You can click the image above and read the Wikipedia page about broccolini but my math is all you need to know. The tender, slender form of asparagus combined with a slightly subtler flavor of broccoli equals my new favorite veggie! I was hoping that it would make every dish delectable but our second recipe turned out only “pretty good”. The best thing we’ve done so far was to simply blanch for a few minutes to get it nice and green (and hot) and then cover with salt, pepper, “butter” and a little lemon juice. Delicious all on its own!
It looks like broccolini has been around in the States since the mid-90′s but I’d only heard of it recently. It also doesn’t help that broccolini is a trademarked name and most grocers label it generically as “baby broccoli”. But whatever you want to call it, try it!
This cucumber kimchi recipe was so easy to make especially since I already had the Korean brand red chili flakes (handy in cooking in general). We had a bunch of cucumbers from Farm Fresh Delivery that were starting to go bad. I was thinking I wanted to make dill pickles out of them, but then kimchi popped into my head instead. The thing about kimchi versus dill pickles, for me at least, is kimchi almost always sounds good, but dill pickles I need to be in the mood for. I swear I should’ve been born Korean 
My mp3 player thinks I was!
So first step was googling since I was at work, I also checked one of my Korean cookbooks when I got home, but I ended up sticking with the one I found online for a reason i have since forgotten. I have made a cabbage kimchi before and this was a lot easier in my opinion.
Cucumber Kimchi recipe
What I did differently
- used non-Asian cucumbers
- Let them sit out with salt longer just because I didn’t get back around to them when they specified
- cut the green onion up thinly instead of big pieces like the recipe photos show
- I missed the part about letting the jar sit out 24 hours before refrigerating until I reread it as I made this post. oops! still yummy!
If you make some please share! I plan to make more tomorrow!
One of my tweethearts @mgonyeo retweeted a link to the blog post of reasons to stop eating meat. I thought I’d share it here!
1. To save the lives and well-being of animals. Our animal friends are treated like pieces of meat in most slaughterhouses. Animals have souls. There were over 9 BILLION chickens slaughtered in the US in 2008. Along with over 35 million cattle, 116 million pigs and over 270 million turkey. source
2. Lower your risk for cancers. It is widely accepted in the scientific community that a diet high in meat consumption helps develop certain cancers. On the flip side, if you do not eat meat, you automatically reduce your risk by 64% of developing stomach cancer and lower your risk by 53% for bladder cancer. source
Please visit the original post for the rest of the reasons, but feel free to comment here about the nice changes you’ve experienced since cutting out meat.
I’ve refrained from cooking with eggplants because I’ve heard that if you screw it up they’re really bad. I just need to throw that idea out the window because they’re so yummy and cool looking! Last night we made Eggplant Paprikash from FatFreeVegan.com.
The only real changes we made were maybe not using enough eggplant or peppers (we had a green pepper) and using store bought Tofutti sour cream. As we made it I worried it wasn’t going to turn out right, but in the end it was really delicious!
I have leftovers for lunch and I can’t wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No really, I mean that!
Her recipe can be found at the above link with a yummy looking photo, but this is what she has (please still see her site, lots of great recipes!)
Eggplant Paprikash by fatfreevegan.com
1 large onion, halved and cut into thin wedges
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. red pepper (optional)
1 tsp. salt (optional)
1 1/2 – 2 lbs. eggplant (about 2 medium) cut into 1-inch cubes
2 bell peppers, any color, sliced (I used red and yellow)
1 cup vegetable broth
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes (I used Muir Glen Fire Roasted)
1/8 tsp. Liquid Smoke flavoring
1/2 cup tofu sour cream (see below)
Tofu Sour Cream:
1/2 package (about 6 ounces) lite silken tofu
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tbsp. cashew butter or tahini
1/4 tsp. salt (optional)
Blend all the ingredients for the tofu sour cream until completely smooth, and set aside in the refrigerator until needed.
In a large, non-stick saucepan, sauté the onion in a small amount of water until it begins to brown, about 5-8 minutes. Add the garlic, paprika, and red pepper (optional), and stir for one minute. Add the salt, eggplant, peppers, vegetable broth, and tomatoes. Cover and simmer until the eggplant is tender, about 15-20 minutes.
When the eggplant is done, check the seasonings and add more salt if necessary. Stir in the Liquid Smoke (optional) and the sour cream, and cook for another minute, until warmed through. Serve over pasta (I used Tinkyada Pasta Joy brown rice noodles) or rice. Serves 4.
