Things I Eat: Roasted Cauliflower with Rice

On most days, I eat vegan. It's just how my life is. It's either vegan or there is an animal involved - there's sort of no middle ground of dairy or egg or other animal by-product.

One thing this has taught me - and something that someone stated to me once before and I didn't fully absorb - is how much we look to meat to be the centerpiece of our main meal. This concept puts me onto one side of a polarized argument with Nick Offerman and.  .I don't know. . .PETA? That doesn't seem right. Ok, this paragraph is not going the way I planned.

Anyhow - the point is, we so often see dinner as a meat, one vegetable and one starch. That's the meal. Some type of roast beast and hopefully something like corn and mashed potatoes.

Man, that sounds good.

I got odd looks from a friend when I told her my dinner one night was potatoes and rice.

T: That's two starches!
A: . . .
T: I guess that's ok for you.

What's wrong with two starches? What's wrong with having a vegetable as the main centerpiece of a meal? Like cauliflower.

Nothing.

What You Need

• 1 head of cauliflower: It was enough to feed me and my husband. And I overate.
• Garlic: I used the jarred minced kind for quickness.
• Olive oil: Always good for oven-roasting!

As a bonus, I made some brown short-grain rice. I am trying to learn how to make rice.

• 2 cups brown short grain rice: I got this from the bulk food aisle at Whole Foods.
• 2 small onions: You can use one LARGE onion. I sauteed this up.
• 5 cups water: I think. I started with four and added more.
• 3 bullion cubes: You can use chicken or vegetable. I like the flavor.
• Rosemary, thyme, garlic: To taste. I did use a LOT of rosemary and my place smelled great!
• 1 pound frozen green beans: This was a game-day decision - just added it at the end.

What You Do

According to the Internet, brown short grain rice takes 50 minutes to cook. I forgot how long cauliflower takes. It's ok, you can just eyeball the roasting process. 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. 

I sliced up my onion and put it into my super-awesome French (dutch) oven to saute with the rosemary, thyme and garlic. You can also add salt and pepper - whatever. I cooked the onions until they were sweating and a little transparent. 

Then I put in my brown short grain rice and water. Once everything came to a simmer, I covered it and timed it for 50 minutes. 

The key is to NEVER LOOK AT THE RICE! Like the cooking process of rice is some dirty, dirty secret that you cannot know about. Or, scientifically, you want to keep all the heat and steam in the pot so everything cooks right. 

Dirty.

Then I got to the malicious chopping of the head. Of cauliflower.

As far as chopping veggies goes, cauliflower is a medium wrangle level. You want to get rid of all the green stuff and then chop the florets into. .mm ..  floret sizes. 

Yeah - that's good stuff! Then you can drizzle with olive oil, molest it into the veggie a bit and add any bits of garlic you would like and maybe some garlic powder. Pop that into the oven. The Internet says it will take 20 minutes to roast. You can eyeball it - you want to see some browning and the florets should be soft. And delicious.

At this point, I started drinking. 

When the rice had about 5 more minutes, I broke the code and added in a package of green beans. It was a whole frozen package. Maybe a pound of green beans. I thought the meal would look sort of white and it needed some color. Besides, rice and green beans is a good thing.

Then everything was done! This is an amazing shot of everything on my stove. The black stuff on the baking sheet - minus the cauliflower is garlic bits that were soooo good. 

Because I am a bowl person, I put everything into a bowl and even topped it with a little bit of this Onion Crunch. It does have wheat in it, but, it's a nice little flare to the meal.

The cauliflower was very tender and flavorful - so much more than raw cauliflower. It is also so good warm. I eat a lot of food cold - this needs to be warm. So good! The rice with the rosemary and green beans added a deliciously fresh kick, the cauliflower was tender and almost smokey with chunks of garlic to enhance.

Nope - my photography will not be getting any better. However, my belly is full and this was such a fantastic meal I overate.

Time To Say Goodbye!

That's right! Time to say goodbye to my hairz.

I did Movember fundraising saying that if my team raised a total of $1,000, I would donate my hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. We currently are about $300 shy of this - but, no worries. I will still chop my hair for people needing some hairz.

Let's take some time to review awesome hair moments. . .I could do arty things with it.

It never got in the way. . .

It was always sassy at events

It held up tiaras well. . .

It really was good to get it up and off my. . .body (from my post, Do Something With My Hair).

Or how I now need to spend about $50 on monthly shampoo needs because someone told me to use Pureology (Check out my post on My Hair - Hypercritical Discovery) after a trip to the hair salon.

And. .like all good things, it must come to an end. A split end. Off to help those who can't grow their own hair right now (this also from Do Something With My Hair).

I will post an update late.

Things I Eat: Almond Coconut Truffles

I don’t LIKE chocolate. It’s not an allergy thing, I simply don’t like it. This is a very hard concept for most people to understand. However, I can make things with chocolate. Like I did for our Movember Bake Sale.

These truffles are pretty simple to make – they just have a couple steps here and there. They are mostly raw, so, no real baking required. All you need is some type of food processor and two pans to make it. Really.

You can find a lot of recipes like these around the Interwebs. Just look up “raw vegan truffles” or “raw truffles.”

Real truffles require a lot of chocolate and cooking. I don’t have that kind of time. Ina Garten has this recipe which seems pretty. .complicated. Is chocolate worth it for you guys? IDK.

What You Need

• Bittersweet chocolate: I used Ghiradelli because they were the only brand offering bittersweet chocolate. Bittersweet balances the sweet. These contain soy and milk fat. So, not vegan or anything. 
• Unsweetened coconut flakes: Boom. Bob’s Red Mill.
• Coconut oil: This is my binder.
• Medjool Dates: Fantastic! FAAAANNtastic
• Roasted Almonds: I used salted because salt and chocolate go together. You could use cashews or walnuts or even peanuts.
• Unsweetened cocoa powder: Really, I think this is an optional step but it was in a lot of recipes. My kitchen is so coating in cocoa powder it’s amazing.

What You Do
I got a lot of stuff. A lot.

I ended up being able to fit about 5-6 dates into my food processor, ½ cup of almonds and ½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes. I added about a tablespoon of coconut oil as a binder and pulsed that stuff up until it looked like this.

At this point, pretty easy to grab chunks out and roll them into balls with my freshly cleaned hands. The coconut oil will melt a little with the heat of your hands and when it hardens, it will keep everything together. Since it’s all raw stuff, you can taste the mix to see if you want to add anything. You could totally add cinnamon or something.

Roll these little love-nubs into the cocoa powder then pop them into the fridge to set up all nice and good. Doo doo doo. I’ll see you later powdered nubs!

After you have poured yourself a drink or two. . .

Melt up your chocolate. I think people can get fancy-dancey chocolate melters. I just put a small pot into a bigger pot that is filled with water.

You don’t really want the water to boil, but, you do want it to heat up. That will warm the smaller pot and it will melt the chocolate you have sitting in it. BOOM. I also added about a tablespoon of coconut oil because I never understand chocolate and how it operates. Then a little sprinkle of sea salt so that the flavor really comes out. Nothing make sweet SWEET like salt.

I know there are fancy tools to make candy and chocolate dippers. I just used a fork. Pop your little powdered nubs into the melted chocolate and roll ‘em around so they get nice and coated. It’s best if your chocolate is melted but not HOT because it will stick more. Either way, get the nubs all coated. Then move it to a tray with parchment paper or sprayed cooking sheet or – in my case – an unlined, unsprayed cookie sheet and put it into the fridge.

Once it’s all solid – overnight? 30 minutes? IDK how cold your ice box is – you can move the truffles to whatever thing you want to present them on. I just scrapped them off my baking sheet with a spatula. It worked because it was cold.

They were a success! I think the only change I would make is to salt them a little more. Otherwise, my people who think dates are strange and what I make that's raw is weird really liked these guys.

I'm glad I be part of the party!

Don't Tell Me About My Feelings

Cigna isn't the best coverage around, as far as health insurance goes. In fact, it has done 100% nothing for me. For now, as far as health coverage ofered through my employer, it's my only option.

Maybe I will look up some other plans and enroll myself. We all knew we could do that at anytime, right? Sort of like car insurance, you can get a plan with any company. . .

Cigna also super annoying for telling me about my feelings.

Especially when I clearly want nothing to with this babble.

Boo, Cigna. You cover 0% of what I need to stay healthy and you pay 0% attention to my preferences. You fail.

Things I Eat: Carrot Fries

Listen, listen...yeah. Carrots are good and good for you. Why not make them tasty?

