ilovealbertabeets's Profile

I got a bunch of cheap brandy and rum from a friend who moved abroad, and made batchelor's jam with seasonal fruit.
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/case-study-bachelors-jam/

Check the label, some of the flavors have MSG in them. The Rosemary ones, for example. Tasty, tasty cancer..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/msg-is-this-silent-killer_b_491502.html

I read about this in a book on sneaking good food into kids, but it works on me too.. a Tbs. of blackstrap molasses in a serving of cream of wheat. That's 13 mgs of Iron. I also drink hot soy milk with molasses stirred in. Sounds insane but it's pretty tasty.. tastes like gingerbread.

.. but maybe giving things up is something that has universal appeal this time of year.. I've given up gossip blogs. My brain feels better already.

It seems like people who don't eat a lot of legumes or veggies have the 'issues' with sunchokes.

Making poached fruits and compotes this season has been making me very happy... it's a great way to use up fruit that's getting too soft. Yet another way to avoid wasting food -- I had a very bad habit of buying a pound of organic fruit and not getting through it all before it went into the compost bin. Now I put it in the slow cooker with honey and cinnamon and have it on my oatmeal in the mornings.

... or you could save yourself 20 bucks and make your own.

http://www.curbly.com/ModHomeEcTeacher/posts/6857-real-oilcloth-and-how-to-make-it

I don't feel quite so dismissive of the whole deadly mercury contamination's effects on my gray matter (and that of my future bundles of joy, if I am so blessed)... also after reading Bottomfeeder by Taras Grescoe tuna doesn't seem like a consequence free choice anymore. Brisling sardines taste almost identical, I use them as I would tuna in all my recipes now. Also they are just as cheap :)

I fell in lurve with sardines thanks to Dinner with Julie.
http://dinnerwithjulie.com/2009/01/14/sardine-puffs/

Yes it's entirely possible to get by without those ingredients -- as much as I enjoy tofu there are lots of problems associated with soy consumption. It sounds like you may be avoiding them due to phlegm and inflammation. Personally I eat a lot of dairy and eggs, however too much dairy is also hard on asthmatics so it's important to be careful with one's intake. Also I've heard a nutritionist talk about 'new vegetarian syndrome', where new veggies depend on dairy too much and end up with high cholesterol. One way to deal is to go with more digestible forms (yoghurt and non-homogenized milk) or goats milk (most palatable in chevre form..).
I'd agree that legumes are a great source of protein, as is seitan. There are also some amazing non-soy misos out there.. (check out the Miso Master brand..). The fermentation process makes the protein more available for absorption. The most helpful book for me in the early years was Becoming Vegetarian: The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Vegetarian Diet. It provides a great overall picture of all the different needs the body has (protein, fat, fibre etc.) and how to meet them with the vegetarian diet.

I had duck rillettes at a local food demonstration.. not really a fan. It is so oily! I found the somewhat slimy texture off-putting. But it may be that I have just lost my taste for meat after a few years of hardly ever having it. To go from no meat to a locavore demonstration meal full of strong tasting meat like duck and boar was a bit of a shock...