Note the fancy Cheeto garnish

If you’re not familiar with my acronym, you’re not watching enough Food Network. Few things are more purely enjoyable than watching Guy Fieri hunt down the grossest, most delicious food in America on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Triple D for those of us in the know.

Tonight I’m only half watching, half blogging but I perked up when I heard “and top it with Cheetos”. Say again?

Yeah, Donnie Mac’s Trailer Park Cuisine in Boise, ID makes some sort of mac and cheese gone wrong topped with bacon, hot dogs, onion rings, Doritos and, yes, Cheetos.

Gross? Absolutely. I almost think they only put on this show for Guy’s cameras because it’s not actually on the menu. And since eating it would likely kill you, this is a good thing.

I used to be able to put away a bag of Baked Cheetos in a day until I realized they don’t even taste good. Eat slowly and think about what you’re eating. You may realize Cheetos are gross. If not, at least you’ll get to savor them.

Soybeans replace avocado

This dip has been circulating around the fitness and food blogs as of late. It’s supposed to be a “healthy” take on gucamole but I think guacamole is already pretty healthy and this dip tastes nothing like it. It just happens to be green with big chunks of tomatoes. It is, however, a great stand alone dip. If you try to compare it to guacamole, you will be sorely disappointed. If you try it hoping for a simple, flavorful soybean dip, then you’re in for a treat.

Yes, this dip gets its bright green color from soybeans rather than avocados. Because avocados are so high in fat (good fat, mind you) the idea of this recipe is to make something comparable but with low fat, high protein soybeans. I’m personally fine with the fat in guacamole so long as you don’t eat an entire bowl of it or pile it atop deep fried tortilla chips. Anyway, I love soybeans so I decided to give edamole a try. It was a big hit at the beach and I’ve found it makes a great spread on sandwiches. Kind of like guacamole, right?

Well it’s not like guacamole. I can’t stress this enough. I even tried to come up with a new name that didn’t try to mimic guacamole but it’s so ingrained in my head now I just went with it.

And so…

Edamole

1 bag edamame (soybeans)
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
Olive oil
Garlic
Water
Hot sauce (Cholulu or Tobasco Chipotle are good)

1. If your edamame is frozen, let it thaw completely.

2. Add edamame, a drizzle of olive oil, a splash of water to thin (you may end up adding more), garlic and hot sauce to a food processor. Blend until smooth.

3. Mix in tomatoes and add salt and pepper to taste.

This is candy. Any questions?

On Friday I had to make a mid-day Fresh Market run to pick up some fruit because I’m really weird about how much of it I eat a day. Anyway, I left with $11 worth of dried strawberries too just because I was so curious.

Be not fooled by this food’s placement in the dried fruit section. This is a candy. Chewy, stick, sugary candy. And it is delicious.

Yeah, $11.

As a candy, this should not be something you try to pass off as healthy fruit. I don’t see a problem trading out your nasty sweets for a couple of these though. That, in fact, would be an upgrade. So pass on the post-lunch gas station run for candy and pop a couple dried strawberries. You won’t even know they’re fruit. Promise.

Cranberry power snacks

This is yet another TJ Maxx find. Can you tell I spend a lot of time there? Don’t judge a book by its cover. There are hidden treasures in that ugly building.

Anyway, I grabbed these Matisse & Jack’s Bake-at-Home Snacks off a clearance rack on my way to the checkout. They always get me with that. At first I gravitated to them because I thought they were actual power bars and I needed a snack. Alas, I would have to make these myself. Still intrigued, I bought them anyway and made my snack some impulse buy cashews.

Matisse & Jack’s is a homegrown family business based in San Francisco and named after the owners’ two kids. They sell their power snack mixes at Whole Foods, Target and online and the collection includes granola bites, cocoa squares, chocolate chip power snacks and my cranberry power snacks.

Prep is simple for each mix–adding just water, honey or apple sauce, and oil–and the ingredients are pretty clean with organic rolled oats, whole grain flour, flax seed, dried fruits, evaporated cane juice, etc. Here’s the nutritional breakdown on the cranberries:

All I did was add apple sauce, water and vegetable oil and pop them in the oven for about 20 minutes. The instructions say to make them in an 8×8 dish but I only had muffin tins so now I have power muffins. I also undercooked mine (directions call for 25-30 minutes) because I know that’s the secret to perfect cupcakes so I figured it would work here too.

Success. These little guys are really good. And you’ll figure it out pretty early on if you eat the batter like I did. Sooo good. No eggs, no worries. The final product is moist, chewy and dense. My muffins are really little but just one filled me up because it’s packed with lots of good stuff. If there is a next time on this fortunate find at TJ Maxx, I’ll add chopped nuts and extra dried fruit to the mix.

Cute little power muffins

Try to hunt them down at a store near you. You could definitely make them yourself, but there is no harm in cheating every once in a while.

Mom's minestrone

It should come as no surprise that the winner of my first feature Friday is my mom. And no, it’s not because she’s the only one that sent me a recipe (there were others and their days will come). It’s because she has managed to replicate Whole Foods minestrone–completely by accident, mind you.

If you haven’t had Whole Foods minestrone you are missing out. It’s on the salad bar and also available in take home tubs that you will try to devour in one sitting. The broth is flavorful but not in a salty way. The pasta is perfect. The vegetables are still crunchy. Ah, I love it.

This is a special soup for me because Stew and I ate it compulsively when we first started dating. As we approach the Fall season and our 1-year anniversary I’ve started to crave apple cider and brisk air and the soup and the cute grocery store dates we’d go on to find it. “Is it there?? YES!!”

You see, sometimes Whole Foods seems to think it’s funny to take the minestrone off the rotation without warning. Surely this enrages someone other than just me. Oh, the complete and utter let down when there was no soup.

I thought maybe I could mimic it. I went so far as to peel the ingredient label off a tub and stick it on a recipe card in hopes that I could turn it into a recipe. Alas, even at Whole Foods you get a list of ingredients a mile long filled with words you can’t pronounce. How did they make it?

When my mom sent me her minestrone recipe that looked suspiciously similar to the ingredient label I snagged (minus all the weird stuff), I knew she was on to something. I’ve added a few things to make it more like Whole Foods–chickpeas and spinach to be exact–switched the butter to olive oil, and used fresh basil just because I had some. The only thing lacking is cabbage and only because I didn’t have any. I also drained and rinsed my beans because I don’t read recipes before I start. I noticed a severe lack of broth by the end so you may want to pay attention to that.

Moms are good at a lot of things. Mine is better than yours at minestrone. You’re welcome.

And so I present our first Feature Friday:

Mom’s Minestrone

1 cup thinly sliced carrots
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1 cup chopped onions
1 clove garlic, crushed

2 T. olive oil
3 cans diced tomatoes (I use no salt added kind)
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil (or fresh if you’ve got it)
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 tsp.  salt ( this much is not necessary, you use this if you use fresh tomatoes)
 
2 (141/2 oz.) cans vegetable broth
1 (16 oz.) can navy beans, undrained
1 (16 oz.) can kidney beans, undrained
1 can chickpeas
1/2 box frozen spinach
1 lg. zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and sliced
1 cup uncooked elbow macaroni
1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Saute first 4 ingredients in olive oil over medium high heat until crisp tender. 

Add everything else.  Simmer 15 minutes or until the macaroni is tender.  Top each serving with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

And it’s Stew approved too. Thanks mom!

Better than Whole Foods

Snacktrition sea salt cashews

Who can resist a good impulse buy? Not me. Especially if I’m hungry (as is always the case when I’m shopping) and there’s food around. Luckily for me, TJMaxx stocks the register with Harry & David nuts, dried fruits and this little gem–Snacktrition sea salt cashews. I knew I’d be eating dinner soon so I just needed a little fat and protein to get me there. Nuts are perfect for that. Around 200 calories a serving, lots of good fat and a little protein to keep you moving.

But it doesn’t stop there. These crazy Snacktrition folks give their nuts a light dusting of iron before they bake them so that each serving has 8% of your daily RDV. How nice. They follow it up with a little sea salt and that’s it.

The nutrition facts are impressive:

Serving: 1/4 cup

160 calories
12g fat
150mg sodium
3g protein
8% RDV iron

Those calories are surprisingly low for nuts, the fat is the good kind, the sodium is negligible (just 6% RDV), protein’s actually a little low, and they threw in some iron for good measure.

Impulse buy WIN.

Workers in Guangzho, China were ordered to smear butter all over a 1000-ft long steel bridge to prevent people from climbing up to commit suicide. In one month 8 people commited suicide by jumping off the bridge and several others attempted. The climbers attract media attention and gawking drivers which lead to severe traffic jams. Solution? Butter the bridge.

