Day 4

CC was able to duck out of work early last night, so we flew over to Ikea for some new storage boxes. I discovered we have this huge space above the buffet in our SmartRoom that these boxes fit perfectly. So this weekend I'm going to gather up all the papers, textbooks, DVD cases, season decorations, Bratz dolls, EVERYTHING that doesn't need to be very accessible and/or that we don't feel like sorting through now - and it's all going up there. As god is my witness, we're going to reclaim use of the SmartRoom!

After Ikea, it was fun with the pressure cooker. We make Armenian Red Lentil and Apricot stew from Lorna Sass's vegetarian pressure cooker book. Unfortunately, we didn't have red lentils (my bad from last week's pre-shopping inventory check). I decided we should just substitute yellow split peas - which mostly worked. They didn't cook as quickly, so the stew had to be simmered for 15 minutes - after which time the split peas were still very al dente. Oh well.

Then it was on to the hummus. CC had soaked the chickpeas that morning, so that cut 15 minutes off the time. I tried quartering the recipe - remembering the last hummus debacle where I used all of the Trio's tahini (which is expensive) and ended up with a gigantic tub of hummus that we struggled to consume before it went bad. We ended up with a little over 1 cup - which is just perfect for lunches today (along with green pepper crudite and fresh bread.


I stopped at the library last night to investigate whole-foods cookbooks - hoping to find one by Christina Pirelli (of Christina Cooks). While the website said it wasn't checked out, it wasn't on the shelf - although I did find a cookbook from Dr. Weil. I have this feeling that we'll probably end up following his advice with respect to diet and well-being.

Overall, I'm pretty frustrated. I don't know if you feel this way too, but having listened to enough environmentalists, progressive food policy folks and nutritionists on The Splendid Table, I really don't believe much from the Food and Drug Administration. For example, didn't the la-de-da food pyramid change twice in two years... Do we really think that General Mills and Cargill would allow the US Gov't to seriously explore the health benefits of long-term vegetarianism or veganism?


The other irritation is that everything else is so anecdotal - for instance, I read yesterday that Alanis Morissette recently went vegan and now her alergies have cleared up.



So I think Dr. Weil will end up being our authority for the time being. If only he didn't have such a strange beard...