A Temporary Arrivederci and Your Top 5 Favorite Vegetables

Sweet readers!

It’s me, Kris. Hi!

This Sunday, I’m marrying this guy I like, hurricane permitting. And for a few weeks after that, we’re gonna drive around Italy, searching for duomos and large plates of spaghetti. (And wine. Always wine.)

During that time, and Leigh (of Veggie Might fame) will be running CHG. The schedule will stay the same. There’ll just be a slightly different voice behind it – namely, a vegetarian one with cute hair and much better cooking skills.

I really enjoy keeping this blog, and will miss our discussions while I'm away. In the meantime, hope y’all have wonderful Septembers, and I'll speak to you soon!

P.S. Oh, yeah! The results of last week’s Ask the Internet are as follows:

36 votes: Tomatoes

26 votes: Onions

19 votes: Leafy greens (Kale, lettuce, collards, etc.)

17 votes: Bell peppers

16 votes: Asparagus, Broccoli

15 votes: Corn, Peas (all kinds), Sweet Potatoes

12 votes: Spinach

11 votes: Carrots, Garlic, Potatoes

10 votes: Mushrooms

9 votes: Cucumbers

8 votes: Brussels sprouts

7 votes: Avocado

6 votes: Zucchini

5 votes: Beets, Eggplant

4 votes: Artichokes, Cauliflower, Green Beans, Winter Squash (Butternut, Kabocha, etc.)

3 votes: Garlic and onions (whole Allium family), Hot peppers, Parsnips

2 votes: Cabbage, Leeks, Lima Beans, Pumpkin

1 vote: Broccoli Rabe, