Blogging often pushes me to find new recipes, which is generally a good thing. But sometimes I just want to return to a recipe I’ve made before, and enjoy it again. Someone at work today mentioned quinoa, and that got me thinking about this Spring Quinoa, which was not only delicious but also easy to carry to work and class. And let’s face it, we all need meals that are both healthy and convenient!

Week Two of Meatless in May brought some new challenges, but in the end, I kept my commitment to stay vegetarian.

I ate out a few times at restaurants, and just scanned the menu for vegetarian options. There seemed to be plenty of choices wherever I went. When I was looking at the menu, a few non-vegetarian meals were tempting, but once my meal was served I never gave it a second thought. I enjoyed fabulous cheeses and crostini, and Huevos Racheros!

I also ate with my family over the weekend, but my Mom made homemade vegetable pizza and my sister cooked portobello mushrooms on the grill which were excellent. I have had only one major craving – sushi! I picked up an avocado roll from Whole Foods which helped, but I think I need to visit a sushi place which serves a wider variety of vegetarian options.

A few people have asked questions about protein. There is a lot more protein than you might think in many foods. Let’s take my typical breakfast:

1/2 c. old fashioned oats (5 g)
1 c. skim milk (8 g)
1 T peanut butter (4 g)
Total = 17 g, which is more than 2 scrambled eggs

I often eat Greek yogurt in the afternoon for a snack, and the typical 6 oz. container contains 12-14 g of protein. And that’s in addition to the protein which I consume in beans and whole grains. So yes, it is possible to consume plenty of protein without eating meat.

Meatless in May is going strong and I’ll be back again next week with more portable vegetarian recipes since my summer class is starting. I’ll be in class 4 nights a week for a short while. Have a great weekend!

On Saturday, my Mom and my sister and I all headed to New York, to get a head start on celebrating Mother’s Day. Every good trip should start with a healthy breakfast, and this was no exception. I packed a breakfast buffet for us to enjoy on the commuter train into the city. We had fresh cantaloupe to share, peanut butter sandwiches on Bagel Thins, and caffeine containing beverages.

Then we were off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to see the Picasso exhibit and the American Woman exhibit. Both exhibits were good, and the museum itself has so much to see that it’s almost overwhelming. By the early afternoon, the sun was shining and we decided to walk through Central Park because I wanted to see Belvedere Castle. The view from the top was amazing, and look who I could see when I zoomed in with my camera?

But then, it was most definitely time for lunch! We headed to Fig & Olive, which turned out to be an excellent choice. We ordered wine, a cheese tasting plate, a vegetable tasting plate, and gourmet crostini. The cheese plate included goat cheese, Gorgonzola, Fontina, Machego, and Rocchetta, accompanied by fig jam and olive tapenade. My Mom and I liked all of the cheeses although my sister favored the Fontina and Manchego. We all agreed that the fig jam was amazing though! The crostini that we chose included one with eggplant, one with Manchego and fig, and one with mushrooms and Parmesan. My favorite was the roasted eggplant, and there was more roasted eggplant on our vegetable dish.

One of the more interesting items on the vegetable plate was this orange scented fennel. I had never tried fennel this way, so it was a new experience, although I am not sure I liked the licorice flavor. My Mom and my sister both loved the roasted peppers on the vegetable plate, and we all liked the balsamic artichoke hearts. It was such a great meal, full of small bites and wonderful flavors. There were many bottles and jars on the walls, but unfortunately there was no fig jam available for purchase.

We strolled through Rockefeller Center and Times Square, and then it was time to take the train back home. Somehow, in the city that has everything, we had a difficult time locating an ice cream shop on the way to Grand Central Station. Finally, we found a place to purchase gelato, which we enjoyed on the ride home. It was the perfect ending to a fun day! I love Boston, I really do, but New York City does have a certain energy that can’t be matched. I can’t wait until my next trip!

I am almost finished with my first week being Meatless in May. As far as eating goes, this week was easy. I planned out my meals as usual, bringing several meals to work, and enjoying the rest at home. I never felt deprived, or hungry, or tempted to slip. Perhaps it was because I was so focused on my nutrition final and a new project at work, but the transition seemed almost too smooth. And I had fun trying a few new recipes, like this Sunflower Seed Pate.