Sure, potato fries are fine but most people fry them or get the frozen prepackaged type. Why not add diversity to your diet and eat some carrot fries?

Hold on to your hats - I even got a kitchen hack in here.

Now, your basic recipe is pretty simple. Keep in mind, you are in control of the flavor. Add some Old Bay or garlic - whatever.

You can also make these crispy by adding one simple step - dredge them in cornstarch! I didn't do that. It's important to have options. 

What You Need

• Carrots. A lot of carrots. Not baby carrots (which are a lie) but adult carrots. 
• Olive oil: The greatest gift of the peace loving olive branch
• Salt: of the earth
• Seasoning: Optional - you know, Old Bay, whatever. 

What You Do

Preheat your oven. Or, if you are using a toaster oven  because you forget to preheat the oven and spend less time waiting for it to heat.

Either way, go with about 450 degrees. I type "about" because my oven is a gateway to Hell and the temperature varies based on Beelzebub's mood.

Peel your carrots. Ok, ok. I read somewhere you can leave the peel on - but I assume the peel is dirty and just peel them. Then again, any germ that can survive 450 degrees - well, maybe it deserves to kill us all.

Anyhow, you are going to cut them into fry-like strips. Throw them on a baking sheet lined with tin foil. Yes, the tin foil is optional - I don't know if you like doing dishes or not. I don't. I use tin foil.

I started with about three carrots and the picture on the right shows how much that got me. So. .I peeled and cut more carrots. 

A lot more. I like to eat, people. I like to eat!

Once you got the amount of carrot sticks you want, get them all slimey with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt. The oil gives it a nice roasting type cooking science thing. And the salt is good. 

Who do I look like? Alton Brown?

Ok, I made a lot and this is how they looked coated with oil and salt. I probably ate a couple carrots while making this. Why not?

Popped them in the oven for about 15 minutes. I think you might be safe between 10-12. My oven, again, was running cool. The Satanic Lord must have been out that day. . .

I actually made two batches - because I'm gluttonous - and the first set I pulled out when there was no browning, the second set I let some of the carrot brown. 

These are actually delightful. At the end of the day, they are roasted carrots but many experts (as in people who eat food) much MUCH prefer carrots cooked or steamed to being raw. Sure, you could argue raw is "more healthy" but if you are eating carrots roasted - more power to you!

We need to stop judging so much. If you want to roast a gosh-darn carrot, you roast it.  

To be honest, these carrots lost a lot of the raw carrot flavor - I would say it's the "bite" you sometimes get. They sort of have a texture and flavor of sweet potato fries. I served mine (to myself) with some tomato paste that I mixed with garlic olive oil. 

It was a treat, indeed!

Other Thoughts

I liked having some larger pieces and some smaller ones. You can sort of taste when they aren't roasted enough and still have that carrot taste. They do taste like sweet potato fries - which is good! They aren't crispy or crunchy - even if you keep cooking them, they only sort of brown but then they will shortly burn. 

I enjoyed this snack. I suggest you give it a shot. Remember. you can easily make these in a toaster oven. No sweat!

Carrots are pretty good for you - while it's a lie they do anything for eyesight, they are really good for you! They are loaded with vitamin A and biotin  which is great for immune system health and beautiful skin. 

Snack happy, my friends. 

My Hair - Hypercritical Discovery

Can we just chat a minute about things that have destroyed me for all other things? Like Gold Bond Lotion. . .totally can’t use any other lotion.

And Mr. Love Tiger, the husband, who ruined me for other men.

Background
Anyhow, right before I got married I had my “hair trial” which is a fancy way of letting a professional hairdresser play with your hair so s/he knows what to do as to not spoil your special day.

I had a ton of stuff in my hair during the trial and I left pretty much looking like a wreck - so much so, they refunded some of the money for the trial. Not like I could go out on the town with my "trial hair."

In fact, it took me a couple washes to even get it clean.

In retrospect, my hair is far too fine in texture to hold any bump, puff, tease, curl or, anything. All my hair styles end up looking like I just pulled back the crown of my hair. Even if it gets set before hand. I sometimes have my hair up in little curls and pinned back as a hair style for hours and hours - even those curls won't stay.

I think I came to the conclusion that if I get my hair processional done, it needs to be all up which is something I can do on my own. .without losing $150. And I can use this handy candlestick to beat people down without my hair getting in the way!

And, yes, my hair looked great at my wedding. I mean, no one tells a bride she is a wreck.

