weekend recap

This weekend was ridiculous. More ridiculous than usual. And included the cracking of my iPhone. :(

But it started out well with happy hour at Acadiana. I got the oysters

And some fried green tomatoes topped with shrimp.

Good, but the tomato slices were way too thin. Like, paper thin. Kinda lame.

And since I couldn't get one of these (I forgot I lost my wallet, including ID):

I ordered even more food. Grilled shrimp skewers.

After dinner I headed home, and soon ended up at Franklin's with Mike, Nick and Tasha. Mike and I had some drinks while Tasha and Nick had dinner. It was fun, and afterward I headed to Stetson's on U st. for my buddy Ken's birthday.

On Saturday I made this:

Looks weird, I know. Spare ribs, can of tomatoes, carrots, onions, basil and mushrooms. Simmered for several hours.

And got one of these:

And then hung out with Mike and Nick for a bit before we headed out to McGinty's for Jennifer's birthday. Long story short, it was a shitshow. Happy birthday to one of my oldest and best friends!! And now I am tackling Monday. Hopefully the workday goes by quickly. Have a great workweek!

chicken, dos ways!

I like variety. In life, and in my food. I get bored pretty easily. I had a whole package of chicken the other night and thought it'd be a good idea to cook it two different ways and eat that throughout the week. Thus, tomato basil chicken, and creamy mushroom chicken.

Tomato Basil Chicken:

-ripe tomatoes

-fresh basil

-shit ton of garlic

-refined coconut oil (flavorless! chyeahhh)

-chickens

-butter at the end

Creamy Mushroom chicken:

-mushrooms (really?)

-coconut oil

-even more garlic

-milk

-butter at the end

Just throw it together and sautee. For dinner I had one of each, and an artichoke with melted butter.

Variety is the spice of life, or something.

I liked the mushroom one more.

On another note, I was riding the metro this morning, like all mornings, when I saw this gem of a tattoo. I think it may inspire my next one. In case you can't tell, that is a tongue, accompanied by "Oh La La."

At lunch I peeped this dude.

This was attached to my tea this morning.

"We are here to love each other, serve each other and uplift each other."

I AGREE.

Tonight I'm  hitting up Acadiana with some friends I've had since elementary school, Kelsey and Gordo (I refuse to call him Andrew). They dated for a week in 7th grade. It was serious. Tomorrow I'm going to Artscape with Sara and then to Jennifer's birthday at McGinty's. McGinty's is an awesome Irish pub that I frequented (read: drank a lot at) when I lived in downtown Silver Spring. I am STOKED. Hope everyone has a fun and safe weekend!

fraaanklins

Last night Renee and I went to Franklins. It was a long, hot day. It took me an hour to go five stops on the metro. AN HOUR. That's okay though, at least it was pretty out. So after work we decided to just grab dinner. Started out with some of these:

And even though I was seriously craving pizza, I went with the tuna salad, which is really just as good and way better for me.

Not as rare as I had hoped. After dinner we noticed that the lady next to us had left her takeout box full of the exact pizza I wanted. I figured, it's not like her mouth came in contact with it, it's pizza! So I took it. Yeah, I have no shame. Of course, a guy at another table noticed me do this and laughed hysterically. Whateva, free pizza is free pizza and now there's less waste! They would've just thrown it out, I'm doing the earth a service.

We went back to the Mike, Nick and Dale's house and hung out for a bit. I ended up watching a Frontline documentary about the Norfolk Four called The Confessions. It was really good, and I'd definitely suggest watching it. Essentially, four men were forced through mental torture to confess to crimes they did not commit. Despite the fact that the evidence did not match up, there was an overall lack of evidence, and the man who committed the crime actually admitted to it, admitted he acted alone and his DNA matched the scene of the crime (the other's DNA did not) the men still did jail time, around ten years each. I think it's a testament to our corrupt and flawed judicial system. It's absolutely terrible and something really needs to be done about it. I guess that is today's rant.

