Speaking of eats, I mentioned before I bought about a dozen of those bars from Whole Foods to bring with me for my trip to Colorado last weekend — I brought some for me and some to share with my mother-in-law, who is the OG greens eater in the family.  She’s been keepin’ it green since the 70′s.  I originally considered bringing a shaker with some Amazing Grass Superfood, but I wasn’t too sure how I’d like the taste, and filling up a shaker from a bathroom tap just isn’t that appetizing to me.

The bars worked out really well, and it brings me to another tip in healthy eating (remember, tip 1 was pre-chop and cook your veggies and tip 2 was to call ahead to restaurant to scout out your food options).  Tip #3:  Take control of your own destiny.  If you are like me, and your family considers fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and corn to be a balanced meal… well, if you go home to visit, you are going to need to do some preparation.  Gena has some fabulous tips for traveling at her blog when you’re a guest in someone’s home and you have healthy habits you are trying to stick to.

This past weekend, Husband and I weren’t staying with family or friends, we were in a hotel with no mini-fridge or sink to prep foods.  Before we arrived at our destination, I googled around to find vegetarian or vegan restaurants and ended up discovering the Egg & I looked like our best bet for breakfast since it served lots of egg dishes for Husband and oatmeal for me.  Unfortunately, most of the restaurants in the area looked like they weren’t our kinds of places, so I scoped out the nearest grocery store for emergency trips to the salad bar.  Husband is very patient and supportive of my efforts, so it all ended up working out.  Those bars were total life-savers though because when I get hungry, I get HUNGRY.  That means I want to eat NOW, not 45 minutes from now while we search for a restaurant and order and wait for them to bring us our food.

I really recommend both the Amazing Grass Green Bars and the Greens Plus Chia bars as they were tasty and filling.  Sorry I don’t have any pictures again!  I eat my food way too quickly.  The Greens Plus bars were particularly interesting.  I got the chocolate covered kind, and the insides were very fluffy, almost like a 3 Musketeers bar.  I found that intriguing.  The chia seeds gave it a fun little crunch.  I also brought along raw pepitas and sunflower seeds to snack on.

Okay, more food stuff coming later.  The house is a disaster, time to fix it.

Peace!

-E.

First, a health drink, courtesy of Husband:

Not for use in Green Monsters

Our local liquor store is right across the street from Home Depot. This can make things… interesting when Husband runs out for screws. This weekend, he came back with absinthe, Prosecco (unpictured because it didn’t make it through the night), Frangelico, and aromatic bitters.  He is the consummate experimenter.  You like the piles of junk mail and the salad spinner top in the background?

The absinthe was interesting.  Very strong anise taste, which is not my favorite flavor. Somehow I still liked it, though I preferred it straight like a liqueur instead of diluted into the water, shown below.

No fevered imaginings resulted from this experiment.

Enough of that.

Just a quick recap of my experience with India Palace in Nashua. A few months ago, I held my birthday celebration there with a group of my friends.  The restaurant generously set aside the area usually reserved for their Sunday buffets for our party and everyone had a great time.  The only small snag is that each dish is made fresh at the India Palace, so if you show up with 20 people (some of whom have kids), do not expect that your food will arrive 15 minutes after ordering.  It will trickle out slowly, but deliciously.  The staff took such good care of us and I couldn’t wait to go back for a more intimate meal.  I had the Chicken Jalpharizi with the Mulligatawny Soup, by the way.  It was absolutely delicious. I love a good lentil soup and now I am wondering if I should go have some for lunch today?

Now, several months and one vegan diet later, Husband and I finally went back to the Palace. Before I went, I shot them a quick email to ask about vegan options because I’m not exactly sure how many Indian dishes involve ghee or yoghurt. Not to get off topic, but have you ever noticed that vegetarian options in restaurants usually involve some sort of pasta or rice, lots of butter and/or cheese, and a smattering of vegetables?  It must be healthy, right?  It’s vegetarian!  I never noticed before becoming vegan.

Anyway, I expected an email with a list of, like, 2 dishes I could order. Instead, I got a call from Sage, a lovely young man who proceeded to go over the ENTIRE MENU with me explaining the various ingredients and modifications that can be made for vegans.  He very politely inquired after my particular parameters of eating as there are some vegans who will not eat root vegetables (carrots, potatoes, turnips, etc.) because it kills the entire plant to do so.  I had no idea!  I was so excited after talking with Sage because there were tons of options for me to try.

Unfortunately, we chose to visit on a Sunday after church when the restaurant is offering the all-you can eat buffet.  Although you can still order from the menu, the rather indifferent waitress clearly expects that the guests will see to their own needs and won’t trouble her for pesky things like drink orders or questions about the buffet.  Almost everything in the buffet included yoghurt or cream so I ended up only being able to eat rice, Mulligatawny Soup, and a dal dish. I think the dal might have included cream and I was a little upset that I couldn’t ask a simple question to the waitress who stared off into space and turned her back on me when I approached her. At the end of the meal, I eventually was able to track down a waiter to ask for an order of paratha, which is a bread that doesn’t involve milk or butter.  For non-vegans, the buffet offered incredible looking garlic naan.

So here’s the take away lesson:  if you’re trying to eat healthfully, even if it’s not as a vegan, definitely check out the website or call ahead to the restaurant you’ll be visiting and see how they can accommodate you.  Places that actually make their own food instead of receiving everything in frozen shipments from their corporate distribution center are usually happy to help you out.

The other lesson is:  unless you like being completely ignored at a restaurant, avoid the India Palace on Sundays. The non-vegans at our table loved the food, but everyone was pretty irritated that we couldn’t even order a drink from the waitress.

(For any of you readers who were like, born, when that movie came out (grrr!) and don’t remember it, Heathers was in 1988 what Mean Girls was to your as-yet unwrinkled generation.)

Setting aside the fascinating topics of 80s movies and my dumb dog, here’s a handy tip I’ve just put into practice recently at the Granite Casa.  One of the major downsides to eating a veggie-rich diet, or any diet that moves away from packaged, processed, pre-prepared foods, is the amount of time it takes to wash the veggies (if you’re using a pesticide removing veggie wash, which I hope you are), chop, cook and then clean up!  Even if you’re not cooking them and just making them into a salad, you’ll still have a cutting board, knives, and the salad bowl to clean as well as the countertops and, if you’re a sloppy cook like me, the floor.

What has worked for me is to wash a whole mess o’ veggies at once.  Cleaned leafy vegs can keep in the fridge for a few days provided they are DRY when they go in.  Wash them in veggie wash, dry them in a salad spinner, and place them in a large bowl lined with paper towels to absorb any moisture you missed.  It takes me 20-30 minutes a day to wash and dry salad vegs and it gets BORING and I get HOSTILE because I am at the sink three times a day completing the exact same sisyphusian tasks. But if I do a bunch at once, it doesn’t add that much time to the washing procedure and it gives me a break for a few days.

Pre-preparing cooked veggies is an even more versatile way to save time and have quick meal options available.  Check out mine from last night:

• Cooked toppings for raw salads
• Fillings for wraps.  Add some hummus and salsa (and cheese if you’re a cheese eater) to a tortilla with the veggies.  Eat cold, nuked or grilled on the stove.  Add some beans and make a veggie burrito!
• Side dishes to quick meals like canned soups.
• Toppings for make at home pizza.  Or add them to the pizza you buy to improve the nutrition!

I'm so cute! I don't need to be smart!