Cleaner Eating

My husband and I read a book over the summer called "Skinny Bitch"  by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin.  It changed the way we will eat for the rest of our lives.   This book had me in tears.  I will never forget reading it.  

I started reading it to my self, but went on a road trip with my husband and was thinking to my self "He needs to hear this!!!!" So, I started reading it out loud to him.

It is graphic and profane.  He kept yelling at me "WHYYYY, Why are you doing this to me!  I can't listen to this! This is horrible...."  I just ignored him and kept reading, he needed to hear it as much as I did.

So when we got back from this road trip, we cleaned our refrigerator out.   We probably gave 30lbs of frozen meat to our neighbors, and organic dairy products. Cheeses, milk, butter, and whatever else was sitting in our fridge.  Ironically, these were the very neighbors that let us borrow this book.  They had fallen off the wagon, with three kids, its kind of hard to maintain a vegan diet.

So, needless to say, we were now on a - almost- vegan train!   Not only that, but we were starting the 21 Day Fix Extreme at the end of that week too.  I was in tears again.  What was I doing, taking on all of this at once?

Well, 9 months later, and I eat dairy from time to time, but I make sure to keep it organic.  I don't need any of that added antibiotics, or hormones in my body.  But no meat.  None since August 30th, 2015.

And let me tell you,  I feel like a million bucks.  This little bit may be a tad graphic for some of you so skip if if you want.. My lower intestines and colon are so clean, I can tell that there is nothing built up in there.    The first few months of eating this way (including 21 DFX diet), NOTHING, and I mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING stayed inside of me.  I felt so clean and light, I knew I would never go back.

We stumbled on another book that I will talk more about later on called "The China Study",  definitely look into this one if you are interested in the health benefits of this diet, you will be amazed.

Quick Caprese

My husband and I were going to go out for a drink and some appetizers so I made us a pre-appetizer just to get us started, and minimize the amount of appetizer we ordered out...

Super quick and super easy,  I sliced one whole tomato, one whole ball of mozzarella, and half a cucumber and lined it up on a dinner plate.  I picked some lemon basil from my garden and used it s an edible garnish.  I drizzled the whole dish with aged balsamic vinegar and a nice olive oil, and salt and peppered the whole dish.  It was very quick to make and a great starter to get us going before our night out.  what I like about lining the components up is that you can switch up what you eat together. 

You can most definitely play around with the plating.  I am always trying to make my dishes look just as good as they taste.  I think this is the hardest part of cooking.  I read somewhere that you want to create height, diversity in color, and keep the plate clean. 

Please post photos of your caprese plating!  and Enjoy!

Wicked Awesome Red Wine Vinagrette

I always try to keep some kind of vinaigrette on hand, but I needed this for the Panzanella so I made up a big batch of it.

1\2 a quart of Olive Oil
1\4 of a quart Red Wine Vinegar
1 Tbs ground mustard
1 Tbs whole grain mustard
1 small shallot minced
2 tsp sugar
3 Tbs fresh herbs minced- I used parsley, oregano, lemon basil, sage, and thyme
S & P

Mix it all in  a quart container and shake very, very well.  I will emulsify, but before every use you should shake again it because it will separate.

Panzanella Party

Right when my husband and I moved into our new place we made friends with the neighbors.  About two weeks later they had a Father's day party and invited us over to meet all their neighborhood friends.  It was a pot luck scenario, my very first of many to come.

My neighbor offered to give me a pizza to cook up not knowing my passion for food.  I laughed at her and told her how much I love to cook and that I will certainly not be bringing a frozen pizza to my first neighborhood party! :)

I searched through my CIA text book, The Professional Chef, Ninth Edition.  I really want to take this opportunity to impress.  So I chose the perfect thing for a summer Father's day gathering, Panzanella Salad.  Now, you ought to know I always change recipes.  I tweak it just a little bit to make it my own...

I roughly chopped two tomatoes, then I pealed and blanched about a quart of cherry tomatoes.  Next time I only want to used blanched cherry tomatoes.  I did this by cutting a little X on one end of the tomatoes, about eight at I time I dropped them in boiling water for 30 seconds. I took them out and dropped them in an ice bath and the skin basically peals off on its own.  I cut six celery heart sticks on the bias, medium diced a yellow and a red pepper, three cloves of garlic finely diced, and I pealed and de-seeded a cucumber (using a spoon). I medium diced two peaches as well, this was my own addition.  Next I added two table spoons of capers, and lemon basil, and added my home made red wine vinaigrette and of course you can't forget to S & P everything.

Just before the party I added a pint of stale bread, or you can toast up any bread you have laying around. Mix it all up and its ready to serve.  It was a huge hit, and I will be making it again and again!