Back. Healthy. Day One.

It has been too long. Too many posts started, mulled over, and never posted.

Also unhealthy far too long and a bit sick very recently. But as I'm on the mend - decided it was time to do a small cleanse. Not just in terms of what I eat, but also in terms of overall 'stuff,' people, things, mind clutter, etc. Here is hoping it goes well...and here are some pics of my last indulgences, and (very) newly formed healthy habits :

Saturday morning double affogato at Zingermans with Burnt Sugar and Coconut gelato. Breakfast of champs.

Saturday afternoon beef brisket at Biercamp

Sunday mornings breakfast - note the fresh figs from the Produce Station (first of the season!) and raw honey from the AA Farmers Market, which apparently has very good anti-allergen health properties. Va voir. Regardless it tastes good.

Afternoon cheese plate - all raw milk (unpasturized)  with fantastic red from Corsica. You can see the blue d'auvergne, vieux gouda, mourbier (which has the ash in it) and a tiny bit of the triple creme on the bottom left. As donuts are for Homer, is French cheese to me.

Sunday night dinner of local Pierogies (with cheese and chives) and some yogurt. 

First day - sliced avocado and heirloom tomatoe with lime juice, sea salt and extra virgin olive oil from Bari

Cornichons from Whole Foods, Sauerkraut from Biercamp. Note to self, must learn how to make both.


Lunch - long, long curly pasta, basic tomato sauce and teeny, tiny bit of shredded asiago. (not sure I'll ever be able to fully give up dairy, but am thinking raw milk products are better? or not as bad?)



Dinner - basmati rice cooked stir fried with sauteed button mushrooms. I ended up having it with the San-J Thai Peanut sauce (as a side note, is gluten free)  and lots of lime juice.



And what made the day so great - watching Les Amants, Coco Before Chanel, and Poupees Rousse on DVD and getting these treasures in the mail from Bruxelles and Paris.

So if anything, these posts are just to keep me on track and motivated to get through July. Doing vegetarian 100%, not smoking at all (and probably, slightly sadly, never again), moderate wine, no processed foods, no added sugar, no butter, limited caffeine, and hopefully lots of sleep and sanity. Done juice fasts before, especially while living in Germany, and 2-week detoxes but this will be the longest by far. Fingers crossed. 

Healthy Inspirations

Today was my annual check-up. Luckily, given that my primary care physician is lovely, the 2+ hours long appointment was not as unpleasant as it could be. And while I've quit smoking and got a great all-clear recently after surgery, the holidays have provided plentiful rich food and drink. . .

Let's just say the scale was not kind. Surely a fluke, probably a seismic shifting of the earth or problem in the buildings structural integrity that led to the floor tilting, etc., etc.

Nonetheless the health scares of late and scale results led me to think that my recent indulgences (French-style hot chocolate with whole bars melted into milk being one very unfortunate new recipe.. . )should be a tad less frequent.

So this great article in the Times inspired me to think of making some lighter fare. Asian inspired, probably with a heavy leaning towards Japanese and not my beloved coconut milk-heavy Thai curries, lots of ginger, fresh steamed healthy goodness which is light but flavorful.

Ah well, if there is any hope of looking cute in all those party dresses then perhaps a bit more healthy living could be arranged.

Food for Thought

I do not usually proselytize, but the article by Nicholas Kristof, "Cancer from the Kitchen" in last week's Times and this Yahoo features piece on toxins in food really got me thinking about focusing on all things organic and local to the extent possible.

Not easy or cheap to do, but perhaps necessary not only for environmental sustainability but also to preserve one's own health. At my mother's restaurant she tries to buy as much as possible from our local farmers' market and butchers. In a country where we are used to eating whatever produce we want, whenever we want it (strawberries in winter, sure! apples and oranges all year round, of course!) it is challenging to get accustomed to the idea that food in season might provide more limited options, but much better tasting ones.

For you local folk, Concrete Media had a great guide on how to be a locavore, a term I find a bit affected but a damn good concept not only for health and environmental reasons, but also to support our faltering economy. Plus the idea of having milk delivered in glass bottles is just so charmingly old-fashioned. . .

Some images from Ann Arbor's lovely farmers' market, Wednesdays and Saturdays :

Lazy lunches, lazy bloggers

Well, I will admit that as bloggers go, I have hardly been ideal.

My plan of using this blog as a release, a means to muse about those things that I deeply care about, namely eating and recalling experiences that revolve around the table, got set aside as life became complicated and less then ideal during the past few months. While stress used to always increase my appetite, since my 2os I've found that it leads to the exact opposite: no desire to eat or willingness to cook, and worst of all a diminished sense of taste. But things are on the upswing, and I plan on eating, cooking and writing more regularly.

Today was one of those days where I promised myself that if I finished certain dreaded tasks, I would prepare a nice lunch and take the time to write. As I've successfully been fighting a cold (which dare not become swine flu) I also figured the healthier, the better. Breakfast had already consisted of some raspberries, a handful of walnuts and a banana, after the requisite coffee in bed and mellow Lou Reed to ease into the day. Having worked a few solid hours, I peeked in the fridge and came up with the following. It involved minimum time and effort, but was rather tasty.

My lunch consisted of a mixed green salad with a cilantro/lime/garlic dressing made a few days before, half an avocado with just squeeze of lime juice and salt, a mini faux-salad caprese with some fresh mozzarella, sliced tomato, and healthy swig of extra virgin olive oil, and a small portion of roasted portobello mushrooms with balsamic vinegar. All accompanied by a small glass of a Oregon pinot noir.

Having just written all of that, it does sound like quite a bit, but in fact, it looked like this:

It was also quite light and very easy to make. Most of the lunch considered of cutting and assemblage, but the two recipes I wanted to share were for the dressing and the mushrooms.

Cilantro/Lime/Garlic dressing:

finely mince a small bunch of fresh, preferably organic, cilantro

finely mince a clove of garlic

add the juice of one lime and a roughly equal amount of olive oil to the mixture

add salt and crushed red pepper to taste

whisk or emulsify, taste and add up a teaspoon of sugar if the lime is too tart.

I ended up emulsifying the mixture in a blender, but I imagine that whisking could work just as well. In that case the cilantro and garlic would really have to be very finely chopped.

The dressing was great on a salad, kept well in the fridge, and would also work as a marinade for fish or chicken.

Easy roasted mushrooms with balsamic vinegar:

clean several baby portobello mushrooms

place with the body down on an aluminum covered tray and put in a pre-heated oven at 450F.

allow mushrooms to roast for about 15-20 minutes.

remove the mushrooms and put into a bowl, taking care to preserve the juices from the mushrooms on the tray.

let cool a little bit and then slice the mushrooms in half, add a splash of balsamic vinegar and salt to taste.

Ideally, I wanted to use pomegranate molasses instead of the vinegar, a dish I had eaten at a Persian restaurant in Chicago and dreamed of replicating. Alas we were all out, but la prochaine fois. . .