Best PPK Swap Partner ever!

Okay, so for the swap I was paired up with Karyn, someone I already liked - whee! Here's the picture of how awesome she is!



(click to see the whole pic)

CSA: Weeks 1 and 2

My first year with a CSA! Heron Pond Farm in South Hampton, NH.

CSA Week 1:

Bib lettuce, New Red Fire lettuce, Bright Lights swiss chard.



Farmer's Market:

Tat Soi, Baby Red Kale, Strawberries!



CSA Week 2:

Heirloom spotty lettuce, red lettuce, Bright Lights rainbow chard, beets and garlic scapes!

Yellow Rose Recipes

Okay, so I was really slow to the PPK bandwagon in buying Joanna Vaught's Yellow Rose Recipes. And I apologize, I really do. But whenever I had an Herbivore gift certificate, I felt compelled to buy clothing. But my dad sent me a nice big gift certificate, so I got both!!

Now, I haven't had this book for very long - 3 weeks tops - and I've made TEN recipes so far! Which recipes, you ask? Perfect Oatmeal, Buckwheat Pancakes, Lettuce Wraps Two Ways, Veggie Wontons with Ginger Miso Dipping Sauce, Taco Salad, Marinara, Tangy Sour Cream, Lemon Pepper Chard, Simple Chicken-Style Seitan, and Mustard Crusted Seitan. What's next? Cajun Tofu or the Black Bean and Sweet Potato Flautas - yum! And I've loved all of it (except the ginger miso dipping sauce, but that's only cause miso and I are still working on loving each other).

So. Don't have it? Buy it!

p.s. No pics because so many people take great pics of food and all of my pics look HORRIBLE. But Joanna's pics of YRR are here.

Dynamic Duos from Remedies for Life magazine

I tried to find a website for this magazine but was unable to. My local HFS (health food store) carries a free magazine called "Remedies for Life," which is published by Taste for Life out of Peterborough NH. It's got lots of info about healthy alternatives and such.

Anyway. Two things from an article entitled "Dynamic Duos: Maximize Your Supplements' Potential" that I wanted to share.

1.

Flax and Vegetarian DHA
A mountain of evidence supports the wide-ranging benefits of omega-3 essential fatty acids. For those who cannot or choose not to consume fish oil, flax is a worthy alternative source. Flax contains alpha linolenic acid, which can be converted to the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. The concern of this alternative is that the conversion of alpha linolenic acid to more biologically active long-chain metabolites is only 5 to 10 percent for EPA and 2 to 5 percent for DHA. Fret not. Supplementing flax with vegetarian DHA (from algae) is an easy solution. In fact, DHA can be converted back to EPA to help further balance the ratio of EPA to DHA.

2.

Bromelain and Quercetin
Many people who suffer from sinus problems and seasonal allergies have found natural relief by supplementing with a combination of bromelain and quercetin. In studies, quercetin has been show to inhibit both inflammatory and allergic responses by interfering with the release of antibodies known to trigger the emission of histamine. Unfortunately, quercetin is not very soluble in water and therefore difficult to absorb. Bromelain, however, is a protein-digesting enzyme that can assist the body in properly absorbing the quercetin. This is a must-have combo for anyone who dreads the arrival of spring because of seasonal allergies.

Fox Network - BOO!! Goodbye Sarah Connor Chronicles

You know, a quick not related to food rant. About another show I really liked being canceled. Because apparently, most people would rather watch Dancing with the Stars or the 8 gazillionth season of 24.

I recently found this picture of Summer Glau, and I'm pretty convinced that this picture alone could have helped save the series.



And c'mon, Thomas Dekker is an adorable vegetarian (who doesn't photograph well, oddly enough) and is a way better John Connor than Edward Furlong ever was. And Lena Headey is clearly tons better than Linda Hamilton.



And Brian Austin Green - David Silver who?



And Richard T. Jones!

So anyway. Fox saved Dollhouse for a 2nd season, but frankly, I'm so ticked they canceled T:TSCC that I'm much less excited about it than I should be.

Here's the show over at Hulu.

