Farmers' Market Salad

I was able to make it to the Farmers' Market again this weekend! When it's open, I do the bulk of my grocery shopping there since I eat so many veggies. After shopping, I love coming home and making a giant salad!

This salad has two types of lettuce, red cabbage, cucumbers and tomatoes. I also added some chickpeas, avocado, sprouts and olives, which weren't from the farmers' market. I made a simple dressing using olive oil, lemon juice, a tiny amount of stone ground mustard and dried dill. The veggies are so flavorful that they don't really need much dressing.

Remember to make sure you get at least four colors of plant foods on your plate at every meal! Since the nutrients are actually in the plant's color, you can be sure you're getting all of the nutrients you need if your meals are colorful.

I could have gotten some more color in this salad if I had added some carrots, but sadly I put them in the fridge when I got home and forgot to put them in my salad!

Like what you're reading? Then sign up for my healthy living newsletter!

Cafe Blossom

One of my favorite things about studying at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition was lunch time. Now, I'm not saying that the classes weren't good, because they were really excellent. But at lunch time, my friends and I would jump in a cab and take a short ride from Lincoln Center to Cafe Blossom on Columbus and 82nd. Cafe Blossom is laid back and casual, but they serve really amazing and healthy vegan food. All of the restaurants around Lincoln Center were always packed with our fellow students, but Cafe Blossom was just far enough away for us to escape the crowd. Until word got out that they were close and suddenly the place filled up with fellow IIN'ers. Imagine our shock when we walked in the door to find the place packed with familiar faces from class! That didn't stop us from eating there though. We just ran out the door to make sure we got there first! 

I've eaten at Cafe Blossom more times than I can count, but sadly, Dennis had never been there, so I decided it was time to take him. We went for dinner on Saturday, and I'm pleased to report that he now loves it as much as I do. Most of my trips to Cafe Blossom were during lunch time, so it was nice to be able to sample some of their delicious dinner dishes. 

We both started out with yummy ginseng iced teas.

I had pan seared polenta with shaved baby artichokes as an appetizer. 

Dennis had blacked eyed pea cakes.

For dinner I had dijon grilled tofu. It came with eggplant purée, leeks, chard, snow peas and cherry tomatoes. I have no idea what they did to those veggies, but they were absolutely divine. I could have eaten a giant plate of them and been perfectly happy.

Dennis had porcini rigatoni. I tried a little bit of the greens and the sauce, and it was delicious. He really loved it.

For dessert we both had cashew ice cream, which was actually from Lula's Sweet Apothecary. The dish comes with three scoops of ice cream and you can mix flavors. In retrospect, we should have split a dish, but we each got our own. I ordered cookies and cream, chocolate chocolate swirl and drumstick. The drumstick ice cream is named after those prepackaged ice cream cones that I used to eat tons of in the summer when I was little. It had peanut butter, chocolate covered peanuts and sugar cone mixed in. I'm sure there was wheat in the it, as well as in the cookies and cream ice cream, but it the amount was minimal and I didn't notice any kind of reaction from it. 

Dennis had cookies and cream, drumstick and strawberry. The ice cream was really rich and we had a lot of it, so we were really full after dinner. We had tickets to see Race on 47th, street, and we actually walked the 35 blocks to the theater. We figured the walk would be good for our digestion and it would help burn off some of the calories from the ice cream. We apparently forgot that it was about 225 degrees with 98 percent humidity out. We were both drenched in sweat by the time we got to the theater, and the heat really wiped me out!

The play was really good, but I might be biased because I love Eddie Izzard and would pay to see him read the phone book. He did a really good job in the roll and would definitely recommend it if you happen to be in the area!

Like what you're reading? Follow me on Twitter!

http://twitter.com/diannewenz

Picnic in the Park

The weather has cooled down a little bit here (meaning it's now in the 90s instead of the 110s), so Dennis and I decided to get out of the house and go for a picnic in the park.

I bought these pretty little purple potatoes from the farmers' market, and was itching to do something with them. I chose potato salad since we were going for a picnic. I love potato salad but don't make it often. The purple potatoes were looked like little geodes once I cut them. It almost seemed like a shame to cook them!

I added peas, chopped onion, and red bell pepper.

And then mixed in Vegenaise, mustard, salt, pepper, sesame seeds and a little dill.

I also made a quick quinoa salad with cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and chickpeas. I added some olive oil, lemon juice and apple cider vinegar.

And I made a garden salad using tomatoes, carrots and olives. Most of the produce I used to make this lunch was bought at the farmers' market.

This was such a delicious lunch, and seemed to taste even better eaten outside in the park under the sun! And of course, we need to get time out in the sun in order to get our vitamin D!

