Frequently Asked Questions (by me)

Is it bad luck to eat your hurricane evacuation provisions before hurricane season is technically over?

If your tomatoes just start growing in November are you actually going to get to eat any?

Why have I not thought of making muffins based on my favorite green smoothies before? I will be experimenting with my own version of these soon.

Would you rather have wheels for legs or a go go gadget arm?

Have you ever tried making bibimbap? The first time I had this was in Hawaii. A chemistry professor of mine took a bunch of students out to dinner at a vegetarian Korean restaurant and my mind was blown. Truely a case of the whole being much bigger than the parts. I (very) loosely based mine off of this recipe.

Clockwise starting at the top: Sautéed carrots, purple cabbage, mushrooms, zucchini & mirlton, and quick cucumber & radish pickles. All over rice with an egg in the middle.

What did I have for lunch this week? Whole wheat cous cous with tomatoes and fresh basil. Shelled edamame with a sprinkle of salt. Homemade granola bar. Greek yogurt with frozen mixed berries and a
drizzle of agave.

Do I need a lunchbox? Clearly. I've been thinking about this one, but I fear it won't be large enough. Any suggestions? My one requirement is that it be stainless steal - plastic tuperware starts to freak me out after you use if for awhile - you can never get it quite clean enough.

Rain, wind, and chard...oh my!

I survived my first tropical storm this weekend. In all honestly it was pretty much a bust. Heavy rain and wind but not much else. The glorious consequence of Tropical Storm Lee is the lovely weather it left in its wake. Today's high was 80 degrees. 80 degrees. Without a doubt the best day I have experienced in New Orleans. I even went for a run in the afternoon. It felt like a nice spring day back in Boston.

My "garden" didn't much like the torrential downpours and lack of sun, but I think everything will survive. Last week I even had my first mini harvest. I planted the chard seeds too closely so I pulled some out in order to thin them a little.

Like I said, the harvest was very mini

As soon as I pulled them out my mind filled with ideas about what to do with my bounty. Make an amuse-bouche salad? Use them to garnish my tacos? Feed the world's smallest rabbit? Friends, when you have half an ounce of baby chard on hand the possibilities are endless. I elected to stay true to my roots (heh) and use them for a green smoothie!

Baby chard, beets, frozen bananas, frozen cherries, yogurt 

I have been exploring our new neighborhood and last week I tried out the local bakery. La Boulangerie is really cute from the outside and I was wowed by the delicious smells emanating from the interior. However the rest of the visit was a disappointment. My experience with the the staff seems typical of the complaints on yelp. Rude people who ignored me for 5 minutes so they could yak to one another (I was the only person in the store at the time.) I picked out an olive loaf and an almond croissant (my favorite pastry treat.) Sometimes you get olive bread and there are 3 tiny pieces in the whole loaf so I was pleased to see several whole large olives throughout the loaf.

Overall the loaf was just ok. A little too rustic for my tastes but not terrible. It made me miss being in Milwaukee and the lovely soft chewy olive bread at Breadsmith's.

The almond croissant was another story. I was MAD I wasted a pastry eating session on that abomination. It was like they took a regular croissant and dunked it it simple syrup. Then they threw a bunch of almonds and powdered sugar on top. Grr.

This will haunt me

But enough with the whining! I will leave you all with a simple recipe (an idea really) that I have been gobbling up lately.

Sweet Potato, Kale, Black Bean, and Goat Cheese Burritos

1. Cook a sweet potato (oven or microwave, boy's choice)
2. Steam some kale in veggie broth for 5 - 7 minutes (I used miso paste instead of broth)
3. Rinse and drain a can of black beans.
4. Mash up the black beans and sweet potato. This will warm the beans at the same time.
5. Add bean/sweet potato mixture to tortillas and top with drained kale and goat cheese.
6. Nom nom nom.

My Sugar-Free Week In Review

As of last night I made it one week sans sugar. And it was... not too bad? Not as bad as I thought it was going to be at least. Here are some notes I made during the week.

Sunday: Not too bad. Was almost thrown off course at the start of the morning when I went to add honey to my tea as if on autopilot. The second waver came when Erik waved strawberry cheesecake jelly beans under my nose. I stayed strong. Also if I am going to eat leftover easter candy it is obviously going to be Reese's peanut butter cup eggs. Duh.

Monday: Yawn, yawn, yawn - all day long. Had a very filling, healthy dinner. I am hungry less than an hour later and want a piece of cake! Or a sliver of pie. Or even just a crumble of cookie.

I always believed that hummus was one of those things you just had to buy - but no more. It is hard to get hummus smooth and creamy when you are using beans from a can. I find the secret is to cook dry beans and then puree that.
My "recipe"
Combine cooked beans/lentils/split peas, a squeeze of lemon juice, spices (pepper, penzeys seasoning, hot sauce, whatever.), saltiness (e.g. sea salt, miso, bouillon, soy sauce). Blend it up until very smooth. Add a small amount of liquid if too thick.