Bridge guards say that the butter makes the bridge too slippery to climb and that they haven’t had any problems since the strange addition.

Thanks, Eat Me Daily, for this little tidbit.

Who knew?

OK, I’m sorry if this is completely uncultured of me, but I had NO idea that scallops came from shells like this until I saw a challenger on Iron Shef grilling a scallop on the half shell.

I also did not know that a challenger with an incredibly thick Spanish accent saying, “miso honey” would sound soooo much like “me so horny”. Man, oh man.

Also, Alton Brown said that catfish can grow lungs and little legs and walk short distances on land. This is a lie. I know because I tried to write an entire post about it and couldn’t find any truth to this claim anywhere. Do not lie to me, Alton Brown.

Salad: The gateway fry

Check this out… A study released in the Journal of Consumer Research found that people ordering from a menu featuring a salad are 3 times as likely to order fries instead versus people looking at a menu where no salads are featured.

10% of subjects ordering from a sald-free menu ordered fries. 33% of subjects ordering from a menu featuring a salad ordered fries.

What’s up with that? According to The New York Times article about the research, seeing a healthy option makes you stop and consider. This hesitation allows you enough time to lower your guard and convince yourself the fries are fine. “Ooh, it’d be better to get that salad, but I’ll just splurge this once.” No you won’t. Because now you know.

David Kessler may be best known for taking down Big Tobacco, but the former head of the FDA may have it in for the food industry too. The New York Times talked to him about his latest book, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. In it he examines the calculated combination of salt, sugar and fat that food giants use to tap into the human “bliss point” and keep us coming back for more.

So that Snickers bar you just devoured? It’s not because you lack willpower. It’s because the precise combination of sugary, fatty chocolate and salty peanuts brings you a feeling of bliss that you continue to crave… like a cigarette.

Watch it, Big Food. Kessler may come at you with damaging guerilla ad campaigns a la TRUTH for cigarettes.

PS – How much do you want to eat that carrot cake? I know.

SweetTater cupcakes

 

The Washington Post reported yesterday that despite the economic downturn about a half dozen cupcakeries have opened up shop in DC in the past 20 months. And these aren’t novel concepts in the nation’s capital. The newcomers are joining veterans Georgetown Cupcake, Red Velvet, Hello Cupcake, Something Sweet, and the list goes on…

Those already in business fear that the new bakeries will over saturate an already sweet market. “One or two more shops is about as much as the public can support,” Red Velvet owner Aaron Gordon told The Post. ”After that, the folks with the highest-quality cupcakes and best locations will be the ones who survive.”

I think everyone in the US has dreamed at some point of opening a cupcake shop. There’s just something so cute about it. I am no exception. I went through a cupcake phase last year and was convinced I would make a career out of it. Those are mine up there and down below too. Don’t be fooled by the pictures. My cupcakes sucked. I’m terrible at baking. It’s too precise for my make-it-up-as-you-go cooking style. I may start practicing again. I’m inspired.

Chocolate, peanut butter and strawberry

10Best.com recently featured Greenville, SC cupcake shop ICED as the place to go for a reasonable splurge during tough economic times. We also have another one in town, Cupcake Couture and Catering, right next door to my yoga studio. CCC is my personal favorite because they made this incredible Prince cake for Stew’s birthday without making fun of me too much.

Stew and his Prince cake

Personally, I’m not so sure $3 is reasonable for a cupcake. But I am neither reasonable nor able to resist a cupcake. So bring on the cupcakes shops. I alone will keep them afloat with my dedicated patronage.

Battle: Cookie

So I have a package of mint Oreos laying around left over from truffle making. Publix happened to have Back to Nature’s chocolate mint creme cookies half off this week. I don’t generally snack on packaged cookies, but this made for a nice blog… So here goes the taste test. Oreo vs. Back to Nature.

The Look

The Oreos are fatter (more in the middle) and the icing is dyed green–I assume to distinguish it from traditional Oreos. Back to Nature is slightly smaller and the middle cream (or creme as they say to be fancy) is half chocolate (brown) and half mint (white).

The Nutrition Facts

These two are almost identical when it comes to nutrition facts. This is likely not something the health nuts want to hear. Don’t you hate it when people buy the “healthy” version of something they know is bad and think they can eat even more of it? Ack. Anyway, just because one is packaged in a green box and touts that it is “natural” doesn’t necessarily make it any better for you when you look at the numbers.

Both have a serving size of 2 cookies and 130 calories for Back to Nature, 140 for Oreo. Oreo has 1 extra gram of fat and 2 extra grams of sugar compared to Back to Nature. Both have saturated fat (Oreo has 0.5g more). Other than that they are basically the same.

The Ingredients

Here’s where these cookies part ways. Oreo is filled with all kinds of crap–high fructose corn syrup, artifical colors (remember the cream?), etc. Back to Nature uses evaporated cane sugar, raw sugar, etc.

The Taste

Here’s where it really counts, right? I’ve already eaten both of these cookies and noted the differences, but I could see what they were and I predict the packaging was influencing my perception. So I closed my eyes, had my boyfriend hand me one secret cookie at a time, and found that they are still easy to distinguish.

Oreos are sweeter and have extra frosting. They’re also grittier and stick in your teeth more. Back to Nature has a more subtle mint taste and has a more solid cookie.

Bottom Line

Which one did I prefer? They both taste fine and the nutrition facts are identical. So honestly, I’d go with Back to Nature solely because of the cleaner ingredients. There’s that. Does that make this a health food? Not at all. I think that’s where people get confused. They think that because their butter has olive oil in it they can have more. It doesn’t work like that. Butter is still a fat and should be used sparingly. These cookies are still sugary snacks and, as such, should be consumed only on occasion.

Stew's famous hummus

Ladies and gentlemen, the time has finally come to share Stew’s famous hummus. There’s really no secret to it. Hummus is hummus. Chickpeas, olive oil, tahini, etc. He does have some secrets–vegetable broth for consistency, different spices, etc. Everyone that eats this loves it and wants the recipe. Be warned: There isn’t really a recipe. This is a tweak as you go kind of deal. Don’t press me for measurements. I don’t have them. So here we go…

The goods

Stew’s Hummus

Chickpeas, 2 cans
Olive oil
Tahini
Garlic
Vegetable broth
Red pepper, cumin, paprika, coriander
Salt and pepper

1. Rinse and boil chickpeas. Stew says this is not a necessity. We’re just scared of botchulism. I say it makes the chickpeas softer. Do what you will.

2. Puree chickpeas in food processor with olive oil, garlic and tahini. There are no measurements here. Add olive oil. Taste. Need more? Add more. If you like the taste of tahini add a lot. The secret here is to not just keep dumping in olive oil because you can’t seem to get it to a smooth consistency. It’ll come out tasting like nothing but olive oil. To really smooth out the consistency and not alter the taste too much, add in some vegetable broth and puree until desired consistency is reached. It should look like… hummus.

3. Add spices to taste. Stew doesn’t always use coriander, but we liked it in this batch. Lemon is also an option in traditional hummus. You’ll need a decent amount of salt and pepper… if you’re into that.

There you have it. Stew’s hummus. And now that we all know his name, I’ll no longer have to refer to him as “my boyfriend”. 

Mellow Mushroom's tempeh sandwich

Yesterday I mentioned that Mellow Mushroom has great sandwiches but didn’t elaborate because I was supposed to be discussing their pizza. Now it’s time for the less famous menu item to shine.

My hands down favorite sandwich at Mellow Mushroom is the tempeh sandwich with green peppers, feta and sprouts on a wheat roll. I have many a meat eating friend that enjoys this sandwich so don’t go running in the other direction just yet. Here is my take on Mellow Mushroom’s tempeh sandwich:

Mellow Mushroom Tempeh Sandwich

Tempeh
Green pepper
Red onion
Balsamic vinaigrette (I used Bolthouse)
Feta
Sprouts
Olive oil
Oregano

1. Cut the tempeh into strips and place in the vinaigrette to marinade for at least an hour. You should be able to find tempeh in most grocery stores near the tofu. Just ask someone.

Finding tempeh will be the hardest part of this recipe

Marinade tempeh

2. Prep and sautee onions and green pepper in a little olive oil. Add a drizzle of vinaigrette toward the end (if you do it too early it’ll burn). Add a sprinkle of oregano and salt & pepper to taste. Throw in tempeh toward the end to warm it through. Add feta to the mix after you remove it from the heat so it’ll soften but not quite melt.

Prep and sautee veggies

3. Prepare your bread. This may just involve slicing for you. I like to hollow out the middle so there is more room for filling and less likelihood I will spill everywhere. Add mixture and top with sprouts.

