Six Week Project: Under the Weather

And yet another five days have passed without an update and therefore, yet another blog post will cover days 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23. Follow along...

This week, as I mentioned in my last post, I made some kickin' vegan chili. I love my vegan chili and I think it could easily stand up to, if not knock out Casa Nueva's vegan chili. Tofu, carrots, onions, peppers, beans, spinach, tomatoes...good stuff. That was Tuesday night. We ate it topped with organic avocado and it was fabulous, easy, and super healthy.



Then...Wednesday morning hit and along with it came a wretched stomach virus. To be fair, I wasn't feeling great on Tuesday, but I thought it was just a passing thing. Oh no. It was a miserable bug that stuck with me through Thursday afternoon. Therefore, Wednesday night I made scrambled eggs and potatoes for Tiffany, and toast for me, though I did sample a small helping of the other items. I was feeling a bit better by then.



No worries, however, because by Thursday morning the bug was back with a vengeance and I spent another day on the couch. Fortunately by Thursday afternoon I was feeling quite a bit better. That morning, Tiffany told me she had a hankering for grilled cheese. I got some white bread to make toast for myself, and some American cheese and made her one for dinner. Below is photo evidence that I do, on VERY RARE occasions, burn things. She assured me it still tasted good, however.



Friday and Saturday night were dinner-less. I ate larger meals during the day and sort of grazed on healthy goodies like hummus and pitas, figs, bananas, apples, and sweet potato chips. Tomorrow, I'm making a pot of sauce with chicken and salad. See you then. Remember, buy local and eat well.

Six Week Project: When Things Get Random

This blog post is going to cover days 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. That's Thursday through Monday. Here's what happened...

If you follow this blog, you know that I've kind of been losing weight. Like, a lot of weight. A lot of weight as in a hundred pounds in two years. It hasn't been easy, but I made it to that bench mark in January. As that was my goal, I assumed it'd get easier. I was wrong. WAY wrong.

Over the past 2 months I've (as Nathan Lane in The Birdcage would say) "Yo-Yo-ed" between 185 pounds and 192 pounds. Trying to balance what I eat with how much I exercise, while also enjoying life and the food I love has been quite an uphill battle. After hitting a low point last week, I decided this weekend that I really need to eat as though I'm still trying to lose weight again. That is how my body feels the best, and while I don't care if I lose a significant amount of weight from this point, I do care that my body feels healthy, happy and balanced. Therefore, my eating has fumbled a bit over the past five days, trying to get back on the bandwagon that was steadily chugging away from me.

So, here's the low down. I'm eating less, again. I'm eating when I'm hungry, and only if I'm hungry. I can't eat as much bread as I want to, I just can't. I'm going to try to eat larger meals in the middle of the day and smaller dinners. I don't need the energy provided by 3 whole grain pancakes at 6pm. I need it at 10am when I'm dragging. Any processed foods that found their way into my diet this past weekend I spent at home will be cut out. I even bought local, organic cream to make my own butter. I am a locavorian queen with "Organic" at my right hand, and I will strive to keep my throne. Therefore, I have to say, this blog may not be as interesting, as my dinners have been sparse and somewhat boring. However, I made a commitment to finish, so I will.

Day 14: Banana Crunch Pancakes and Scrambled local eggs (inspired by the chitter chatter over these on Facebook)



Day 15: Left-over stuffed peppers, and a salad at my Mother's house

Day 16: Burger, oil and vinegar slaw and oven fried potatoes at my Mother's house

Day 17: A bowl of Kashi Honey Sunshine and a banana

Day 18: Half a cup of low-fat Greek Yogurt with 1/4 cup of pumpkin seed granola, a drizzle of honey, and dried tart cherries, a handful of Kashi crackers, and half an organic pink grapefruit

Tomorrow will be more exciting, I promise. I made vegan chili today, of which I am fairly proud. I bought organic avocados to eat with it, so at least there will be pretty pictures and a recipe. In the meantime, thanks for reading, and always remember to buy local and eat well.

Six Week Project: Salads

My dinner on days Twelve and Thirteen both consisted of salads. Day Twelve (Tuesday) was a tossed salad, just to use up some ingredients I'd had laying around (Roasted Red Peppers, Spinach, Carrots, Arugula, Mixed Mesculin, Organic Raisins and homemade honey mustard dressing). It was nothing exciting and therefore will not be getting its own special post.

