Should you eat a raw frozen chicken breast for dinner? A decision guide.

Tip Tuesday: Make This Amazing Hot Spiced Cider

Okay, this isn't a tip, in the traditional "quick 'n easy tips!" sense, but this is a tip that will change the way you are seen by others this holiday season.  (Namely, you will be seen as the person who makes the best hot spiced cider ever.)

You guys: next social gathering this season, you must make this awesome hot spiced cider from the really great ladies over at Apples & Onions. 

:: yum! pic from apples & onions ::

I've made this three (three!) times in the last month, and it's a massive hit.

Warning: Don't even think about making this if you don't want the house to smell amazing!

You can follow the recipe as written at the link, but I've made a few adjustments and made it a double batch, so my version is as follows:

Hot Spiced Cider
(serves a small crowd)
1 gallon fresh pressed apple juice (I get two of the half gallons of the refrigerated apple juice from Trader Joes -  yum!)
2 organic apples*
2 organic oranges*
juice of two lemons
4 cinnamon sticks
a palm-full of whole cloves
+ some booze to have on the side

* Since the rind of these fruits is simmering into the cider, it's good to get organic.

Begin to gently heat the apple juice on the stove.  Add the lemon juice and cinnamon sticks.  Zest one of the oranges into the cider mixture.  Stud the apples and oranges (including the one you zested) with the cloves by pushing the pointy narrow end into the fruit.  Add them to the cider.  Once it is hot and delicious smelling, you're good to go!

You can add in the alcohol, but I prefer to leave it to the side of the stove so people can self-spike and it's a kid/non-drinker friendly beverage.  (I left a bottle of whiskey and dark rum out at Thanksgiving.)

Tip Tuesday: How to Keep Bagged Salad Fresh

Sometimes I go through phases where I buy all my produce at the farmers market every week.  But mostly I go through phases where I don't do that, and buy food at Trader Joe's, even though it's been packaged for a long time and isn't as fresh. 

During one of my good phases, a farmers market vendor taught me to store the lettuce I was buy from him with a paper towel in the bag.  As moisture gets in, the paper towel soaks up the water and keeps it off the lettuce, keeping it fresher longer.  Awesome.

But normally I buy bagged salads at the grocery store, and they spoil sooooo easily once they're opened.  So I applied my farmer trick:

It works like a charm.  Hooray!

California's influence on food trends

I saw this Gourmet article months ago and bookmarked it to remember... and here it is: Five Food Trends We Owe to California. 

I especially love the "Periphery of the Plate" trend (de-emphasizing meat as the center of a meal).  While I certainly crave a cheeseburger and a roast chicken semi-frequently, I am grateful that California cuisine really celebrates the side dishes.

Having grown up and always lived in California, I always assumed that eating like this was just... eating.  It's how my mom always cooked, how my friends' families cooked, and how I learned to cook.  Now I know the California diet is a point of state pride -- woo hoo CA!

:: ah, california!  tomatoes from the brentwood farmers market ::

Final cleanse thoughts (Part 3 of the cleanse series)

Okay, hopefully I will shut up about cleanses after this post.

Some final thoughts, answered in the form of fake frequently asked questions.

Why did I wind up doing this cleanse?
I saw a dietitian because I'd felt like my digestion and complexion had been getting worse over the past couple of years, and I had a hunch they were both related to my diet.  A new year's resolution was to get to the bottom of this.  In our first meeting, she suggested I do this cleanse, and I was all gung-ho to get going.  Fun fact: I brought home all the supplements and powders, and my husband said he wanted to do it with me.  It was very sweet of him and really nice to do it with a buddy, so we suffered (and learned!) together.

What were the hardest parts?
There are two clear winners for this question.
1.  The first four days were brutal.  Travis and I were both suffering major withdrawal from caffeine and sugar.  It took several days to get over it.  We had really bad headaches and were super-lethargic.  It was interesting, though, to experience your body legitimately freaking out without coffee and candy... we were literally detoxing.  And then also really satisfying to adjust to not having sugar and caffeine.  (I've been done with the cleanse for about two weeks now, and I've added back sugar (I'm not crazy!), but I actually haven't added caffeine back yet, and am trying not to get hooked again.)
2.  Weekends are pretty terrible.  Here are the things I like to do on weekends: go out to restaurants; go out to bars; cook a big pasta dinner and drink wine; drink coffee and read the paper; get a latte and go for a walk; watch movies and eat popcorn and drink diet coke.  We became social recluses because there's really no point in exposing yourself to so much temptation.  (We met friends at a bar once and had... waters.  So sad.  And then the waitress told us we couldn't sit there if we were just having waters.  Even sadder.)  I watched a lot of movies those weeks, and we started taking down "Breaking Bad."

