Using Leftovers for Lunch

Salad for lunch today! At least half of my lunches are salad. They are easy to throw together. Today we had a lot of left overs in the fridge and the yogurt and granola I had for breakfast has vanished. What got me started were the lentil and rice cakes I made the other night. I had put them in my salad yesterday and they were really tasty, so I thought I would do that again, then I found the Tahini, Tamari and Ginger Grilled Chicken I made last night and cut some of that up, added leftover black beans, tomatoes, green pepper, green olives and my favorite blue cheese, all of which was tossed over the baby spinach I used as my base.

Point being, be creative with your leftovers, make a sandwich, a salad or combine a couple of different things. I just read that American waste almost 50% of their consumable food. Don't be hesitant to combine flavors. I have been experimenting with different flavor combinations, like tomato and blueberries (really good) just to try something different.

AND as I wrote in an earlier blog post, salads are simple and travel well. This one took me less than 5 minutes. When I am working at the office I frequently will toss a salad together in a huge plastic container and bring a bottle of salad dressing.

My Favorite Local Restaurants

So if you are looking for cool places to eat out and want to expand past the frozen microwave food being served at Applebees or Fridays, and yes I'm serious about that. That is exactly what you are getting there. I'm always in search of places using local ingredients and something different. Oh yeah, and not getting food poisoning is good too. I recommend the following:

Oh My! Preztels

Darren Hodorovich is the owner of the Oh My! Pretzels, serving you guessed it.. Pretzels. These are not your ordinary soft pretzels though. Not only are they organic, but they actually taste AWESOME, not like the gluey globs I have seen at other places. Darren's shop is in Eagle right on Rt 100 and you can find him at the Anselma Farmer's Market, Great Valley Farmers Market, and the Elverson Farmers Market. He is also offering boxed lunches with pretzel sandwiches. These boxed lunches are perfect for corporate lunches. Email me or Darren for the complete menu: darren@ohmypretzels.com


Raw Can Roll Cafe

My girlfriend made me go here, and I'm so glad that I did. Raw Can Roll Cafe is a totally raw cafe and for those of you who are thinking huh? We're talking much more than just salad. I had the Thai Spring Roll, Jicama Potato Salad and Lemonade that was heavenly. I of course was too busy eating to take pictures, so go to the website and see for yourself www.rawcanrollcafe.com. Sheryl is the owner and she let us try the chocolate candies that make the trip to Douglasville totally worth it.


Station Taproom

I wrote about this before, but we have been here two more times since I last wrote. And I still love it. With Menu items like Beef Short Rib Egg Roll, Steamed Mussels in a Thai Curry Sauce, Lamb burger and the yummiest had cut fries I have ever had, I will keep coming back. Check out their website too. http://www.stationtaproom.com/home/

Silly Putty and Petroleum in Chicken McNuggets?

 For those of you who still, on occasion visit McDonalds, I thought I would share this article with you. We stopped going after I read Fast Food Nation and after a couple of occurrences where McDonald's went into Brian (at age 2 1/2) and came flying back out the other end about 30 minutes later. I know, gross, but I presume you have had a similar experience. Last time I knew food wasn't supposed to do that, but as you will read, a Chicken McNugget has 37 ingredients. I have made baked chicken fingers in the past, I only needed a few ingredients: chicken, bread crumbs, egg, flour, salt and pepper. I froze them and the chicken fingers lasted for several months in the freezer.

http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/a-little-silicone-and-petrol-in-your-mcnuggets/

Nutrient Dense Foods

I see, and I presume you do too, lists of foods to eat all the time. Most of the time they are pretty similar. I liked this one from Delicious Living as it encompasses vegetables, fruits, legumes and beans, and nuts and seeds. Each section lists the top fruit, vegetable  etc, why it is important, and has links to recipes for each food that is listed. Check it out and I hope you try one of the recipes. I have made several of the recipes from the site and they have all been pretty good.Click on the title to go to the article.


http://deliciouslivingmag.com/health/nutrition/0727-nutrient-dense-diet/index.html

Too Much Zucchini - Make Zucchini Cakes

Yes, you read that right, Zucchini Cakes. This is the time of year where all of my garden growing friends are trying to pawn of their summer squash and zucchini on me. I'm pretty sure we have has some sort of squash every night this week.. I'm a little tired of it (coming from someone who barely makes the same thing twice) and have been trying to come up with something creative to do with all the squash.
Don't get me wrong, I like zucchini and pretty every other squash. It's versatile and easy to cook. So in an attempt to do something different, I came up with these. The cakes kind of tasted like potato cakes.  They were a touch on the mushy side. Zucchini has a high water content and normally I would have pressed the water out, but I wanted to see what they came out like this way.

This is what I did:

Shredded 2 good sized, but not baseball bat size zucchini (in the food processor)
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 cup quinoa flour
1/2 cup cooked quinoa (substitute with rice or couscous, I happen to have quinoa left over
1/4 teaspoon tabasco
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cumin
salt
pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, mashed

1. Mix all ingredients together except olive oil and garlic. Form into patties
2. Heat olive oil and mashed garlic
3. Place patties into heated pan, cook for 4-5 minutes on each side, until golden brown
4. remove from pan, sprinkle a touch more parmesan cheese

I served this with a little arugula, chopped tomatoes, and roasted cumin scented chickpeas.