The Results......

Yes, by titling this "The Results" I am totally making this overdramatic. Anyway, here's how my Meatless Monday Meal of, yup you guessed it, pasta primavera came out!


(I'm sure you all really appreciate my expert camera skills....)




The Whole table, complete with bread and salad





Side view....pretty





Top view-the vegetables were so colorful




So I hope you all get the chance to try out this wonderful recipe. It honestly did not take much time at all, I even had time to clean up and make a homemade salad dressing in between! The best part of it was the roasted vegetables with the herbs de provence. The onions were ridiculously addicting! (They kinda tasted like onion rings... healthier though). Despite it's overall deliciousness, there is one small flaw which is that there is SO much pasta and it leaves you wanting more veggies (Surprising, right?). And because of this, there's a lot of leftovers (even though it said it served 6... exactly the number of people eating in my house).

But who said leftovers are a bad thing?

Happy Eating!
Leda :)

(Image Credit: Personal Collection)

Meatless Monday Meal of the Week- Giada's Pasta Primavera!

Hey everyone!

Okay, fine, I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy with a whole mess of things. But now that I'm done working at camp for the summer, I'll have oodles of free time to keep blogging away for my loyal followers (you know who you are...)

So this post is gonna be short and sweet, as I have deemed myself notorious for writing uber long blog posts.

Anyway, we all know what day it is! Yes, that's right, its Meatless Monday. I can sense your excitement! So tonight I will be making Pasta Primavera. Meaning "Spring Pasta" in Italian, Pasta Primavera is a light, healthy and simple pasta dish with lots of fresh vegetables. Although there are loads of different recipes for this dish, I have decided to go to a trusted source. The trusted source that I speak of is the one and only Giada De Laurentiis. Knowing her and her Italian roots, this pasta dish is sure to be amazing. Here's the recipe!



Ingredients:

3 carrots, peeled and cut into thin strips
2 medium zucchini or 1 large zucchini, cut into thin strips
2 yellow squash, cut into thin strips
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1/4 cup olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dried Italian herbs or herbs de provence
1 pound farfalle (bowtie pasta)
15 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup grated Parmesan


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

On a large heavy baking sheet, toss all of the vegetables with the oil, salt, pepper, and dried herbs to coat. Transfer half of the vegetable mixture to another heavy large baking sheet and arrange evenly over the baking sheets. Bake until the carrots are tender and the vegetables begin to brown, stirring after the first 10 minutes, about 20 minutes total.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

Toss the pasta with the vegetable mixtures in a large bowl to combine. Toss with the cherry tomatoes and enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten. Season the pasta with salt and pepper, to taste. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and serve immediately.



One thing that I really love about Pasta Primavera is how you can add in any vegetables that are in season and it always tastes great. This version contains very summery (or should I say "springy") vegetables including squash, zuchinni and tomatoes. However, Giada puts a little spin on this classic by roasting the vegetables instead of blanching them, making this dish more rustic and, fortunately, less time consuming.

Look forward to pictures of this finished product tonight!

Pasta Primavera, here I come!
Leda :)

Recipe Courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis at FoodNetwork.com (also available in her cookbook "Everyday Italian")

Meatless Monday Photos!!

Okay, I'll admit it, I'm being really lazy tonight (okay, I'm not really being lazy, I just had a lot of work to do and I'm tired. Deal with it.) so I'm just gonna keep this post short and sweet with some pictures I took of what I made on Monday (meatless, of course).

Well, before I do that, I think I should just tell you about my experience cooking this food. For one thing, cooking is always going to be a lot harder than you think it will be. No matter how good you are. Take me, for example. I've had a fair share of cooking experiences, but I had originally thought that this would be easy, but let me tell you, it wasn't. I'm not saying it was technically challenging, but there was just a lot to do. Like chopping. Chopping is just downright awful.

Anyway, the point is, don't underestimate the recipe. This recipe was great, though. It was clear, concise, and ended up tasting great! I don't mean to scare you or anything, I just don't want you to be surprised.

So, without further ado, I am officially revealing my creations! And if you're looking for the recipes, make sure to check out my previous post. Enjoy!

Leda :)


P.S. My favorite part of this meal was definitely the sauce. Seriously. I would use that stuff on absolutely anything. SO addicting.




The carrot ginger soup and consturcted lettuce wrap





The noodles! Iadded a sprig of mint for color :)






The condiments (sauce, cilantro, lime, peanuts, coconut)





The whole table! (yes, there are 6 place settings)

Meatless Monday Meal! (Plus: The Wonders of Whole Foods)

Monday is right around the corner everyone! And we all know what that means: Going back to work, getting up early, and oh, did I mention Meatless Monday? Yup, thats Monday for ya. The best day of the week!

So it is now time for me to share with you the meatless recipes that I am personally going to make this Monday. And no, my mother is not going to be the one cooking it. It's me. Anyway, I haven't actually made these recipes yet, so I can't tell you how they turn out (that will have to wait until Monday night, of course) but I want you sitting there at home reading this to have time to get all of the ingredients you need. Okay, here it goes. My Meatless Monday Meal of the Week:


Lettuce Wraps with Chile Peanut Noodles:


Ingredients

Chile Peanut Noodles:

3 ounces dried bean thread noodles
1/2 cup unsweetened peanut butter
3 tablespoons brown rice syrup
1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon shoyu or tamari
2 teaspoons chile sauce 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped


Lettuce Wraps:

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup dehydrated coconut flakes
1/2 cup toasted peanuts, roughly chopped
1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
4 limes, quartered
1 head butter lettuce, such as Boston Hoisin sauce

Method

For the chile peanut noodles, soften noodles in medium pot of hot water until tender, about 15 minutes. Bring noodles to a boil and cook 1 minute, then drain and set aside. Using a food processor, mix together the peanut butter, brown rice syrup, lime juice, shoyu or tamari, chile sauce, garlic, and 1/3 cup warm water until combined thoroughly. Toss noodles with 1/2 cup of the chile dressing. Reserve remaining dressing, and set noodles and dressing aside. For the lettuce wraps, arrange cilantro, coconut, peanuts, onions, limes, lettuce, hoisin sauce, chile noodles, and reserved chile dressing in separate bowls. Let guests create their own lettuce wraps by topping lettuce leaves with any or all of the items as they like.


Nutrition

Per serving * (about 6oz/169g-wt.): 540 calories (300 from fat), 34g total fat, 11g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 470mg sodium, 49g total carbohydrate (7g dietary fiber, 14g sugar), 14g protein *Does not include sauces


Carrot-Ginger Soup:

Ingredients

4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth, divided
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
1 pound carrots, coarsely chopped
1 medium Yukon gold potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives

Method

Heat 1/2 cup broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until tender, about 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in ginger, carrots, potato and remaining broth and heat to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook 25 minutes or until vegetables are tender. In batches, carefully puree in blender. Stir in lemon juice and garnish with chives.

Nutrition

Per Serving: 130 calories (5 from fat), 0g total fat, 0g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 220mg sodium, 28g total carbohydrate (5g dietary fiber, 9g sugar), 3g protein


Okay, I know that seems like a lot of, well, "stuff" to do (I hate that word, but it seemed necessary) however, the recipes really are simple. And what makes it simple to do (and simple to find) is a little place called Whole Foods. You're probably thinking "Wow, this girl's just so obviously trying to advertise Whole Foods" but in my honest opinion Whole foods is an amazing place. Although Whole Foods was (and still is) notorious for it's exorbitant prices, it has gotten cheaper in recent years. Not only is the quality of food great, but they have this wonderful sense of community that is contagious once you walk in. When you're there, you want to buy those apples from the orchard 20 miles away and you feel the need to buy the grass fed, humanely treated ground beef. At Whole Foods, you can always make good choices.

Now, I could go on and on and on about how magical Whole Foods is, but much of that will come to you in later (and shorter) posts. But for now, I'll just leave it at that.

Make sure you check out my blog Monday night when Ill reveal the results of my (hopefully) beautiful Meatless Monday Meal (pictures included, of course)!