Hollow bread for more filling

And that’s it. There you have it. Mellow Mushroom’s tempeh sandwich. Sorry, I stole it. Mellow puts (what else?) mushrooms on theirs as well. Too bad. I hate mushrooms.

If you’ve seen Food Inc., you hate ConAgra. The food giant recently announced its plan to open a facility dedicated to processing sweet potatoes for the fast food market’s “large, quick-service chains”. Why must everything good be bought out by the food monsters, genetically altered, chemically enhanced and mass produced with complete disregard for the workers, the environment and the end consumer?

Ack. Back off the sweet potatoes, ConAgra. You already control 90% of the food we eat. Seriously. Watch Food Inc. You’ll see. ConAgra, Tyson, Cargill and Monsanto touch almost everything you eat. And they are not nice people.

Rainbow bread

Must be back to school season because here come the gross colored foods…

This one is right in line with purple ketchup and those cookies you color with an edible marker.

I like my food to look like food not a Play-doh experiment.

My mom used to let us decorate Wonder bread with colored water. But we never ate it. It was just another one of her brilliant teacher-turned-mom projects. Learn from us. Do not eat this rainbow bread.

Peanut butter, banana, oats, honey and cinnamon

Yesterday my friend Amanda made a cute little turkey roll up for lunch so I stole her idea and did it with things I will actually eat. This is a tortilla, crunchy peanut butter, banana slices, oats, honey and cinnamon.

It’s pretty much a dessert so I kind of feel like I’m going to die but it was worth it.

No meat here, sorry

Oh dear

I don’t like to take pills. I don’t take medicine of any sort and I don’t want a vitamin that resembles a pill. So in an attempt to increase my vitamin B intake without supplements, I went searching for some foods that are naturally rich in it. I see now why I’m having an issue.

Number 1 on the list of world’s healthiest foods rich in vitamin B-12 according to the George Matlejan Foundation? Calf’s liver. Numbers 2 – 9 aren’t much better either. Down there at the bottom we have yogurt holding strong for the vegetarians. Unfortunately, I don’t really like dairy products either. Ack.

Chart courtesy of http://whfoods.org/

An interesting thing about B-12 is that neither animals or plants can produce it naturally. The levels of B-12 in the foods above is based on the animal’s (or yogurt’s) interaction with the tiny microorganisms that create it–yeast, bacteria, mold and algae.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, though. While I am most certainly lacking B-12, it seems that my most apparent symptom (chapped lips) is a result of a B-6 deficiency. B-6 is responsible for the regeneration of cells especially those that regenerate quickly–like skin. Foods rich in B-6 are more up my alley. Spinach, bell peppers, cauliflower, bananas, celery, broccoli, etc.

But wait. These foods make up the bulk of my diet. What gives?

Turns out birth control sucks your body dry of B-6. Yeah, that’s a pill I do take. It doesn’t actually steal your B-6; it just makes it near impossible for your body to absorb it. Who knew? In fact, approximately 75% of women taking birth control and not taking B-6 supplements are vitamin B deficient. This is why I hate taking pills.

I guess I’ll stick with my B Complex vitamins.

Mmm

Delicious black bean burger and simple bean salad. I accidentally over toasted by bun and it made it nice and crunchy, which I like. I kind of didn’t love the bean salad. Perhaps those were not beans after all. I have no idea…

I also had a string cheese because I’m suddenly concerned about all of my nutrient intake and calcium is one area where I fail miserably.

www.grubgrade.com

The South stole the show this year in GrubGrade’s National Grub Battle. Best Pizza, Best Soda, Best Chip, Best Sandwich and Wildcard all went to southern-based brands.

Here’s my take on each:

Best Pizza – Mellow Mushroom (Athens, GA)

Mellow Mushroom

Hell.Yes. Mellow Mushroom has excellent pizza. If I hadn’t recently eaten pizza in Naples, Italy, I would say Mellow has the best in the world. But knowing what I know after eating real Italian pizza, I can’t say that. Still, Mellow definitely steals the show stateside. Though they’ve got a list of toppings a mile long, for me this place is all about the crust. Holy hell, the crust. I don’t know what they’re doing over there but they’re doing it right. After cooking, their special spring water crust (whatever that means) is brushed with plenty of oil and liberally dusted with grated parmesan cheese. Kill me. Their pretzel appetizer is made of the same dough and goes nicely with their salads. The sandwiches are great as well but this award was for pizza so I’ll shut up.

Best Soda – Coca Cola (Atlanta, GA)

Coca Cola

I don’t drink much soda. But I’ve had enough to know that Coke is better than Pepsi. End of discussion.

Best Chip – Kettle (Heh?)

Kettle

I don’t know why GrubGrade has Kettle listed as South and West. Their locations are in Salem, Oregon and Beloit, Wisconsin. Anyway, we already know how I feel about Kettle chips (I feel good) even if they aren’t from the South.

Best Sandwich – Firehouse (Jacksonville, FL)

Firehouse

I know that Firehouse was founded by firemen and that firemen are supposed to know great food. But I dislike (read: hate) Firehouse subs. This, however, is only because the lone vegetarian sandwich on the menu’s main ingredient is mushrooms. And I just so happen to also hate mushrooms. The combination of the mushrooms with the spicy mustard (that I also hate) just made my whole Firehouse experience really unfortunate. I do know though that anyone that eats meat tends to love Firehouse. So there’s that.

Wildcard – Chik-fil-A (College Park, GA)

Chik-fil-A

Obviously. This one is a no brainer. People go crazy for Chik-fil-A. My family is southern by blood but I was raised in Illinois. Trips down south meant trips to Chik-fil-A for us. They tout themselves as creators of the original chicken sandwich–wildly popular and frequently imitated (I’m talking to you, McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Sandwich and Chicken Biscuit). The chicken biscuits have a cult following. People are weird about these things.

Check out GrubGrade for the full list of winners.

Simple Bean Salad

Last week I picked up some beautiful beans and tomatoes at King’s Farm and Market in Edisto. I got the tomatoes because we eat them constantly, but I really just got the beans because they were pretty. I’m not really even so sure they are beans. They might be lima beans. I don’t know.

What is this?

Anyway, to avoid letting them rot away in the refrigerator I decided to whip up a nice simple salad to take to work tomorrow.

Simple Bean Salad

Fresh green beans
Tomato, 1 chopped
Olive oil
Red wine vinegar
Salt

1. Wash the beans. Pop the ends off and boil in a pot of salted water for a few minutes. Remove and run under cold water to stop the cooking process.

2. Chop tomato.

3. Mix everything together with olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt. Add pepper to taste.

That’s it. You could add other vegetables if you need to get rid of them or even some garlic or red onion for a kick. No rules. Just make what you like.

Jazz apple

I know I whined about my apples being shipped all the way from New Zealand, but as it turns out jazz apples are crazy good. That must be why they ship them halfway around the world. Demand.

Jazz apples are a cross between Braeburn and gala apples. Two of my favorites create one ultimate apple temptation. This must be the infamous apple from Eden. You know you shouldn’t really eat it because it’s been scientifically f’ed with, picked green and ripened in the back of some plane/ship/truck while it travels halfway around the world. But… one bite won’t hurt. Right?

Dried basil

You know that food in the fridge that you know is going bad? You know about a week before it goes bad that the end is near. But you don’t care. You don’t take preventitive measures like throwing it away before it’s too late or just eating the damn thing. You just watch it sit there, take up space, and fester.

I did that to some fresh basil recently. I do not know why. I love basil. I love to use basil. But for some reason I took a handful of basil from the farmer’s market, stuck it in a strainer in the fridge and let it suffer for about a week.

When I finally pulled it out to do my routine Sunday cleaning, I found that it wasn’t actually destroyed, just dried. Not near as good as fresh but it’ll do. Into a baggy it went. Hopefully I won’t ignore it too much longer.

Now I can almost look like a drug smuggler.

Relax. It's just basil.

I only drink 1 cup of coffee a day. That’s it. That’s all I want. I don’t need it to wake up or to function properly. I just like it in the morning with a little splash of soy milk.

I also don’t drink other caffeinated beverages throughout the day. So why is it then that this one little cup of coffee causes me so much pain when I don’t drink it?

I’ve been getting raging headaches if I don’t drink coffee by about 11am. What’s up with that? I know that the caffeine junkies out there experience major withdrawal symptoms, but surely I don’t drink enough to warrant this reaction.

Wrong. According to the National Headache Association (yeah, that exists), daily consumption of caffeine totaling 15 grams a month will cause withdrawal symptoms when suddenly stopped. Generally the headaches occur in people that consume 500mg a day (5 cups of coffee). However, small amounts of daily caffeine (100mg a day or 1 cup of coffee) consumed over a long period of time can result in withdrawal headaches as well.

That explains so much.

Brunch at Soby's

My old (as in former, not aging) roommate Lindsay was in town this weekend for the wedding and I could not have been happier to have a friend in town.

You know how they say your college friends are your friends for life? Yeah well they are, but no one ever tells you they are going to be your only friends for life and that you’ll be a totally lame cat lady when they all move away. I digress…

Anyway, Lindsay lives in Florida now but one of our traditions when we lived together was Sunday brunch (See Stuff White People Like #36). I don’t really even like breakfast foods and tend to only eat fruit in the morning anyway, but I do enjoy the company and the whole ritual of it all.

In an attempt to get Lindsay out the door at a decent hour for her long drive home, we tried to make this Sunday’s event more breakfast than lunch. Alas, we stopped at two restaurants that don’t open for brunch until 11am. That, my friends, is not brunch. Go ahead and call it lunch and stop messing with our heads. 

We finally arrived at Soby’s, considered by most to be among the best restaurants in town. Standing in my summer uniform–tattered cut-off shorts, makeup-less face and hair knotted in a pile atop my head–I wondered if we’d be ok rolling in to such a fine establishment. The judgment-free reception and service we received despite my shabby appearance was reason enough for me to love this restaurant and this brunch. But I’ll go ahead and brag on the food too. That’s what you’re here for, right?

The food, oh my God, the food. I’ve eaten at Soby’s before but only for dinner and only fried green tomatoes because it’s about the only vegetarian-friendly item on the menu.

After snagging a coveted window seat we were greeted by a delightful waiter who informed us that brunch at Soby’s is buffet-style and includes an omelet station, carving station, dessert table, breakfast items and lunch items. Stop talking; I’m already running to the goods.

I think we can all be honest with ourselves and agree that most buffets are straight up gross. Not this one. Piles of fresh fruit, homemade muffins, beautiful salads… Here were the highlights:

1. Pimiento cheese – If you’re not from the South, maybe you don’t get pimiento cheese. And if you’ve been eating that weird yellowy-orange crap from the grocery store, let it be known that you are not eating pimiento cheese. Real pimiento cheese should taste like… cheese–sharp, tangy cheddar cheese. I don’t know what Soby’s is doing with theirs, but it is the best damn pimiento cheese I have ever eaten.

2. Grits – Another southern staple, grits are the every man’s food because you can have them any way you want ‘em. Some people add sugar or syrup. Others go savory with butter, cheese and salt. If you’re at Soby’s, don’t add a damn thing. These grits blew.my.mind.

3. Banana bread – Alright, who at Soby’s stole my mom’s banana bread recipe? Seriously, this one was straight out of childhood. It even had that slightly undercooked top and center that I love. Perfect. I also tried the lemon poppyseed muffin. Also perfect.

Lemon poppyseed muffin

4. Omelet – I’m a little hesitant to eat eggs. I always think it will be a good idea and I know I need to protein, but I always feel a little queasy afterwards. Naturally, I avoided the omelet stand but Lindsay shared some of her spinach-cheddar creation and I about forked the whole thing right off her plate.

Lindsay's plate is about to be mine

5. Asparagus and Artichoke salads – After plate 1 of primarily breakfast foods, I decided to run back through and sample the lunch options. Most were meats but I had my eyes set on the artichoke salad and asparagus salad. Each was super simple with what I assume was nothing more than a light drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper. The beauty of brunch is that you get to mix breakfast and lunch foods. So I dipped each bite of these salads in my grits. Blow my mind.

There is really no way for me to do this buffet justice since I don’t eat most of what was available. But for you meat eaters, get ready for crabcakes, bacon, sausage, etc. You will love it. Promise.

And dessert? Yeah you get dessert with breakfast.

Breakfast cupcakes?

We spent most of Round 2 trying to guess how much the meal would cost us and came to a consensus that whatever it was would be worth it. I predicted $16-20 and it landed smack in the middle at $18/person. Higher than most people my age want to pay for food but truly worth it.

Add this one to your must-eat list. Brunch is served Sunday starting at 10:30am.

Honeymoon truffles

Yesterday afternoon my friends (and coworkers) Rachel and Brandon got married. At the request of the groom, I whipped up a special batch of honeymoon truffles for them to take down to Florida. And since it was a special occasion I upgraded from my standard Ziploc bag and instead presented the treats atop silver wrappers arranged in three small candy boxes tied together with a cute red ribbon.

Humble truffles fancied up

The cupcakes at the dessert reception that followed the ceremony are also worth mentioning 1) because they were adorabe and 2) because everyone was raving about them. I had a bite but saved myself for the wedding cake. Of course I didn’t get a picture of that because I was too busy eating… standard.

Aww

I froze the truffles and can only hope that they are still holding up against the brutal southern summer heat. Congratulations to Rachel and Brandon. Here’s to a sweet marriage.

Braswell's Select

How cute is this? Pomegranate passion red tea in a collectible glass. It’s part of Braswell’s Select Special Teas line. They run $3.75/glass online, but I don’t pay full price for anything so I snagged mine at TJMaxx for $2.

The tea was light and refreshing, is not full of crap ingredients and has just 60 calories. The stickers peel off easily making the collectible glass less of an eye sore… like these Welch’s grape jars we drank out of as kids.

Welch's collectible jelly glasses

Ah yes, this must be for girls

I took a Sociology of Gender class in college and my spunky young feminist professor would have none of this gendered food crap. And apparently neither will I. My best friend Amber and I took the class together and, while we are rather forward-thinking, independent young women, we kind of like the whole being a girl thing. This was not well-received in that class. Oh my, not at all.

Anyway, we were eventually converted into almost-bra-burning feminist vigilantes. Any sight of the slightest genderization results in a collective, “GENDER!” point and scream.

Women’s bathrooms. GENDER! Pink bowling balls in lighter weights. GENDER! Frilly dresses for baby girls. GENDER! There is no end.

I did my final project on gendered fitness and the divided socialization of male and female workout habits. Women focus on cardio and men focus on weight lifiting to literally sculpt a gender-appropriate physique that furthers the physical gender divide and makes it easier for the rest of society to identify you as one “type” or the other. Small and lean for women, big and bulky for men. That is another story for another time.

Now I would simply like to direct your attention to the A.V. Club’s hilarious review of ladies-only Fling candy bars and Her energy drink. As you would suspect, these snacks are all about food guilt and fancy packaging.

Fling’s ad slogans? “Have a fling!” ” Try it in public!” “Pleasure yourself!”

Have a fling!

Please make it stop.

Free chocolate for YOU

My boss is awesome. She can buy an entire shopping cart full of groceries for next to nothing because she is a coupon master. Me? I can’t be bothered with it. I think it must have something to do with not having kids. I’m in my selfish 20s so I don’t have to feed anyone but myself. I am still free to buy $5 boxes of designer crackers, organic cereals and nuts that are worth their weight in gold. One day I will learn my lesson. For now, I will just take note when she fills me in on free deals like this one from Mars…

I don’t know why, but Mars is giving away 250,000 free candy bars every Friday from now until October. They’re calling it the Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act.

I assume this has something to do with the economy and lackluster sales on non-essential items like, uh, M&Ms and making people “happy” with free chocolate so they’ll spend money again and save us all.

You do have to give up your physical and e-mail addresses so get ready for endless junk mail. But hey, every Friday that junk mail will turn into chocolate. Win.

King's Blackberry Cobbler

The King’s Farm & Market on Edisto Island was nothing short of awesome. I picked up white peaches, beans, three lovely tomatoes and a “chewy cake” to eat on the ride back to the house. It was probably no more than an 8-mile journey, but island speed limits make it a day trip so I needed nourishment. I hyperbolize.

Food for the drive

Anyway, my boyfriend got this glorious blackberry cobbler. They also had vidalia onion pie, key lime pie, tomato pie, peach cobbler, etc. Each one was just $10. And check out those ingredients. I can pronounce each one.

Simple ingredients = good

Visiting farm stands on vacation is a great way to get to know the area and you’ll probably find some delicious souvenirs to bring home. Beats a lame t-shirt.

I went to Edisto and all I got was this lousy shirt.

Baine Marie

A bain Marie (or water bath) is a fancy shmancy French cooking apparatus used for cooking “delicate” desserts and sauces or melting chocolate without burning. You may also know it as a double boiler.

You can buy one like the one above for anywhere from $25 – $70.

Or you could stick one pot on top of another pot filled with boiling water. Uhhh, yeah. I pick that.

