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Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Fondue: the meal that keeps on giving

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Here we are, the third of January, and I still have managed to actually eat healthy food every day. I know it’s been a mere 60 hours since we rang in the new year (with much champagne and pina colada punch, I might add….), but they have been a good 60 hours and bode well for the upcoming year….

Last night’s stir fries yielded a delectable cacophony of flavours (equaled only by the chaos that still remains in my kitchen….). Fondue really is the meal that keeps on giving….once you’ve done all the work to get everything chopped up, you invariably end up with a quantity of food that could only be consumed by a football team. Though the boys made a decent dent in it, there was still a TON of food left.

On top of the General Tao’s tofu (see previous post), I took the leftover steak, added nearly a pound of spinach (that stuff cooks down into nothing!) and stir fried with onions, garlic, nam pla (sweet dark soy sauce) and fish sauce. I added a few squirts of sri racha (spicy hot chili garlic sauce) for good measure. I find that the healthier I’m trying to eat, the more chilies I add to my food. Not only is chili good for your metabolism, the hotter you make your food, the slower you eat it, and the less you are inclined to eat if it’s really fiery piping hot. It’s a good plan all round.

To my leftover mixed seafood (thank you Costco for your frozen goodness), I added peanut sauce, and sweet chili sauce (both by President’s Choice). This was also delectable; even more so as leftovers in my lunch today.

I’m also trying to make a more solid attempt at eating breakfast……it’s tough because most mornings I’m lucky if I’m dressed and conscious before I make the 400m mad dash for my bus. I’ve now eaten brekkie three days in a row. And not once did it consist of a cupcake, slice of pizza, doughnut or oversized bagel. Ha. I discovered a fabulous cereal by Nature’s Path called Optimum Power that gives me 10 grams of fibre in 3/4 cup of cereal. The only bad part is suffering the aftereffects of that much fibre at once. Thank goodness for having my own office.....

Dinner tonight is going to be chicken fajitas with salad. I have a friend coming over and I always find that fajitas are a great dinner choice for a casual get together. You can eliminate picky people issues, allow people to eat healthy/diet when other people smother their fajita in cheese and sour cream. Overall, it’s a great option. I think that, in addition to chicken (and in an effort to reduce animal protein), I’m also going to slice up some portabello mushrooms (delicious in strips with steak spice!) and mash up some beans, as well as perhaps even making some guacamole (assuming of course that there actually are reasonable avocados to be had in this rather northern locale….). I’ll have to stock up on coriander too……mmmmmmmmmmm……coriander. I’ll probably mix it in with the mushrooms and guac. I am salivating already.

It’s funny, I know that I could easily be a vegetarian (lacto-ovo, or one who eats both dairy and egg products). While I definitely enjoy meat, I also LOVE so many veggies, legumes, etc – it wouldn’t be hard for me to eat like that.

This vegan business though…..it’s complicated. I have utmost respect for one who has the commitment to follow that diet. I came across a great resource today - http://www.veg.ca/directory/fastfood.html - it’s a fast food directory of which restaurants have vegetarian and vegan options. You see, the same week that I’ve decided to have Vegan Week, I also start night school two nights a week, meaning that I’m going to have to fend for myself in the big wide world. Turns out eating out vegan isn’t so simple – even things like bread and veggie burgers will often have milk ingredients in them. Looks like I’m going to be going for teriyaki stuff – they have tofu, rice is vegan and I’m pretty sure the teriyaki sauce is also vegan. Otherwise I’m screwed. Or starved. Which might not be a bad thing……(need to drop about EIGHTEEN pesky pounds. Yuck).

Another little event coming up is a small dinner party this weekend with my in-laws. I’m giving myself a challenge for this – I want it to be phenomenal, but also very very healthy. Like disgustingly healthy. So I have to come up with some sort of 3-4 course menu that will satisfy without repetition…..any ideas? I'm thinking a salad of some sort (may recycle the pomegranate salad), a blended soup, tbd main course and dessert.

Thanks for reading! And make sure to tune in to Vegan Week starting January 14th - updates, stories, recipes and more!

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