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Monthly Archives: April 2008
Well, we have made it …. and we are going to try to keep going at least until we land in Boston tomorrow afternoon! This is a quick post for many reasons, finish up some last minute packing, do some work and frankly, writing about only veggies is not that exciting! I am feeling pretty good at this point, it has been challenging, especially when it came time to make lunch for MEM; but, otherwise I did feel as if I have done okay; if, you do not count the glass of wine I had at a meeting Monday night ; oh, and the marshmallows I had to taste test before writing a post yesterday. I am definitely lighter; but, am not going to weigh in until tomorrow. Lenny, has been light-headed, has had a headache on and off (and it was not me) and evidently has been pretty hungry ….. he has slipped more than I have ….. yogurt yesterday, granola today, a few marshmallows during the taste-test, etc… but, he has lost about 4 pounds. Update – 6 pounds for me WHOA!! I am super excited, I hope I can keep it off during our Boston Food Fest, eeeeeekkkkkkkkkkssssssss!
  
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No, actually Dorie Greenspan style! As if I did not have enough on my plate with trying to get our new company site launched; I went and joined another baking group, Tuesdays with Dorie. The fabu group of bakers who adore Dorie. I came to love Dorie’s recipes after my first one with the Daring Bakers and the wonderful party cake, so when the chance came up to whip out the kitchen aid, again and on a weekly bases, I went for it.
My first challenge was to make Dorie’s marshallows. I followed the recipe to a T and made the vanilla ones first. I had so much fun making them – it really was like a science experiement – that I went and made two more batches. In honor of our Ape Diet, which we are sadly going to miss (NOT), I went with a “Banana Split” theme.
 
I made Vanilla, Banana and Chocolate. They all taste (yes, that is a BIG cheat, sampling) fantastic. The vanilla is more luscious than your typical marshmallow, the flavoring is much better. The chocolate turned out like a rich mousse, ultra creamy and rich. The banana is just like you picked it off of the tree, very frangant and very flavorful. The texture was different for all of them, the vanilla is typical of a marshmallow, the chocolate is a bit more moist and the banana is perfect not to soft and not to dense. I will definitely be making these again, I can not wait to experiment with the flavorings and the sizes of them. Lenny gave them a big thumbs up – better than your traditional ones and we are excited to try them out over an open flame!
Thank you, Judy, for picking a fun and flavorful recipe! More Eye Candy here!
ps….. We just roasted the Banana Marshmallows ….. OUTSTANDING!!! OH MY! Mouth watering … crispy burned sugar covering flavorful banana flavor, just need a graham cookie and a HUNK HUNK of Dark Chocolate!
We have lost it! Literally! We are disappointed in we, so …… here is only a recap.
Day 4 .. went considerably well during the day. Lots of veggies and fresh fruit all day. If you take your vitamins in the morning it seems to help Feeling GREAT, both of us! Friends want to have dinner Friday night, we feel it will work out, “hey, we can have a big salad, everywhere has a salad!” Well, if you live in San Francisco and the night is balmy, then entire city is out and about, you NEED reservations for 4 people, practically for everywhere you turn, probably even Jack in the Box and on top of that, you have a CRANKY girlfriend who’s blood-sugar has crashed and is going to rip off anyone’s arm to have for dinner. Lucky for our friends our standby Indian joint is available … “Ape Diet??”" Order everything on the menu including a BIG glass of wine. We are sure Apes do not do this!
 Day 5 …. feel like crap, too much food, too rich and our bodies are HATING us. Back on the wagon … lots of fresh fruit all day long as well as veggies, and vitamins; feeling GREAT again. Dinner comes along we are still doing good, make a huge salad, full of red butter lettuce, peppers, squash, tomatoes, radishes and squeeze some lemon juice on the top – happy that we are both on it. OH s*&^ .. opened fridge, and the left over bottle of White Bordeaux is screaming at us, “ Buvez-moi maintenant !” We give in, we are weak, and we have a glass with dinner. BAD!