This coming week will be far more challenging. I am going to NYC on Saturday, my sister’s house on Sunday, and meeting friends for dinner on Wednesday. There will be plenty of vegetarian options wherever I go, but I expect it will be different when I am not in complete control of my meals. I’ll keep you posted!

That’s right, I have decided to go without eating meat in May. I first heard about the campaign from Elizabeth, and she encouraged me to give this a try. But I’ve been thinking more about food choices ever since I saw Food, Inc. and read Omnivores Dilemma. I believe that a mostly plant based diet is good for both my health and the environment, although I am not ethically opposed to eating meat.

The movies and books have made it clear that the American food system does not operate in a manner which is kind to the environment, and many of the products may compromise our health. But despite my good intentions to make more conscious choices, I have not made any real changes in my food habits. I still buy and eat meat which has been produced in factory farms and I still choose conventional produce over organic most of the time. I’ve bought items from a few local farms over the years, but not nearly enough.

My purpose in eating vegetarian throughout May is to raise my personal awareness of how often I would normally choose to eat meat, and what alternatives are available. I will not be eating beef, pork, chicken, or fish. However, I will be eating both eggs and dairy products this month, which makes this goal achievable for me.

Each Friday in May, I’ll provide a recap of the week. I will let you know how the challenge is going and any issues I have overcome. My blog has always featured many plant based recipes, and there will be many more next month!

My kitchen has barely seen me lately, so I don’t have a new recipe to share today. But I did want to post this article which features a few of my favorite food bloggers and their ideas for snacks. I just might have to try some kettle corn this weekend!

There are so many Easter food traditions that I’d love to show you: homemade hot cross buns, ricotta pie with the lattice crust, egg bread, and Easter Meat Pie. But we’ll just have to wait until next year!

I do have a couple of new recipes planned that I hope to share with you next week. In the meantime, have a wonderful Easter to those who celebrate!

Since her first NuWave dinner party was such a success, my friend Paula invited a bunch of us over for a second one. If you didn’t catch the first post, the NuWave cooks food using a combination of conduction, convection, and infrared heat. It cooks much more quickly than a regular oven, and sits right on the counter top.

But before we got to any cooking at all, we sat outside on her deck (yes, in Boston, in March, without coats) enjoying some appetizers and wine.

From start to finish, the NuWave cooked chicken breasts, potatoes, and vegetables in 45 minutes. The oven comes with a laminated card which indicates exactly how many minutes it will take for each type of food to cook, and it was perfectly accurate. The potatoes went in first, for 25 minutes on High.

Then, we added sliced vegetables which had been tossed with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, and placed the marinated chicken on the rack. The oven was set for 10 minutes on High, we turned the chicken and tossed the vegetables, and then cooked it for a final 10 minutes.

The chicken stayed very moist; it did not dry out at all like it does sometimes in the oven. The potatoes were baked perfectly, and the vegetables were nicely roasted. The flavor of each food was distinct, even though they were in close proximity in the oven.

If you’ve ever tried to cook 3 different things in the regular oven at the same time, you know what’s it like to be juggling baking dishes and trying to be sure that everything is done just right. But perhaps the biggest advantage to the NuWave is when you’re cooking for a large group, and your regular oven just isn’t big enough. Of course, it is another appliance which needs to be stored somewhere, which is always a problem for me….

Thanks to Paula for hosting a fun night, group cooking projects are so much fun and the final product was delicious! And I didn’t even document the chocolate cake and ice cream….

This year on vacation, my whole family took my nephew for his first visit to Nokomis Groves, a local citrus grove which has been growing oranges and grapefruit for over 60 years. This was really a flimsy excuse for the adults to go enjoy the orange ice cream. You can’t tour the grove itself, but there is a little store with freshly squeezed orange juice, piles and piles of oranges and grapefruit, and yes, their famous ice cream cone which is a classic twist of orange and vanilla.

Most times during the work week, I have at least two meals packed with me to eat at work, or class, or the library (shhhh). So I figured it wouldn’t be difficult to pack food for a plane trip. Not only would I save some money, but I would start my vacation with healthy momentum.