Become a fan on Facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/VeggiegirlHHC

Quinoa and Veggies

I've been making a lot of raw foods lately, so it's been a while since I've made a quinoa stir-fry, and I figured I was over due for one. This was a quick dish for a busy week night.

I stir-fried shiitake mushrooms, asparagus, onion and garlic together in olive oil until tender, I then added kale (it's rare that kale makes it to the cooking stage in my house, because I've become so addicted to kale chips!) and chickpeas. And of course, I served the veggie mix over quinoa. This meal was super fast to make - it took only about 15 or 20 minutes - and is packed with protein, vitamins and minerals. So next time you think you don't have time to cook and are tempted to stop for fast food, stop yourself and consider making a quick stirfry with quinoa!

Like what you're reading? Follow me on Twitter!

http://twitter.com/diannewenz

Farmer's Market Pasta

Because of the heat, I haven't felt like cooking much lately, and I've felt uninspired in the kitchen. But visiting the farmer's market on Saturday changed that! All of the beautiful produce inspired me, and I couldn't wait to start making dishes with all of the food we brought home.

I really didn't know what I was doing when I started cooking this dish, but I just started throwing stuff together and had faith that it would taste good. And it did! It resembled ratatouille and was quite delicious.

To make the dish, I cut up eggplant, squash, fennel and tomato, and then added garlic and onions and sautéed them in olive oil. I also added a little water and some vinegar. After the veggies started to cook down, I added half a can of white beans and a little red wine, I covered it and then let it simmer until the veggies were tender. I served the veggies over brown rice pasta and topped them with nutritional yeast and chopped olives.

Like what you're reading? Then sign up for my healthy living newsletter!

Tuptim Thai

On Saturday night, Dennis and I went out for Thai food. It seemed a shame to go out for dinner after buying so much great produce at the farmers' market that morning, but our friend Neel stopped over in the afternoon and mentioned Thai food, which planted the seed for us to want to eat out. 

We like Tuptim Thai in Montclair. They have a separate vegetarian menu and we've tried just about everything on it. There's another Thai restaurant that's very close by, but they only have one or two vegetarian things on their menu, so Tuptim has earned our loyalty.

Unfortunately, I forgot my regular camera, so I took photos of our food with my iPhone, which doesn't have a flash. You'll just have to trust me when I say that the food was better than it looks here!

Dennis picked up a bottle of my favorite wine - Badger Mountain organic riesling. It's not always easy to find, so I was quite happy when he presented the bottle to me!

We started out with spring rolls. Yes, they are greasy because they're deep fried in oil, but since I eat healthily throughout the week, I allowed myself a spring roll.

We both had Thai salads. They were full of hard tofu and covered with peanut sauce. I really love Tuptim's hard tofu and I like anything covered in peanut sauce!

I had sautéed broccoli and tofu. Yummy!

Dennis had pad Thai. I sort of had a hankering for pad Thai, but I wanted more veggies than this dish comes with. I was happy with my choice!

Like what you're reading? Follow me on Twitter!

http://twitter.com/diannewenz

Farmers' Market

My local farmers' market started last month. It's on Saturday mornings, and unfortunately, I haven't had any free Saturdays until this past Saturday. It's a decent sized market, and there's so much good produce that I feel like a kid in a candy store walking through it. I always try to buy as much food as possible there so I can support the local farmers, and so I know that my food is fresh and hasn't traveled very far to get to me. 

When we buy produce from other areas, they have to be trucked, or even flown, to us often from great distances. Not only does that mean our produce is actually producing emissions, it means that it's not really fresh. Often produce is sprayed with chemicals in order to keep it fresh - even if it's been organically grown.  So not only does buying from local farmers support your local community and guarantee freshness, but chances are that less chemicals were used on your food. If you have to chose between organic or local, it's always best to chose local.

It's difficult to get organic certification, so chances are that local produce is organic, it's just not certified. And I also think food from the farmer's market tastes better than it does when I buy it at the grocery story. It's also much prettier! I just couldn't help but to take photos of some of the veggies I bought!

Pretty Purple Cabbage

It's summer squash season and the farmers market had many different varieties. I had to stop myself from buying more. They all looked so good but I didn't think I'd be able to eat them all!

This eggplant is so pretty that it looks like a sculpture.

Red spring onions. I've never bought these before, so I'm not sure what to do with them, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Lettuce! I'm not sure what kind this is, but it looks so good!

Fresh fennel.

Yummy little carrots.

Lots of pretty peppers.

Become a fan on Facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/VeggiegirlHHC