Massachussetts to Ban Trans Fat

The only issue I have with this article is the claim that trans fat help create the french fry crunch and pie crust texture. That is a lie. Trans fat are used to KEEP the crunch and texture for a longer time. Basically their only purpose is to prolong the shelf life of food. You can make a perfectly textured pie crust with butter. The best actually....
Anyway, this is a great step towards the fight against obesity!



Bill seeks to ban trans fats from Massachusetts
By Jason SzepTue Dec 19, 8:03 PM ET
A lawmaker introduced a bill on Tuesday that would make Massachusetts the first U.S. state to ban artificial trans fats from restaurants, closely following New York City's ban of the artery-clogging oils.

"We have an opportunity to vastly improve public health by directing restaurants to switch to healthier alternatives," Peter Koutoujian, a Democratic representative in the Massachusetts Legislature, said in a statement.

The bill uses language similar to new regulations announced this month by New York City, but marks the first effort to force restaurants in an entire state to stop frying foods in oils that contain high levels of trans fats.

New York's law, believed to be the first of its kind in the United States, requires restaurants including McDonald's Corp. to eliminate trans fats by July 2007 or face fines for each violation.

Trans fats increase the risk of heart disease and stroke by increasing levels of so-called "bad" cholesterol, known as LDL, and reducing levels of "good," or HDL, cholesterol.

Massachusetts has one of the lowest obesity rates in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"New York City's decision to ban trans fats from restaurants shows how government can take positive action toward improving public health," said Koutoujian, house chairman of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Public Health.

Under his proposal, no foods with artificial trans fat could be used to prepare restaurant menu items, with the exception of food served directly to customers in the manufacturer's original sealed package like potato chips.

Restaurants would have one year to switch to oils, margarines and shortenings that contain less than 0.5 grams of trans fat for every serving.

Trans fats occur naturally in some meat and dairy products, which would not be subject to the ban. Instead, the law targets nearly all artificial trans fats, which are chemically added to oils and give french fries their crunch and help create the texture of pie crusts and doughnuts.

America's fast-food chains, whose foods are among the most laden with trans fats, are moving toward voluntary reduction.

Wendy's International Inc. has reduced trans fats by switching to a different cooking oil, while McDonald's has been trying since 2002 to reduce trans fats in its french fries.

The privately held Dunkin' Donuts chain in 2004 started removing trans fats from bagels, muffins and cookies, and is researching alternative ways to make its mainstay doughnuts healthier.

Koutoujian said he hopes he'll find support for the bill from fellow lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled Legislature, which starts its new two-year session in January.

"There is an overwhelming amount of evidence out there revealing just how damaging trans fats are," he said.

Maple glazed acorn squash

oh my god this is so good.
preheat oven to 400

cut acorn squash in half and scoop out seeds
smear with a pad of butter
pour nh maple sugar over squash
sprinkle pepper and salt
sprinkle a bit of brown sugar

bake 1 hour at 400

either serve in half shell or scoop out and a mash

sometimes i make food so good that i don't believe it....and these are so easy and make me feel like i'm julia childs.

NYC to ban trans fat!!!!

FROM YAHOO http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061205/ap_on_he_me/diet_trans_fat_ban&printer=1



The Board of Health voted Tuesday to make New York the nation's first city to ban artery-clogging artificial trans fats at restaurants — from the corner pizzeria to high-end bakeries.

The board, which passed the ban unanimously, did give restaurants a slight break by relaxing what had been considered a tight deadline for compliance. Restaurants will be barred from using most frying oils containing artificial trans fats by July and will have to eliminate the artificial trans fats from all of their foods by July 2008.

But restaurant industry representatives called the ban burdensome and unnecessary.

"We don't think that a municipal health agency has any business banning a product the Food and Drug Administration has already approved," said Dan Fleshler, a spokesman for the National Restaurant Association.

Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said recently that officials seriously weighed complaints from the restaurant industry, which argued that it was unrealistic to give them six months to replace cooking oils and shortening and 18 months to phase out the ingredients altogether.