Breakfast of champions:

+ two glasses of raw milk. NO shame! It was delicious.

clams in tomato basil broth

When I went to the Dupont farmers market on Sunday I also scored some clams. One of the vendors had a bunch of amazing seafood, including crabs! I really wanted to buy some, especially since they had large ziploc bags full of just crab claws...but it was a little out of my price range. So I went with the $6 bag of clams. At the Silver Spring farmers market on Saturday I got some tomatoes from Orchard Farms. Every summer, they have the most amazing tomatoes. Like absolutely mind blowing. I never knew a tomato could taste so good until I had theirs. They're sweet and ripe, but firm and have more flavor than any tomato I've ever had. So. For the clams I combined:

-1 decently sized tomato

- fresh basil (also from market)

-as much garlic as you like, naturally I used a ton

-red pepper flakes

-butter

-a little filtered water, and s&p

I let this cook down a little before adding the clams and covering the pot for about two minutes.

For the side I had a sort of caprese salad. I used:

-cherry tomatoes from the market

-garlic

-basil

-raw cheese

-organic garlic olive oil from Trader J's

Yeah, I used a glass because all of my bowls were dirty. I also toasted up some soaked bread and added lots of butter to it, so I could soak up the sauce from the clams.

Not gonna lie, I'm pretty proud of myself for this dinner. The sauce I cooked the clams in was so good, and super simple. Simple food really is the best food.

Now, on my agenda is figure out what to do with some sardines I bought. I've never used sardines in my life. Here goes.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday.

best breakfast ever

I'm so happy I made it to the gym before work this morning. I know it's not a huge accomplishment but I'm still proud of myself. I definitely feel like going to the gym at 5:30 sets me up for a better, more productive day. I did a lower body workout and ended with some ab work. I wasn't dying, it wasn't my hardest workout, but I'm glad I at least did something. When I got home, I went through my normal routine of a raw protein shake, got ready and then made breakfast. Probably the best breakfast ever, because it is partly the best side dish ever. I sauteed onions, mushrooms, spinach and bacon in some butter. I was going to scramble in some eggs, but instead I just cracked two eggs over top, turned the heat down and covered until the eggs were cooked through.

I love the yolks of eggs, they're really the best part. They also contain a ton of nutrients. Eff eating only the egg whites, it's gross anyway.

Sooooo good.

This post is part of Monday Mania.

weekend recap

Friday lunch at Teaism: tuna salad. Not as awesome as I was hoping.

Late night Friday: a veggie crepe. So not good.

Saturday, gorgeous veggies at the farmers market.

New love: quinoa with garlic, shrimp, calamari, shrimp, butter, almonds and cranberries.

Saturday night: spotted a woman wearing a Christmas tree outfit on the metro. Was instantly jealous.

Saturday night dinner: penne primavera from Trio in Dupont.

Sunday morning mushroom empanada from the farmers market in Dupont. I was all over farmers markets this weekend.

Sunday brunch with Sara. We split the caprese appetizer.

And I got the mushroom, pepper and onion frittata.

Sunday night dinner: more quinoa and baby artichokes with hollandaise.

A very successful weekend. Here's to an awesome workweek and hoping that Monday goes by quickly. I want to be outside! 