Free double boiler

Tonight I’m working on a special batch of wedding truffles. Having learned my lesson burning chocolate not once but twice in the microwave, I decided to take no chances went instead with the free double boiler. Burn-free chocolate. Burn-free matrimony.

KFC Double Down Chicken Sandwich

You must see this atrocity. The KFC Double Down Chicken Sandwich replaces the bun with two fried chicken breasts. In the middle you’ve got your standard two slices of bacon, cheese and assorted toppings. Looks like Atkins gone wrong.

Though KFC.com has no mention of the new product, photos and a TV commercial are circulating around the food blogosphere. Could be an awesome joke. Could be the next pile of terrible courtesy of the fast food industry. You decide.

www.delish.com

Delish has a nice collection of the best food blogs out there. There are 50 to be exact and, yes, they appear to be the best. I would say, however, that Eat Me Daily and Bakerella belong here. Oh and maybe… Sweet Tater? Perhaps one day.

I think I may start obsessing over BitterSweet, SmittenKitchen and Bake or Break.

If you have another favorite that’s not on the list, comment or shoot it to sweettaterblog@gmail.com. Perhaps I will start my own list of fellow underdogs…

Fruit

Alright. I just saw Food Inc. so I’m on a rampage.

First, this is an excellent movie and everyone should see it. But I’ll devote much more time to that later. Haven’t seen it? Don’t worry. I took notes.

Second, it should be known that I love Publix. Before they built a Publix basically in my backyard, I would drive 30 minutes passing at least 4 other grocery stores on the way to get to a Publix. I am fiercely devoted. Publix is the best grocery store in America.

So why, why Publix, don’t you sell regional produce? I’m not even whining for local. Just regional. Southeast in general. East coast even.

Here’s what happened:

1. I saw Food Inc.

2. I decided I couldn’t eat anything anymore.

3. My cable went out again and I had to talk to Charter. Don’t even get me started.

4. I went on an angry run.

5. I came back and had to have fruit. I have a weird fruit intake thing. I can’t function without eating it every few hours. I have fresh fruit for breakfast. I want it for every snack. I eat it for dessert. I need it at all times. I’ve tried drinking juice when fresh fruit isn’t available. Not the same. Anyway, I went to Publix to buy fruit.

Having just seen Food Inc., I felt it necessary to check all the fruit stickers to see where it came from. After much wandering, I left with:

Apples from New Zealand
Oranges from Peru
Grapes from California
Bananas from Nicaragua

It was like a little fruity United Nations.

Alright. Bananas, import ‘em. I don’t know where you can find them in the states anyway. But oranges. Oranges? There was not a single Florida orange in sight. And Publix is a Florida-based chain. Come on now. And apples from New Zealand? Now I know somebody on the East coast is growing apples somewhere. We had an apple tree in our backyard growing up. What.the.hell?

Bacon cupcake? OK!

I know I don’t even eat meat, but I think I would totally consider eating this.

Thanks, Food Network Magazine.

Or perhaps you would prefer a more traditional savory breakfast version: Check out Stacey Snacks.

No more chicken patty for you

Some 250 hospitals across the country have signed on to the Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge attempting to impact the way foods are produced and distributed in the US by using their buying power to demand healthier options.

The institutions involved plan to (and this is directly quoted from their site):

Work with local farmers, community-based organizations and food suppliers to increase the availability of locally-sourced food.

Encourage our vendors and/or food management companies to supply us with food that is, among other attributes, produced without synthetic pesticides and hormones or antibiotics given to animals in the absence of diagnosed disease and which supports farmer health and welfare, and ecologically protective and restorative agriculture.

Implement a stepwise program to identify and adopt sustainable food procurement. Begin where fewer barriers exist and immediate steps can be taken. For example, the adoption of rBGH free milk, fair trade coffee, or introduction of organic fresh fruit in the cafeteria

Communicate to our Group Purchasing Organizations our interest in foods that are identified as local and certified.

Educate and communicate within on our system and to our patients and community about our nutritious, socially just and ecological sustainable food healthy food practices and procedures.

Minimize or beneficially reuse food waste and support the use of food packaging and products which are ecologically protective. 

Develop a program to promote and source from producers and processors which uphold the dignity of family, farmers, workers and their communities and support sustainable and humane agriculture systems.

Report annually on implementation of this Pledge.

Sounds like a great idea to me in theory. However, I am opposed demonizing any one type of food. Not all fried food is necessarily going to cause you to have a heart attack. Everything in moderation, my mom always said. I am idealistically hopeful that people will be able to make their own smart decisions about what they eat and that excessive consumption of fried fast food will eventually be avoided at will rather than with official bans. So maybe the “bad” foods don’t need to be banned entirely. But an increase in “fresh, local, sustainable” foods is a must.

Sorry

Sorry, I ate this one too fast to even take a picture… :[ I am embarassed.

Anyway, I had a Morningstar black bean burger topped with a fat Edisto tomato slice, mustard and vegetarian chili. Who knew you could eat that chili in a method other than shoveling spoonful after spoonful into your face? It’s good this way too. Hence the lack of photo proof that this elusive sandwich once existed.

S'mores

What’s a trip to the beach without a late night s’more? Yeah, beach regulations make it difficult to roast mashmallows over an open fire, but this doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy this childhood favorite a la microwave.

And eating just one isn’t going to be the end of you.

1 graham cracker – 65 calories
1 marshmallow – 25 calories
3 Hershey rectangles – 50 calories

140 calories. Eat it. You’ll be fine.

I made mine with dark chocolate because (confession) I hate Hershey’s milk chocolate. How completely un-American.

Kettle Baked Chips

I just got back from 3 days at the beach with my boyfriend and 5 guys. I’m talking guys. Beer chugging, video game playing, smoked sausage eating guys. Please believe this beach house was filled with all the guy essentials: beer, sausage, deli meats, beer, 16 jars of salsa, meat, beer, chips (tortilla and potato), meat and beer.

I brought more than enough food to keep me alive–vegetarian chili, lentils, black bean burgers, etc. But maybe sometimes I want to eat some chips and wash it all down with a beer. Fine, maybe sometimes I just want to eat chips. Kettle Baked are by far the best.

If you’ve ever had the carboard-tasting competitor version with questionable ingredients (YOU, Lays Baked), you know that most baked chips taste like anything but chips.

Not Kettle. Kettle Baked chips taste surprisingly (almost suspiciously) like fried chips. And the ingredients? Potatoes, sunflower oil, salt.

Shut up. Awesome.

The best part? Each serving is just 120 calories and there are only 4 servings in the bag. So when you accidentally eat half the bag (and you will) you’re only in the hole 220 calories.

Don't eat here

Eating on the road doesn’t have to be gross and unsanitary (I’m talking to you, combo gas station/fast food place. Shudder). With a little planning you can avoid eating where truckers shower. SHUD.DER.

Try this…

1. Bring your own snacks – Pack things that are easy to get to, easy not to spill everywhere and not easily spoiled/melted/etc. Trail mix and granola bars are an all around win. Water and/or juice and fresh fruit are also necessities. If you’re feeling fancy, pack an entire cooler. It’ll open up the door for more perishable snack options: yogurt, string cheese, etc.

2. Don’t be stupid at the gas station – Alright, you’re still going to have to stop at gas stations for gas and bathrooms. Don’t be stupid. Almost nothing in there is good for you… including the bathroom door handles. Shudder. If your gas station is anything like the one across the street from my office, everything has been sitting on the shelves since 1995 including those toxic hotdogs on the roll-y thing. Food (real food, anyway) is not intended to last that long. Avoid it. Get a granola bar that’s not full of crap or a bag of nuts. Step away from the donut case.

3. Order reasonable food at the drive through* – No you absolutely do not need any sort of triple burger value meal with fries, soda, etc. You are going to want to DIE trapped in a car for 8 hours after that. And so will everyone else. Get a small fry if you must have any at all. Better yet, get a baked potato if it’s an option. Get grilled chicken rather than fried. Have your sandwich bunless on a salad. Leave the cheese off the burger. Drink water above anything else. Avoid mayo; mustard is better anyway. Never, ever, ever get a damn milkshake. Are you insane?

4. Forget the drive through* – If you do a little research (or aimless driving) you should be able to find a real restaurant not far off the exit ramp. It’s unlikely that you’ll find great food, but it’s probably better than anything under the arches. Start at RoadFood.com to search by state, city or restaurant type. Also check out the discussion forums where you’ll find feedback from other travelers.

*I refuse to use through’s simplified variant “t-h-r-u” as it is seen on restaurant signs. I’m not sorry.

Multigrain French toast with crunchy peanut butter strawberry jelly sauce

I could tell the last of my bread was about to go even though I froze it like I was supposed to. So I had this idea to turn it into French toast. Since I don’t like syrup I opted instead for a crunchy peanut butter strawberry jelly sauce. Mmm.

