Let's go RAW for a month!!!

The other day a gourmet RAW foods cookbook caught my eye and so I started perusing the recipes. The dishes sounded fabulous and I was interested in knowing more. I have been doing a little online research about this whole raw foods phenomenon and am very interested in giving this type of diet a try for the next 30 days. A couple of years ago I went vegan for 30 days, it was a fun journey and I learned a lot about new foods and a new style of eating. While it is a lifestyle that is not suited to me, I was happy with the experiment and had some fun new recipes added to my repertoire. This time I am looking forward to a new food adventure and hope at the end to have developed some new and healthy eating habits. I have ordered a food dehydrator and two raw food cookbooks which should be delivered sometime in the next week or so but in the meantime I can get started without those items as there are a bunch of nice web sites with information and recipes which are easy enough to follow. I have read that it is helpful to be able to track calorie intake as well as nutritional information so that I can ensure that I am eating a balanced meal and getting enough calories each day so I have found some web sites which will allow me to input the ingredients and get the nutritional information, this is kind of neat to me.

Here are some simple rules I want to follow for the next 30 days, this may grow longer as I learn more:
I read on a blog about a Doctor who suggested an 80/10/10 ratio of intake, that would be 80% carbs (mostly fruit but minimum of 5% from green leafy veggies), 10% protein and 10% fat. I will be moderate with vegetable oils (olive, coconut, etc.) light on the salt but liberal with herbs and spices, light on sweeteners. I also plan to weigh my foods so that I can calculate the nutritional information as close as possible. I will keep a log here, hopefully a daily log, so that I can track this diet and see my strengths and weaknesses as well as pinpoint any potential mistakes that I make on this journey.

Tonight I started simple and made a quick and easy snack:
Peanut butter goo balls:
1 C crunchy peanut butter
1 C creamy peanut butter
1 C protein powder ( i have a vanilla flavored one that I used)
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 C oatmeal (not quick oats)
unsweetened shredded coconut to coat balls

Mix everything except the coconut together and roll out into about 1" balls. It will make about 30. Roll in the shredded coconut and refrigerate so that they firm up. Go here for the nutritional information.

So I am off to a good start with my little snack and looking forward to my new cookbooks too!

Here are some other useful links that I found and will be referring to throughout this experiment:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/12/30-days-raw/
http://www.rawmazing.com/rawmazing-recipes/
http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1805341
http://www.calorieking.com/foods/search.php?keywords=apple&showresults=yes

Montreal

I have been MIA for awhile and with good reason, we have been exploring our new town and enjoying all it has to offer. We also recently went to Montreal and had an awesome time. It's a very international city with all sorts of neat people, we heard many languages spoken, especially french, which was really cool.

Montreal has a wonderful shopping district and some amazing restaurants too. The people we found to be really friendly so we met and spoke with many different folks. I think the most memorable meal we had was at a place called O.Noir, not that we could see our meal. This is a restaurant where the waitstaff is blind and the customers get to experience their meal in pitch blackness, it heightens your other senses and is truly something not to be missed. You can choose from a 2 or 3 course prix fix meal or the "surprise meal" which is what Dan opted to try. Another nice feature is that a portion of the proceeds go to foundations which help blind people find jobs.

So we made our reservation and were led into a pitch black dining room by our waitress, Sophie. She sat us down and helped us locate our water glasses and bread and butter. We were feeling bold so we ordered drinks too, because it's fun to get tipsy when you can't see a darn thing! Next I attempted to butter my bread, and butter it I did! ALOT of butter, it was delicious but very buttery because I couldn't determine how much I had scooped up.

Next up were our appetizers, I choose the watermelon, avocado salad with feta cheese, it was amazing. Such a wonderful culmination of flavors. I cheated and ate with my hands and was banking on the fact that no one could see me acting like such a barbarian. I actually recreated this dish a few days later when we got home, the only additional ingredient I added was some fresh mint. YUM! Dan's surprise appetizer was a scallop and pasta sauce dish, he said it tasted great and even correctly identified what it was which made him very happy.