The ban contains some exceptions; for instance, it would allow restaurants to serve foods that come in the manufacturer's original packaging.

Trans fats are believed to be harmful because they contribute to heart disease by raising bad cholesterol and lowering good cholesterol at the same time. Some experts say that makes trans fats worse than saturated fat.

The panel also passed another measure that has made restaurants unhappy: Some that chose to inform customers about calorie content will have to list the information right on the menu. The rule would generally apply to fast-food restaurants and other major chains.

Sheila Weiss, director of nutritional policy for the restaurant association, said the rule would be a disincentive for restaurants to provide any nutritional information.

Trans fats are formed when liquid oils are made into solid fats by adding hydrogen in a process called hydrogenation. A common example of this is partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is used for frying and baking and turns up in processed foods like cookies, pizza dough and crackers. Trans fats, which are favored because of their long shelf life, are also found in pre-made blends like pancake and hot chocolate mix.

The FDA estimates the average American eats 4.7 pounds of trans fats each year.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who banned smoking in bars and restaurants during his first term, is somewhat health-obsessed, and even maintains a weight-loss competition with one of his friends in order to stay slim.

He has dismissed cries that New York is crossing a line by trying to legislate diets.

"Nobody wants to take away your french fries and hamburgers — I love those things, too," he said recently. "But if you can make them with something that is less damaging to your health, we should do that."

Many food makers have stopped using trans fats on their own, after the Food and Drug Administration began requiring companies to list trans fat content on labels.

Fast-food restaurants and other major chains were particularly interested in the board's decision on Tuesday, because for these companies, a trans-fat ban wouldn't just involve substituting one ingredient for another. In addition to overhauling recipes, they have to disrupt nationwide supply operations and try to convince customers that the new french fries and doughnuts will taste just as good as the originals.

Already, McDonald's Corp. has been quietly experimenting with more than a dozen healthier oil blends but has not committed to a full switch. At an investor conference last month, CEO Jim Skinner said the company is making "very good progress," at developing an alternative, and vowed to be ready for a New York City ban.

Wendy's International Inc. introduced a zero-trans fat oil in August and Yum Brands Inc.'s KFC and Taco Bell said they also will cut the trans fats from their kitchens.

Taco Bell worked for more than two years to find a substitute, conducting blind consumer taste tests and extensive research, the company said.

Chicago is also considering its own trans fat law, which wouldn't ban them outright but would severely restrict the amount that kitchens can use. The measure would apply only to large restaurants, defined as those that make more than $20 million in sales per year.

New York's move to ban trans fats has mostly been applauded by health and medical groups, although the American Heart Association warns that if restaurants aren't given ample time to make the switch, they could end up reverting to ingredients high in saturated fat, like palm oil.

___

scrambled eggs

simple eggs = super tasty

# of desired eggs
a tbsp of milk
simply organic garlic powder
dash of pepper
feta cheese!

beat together, put a dollop of butter in a frying pan
pour in egg mixture
scramble


cook until fluffy

and eat with some sourdough toast with butter :)

HARVEST SEASON = APPLES & BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP and APPLE PIE :)

OH MY. Did you know you could combine apples, butternut squash, garlic cloves, onions into a mouthwatering soup? I didn't until Saturday.

I took:
1 medium sized butternut squash
3 cortland apples
3 garlic cloves
2 onions

peeled and quarted all above (except garlic I left whole)
threw them in a roasting pan drizzled in oil with some salt and roasted at 350 for 45 minutes. i took them out and let it cool then i put them in the food processor and pureeed.
poured the puree into a saucepan, added water so it wasnt very thick (maybe 2 cups), 2 tsps of veggie better than boullion, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper and heated until hot.

