More adventures, less food. OK, that's a lie...

I'm still alive people. I hope you all haven't abandoned me due to my shameless lack of attendance in my new blog world. I've had some weird mental block going on and my brain seriously turned to mush last week. I swear. I had to write a bio about myself for my new job, and stared at a blank page for about 3 days. I've just been in a funk lately. My apologies.

N. and I are also having a yard sale this weekend, so I've been drowning in boxes of junk wonderful treasures for the past week and a half. It's the first yard sale for both of us, so I'm not expecting anything to go smoothly. We have quite a bit of cool stuff (not to mention her mom and sister are both setting up tables in our yard as well) so hopefully we'll get a decent crowd and lots of money!

My other excuse for being MIA all week is that N. and I also stayed true to our promise and went walking around JP Pond almost everyday last week. We are both so out of shape that when we get home, all we do is eat dinner, watch an episode or two of True Blood (our new series.. RIP Lost) and pass out. I know none of these are valid excuses, but at least give me brownie points for trying.

MMmmm...brownies.

Speaking of brownies... why is it that eating healthy is so ridiculously expensive. I mean seriously! We completely overhauled our refrigerator and pantry, throwing out all the yummy sugary fatty goodness bad artery clogging diabetes causing stuff. We went to Market Basket armed with a grocery list chock full of veggies and fruits, lean protein and low sugar options. Granted we might have gone a little overboard..

 Disregard the ice cream in the lower left corner.
We came to our senses and put that back.

...but we had no idea the astronomical number that would be displayed on the checkout screen:

If we would have had a cart full of processed, fatty,sugary CRAP (like we usually do) our total would have been HALF that. Then people have the nerve to judge struggling families for eating junk food and allowing their children to eat things like McDonald's (of course, lack of exercise is also a contributing factor... but still!). I mean why wouldn't a struggling mom buy each of her kids an entire meal at Taco Bell for $4, if those same $4 can barely buy TWO avocados in the grocery store?! 

I am so growing avocados in my garden next season because $4 for two avocados is just insanity.

Well, now that we have an entire farm and grocery store in our kitchen, we have no excuse not to be cooking delicious meals every night. Of course, when I say "we" I totally mean "I," since N.'s contribution entails just eating. I've been satisfying our take-out cravings by attempting to recreate them at home. Last night we had Chicken Tikka Masala over curry rice and griddle bread...

And the night before that I made Thai Red Curry Salmon with Pineapple Mango Fried Rice. Amazing, I tell you. N. said it was better than our usual takeout place! Two more brownie points for me. MMmmm brownies. Sorry. I didn't follow a recipe with the salmon, but the recipe for the fried rice is below. It's by By Darlene Schmidt, on About.com.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Total Time: 38 minutes

Ingredients:

• SERVES 2-4
• 1 small can pineapple chunks, drained, OR 1 whole pineapple (see instructions below) <---I also added mango because I had a yummy Thai yellow mango sitting in my fridge :-)
• 3 cups cooked rice, preferably several days old (Tip: if fresh, leave for an hour or more in the refrigerator uncovered)
• 3-4 Tbsp. vegetable or faux chicken stock for stir-frying (or regular chicken stock if non-vegetarian)
• 2 shallots, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or pressed
• 1 red or green chili, thinly sliced (reduce or leave out if you prefer very mild fried rice)
• 1 egg (vegans can omit)*
• ½ cup frozen peas
• optional: 1 small carrot, grated (about 1/4 cup)
• ¼ cup raisins or currants
• ½ cup raw unsalted whole cashews     <--I left these out because I didn't want to die
• 3 spring onions finely sliced
• 1/3 cup fresh coriander
• STIR-FRY SAUCE:
• 2 Tbsp vegetarian fish sauce, OR 3 Tbsp. soy sauce (use regular fish sauce if non-vegetarian)
• 2 tsp. curry powder

Preparation:

For a non-vegetarian version of this recipe, see: How to Make Thai Heavenly Pineapple Fried Rice, step by step.

1. Mix 1 Tbsp. oil with the rice, using your fingers to separate any chunks into grains. Set aside.
2. In a cup, stir the soy sauce/fish sauce together with the curry powder.
3. Drizzle 1-2 Tbsp. oil in a wok/large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots, garlic, and chili, stir-frying until fragrant (1 minute). Whenever the wok/pan becomes dry, add a little stock (1/2 to 1 Tbsp. at a time to keep the pan sizzling).
4. Crack egg (if using) into wok and stir quickly to cook (like making scrambled eggs).
5. Add the carrot (if using), peas, cashews. Stir-fry 1 minute in the same way, adding more stock if needed.
6. Now add the rice, pineapple chunks, and currents. Drizzle the fish/soy sauce mixed with curry powder over and gently stir-fry to combine over medium-high to high heat until the rice "dances" (begins to make popping sounds) - about 3 minutes.Tip: Avoid adding any more stock from here on, or your rice will turn out soggy. The wok/pan should be hot and dry.
8. To serve, scoop rice onto a serving platter (or in a carved-out pineapple, if serving at a party - see link at beginning of recipe). Top with spring onions and coriander, and ENJOY!

*Note: Vegans may omit the egg without losing the flavor or nutrients of this great dish (cashews provide the main protein source). 

Let me just tell you, this is absolutely delicious and you need to try making it, if you're into that sort of thing that is. So far, the eating habit change is going well. We're working on making our portions smaller and not be such... hefers. The weekend came along though, and with it, brought Boston's First Annual Food Truck Festival. If you know anything about how N. and I feel about food trucks (and my dismay at the Boston laws practically forbidding them!) then you know we were in there like swim wear!