Until then, Happy Eating!
Leda :)

(Image and Recipe Credit: Whole Foods)

The Truth About Factory Farming

Close to 99% of all meat consumed in the United States comes from what are called "factory farms". So chances are that the last piece of meat you ate (whether it's fish, beef, chicken or pork) came from one of these so called "farms".

But what exactly is factory farming?

Some of you may be familiar with the name, but few know what they are, what they do, and what meaning they have to us as consumers. And here's where I come in. To tell you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

First, I would like you to visualize where you think your meat comes from. Do you see that big red barn? Oh, look! A happy farmer and his little family! Look at all those happy cows, pigs and chickens roaming free on the open grasslands! Beautiful, isn't it?

Now, completely erase that image from your mind. And don't worry if this was the way you thought farming was, because up until recently, that's what I thought too.

Okay, now that that visual has now (hopefully) disintegrated in your mind, I would like for you to picture a real factory farm. Imagine a long shed with a tin roof, and inside there are animals (chickens, cows, pigs... your choice) either stacked in cages to the ceiling or packed in an extremely small area. Now, these animals aren't the slightest bit happy. Their bodies may be too big for their legs to carry them due to the excessive amount of steroids and drugs that they are forced to take. The animals that are in severe pain aren't even the worst of it. Many lie dead on the ground and decay for days before being taken away. Blood curdling cries flood the room, and the animals are in a frenzy, yet they have nowhere to go.

(If you are still having trouble trying to grasp that image, as many of us initially do, please refer to the picture above.)

This is where your meat comes from. This is where 99% of all of our meat comes from. And this, my friends, is only a broad picture of what goes on in factory farms across our nation. I could possibly go on for pages and pages about the specifics, but those will come to you in later posts.

At this point, I am only looking for you to get a little picture in your mind of what I'm talking about and what I care about.

And as I sign off for today, I am asking you one thing:

Is this where you want your meat to come from?


(Image credit: "Broiler Chickens Raised for Slaughter" by Farm Sanctuary via Flickr)

(Citation: "99% of..." calculation by Jonathan Safran Foer based on census inventory, EPA regulations, and NASS reports from 2007 and 2008)

Welcome to My Blog!

So you're probably wondering why a 15 year old girl would take time out of her one season of freedom to start a blog. Well, first let me tell you something: this, my friends, is an actual blog- not a blog about my hilariously ironic every day life in which I ponder the greatly overused clichés of adolescence, because that would be, in a word, boring. This actual blog that I speak of will be of genuine importance to me, and hopefully to you as well.

Now that I've beat around the bush about who I am and what I'm here for, let me just cut to the chase (well, sort of). My name is Leda and I am, what could be called more simply, an emerging food activist ("emerging" because I'm young, and have only been interested in this topic for about a year, and "food activist" because, in short, I care about food).

I find that knowing where exactly your food comes from is important, and more specifically where your meat comes from. However, my main point of interest is the idea that as humans we do not need to consume very much meat in order to live happily. And here's where my big idea comes in (I'll put this in bold just in case I haven't made it clear enough). I believe in this little thing called (wait for it....):

MEATLESS MONDAYS.

Catchy, right? Well, unfortunately, I'm not the genius who made that up. Anyway, Meatless Monday is a day where you go without meat on, of course, Monday. The benefits of this are that you get to try out new recipes, become healthier, and help the environment (don't worry, the specifics of this will be discussed in a later post). And honestly, its just a great way to have something to look forward to on the worst day of the week.

In this blog I plan to share a new meatless Monday recipe every week, and also provide you with other interesting facts and theories about going meatless as well as reviews on books and T.V. shows on these subjects.

Let me just make one thing clear before I wrap this up. I am by no means one of those crazy environmentalist, animal loving, vegetarian type people. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing either. But I think the public needs an unbiased source of information and advice from someone who is neutral on the spectrum of eating meat and such. In my opinion, both sides have valid arguments. I'm just trying to get my ideas out and share them with you (plus, this is an assignment that I have to do for my Girl Scout troop)

Okay, let's recap. The reason I'm here is to tell you about Meatless Mondays and knowing where your food comes from. Think Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. And if you don't know what that is, have no fear! You'll be hearing much more about that in the future.

Until then, Happy Summer!
Leda :)