YUM


APPLE PIE - I made two, one as a house warming gift and one for mike and i

shortcrust pastry

2 1/2 c flour (i used whole wheat)
2 sticks of butter

chop butter into cubes (it must be cold!) and mix with flour in a bowl. Use your fingers to break up the butter and flour until it is a breadcrumb consistency.
add tablespoons of ice cold water one at a time until the mixture sticks together. make a ball, wrap in saran wrap and place in fridge for 30 mins
chop a bunch of apples, mix with sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg and drizzle with melted butter.

take ball of dough out of fridge, cut in half and roll into 2 circles. place into pie tin. usually its good to take wax paper and dried beans to place over the pastry so it does not bubble and slip down the sides of the pan while you parbake it. if i dont have those, i take tin foil and cover the sides to the top of the pie dish and use a fork to stab the bottom of the crust. bake at 450 for 15 mins. take out, fill with apples, top off with second circle.
bake at 350 for 45 mins. dont forget to put a pan under the pie incase it bubbles!

enjoy!


by rcferdin

I AM BACK

I got a new computer. Fast, mean, and ready for photos/cooking/recipe sharing.

Lemon Angel Food Cupcakes from Cooking Light

My friend Maria made these for Meg's birthday...and I snatched one. And it was awesome.
Totally awesome.




Cupcakes: 1/2 cup cake flour (about 2 ounces)

3/4 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup egg whites (about 5 large eggs)
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind

Lemon Frosting:
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon 1% low-fat milk
1 to 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Edible flowers such as pansies or rosebuds (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°. Place 16 paper muffin cup liners in muffin cups. Set aside. Lightly spoon cake flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Sift together flour and 3/4 cup powdered sugar into a medium bowl; repeat the procedure 2 times. Beat egg whites and salt with a mixer at high speed until frothy (about 1 minute). Add cream of tartar, and beat until soft peaks form. Add 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Sprinkle flour mixture over egg white mixture, 1/4 cup at a time; fold in after each addition. Stir in vanilla and rind. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Bake at 350° for 18 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from pan; let cool completely on a wire rack. To prepare frosting, beat butter with a mixer at high speed until fluffy. Gradually add 2 cups powdered sugar; beat at low speed just until blended. Add milk and lemon juice; beat until fluffy. Add more lemon juice as needed to adjust the consistency. Spread 2 tablespoons lemon frosting over each cupcake. Garnish with edible pansies and rosebuds, if desired.



Yield: 16 cupcakes (serving size: 1 cupcake) NUTRITION PER SERVING CALORIES 144(18% from fat); FAT 2.9g (sat 1.8g,mono 0.8g,poly 0.1g); PROTEIN 1.6g; CHOLESTEROL 8mg; CALCIUM 4mg; SODIUM 58mg; FIBER 0.1g; IRON 0.3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 28.9g

Fractionated Palm Kernel Oil

So I recently found a energy/protein bar that I border line love. I've never liked Powerbars, Cliffbars or anything of that sort. I tried to eat them when I was a psycho cross country runner in high school, but they always tasted like sawdust. Recently I was famished and drained after a Bikram Yoga session and I was wandering the organic section of Hannafords, and I spotted a Kashi GoLean Peanut Butter and Chocolate bar. Since I avoid Reese's, my mind got excited for some peanut butter and chocolate. I opened it up and instantly found a bar that I really like. So does everyone else because the box is empty 50% of the time I go to buy them now.
Well, as you know, I'm a label freak and I was noticing one ingrediant: Fractionated Palm Kernel Oil. That sort of sounded like a cousin to Partially-hydrogenated oil, so I googled and found this really good article on it.

DrWeil.com

Question:

I've noticed an influx of "health" foods containing fractionated palm oil. How is this different from regular palm oil and from palm kernel oil? Is it healthier?

Answer:

Updated on 3/30/2005

You've asked a good question about a rather confusing subject. The African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) or its American hybrid variety (Elaeis oleifra) is widely cultivated in tropical areas and produces a fleshy fruit from which two oils are extracted: (1) palm oil from the fruit and (2) palm kernel oil from the pit. Both contain a lot of saturated fat, but of the two, palm oil is the healthier, both because it has less saturated fat and because it has high antioxidant activity from a significant content of natural vitamin E (including both tocopherols and tocotrienols). It can also be extracted gently by pressing the pulpy fruit.