You can email Fox to tell them they suck via askfox@fox.com. You can write to the WB to ask them to present the show to other networks here.

Ginger is the New Pink - Giveaway!

One of my many favorite blogs is Ginger is the New Pink, and right now, she's having a giveaway!

There isn't just food there, there are pug pics too!

Life is over

Life the TV show, that is. From NBC. Life was an awesome show. It was smart and funny and quirky - a far cry from all the other cop shows that are all the same.

Hmm. Upon gazing at TV Guide's list for the 2009-2010 season, it looks like NBC was overall very harsh on its shows.

Bastards.

Good bye Crews and Reese - I'm sad the American viewing public has such crap taste in TV shows.

Less Green!

My green smoothies these days usually consist of 2-3 cups of greens, 2 bananas, ground flax seed, some hemp protein powder and maybe some other fruit. And sometimes, I just don't like them. But I've noticed that other people tend to put dates or agave in their smoothies, or more bananas (which I feel are the key to a good smoothie). It used to be that the only smoothies I would drink were orange juice blended with bananas (thanks to a lady at a juice stand at the upside down pyramid mall in St. Petersburg, FL near the fancy shmancy hotel and the dolphins) so when I started drinking green smoothies I just added some baby spinach to that. In an attempt to be healthier, I gave up the orange juice, and sometimes will put a whole orange in for the fiber, but it's just not the same sweetness.

So. I shall use less greens when I'm not feeling them. Today, less greens are because all I have is red leaf lettuce. So today's smoothie: 2 bananas, 2 large lettuce leaves, 1 c. grapes, teeny bit of agave and some ground flax seeds. And too sweet!! Ah well. I'll find my middle ground again.

Just Checking In

So apparently I messed up the comments on this blog attempting to use this goofy Disqus thing, so hopefully I have that fixed.

But I might as well quick update while I'm here!

Last week, I did 4 days of 95% or more RAW. My weakness was mainly due to my morning cup of coffee w/ soymilk - raw almond milk just doesn't work in coffee for me. Also, one day I ate a little bit of something I made for my daughter, but right now I can't remember what that was. I gave up willingly on Friday (what would have been day 5) because I just felt kinda nauseated and nothing I wanted to eat RAW sounded good. Perhaps that was detox - I don't know. What I will say, regarding detox and RAW, is that when I started last Monday, I didn't think about the idea of detox at all, and I didn't have any. Maybe detox is a mental thing. Not sure, just a thought.

So what motivated another shot at RAW? Kmouse! She makes the best food. She's doing a sort of detox now, and even her detox food looks awesome. Well she had a raw goddess dressing that she found from a site called One Week Raw and that one week menu planner sounded pretty good. And I made the goddess dressing, and it's so good! Which is interesting, cause I never liked the bottled goddess dressing, but felt bad because I was the lone goddess hating vegan.

So since that time, I have read Victoria Boutenko's "Green for Life" and I enjoyed it and I think learned some important stuff. Based on what's in the book, I seem to have low stomach acid, which might somewhat account for the fact that, although my daughter is quickly approaching 2 1/2 (!!!!!!), some people (2, and I'll dislike them both forever) have asked if I was pregnant. The solution, Victoria says? Drink at least a quart (4 cups) of green smoothie a day. Well, even if she's wrong, and this won't help w/ what I want it to, it won't hurt! And as of last night, I have learned the important lesson that I do not like savory green smoothies. Blech.

Oh! And my most exciting news - I joined a CSA! Heron Pond Farm. Check out last year's CSA haul!! $450 is a scary chunk of change, but that works out to $22.50 a week, and after the start of the season, that's an amazing deal, and I may be able to pretty much live on my CSA alone! I mean, look, this was one week last year:

• 1 Tomato
• 1 Box Potatoes
• ½ Doz Corn
• 1 Onion or 1 Bunch of Scallions or 1 Garlic
• 4 Squash (Zucchini or Summer Squash)
• 2 Slicing Cucumbers or 4 Pickling Cucumbers
• 1 Head of Lettuce
• 1 Box of Berries (pint) or pick your own quart
• 1 Bunch of Beets or Chard
• 1 Green Pepper

Excited!!