Peanut Butter and Jelly French Toast

Multigrain bread, 2 fat slices
Egg whites
Crunchy peanut butter
Strawberry jelly
Sugar

1. Dredge the bread in the egg whites, sprinkle with sugar and toss in a heated, greased frying pan. No need to use butter. A little cooking spray will do the trick.

2. Mix desired amounts of peanut butter and jelly together in a bowl. Pop in the microwave to melt. Thin with water until you reach a consistency you like. Some like more, some like less.

3. Top toast with sauce and a little extra jelly.

This almost made waking up to the cops banging on my window looking for my neighbor not so bad.

Vegetarian fajitas

American restaurants have done terrible things to Mexican food. Mountains of indistinguishable mush are wrapped in tortillas, smothered in cheese, and doused with canned tomato sauce. When your plate arrives there is a good chance you’ll forget what you even ordered because it all looks the same.

Still, I can enjoy an ok meal at a Mexican restaurant every now and then. I just have to do it right.

1. Go easy on the endless chips and salsa – Yeah, they’re free, but think about what you’re eating. Those tortilla chips came from real tortillas. When the chips are really gigantic you can assume the tortilla was only cut into fourths. So for every four chips you eat, you’ve consumed a tortilla. And not just any tortilla… a deep fried tortilla. Would you sit down and eat 4, 5, 6 tortillas? Go easy. And don’t get “queso”. It’s not even real cheese.

2. Skip the neon margarita – Have tequila with a splash of lime juice and OJ or get a beer.

3. No dessert – I have yet to visit a Spanish-speaking country where dessert other than fresh fruit is consumed at the end of a meal (with the exception of special meals and holidays). Granted, I’ve never been to Mexico so maybe they really do regularly eat ice cream battered and deep fried and covered in chocolate. But I doubt it.

Tonight I had vegetarian fajitas. This is a standard go-to for me, but I’ll also have an occasional potato burrito or bean taco if I feel so inclined. I like the fajitas best because they come with the most green veggies and are also served with a small salad, guacamole, rice and beans. I never eat the tortillas especially if I’ve already been eating the free chips, and I avoid the refried beans because they are almost always cooked with pork fat and smothered in fake cheese product.

If I follow these rules I don’t feel like I want to die when I leave a Mexican restaurant.

This awesome dog was sitting next to our table

A week's worth of food for a family in Chad (©Peter Menzel Photography)

It’s really no surprise that most Americans eat crap. This eye-opening Time slideshow based on Peter Menzel’s book Hungry Planet takes a look at a week’s worth of food in 15 different homes around the world. How does your weekly grocery list compare to that of a family in Chad? Or Kuwait? Check out the slideshow here. Buy the book here.

Photo courtesy of Peter Menzel Photography.

Black bean burger and hummus wrap with carrots and tomatoes

Morningstar Black Bean Burgers will change your life. Wrap it in the world’s best tortillas, smother with hummus, top with carrots and tomatoes and you’ve got yourself a lunch. Add zucchini chips as a side and a leftover baby shower truffle for dessert and it’s a happy Friday.

Bangers and mash

Perhaps you were a bit perplexed when I said the meat options at the baby shower were lamb, chicken and bangers. Bangers? What are bangers?

Bangers = sausage. British and Irish sausage to be exact. What distinguishes bangers from their American cousins? I have no idea. According to WiseGeek: “Bangers are much larger than the traditional US breakfast sausage. They are usually equivalent in length to a hot dog, but are about twice the width.” Haha, sorry.

Bangers are a popular pub food in the UK and are traditionally served atop a bed of mashed potatoes to create a dish known as bangers and mash. So there’s that.

Dr. Honey Bear delivers my tea prescription

Who gets sick in the summer? Apparently I do. And on days when I feel like crap (today), I pass on my usual coffee and go for tea with honey. See, I don’t take medicine of any sort (no, I don’t really know why) so this is a natural way to fix a sore throat.

The Keurig coffee maker is the coolest kitchen appliance I own because it doesn’t just make coffee. The K-cup variety packs also come with hot chocolate (grossy) and tea (excellent). Love it.

Guess the baby. Instant fun.

As mentioned in the Irish Gold post, tonight was a food-filled company baby shower. Here are some of the highlights.

For starters, the location was perfect–a rooftop terrace overlooking the river where they just so happened to have live music playing in the amphitheater.

Atop the terrace

Apparently “Irish” means meat… and there was a lot of it. Lamb, chicken and bangers.

Meat plate

But there was plenty for me to eat too. Come on, Irish = potatoes!

This non-mayonnaisey potato salad with asparagus was insane. I need this recipe.

This salmon appetizer was a big hit and although I didn’t try it (no meat or fish, remember?), I wanted to. Perhaps I’ll feature the recipe for the rest of you if I can get my hands on it.

Salmon

And who could forget the Oreo truffles. In hindsight, a chocolate dessert on the roof in the summer is about as good an idea as a Bailey’s cocktail. But hey, they held up fine. This time we expanded our offering with mint chocolate truffles. Just use mint Oreos and follow the same steps.

Double chocolate, mint chocolate and peanut butter chocolate truffles

The Guess the Baby game was a hit despite the fact that I left the ballots at home. Somehow everyone crowding around the board and shouting out names was more fun than filling in the blanks.

Irish Gold

Tonight I went to a baby shower for my co-worker Joey and his wife Kelly. Now, when you work where we work you know that few events are cause for celebration without alcohol–even baby showers. So, naturally, I was in charge of the specialty cocktail. Theme: Irish.

Aw, crap. Who wants to drink Bailey’s on the roof of an apartment complex in South Carolina summer heat? Grossy. Never fear. A simple Google search for “Irish cocktails” led me to this gem. Yes, some Irish drinks don’t have Bailey’s and are not died green.

Whiskey used to be my drink of choice. But since college I haven’t even been able to look at it. [Thank you, Beach Weekend.] This new cocktail changed all that. It’s sweet but not too sweet and has just enough kick to make me social. Kidding?

It was a big hit too. I recommend it for your next Irish-themed gathering.

Irish Gold

Jameson
Peach schnapps
Ginger ale
Orange juice

I honestly don’t know the proper measurements of these liquids. And since I was pouring into a pitcher rather than a glass, I don’t think you want to hear my estimates. Just make it taste good. Obviously you only want a splash of schnapps, probably equal parts of ginger ale and OJ, and then go to town with the Jameson however you see fit.

Don’t worry. I’m not so completely unsocialized that I didn’t think to make a mommy mocktail too. Momosas (get it?) made with ginger ale and OJ were available for the mommy-to-be.

Hot and sour soup with tofu and edamame

There’s nothing like soup when you’re feeling sick, and Thai Kitchen’s Hot & Sour Rice Noodle Soup Bowl is one of my favorites. It’s just noodles, broth and spices, so I add tofu and edamame to make it a more substantial meal.

BEWARE: This bowl packs a whopping 70% of your DRV (daily recommended value) of sodium. Yuck. Holy bloated. Solution? Most of the salt is in the silver seasoning packet so I only use about a quarter of it and that is all.you.need. Trust me. If it’s still not enough, add a little low sodium soy sauce.

Thai Kitchen

This grumpy logo makes me sooo happy

My friend Jack is in grad school at NYU and wanted to fill us all in on a few more tidbits of Starbucks gossip…

1. The new concept stores are using a $10,000 one-cup coffee maker that was discovered at Cafe Grumpy in NYC

2. Rumor has it Cafe Grumpy makes the best cup of coffee in.the.world. When Starbucks execs heard this they flew over, tried to coffee, agreed and bought the same machines used there

3. The “feel” of the new stores is also said to mimic that of Cafe Grumpy. Do you see a theme here?

Jack has a friend who has been to Cafe Grumpy and concurs that it indeed serves the best cup of coffee in the world. Who wants to go?

Do you eat at your desk?

The American Dietetic Association released some frightening statistics about American eating habits. Did you know that 67% of us eat lunch at our desks, 61% snack there and over a third eat breakfast too? Did you also know that when you multitask while mindlessly eating you can expect to consume more calories? People in a study who ate in front of the television took in an average of 288 calories more than those who didn’t. I’m going to assume that other distracting office activities like reading email or talking on the phone will lead to the same increase in consumption.

I have to admit, I do all of these things–breakfast, lunch and snacks at my desk. Sliced peaches and a granola bar for breakfast, a banana for a snack, sandwiches, chili, soup or salad for lunch. But I’m pretty good about making wise food choices. My office is relatively healthy. I see a lot of black bean burgers, salads, yogurt, etc. But there are others with soda, chips and candy stored and ready at their desks at all times.