Rees Moerman, product engineer at Spectrum Naturals, a California company, which sells high quality expeller-pressed oils, tells me that unlike palm oil, palm kernel oil can't be obtained organically. Instead, the oil must be extracted from the pit with a gasoline-like hydrocarbon solvent. In short, palm kernel oil is a cheap, unhealthy fat, and I recommend avoiding food products containing it.

Fractionation is a further phase of palm oil processing, designed to extract and concentrate specific fatty acid fractions. Fractionated palm oil, as found in food products, has a higher concentration of saturated fat than regular palm oil and is used for the convenience of manufacturers who like its stability and melting characteristics. The healthful aspects of natural palm oil are largely lost in the process. I've noticed that fractionated palm oil is a common ingredient in many power bars sold in health-food stores.

The bottom line is that of all these oils, organic, minimally processed palm oil is the healthiest, followed by conventionally processed palm oil. Palm kernel oil is less healthy still, and fractionated palm oil is the least desirable.

Andrew Weil, M.D.

Junk Food Jihad

Junk-Food Jihad
Should we regulate French fries like cigarettes?
By William Saletan
Posted Saturday, April 15, 2006, at 7:31 AM ET

Goodbye, war on smoking. Hello, war on fat.

In a span of two months, smoking bans have been imposed in Scotland, enacted in England, Denmark, and Uruguay, proposed by the government of Portugal, and endorsed by the French public. China has banned new cigarette factories. In Virginia, our third most prolific tobacco state, senators voted to ban smoking in nearly all public places. The Arkansas legislature, backed by a Republican governor, passed a similar ban and voted to extend this policy to cars in which a child is present. Tobacco companies have won a skirmish here or there, but always in retreat.

So, we've found a new enemy: obesity. Two years ago, the government discovered that the targets of previous crusades—booze, sex, guns, and cigarettes—were killing a smaller percentage of Americans than they used to. The one thing you're not allowed to do in a culture war is win it, so we searched the mortality data for the next big menace. The answer was as plain as the other chin on your face. Obesity, federal officials told us, would soon surpass tobacco as the chief cause of preventable death. They compared it to the Black Death and the Asian tsunami. They sent a team of "disease detectives" to West Virginia to investigate an obesity outbreak. Last month, the surgeon general called obesity "the terror within" and said it would "dwarf 9-11."

How do we fight it? Everyone agrees on exercising and eating responsibly. The debate is over what the government should do. Health advocates want to restrict junk-food sales, regulate advertising, require more explicit labels, and ban trans fats (also known as partially hydrogenated oils), which are often put into crackers, cookies, and other products to prolong shelf life. They marshal the kind of evidence that won the war on smoking: correlations between soda, junk food, obesity, disease, and death. Lawyers who made their fortunes suing tobacco companies are preparing suits against soda companies. Two months ago, when President Bush gave a health-care speech at the headquarters of Wendy's, activists compared the hamburger chain to Philip Morris. They see themselves as waging the same brave struggle, this time against "the food industry."

But somehow, "the food industry" doesn't sound quite as evil as "the tobacco industry." Something about food—the fact that it keeps us alive, perhaps—makes its purveyors hard to hate. For that matter, the rationale for recent bans on smoking is the injustice of secondhand smoke, and there's no such thing as secondhand obesity. Last year, a Pew Research poll found that 74 percent of Americans viewed tobacco companies unfavorably, but only 39 percent viewed fast-food companies unfavorably. This week, a Pew survey found that more Americans blame obesity, especially their own, on lack of exercise and willpower than on "the kinds of foods marketed at restaurants and grocery stores."

These obstacles don't make the assault on junk food futile. But they do clarify how it will unfold. It will rely on three arguments: First, we should protect kids. Second, fat people are burdening the rest of us. Third, junk food isn't really food.

