Although I adore cooking with my iPad and love getting recipes for free from food blogs, sometimes you just want a nice big cookbook to hold and flip through. My New Roots is one of my favorite whole foods blogs, but to be honest I had just been getting her recipes on feedly and hadn’t thought much of it. But when I saw her cookbook at the bookstore and flipped through it I thought dang, this girl gets it. I haven’t even made any recipes yet and I am in love with it. She included soaking times for beans and legumes, how to sprout them, and most importantly, most recipes don’t have nuts or dates in them. Praise the Lord! You have no idea how hard it is to eat (partly) vegetarian and gluten-free when you are allergic to all the good stuff!
I am so excited to use this and have no idea what to make first. Tempeh Mushroom Breakfast Bowl? Caramelised Fennel on Herbed Polenta? Raw Cashew Cheese?? There are so many good recipes in here, and a lot of them use things I already have in the pantry, which is always a good sign. Some of the cookbooks I looked at (cough OTTOLENGHI cough) had ingredient lists with 20 to 30 items! What! Who do you think you are, and also who do you think I am?! If you think I am running all over town to get 1/8 teaspoon of some really random crap for one recipe, you are sorely mistaken, sir. I can maybe see doing that in London, where you can more or less walk to most of the places you want to go if you are lucky enough to live centrally, but more than two stores for food in a day can get old very quickly if they aren't close together. If I am fortunate enough to live anywhere near London Fields, there is a perfect little organic food shop in Broadway Market that I went to once and almost fainted. The veg was so beautiful and they stocked all my favorite organic brands, even though the store was tiny. I've had my eye on it and will definitely return once I get settled into my new place, which I have decided not to think about too much because I will drive myself insane pre-planning a flat I don't even have yet! Argh! Anyway, I will have a kitchen again, and my life will be wonderful.
Hopefully soon I can report back on the recipes I try! Until then, go forth and absorb the perfection that is Sarah's blog. And behold my crazy new blender!
In addition to my new cookbook purchase and new lease on a very veggie life, I got a Ninja blender to replace my old one, which was starting to get that burning plastic smell every time I used it. Not ideal. This new guy had a bit of a learning curve but it’s doing a great job so far, and until the day I am ready to settle down and spend a few bucks on a (probably used) Vitamix, this baby will do the trick. I made a blueberry, apple, collard green, and chia seed smoothie in there the other day, and although it turned out a bit crunchy, I think I am getting the hang of it. The key here is to freeze your veg. FREEZE YOUR VEG.
Somewhere in the dark depths of the over-the-fridge cabinet lurks my juicer, which works very well and will obliterate any type of veg in seconds. Sadly though, it is a pain to get out and especially to clean, so I think I may try to use the blender as a juicer instead. You have to use a strainer of course, but it's a lot less hardware and less counter space. I don't know about you guys, but I simply refuse to be a person that leaves out small appliances on the countertops. Their home is in a cabinet where I can forget about them. So if they are too big and bulky to get out every day, away they go. Sorry, juicer.
The great thing about this new blender is that it doesn't have that weird bottom crevasse of no return where all your food gets stuck. Instead there are three tiers of blades ready to destroy you. So far it crushes ice pretty well and if I weren't on a diet I would make a thick, heart-stopping milkshake. But alas, dairy (and mountains of sugar) is one of the things I have to take a step back from. Also, the pitcher is plastic instead of glass, so it's much lighter and won't get all slippery with condensation and make you almost drop it in your sink every time you rinse it out. Hundreds of batches of cashew cream are on the horizon, as well as frozen Bloody Mary's now that I bought some pickled okra. Huzzah!
The great thing about this new blender is that it doesn't have that weird bottom crevasse of no return where all your food gets stuck. Instead there are three tiers of blades ready to destroy you. So far it crushes ice pretty well and if I weren't on a diet I would make a thick, heart-stopping milkshake. But alas, dairy (and mountains of sugar) is one of the things I have to take a step back from. Also, the pitcher is plastic instead of glass, so it's much lighter and won't get all slippery with condensation and make you almost drop it in your sink every time you rinse it out. Hundreds of batches of cashew cream are on the horizon, as well as frozen Bloody Mary's now that I bought some pickled okra. Huzzah!
Time will tell whether I am to be trusted with something completely able to slice open my hand, but so far I have been pretty careful/lucky. Slow movements are key.
Right now I am officially back in Louisiana for two glorious months of summer vacation and am enjoying every minute of it. When I moved to London I pretty much abandoned my healthy eating habits but didn't gain weight until right at the end, when I was funnelling beer, Doritos, meat pies, and 3-piece Reese's down my gullet with abandon. Now that I have all this wonderful Louisiana summer produce around and my own kitchen, I am so excited to start eating healthy again! I'm also trying to lose a few pounds but that's secondary to all the delicious treats I'm going to make. The BMI scale (which we all know is a villainous liar) says that for my height I should be 135 pounds or something ridiculous like that. If I were ever that light I would probably look like a shaved bear. Google that and prepare to be seriously terrified. My body is definitely built to be reckoned with but it would definitely benefit me to lose some of this extra fluff. To have something to do and to get strong again, I started back up doing yoga and running, and I think I may also invest in a spin bike! It burns a TON of calories and isn't as hard on my joints as running. But that thing will tear you UP. All I need is a new playlist, and you know that thing will be nothing but Usher, Lil Wayne, A$AP Rocky, and Nicki Minaj. I AM READY.
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