Breakfast
_1 bowl of Kashi Oat Flakes w/wild blueberry clusters in rice milk
_A bite or two of a corn muffin*
_A diet soda*** (this is going to be a BAD day diet soda-wise...)

Lunch
_Either Ruloff's or Vietnam...hoping for Vietnam!

Snack
_I have apples and a cookie today

Dinner
To be determined

Snack
_Probably a bite of that pie and some horchata!

Breakfast
_1 Cornell Orchards Gala apple (while walking to work)
_Half of a Dunkin Donuts donut with cream filling and chocolate***
_1 bowl of Kashi Oat Flakes w/wild blueberry clusters in rice milk
_Cranberry water
_A natural soda that I will probably never have again!

Lunch
_Turkey and cranberry sandwich on wheat bread with spinach
_Carrot and celery sticks
_A couple of almonds and soy nuts
_A couple slices of cheese*
_A plain donut while I waited forever for food to show up!***
_A diet soda***

Snack
_Finished the diet soda
_One of the Kashi cookies I packed*
_An apple on the way home
_Another cookie before cycling*

Dinner
_Egg salad (the usual) on some of my yummy bread with some romaine
_Some Cape Cod chips **
_A couple slices of cheese*

Snack
_A couple of girlscout cookies***
_A sliver of peach-raspberry pie**
_A small glass of horchata

Breakfast
_1 Cornell Orchards Gala apple (while walking to work)
_1 bowl of Kashi Oat Flakes w/wild blueberry clusters in rice milk
_Blueberry water
_A natural soda that I will probably never have again!

Lunch

_Chunk light tuna(dollop of vegenaise, shallots, celery, garlic salt)
_A couple pieces of colby jack cheese*
_Carrot and celery sticks
_Some of those soy nuts
_Kashi Fire-Roasted Veggie, Kashi Original 7-Grain, and Kashi Mediterranean Bruschetta crackers
_A diet soda***

Snack
_1 Kashi Oatmeal raisin cookie*
_2 Thin Mints ***
_1 Cornell Orchards gala apple
_1 Kashi Oatmeal raisin cookie*
_1 small bowl of Kashi Oat Flakes w/wild blueberry clusters in rice milk

Dinner
_2 turkey dogs on home made bread with shallots, mustard and ketchup
_1 portion of salt and vinegar Cape Cod brand chips**
_A stack of celery
_A diet soda***

Snack
None!

I posted this to my other journal, but I should post this here for posterity. My apologies for multiple postings!!!


Today's menu includes tuna (vegenaise, garlic salt, celery, shallots), three types of Kashi crackers, soy nuts, co-jack cheese, and celery and carrot sticks. The apples and almonds are for snacks walking to/from home (a three mile walk, these go a long way). The Kashi trail mix cookie with cranberry and pumpkin seeds is another snack for my 3pm tea, and the baggie of Kashi oat and wild blueberry cereal is for breakfast, obviously.

( Im in ur bento looking for moar photos )

Breakfast
_1 Cornell Orchard's Jazz apple (while walking to work)
_1 bowl of Kashi Oat Flakes w/wild blueberry clusters in rice milk
_Blueberry water
_Handful of roasted, unsalted almonds

Lunch
A VERY quick lunch consisting of:
_Chunk light tuna(dollop of vegenaise, shallots, garlic salt)
_A couple pieces of cheese*
_Carrot sticks
_Kashi Fire-Roasted Veggie crackers
_A diet soda***

Snack
_ A cup of Earl Grey tea with rice milk and honey
_Four (and yes, I restrained myself) Thin Mint cookies*** (has HFCS!!!!!)
_1 Cornell Orchards Jazz apple
_Handful of almonds
_1 bowl of Kashi Oat Flakes w/wild blueberry clusters in rice milk

Dinner
_Egg salad (eggs from the local farmer, vegenaise, local mustard, vinegar, paprika and garlic salt) on some of my homemade 10 grain bread
_Romaine from the CSA share
_A hunk of goat cheese
_Some Cape Cod potato chips**
_A diet soda***

Snack
_2 small slices of cinnamon toast**

Wow, did I ever get distracted last week! Here's DFP#2. I'm going to mark "bad food" with a rating of * to *** depending on how "bad" it is. For example, a Kashi cookie would be a *, and a cheeseburger from Burger King would be a ***. In limiting my sweets, I think there should definitely be a distinction between eating five "***" foods versus two "*" foods. I am giving diet sodas a "***" rating because I am trying to cut down. On average, I drink 3-5 sodas a day. I am trying to cut it down to 1-2, then switch over to natural soda.