Targeting kids is a familiar way to impose morals without threatening liberties. You can have a beer or an abortion, but your daughter can't. The conservative aspect of this argument is that you're entitled, as a parent, to decide what your kids can do or buy. That's the pitch Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, made last week in a bill to crack down on junk food in schools. The liberal half of the argument is that kids are too young to make informed choices. In this case, it's true. Studies show that little kids ask for products they see on television; fail to distinguish ads from programs; and are heavily targeted by companies peddling candy, fast food, and sugared cereal.

This stage of the fat war will be a rout. In schools, the audience is young and captive, and the facts are appalling. According to a government report, 75 percent of high schools, 65 percent of middle schools, and 30 percent of elementary schools have contracts with "beverage"—i.e., soda—companies. The sodas are commonly sold through vending machines. The contracts stipulate how many thousands of cases each district has to buy, and they offer schools a bigger cut of the profits from soda than from juice or water. Soda companies, realizing they're going to lose this fight, are fleeing elementary schools and arguing that high-schoolers are old enough to choose. But health advocates refuse to draw such a line. They're not going to stop with kids.

To keep junk food away from adults, fat-fighters will have to explain why obesity is the government's business. Some say the government created the problem by subsidizing pork, sugar, cream, high-fructose corn syrup, and other crud. Harkin reasons that the government pays for school lunches and must protect this "investment." But their main argument is that obesity inflates health-care costs and hurts the economy through disability and lost productivity. Last month, former President Clinton, a confessed overeater, told the nation's governors that obesity has caused more than a quarter of the rise in health-care costs since 1987 and threatens our economic competitiveness. It's not our dependence on foreign oil that's killing us. It's our dependence on vegetable oil.

If the fat-fighters win that argument, they'll reach the final obstacle: the sanctity of food. Food is a basic need and a human right. Marlboros won't keep you alive on a desert island, but Fritos will. To lower junk food to the level of cigarettes, its opponents must persuade you that it isn't really food. They're certainly trying. Soda isn't sustenance, they argue; it's "liquid candy." Crackers aren't baked; they're "engineered," like illegal drugs, to addict people. Last year, New York City's health commissioner asked restaurants to stop using trans fats, which he likened to asbestos. But he ignored saturated fats, which are equally bad and more pervasive. Why are trans fats an easier whipping-cream boy? Because they're mostly artificial.

This, I suspect, is where the war will end. Ban all the creepy-soft processed cookies you want to, but respect nature and nutrition. New York City is purging whole milk from its schools, despite the fact that milk has steadily lost market share to soda during the obesity surge. A fact sheet from Harkin implies that schools should treat milk, French fries, and pizza like soda, jelly beans, and gum. Come on. How many people died in the Irish jelly bean famine? How many babies have nursed on 7-Up? How many food groups does gum share with pizza? If you can't tell the difference, don't tell us what to eat.

A version of this article also appears in the Outlook section of the Sunday Washington Post.

William Saletan is Slate's national correspondent and author of Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War.

Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2139941/

cauliflower in a curry sauce

This is awesome and super easy to make

Chop up a head of cauliflower and steam it for 15 minutes.
In the meantime...
Chop 1 cup onions.
Sautee in veg/canola oil until golden brown. Then add 1 tbsp cumin. 1/2 tsp tumeric and coriander.
Sautee for two more mins, add a bit of water if it sticks.
Put in a blender with one cup of plain yogurt and puree.
Toss over steamed cauliflower and serve.
salt and pepper to taste.

I made this with coconut scallion rice. Next time I'm going to toss some chickpeas into the mix.

Barley Vegetable Soup

So I've been living off this soup all week.
I took:

2 carrots
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 potatoes
2 tbsp Better than Boullion (Veg Stock)
Water
1/2 cup pearl barley

Chopped the veggies, and put in a pot after sauteeing the onions in a bit of oil. Covered with water, threw the barley and Boullion and simmered for 45 minutes. Then I added:

1/2 bunch asparagus
1/2 bunch broccoli

Let that cook for 3 more minutes and then served hot soup with a sprinkle of Extra Sharp cheddar cheese on top.