best side dish ever

Last night's dinner was half and half. Half my food, half food I bought out. I got a burger wrapped in lettuce with tomato, onion and pickles. I support Elevation Burger so I don't feel bad spending $6.50 there. Though I seriously need to stop eating out. I'm going to eat out for lunch today also, but I'm going to Teaism, so it won't be too bad. This morning I could've made my own breakfast, I was just too lazy. I had a bunch of tea with a ton of coconut oil, and a bunch of raw yogurt and honey. Nothing to hold me over until lunch. I just ate some eggs from the cafeteria upstairs. Never. Again. I am starting to realize that when I eat out, things that are not whole foods are really affecting me. The other day I got an omelete from upstairs, liquid eggs cooked in industrial oil-I wanted to die. Today I got scrambled eggs (which probably came in the form of weird liquid or dried powdered eggs, aka oxidized cholesterol, aka the bad kind) and again, I feel terrible. I mean seriously, I am so nauseated and I have a headache. So! My plan is to get back on track. I will do what I used to do without fail: plan my week accordingly and get my grocery shopping done on either Saturday or Sunday. First, I'm going to the farmers market in downtown Silver Spring, then I'm going to head to Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's is definitely not close to my house, but it is cheaper. And they have tons of organic products and produce at really reasonable prices. So whatever I can't get at the market, I'll get at Trader J's. I used this system when I actually lived in downtown Silver Spring (I miss it!) and it was awesome. There is no reason for me not to cook for myself. I make better food anyway. So, dinner. For dinner I had the burger with my new favorite side dish:

-spinach

-onions

-mushrooms

-butter

-pastured bacon from the farm

A ton of veggies.

Best. Dinner. Ever.

Burger with ketchup and mustard on the side, I use my own because it's organic.

I hope everyone's work days fly by and you all have an awesome weekend!

teaism and vegan treats

So, I bought lunch out today. And it was awesome. I don't regret it one bit. What'd I get? The usual.

Sub rice for broccoli. Really delicious broc, by the way. I have no idea what they put on it, but it ruled.

I actually had a bunch of brown rice at dinner last night, with garlic, mushrooms and asparagus. A friend and I went to Toscana Grill in Clarendon. It was super good. But the star of last night's dinner was the vegan cake. Of course, I forgot to take pictures. But anyway, we split a chocolate layer cake and it was amazing. I want to cry thinking about it. I don't even like sweets all that much, and I want more of that damn cake. With raw milk. I don't even want to know what's in it. I seriously just googled all over the place so I could find out which bakery in Pennsylvania makes this face rocking cake. Turns out it's a place called Vegan Treats. I am on a mission for more.



filet and the fourth

On Monday morning I woke up not particularly hungry. I'm a big fan of intuitive eating, and since I haven't worked out in a little bit, I wasn't going to force myself to eat. I did however drink a bunch of water, as I had some drinks the night before with Tasha, Nick and Dale. I wasn't hungover or anything, but I'm into staying hydrated. It was a really nice morning, I studied and got a lot of school work done. Around 12 the hunger hit. I remembered that Mike graciously gave me some filet mignon from the farm, so I figured July 4th lunch would be a good time to make it.

I sauteed a really decently sized filet in butter. I only seared it on each side for about a minute or two. Not only do I think rare steak tastes way better than an overly cooked steak, it's also better for you. I'm actually trying to eat more of my meat raw. Yeah, I said it. It probably seems weird, but I assure you it's not. It's easier to digest, more enzymes are intact and people have been eatin' raw meat for ages. As long as it's properly sourced (ie: grass-fed) I'm not worried. Anyway, so I sauteed that baby in butter. I took it out of the pan, added some more butter, mushrooms and a ton of garlic. I sauteed it down and added a little milk. I topped the steak with this.

Super rare. It was so, so good. I spent the rest of the day studying and doing more stuff for school. Which was actually really enjoyable, even though I don't particularly enjoy learning about different enzymatic functions. At around 4 I headed out since I had to work a 4th of July event. We opened up our roof to employees and their families/friends, and since my office deals with events management, I got to work the event! It wasn't so bad, the view was nice.

Diggin' this lady's shirt.

So I hope everyone that celebrates the fourth had an awesome holiday!

rant, dinner, sign a petition!