The curls lasted about 3 hours.

The Point
Anyhow, the point of this rant is – at my hair trial Liz, the hairdresser, started combing through the frizzy mat of my hair. It’s sort of sticky and straight in some places and curly in others. I had given up on life a lot, so, I actually didn't even rinse out all the condition in my hair – which left a silicon mess in the back-ish area.

I had been using L’oreal Advanced Haircare stuff – like the smoothing or moisturizing type. Whatever smelled good. I thought it was doing some good. I mean, my hair is long, fine and comes in various shapes.

She suggested I use Pureology shampoo. She did tell me she doesn't like to recommend shampoos, really, but she knew this would be good for me and she wanted me to use it for a week up to the wedding so my hair would behave.

Pureology is actually created for colored hair – mine is not colored. It is sulfate free, vegan and suppose to be good for every hair type and all that. It sort of reminds me of Wen – at least, the rhetoric does. Something pure, good for all hairtypes, not a lot of chemicals and no dead animals.

Cool.

The Shock
I went to some supermarkets then Target and finally Beans Beauty to find this thing.













Sure, Amazon had it, but, I had a week to go. So, I bought myself some of the Purify Shampoo and the Precious Oil Conditioner.


And it didn't even smell like musky flowers. I mean, I liked the scent – I thought it would smell like high-fashion stank or hippies. It smelled like neither.

Because I’m always looking for a finishing spray or some type of spray product I also got the Colour Fanatic (which I called the 21 because I didn't see that name anywhere until I actually looked I up here)  which you spray on damp hair to help prime, detangle, polish, grown unicorns, smooth, scent, veganize, quick dry, condition. . .blah blah.

That was like $60 for my purchase.

W.T.F.

Well beyond my price point.

So, I used it. And I told the hubby if he even touched it, I would kill him.

The Results
Holy smokes, batman! The difference is amazing! I thought I would easily go back to my cheaper shampoos and not the ones costing $25-30 a bottle. I don’t even know how. . .

Shampoo/Conditioner:

• I like the smell of the shampoo – I smell good!
• I use less – I have a LOT of hair and a little bit goes a long way!
• The conditioner is like pure moisture – my hair sucks it up!
• Everything rinses clean – no more patches of left over chemicals!

The spray:

• My hair dries faster with a few squirts of the spray – I have a lot of hair, this cuts down on my bathroom time a lot!
• It combs so easy – Not one time did I have to cut anything out of my hair!
• My hair is VIBRANT – A friend at work thought I actually dyed my hair in white strips it was so shinny and my natural color is out of this world!

The Test
On May 8, 2007, Pureology was acquired by L'Oréal under the professional products division, and relocated to its headquarters in New York City.

A lot of Internet people were saying how since the acquisition, the L’Oreal EverPure line was the same. Some people even checked the ingredients and said they were the same.

I ended up buying some of the EverPure which was cheaper because I forgot to pack the Pureology on my flitterwochen.

What a letdown.

First - it didn't smell bad, but, it didn't smell good. I don't know how to describe it. Some comments online said it smelled manly. It is something like mint (I don't like mint) and rosemary or thyme or something. It's not bad. . but. . it's not. . .good.

Second, my hair quickly returned to being. . .what is was before. I had to take the straightening iron to it to tame it.

I did still have the spray, which helped, but, I had whole patches of frizzy, nasty hair. Sometimes, I spray a little of it into my dry hair or onto my hands to smooth over some little flyaways. The poor spray did it's best, but, without it's compadras, it was a losing battle.

I was sad.

Until I came home and could cuddle with my Pureology shampoo and condition in my shower.

The Future
My hair is super-long right now. I kept it that way for the wedding. If my Movember Team raises $1,000, I will bob my hair. Man - even in this picture you can see how rich my hair looks - the sort of redish-alburn highlights, the fact that I didn't do a damn thing to it than blow dry it. . .

I was really looking forward to this so I could manage my hair again. And now. . .now I don’t know. My hair looks great, feels great and is so easy to deal with. Sure, long hair takes longer to deal with, but, I don’t have to use any additional products or anything.

*sigh*

I am basically out of my first bottles of the Purelogy. I’m sure I can find it in the budget to spend $40 a month on this salon brand shampoo.