Day Thirteen (Wednesday) however, was another night of using up ingredients, but was far more exciting and a new Queen Honeybea favorite. I've been consuming a ton of carbohydrates lately. I don't really think there's anything wrong with this, other than it's been mostly in the form of bread or some relative of bread (pasta and pancakes). I decided at work this morning that I wanted to make something with brown rice. I love brown rice, it's so, so good for you, and it's filling and a good way for us carb lovers to consume our beloved starchy goodness. I've also been craving some more lean protein in my diet, and a can of wild caught, sustainable Alaskan salmon did the trick for that. So this is what I concocted over my lunch hour: Queen Honeybea's Brown Rice Salad with Salmon. Enjoy, and always remember to buy local and eat well.


Queen Honeybea's
Brown Rice Salad with Salmon
Serves 2 with a few leftovers

1 1/2 cups brown rice
2 TBS. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 a red onion, diced
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 cups of chopped fresh spinach
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 6 oz can of wild caught, sustainable Alaskan salmon, chunked
2 large carrots, shredded
2 TBS. low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 TBS. local, raw honey
1/2 tsp. sriracha (Korean hot sauce)
a pinch of salt
a pinch of black pepper
a pinch of garlic powder
Two large hand fulls of shredded mixed mesculin greens
Extra sriacha and soy sauce for serving

1. Cook the brown rice according to the package directions. This should yield about 2 cups of cooked rice. Set aside.

2. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Saute the onion and red pepper until soft and beginning to brown. Add the garlic, and stir constantly for thirty seconds. Add the shredded spinach, ginger and salmon and cook until the spinach is wilted, about two more minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, toss together the rice, cooked vegetable mixture and the shredded carrots.

4. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, sriracha, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Pour over the warm rice mixture and chill for at least 4 hours, over night would be ideal.

5. Place a handful of lettuce in each of two serving bowls and top with scoops of the rice salad. Serve with extra sriracha and soy sauce.

Six Week Project: Day Eleven

For the past two weeks, since my girlfriend and I meandered around the West Side Market in Cleveland and spotted heavy bundles of coiled pappardelle pasta at Ohio City Pasta, I have craved nothing but that. I love pappardelle pasta. It's like sheets of lasagna that have been cut into thick strips, then usually smothered in something delicious, saucy and full of Italian love. Pappardelle and I have had a date on the horizon for some time.

For dinner tonight, I decided to saute, in olive oil, the very last of a bunch of Green Edge Organic's Swiss Chard I bought three weeks ago (this stuff lasts, it's amazing), along with some carrots from the Athens Farmer's Market, some local red bell pepper I've had chopped and tucked away in my freezer, and some local green beans which have been living next door to the red bell peppers. I added some roasted garlic, dried basil and oregano, white wine, organic-free-range chicken stock, and some cooking water from the papperdelle until I was happy with the taste and consistency. Once the pappardelle had been cooked, I tossed the pasta in with this mixture and served it topped with slices of Norwood Cheese from Kenny's.

It hit the spot. The thick pieces of homemade, whole-grain papperdelle were velvety and filled every crease and crevice of my mouth as I tried to eat them whole. It was a pasta experience of a repeat, which may very well happen. I don't know how many people take the time to make their own pasta, let alone on a week night after working all day, but let me tell you: it's worth it. Enjoy, and always remember to buy local and eat well.

Six Week Project: Day Ten

While I know this project was meant to showcase every dinner I eat for the six weeks of which Lent consists, some days dinner just doesn't happen. Sundays have a tendency to be those kinds of days. Unless I have an immaculate dinner planned already, the highlighted meal of my Sunday often turns out to be breakfast.

Sunday is my splurge day on breakfast. I eat a serving size of measured out Kashi cereal, a cup of coffee and sometimes a banana every single day of the week, except Sunday. Sunday is fun day, if you will. I love to cook breakfast, and have found myself recently in posession of company on Sunday mornings, for whom I cook breakfast and we lounge on the couch and enjoy each other's company. I know, pretty much my domestically inclined dream.

Therefore, as my "dinner" turned out to be chips and guacamole this night, I'm going to share my breakfast recipe with you instead. And if you're anything like me, breakfast for dinner (as in at 5 or 6pm, not ten am when we ate it) is also a fabulous treat. My health-i-fied version of a dish I order at First Watch Cafe in Cleveland was on the menu for this Sunday morning: Queen Honeybea's Whole-Grain Banana Crunch Pancakes. Enjoy, and always remember to buy local and eat well.


Queen Honeybea's
Whole-Grain Banana Crunch Pancakes
Serves 4

2 local, free-range eggs, beaten
2 cups local, organic skim milk
1/2 cup lowfat organic plain yogurt
1/4 cup local, pure maple syrup
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 TBS. pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 cup white whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 large bananas, sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 cup of crunchy, organic granola of your choice

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, yogurt, maple syrup, oil and vanilla. Set aside.