  Day 6 …. starting over, sucks. Off to a good start, cut up a ton of fresh fruit and leave in big bowls around the house, as well fridge is armed with veggies and the wine is gone. Feeling good about it, literally, I feel really good and am convinced that the vitamins help. Lenny is weak though, feels “weird”, sure that it is the diet. I dangle the “sausage carrot” in front of him, hoping he takes it …… nope! Wants to stick to it. So, I whip up a salad of avocados, tomatoes and spring onions, drizzled with lime juice – fresh, fresh, fresh! Make the same eggplant dish from the other night – slightly warmed – very good! We are back on it ………………….. at least for now! 
Only three more full days … can we do it or will we go apes??
otherwise known as Hell. Yes, I was in hell yesterday. Lenny was feeling fine. I was cranky. I was hungry! We were at a business appointment and the guy (also a friend) wanted to eat a “sandwich” in front of us. was sure I would rip his arm off if he did. Rule to this diet, even though you are munching on carrots, apples and grapes all morning, when it is lunch time, do not wait another 2 1/2 hours to eat – BAD, VERY BAD! Then we got home ….two new magazines in the mail … Food and Wine and Bon Apetite, URRRRR…………
 What to eat?! We stopped at the store on the way home, which seems to be the best thing to do, if you do not want old and/or slimy veggies. I was so cranky and hungry, I just ran in and grabbed whatever looked good – potatoes, tomatoes, broccoli, green garlic, baby red onion, baby romaine lettuce, radishes (because I had Chez Pim’s post on my mind, not that I could even think of eating it right now) and first spring strawberries.
 What we made…. I do not imagine “baked” potatoes are part of the diet since the last I looked apes do not know how to cook; but, I really was not in the mood for eating a raw one, even though I do not mind them in that state. As well, I am sure Lenny would had freaked if I put a raw potato on the table. So … I baked them, not fully, just enough. Then I warmed some the broccoli with the garlic and some of the red onion. Mind you, when I say “warmed” that is what I mean … these babies were raw. Threw together a salad of the baby lettuce (which is super good), tomatoes, radishes, and baby red onion .. no dressing, just a salad. Overall, it was good and very FRESH! The strawberries were a nice addition to have on the counter for noshing. Super sweet .. just perfect! Not sure where our neighborhood market gets their strawberries, but they rock, definitely the best in the city … little tiny ones and very sweet, heaven!
We were pretty satisfied after dinner, the potato did it. Lenny was still “really good” and I was still cranky. Oh, the best part of this diet so far, I have lost 2 pounds, Lenny is still at the same place as he was in the beginning.
Here we are, day 2 of the “Ape” diet. If you want to be technical it is really day 3; but, we did start over, so we are calling it day 2. Quick update before we jump into dinner – the best part of the day, right? NOT when you are on an insane diet!!!
I was surprised that we woke up feeling pretty good today as the last thing Lenny said before falling asleep at 11pm was, “do you think I can have an apple right now?” This is from the guy who said all was “good, really good”, the night before. Surprising I was not hungry when I got up, I felt really energized. Maybe it was the vitamins or maybe it was the super-ape powers taking over my body or maybe it was my muscles eating up all the fat I have stored over the years – regardless, I felt great! We snacked on grapes and carrots during that day. That seems to be the easiest way to do this diet while at the office , orking and trying not to think about the fumes of dim sum from Yank Sing, that is floating through your vents and windows. Just lay out a couple pounds of raw veggies and fruit and go to town. Lots of green tea seems to help also. For lunch we had hefty salads again. We are noticing that they are getting bigger though … everyday is another $2 to $3 for lunch, so we are eating more. As well we got some raw nuts, to snack on, they seem to help as well.
It did suck today. We left the office early to do a couple errands. I remembered this cute little “euro” place near the store we had to go to and I suggested we grab a beer and hang out before heading home. Oh, that is right, we can’t do that, Apes do not drink beer! So, we came home did our usual thing, Lenny rests and I try to run &/or do some yoga. Then it came time to make dinner, our together time. Mind you, I usually think about our meals all day. What I am going to make, what is in season, how I am going to make it, etc….. today, was different.