It was AWESOME.

Be wary with Barley though, it does a number on the intestines!!

Hint to fried Rice

If you want to make fried rice, you must used cooked COLD rice. Fried rice is best made when you have left over rice from the day before.

You can't make fried rice from fresh cooked rice because it is too sticky/wet.

Green Eggs

Beat as many eggs as you want (I go for one) and then add a teaspoon-tablespoon of pesto.
Scramble.
Eat.

Yay to Green Eggs. If I ate meat, it would so be, Green Eggs and Ham.

Fast healthy breakfast

Lately I've been on the go. This breakfast is so easy and so tasty. Plus it gives you a days worth of whole grains.

1/2 cup Kashi 7-grain cereal (it's their version of grapenuts)
1/2 cup of Stonyfield Farms Vanilla yogurt
1 banana, sliced

Combine. Let the cereal sit in the yogurt for a few minutes if you don't like it so crunchy.

Mexican Style Quiche

Pastry:
(for a nine inch dish)

1 1/4 cup flour
1 stick of butter
1 tbsp cayenne pepper (more or less depending on your tolerance)
1 tsp salt if you used unsalted butter
5-8 tbspns ice cold water

First cut cold butter into cubes. Mix with flour/butter/cayenne pepper using your fingers. Keep pinching it together very fast until you get a bread crumb type mixture. With a mixing spoon slowly stir the crumbs and add the ice cold water until the mix is sticking together in huge clumps. Make a ball and wrap in plastic, and keep in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Filling

6 eggs
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 chili pepper (your choice of hotness)
1 tomato (or two if small)
1/2 bunch green scallions
1 bell pepper (i used an orange bell pepper for color)
3 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro
2 tsp coriander
2 tsp cumin
a bit of salt
pepper
1 1/2 cups of mexican style shredded cheese

Cut all veggies up into small pieces. Beat eggs, sour cream and milk. Add spices.

Take out pastry from the fridge and roll it out. Put it in a buttered 9 inch pan, cover in aluminum foil, fill with dried beans (I keep a container of kidney beans around for this). Put in the oven for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Take pastry out of oven. (Take aluminum out/beans)
Add the veggies and spread out so equally over the pastry. Add egg mixture. Add cheese.

Put back in oven for 30-40 minutes until a light golden brown on top and the egg has firmed.

Serve hot or cold.
I served mine with salsa and my homemade guacamole, which I will post up here shortly.

India Palace

Not relevant for many that don't live in the NH area. But if you do, India Palace is the best Indian restaurant I have been to in the States. Whatever you want, they have it and it is excellent. This time I had the Vegetarian Thali, which is a traditional Indian dish that includes, Naan, Raita, Saag Panner, Vegetable Korma, Rice Pudding and Lentil Dal. It was sublime.

Hydrogenated Oils Are EVIL

If anyone has ever gone grocery store shopping with me or handed me a box of snack food they would know I am label checker. I am not looking at calories/fat/cholesterol directly; I am looking at hydrogenated oils. I hate them. I think they are evil and if we wanted to cure the obesity epidemic we should make them illegal to add in any food.

Partially Hydrogenated Oils and Hydrogenated oils cannot be digested. They were invented to make good oil into oil that could live forever on grocery store shelves. In a world where no one cooks anymore, there needed to be easy way to eat food with no preparation. This change in food culture started in the 1950’s when marketing directed at housewives emphasized having a speedy meal on the table, keeping a clean home and the kids well controlled so her husband would want to come home from work instead of going to the local bar. They created an infinite amount of products to reduce the time a woman would have to spend cooking, cleaning and managing the home so she could spend more time catering to her husbands needs. It is absolutely outrageous but that is history. So this is where the sneaky hydrogenated oils got into the food chain. There was massive marketing about natural items, such as butter, or even baking bread at home because there was more germs at home than in a nice clean factory where bread was baked. Margarine became the new spread for the Wonder Bread.

