Monday, February 16, 2009

Hey na, hey na, my blog is back

If you're like me, maybe you wonder briefly what happened to a blogger who's been off-air for a while. What's she up to? Is she okay? Doesn't she care about my blog-surfing fulfillment?

In my case, it was a matter of equal parts busy-ness and lazyness. I last wrote in early November. We bought a house around that time and moved in late November. A bunch of home projects (including blood-pressure-raising interactions with Ikea) and running a household of two people and one demanding cat has kept me busier than usual. I've been taking pictures and notes for blog entries, but keeping the blog current has been low on my priority list.

However, I enjoy blogging and I definitely enjoy reading other blogs. As I mentioned earlier, I came to the conclusion that being vegan isn't the right thing for me. About half my meals are vegan but I'm concentrating now on a low glycemic index diet. I have very delicate blood sugar and it seems to be helping. More on that later. Some of the recipes/pictures I'll be posting are not vegan, but if possible I'll include vegan substitutions.

Here is a montage, if you will, of food-related highlights of the past 3 months. I think from here on out I'll try to blog on Wednesdays, starting with this Wednesday.

1. Couscous and a minor celebrity
I'm a big fan of Couscous restaurant in Richmond. Pictured below is their amazing "mock chicken" tagine. I am weeping with longing for it now. (I live about 1.5 hours drive from Richmond.)


While we were there, the woman in the Room Store commercials walked in! This is probably only of interest to local people, but in the (oft-broadcast) commercials, she's pixielike and so perky you want to stuff her in a credenza. At Couscous, though, she looked hip and fun. I wanted to send her over a drink, but chickened out. (Our waitress confirmed that it was her, though.)


2. Another couscous dinner
Made this lovely vegan dish this week. Flanking the couscous are "tofu steaks" by Helen's Kitchen, which I highly recommend.


3. More new dishes
My nutritionist (another topic I'll revisit) came up with two great snack ideas for me. One is brown rice balls with umeboshi plums, wrapped in seaweed, and the other was rice krispie treats made without refined sugar. Believe it or not, they taste almost exactly the same as the sugar-packed ones. I'll post those recipes later if anyone's interested.

4. An offer you can't refuse
This is actually what prompted me to blog today: reading about an initiative by Anti records to donate money to an animal society for every blog who posts the video to a Neko Case song. Sadly, the offer expired February 3. But check out the details anyway. It's a great idea.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been checking this blog regularly and get a little sad when I don't see a new entry. And then today, bingo! Tears of joy. I can state with authority that all those dishes are delish since i've eaten them. Speaking of delish, I hope I get a box of museli at the Conchords concert.
HS

Theresa said...

Hey, welcome back! I understand about priorities--I'm trying to remove blogging from my daily repertoire in the interest of finishing my PhD on time, but I have a strong urge to procrastinate every time I sit at my computer! So I envy your willpower.

Paige said...

Recipes please!

Anonymous said...

Welcome back! I totally hear you on the busy thing... heck, I stopped blogging for most of last year to plan my wedding and move! It's good to see you back and I look forward to your posts! :-D

Anonymous said...

I didn't realize you lived so close to Richmond! The sad part is, I lived there for eight years and I've never even HEARD of that restaurant (but then again, back then I didn't take advantage of a lot of new restaurants).

But the GOOD thing is, I still get down there about once a month or so to visit my family. I'll have to make a note to myself to check this out! :)

Amy said...

Yay! Good to see you back! And we all need a little blog holiday once in a while, sometimes life just gets too busy.

Loving all the yummies you've posted!

Anonymous said...

amy, that couscous dish looks really good! love to get the recipe from you some time. btw, where did you purchase those tofu steaks?

i bet your nutritionist would be horrified by the amount of refined sugar i consume. i admire your attempts to avoid it.

My Year Without said...

I am very interested in both recipes you mentioned! The only thing with the rice crispie treats is, how does one make them without marshmallows? I have pretty much written these treats off, due to my abstinence from sugar...but if there was a way....I LOVE them!

Also, I like the idea of the brown rice/plum balls.

Please share!

Anonymous said...

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