Things I Eat: Slow Cooker Beef 'n' Broc

Do you love me

(do you love me)

Do you LOOOve me

(do you love me)

Noowww. .that I. . .have meeeeat?

True. I do eat meat. I enjoy meat. I have these sharp teeth not only for opening packages - but for eating. With my epic eating issues, meat is something I do consume.

It's just expensive and I often forget to thaw it and. . .lazy. I mean, look at my photography skills? Bad.

Thankfully, my husband is pretty cool with whatever I feed him – just not butternut squash. Anyhow, the man deserves some meat. And so do I! And. . .there was a BOGO.

The cut of meat on sale was called “sirloin steak” and the term “sirloin” actually covers about three types of cuts in American and maybe two in England-ish areas. But, ‘Murica is where I am. Top Sirloin is the best cut and it is normally marketed as such. Bottom Sirloin is less tender but is larger and when there is a BOGO or something called “sirloin steak” this is probably what you are getting. It’s perfect for slow cookers and probably what you get when you go to a chain restaurant that gives you a sirloin steak for $15.

Don’t use a really good piece of meat in the slow cooker. I mean, unless you know what you are doing.

I'm incompetent!

What You Need

• Bottom Sirloin: Hopefully, you find an awesome sale - buy one, get one - on sirloin steaks.
• Onion: Onion is pretty basic.
• Broccoli: Roasted for extra love
• Rice: I used brown, long grain rice from my rice cooker.
• Thyme, garlic, paprika - you know the drill!
• Beef bouillon: I used two cubes of Wyler's Instant Bouillon Beef. Do what you will.
• Olive oil: For searing.
• Water: Tap?

If you want to make a complete meal like I pictured - you will also need:

• Brown rice: Make in a rice cooker for ease.
• Broccoli: My husband and I easily eat a pound.
• Sesame oil: For the rice.

What You Do

I actually made this for a weeknight dinner. That means less drinking and more running around to get to work and stuff.

So, it might be early in the morning, but, get out that meat and sear it. That means brown it on both sides. You don't have to cook it all the way through by any means. Just brown it on the outside. I found the Crockpot is a famous flavor zapper but browning meat helps seal in juices and flavors. You can pool in a little olive oil or something. My mornings are full of running into things so. . .if I can get up and do this, so can you. It’s not like you can really mess it up. Too bad.

I used one large onion in my crock pot, coarsely cut into strips because I wanted it to hold up a little bit and not dissolve. I’m a big fan of onion. If you don’t like them as much, you can chop it up more finely and it will just dissolve into a delicious flavor infusion.

I put my onions on the bottom, like a little nest or bed for my meat, then I put in a ton of thyme, some garlic and a healthy dose of paprika on them, and then put the seared steak on top. I don’t think this layering matters, actually, I just feel better knowing my meat is resting comfortably on a bed of onions. We should all hope for such a fate.

You could add salt and pepper to, I did not.

I used about 1 cup of water (probably a little less) to help the cooking process and the bullion. I don't like soup so I tend to add less water than more. I'm still working on this. I just wanted some liquid in there. I dropped in my beef bouillon cubes in there, too.

Leave it on low for. . .hours? I went to work and came back. I'm always amazed when my town is still standing when I use the Crockpot. I always think it will burn down.

I think I cooked it for about 8 hours.

Sides!
When you get home, you are going to want to roast the broccoli. (And turn the Crockpot to "warm.") You don't have to if you are in a rush or lazy - like me - but it adds a nice flavor when you roast it. I roast mine for about 25 minutes in a 400 degree oven with olive oil and salt.

I also made my brown rice in the rice cooker. I did season it with sesame oil for an added kick. I think sesame oil is really underrated - it goes excellent with more than just Asian type dishes. You could add a little more sesame oil on the rice to give it its own story if you want.

Or thyme to match the beef. I'm not going to tell you how to live.

And. . .
Then you can serve it! You can either separate it out or mix it up. You go crazy! Everyone loved it, by the way. Even Lucky the cat stole some from my handsome lover!

By the way, onion is toxic to cats. Don't feed this to your cat. Mine is a street cat, he doesn't know better.

Texts With Melissa: Motivation Comes In Many Forms

When stuck in the gears of corporate America, it is really important for you to be motivated. Some people are motivated by upper-management or posters. Melissa and I strongly believe in motivation and, through the years, have acquired reminders of our personal power during crisis.

Let's break it down like you know I do!