So what do they do to you? They lower your HDL cholesterol (the good kind) and raise LDL cholesterol (the kind that clogs your arteries). All that hydrogenated oils can be digested so it just sits in your arteries waiting to give you a heart attack. It triggers diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

Go here for Harvard’s word on the evil oils.

Still not convinced that I’m giving you some valuable information? Try and go a week without eating any. First you will see that you can’t eat the majority of foods in your pantry. Second, you might feel ill, or even get sick. Taking your body off of these is similar to quitting a drug. You will feel side affects. Perhaps a week isn’t enough so try and go longer. Then try and eat something with them…you will feel sick, I’m sure. Every time I eat anything with these oils in them, my stomach hates me.

So what is the alternative to a life of fast food? Eating whole foods, learning to cook and reestablishing a connection to where your food comes from.

For even more information go here : BAN TRANS FATS!

Warning!!!

I made a soup last night, a LOT of soup, and I thought it would be a good idea to throw in a handful of fresh cilantro.
Waaaaay too many conflicting flavors (theres also basil/oregano/bay leaf/parsley). I'm a bit annoyed cause it had potential to feed me all weekend.
So be cautious with cilantro unless you love it, it can dominate the whole dish.

Sunday I was invited to a pot-luck party. These type of gatherings make me very excited to showcase my love for cooking... My future apartment is on the line here and I need to cook to impress potential future roommates!! I will post the results.

ThaiTofu with Red Curry Sauce over Coconut-Scallion Rice

I made this for my friend Nate and he said it was very good but he has never had anything like it. I agreed. It is definitely the most unique and interesting thing I've ever cooked. It rocks the taste buds for sure!!

You need
10 kaffir lime leaves (The Asian Market will have these in the produce section)
1 1/4 cup (10 oz) of coconut milk
2 3/4 cups of water
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups of brown long grain rice (white is fine, but I always cook brown for the nutritional factor)
1 bunch of cilantro chopped
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup dry roasted unsalted peanuts
1 tbsp Thai or Vietnamese fish oil (or 1/2 tsp salt)
1/4 c canola or corn oil
3 tbsp hot chili sauce
1 16 oz package of firm tofu, pressed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (I get mine fresh from the asian market...I used 2 blocks for this recipe)
1/2 bunch broccoli cut into small pieces
1 cup minced scallions, both green and white parts

1. Soak the kaffir lime leaves in 1 quart of very hot water for 30 mins
2. Bring coconut milk, 2 1/4 cups of ater and 1 tsp salt to boil then add rice. Cook until it is ready (brown rice is about 40 mins)
3. Drain the lime leaves and cut into pea sized pieces. In a food processor or blender combine the lime leaves, 2/3 c chopped cilantro, garlic, and peanuts. Run until pulverized. Slowly add the fish sauce, 3 tbsp oil and chili sauce. Add more oil/chili paste if needed to make it more sauce like.

4. In a wok over high heat pour the rest of the oil. Add tofu and cook until golden brown on each sides. Transfer to a paper plate or papertowel when done.

5. Into the same wok, put the broccoli and 1/2 c of water. Cover and steam for about 2 minutes. Stir the lime/peanut paste in and cook for another minute. Add tofu and toss.

6. Stir the scallions into the rice.
Serve tofu/broccoli over a mound of coconut rice. Garnish with cilantro if you would like.

And ENJOY this intense meal!

I'm back from my adventures out West. I will start cooking again and post some new blogs this week.

Red Lentil Soup

The first meal I've cooked in weeks and it was my attempt to recreate the Asian Red Lentil soup I have had twice this week at Ceres St. Bakery.

One onion chopped
garlic
ginger
oil
red lentils
water
better than bouillion
tumeric
cumin
coriander
bay leaves
salt
pepper

=
awesome soup.