2. In a medium size bowl, mix together the whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour, oat flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon.

3. Grease and heat a large griddle pan over medium heat, until water droplets sizzle when dropped onto the surface. All at once add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, folding until just combined and still lumpy. Pour out your pancakes using a 1/2 cup measuring cup. On each pancake, place banana slices and sprinkle some of the granola. When the edges are turning brown and the top is covered with bubbles, flip the pancakes until just browned on the opposite side. Serve hot with butter, pure maple syrup or organic peanut butter.

Six Week Project: Day Nine

"It's my observation that when Italian genes are present, all others duck and cover."

This sentence by Barabara Kingsolver reminded me immediately of myself upon reading it. I am American by birth, and half Italian-half Slovenian by blood and heritage. As many people observe of me and others like me, our Italian sides seem to be so over developed that they have a tendency to smother and conquer any other hint of ethnic heritage found within us. My Italian pride is infalted, period.

Saturday night, my girlfriend was privy to a feast of great proportions, accompanied by Italian Folk Songs (Finiculi, Finicula and Santa Lucia and the like), fantastic organic wine, and my Italian charm and ego. My own personal version of machismo has a tendency to shine in such instances, and this past Saturday, while my house might be situated in South Eastern Ohio, we were dining in Tuscany.

I even eat like Italians, as Barbara later describes in the same chapter as the quote above. She says of Italians, "Watching Italians eat (especially men, I have to say) is a form of tourism the books don't tell you about. They close their eyes, raise their eyebrows into accent marks, and make sounds of acute appreciation." After reading this chapter about a month long tour of Italy, about courses, agritourismos and pasta, I decided we needed to bring Firenze to Morgan County. I decided to make one of the four courses of traditional Italian meals: the antipasto. This is what became of that ambition:

Marinated Chickpeas in vinegar, oil and herbs
Mediterranean olives
Kalamata olives
Slices of rolled capicola
Norwood Cheese from Kenny's in Kentucky (it tastes similar to parmesan)
Betty's Favorite Cheese from Laurel Valley Creamery
Roasted Red Peppers
Black Figs stuffed with Chevre (from Integration Acres) and wrapped with prosciutto
A steamed artichoke with roasted garlic, lemon, and dijon mustard dipping sauce
Roasted cherry tomato, rosemary and goat feta (from Integration Acres) crostini
Marinated, pickled eggplant and arugula (Green Edge Organics) crostini with Norwood Cheese
Grilled slices of French Gallette from the Village Bakery

An organic sauvignon blanc, by Neuvo Mundo in Chile ($14.99 @ the Village Bakery)
(This wine was fabulous!)

Six Week Project: Day Eight

Friday nights are one of my favorite times of the entire week. To me, five o'clock on Friday is the beginning of the end of the work week, and the official start to the weekend. My fondess for Friday nights goes far beyond work, however, I imagine. I've held that particular evening dear to me ever since I was a teenager in High School, and Friday nights during the Fall meant marching band, football games, and sharing time with my good friends. This has grown into a desire for fun on Friday nights, and as of late, fun has become food. I love to make and eat fun food on Fridays. Pizza is a fun food, chili is a fun food, burgers are a fun food, and as I make these things myself I can craft them so that they fit into my locavorian-seasonal-natural food culture. This weekend, I managed to add another "fun" food to this list: Sushi.

My friend Michael and I had been planning a sushi-making session for several months, and this Friday we were finally able to get together and "roll," if you will. We decided that because the raw fish availability in the Mid-Ohio Valley might be questionable at best, that we'd make one of our mutual favorites: California Rolls. California Rolls are seaweed wrappers stuffed with sticky sushi rice, and wrapped around avocado, cucumber and imitation crab. Now, this meal did not, in any way, fall into the parameters of my local-seasonal-natural philosophy, but it was fun and every once in awhile I splurge and buy a cucumber in March!

I just have to say that we made some damn good sushi. Our sushi rice was superb, sticky and perfectly cooked. Our rolls were tightly wrapped and easy to slice. We spent a good portion of the end of our meal with tears welling in our eyes, laughing at one another as we suffered through our love of pungent wasabi as we tortured ourselves with every green bite. It was a fun. Period. Enjoy and always remember to buy local and eat well.

Michael is working the Rice Vinegar into the rice. It became translucent and sticky and we were so very proud.

Michael rolling the second roll.