What surprised you the most?
This is going to sound so cheesy and so LA, but... I really felt better while I was eating on the cleanse!  My skin totally cleared up, I lost a few pounds, which was a surprise bonus, and my energy levels were really even throughout the day.  I'm not going to exaggerate and say I leapt out of bed ready to take on the day, but I woke up feeling ready to wake up (even without coffee!), and didn't feel at all drowsy driving home from work.  I slept better, too.  I also found myself wanting to exercise more.  I'm sure that's because (a) there wasn't much else to do!, but also (b) I was putting so much effort into treating my body well, that I just wanted to keep doing right by it.

All that said, I was really excited to go to two wonderful birthday parties last weekend and indulge in yummy, yummy, frosting-y cake at both of them.  I think about what I eat more for now, but I'm still, and always will be, obsessed with eating.  Overall, worth the effort, and I am likely to do (a maybe modified) version of it annually.

What to eat on a cleanse (Part 2 of the cleanse series)

Hi guys!

A couple thoughts on my last cleanse post:
1.  I don't think you need the expensive products to do it and have it be effective.  I am not a registered dietitian (...surprise!!!), but I think you would be okay buying any rice-based protein powder for the smoothies.  (Rice, because you're eliminating soy and gluten, which most other ones are made of.)  And you'd want to make sure it's fortified with a lot of other good stuff.  Supposedly the supplement pills helped with the detoxification process, so you might want to splurge on those.

2.  You could also probably do this effectively just by taking a few weeks and only eating off the list of allowed foods.

Okay, I know I'm starting to sound like a crazy person, but eating this way for a month-ish really changed how I think about what I put in my body and made me realize it has an affect on how we feel all over.

But that's not the purpose of this post.  This post is a list of things you can eat on this cleanse, because when I first saw the list I was like "SRI!!?3$@ODsj!@$#@$#!!!!   There is nothing to eat!!!!!!"

Here are some things I ate that made me not feel like I was totally on a cleanse:

• Roasted potatoes and roasted vegetables as sides to any chicken or fish dish felt like totally normal food.
• A whole roasted chicken (with salt, pepper, garlic, herbs) is always delicious.
• For Valentine's Day, I made this delicious halibut, and served it with a quinoa/brown rice medley with sauteed vegetables.
• The first weekend, I made a big pot of hearty chicken chili and ate it over a baked potato.  (Yes, I missed the cheese but... what's a girl to do?)
• Brown rice pasta with any sort of veggie marinara sauce (plus chicken?) felt like a non-cleanse meal, and the brown rice pasta didn't really taste weird.  (And I'm very freaked out by fake versions of food tasting really weird.  ...Just go heavy on the sauce.)
• The smoothies for breakfast eliminated any need to think about breakfast foods, although you could do steel-cut oats (with almond milk, if you wanted), topped with blueberries and sliced almonds.
• I made a bunch of quinoa-based salads (sort of Whole Foods style) with cleanse-friendly ingredients.  (You could do a tex-mex black beans, onion, avocado thing... or a golden raisins, butternut squash, hazelnuts kinda thing...)
• It was easy to fall in a trap of everything tasting bland.  I made this sauce and put it on top of everything for a wonderful savory flavor burst.
• Eating a restaurants wasn't that hard, so long as it wasn't a specific type of ethnic cuisine.  (Like all asian foods would have a lot of soy; Mexican foods would have a lot of corn, etc.)  
• Brown rice cakes became surprisingly really delicious to me, topped with either almond butter or avocado, olive oil and salt.

Happy clean-eating!

Here is the cleanse that I did (part 1)

Anyone who spent any amount of time with me in the past month knows that I’ve been doing a cleanse/detox thing.  (What’s the difference?  Is there a difference?)

In short, it has been a really good experience.  It was hard, but not that hard, and I would recommend it to everybody.

Below are the details of this cleanse and how you can do it yourself.  I will follow up later this week with further thoughts on the process and some tips/tricks I learned along the way.

How long is it?

28 days, although the last week is easier because you start to add in non-cleanse foods again.

What do I need?

AdvaClear (buy one bottle)

Ultra Clear Plus (buy 2)

Ultra Clear Renew (buy 1)

Disclaimer: I bought my materials directly from the dietitian.  I don’t know anything about the difference in vendors, so these links are just for reference.  In total, the materials will cost you $300.  Steep, yes, but I found it to be worth it.

Also, as you use the Ultra Clear to make your smoothies (more below), start by using the Ultra Clear Plus powder.  When that runs out, switch to the Renew, and then finish off with the Plus.

Okay, how do I do it?