We weren't that bad though. I swear! We shared a Chicago Dog and munched on a few handfuls of caramel popcorn. Oh and a free sample of some yummy Jamaican chicken. It was actually kind of disappointing. The festival, not the chicken. Food trucks are a New York City staple and one of my favorite things about the city. Boston needs to get with the program! 

The festival was at the SOWA Open market, so we spent most of the time in there perusing the aisles. I found some great Nina Simone records in the vintage market.

We also bought some awesome art pieces and got some cheap-o, but super cute frames at Boomerang's  (check them out! Their proceeds  support the programs and services of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts!) on centre Street in JP. 

I guess our disappointment at the food trucks got the better of us, because somehow we ended up at JP Licks and sinned. We sinned big time. JP Licks now has Belgian Waffles before 2pm, and of course it was 1PM and we were just in time!

Ha! Caught in the act!

**EDIT**  These faces have been changed to cows based on N.'s hissy fit about posting unflattering photos. That is all. You may resume reading.

Oh well. We were good for most of the week. Look, life is short. What if my number was up that day? I would have totally regretted not eating that waffle. And the brownie batter ice cream I topped it with was just as important. 

Namaste bitches!

-D.

Falling off the (food) wagon... again.

So, I totally lied about having fish and veggies for dinner. I even lied about the glasses of water. We had Ethiopian food. And a glass of pinot grigio.

I will point out, however, that I did not intend to lie. I had every intention of eating a healthy meal of fish and veggies. I even defrosted the fish and marinated it. Then I went to pick up N. from work and went to UPS to mail out the painting my friend Julius bought from me (he bought it about 3 months ago, and I'm finally sending it now.. I know. I'm horrible).. and it was hot as heck outside (the last thing i wanted to do was go home and cook!). Then we were driving through the South End and N. started going on and on about this Ethiopian place (Addis Red Sea) she had gotten takeout from once and how great it was and blah blah blah. Well before I knew it, we were parked in front of the place perusing a menu and poof we magically had Ethiopian food for dinner. The fish got banished back to the fridge. I should also probably mention that we made another detour on the way home.. we stopped at Flour and got Creme Brulee, chocolate banana bread pudding and lime cornbread cookies (amazing!).

I told you we have a problem.

N. really liked the Ethiopian food. I wasn't too crazy about it. We got this beef dish called Gored Gored. They serve everything on this huge folded up piece of bread/pancake(it's really like a really big crepe) but the consistency of it is too... rubbery, and absorbed too much of the oily sauce from the beef. The sauce on the beef was really good though, spicy..but good. It came with this potato and cabbage thing and also a  yellow/greenish mush that N. thought was lentils. I didn't try it since I'm slightly allergic to lentils. It also looked grainy like it might have had some chopped up nuts in it or something (I'm deathly allergic to nuts.. which makes my food obsession a bit dangerous!). The place is pretty cool and I would try the food again just to have the experience of eating there. It's on  a lower level so you have to climb down a flight of stairs and walk through a little hallway. It's dim and cavernous. The food is served on these tables that look like round trays and the people that work there are very friendly.

We've been pretty good today... Whole wheat toast with light chive cream cheese for breakfast, and curry tuna sandwiches for lunch (we won't count the Honey Moon I drank with my lunch).  I swear it's fish and veggies for dinner tonight. I'm going to make it early that way we won't be tempted to get takeout. We have to go grocery shopping and that means driving through Somerville. Temptation everywhere. We do our groceries at Market Basket. If you live in Boston and haven't done your groceries here, then get on it! Very diverse options and amazingly low prices. It can get a bit crowded though, so wear steel toed boots and be prepared to elbow people out of your way. We're on  a budget, so just basics today.

On a bright note, our garden is coming along nicely. Soon we won't have to buy veggies anymore!

 We've already harvested Romaine lettuce twice and we've used all of our herbs (except the mint, because this rascally little squirrel keeps coming along and digging it out!). I planted way too much kale so we've eaten some of that, but kale lasts all the way till winter so we have plenty of time. Everything else just started blooming this week. So excited!

This is our little jalapeño plant. Look at all the little baby peppers in there. They're tiny but they're there. Look closer!

 baby tomatoes!

I only planted in this raised garden bed that was already here when we bought the house. The previous owner gave us this song and dance about not being able to grow much because there isn't enough direct sunlight or whatever and she did her gardening at the community garden up the street. Well, I guess she just didn't have a super giant green thumb like I do! I wanted to make sure things would grow before I started tearing up our lawn and turning it into my secret garden (which I will do, you'll see). So next year, our garden will be much bigger. We might even be able to start selling at farmer's markets! 

I want to build a small chicken coop in our backyard and get a goat. N. won't let me though. She threatened to leave me if i get any farm animals. She also said I'm not allowed to get any more pets until one of our current pets kicks the bucket. Apparently two dogs and two cats is about all she can tolerate. She told me this when I tried to convince her that we should totally have ferrets. That didn't go over very well, but I gave up on that mission. The goat, however, is not so easy to give up. I have a thing for goats (no not in a bestiality kind of way you pervs... I just think they are so darn cute). I make N. frequent petting zoo's a lot more often than is normal for to 30 year old (gasp! It hurts to say it.) women. But we'll leave my goat obsession for another post.

I think I can squeeze in a quick yoga session before I have to pick up N. from work. Lord knows I need some serenity before dealing with the mobs at Market Basket.

Namaste bitches! ;-)

-D.