Once finished we sat there in the darkness and chatted and drank our drinks, white wine for me (in case I spilled I didn't want to order red wine) and scotch for Dan. Sophie came around and collected our plates and then brought our main courses. I chose the lemon veal which had a side of potatoes and vegetable of the day. Dans surprise meal was veal marsala with the same sides. It was extraordinary, mine was light yet flavorful, Dan's was saucy with some great mushrooms on it. I have to say cutting veal in the dark is a real experience not to be missed. Also I learned the hard way that eating potatoes with your hands is not a good idea. I did eventually give up on the knife and just eat with my hands once more (shhhh, don't tell!) The potatoes were quite good and the veg of the day seemed to be red peppers, although I did eat a small piece of squash too so it's still a little up in the air.

Again we finished up and relaxed and chatted, it's amazing how hard our eyes were working to try to see through the pitch blackness, they were playing tricks on us. Sophie came around and whisked our dishes away once more and brought me my dessert (Dan skipped dessert and shared mine instead). I selected chocolate mousse cake......O...M...G! It was amazing!!! It was light yet heavy in flavor, it had different densities and textures to it and it was sticky so it stayed on my fork! We both thoroughly enjoyed it and although we shared there was no feeding each other so to avoid a random fork poking.

After that we sat and listened to those around us, we heard shuffling and knew that others who had finished before us were being led out to the dimly lit bar area and we waited our turn. It's a strange thing to feel so dependent on another person for something as simple as leaving a restaurant. Sophie was an amazing and patient waitress, she was very attentive and very available to make sure we were ok and having a nice time. We joked a little bit about food presentation, because really who would know if it looked nice or not? Regardless of the presentation the flavors, textures and just the experience in general made for an unforgettable evening.

There is one thing that I wonder about though, had this been the same exact meal in a restaurant where we could see the food would we have though it tasted as good?......I guess I will never know.

Till next time
~CM

Hello again from the great wild north

Our AWESOME Easter Dinner!

Well alright, not THAT wild.  But different and wonderful. We are still checking out our new digs and enjoying what we have found so far.  We are obsessed with our Co-Op and all it's awesome offerings, every time we bring something new home to try we are just blown away by how very good it is. Recently I randomly bought a cup of Libertè yogurt (coconut) and was beyond impressed by it!  It was thick and creamy like greek yogurt but without the tartness that I associate with yogurt in general.  It has 5 bacteria strains which is more than I have seen in any other yogurt and it also has REAL FRUIT in it......amazing.  So of course we bought more and I have been eating them like a crazy person.

We also bought "rainbow eggs" from Gopher Broke Farms (love the name) and yes the eggs were all different colors naturally.  I guess if there are all different colored chickens there should be different colored eggs too.  They are white, light green, tan, dark tan and speckled too, pretty neat, oh and the yokes are a deep yellow, almost orange, they are so fluffy and creamy it's just nuts! I was just on their site, it looks like we have a farm visit in our future to them, I have a hankering for a fresh chicken!

The infamous Rainbow Eggs

....and the creamy yolks....

I feel like our soap company will do quite well in this environment where people do out of their way to buy local and buy handmade or more natural options than the commercial options that are available. Can you believe that there is no Target in Vermont at all? Although I like target because it is easy, I support the idea of keeping big box stores out to protect small business owners, so GO VERMONT!

Well that's it from me, I hope everyone is well and happy.

'till later
~A very happy Country Mouse

Where are they now???

Bread and Butter Farms, Store

Well we made it!  We officially moved into our new place on April 1 and have only a few boxes left which are going out of my life and into storage this weekend.  This place is really neat, our neighbors are nice, they are college students but not loud and fun to talk to.  We can walk to the main area within minutes and also to the co-op (which we are now proud members of!) we can also walk to the lake which we did last weekend to watch an amazing sunset.

Everyone keeps asking about the weather here, it's great!  I hate heat so the slightly cooler temperatures are perfect for me.  NO it has not snowed since we've been here, we moved to Vermont, not the north pole for pete's sake!

We have even managed to make a couple of friends and have been spreading our soaps and business cards about town which has all been very well received.

Last weekend was pretty neat, we decided to skip the farmer's market and go straight to one of the farms.  It was pretty cool, only about 15 minutes from our place and they have a little farm store set up which runs on the honor system (how cool is that?)  We were able to buy fresh raw milk which came out of ol' Bessy just that morning, we also bought a fresh loaf of bread, farm fresh eggs and some meats which looked just divine.  Then we wrote down what we purchased and paid for it.....amazing concept the honor system.

The milk came in a glass jar, it was really neat.  I tried very unsuccessfully to make butter, it seems my homesteading skills are still lacking, but it was fun to try (frusterating......that's more the word i need here.)  The milk tasted quite good, the eggs were wonderful, the meat amazing and well who can beat FRESH BREAD? I also took some of the milk and made soap with it which I am very excited about, it seems like it will be quite bubbly due to the extra goodness (proteins and fats) in the milk.

It's just the most darling red barn!

The co-op is equally as interesting, it is called Onion River Co-Op (how cute it that?) the fruit and veggie section is SO colorful, it's like a big healthy rainbow, i just love it!  Then there is a "bulk foods" section.......you bag your own spices, teas, flours, honey's nut butters, oats.....you name it then place a twisty tie with the bin number on it so you can be charged appropriately.....it's amazing, I could stand there all day and daydream about the herbs and spices.  Aside from these two fun areas, there is a nice wine/beer section, big seafood and meat departments and of course a cheese/deli type department.  Oh and also an awesome prepared foods section, we have not indulged yet but we may.

Our last and newest discovery is a place called Chicken Charlie's, it is apparently one of the founder's of Ben and Jerry's favorite places and I think it may now be ours too.  We ordered from there on a whim and OMG it's unbelievable......only in VT can you order "fast food" (and they deliver) and it will be chicken that comes right off of a healthy farm.....and mac n cheese where the cheese also is fresh off the farm.  It was the most amazing delivery food i have ever had!  And just moving from NYC that's saying ALOT!  Oh and the gravy......the gravy was unforgettable.

Sunset over lake Champlain

Well we ave many more adventures to go on up here in our new town so stay tuned for the fun.:)

Take care
~CM

Classic home cooking

There is nothing better than home cooked comfort food.  Recently I went with some friends to a place called The Meatball Shop which is located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  Along enjoying spending time with friends the food was awesome!  As the name suggests they make meatballs, but not just any meatballs, they make the BEST meatballs and sauces that are just divine. 

My friend opted for the classic dish which is four good sized beef "balls" with classic marinara sauce and a side of greens.  Her BF ordered the special which was, get this, RUEBEN style "balls" yes my friends, it was pork, corned beef and sauerkraut with Russian dressing on top, UNBELIEVABLE, I have to learn to make this dish.  As for me, the indecisive one, I went for the meatball sliders so I could sample different sauces and ball styles (gosh that sounds wrong....haha).  I ordered the spicy pork, chicken and classic balls along with the Parmesan cream sauce, pesto sauce and classic marinara sauce.  Now I don't have an absolute favorite but the spicy pork definitely stands out in my mind and on my pallet.  I had a side of creamy home made pollenta, quite nice but the meatballs were the star of this meal.

Since the place also makes their own ice cream and cookies we had to try them too, we split an espresso ice cream and chocolate cookie sammie, it was delightful but again I say it was really a meatball kind of meal.  

With this meal still fresh in my mind i decided to make a pot of sauce and some good down home classic meatballs.  I don't have a set recipe and like to switch things up here and there, the basic idea remains the same though.

Here is what i did for the sauce, whenever i have fresh ingredients I always opt for that:

Couple of cans of diced tomatoes (I use fresh when i have them on hand)
Small can tomato paste
Oregano
Parsley
Basil (I had fresh on hand so I minced and used that)
Garlic (don't be shy about this)
To cut the acidity you can add a carrot and pull it out when the cooking is done
Opt A. Splash of balsamic vinegar
Opt B. splash of red wine

Cook slow and low until the desired thickness and flavor is acquired.


