Weekend cooking

I sure haven't been knitting too much. It just has been hot here! I have been working still a few rows here and there on a baby blanket and also the sizzle sweater....... I have been focusing a lot on trying to improve my diet. I signed up for this fantastic service called boxedgreens.com. Every Friday, I get a box of very fresh organic vegetables and fruits delivered to my doorstep. I am just loving this because lately that is about all that I am eating!! I am trying to lose weight, but also I am just trying to focus on healthy living. If you live in Arizona or anywhere else for that matter, and decide to try this, let me know because I get a free box if I refer someone and they have the service for three weeks.

Having been a foodie my whole life and a professional chef in a previous, I can tell you that this is some of the most amazing produce I have ever seen. First, I love the idea of supporting local and small organic farms. Anyone seen all the scary news reports on all the food coming from China lately? FRESH food!!! Why do I need garlic from China when I live next to California where anything can be grown! We live in the USA ! Why do we need to get food from so far away, it is nuts! Pretty much anything we need should be able to be grown here....! There is a great book I picked up called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. If you want to understand some of the reasons why it is so important to eat locally grown food, this is a good place to start. Besides HEALTH, another great selling point is TASTE!! This veggies and fruit I get in my weekly boxes are amazing!! OK, here are a few things from my "gourmand" box. Last week, I got the essentials box, this week, the gourmand. It alternates.......

First, fresh organic kale. A lot of people are clueless about greens unless they grew up in the south. But they are one of the best veggies for people, loaded with vitamins and minerals. I made a great recipe out of this from the Moosewood Low Fat Cookbook-garlicky greens and black eyed peas. You can't get more healthy than this.....and it was really good...... I don't understand those people who don't like vegetables and/or won't experiment with food!

YUM,
Organic fresh and juicy watermelon, strawberries and my new favorite "red simka plums." I had never heard of these little simka plums before and they are just amazing..... They are only about 2 inches around each and are amazing. Look for them at a Whole Foods market or farmers market, depending on where you live. I am going to start frequenting the farmers market more....


A few more interesting and unusual produce items in this photo. Italian Red turbinado onions are the long thin onions. They are incredibly mild and sweet and I have made an omlette with them and also a cold salad. They taste a bit like a scallion or sweet vidalia onion only different. Really yummy. Second, the round off white item is a "lemon cucumber." I had never heard of this or seen one and it is fantastic. I think I could just eat these every day by themselves, that is how good they are. They were so fresh..... with a light lemony tang..... Then the brighter yellow "heirloom" tomato is a special variety with a lot of flavor........ I made a salad with cooked black eyed peas, brown rice, tomatoes, cucumber, the onion, fresh dill, white balsamic vinegar, virgin olive oil, sea salt and black ground pepper and I have been eating a little bit of each day.....


I also got some fresh shitake mushrooms and dill in my box, fresh green beans and broccoli. I made an egg scramble with some of these items for breakfast yesterday along with a bit of fresh feta and it was really good......
So I am enjoying my weekly veggies and definitely getting in the recommended daily amount of five servings per day plus.

Three years ago I went to Canyon Ranch in the Berkshire mountains. It is a spa that many people go to for health reasons. It happened to be a wonderful gift to me from a friend. There were many lectures on health and chronic disease. One thing they really focused on was eating more produce. They said that if every American ate 8-10 servings of FRESH produce every day, it would pretty much eliminate most of our diseases over time..... Of course they make everything organic....... As I do some stuff on the computer today, I am listening to CNN and a new report just came out linking pesticides to Autism. Did you know that Autism rates have grown drastically in this country? I think 1 out of every five children born now has autism. I can't help but think this as well as our increased cancer and other disease rates come from how many pesticides we use on our food, but also we just are eating more and more processed junk and not real food.........

I don't think I could do what Barbaa Kingsolver did, which was to actually live on a small farm and grow all my own veggies and chickens and pigs, etc....... But I can try to eat locally and eat fresh food and help our planet in our own small way.... I know it makes me feel good. I feel healthier eating this way and it is fun to do some cooking again...... I have a lot of friends with kids whose kids simply won't touch veggies. I am lucky I grew up in a house where very night we had salad and at least two vegetables. So I might not have liked everything when I was little but we had healthy food always and we weren't allowed to eat a lot of junk which is good......

It sure can't prevent every illness but it can help and its fun too........

Sorry no knitting photos but I have been in a non yarn mood for awhile!! I guess it just goes in cycles................

Happy Monday.........

PS I am still listening to CNN and now yet ANOTHER special report came on about tainted food coming from China.. It is pretty scary what is going on with food safety in our country. But it isn't just tainted food from China, it is also labeling laws and other issues that are affecting the safety of our food......and what is also scary are the big food companies jumping on the health bandwagon and calling things natural or organic when they aren't at all!!

Bored and thinking about food, food, food

I admit, I feel very bored lately. I feel like my life consists of sitting in front of this computer entering photos of yarn into one planet. I feel like I need a break and to expand out a bit. I have been taking this weekend off as much as possible. I do have to spend a few hours entering the rest of the sheep shop yarns-all 100 plus colors or whatever it is! I admit they are incredibly gorgeous and I like that we now have every color. And I am also knitting flair in between things and I have to say it is quite an enjoyable knit and I love knitting with a semi-solid yarn...

But, I am bored so I need to try to expand out and do a few other things. The first is to get back into cooking a bit more. Here is a fun fact about me-i actually went to an east coast culinary school and graduated and worked as a chef for quite awhile. my job was as a private chef in various peoples homes. I met quite some interesting people.....

right now I am very into anything asian and I just bought these two new cookbooks.....
Quick & Easy Vietnamese: Home Cooking for Everyone and Authentic Japanese Cuisine for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide
Note that both of these books say "beginners" and/or "quick and easy" which is kind of funny for someone who actually is a chef. But I am into fast these days. Fast, healthy and yummy......
The goal is to make just a few items over the next few weeks that are healthy and not too high calorie......
1. Udon Noodle Soup-
2. Japanese seaweed salad--this has lots of B12, did you know that?
3. Vietnamese-spring rolls-the fresh ones-with peanut sauce-these are actually easy I just need the right ingredients and
4. Vietnamese Bun with grilled steak and shrimp


I am getting hungry writing this. I have a collection of close to 250 cookbooks and I swore I would not buy anymore but I think I need to start adding to my Vietnamese and Japanese collections especially..... I hope to get to our huge Asian market this week to buy some ingredients and I'll try to post some photos of my culinary adventures.....

I am supposed to be on weight watchers core plan by the way (anyone do this diet??) and instead I am making ingredient lists here. The other thing I can't stop thinking about is having an In and Out Burger this weekend. Do you have this place where you live? I had one the other day and I have to tell you these burgers are just too fantastic. I couldn't figure out why there was such a long line of cars for this place when it opened but now I know. A hamburger and frenchfries are under 4 bucks I think (?) I really have to have a double double cheeseburger (with grilled onions) and fries before I get back on the diet and I think I'll even throw on a milkshake (what is this meal-4000 calories?) Who can eat like this and not get obese??? Now I realize why I don't cook anymore. I used to cook almost every week, picking out an introducing dish to try, until I started gaining weight around the age of 35. It isn't fair. So I'll have my double double tomorrow but then I better be on a mission to find some good low fat things to cook.

Time for sleep.......


PS I just looked up the nutritional info out of curiosity! HAHA A double double cheeseburger (my favorite) is 670 calories! Leave off the bun (Atkins style) with lettuce and it is only 590 calories. The fries are 400 calories and the shake 690 calories. No wonder that burger tastes so good........