It's Not Easy Eating Green (or is it?)

One of our many meanderings has been on the topic of food, more specifically, how to maintain a more healthy eating lifestyle. We've tried a variety of diet and exercise programs, ranging from P90X to calorie-counting, with plenty of gym memberships in between!

You can probably agree that consistent, regular exercise is essential. The question of what to eat has always been more vexing. A book that kick-started our proactive search to eat more healthily and sustainably (for both the environment and our own bodies) was The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Whether you're a die-hard carnivore or a vegan, a health-fanatic or a fast-food junkie, Pollan's book will have you thinking and re-thinking how and what we eat.

Looking for an answer in a nutshell? Take Pollan's advice:

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
(Pollan, Michael. "Unhappy Meals." The New York Times Magazine. 28 January 2007. http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/unhappy-meals/) 

Ha! I'm a vegetarian, so I'm two-thirds of the way there, right?

Of course not.

So began our quest to determine which plants should be filling our cart at the grocery store (or better yet, our garden). Stay tuned for future posts about eating our greens!

Hot Dishes: Quesadillas

Our second attempt at "convegan" cooking was decidedly less vegan, though still vegetarian (and easily modified in either direction). We opted for real monterey jack and cheddar cheeses where the recipe called for a veggie cheese substitute, and stuffed the tortillas to the brim with roasted onions and red, green and orange peppers. We learned the real trick for tasty quesadillas is in how you roast the vegetables. Throwing them into a high-heat oil like safflower or grapeseed really brings out the flavors. I even topped a few pieces with Sriracha sauce for an extra "kick."

We decided that this is a great quick meal with a lot of flavor for just a little time. True to the cookbook's title, the carnivore in the house didn't even miss the meat!

Hot Dishes: "Convegan" Cooking

Over the years, we have labeled ourselves vegetarian, pescetarian, vegan, and "convegan" (vegan when it's convenient!). Currently our household is divided: one vegetarian convegan and one omnivore.

A recent gift, Vegan Cooking For Carnivores, appeared to be the perfect compromise for us. Chef Roberto Martin boasts that the dishes in his cookbook are "so tasty you won't miss the meat," so we had to put it to the test.

Our first sample was the spicy noodle salad.

It's a relatively simple meal, and the dressing is really what makes it:

3 TBSP peanut butter
zest & juice of 2 limes*
1 TBSP sesame oil
2 TBSP agave nectar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp Sriracha hot sauce (or more to taste)

*We used lemons, and it was a happy accident!

This dressing is great over noodles and roasted vegetables, and would go great with almost any salad. Here's to more conveniently vegan cooking in 2014!

Hot Dishes: Bloody Marylands

Happy New Year!

We're starting 2014 by adding a new series to our posts - Hot Dishes. We have resolved to do more meandering around the kitchen, exploring new foods and techniques, and we plan to share a few with you.

We toasted the first morning of 2014 with a twist on the classic Bloody Mary, adding a bit of a "kick" to get the new year started off strong!

Bloody Marylands
1 part Smirnoff vodka
4 parts Mr. & Mrs. T Bold & Spicy Bloody Mary mix
1 stalk of celery
*Rim glass with Old Bay seasoning - a tribute to our home state!