Here is the basic meatball recipe I used.
1 lb. ground sirloin (90% lean)
1/2 C seasoned bread crumbs
oregano
parsley
basil (again fresh minced)
1-2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste
this recipe also recommended onions but i took them out because they made the balls too lumpy.

Mix and ball the meat up.  Here's the twist that a lot of people are afraid to do and end up affecting the finished product.  Put the uncooked balls DIRECTLY INTO THE SAUCE!!!  It will not kill you, but browning those balls either stove top or in the oven first will kill the flavor of the balls.  The sauce gets hot like boiling water and will kill any possible bacteria that the meat may have.  Give it a try, you will notice such a delicious difference.

I have lots of ideas for other meatball recipes after being at the Meatball shop so stay tuned for more delicious ideas on this finest of comfort foods.

Ta ta
~CM

From city mouse to country mouse?

Church Street Market Place, Burlington, VT

So this little mousey family is moving out of Brooklyn in 2 days.  Where are we going you might be asking?  We are moving to the great wild north of Burlington Vermont.  We found a great place right on the main drag and also have the convenience of being in the middle of the countryside within minutes, completely a win win for us! 

I have decided that I do not like packing and hope to only have to do it once or twice more in my LIFETIME!  Our life is currently in shambles with boxes, furniture and crap strewn about, we are quickly running out of room to do even simple things like sit down and watch a little tele.  Two more days, just two more days and we are blowing this popsicle stand!  Good bye Brooklyn, good bye over abundance of dust, good bye to moving the car every day to avoid getting a ticket, good bye strange, unhappy and just plain crazy people.  Good bye to it all.

Do I regret moving here?  Not at all, this place has taught me many life lessons which I will always hold close to my heart.  While here I got engaged and married to the man of my dreams, I started a company which I am deeply passionate about and am enjoying watching it grow as if it were a child. I enhanced my current career and feel that I can take it even further with my new found perspective.  Outside of the working world I found a love for writing, cooking and farmers markets which I doubt I would have found elsewhere.  My husband has become an exceptional cook and inspires me to compete with him which is fun and stretches my creative abilities as well as my pallet. 

All in all it's been a fun ride, but I am ready to get off this roller coaster and enjoy life at a bit of a slower pace for while.  Burlington will be an exciting new adventure which will take me to new heights in life that I cannot wait to experience. 

Until next time my friends
~Country Mouse

The simple things in life

Hello out there!  I haven't posted here in awhile and wanted to say hi and post a little something fun.  This is in ANTICIPATION of warmer weather (thanks to that no good lying gofer).  I was sitting here looking at two very forlorn bananas and trying to decide what to do with them.  Then I remembered the healthy popsicles my mom used to make for us as kids. 

The simplest thing to do is remove the peel, cut the banana in half and place a popsicle stick into it, wrap in waxed paper and freeze!  That's it but they are so tasty on a hot day, they are sweet and still healthy, to this day a banana is still one of my favorite snacks to eat.

A couple of other variations would be frozen yogurt with mashed fruit.  Use regular yogurt cut your fruit of choice  and mix into the yogurt, place into small cups (I used dixie cups today) place a popsicle stick in and freeze.  Once it is ready you can peel the paper off and enjoy.  you can add additional ingredients like coconut, wheat germ or even grapenuts for texture which is something I really like to do.
< these are my yogurt pops :)

A third variation would be juice pops.  This is literally as simple as you would think, select juice, pour into small cups, cover with tin foil and insert popsicle stick.  Again, fruit can be added to your preferences.

You can also purchase little popsicle maker thingies like this one >
which is available at Ikea.

Another nice thing to do if you have fruit that may not survive for too many days is to pop the fruit into the freezer (especially berries) then use them to top your favorite yogurt snack or even those cute little pound cakes.  The berries will keep for a very long time (though not forever as I learned the hard way).  Oh and they are also great for smoothies and "adult" drinks ;)


Alright folks stay "cool"
~CM

Lie food

They look real enough.....

