Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Earlier this week my friend Brian Muro (AKA Ms. Muro) came for a visit. With the sun finally shining, we hit the boardwalk on our bicycles and road all the way to Ocean City and back. Along the way we made time to stop for (my favorite) homemade ice cream at the one and only Margate Dairy Bar in Margate...

First taste of summer: homemade soft serve ice cream!

Taking a well earned break and enjoying the view...

After nearly 3 hours of battling the winds whipping off the ocean, ice cream never tasted so good! It gave us just enough energy to get home and cook dinner. In a rare reversal of roles, Ms. Muro took the lead in the kitchen and prepared an exquisite creation consisting of salmon, broccoli, string beans, onions & garlic bread...



For years now, every time I cook for Brian, he says to me: "I really have to cook for you" but talk is cheap my friend and as Ms. Muro herself would say, the proof is in the pudding, or haricots verts as the case was this week.

All is well that ends well though and my tastebuds would have to agree that this scrumptious chef d'oeuvre was worth the (oh so long) wait. But anyone who knows anything knows that perfection cannot be rushed, which is why freshly peeled and chopped garlic, hand prepped veggies, fresh herbs (more turmeric!), and patience were the key ingredients here. The result?

Pleasure of the purest kind...

As you can plainly see, our trip and cuisine were both phenomenal. And as usual, we enjoyed one another's company to the max! Most of our time was spent being silly, as was the case here:

Ms. Muro sporting the shirt I got him for his birthday

But what makes each others company so rewarding is that it exists as a dynamic balance between gay (pun intended) merry making and fruitful activity. Our friendship is a perfect coming together of imperfect and chaotic energies that have the power to excite, inspire and challenge our preconceived identities; this connection feeds off good fun, good food, and a willingness to explore the uncharted territory before us.

Life isn't perfect, but find a reason to smile (laugh, cry, scream, dance...) anyway and keep looking straight ahead, or as Brian says, "gayly forward".  There will always be time for work, but be sure to enjoy all of life's pleasures and the people you share them with, along the way.

Sometimes, girls (and guys) just wanna have fun :)

From Stir Crazy to Stir Fry: The Color Cure

Taste the rainbow. No. I'm not referring to skittles.

Amidst these April showers, and sometimes snow showers, I'm feeling a bit impatient for the season's transformation. I know summer is coming, and it will probably be hot as hell thanks to global warming, but honestly, if I wake up to one more cold, wet, white day, I might lose it.

Let's face it, we all need some color during these transitions. If not in the sunshine and blue sky, then at very least, on our plates. Which is why I've had a colorful week, food wise. I've indulged in everything from homemade turmeric and ginger spiced tea to brilliantly hued vegetable & tofu stir fry.

I don't know which was pleased more, my sense of taste or of sight.

The Sweet Life

As the flowers start to bloom and life begins to emerge anew, I can't help but feel the colorful spirit of spring sweetly singing to me. The song is for the future and for all the exciting possibilities that drift on the dawn of each new day.

But before I can look too far forward, I'll take a moment to look back, and at the here and now, to acknowledge the hustle and bustle foreshadowing future transformations.

With so much happening this last month, it was easy to stick to my goal of not eating meat, while indulging my senses in life and its endless array of flavors, textures & colors. Gurpreet and I took a three day trip to rural Watertown, NY situated on lake Ontario, just fifteen minutes from Canada! While we were there for an interview, we were pleasantly surprised by the mouthwatering culinary experience we shared at the rustic Cavallarios Cucina.

Increasing My Pulse

Chickpeas, also known as "garbanzo beans", are a member of the Pulse family; Delicious, nutritious & environmentally friendly.

March is flying by and I'm happy to say that giving up meat has steadily increased my pulse. No, not my heart rate (Zumba has done that!), but my intake of beans, lentils, and other legumes. The UN declared 2016 the international year of the pulse, stating that not only are pulses some of the most nutritious foods available, but also some of the most affordable, a combination not easily found. And this is to say nothing of the environmental friendly production methods used for harvesting pulses.

