You Learn Something New Every Day

Well, I don't, but my coworkers seem to when they hover over my lunch everyday.

Apparently none of them have heard of pink lentils. Beautiful, tiny, quick cooking, delicious pink lentils. Someone actually asked if they come in a can. I didn't even know lentils could come in a can, let alone that people would eat them from a can.*

Oh look, I did learn something new today!

Anyway, pink lentils are the bomb and tonight I busted out my over note tabbed copy of Veganomicon and made the Red Lentil-Cauliflower Curry. Here is the proof:

Please excuse my breathtaking ability to create photographic works of art on my iPhone. Don't be jealous, just download the Instagram app.

You'll find many, if not all of the Veganomicon recipes with some simple googling, so I'm not going to post it here (plus, it's a really great cookbook so you should just go ahead and own it). This would be a great recipe for lentil newbies since you don't have to worry about getting that perfect liquid-to-lentil ratio. At a certain point you just throw them in and let everything hang out. And if they get mushy it means you're doing it right.

* This post kind of makes me sound like an asshole. Don't read me wrong, I genuinely like many of my coworkers, I just dislike having to describe my lunch to them each day. I don't really need to know what they're eating and I expect the same from them.

Kombucha on Tap

Note to self: Must visit Montpelier co-op next time I'm in Vermont.

Over the weekend my coworker sent me this photo of the Kombucha taps at the Hunger Mountain Co-op. Pretty incredible idea. You can fill the empty bottles provided (big bottles! for $2.29!) or bring your own.

My scoby, on the other hand, does not seem to be doing so well. But more on that another day...

Ruminations on Faux Meats

When I ate meat, back in the day, I preferred chicken to beef. Now, as a vegetarian wannabe vegan, I prefer imitation beef products to imitation chicken. All fake chicken products I've had make me want to vom more than thinking about eating actual chicken.

Discuss.

Oh, To Be Young...

If I were in first through eighth grade again, I'd be bugging my mother until she registered me for Stone Barns Farm Camp.

The Vegetabull

Spotted at MoMA

I love it when my new and old passions collide. Art history, meet vegetarianism. Vegetarianism, meet art history. Everyone else, meet my new mascot: The Vegetabull.

Painted by Jan Le Witt and George Him (1943) and on view in the Counter Space exhibit through March 14. I love the little guy so much, I'm buying a print. 

Since this blog has no readers that I know of (yet) I'm going to make a confession. I spent a good deal of time at MoMA observing people taking photos of art and not really looking at it. Not really experiencing it. And another part of the undergraduate art historian in me died a little bit.

And then I came face to face with this guy. And I looked and I looked and I got excited and I made my carnivore boyfriend look at it. And then, once I made sure he wasn't looking anymore, I took this sneaky iPhone picture. But I'm telling myself it was okay, although I know it makes me a Hippocrite (see what I did there?). Because at least I looked first.

Scoby: Day 1

I am attempting to grow a scoby so I can stop paying $3.19 per bottle at Fairway Organic and brew my own delicious Kombucha at home.

I'm excited for two reasons: with this scoby I will not only have access to Kombucha all day every day, I will also have the perfect pet for a small NYC apartment. And it just so happens that I think Scoby is a perfectly cute name for a pet. So that makes things easier.

So, day one in the life of scoby: I drank about three quarters of a bottle of Guava Kombucha, covered the top with paper towel, wrapped it with a rubber band, and left it in the warmest place in my apartment. The bathroom.

I can't wait to watch the little guy start growing and shower him with tlc.

Just Chocolate and Peanuts

Last night at the movies I repeatedly shoved a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Larabar in my boyfriend's face until he tried it. (PS - The Fighter. See it)

My pleas: Come on! they're so good! and healthy! and delicious! take a bite! take a bite.

Him, when he finally acquiesced: Yeah, that's pretty good. But isn't it just chocolate and peanuts? How is that so healthy?

Me: ...

Sometimes I'm slow like that. But now, after about 18 hours, here is my response. Think of all the other things I could be eating as a pre-post-movie dinner snack right now (I won't tell you which one of us was eating movie popcorn and regular coke).

Yes, it is just chocolate and peanuts (and dates. I'll happily eat dates if they come with chocolate and peanuts) and that's why they're great. No added crap, no random flavoring, no weird "Larabar protein blend" like you can see on the ingredient lists of other bars.

And for me, chocolate fiend, these are way better than eating a Reeses or two, as Hersheys so kindly packages them.

So take that, boyfriend. And if you're wondering, the new Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough bar is also excellent.

P.S - While on the Larabar website I noticed that Pistachio bars have been retired, complete with an adorable retirement announcement. I just happen to have a lone Pistachio Larabar sitting in my desk drawer at work. Does this mean I should save it to sell on eBay for oodles of cash?