So as part of my new eating habits I am cutting back on meat.  I bought some meatless products to try thinking that if they taste good enough I can make them part of my normal rotation.  Last night I tried meatless buffalo wings, essentially it was tofu with hot sauce and I knew that going into it but thought - hey they look like wings, if they taste like wings this could end up being a boneless grand slam!

So I read the directions and started to make the wings, small problem is that our oven is still not working so I had to do it all stove top. The instructions stated, heat oil, add packet of hot sauce mixture.  Done, I let it heat nicely and sizzle a little and threw the "wings" in to....um.....cook?  I let them go slow and low to try to crispy them up.

When I took them off the heat and plated them they looked pretty much the same as when I put them in, chicken wing shaped tofu.  I took a bite......YUCK!  The tofu didn't suck in the hot sauce flavor as real wings would and I got way too much of that bland tofu taste.  Also the consistency was all wrong, if I am substituting meat for something like this I want to be genuinely happy with the decision and not feel like I have given up something great for something inferior.  With this meal, it was just not the case.  I was only able to eat one before I decided to stop torturing myself.

I have more meatless dishes to try, hopefully I will have better luck with them.

To the great wide meatless AND BEYOND!!!!!!

~CM

Coconut yogurt a success!

I tried the coconut milk yogurt this morning and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was AWESOME!!!!  I set the yogurt machine up to run for 10 hours but hubby accidentally unplugged it somewhere around the five hour mark and I did not catch it until way later.  I decided to just throw it into the fridge and see what it became.  Even with that hiccup it was creamy and had that yogurt tang that I love.  The shredded coconut that I added gave it great texture too, I will definitely be making this again!

As a re-cap here is the recipe i made:


Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk (lite or regular)
3 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tsp guar gum (thickener)
1tbsp yogurt starter or probiotic packet (since this is a half recipe and my probiotic packs are for larger batches I opted for the tbsp of yogurt starter)

Equipment:
SS Spoon
1-2 qt pot (for this batch 1 qt is fine)
Thermometer
Yogurt making machine or something comprible

Directions:
Sterilize everything (i boiled water in my teapot and poured it over the yogurt containers and other equipment.
Boil coconut milk to approx. 160 degrees F  stir regularly
turn off heat
Add shredded coconut and guar gum stir ALOT
Let cool down to about 110 degrees F before adding probiotic and stir again
Pour into yogurt containers and follow instructions for your machine, i am letting my yogurt "YO" for about 10 hours and will check on it then.

Again, 5 hours ended up being fine for this, I iwll try for longer next time to see what the difference is.

Happy yo-ing!


~CM

New year, new me?

The yogurt is "yo-ing"

Well like everyone else on the planet I am going to lose some weight in the new year.  It's more than that though, I intend to get back to some of my healthy eating habits that I so lazily have abandoned lately.  I have started a little three day cleanse, I thought that would kick off this new me quite nicely.  During these three days I will eat very light meals, veggie soups, lots of teas, water, etc. 

After that I will transition into what I hope will become pretty much my normal diet.  For now I am cutting out red meat and will eat chicken occasionally, getting my protein from other sources is not a problem as I love nuts and can tolerate soy and tofu in small amounts although I find it dreadfully boring.  I am also cutting my alcohol intake back to two days per week MAX.  I generally like to have a glass of wine with dinner or something but all that sugar is going right to my belly and I hate that.  For now I am completely cutting dairy out, with the exception of my love for cheese this is not an issue as I generally try to avoid dairy and all that crap that is in it.  The soybella machine will come in very handy in making my "milks" for coffee and other recipes.  I can cut back on bread but never really felt it was a problem for me, I think aiming to be aware of portion sizes would be more beneficial to me at this point.

Today started off with a bang and I am feeling very positive about these changes.  I had a cup of tea and 1/2 piece of peanut butter toast along with one cleanse pill oh and of course water!

