Food & Restaurants
Nut Milk
I made a pitcher of nut milk today. 1 cup of cashews ($1.25 at CVS), 6 cups water (I used filtered), dash of salt (I used kosher), teaspoon of vanilla (I used real), couple teaspoons of some sweetener (I used turbinado). Hold back 5 cups of the water, blend the rest, add remaining water, blend again, and you’re done. I’m having it over Cheerios. Protein, just like milk, w. no animal products, and it’s delicious. Kind of like brown rice milk, not as thick as organic whole dairy, somewhere between 2% and skim. Cost factor is great, too. I’m sure I can get unsalted cashews for less. Advice: if you use salted cashews, don’t add the dash of additional salt.
I got this recipe from my favorite cookbook: Of These Ye May Freely Eat: A Vegetarian Cookbook by Joann Rachor
McTip for McDonalds
The occasional McDonalds bacon/egg biscuit is one of the vices I wish I didn’t have. Usually rushed mornings, with high demands will do it. I won’t eat their other food, and I’m working on dumping them entirely forever (factory farming) but, for now, here’s a tip: If you order the bacon-egg biscuit, asked them to substitute the scrambled or round egg for the folded one. For the folded egg, they use a mix (imagine what kind of msg components are floating around in that plastic bag). But for the scrambled or round egg (fried), they actually break some eggs. They happily do the substitution, if you speak their language. Tell ‘em you want the biscuit dry, not “buttered”, too – you can avoid the chemical “margarine” that way. One thing about McDonalds – you can have it “your way”. It’s still a massively high calorie breakfast, and those eggs and that bacon are factory farmed, and it’s white bread; there are lots of chemicals in just all of that, too – but at least it’s not drenched in them.
They should charge for the fork
The following is about exactly how I think of restaurants (like one near me) that do stupid, manipulative things like sell biscuits and gravy, but without eggs, or eggs with biscuits, but without gravy. Then if you order eggs and biscuits and ask for some gravy, they try to tack $3 more onto your bill. Basically all those ill-tempered restaurants that try to control what you can eat, how you can eat it, and look for ways to hike up your bill. I gotta say, I never get wronged at Cracker Barrell, even if they aren’t local. “May I have some apple butter for my grits? Sure.” Sometimes easy is just part of the meal.
Bobby: I’ll have an omelet, no potatoes. Give me tomatoes instead, and wheat toast instead of rolls. : Waitress: No substitutions. : Bobby: What do you mean? You don’t have any tomatoes? : Waitress: Only what’s on the menu. You can have a number two – a plain omelet. It comes with cottage, fries, and rolls. : Bobby: Yea, I know what it comes with, but that’s not what I want. : Waitress: I’ll come back when you make up your mind. : Bobby: Wait a minute, I have made up my mind. I’d like a plain omelet, no potatoes on the plate. A cup of coffee and a side order of wheat toast. : Waitress: I’m sorry, we don’t have any side orders of toast. I’ll give you a English muffin or a coffee roll. : Bobby: What do you mean “you don’t make side orders of toast”? You make sandwiches, don’t you? : Waitress: Would you like to talk to the manager? : Bobby: You’ve got bread. And a toaster of some kind? : Waitress: I don’t make the rules. : Bobby: OK, I’ll make it as easy for you as I can. I’d like an omelet, plain, and a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast, no mayonnaise, no butter, no lettuce. And a cup of coffee. :Waitress: A number two, chicken sal san. Hold the butter, the lettuce, the mayonnaise, and a cup of coffee. Anything else? :Bobby: Yeah, now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven’t broken any rules. :Waitress: You want me to hold the chicken, huh? :Bobby: I want you to hold it between your knees. — from the film Five Easy Pieces
Lo Mein
Last night I pretty much duplicated Pei Wei’s lo mein, but I made it with rice noodles (a vegan alternative). Stir fry fresh broccoli, carrots, sweet peas, and firm homemade tofu in sesame and canola oils. Finish with soy sauce in the pan. Simmer dried shitakes and bean sprouts in a broth of garlic, celery, and pepper. Cook and add the noodles, top with red pepper flakes. It was superb.
Tonight, that broth, with lots of substantial ingredients, makes it a pho-like noodle soup. This time with buckwheat noodles. Lovely stuff. Asian pear for dessert, and wine.