Breakfast
_1 Cornell Orchard's Jazz apple (while walking to work)
_1 bowl of Kashi Oat Flakes w/wild blueberry clusters in rice milk
_Blueberry water

Lunch
_Most of an egg salad sandwich on homemade 10-grain bread (eggs from the local market, shallots, celery, vegenaise, local mustard, etc).
_Most of a small bowl of veggie-lentil soup
_A couple pieces of cheese*
_Carrot sticks
_About 10 Jupiter grapes
_A diet soda***

Snack
_ 1 Kashi Oatmeal and Dark Chocolate cookie*
_1 Hot Chocolate with hot water**
_1 Cornell Orchard's Jazz apple (walking home from work)

Dinner
_Bowl of home made beef stew (stew meat from Mo, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, red peppers and potatoes from the CSA in a tomato sauce)
_A couple of slices of homemade 10 grain bread
_A diet soda***
_A handful of sour cream and onion chips**

Snack
_1 Dan's Lot-a-Choc bar**

I've decided to do start making daily food posts again; not for weight loss or anything, but for general health and keeping track of sweets. I have a VERY bad habit of eating foods that aren't great for me in excess once the winter comes. If I see how many sweets/"bad" things I've had in a day, I may decide against eating them later in the day.

In a way, it's nice that sweets are my vice now and not fast food. I've learned a trick with fast food; all I have to do is say one four-word chemical: High Fructose Corn Syrup, and then I don't want it anymore. With chocolate, cookies, rice krispie treats, and even Fig Newmans, I gotta limit myself during the day, and seeing it on a screen will probably stop me from overdoing it.

AGAIN, I am not posting points or calories or talking about weight loss; I am simply posting my daily food choices so I can improve my general health and awesomeness :)

So here we go with Daily Food Post 1!

Breakfast
-Bowl of Cream of Wheat with some rice milk and Cornell maple syrup
-A Jazz apple (from the Orchards)

Lunch
-Zojirushi bento box packed with...
-Tuna with small dollop of vegenaise, celery and shallots
-Lentil veggie soup
-Celery sticks
-Fire-roasted veggie crackers
-A couple slices of muenster and co-jack cheese
-A diet soda

Snack
-Dan's chocolate bar--Trail Hound
-Some more of the tuna and crackers
-Another Jazz apple
-A Dan's chocolate truffle (I know, BAD!)
-A couple of Fig Newmans

Dinner
Chicken BLT sammich, some sour cream and onion potato chips (I know...I know...)
Handful of peppermint chocolate popcorn (I know......)

I usually get my bread from The Good Loaf Bakeshop at the Farmer's Market. They typically have some really yummy loafs, including an eight grain and a sesame oat loaf. In a pinch, I will get bread from Heidelberg Bakery in Herkimer, NY. Out of all of the commercial brands available at the Conventional Grocery Store, their breads have the least amount of preservatives/mold inhibitors/weird ingredients that don't pass the grandmother test.

Last week, after running out of bread for the zillionth time and having to go with Plan B (Heidelberg), I decided it was time to get a bread machine. I've tried making bread by hand, but it never goes right. Even if I buy fresh active yeast, a bag of flour straight off the line and the purest sugars and oils, I can NEVER get the damn thing to rise. A bread machine was the perfect solution: it controls the temperature and rise, and would be darn convenient for making breads while I go do other stuff!

Well, I found a great-looking bread machine, bought it, it arrived after two days and, about four hours later, I had my first loaf!



Oh wait, that's a TOBY loaf. The loaf I am referring to...( is under the bread-knife cut! )
I can't wait to try out other recipes! I will be doing a cinnamon raisin bread, a french bread, and hopefully whole wheat if I can get the measurements converted correctly.

Goat stew you say? Indeed! I know I rave about her all the time, but my awesome friend Mo has the best meat I've ever had. I recently went to Texas to visit my parents, and while the steak down there was good, I could taste the difference between their grain-fed and Mo's grass-fed beef in a major way. Definitely prefer the latter...

Baaaaack to the subject: just recently, Mo took two of her goats to her butcher to have made into stew meat and curry cuts. I ended up with two packages of curry cuts and decided that I wanted a good, hearty goat stew. I started with this:


And ended up with heaven.


( Goat here for more pictures! )

I've been obsessed with Charentais melons ever since my first Horticulture class in 2004. There, they had us do a taste test: eastern cantaloupe, western cantaloupe, and a variety of 'lope known as Charentais, so named after the region of France where it originated. Ever since my first taste of the French Charentais melon, I haven't been able to get enough. These melons are ridiculously hard to find locally. So when I saw them yesterday at Ludgates, I just had to have them. I ended up biking home with three of them on my back.


The forbidden fruit, hard to believe they are sitting on my table.

( More Charentais just a click away... )

For the past couple of weeks, I have been making a fabulous soup every Thursday night. Thursday is CSA day, the day that I bike out to Ludgates on my cruiser bike and pick up my share.



All of the ingredients in all their glory next to a bouquet of flowers I grew.

Wanna see more? Wanna know what's in it? Wanna see how it turned out? You gotta click!!!


( Healthy food ahead! )

This post is about the "shabu shabu" dish that I like to make. The basic premise behind shabu shabu, a Korean dish, is that you cook meat and veggies on the table in a fondue pot filled with boiling broth. I've taken a basic recipe and adapted it to my own style and pantry. Here's what this week's shabu shabu looked like.