As a late day snack I am making a nice light veggie broth.  In the pot I put water, a light sodium veggie cube, an onion and a ton of celery, maybe 5 pieces of so.  Then I added about 5 garlic cloves, paprika, oregano, salt and old bay seasoning.  It smells GREAT and is tasting quite nice.  Generally I would make soba noodles to have with this but since I am cleansing I am trying to do mainly a liquid diet for three days and will not add anything.

My next feat is my attempt at making coconut milk yogurt.  I found a site where the person was able to successfully make it so I am trying right now to do this.  My recipe differed from hers slightly because I love really thick creamy yogurt.

Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk (lite or regular)
3 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tsp guar gum (thickener)
1tbsp yogurt starter or probiotic packet (since this is a half recipe and my probiotic packs are for larger batches I opted for the tbsp of yogurt starter)

Equipment:
SS Spoon
1-2 qt pot (for this batch 1 qt is fine)
Thermometer
Yogurt making machine or something comprible

Directions:
Sterilize everything (i boiled water in my teapot and poured it over the yogurt containers and other equipment.
Boil coconut milk to approx. 160 degrees F  stir regurarly
turn off heat
Add shredded coconut and guar gum stir ALOT
Let cool down to about 110 degrees F before adding probiotic and stir again
Pour into yogurt containers and follow instructions for your machine, i am letting my yogurt "YO" for about 10 hours and will check on it then.

Wish me luck!  I will update later.

~CM

Happy New Years!!!! Year in Review

Ahhhh, 2010.  It was a big year for me.  Lets review the last 12 months and discuss.......


Top 10 most searched items on Yahoo:

1. BP Oil Spill
2. World Cup
3. Miley Cyrus
4. Kim Kardashian
5. Lady Gaga
6. iPhone
7. Megan Fox
8. Justin Bieber
9. American Idol
10. Britney Spears

Top 10 Movies:
Based on Box Office Revenue


1. Toy Story 3
2. Alice in Wonderland
3. Iron Man 2
4. Twilight: Eclipse
5. Inception
6. Harry Potter 7 (part 1)
7. Despicable Me
8. Shrek Forever After
9. How to Train your Dragon
10. The Karate Kid 2010


Top 10 radio (pop) songs (according to Billboard)


1. What's My Name? - Rihanna Feat. Drake
2. Firework - Katy Perry
3. Only girl in the world - Rihanna
4. Raise your glass - Pink
5. Just the way you are - Bruno Mars
6. Grenade - Bruno Mars
7. We R who we R - Ke$ha
8. Just a dream - Nelly
9. DJ got us fallin in love - Usher feat. Pitbull
10.Bottoms Up - Trey Songz feat. Nicki Minaj


Top 10 Books
According to publishers weekly


1. A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan
2. Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
3. Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand
4. The Surrendered - Chang-rae Lee
5. The Big Short - Michael Lewis
6. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot
7. Just Kids - Patti Smith
8. Man in the Woods - Scott Spencer
9. The Lonely Polygamist - Brady Udall
10. The Warmth of Other Suns - Isabel Wilkerson


Top 10 Restaurants:
from theworlds50best.com


1. Noma - Denmark
2. El Bulli - Spain
3. The Fat Duck - UK
4. El Cellar de Can Rocca - Spain
5. Mugarits - Spain
6. Ostarista Franchescana - Italy
7. Alinea - USA
8. Daniel - USA
9. Arzak - Spain
10. Per Se - USA


Top fashion trends:
According to examiner.com

1. Mixed Patterns

2. The Boy’s Club

3. The clog 

4. The Denim Suit

5. Military Fatigues 

6. Retro Hair

7. Nautical Stripes

8.  Floral to the max

9. Critter Accessories

10.  Gray was here to stay

In other news, I got married on October and became the little Mrs. and also our company turned 1 year old!

We look forward to 2011 and all it will bring to us.

Have a happy healthy new year!!!!

TaTa

MRS. City Mouse