Mr. Sushi
(513) 827-9345
580 Walnut St
Cincinnati, OH 45202
By the time we met up with our friend after work and got downtown it was going on eight o’clock. I don’t know if that’s early or late by weeknight downtown standards but we found Mr. Sushi at light capacity, with only a few tables of hipsters at the front making a ruckus. We’d heard that the service was slow but were surprised that both our appetizer of vegetable tempura and our combo plate of sushi came out quickly. Maybe it was the right time of day or that our sushi didn’t require any special handling like an exotic dead-fish roll.
The tempura veggies were a little pricey at $5 and there wasn’t as much as I would’ve expected but what we got was a tasty mix of deep fried peppers, onion, carrot and zucchini. Pretty typical stuff but good. The Vegetable Roll Combination on their web menu is a little different than what we had. Ours was an AAC (Avocado, Asparagus, Cucumber) roll, a Vegetable (Carrot, Avocado, Cucumber) roll and Inari for $13. Both are pretty typical rolls but Mr. Sushi’s had a sweeter flavor that I think of fondly as I type this and the Inari, of course, were scrumptious; a little small but well packed with tasty rice, nice and cold.
The only downside, really, is that Mr. Sushi is downtown but for the crowd who live, work, and play down there on a daily basis it’s well worth stopping in. They’re maybe a little pricier than some of the nearby alternatives but not by much!
We got avocados & tomatoes in last week’s Farm Fresh delivery bin (they should sponsor us haha) so I decided to make guacamole. The recipe book that came with our Vita-mix had a recipe which we followed other than leaving out the cilantro. It turned out great, yet slightly bland, but not knowing what it needed, we left it alone. I take that back, we added some Korean red pepper to spice it up. We bought the makings for the next salsa attempt, but since it’s all canned I’m waiting.
Here’s the recipe
Guacamole
Yield: 1 1/2 cups (360 g)
Speed: Variable
Time: 15-20 seconds
Ingredients
2 ripe avocados, peeled, pitted
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons (30 ml) lemon juice
1/4 cup (40 g) chopped onion
1 medium tomato, halved
1/2 cup (10 g) fresh cilantro leaves
1. Place all ingredients into the Vitamix container in the order listed and secure lid.
2. Select Variable 1.
3. Turn machine on and quickly increase speed to 3.
4. Blend for 15-20 seconds, using the tamper to press the ingredients into the blades.
5. You may need to stop the machine and run a spatula around the inside of the container to integrate ingredients.
6. Do not over mix. Leave chunky. Serve with tortilla chips.
Optional:Garnish with diced tomatoes and parsley.
Health Classification: Diabetic Friendly, Low Carb, Low Cholesterol, Heart Healthy, Gluten-Free, Vegetarian, Vegan, Raw
Meal Type: Appetizers
Since the weather started getting warmer many things have been just wrong. I’m not sleeping well and I wake tired regardless of what time I go to bed. Doing my morning work out is so hard and I gave up on the extra running routine I was working on. Lately I’ve been over eating which on top of being more lazy has caused me to gain some weight back I’d been keeping off for months. Jeans are tighter again and I feel terrible about it. On Friday I caved and got cookies I used to love that I knew had egg & butter in them, which just gave me a stomach ache in the end. *sigh*
I started taking alavert over the counter allergy meds that dissolve in your mouth. It helped my allergies, but I was starting to feel like they had altered my mood so I stopped taking them. For a few days there I was a bitchy mess when I woke up, which is so not like me. I was always the type that wakes with the alarm, alert and ready to go. I don’t know where that person has gone. Being tired every morning has taken that away, but the bitchy me is gone at least. My doctor has thought that allergies making it difficult to breathe at night have kept me from a deep sleep. I would have thought this would pass after taking the alavert a week or so, but nothing changed.
This tiredness makes cooking a chore sometimes. I’m uninspired and thus don’t want to post about what we have been making. Sometimes we post photos on twitter or here at least. I don’t recall this happening last summer, this is a drag.
In other news:
we’re getting our second Farm Fresh Delivery this Wednesday! I customized the order this time, so we’ll see how that goes.
We’ve used the vitamix in lots of useful ways so far. We made our own peanut butter with just roasted peanuts. We ground our own coffee beans, made a salad dressing (see previous post), smoothies, pancake batter (just mixed, but mixed nicely), chopped onions and more. I thought I bought veggies to make a soup, but we never made one, so maybe we didn’t.
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