A particularly sad study about food proximity on rate of consumption found that simply moving a bowl of M&Ms out of arm’s reach stopped people from eating them. Move it a few feet in the other direction back toward the body and consumption skyrockets. Moral of the story: Don’t keep food at your desk. And don’t bring food from the kitchen to eat at your desk either. Sit down. Pay attention. And enjoy your meal.

P-U-P-U-S-A!

A pupusa is a thick, biscuit-like bread pocket stuffed with cheese, beans, or meat and is native to El Salvador. They’re served with a crunchy pickled cabbage slaw. MMMM. I saw it last night on “The Best Thing I Ever Ate: With My Hands” and can’t stop thinking about it.

And looky here… Emeril has a pupusa recipe right here! I’m sorry, is that a list of 28 ingredients?! Save this one for a Saturday…

Honey lemon hot drink

Some days suck. They.just.suck. Gloomy, gray, gross. I believe strongly that I am allergic to days like this, which must be why I feel a cold coming on. A cold… in the summer. Come ON. I never get sick. What’s the deal?

When I was in Spain I got outrageously sick. I’m talking knocked out, can’t function, want to DIE kind of sick topped off with the worst two-week-long sore throat in history. I went to a doctor multiple times. I was convinced I had mono but he assured me I did not. Maybe this is because “mono” means “monkey” in Spanish. That or my lab results came back negative…

I was prescribed these revolting alka seltzer-type tablets that, when dropped in water, created a beverage that would make most of you cry. The smell. The taste. I gag just thinking about it.

Thankfully, my dear house madre Sofia would make me this honey lemon hot drink on days when I just couldn’t choke down the gross. Even after I was better I would still request it just because it’s good.

Honey Lemon Hot Drink

Lemon juice, fresh squeezed
Honey
Water

Now, I’m not entirely sure how she got this drink to be as good as it was. I predict it required at least 6-8 lemons and a ton of honey. I only had 3 lemons so I improvised by adding some OJ. Combine all ingredients and zap in the microwave.

Instant feel good.

According to a Harvard study released in Pediatrics, the more hours babies spend in day care, the fatter they get. But wait, there’s a catch. This only seemed to be a trend when the day care took place in another person’s home, not an actual day care center.

The researchers hypothesize that it must have something to do with being in a less formal setting. I’ll tell you what it is though… I never went to daycare a day in my life, but according to my official research conducted while hanging out at my neighbor’s in-home day care center pretending to be a “mom” from age 5 until I went to college, I can confirm that kids get fat in home daycare because there is so much delicious food available.

My sister and I used to go over to visit the kids at my neighbor’s house on days when they got to make peanut butter play dough (edible clay made from peanut butter, sugar, etc.) and monster cookies (sugar cookie dough stuffed with candies and baked the size of a medium pizza). These were glorious days for us.

And so in conclusion, home daycare is an excellent choice because you get to eat play dough.

I’ll be sure to send Harvard a link to my research. I know they’re dying to figure this mystery out.

Share the Sweet Tater love

Send your favorite recipes to sweettaterblog@gmail.com. Starting Friday, August 28, 2009, I’ll pick one each week to become a part of a new Feature Friday series.

Vegetarian chili and brown rice

My boyfriend is on his third day straight of nothing but tomato and zucchini pie. Me? I’m eating vegetarian chili. Obviously.

This meal has been Weasel-approved

Mortgage cake

This is encouraging… A Lewisville, TX family is avoiding foreclosure on their home of 23 years by baking their way out of debt.

Tom and Donna Hobden have been hit with hard times since their daughter was hospitalized for a month last November. The day after she was released, Tom lost his job. Three days later Donna lost hers.

Four months behind on their mortgage and buried under medical bills, the couple came up with a plan to save their home: The Mortgage Cake. Using an old family recipe tweaked to their liking, the couple set out to raise $4000. That means they would need 100 orders of their $40 cakes. Since Friday they have received 65 orders.

Check out their site if you’re in the mood for a little Mortgage Cake. What does it taste like? Grandma’s apple spice cake.

15th Ave under construction

Here’s a little more info straight from Starbucks about their new concept store 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea:

• The store will carry varieties of Starbucks coffee and Tazo tea not available in the standard locations
• Beer and wine will be served
• Interior design inspiration was drawn from the original Starbucks opened in Seattle’s Pike Place Market in 1971
• A range of materials was used including refinished chairs from other area Starbucks and old theater seats, a large community table made from the wood of an old ship, and other wooden accents made from an old barn

According to a Business Week interview with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, the idea started when he asked a group of managers what they would do if they planned to open a coffee shop to compete with Starbucks. He gave them a budget and 6 months later the 15th Avenue idea was born. He says the only reason it doesn’t carry the Starbucks name is because it carries alcohol.

I wasn’t aware the store was already opened on July 24. And you know what it says on the door? “Inspired by Starbucks.”

Ha. Has anyone been? I’m curious…

Tater's Vegetarian Chili

I seriously can’t believe I’m about to share this. I love to cook and when I do I like people to share my food and tell me what they think. Not with this. No, when I make vegetarian chili I hoard it all for myself. I eat it for three meals a day until it’s gone. I once sent a “trusted” friend to my apartment to guard it from my roommates while I was out. She later confessed to eating it herself. It is just that perfect.

I joke about my family not providing me any vegetarian-friendly dishes, but the truth is, this is my mom’s recipe and she makes me for me every time I’m home. It should really be called Mom’s Vegetarian Chili but every time she makes she calls it Tater’s. I suppose you could add some meat to it if you had to, but it doesn’t need it. Even my steak and potatoes dad eats (and enjoys) it.

This is the original recipe card she gave to me when I went to college so I could make it myself.

Guarded under lock and key

I’ll relay the recipe exactly as it was given to me.

Tater’s Vegetarian Chili

1 lg onion, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon veg. oil [I use olive oil]
1 (28oz) can undrained whole tomatoes chopped [I use diced]
2/3c picante sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 large green & red peppers
2 large carrots, sliced
2 cans black beans, rinsed & drained

Saute onion in hot oil until tender. Add tomatoes, picante sauce, cumin, salt, and oregano. Bring to a boil; cover & simmer 5 min.

Sautee onion

Add tomatoes and spices

Stir in beans, peppers & carrots. Cook over medium-low heat 25 minutes or until veggies are tender. [I added corn too]

Add beans, peppers, carrots

Serve over rice, sprinkle with cheese. Yield – 6 cups

I go with Florida Crystals Organic Cane Sugar

Why are people so terrified of sugar? All you see anywhere is low sugar this and sugar-free that. Yeah, these products have fewer calories, but at what cost?

Think about it… if they’re taking the sugar out… but it’s still sweet… hmm, what did they put back in it?

Probably one of the following:

1. Aspartame – “Aspartame is the methyl ester of the dipeptide of the natural amino acids L-aspartic acid and L-phenylalanine. Under strongly acidic blah blah blah…” Say what, Wikipedia? It’s the one you’ll find in the pink (NutraSweet) and blue (Equal) packets. The acceptable daily intake (ADI) is set at 40mg/2.2lbs of body weight. A 120-pound person like myself would then be allotted around 2180mg of aspartame a day, or about 6 teaspoons–1tsp is like a packet. How many packets did you just put in your coffee? How many do you think are in that Diet Coke? Watch yourself, sweetener addict.

2. Splenda – Splenda is a sucralose-based artificial sweetener, or the one in the yellow packet. Did you know that sucralose was discovered in 1976 by scientists seeking a new pesticide formula? The FDA calls it natural because it’s derived from sugar, but the FDA also has no official definition of the word “natural”. Yes, Splenda starts as sugar, but then three of the hydroxyl groups are replaced with chlorine atoms. Chlorine is a chlorocarbon. You know what else is? Pesticides.

3. Stevia – Stevia is the latest in the sweetener craze–only this one’s not artificial because it’s derived from an herb. Some people think it will prove to be dangerous once enough time has passed to complete studies on it. Others rave about it as the only safe sweetener out there. All I have to say is that, at 3oo times the sweetening power of sugar, Stevia is gross. I put less than half a packet in my coffee one day to see what all the talk was about. I had to dump it out. Don’t do it.

There are, like, 15 calories in a packet of real sugar. 15 calories, fool. Are all of these other sweeteners going to kill you? I will venture to say absolutely not. But do you really want to risk it for 15 freaking calories? Eat the sugar packet. You’ll be fine.

Confession: I drink an occasional Diet Dr. Pepper. Get off my back.