From Happy to Hopeless: A Look Inside Manic Eating

About a month ago I asked my friend to contribute to my blog. When she asked what, or how, I replied that it didn't matter, so long as the subject had something to do with food. I even encouraged her to get creative and challenge the traditional notions of form and content. When she emailed me a week later, I must admit I was surprised; I didn't expect such a candid, dizzying confession, one that depicted food as the enemy, of sorts, and revealed the narrator to be, well, human, for lack of better words. There was no doubt that the writing intrigued me; it was honest and expressive and even a little bit nutty. So after about a month of going back and forth, edit here, edit there, my friend, who requested she remain anonymous, put together a version that communicates what it is she wants, and perhaps needs, to say. The following is that version, which is just as cooky, just as vulnerable, as the original. You might even find it exhilarating, in a roller-coaster ride kind of way...

Birthday Steak

Those of you who've been keeping up with my blog already know that I have refrained from eating meat for the month of March, with just one exception: my birthday. On Sunday March 13, I turned the wise, but still youthful age of 29 and celebrated this feat by partaking in the act of eating dead animals, or what most would refer to as meat.

Replacing Meat With Life- and one courageous guppy! This is March So Far...

 

What you see before you is my breakfast, a bowl of oats and almonds with fresh blueberries and of course, milk. It was my first meal of Meatless March, and it was so good, I had it for breakfast the following Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday!

For the last week or so I've been keeping a food journal to chronical my month long journey. It's helping me to stay focused and make sure I'm getting all the nutrition I'll need without meat in my life. It's also proof incase someone asks.

So far I've consumed 3 veggie burgers with spinach & portabello mushroom, 6 eggs, potatoes, toast, broccoli, spinach & artichoke dip, calamari, more mushrooms and spinach, chard, baby kale, 7 bananas, 1 grilled cheese sandwich, one mini cupcake, talapia, red kale, quinoa, 1 spoonful of apple sauce, carrots with roasted potatoes, 1 slice of plain pizza, more kale, more talapia, and hell of a lot of bread. Oh, and two slices of my favorite chocolate mousse cake from Whole Foods (an early start to the birthday festivities). 

    My supper last Friday: talapia, quinoa, and fresh red kale. Bon appetit.

I might have missed a meal or two, but you get the idea. So far I have not craved meat, even last Sunday when my whole family enjoyed a grass fed, organic roast right in front of me. What can I say? I'm too busy tasting life I guess- I got two cavities filled, reunited with a long lost friend, went blonde, adopted and rehabilitated a dieing guppie and passed my road test at the ripe age of (almost) 29! Delicious. No, but in all seriousness, I honestly have not been tempted and I think it's owed to the fact that I am really inspired to become better and make a positive change, not to mention I just really love vegetables :)

   The newest addition to the family: Lil Guppreet, my new guppie!

                                    Who are these two trouble makers??? Together again!

One, not so tasty change I have noticed though, is that I've been feeling somewhat fatigued, just in the last day or two. A lot has been going on, so there's no reason to assume it's diet related; I have been living at different people's houses for the last 2-3 weeks, learning how to drive, and drinking a bit more moonshine than I probably ought to be (not before or during driving of course). Hopefully as life gets back to "normal" I'll regain my energy, but thanks to the food journal I've been keeping, I realized that regardless of my current happenings I do need to introduce more seeds, beans, and other legumes into my diet for optimal health. So stay tuned because Ill be researching the best vegetarian "meat replacements" and trying out some new recipes over the new few weeks!

Until then, enjoy the unseasonably and downright strange warm weather and as always, happy eating!

    Artichoke, spinach dip

       I bet you wish this was your breakfast: fried egg with portabella mushroom and spinach

From breakfast to blonde; beauty comes in all forms.

Shout out to my amazing hair stylist Jamielynn for this stunning work of art! I'm feeling lighter inside & out!

    My aunt and I found this little guy abandoned, freezing, starving, and choking from lack of oxygenated water! He was the lone survivor of 6 guppies all left in a dark basement for 1 month! But somehow he managed to survive- #revenantfish. But it is, after all, the season for us Pisces and what better way to celebrate that than by adopting a fish? After buying a new tank, water filter, heater, food, and all the other essentials, Guppreet is doing much better and finally eating! Tomorrow we will redecorate his tank and bring him a friend :) There's nothing like kindess to rekindle a life.

Happy Birthday to me! Finally, after two degrees, living nearly a decade of my life in Jersey, and traveling (some of) the world, I am a NYS licensed driver! And all before the age of 29! Life tastes pretty sweet :)