General Food Talk

[Gutmutter]

Has anyone tried the new Ben and Jerry's flavor, Chocolate Therapy??????? I'm on a fairly vegan diet with few processed foods, but I do indulge in a little ice cream almost every day and this is just incredibobble... chocolate ice cream with chocolate pudding swirls and chocolate cookies. For me, right now, it is the absolute perfect chocolate fix, and the best part is that it is so intense, I only eat a very small portion. Booyah!

[prhoshay]

Sounds like sheer HEAVEN!!!!

[tbamom]

Did I need to order in a whack of deep fried crap tonight? NOOOOO

[Gutmutter]

Chef daughter home for one week, so all diets are off. We went to a Moroccan restaurant and had lamb tangine, stopped by Trader Joe's for their Cambozola cheese (camembert/gorgonzola) and curried chicken salad. She's going to make me a knock-out mother's day breakfast next Sunday, a vegan meal for a friend of mine who loves her, and in a week we go to the cape for her to start her summer internship and will eat at the amazing Italian restaurant where she'll be working to sample the menu. Luckily she's going to spend a few days with her dad later in the week to give me a chance to slow down and eat green. I'll have to look for other ways to get fruits and veggies in the meanwhile... use the juicer for breakfast, take a blendered fruit drink for lunch, have carrots and hummus for my afternoon snack, etc. Weds. we plan to go back to the Tappas bar where we always go overboard. Golly, I love good food!

[TripleGemini]

A friend of mine came to visit this weekend. I'm not sure how to describe her diet...it's mostly vegan, but occasionally she has some seafood and she eats real chocolate. Saturday night, I made mushroom risotto (with roasted vegetable stock), dinner rolls, and a vegan chocolate cake with ganache (cocoa for the cake, real chocolate for the ganache). For breakfast today, she had two large bowls of fruit and another roll. And lunch was a garden salad with shrimp.

If it wasn't for the fact that we really like meat, we could eat mostly vegetarian without too much problem. But I do want to figure out if I can substitute agave syrup for the sugar in the cake...then my boys could eat a dessert that almost qualifies as healthy ;-)

[Gutmutter]

Try palm (coconut) sugar. It is low glycemic and has healthy properties I can't remember.
I wonder if your friend is on the Eat to Live diet. It is mostly vegan but allows small or occasional amounts of meat and dairy if desired. It's a health diet, not a moral judgement.

[Critical]

A friend of mine came to visit this weekend. I'm not sure how to describe her diet...it's mostly vegan, but occasionally she has some seafood and she eats real chocolate. Saturday night, I made mushroom risotto (with roasted vegetable stock), dinner rolls, and a vegan chocolate cake with ganache (cocoa for the cake, real chocolate for the ganache). For breakfast today, she had two large bowls of fruit and another roll. And lunch was a garden salad with shrimp.

If it wasn't for the fact that we really like meat, we could eat mostly vegetarian without too much problem. But I do want to figure out if I can substitute agave syrup for the sugar in the cake...then my boys could eat a dessert that almost qualifies as healthy ;-)

I'm sure there are sites that give the conversion numbers on substituting alternative sweeteners. My aunt is diabetic and I know she substitutes agave in some of her recipes.

The sister of a friend of mine just traveled here through ag country. She just gave me about half a flat of strawberries. YUM!

[TripleGemini]

Try palm (coconut) sugar. It is low glycemic and has healthy properties I can't remember.
I wonder if your friend is on the Eat to Live diet. It is mostly vegan but allows small or occasional amounts of meat and dairy if desired. It's a health diet, not a moral judgement.

I don't believe that she's on Eat to Live, Gut. She said that her body basically doesn't like most meat and most dairy products (she gets physically ill if she eats them), so it was easier to go vegan than try to explain the few things she can eat (like shellfish).

ETA: And thanks for the info on palm sugar! I'll give it a try.

[prhoshay]

Can anyone tell me where to buy smoked salt? I am, especially, interested in the hickory.

[Mariner]

No clue Shay. I am curious about what you plan to do with the smoked salt. Is it for a particular recipe or just to use to enhance flavor?

I need suggestions for a salad to bring to my sister's house for dinner Saturday night. My mother is coming up for a late Mother's Day (she hurt her back so cancelled her plans to come last weekend) and we are having some sort of risotto with bacon (I'm guessing with butternut squash since I know it's one of my sister's favorites), bread from the local bakery and angel food cake with berries for dessert. I'm in charge of the salad and am trying to come up with something other than a basic green salad with veggies and can't seem to come up with anything. Any suggestions?