We had some eggplant, asparagus, shallots, garlic and some chili peppers in the house. It was freezing out, so we were not about to eat “raw” food for dinner, so we decided it would be alright to cook them a little. This is what we came up with ……
We minced the garlic, shallots and chili peppers, tossed them into a ziploc bag with thinly sliced eggplant strips, mixed it all up really good and then laid it out onto a cookie sheet, put them into the oven, along with the asparagus, for about 10 minutes, just enough time to keep everything “crisp” on the inside but warm on the outside. Verdict …. very crunchy but super tasty, the shallots, garlic and chilies helped out!
How did we feel? Satisfied, we were both really full and pretty happy with how it came out. That was until an hour or so later; especially after I found a hunk of dark chocolate behind the container of tea – eeksss! I tossed it into the back of the cupboard and went back to work……….
TIP: DRINK TONS OF WATER!!!!
 We entered the Desperation Dinner contest over at Chowhound last month. Our entry was our Roasted Garlic and Flat Leaf Parsley Pasta, because ” We keep three fresh herbs in the kitchen, in a vase on the counter at all times–Basil, Cilantro and Flat Leaf Parsley. Whenever you are in a pinch for a quick meal, or some extra added flavor or maybe a little bit of garnish to your dish., you have it. As well, we always have garlic, shallots and yellow onions on hand–you can do so much with them!!”
While we did not get 1st place with our Desperation Dinner, we did get Honorable Mention – check it out!
Lenny saw an episode that Dr. Oz did on the “Ape Diet”, which was an experiment that the BBC conducted a year ago. Basically, they “locked” a group of volunteers in the zoo for 12 days and feed them a diet that the apes would eat – fruit, vegetables, nuts and honey. In the end the diet proved to lower their cholesterol and blood pressure. Lenny has high cholesterol and even though we eat a very balanced meal and are pretty good about what we eat and put into our bodies we have only been able to get it down somewhat. Basically, he just wants to try this diet out, not to fix the problem; but, to see how it goes. So for the next 9 days (because we leave for Boston next Thursday), we are going to eat as the apes do.
Since I love my man, and support him a hundred percent, I am going to give it a shot; after all, I could afford to drop a few as well. The only stipulation I gave was that I could not give up my morning coffee…..
Now, I do have to say, we attempted this on Monday and we did really well until we got home, thought about it, saw a bottle of French wine on the counter ….. We had tons of grapes for breakfast and a hefty salad of veggies and no dressing for lunch, more grapes and a pound of carrots for munching in the afternoon. By the time we left our office, we were both starving. Got home, did a little yoga, Lenny rested and at 6pm we were dialing the pizza guy down the street. We order the same thing from the same place about once a month – super deluxe veggie pizza, with ricotta, carmelized onions, roasted red peppers .. you get the picture … well, they could not get to our place soon enough. This was the first time in years that they were late and the pie was COLD! So, that is how the first day of our “Ape” diet started … failed.
We started over today, lots of grapes for breakfast, tons of green tea (okay, I can not live on water alone, I am weak. Lenny is really doing better at this part) with no honey, more carrots and another hefty salad for lunch. And then the fun came at dinner ….
 Here we go……. this is what we picked up from the market for our first “Ape Meal” … carrots, cauliflower, some tomatoes, and an avocado.
 This is what we created …….steamed carrots and cauliflower (they were barely steamed as the food is suppose to be raw, it was basically warm on the outside, super crunchy on the inside) with minced chives from our garden and a …..
 tomato and avocado salad drizzled with fresh Meyer Lemon juice and minced marjorim also from our garden.
You ask, “how was it?” Honestly, really delicious; but, I am starving!!! Lenny says he feels good, good, really good.
  …… instead Brunch. I normally do not write about what we eat during the day as dinner really is the time we get down and dirty. Nor do we really ever make breakfast or lunch for that matter. My sister and niece were in town today so we got together for some grubbing at our house. Since MEM gave me a waffle iron for my birthday, I have been eager to make waffles whenever the occasion of breakfast pops up. This time around I tried out a hearty cornmeal waffle served with real maple syrup as well as a blood orange syrup I made. We served lots of fresh fruit as well as some really great local pork sausages I found at Wholefoods as well as lots of really good cafe lattes. Once everyone left, we lounged around eating the bits and crumbs that were left. What a nice way to spend a Sunday morning (a cold and grey one, too).
We are going out to dinner with friends tonight; but, wait until you see what we have in store for you this week!
Come dine with us again!
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