Here is what you remove from your diet:

Foods that increase acidity/inflammation/toxicity:

• Sugars, sweeteners, desserts
• Red meat
• Pork
• Caffeine
• Alcohol
• Non-dairy creamers
• Soda and soft drinks

Foods that are commonly allergenic:

• Soy
• Wheat/gluten
• Dairy
• Peanuts
• Corn
• Eggs
• Shellfish
• Chocolate

Here is what you can eat:

•  Fruits: All fruits, except oranges (I don’t know why, these were just the directions… but other citrus, even clementines, tangerines, etc. are okay.)
• Vegetables: All vegetables, except corn
• Starch: Anything gluten free, so stuff like rice, potato, oats, quinoa, etc.
• Legumes: The whole bean family is fine, except soy products, including soy beans
• Nuts & Seeds: All nuts, except peanuts
• Meat & Fish: Chicken, turkey, fish
• Dairy substitutes: Rice milk, almond milk, coconut milk, hemp milk, etc.
• Fats: Oils (olive, canola, sunflower, sesame, almond, etc.), no processed fats, like margarine, shortening, mayonnaise, etc.
• Spices: All spices are fine, but condiments/sauces should be homemade to avoid weird additives
• Sweeteners: Brown rice syrup, fruit sweetener, blackstrap molasses, stevia (although I never used any of these)

Here is what you can drink:

• Water
• Sparkling water
• Herbal tea

Here are the general smoothie basics:

• 2 scoops of the powder, plus whatever you want in your smoothie
• Take with 2 AdvaClear capsules
• Have one smoothie for breakfast, and another for an afternoon snack (or whenever)

Cleanse Schedule

Day 1

Follow the dietary guidelines

Have 1 smoothie for breakfast, but with only 1 scoop of the powder and 1 AdvaClear capsule, to warm your body up to the cleanse; have another AdvaClear capsule some other time during the day (with food)

Day 2

Have 1 smoothie, with 2 scoops of the powder, and 1 AdvaClear capsule; have another AdvaClear capsule some other time during the day (with food)

Days 3-6

Increase to 2 smoothies a day, with 2 scoops of the powder, and take 2 AdvaClear capsules with each smoothie.

Days 7-13

Warning: This week is terrible, kinda.

Have your 2 smoothies a day, with 2 scoops of powder, and 2 AdvaClear with each smoothie, as usual.

Eat only the following foods/food categories:

• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Fats
• Spices
• Brown rice (no other starches)

This means you avoid:

• Starches (besides brown rice)
• Legumes
• Nuts & Seeds
• Meat & Fish
• Dairy substitutes
• Sweeteners

Days 14-15

2 smoothies, per usual, but for these two days, add back in other starches and dairy-substitutes.

Days 16-18

2 smoothies, and also add in legumes and nuts/seeds.

Days 19-21

2 smoothies, and also add back in meat and fish.

Days 22-28

Slowly start to add back in foods that weren’t allowed on the cleanse, one at a time.  If you are testing for food intolerances/reactions, here’s how you do it:

•  Pick one food, and keep it specific (for example, don’t add back “cake” because cake has gluten, egg, dairy, and sugar).
• Eat a lot of it in one day (twice in a day if possible).
• Wait 2-3 days, without eating it again and only eating from the cleanse foods listed above.
• See if there’s any reaction.  If there is, consider generally eliminating the food from your diet.  If there’s no reaction, it’s find to keep this food in your diet as you add back other groups and test.
• Let’s be real: if you’re doing the cleanse just to get clean and not to test, you can add stuff back more quickly, but go semi-slow so as not to shock your body.

I'll follow up with more information, including meal ideas and what to expect.

See follow up posts on the cleanse here and here.

Omigod please let's make this.

I'm dying to make this:

:: cake batter rice crispy treats via gimme some oven ::

Cake.  Batter.  Rice.  Crispy.  Treats.

Comfort food + dessert + rainbow goodness.  Oh me, oh my!

One more beautiful picture to entice you:

The Prettiest Cookies You've Ever Seen

Let's get seriously serious for a sec, okay?  Are these not the prettiest cookies you've ever seen????

I mean, stop, right?  Ridiculous!  I'm sure you didn't think for a second that I baked them, but if that crossed your mind, I didn't.  They are from here.  (Oh, and not only does this girl make the prettiest cookies ever as a side business, her day job is being a doctor.  And she's super pretty with looong eyelashes.  Meanwhile, I stage photos of cookies other people baked on leather ottomans.  So that's a thing.)  

Bananas for Banana Art!

Before I show you this incredible strange banana art, I have to say that I think bananas are basically the grossest thing in the entire world.  They are mushy and wet and stringy and smelly and leave behind disgusting rinds that are strange and floppy.  I want nothing to do with them.

BUT, I do want something to do with this wild banana art!  Have you seen it?!  It's so weird and creepy... I love it!  (But not enough to eat a banana.)

Pics from Daily Onigiri

The artist uses toothpicks and a spoon to make his art and completes each piece in under 30 minutes before the bananas turn brown (ew, another gross thing about bananas...).