Tomato basil hummus sandwich with zucchini chips and kalamata olives

My boyfriend makes some mean hummus and when he does he makes it in one huge batch so we don’t eat it all in a day. It’s not that making hummus is difficult so he doesn’t want to do it often. It’s just that we eat a LOT of it so it takes a double batch to get us through the week.

I spread it on a fat slice of my multigrain bread (thawed from the freezer, of course) with a sprinkle of grated carrot, two big basil leaves and a couple tomato slices for an easy office lunch. I only use the tiny end nubbin of the bread for my top “slice” since I don’t need that much bread but still need something to hold on to.

I paired it with zucchini slices (since I couldn’t stop eating them during the tomato pie prep) and some kalamata olives. Fresh veggies are obviously better for you than chips and they still have a nice crunch. Olives will give you the salt factor the veggies lack.

Anything for a little attention

Thanks to NYC blogger copyranter for this rant about Lay’s latest creative advertising in Chicago’s Jackson Tunnel. The fake potatoes hanging from the ceiling are there to remind people that Lay’s uses locally grown produce to create its chips, a piggyback off the oh-s0-trendy “green movement” that seems to be more about companies adding green and brown lettering to their “recycled” packaging than people actually investing in and practicing green lifestyles.

How about this… How about if you want to eat locally grown potatoes you buy them from a local farmer’s market and then make twice baked potatoes with them? Beats Lay’s, I promise.

Coffee love

When I mentioned Green Mountain’s Black Magic coffee in my post about the Keurig coffee maker, I clearly meant Dark Magic. Black Magic is the name of my dad’s bass boat. Silly me.

Anyway, my boyfriend knew the difference because he surprised me with two boxes of Dark Magic K-cups. Awww.

Iced coffee with soy milk

Let me start by saying that if I were to get fired tomorrow I’d go straight to Starbucks to get a job because:

1. They’re never going away

2. They offer employee benefits

3. You can drink coffee all day

So hopefully I don’t say anything that may one day ruin my chances of this Plan B…

But have you heard this crap about Starbucks recently? Apparently the big guy is planning to open a number of “secret” Starbucks around Seattle designed to look like neighborhood joints and obviously lacking the famous name and logo recognized around the world. They’ll be named elusive things like 15th Avenue Coffee & Tea, which you’ll find in Capitol Hill Seattle.

Teams of Starbucks employees have literally been camping out in neighborhood coffee shops taking notes in folders labeled “Observations” in an effort to recreate the authenticity of these local joints. This sounds like how Applebee’s/Ruby Tuesday/Chili’s must have ended up with all that garbage nailed to the walls. Nothing authentic or original about it.

Starbucks has great coffee and I appreciate their fair trade efforts and treatment of employees. But seriously, give it up guys. Pick on someone your own size. Did you hear McDonald’s serves frappy coffee drinks now? Get ‘em!

Tomato zucchini pie with balsamic onions, basil and parmesan

 I hit the tomato and zucchini jackpot at the famer’s market on Saturday and have had this convoluted “recipe” in my head ever since. I knew I wanted to somehow shove these glorious veggies into a store-bought pie crust and come out with something amazing. I wasn’t quite sure how to get there so I just started cooking…

What I ended up with is not your standard mayonnaise-cream-cheese-globbed fat pie. Not at all. I used sprinkles of grated romano-parmesan cheese, drizzles of olive oil and (secret time) egg whites to hold it all together. Using egg whites as a base rather than cream cheese and mayonnaise will save you approximately 1 million calories. Add this one to the healthy file.

Here’s how it’s done:

Tomato Zucchini Pie

Frozen pie crust, 1
Tomatoes, 3 sliced
Zucchini, 1 sliced
Yellow onion, thinly sliced
Basil
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Garlic, minced
Parmesan cheese, grated

1. Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil. Add balsamic vinegar to create a reduction. [Fancy... what's this? A balsamic reduction is nothing more than balsamic vinegar left to sit over heat until it reduces to about 1/4 its size. But stir it so it doesn't burn or caramelize. Easy peasy.]

Balsamic onions

2. Start building your pie. Slice all your veggies and season with salt and pepper. Be sure to seed your tomatoes or you’ll have too much watery liquid and your crust will be soggy.

I was eating these zucchini slices like chips. So good.

3. Layer tomatoes, onions, cheese, zucchini, basil, cheese, tomatoes, zucchini, cheese. Drizzle with olive oil. Pour egg whites over pie to fill in holes. This is not a quiche so you’re not looking to fill the entire crust, just give the veggies something to hold on to.

Layer veggies and cheese

A sprinkle of cheese and drizzle of olive oil on top will give you a nice crispy crust on the zucchini

4. Wrap foil around the edges of the crust so it won’t burn.

Don't forget this. I promise you crust will burn if you do.

 5. Make sure Weasel is still sitting in your purse.

Sigh, check.

6. Place [pie, not Weasel] in a 450-degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour. Check it about 30 minutes in and use a spatula to push the veggies down so any uncooked egg liquid rises to the top to cook faster.

The finished product

Slice and eat

I can’t ever get perfect pieces out of anything pie or casserole shaped. But doesn’t that look nice? I don’t even have a pie cutter and this guy held up under my fork prodding. We have the egg whites to thank for that, I believe. Enjoy!

Official seal of the south

A couple years ago a small distillery in Charleston, SC released Firefly, a sweet tea-flavored vodka. Now, if you’re not from the South you might not be able to grasp just how epic this is. Sweet tea… and vodka. Sweet tea vodka!

I got hooked at a local beer/wine/liquor celebration where free samples of the new libation were being handed out. Holy hooked. A year later my not-yet boyfriend and I were at yet another food/wine/beer/liquor festival and Firefly was free once again. Love at first sip. It’s perfect–sweet but not too sweet and ideal with just a squeeze of lemon and a splash of water.

Or so I thought… My friend Isaac informed me today that the kids up in Yankee DC are drinking something called Porch Sitters, a Firefly-bourbon cocktail. Shut yer mouth. Gimme one.

Seriously, how did we not think to add bourbon to this sooner?

According to Isaac the cocktail is Firefly, bourbon and sour. I’d pass on the sticky, sugary sour and go for a squeeze of lemon instead. And so, I present to you:

Porchsitters

Firefly sweet tea vodka
Bourbon
Lemon
Ice

Happy summer!

Doc Chey's tofu lettuce wraps

Since my boyfriend and I have already perfected Doc Chey’s Thai Peanut Salad (be on the lookout for the recipe), I decided to go for something different at the restaurant: tofu lettuce wraps.

I love lettuce wraps because they’re never too terribly filling but I always feel satisfied. Plus, since most restaurants have them on the appetizer menu they’re cheaper and (hopefully) smaller than entree portions.

I like the Doc Chey’s version–with sliced water chestnuts, grated carrot, green onions and a choice of tofu or chicken–but they’ve got too much sauce for my liking. I think that P.F. Chang’s has a less sodium-drenched version that is equally as good.

A few things to note about my meal out at Doc Chey’s:

1. I ordered an appetizer so it was safe to assume that this dish was designed to be shared amongst a group. I didn’t eat it all.

2. I started with edamame because it’s high in protein but low in calories so it’ll fill you up a bit before you dive into your calorie-laden meal.

Edamame

3. I avoided the dipping sauce–partially because it was too spicy and primarily because it was apparent the food was already doused in another oily sauce.

4. I chugged water. Most restaurant dishes are outrageously high in sodium. Opt for water and drink a lot to avoid excessive bloating.

All of these things have become subconscious second nature to me. If you have trouble controlling yourself when dining out, just pay attention to what you’re eating and how it’s making you feel. If you’re thirsty, tired, bloated, etc. afterwards, you overdid it.

It's cocktail time!

I realize you may love her *delicious* semi-homemade recipes, but Sandra Lee is cray-zay.

Good as new

Tired of tossing out stale, moldy bread? Freeze it, silly. I know it’s really obvious but I didn’t start actually doing it until recently because I didn’t believe the bread would still taste good when it thawed.

It does.

So now when you buy your loaf, cut it in half and store one side in the freezer. It’ll be good as new when you finally get around to eating it.

And stop buying mushy, white Wonder bread. Mushy, brown “whole wheat” equivalents are no better. Get something with a little meat on its bones that’ll stand up against the heartiest of ingredients–anything multigrain and crusty will work. Mmm, real bread.

Just add ice cream

Yesterday I made a peanut butter banana smoothie and my boyfriend has been asking for one ever since. Little did I know that his plan was to add an ice cream sandwich to his. Never fear. It was a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich so little harm was done.

Skinny cow ice cream sandwich

For the boyfriend version of the peanut butter banana smoothie, simply add an ice cream sandwich of your choosing.

How did I not think of this?

Will it blend? Shyeah.

Delicious