for my bouquet and another huge arrangement for $20? Pictures to come in another post.) The croissant was flaky and decadent, and the cheese and jam were just perfect together. I will definitely be back!

Another recent restaurant meal was at my fave, Native Foods. I decided to try something new and went with the Rockin’ Moroccan Bowl:

“Your choice of tofu or Native Chicken marinated in our homemade Moroccan sauce with grilled veggies and quinoa. Topped with currants and toasted almonds.” I chose the faux chicken. It came with an accidentally free side of schweet pertater fries plus the watermelon agua fresca I ordered. This dish was delicious, and the mister even declared it his new fave. It’s pretty massive, which is what he demands in food.

Homemade meals

Not too long ago, I made a quick loaf of bread based on a recipe from Vegan on the Cheap:

It was tasty and bready and super easy. I then ate it for breakfast topped with flavorful Dijon mustard and half of a small avocado:

LOVE THIS. Could eat it every day, no lie. In fact, I probably will eat it every day next week. Holla!

I also made a bean/grain loaf:

I kept meaning to share the recipe, but so much time has passed that I can’t remember the proportions. Isn’t that sad? Truth be told, while it was tasty, it is also lacking in the cohesive department, so I should really do another trial run first anyway. It contains chickpeas, lentils, and quinoa, and I liked it best topped with barbecue sauce.

Training food

I went to another training last week that had an incredible lunch spread:

This Mexican-inspired meal was catered by Homegirl Cafe (read about them — they’re pretty amazing) and was totally vegan! There was also a chicken option, but otherwise, there was nary a dairy nor meat in sight. What you see is their House Salad (“Spring mix, jicama, apple, roasted pumpkin seeds.  Citrus vinaigrette.”), black beans, green rice, and Potato & Grilled Tofu taco innards (three little corn tortillas are in the foil up top) with pico de gallo. SO FREAKING GOOD. I am now dying to visit the actual cafe.

Packaged food

I have been having a love affair with Pop Chips lately. I could eat them every day, though I don’t. They are not a health food, since no chip is, but as things go, they are certainly less bad.

And they’re cute. I usually jam to the jalapeno ones, but I recently tried (because I only recently found) the salt and vinegar variety:

I love these! I would be hard pressed to pick a fave between the two, so it’s great to have a variety.

And lastly, Trader Joe’s recently brought back Cookie Butter, so I had to jump on the blogger bandwagon and get in on the action:

Atop some TJ’s crackers. Speaking of crackers, this stuff is like crack. I keep it at work for snacking, tucked in a drawer so I only remember it’s there occasionally.

So that’s a smattering of my recent eats. I am leaving for my honeymoon tomorrow in wine country and hope to do at least a quick photo post over the weekend. If not, I certainly hope you’ll understand that I’m otherwise occupied. ;)

Tags: , , , ,

Budget- and bulge-friendly barley

2 Mar

My cooking lately has been haphazard, thanks to finishing up the wedding plans, actually getting married, and then not shopping this week. However, I did have a few goodies left in my kitchen this week, so I decided to whip up a barley dish. I was heavily inspired by The Broccoli Hut’s Edamame Barley Risotto, as you can see, but I increased the portions and made a few tweaks. Here’s mine:

(Eaten out of a Santa mug/bowl with a red plastic spoon. Classy!)

And here’s my method:

Barley with Mushrooms and Split Peas

  • 1/2 large onion, chopped
  • Pinch of salt
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 container white mushrooms, roughly chopped
  • 1 cup pearled barley
  • 2 cups plus 1/2 cup low-sodium vegetable broth, divided
  • 1/2 cup water
  • Black pepper (to taste)
  • Crushed red pepper (to taste)
  • Dried oregano (to taste)
  • Dried thyme (to taste)
  • 1/4 cup dried green split peas

Spray a medium saucepan with cooking spray (or use a small amount of olive oil or vegetable broth) and heat over medium. Add the onions with the salt and cook, stirring when needed, until translucent and starting to brown. Now add the garlic and mushrooms and cook, stirring, until they soften. This part takes just a couple of minutes. Add the barley and stir for about 20 seconds, and then pour in 2 cups of vegetable broth, the water, and the spices. Increase the heat to boil the liquid, then cover with the lid slightly vented and reduce the heat to bring the dish to a simmer.