Bye!

How to: Deftly handle a group dinner

Ah.  Group dinners.  Nothing defines young adulthood to moderately young adulthood like the group dinner.  As my friend Piper wisely says, “Group dinner; no winner.”

Having been through my share, both as a facilitator and a guest, I have some thoughts on how you can can indeed be a winner as an excellent coordinator and/or attendee of a group dinner.

 

Paying Tips

Follow the herd so you don’t feel ripped off.

Of course you’re paying for the birthday girl (or boy, but look, usually it’s a girl).  Generally, everyone is on the same page in a group birthday dinner, which is, the bill is being split evenly.  That said, roll with how the group is ordering.  Meaning drink about the same amount as everybody else and order about the same amount.

But if you’re on a budget, you don’t need to subsidize everyone’s dinner.

I have respect for those of you who on a budget and making an effort to stick to it.  Going out is expensive, and if you are trying to save, it’s annoying to have to spend $50 you don’t really have to say happy birthday to a friend.  Here’s how to get out of that: tell the coordinator privately (in advance, or as you’re sitting down) that you’re watching your budget, so you’re just going to order a glass of wine and a appetizer (or whatever), and that you’d like to just throw in for your part, plus the part for the birthday girl.  Even though it’s sort of weird to announce this in advance, it’s way less weird than being awkward about the bill when it comes.  That way, when the bill gets passed around, you can hand over your $25 to the coordinator with a little knowing wink and be able to afford lunch for the rest of the week.  Ta da!

When the dinner is all couples, split the bill per couple.

Yes, even if you’re a couple that splits things among the two of you when you’re out.  Just roll with it during the check-paying time, and then work out your part outside of the restaurant. It’s weird if we see you guys divvying up your money in front of us.

Hosting/Coordinating Tips

Be a partial actual host (if you can afford it) and win Classy Points.

If you are the birthday girl (or the significant other of the birthday honoree), a classy move is to pick up a nice chunk of the tab.  The easiest thing is to pay for the alcohol.  You can tell the server in advance, and this is usually easy for the restaurant to split out of the check.  This works best at a place where there isn’t a full bar (to avoid winding up with a crazy tab).  Have a game plan of what you want to order.  For example, at a Japanese place, you could order a bunch of sake.  Or go to a place with low or no corkage and bring your own wine.  If your friends are all on a budget, it’s nice to announce that this is what’s happening, so they feel comfortable imbibing.  If it’s not a big deal, it’s a nice “SURPRISE!  It only costs $25/each!” thing to do.  (They’ll be pleasantly surprised, trust me.)

Let guests know what to expect.

As the host/hostess, if you can, it’s great to estimate how much you think dinner will cost for people so your guests know what they’re getting in to.  (This only works for restaurants where entrees are similarly priced or a group ordering kind of situation.)  It also only works if it’s a pretty close group of friends where it doesn’t seem really gauche to call this out in the email. But people really appreciate if you send an email that says something like:

-       Here’s where we’re going (include Yelp link)

-       They have really good ___________

-       Dinner will probably be about $40/person – please bring cash!

Designate a Chief Orderer

If you’re dining at a small plates/family style place, pick one person familiar with the menu who can own the ordering for the table and make sure people have enough food.  This avoids the “Um, I don’t know, do you guys like fried eggplant?  Guys, does everybody like this? Okay… um… okay, well…” conversation.  (Of course this person can/should solicit opinions and take requests, but the Chief Orderer keeps tabs on how many dishes should be ordered and makes sure there’s an appropriate variety and, like, some rice at the table instead of just three variations of pork belly.)  This person should be mindful of the budgets of the guests and not order tons of crazy expensive stuff if that’s not the direction the dinner is headed in.

Guest Tips:

The best guests come ready to pay.

As a guest, come armed with cash.  Preferably also small bills.  If you can pay your $35 share of the tab with a $20 bill and three $5 bills, you will be a group dinner hero.  Tip: If I know I’m going to a group dinner, I will make my small purchases (like coffee) the day or two before with bigger bills to make sure I’m ready to roll with all my small change.

If you’re skilled at dividing up bills, take charge.

If adding a tip and dividing by eight comes easily to you, please spare the table the brain-chaos and grab the bill and tell us what we owe.  We appreciate your skill set and recognize that it’s a thankless job.  If you’re taken on this task, be prepared to make sure that we actually left enough and be ready to dole back some dollars if we’ve all overpaid.

Be pleasant.

Be nice to the person you’re sitting next to, even if it’s not your favorite person in the group. Try to act interested and make conversation.  And if you can’t handle that, be aggressive about picking your seat once a few others have sat down so you know who your dinner neighbors will be.

Enjoy your next group meal!  And don't get stuck paying $80 for a Pacifico and a one-taco combo next time.

Bye!