It's sort of weird that food photos are known as 'food porn.' It seems like a good way to make your photo, and the food, seem sort of dirty and gross. Even though porn isn't necessarily dirty and gross. Still, there's got to be a more interesting way than simply "food photography" but with less connotative meaning than porn.
I'm in class and we're watching Helvetica. It's a documentary on the ubiquitous typeface and about design in general a bit. While quite an interesting look at design and typefaces (a passion of my not so long-ago youth spent making websites), it's easy to become distracted while sitting in front of a sleek widescreen Mac.
I've been browsing vegan cooking blogs, and it's making my friend salivate a bit.
Check out Veganachronism, a blog that veganizes historical recipes. The most recent post is for tater tots! Not historical, but still delicious.
Or Vegan Cookies, pretty self explanatory. The blogger is developing a cookbook so there are only a few recipes, but a plethora of sugary cookie photos that I feel guilty even just glimpsing.
Next week on the cleanse there are plenty of sugary treats: maple pecan cookies, baked maple apple and a lemon-freaking-tart. But I've got to concentrate on this week and appreciate the tantalizing offerings (afternoon snack is baked tortillas with fresh guac; tonight is black bean cashew burgers) compared with last week's army of wiggly steamed veg.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Friends of Cleanse
I had one more photo for that last post but it's on a different topic so I'll slide it in separately.
Here are some of the tools of this cleanse:
Back row: Clockwise, from bottom left corner: delish steel-cut oats, my happily coloured melamine measuring spoons, baking soda, Brita water jug, Pyrex measuring cup, loaf of spelt bread and three expensive cobs of white corn, PC sea salt, Lakewood Organic Carrot Juice (real good, not too sweet), Fairwinds Farms Goat Milk yogurt (very tasty), steel steamer, LifeSource strawberry preserves.
Front row: my beloved tetsubin, bosc pear, grapefruit and lemon
Not pictured: Mr. Olive Oil, Mr. Balsamic Vinegar, Ms. Goat's Milk Gouda, Ms. Colander, Mrs. Sweet Potato-Yam and Mr. Red Tater.
Here are some of the tools of this cleanse:
Back row: Clockwise, from bottom left corner: delish steel-cut oats, my happily coloured melamine measuring spoons, baking soda, Brita water jug, Pyrex measuring cup, loaf of spelt bread and three expensive cobs of white corn, PC sea salt, Lakewood Organic Carrot Juice (real good, not too sweet), Fairwinds Farms Goat Milk yogurt (very tasty), steel steamer, LifeSource strawberry preserves.Front row: my beloved tetsubin, bosc pear, grapefruit and lemon
Not pictured: Mr. Olive Oil, Mr. Balsamic Vinegar, Ms. Goat's Milk Gouda, Ms. Colander, Mrs. Sweet Potato-Yam and Mr. Red Tater.
Story with pictures
Ugh, I am going to skip out on zucchini til I am off this cleanse, I think. It's meant to be eaten the Italian way (breaded and fried or baked) or maybe the French way (deep-fried, stuffed zucchini flowers). Not steamed. Yuck.
Edit: Also, zucchini are "an immature fruit, being the swollen ovary of the female zucchini flower."
I was supposed to have Swiss Chard with lunch but I bought Kale on accident. The Kale was pretty decent, but not especially delicious so I decided to learn what was good about it, from wikipedia:
I can deal with that! Also, Chard is actually beet greens! I much prefer chard to the beets, beets are tooo sweet, and can only be my friend if they are in borscht.Kale is considered to be a highly nutritious vegetable with powerful antioxidant properties and is anti-inflammatory.
Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and reasonably rich in calcium.
Kale, as with Broccoli and other brassicas, contains sulforaphane, a chemical believed to have potent anti-cancer properties, particularly when chopped.
The Swiss Potato Salad was quite nice. I added a bit of chopped celery for texture. Lentils were flavourless and blah.
Dessert though! Ohhh, dessert! Quite smashing, maybe a little sweeter than I needed. I had a sliced Bosc pear dressed with organic dark maple syrup and chopped cashew. It was a treat!
I hope to get in the habit of includng photos with posts, at least on these days where I have all my meals at home. It's the least I can do to properly log my experience during my first cleanse. And now that I am not complaining and dreaming about food all the time, hopefully my posts will be increasingly interesting to look back on.
For the record, current emotions include:
- glee
- energy
- excitement
- optimism!
- weepy
- uninterested
- whiny
- disheartened
Week 2, Day 3
Well, I am all talk sometimes when it comes to blogging. Anyway, today will have a good post or two (three?)
Week 2 is like a week of forgiveness to evil Dr. Rau who has inflicted steamed vegetables upon my humble life.
Breakfast is full of stimulating flavours and hearty goodies. After my warm, alkalizing mug of baking soda and water (it's growing on me!) I eat half a grapefruit (on sale at Safeway! 6 for $3, regular $7). I linger over the paper, usually the National Post, or the Globe & Mail if it's at my door while my steel cut oats cook. Today I ran out of dates, which is the sweetener for my oatmeal, but it was still delicious with my morning banana.
And today included a new, soft-boiled egg with my spelt toast! I was pretty excited leading up to it, and though it wasn't as fantastic as my imagination described it, it was still satisfying.
Week 2 means green (i.e. caffeinated) tea in the morning and I enjoyed a pot of lavender jasmine that I bought on a trip to Canmore at the start of the month.
Today's snack was 5 cashews, hahaha.
Now I'm cooking lunch, which has been a bit laborious because it includes lentils, that I needed to cook, and Swiss Potato Salad, also not yet cooked. But now it is time to eat. Photos upcoming!
Week 2 is like a week of forgiveness to evil Dr. Rau who has inflicted steamed vegetables upon my humble life.
Breakfast is full of stimulating flavours and hearty goodies. After my warm, alkalizing mug of baking soda and water (it's growing on me!) I eat half a grapefruit (on sale at Safeway! 6 for $3, regular $7). I linger over the paper, usually the National Post, or the Globe & Mail if it's at my door while my steel cut oats cook. Today I ran out of dates, which is the sweetener for my oatmeal, but it was still delicious with my morning banana.
And today included a new, soft-boiled egg with my spelt toast! I was pretty excited leading up to it, and though it wasn't as fantastic as my imagination described it, it was still satisfying.
Week 2 means green (i.e. caffeinated) tea in the morning and I enjoyed a pot of lavender jasmine that I bought on a trip to Canmore at the start of the month.
Today's snack was 5 cashews, hahaha.
Now I'm cooking lunch, which has been a bit laborious because it includes lentils, that I needed to cook, and Swiss Potato Salad, also not yet cooked. But now it is time to eat. Photos upcoming!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Cravings
As I was eating my Spice-Steamed Chickpeas and shredded veg, Ed microwaved 2 deluxe Pizza Pops. The agony!
Really I just want a big bowl of pasta with a good, chunky tomato sauce.
I decided to clean the bathtub so I could have a warm bath on such a cold day, when I opened a new pair of latex gloves, I swear they smelled like chocolate chips.
I don't wanna finish my steamed veg for lunch...steamed cabbage? I guess if I ate it out in the snow I could pretend to be a Ukrainian girl who has no heat because Russia doesn't wanna give it away for cheap anymore.
It's mid-morning snack time anyway: avocado! Actually fabulous with lemon juice and sea salt. I'm out of apples though, as well as cukes so I'll have to stock up soon
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry
Day 5
I'm falling behind on blog posts so I've converted to mobile blogging! Expect more updates.
Day 3 ended with an against-the-rules fresh salad at the pasta retaurant. House-baked bread, sauce-drenched pasta and freshly grated parmesan and I was eating romaine and olive oil. I admit though, I also ate 4 kalamata olives...
Day 4 brought some woe, nothin specific, but chatting with mum helped reinforce my motivation. Was supposed to have steamed artichoke for dinner but Safeway and Community Natural Foods were outta them.
The carrot juice I bought at Safeway (something-house farms?) Is bad, sickly sweet carrot-ness. I'll try and drink my $8 worth but the organic, 1% lemon juice kind is far far better.
I went to a rock show last night, late. It was fabulous (Key to the City!), and I don't regret being out late. Even so, it was a sleepy rise this morning and I had to finish breakfast at school.
I'm going to be making my cheese, spelt bread, and spelt pasta shopping list this afternoon! I'm already salivating.
In other news, I think my boobs got smaller and I'm going to try on my red pants today, and see if they fit better than they did during christmas.
In the past week the temperature has dropped between 30-40 degrees following the exit of a chinook. Apparently that is harder on the body. It certainly makes it tough to take a walk. I might have to go mall walking like the seniors up the hill. Oh dear.
Day 3 ended with an against-the-rules fresh salad at the pasta retaurant. House-baked bread, sauce-drenched pasta and freshly grated parmesan and I was eating romaine and olive oil. I admit though, I also ate 4 kalamata olives...
Day 4 brought some woe, nothin specific, but chatting with mum helped reinforce my motivation. Was supposed to have steamed artichoke for dinner but Safeway and Community Natural Foods were outta them.
The carrot juice I bought at Safeway (something-house farms?) Is bad, sickly sweet carrot-ness. I'll try and drink my $8 worth but the organic, 1% lemon juice kind is far far better.
I went to a rock show last night, late. It was fabulous (Key to the City!), and I don't regret being out late. Even so, it was a sleepy rise this morning and I had to finish breakfast at school.
I'm going to be making my cheese, spelt bread, and spelt pasta shopping list this afternoon! I'm already salivating.
In other news, I think my boobs got smaller and I'm going to try on my red pants today, and see if they fit better than they did during christmas.
In the past week the temperature has dropped between 30-40 degrees following the exit of a chinook. Apparently that is harder on the body. It certainly makes it tough to take a walk. I might have to go mall walking like the seniors up the hill. Oh dear.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Day 3
Just a quick recap:
Day 1:
Was at the boyfriend's house but I'd brought almost everything over to his place for the cleanse so I figured I'd make the alkaline soup and get 'er started.
While the soup was cooking, I tried to drink the daily cuppa baking soda + warm water. That was not fun. I think I gulped down an ounce or so. After that came the flax seed oil.
I have heard plenty of good stuff about flax seed oil and all of it's benefits with the omegas and what not. Since the menu for the day said 1 tablespoon flax oil, I decided I would just have it like that.
Great idea, that one. It came up as quickly as it had gone down, and it tasted just as horrible.
Day 2:
I made the soup again, but cheated by adding garlic and some sea salt. It didn't make it especially tasty but it's palatable now. Had broth for breakfast and tried to have the baking soda and water but it wasn't agreeing with me. The 1/2 organic grapefruit was delectable and the steel cut oats were actually pretty decent with an apple. Still not willing to try flax oil again. I made it into a garlic-balsamic dressing instead.
Lunch was sorta disastrous because I understeamed my veg in the microwave at school, but couldn't resteam them since I had already drizzled them with oil. A sad meal.
Dinner was better, although my mum (also on the cleanse) was displeased that I wasn't following the exact meal plan (i.e. the flax thing). I am so lumped that I can have potatoes on this cleanse, even if they are steamed.
Day 3:
Breakfast was much smoother today. Still no flax.
I sliced up the date that I am supposed to cook with the oats and didn't notice a difference, but it was still good.
The broth was also pretty decent.
It takes forever to eat breakfast on this cleanse but it was nice to linger over the newspaper and read about Obama's inauguration.
I'm eating lunch right now. I am working on a beet salad that is full of beets which is unfortunate because I am not a fan. They taste too earthy for me. This shredded salad is a monster, with probably more than necessary greens in it. Red lettuce, spinach, parsley, cuke and 1/2 cup of alfalfa sprouts. I still have to eat the steamed sweet potatoes and broccoli and I didn't have my midmorning snack. I'm surprisingly full.
Nonetheless, my craving for sodium and bread is raging and I can't stop thinking about cheese. Thank god I don't eat meat anymore.
I think I've been a bit grumpy but I don't think it's related to the food.
Tonight is a dinner with brother and father, not sure if I will eat or try to order just steamed veggies. Hmmm
Day 1:
Was at the boyfriend's house but I'd brought almost everything over to his place for the cleanse so I figured I'd make the alkaline soup and get 'er started.
While the soup was cooking, I tried to drink the daily cuppa baking soda + warm water. That was not fun. I think I gulped down an ounce or so. After that came the flax seed oil.
I have heard plenty of good stuff about flax seed oil and all of it's benefits with the omegas and what not. Since the menu for the day said 1 tablespoon flax oil, I decided I would just have it like that.
Great idea, that one. It came up as quickly as it had gone down, and it tasted just as horrible.
Day 2:
I made the soup again, but cheated by adding garlic and some sea salt. It didn't make it especially tasty but it's palatable now. Had broth for breakfast and tried to have the baking soda and water but it wasn't agreeing with me. The 1/2 organic grapefruit was delectable and the steel cut oats were actually pretty decent with an apple. Still not willing to try flax oil again. I made it into a garlic-balsamic dressing instead.
Lunch was sorta disastrous because I understeamed my veg in the microwave at school, but couldn't resteam them since I had already drizzled them with oil. A sad meal.
Dinner was better, although my mum (also on the cleanse) was displeased that I wasn't following the exact meal plan (i.e. the flax thing). I am so lumped that I can have potatoes on this cleanse, even if they are steamed.
Day 3:
Breakfast was much smoother today. Still no flax.
I sliced up the date that I am supposed to cook with the oats and didn't notice a difference, but it was still good.
The broth was also pretty decent.
It takes forever to eat breakfast on this cleanse but it was nice to linger over the newspaper and read about Obama's inauguration.
I'm eating lunch right now. I am working on a beet salad that is full of beets which is unfortunate because I am not a fan. They taste too earthy for me. This shredded salad is a monster, with probably more than necessary greens in it. Red lettuce, spinach, parsley, cuke and 1/2 cup of alfalfa sprouts. I still have to eat the steamed sweet potatoes and broccoli and I didn't have my midmorning snack. I'm surprisingly full.
Nonetheless, my craving for sodium and bread is raging and I can't stop thinking about cheese. Thank god I don't eat meat anymore.
I think I've been a bit grumpy but I don't think it's related to the food.
Tonight is a dinner with brother and father, not sure if I will eat or try to order just steamed veggies. Hmmm
Monday, January 19, 2009
Coronation
Here is the premise, folks.
I have been a bit obsessed with food since I began eating vegetarian in November 2007. Not in a bad or unhealthy way, of course. But not eating meat forced me to get more creative in the way I get my nutrients.
Cooking for myself lead to cooking from scratch when I could. I baked focaccia bread for the first time, learned about new whole grains, ate cous cous and bok choy and sometimes freaked out my roommate.
But of course, the holiday season wreaked some havoc on my food intake. Cheeses, beer, pie, wine, and so many cookies.
I won't call it a New Year's resolution, but I decided to start a cleanse in January. I'm doing Dr. Rau's Way which was recommended to my mum by a friend of her's.
Read on, followers.
I have been a bit obsessed with food since I began eating vegetarian in November 2007. Not in a bad or unhealthy way, of course. But not eating meat forced me to get more creative in the way I get my nutrients.
Cooking for myself lead to cooking from scratch when I could. I baked focaccia bread for the first time, learned about new whole grains, ate cous cous and bok choy and sometimes freaked out my roommate.
But of course, the holiday season wreaked some havoc on my food intake. Cheeses, beer, pie, wine, and so many cookies.
I won't call it a New Year's resolution, but I decided to start a cleanse in January. I'm doing Dr. Rau's Way which was recommended to my mum by a friend of her's.
Read on, followers.
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