About 20 minutes into the cooking time, add the split peas and the remaining 1/2 cup of vegetable broth and continue cooking until the barley and peas are tender, about 20 more minutes. Add additional spices as needed.

Makes four servings.

I don’t normally calculate calories and such for my recipes, but this one is incredibly tasty, easy, and healthy, so I wanted to share it with you:

Calories

 224.3
Total Fat 0.9 g
     Saturated Fat 0.2 g
   Polyunsaturated Fat 0.4 g
   Monounsaturated Fat 0.1 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
Sodium 240.9 mg
Potassium 389.3 mg
Total Carbohydrate 48.0 g
   Dietary Fiber 10.8 g
   Sugars 2.9 g
Protein 8.0 g
Vitamin B-6 12.5 %
Copper 20.8 %
Folate 8.2 %
Iron 15.1 %
Magnesium 13.4 %
Manganese 43.5 %
Niacin 21.8 %
Selenium 33.8 %

Not bad, eh? It’s really delicious, too, and reheats extraordinarily well. Plus, barley has been shown to be one of the most diabetic-friendly grains out there, which is good news for my household.

On top of that, it’s cheap! Excluding the spices (which would only add pennies), the whole dish cost $6.43 to make — that’s only $1.61 per serving! Add a spinach salad (~$1 per serving for organic) with a splash of balsamic vinegar on the side, and you have a complete, affordable meal. Obviously, costs vary according to where you shop, but it is 100% possible to eat well, both taste-wise and health-wise, without breaking the bank.

Tags: , , ,

Reception menu

1 Mar

Sorry for the radio silence, but I’ve been up to no something really good:

Yep, I got married! It was the happiest day of my life, folks. Seriously.

The view didn’t hurt, either.

I will do a more thorough wedding post when I have professional pictures, but I did want to acknowledge the big day.

On that note, I am finalizing my menu for this weekend’s local reception (live in LA and want to come? Leave me a comment!) and wanted some advice. I am guessing we’ll have 20 people in attendance, and while I don’t want to serve a full dinner, I do want enough nibbles for everyone. Here are my thoughts so far:

  • Nacho Bites (modified slightly)
  • Chips and salsa
  • Fruit salad with orange-mint dressing
  • Seasonal roasted veggie salad with pesto dressing
  • Either hummus or bean dip
  • Cookies and/or cupcakes and/or brownies

Who has an opinion to share? I would love to hear from you! I want to keep it easy, healthy, and delicious!

Tags: , ,

I’m not dieting for my wedding

16 Feb

By the time I get married next week (!!), I will have had a five-week engagement, which is very, very short, obviously. But, then, so am I, so it only makes sense.

Anyway, I quickly dove into the world of wedding planning sites (and quickly got overwhelmed, then scared). One theme I’ve noticed pretty strongly is that brides want to lose weight. Not only do they want to, but they expect to and go so far as to plan their attire around the new weight they expect to hit. I can understand the draw, especially with the strapless dresses most want to rock on their big days. If you’re overweight and your wedding day is the motivation you need to get into a healthy routine, then I applaud you.

However, the obsession with bridal body image frankly disturbs me. My wedding day is supposed to be a celebration of the love I share with my fiancé. It is an opportunity to gather our closest family in our new home for a happy occasion. It’s also a time to help us outfit our kitchen. (I tease on the last one.) It is not a time to scrutinize my arms or my hips. It’s not a time to be on display. It’s a time to laugh and cry and hug and make joyful new memories. Yes, there will be a photographer, but his lens will be focusing on our smiles and tears, not our saddlebags.

Fact: I am currently about five pounds heavier than normal, which is in turn five pounds heavier than my ideal weight. I want to lose that full 10 pounds by eating well and getting back to the gym.

That said, I have decided not to lose an ounce for my wedding. Why? For all the things I said about what a wedding is. A wedding isn’t a pageant. It isn’t a modeling competition. It is a celebration of love and happiness. It is the last day on which I should be worried about whether or not anyone is judging me. If they are, then they can take a hike (but leave the blender, please).

It’s also for my sanity. Theoretically, I could lose those five extra pounds in five weeks, but at what reward? There is no chance I won’t feel radiant on my wedding day. How could I not, when I’m surrounded by the people I love most in the world, including the man who is going to promise to love me for the rest of my life? Losing five pounds or 50 doesn’t increase or decrease the love in your life. Obsessing over weight loss (something at which, frankly, most people fail) will not make your wedding day better.

