any advice, vegan friends?

it's officially over.

after a relationship that lasted years, through good times and hard times, dairy and i are no longer on good terms.

sad cheese

for the past few months, i have been trying to ignore my body's signals that dairy just isn't making me feel well, but it is so damn hard!!  i will shout it from the top of a mountain that ice cream, no matter what flavor, is my favorite food.  but it just doesn't make me feel well anymore.

i have been making a concerted effort to limit these things from my diet as much as i can (not necessarily from a moral stand, but for my health's sake), but sometimes i just slip and give in to my strong dairy cravings.  for example, last night, after dinner we went to the self-serve frozen yogurt joint, where i am always very judicious with my serving size.  i got the smallest dollop i could manage from the machine, yet in the middle of the night i woke up feeling horribly ill.  was it worth it?  that's the question i am asking myself now.

so, dairy free-friends, do you have any advice for a girl about to give up lactose cold-turkey? 

and, more importantly, is there life after cheese?

first soup of the fall: shiitake mushroom soup with quinoa, garlic, and kale

last weekend, jordan and i visited the kennett square mushroom festival, whose volunteers and mushroom experts reminded us of this (but just substitute "shrimp" with "mushroom").  we left with an armload of different varieties of mushrooms: shiitakes, crimini (or baby bellas...i had no idea they were the same thing!), portobello caps, even porcini mushroom pasta.

so with the cold weather that came upon us this week, we thought we would try our hand at using the mushrooms for a soup.  i have been trying to avoid dairy lately, so the standard, cream-based mushroom soup was not an option.  instead, we adapted a recipe we found from vegetarian times.  find the original recipe here.

we substituted quinoa for the wheat berries (as i am trying to avoid wheat as well, and we didn't have wheat berries in the pantry, just quinoa).  also, next time we make it i would add scallions to bring a little more green to the soup.

ingredients:

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 cup shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and sliced thin
1 cup quinoa
10 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thin
1 medium bunch kale, washed, stems removed, and sliced on the bias
1/4 cup rice vinegar
4 cups low-sodium, MSG free vegetable broth (we use this to make our own broth; much more economical and eco-friendly than buying the cardboard quarts that end up going to waste!)


method:

cook quinoa according to package directions.  set aside.

heat olive oil in a saucepan.  saute the mushrooms for 10 minutes.  add the garlic and continue to saute an additional 2 minutes.  carefully add vinegar (the pan will be hot, so don't get splashed!) and continue to stir gently, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.

add broth to the saucepan, bring to a boil and then allow to simmer for 20 minutes.  stir in kale and allow to wilt.

to serve, ladle the soup into bowls and add the desired amount of quinoa to each bowl (this prevents the quinoa from getting soggy in the broth).

so simple!  enjoy!

mark bittman, i love you.

if you think this looks as delightful as i do, read on.

BIG NEWS, YOU GUYS.

want a hint?

it is purple and shiny and i used to be scared to eat it.  and it rhymes with 'schmeggflant'.

i accidentally ate some baba ghanouj the other day with no ill effects or anaphylactic shock.  so last night during a 4th of july cookout, with a newfound sense of bravery, i had a slice of grilled eggplant with some basil, mozz and tomato.  i KNOW, right?!

i think i have officially become an eggplant enthusiast.  and we have some in the garden now that are almost ready to be picked.  what should we make with it?

garden update!

we have been able to make so many meals now that our garden is starting to explode!  and it really does look like a beautiful, green delicious explosion has taken over our backyard.  can you believe that just a little over a month ago our garden looked like this:

before

and now it looks like this!!

after!

the only sacrifice is that every time we go out to harvest, we get annihilated by mosquitoes, which is a small price to pay for the bounty of the garden gods.

just a few of the things we have made so far with our backyard harvests:

-pesto (obviously...we can't get enough of the stuff!)

it looks like someone else has been
enjoying the basil as much as we have!
who is this mystery nibbler?

-three bean salad with green beans from the garden, garbanzos and cannellini beans, garnished with slivers of basil leaves
-red new potato salad with parboiled green beans from the garden, red potatoes that have been boiled and cooled, thinly sliced red onion, rosemary from the garden, lemon juice, olive oil, and s + p.

things we are looking forward to by the end of july:
-ceviche with loads of cilantro from the backyard (i am also excited about growing our own parsley and cilantro so it won't go to waste when we have to buy a slimy bunch from the grocery store that goes bad in, like, three hours)

-grilled veggie kebabs (on our new grill..thanks, bruce and helene!  xo) with yellow squash and eggplant (on jordan's side)
-fried green tomatoes before the tomatoes start to all turn red

-swimming in a sea of tomatoes...caprese salad with heirloom tomatoes and backyard basil...roasted tomatoes with rosemary...maybe even taking a stab at making our own pasta sauce and canning it!

is your mouth watering yet?  because mine definitely is!!

oopsie smoothie

welp...the no-wheat, no-caffeine, no-alcohol was nice while it lasted...

we went to a wedding last night, and i indulged in the obligatory glass (or four) of chardonnay, and this morning, feeling slightly groggy, i gave in to my iced coffee and bagel craving.

now, a mere five hours later, i feel terrible.  jittery and tired at the same time, thanks to the caffeine, gooey cream cheese and chewy bready bagel.  i am sorry, belly.

so for lunch i made a smoothie to get myself feeling better.  even though i don't have a blender (but it is on the registry!) a food processor does the trick.  half a banana, a handful of frozen blueberries, half a scoop of spiru-tein vanilla, a generous spoonful of yogurt, and some rice milk and ice cubes, blended all together did the trick.

what a pretty color, too!

best garden ever!

after the never-ending saga that went into renting a roto-tiller, we (and by "we", i mean jordan) tripled the size of our garden!  it meant sacrificing the bonfire spot, but our yard is big enough that we can find space for both!

yesterday was the first bountiful harvest of arugula.  i have never tasted arugula so yummy in my life!  the leaves are perfectly green, so delightful and peppery!

first arugula harvest

we had a couple of very disappointing experiences with grocery store arugula, coming home to find over half the leaves in the package to be wilted, slimy and sometimes black.  sorry, grocery store...we are going to do all our produce shopping in our backyard for the next few months.

so what's on the menu for this summer's garden?  basil basil basil (pesto for days!), lots of tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, arugula, eggplant (which i will not be eating because of my "allergy"), and some other things that i can't remember because jordan isn't around to ask. :)

i am so looking forward to the summer meals we will be cooking with all of our backyard veggies!

giant garden!

come on young one, your time to grow is now

BAH-zill.