The majestic peaks of Mt. Hummus

Tuesday: Had peanut butter for breakfast that after observing the label has a ton of sugar in it. Also you can't trust ketchup!

Spring is finally defying the winter overlords.

Wednesday/Thursday: Didn't note any specific troubles. Perhaps I am past the worst? My study group passed around starburst and I didn't even consider them!

In the blender: Frozen cherries, beets, strawberries, spinach, frozen banana

Friday: Brushed my teeth after dinner and didn't even think about having a sweet snack!

I have never liked cottage cheese that much (except when my mom made pear bunnies with cottage cheese tails!) but I bought some this week to try as an alternative to greek yogurt. I made a "dip" with it that was actually pretty good with tortilla chips. I just mixed plain, non fat cottage cheese with Penzeys Chip and Dip Seasoning.

Yummy but still can't completely get over the texture.

Saturday: Almost broke this morning. We went for a long walk since it was nice out, and stopped by our neighborhood diner for frozen lemonades. I knew this would be breaking my rules, but I wanted one because they are AMAZING, not because I was craving sugar. But alas, I was protected from myself. The diner's frozen lemonade machine was broken, and thus I was kept from slushy lemonadey goodness. The walk was still nice however, we did about five miles and walked by the ocean.

First toes in the sand of the year.

Erik even busted out his boat shoes.

With iced coffee and not frozen lemonade :(

I ran around in a field of dandelions doing impressive leaps and cartwheels, but the photographer was unable to capture the magic. Ahem.

Not a good action shot.

Since Laura tells me it can take three weeks for sugar to leave your system and this week didn't kill me I am going to try to keep it up. I have finals this week so I'm not making any guarantees. You have to confront the EVIL tricks the finals monkey throws at you with whatever defenses you have - sometime that means ice cream sandwiches.

I hope everyone had just the best week. And happy mother's day to my awesome mom who made pear bunnies with cottage cheese tails for me when I was a kid :)

Hodgepodge

Well chardfans, it has been a rough week here in Lord of the Chard's New England division. Maybe it is Boston's refusal to have nice weather. Maybe it is the terrifying reality that I will be done with school in less than four weeks. Or Maybe it is the post apocalyptic book I am reading where everyone dies of influenza. Whatever the cause I have been in a bit of a funk. I thought I would share with you all a few unrelated ideas.

On Saturday my roommate Amanda hosted The Manor's (that is what we call our apartment) third annual Cambodian New Year. It was lots of fun and there was much merrymaking and carrot shaking. Brian and I acted as sous chefs, and I must say I totally dominated spring roll rolling. Here is a picture Amanda took of our feast.

Not pictured: French 75s, the cocktail of the colonizer.

The feast reignited my love of wrapping things in rice paper and has inspired me to bring some spring rolls in my packed lunch. Rice paper is insanely cheap and you can wrap them full of any combination of veggies and proteins you desire. They are portable and you don't have to worry about refrigerating them if you are planning on having them for lunch. Win!

Monday was the day of the Boston Marathon aka "Patriot's Day" so everyone was off from work and school and they city was clogged up like a heart that was one step away from a myocardial infarction! After watching insane people run 26.2 miles I felt motivated to work out and finish with doing 1000 skips on my jump rope. I know it sounds kind of silly but I cannot recommend jump roping enough. It is weirdly hard and your calves will be sculpted like something on greek statue. Jump ropes are cheap, but if you have a boyfriend who you can steal one from, all the better. I followed up my jumping with a green smoothie. A VERY green smoothie.

Kale, papaya, pineapple, non fat plain yogurt, banana

I also wanted to let you all know about my new go to quick dinner. I was inspired by seeing this 101 cookbooks recipe for quesadillas. Of course she makes hers much fancier than mine, but I followed the same idea and am addicted. Better still I have been able to find a new use for a kitchen item. I have had a crepe pan for some time now (nicely given to me by my mother or grandma), but to be honest had only used it once to make crepes. Well, let me tell you, it is the perfect pan for quesadillas. Nothing sticks to it!

Said crepe pan

 First I scramble up one egg with salt and pepper and pour it into the heated pan.

Once the egg is half gooey/half cooked (this will only take a minute or so) place a tortilla on top, pressing it into the egg so they are glued together. Place your hand on the tortilla and flip it over so the tortilla ends up on the bottom. I guess you could use a spatula or something, but why dirty another utensil?

What you will have post flipping

 Now sprinkle on a small amount of shredded cheese. I like to add black beans as well. I don't think I have to tell you peppers or tomatoes would be good here too.

 After the cheese has melted take it off the heat and either roll it up or fold it like a traditional quesadilla. I recommend adding spinach and some hot sauce too.

Having mine with leftover jicama from Cambodian New Year

Honestly this all takes less than 5 minutes and it is weirdly amazing. Tastier than the sum of its parts for sure. Since I often get home late from school and THE HUNGOR has come out to play this is a perfect quick supper for me.

Anyone else have any quick supper ideas? Maybe we could do a series of posts: "What to eat when you have HUNGOR, aka when you are going down."