I spend so much of my daily life thinking and worrying about my weight that I want my wedding to be a break from it, a day on which I’m grateful to be exactly the way I am.

It goes without saying that this is all just my opinion, and maybe your experience is totally different, but I wanted to give voice to another perspective.

Tags: ,

Mendocino and Babycakes

15 Feb

I have been obsessed with Mendocino Farms lately, and I must blame Lynn for it. And thank her heartily.

Here’s the menu. So far, I have tried the: Tempeh Bacon Melt (excellent), Vegan Spicy Soyrizo & Black Bean Wrap (very good), Traditional Vegan Club (my fave, below)

Vegan Picnic Sandwich (my second fave), and the Caprese (with veggies added, below).

There are only two meat-free options left that I haven’t tried, and the only one that doesn’t appeal to me is the Drunk’n Goat on Highway 128. I’m not really into chutneys on a sandwich, but I’m sure my perfectionist nature will win out eventually. I recommend anything from Mendocino that involves their tempeh bacon. I’m borderline obsessed with it. It is smoky and delicious without trying to hard to taste like dead pig.

I really need to do a full Mendocino review, but I will have to wait until I manage to photograph their delicious side dishes. Somehow they almost always disappear before I remember to whip out my picture-taking device . . .

Also on the menu this weekend were some vegan treats from Babycakes.

That’s a maple doughnut and a Wonder Bun (gluten-free and like a denser cinnamon roll). Both were incredible! We polished them off for breakfast Saturday morning.

All hail the “Eat Me” plate.

What is your favorite breakfast pastry? I’m a cinnamon fiend, so a big, doughy roll is my fave.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Lunches (and more) of late

14 Feb

Hello again! I am blogging today from my new iPhone because I can. Yahoo! So let’s talk random eats of late, shall we?

Last week, I attended a training in Pasadena where they served us lunch and snacks. That’s my kind of place. Breakfast:

Multiply the black coffee by two. This bar was borderline wretched, I hate to say. I mean, I ate it, but I only barely choked it down.

Lunch, luckily, was a lot better:

Salad with some kind of feta-based dressing and apples, dried cranberries, avocado, and other surprises; a veggie sandwich with sun-dried tomato spread and the usual suspects; and fresh fruit. I was very impressed by the options. I could have skipped the salad and had a vegan feast.

Later (as in 10 minutes), I enjoyed this slice of banana (?) bread with more coffee:

Pretty tasty, though I’m not 100% that it was banana. The spices dominated any fruit flavors.

Last week, I also had the world’s most random lunch:

Chips, salsa, and leftover curried orzo salad from Mendocino Farms (more on that tomorrow). Tt was surprisingly good but, yeah, weird.

Another lunch from last week, thanks to my favorite natural foods store:

Oh Rainbow, how right you usually are and how very, very wrong you were that day. The accoutrements flanking the burrito were delicious. I’m a little obsessed with both this Pop Chips flavor and the Hansen’s root beer. The burrito, however . . .

Was putrid. The tortilla was weirdly sticky, and everything inside tasted off…or just plain awful, really. Blech. How do you screw up black beans, Cheddar, cabbage, and carrot? I have no idea, but this thing was inedible. A coworker asked me if I was eating apple pie because it smelled so strange. I wish that I had been.

Have you eaten anything recently that didn’t taste as good as you hoped?

Tags: , , ,

Ack!

13 Feb

I started to write a post about some recent eats, including today’s burger and some freebies during a training last week.

I thought about writing a post detailing the food I’m thinking of making for my upcoming reception/house-warming party.

I was even mulling a post about weddings and body image.

But then I saw the most horrifyingly disgusting thing ever to wander into my office and had the following exchange:

I apologize for the language, but can you blame me? The thing was three inches long, had scary wings, and I swear I saw him smoking a tiny cigar and twirling his mustache. Ew ew ew!

I’ll send some food action your way tomorrow, but today — today I can’t think about putting anything in my mouth. So how’s about I ask a question instead.

When you find an unwelcome disgusting vermin visitor in your home, what do you do? Kill it, release it outside, or pretend it isn’t there? I generally catch-and-release or put my fingers in my ears and go LA LA LA. However, I won’t lie: I hope this cockroach bites it. I just don’t want to be the person doing the slaughtering.

Tags:

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 962 other followers