It amazes me that people can take the way we've eaten for millions of years, a way that produced us, sustained us, allowed us to thrive, and say that it is flawed. We have grown to eat this way. The way I am talking about, is MEAT. And fat. Someone on Facebook recently linked up Alicia Silverstone's blog, a particular post on protein. To summarize, Alicia (who is still my homegirl, love Clueless) surmises that protein is not all that essential and we don't need that much (umm, not true). And that instead of eating a complete protein like grass-fed meat (which contains high level of vitamins A, D, E and K) we can and should get all of our essential amino acids by combining a vegetarian protein source and a grain, like beans and rice. When I was veg*n I told people this also, and I believed it. My issue with this, other than the fact that it is not at all sustainable way to eat, is that we have not evolved to eat this way. The introduction of grains and other carbohydrates in our diet only came about with agriculture, 10,000 years ago. The worst part of the post, was the dumbass comments. Seriously just full-on stupid. One person claimed they had been taught there are actually only 9 essential amino acids, so we didn't really need to eat protein, much less protein from meat. What?! Another, that since giraffes, elephants and cows only ate plants that we could too. They are naturally herbivores, idiot! Cows have multiple stomachs to allow them to be herbivores, elephants eat between 300 and 600 pounds of food per day. Some people can and do thrive on a vegetarian diet. But it is not for everyone. And it is not sustainable, which I'll get more into later. I guess that was my rant for the day.

On Monday before work I made some food for the week. I turned a pound of beef with organs into four burgers by adding an egg and worcestirshire, and throwing them in the over on 400. When I got home from work on Monday I had one since I was starving, and I had two more for lunch the next day with hot peppers. Since I was too lazy last night to make an extensive dinner, I topped the last burger with cheese and put it on half of an Ezekiel sprouted grain bun with onions and organic ketchup. I served it with this side dish:

-spinach

-onions

-garlic

-mushrooms

-butter

-awesome

God cheese is good.

And some sliced tomatoes, clearly.

In other news, please read this article about our food rights, civil rights and my farmer, Dan Allgyer. It is also about Ron Paul's bill, HR 1830, which you can read about here. This isn't just about raw milk, it's about being able to choose what we feed ourselves and our families. Please, please, please sign this petition.

saturday brunch, saturday dinner

On Saturday I made brunch for my girls Anjuli and Kait at Kait's parent's house (they were out of town). I seriously love cooking for people. I made some farm fresh eggs

And served them outside.

Alongside some smoked Atlantic salmon, avocado and raw cheese.

And made brunch drinks out of this stuff

Could be OJ...

We hung out all day and eventually it was time for dinner. I was planning on grilling but the propane was out. So I sauteed a Trader J's seafood medley of shrimp, scallop and calamari in olive oil and garlic. We also made quinoa with olive oil, garlic, feta, sliced almonds and cranberry. Mixed together, this was awesome. I am now craving quinoa, and have been since Saturday. As far as grains go, it is one of the lesser offensive to me.

Eventually I caught on and mixed it all up. BOMB!

I'm getting off work soon and trying to think of what to make for dinner. I have no idea. I want seafood but I'm out. I want chicken, but I'm out. I do have a shit ton of ground beef with organs though...Have a great night!

i'm baaack

Finally! My pictures will upload again! A lot of food has been consumed over the past week or so, but I'll start with an event I recently went to for a cookbook. The cookbook being Serve Yourself: Nightly Adventures in Cooking For One by Joe Yonan, the food editor of The Washington Post. The event was held at Cities and benefited DC area farmers markets. I went with Renee after work last Thursday, and took full advantage of the food being passed around.

Some Greek-type cucumber filled with tomatoes, olives, spices and feta.

Pita with spicy hummus and an eggplant round.

Some eggy shrimp thing (you like that description??) topped with tomatoes and peppers and tuna salad on crostini.

Chicken skewer.

Brownie.

Overall the food was really good. I just wish there had been more emphasis on organic, local and sustainable ingredients.  

On Friday I had dinner at Franklins, and got the spicy tuna salad. They change their menu based on the seasons, so I was really stoked to have this back. 

Sooo good.

Love super rare tuna.

Anyway, I have a lot more to catch up on but I'll get at it later today. Have a good day!