This is shabu shabu. It involves alot of components, like sushi. In the center of the table is a fondue pot, set to the highest setting, filled with my home made chicken broth. I usually put another jar of it on the table for when the level gets too low. To the left of the pot are the veggies: shredded CSA carrots, sliced CSA cucumbers, sliced Heron Hill Farm onions, and CSA scallions. To the right is the meat: sliced up cube steak from my farmer friend Mo.

Each place setting has a bowl of jasmine rice, some edamame, some sweet pea sprouts, and a small dipping bowl of soy-sake-ginger-hot pepper flake sauce. What you do is put the meat and veggies on the fondue forks, let them sit in the broth for a few minutes, and swish it around to cook it (shabu shabu means swish swish). Once done, I like to put the meat and veggies in the rice bowl, dip them in the sauce, and enjoy.

So how did it turn out? You know the drill...click away!


( Clicku clicku for shabu shabu )

So, my BFF thetick23 told me about this recipe he tried recently from none other than Alton Brown: blueberry soda. While visiting him this past weekend, I finally got to try some: it's DELICIOUS and ridiculously easy to make!



( Did you say blueberry soda???? )

I've mentioned my farmer friend Mo a few times in the past couple of posts; Mo always has the most delicious steak, eggs, and sometimes chickens for sale. Here are a few of the goodies I get every week.





( More... )

It started with a cooler of meat delivered by a local farmer to a friend of mine while we were having our weekly happy hour.

Inquiring over said chest of meat, I found out that said farmer (and fellow Cornellian) sells her own pasture-raised beef (chicken and pork, too) and free range chicken eggs delivered to campus on a weekly basis. Sign me up, I said! I had never tried farm-fresh beef or free-range chicken eggs before, and I was extremely curious. Man, I was NOT disappointed, either. Her beef was the most delicious I had ever tasted (I'm serious), her eggs had yolks the color of naval oranges, her chickens the juiciest I had ever tasted, and her breakfast sausage? Don't even get me started; I will require a bib to go on.

This one, simple act of supporting a local farmer triggered a chain reaction that has led me to nod vigorously along books such as Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Pollan's In Defense of Food and Omnivore's Dilemma; and, very importantly, to seek out as many possible sources of locally grown/raised, organic produce as possible.

Small-scale, local organic farms are so incredibly important in our communities, not only because they support our local citizens but because it's just plain scary knowing the how/when/where/why of conventional food processing. Small-scale farms? You not only know exactly where your food is coming from, but you can associate a name and a face with your food. I have been feeling complete shock and horror at the pre-packaged, over-processed "food" I have purchased from chain grocery stores and fast food places. Sure, I still have the occasional HFCS-laden indulgence and buy the occasional homogenous, identical to all the rest piece of fruit, but for the most part, my diet consists of locally obtained, mostly organic meat, eggs, dairy and produce thanks to:

Mo at Rooster Hill Farm, our awesome provider of the most amazing steaks, ground beef, free-range chicken eggs, breakfast sausages, bacon, chickens, and other goodies.

Ludgates Farm, a locally owned and operated business (35 years) where we get many of our local/regional staples, cheeses, cereals, salsas, veggies, thanksgiving turkeys, and pick up our CSA share from...

Full Plate Farm Collective, our CSA of the year. Last year, we went with Sweetland Farm, which was awesome but realistically too far away (~30 miles round trip). Our share of veggies and fruits and other organically grown veggies comes to us in a group delivery once a week from three local farms (all within a 15 mile radius of my house). Our first share included strawberries, scallions, radishes, field greens, kale, and small haikuri turnips which I LOVE!

Ithaca Farmer's Market, which has too many goodies to list completely, but among them are fresh fruits and veggies from local farms; freshly pressed cider (seasonal), long ropes of garlic during the Garlic Festival; freshly baked bread, local meats and cheeses, and...well, it goes on and on. A nice Sunday bike ride down the market can't be beat.

Cornell Orchards, where apples of all shapes, sizes and varieties; as well as other crops (grapes, kiwi berries, pawpaws, pears, garlic...), Cornell cheeses, local honey, fingerlakes lettuces, maple syrup, mustards and many, many more can be obtained from September to May. There's nothing like coming home from work with a half peck of apples and a half gallon of freshly made apple cider on your back...

Cornell Dairy, where they have fresh milk, cream, ice cream, cheeses and other dairy products.

My own garden. This year, I endeavored to try to grow new things: soybeans, pak choi, leeks, radishes (two kinds), watermelons and charentais melons; as well as tomatoes, cukes, beans, carrots, and pumpkins. Oh, and let's not forget the herbs, which this year introduce pineapple sage and cilantro to the usual bunch. So far, the radishes have been absolutely delicious. I look forward to the other crops coming in as well...

Didn't mean to ramble; I just wanted to put in a plug for local farms and locally grown/raised produce. If you haven't tried it, go down to your local farmer's market on a nice sunny day and give it a try. After having "converted" to small organic farm fare, I can't even stomach the thought of going back to feedlot-raised beef, hormone-laden milk, or processed foods. I also have a greater appreciation for foods from our own area when they come into season. It's going to be difficult for me to want to pick up peaches in January again...

Support local businesses and farmers!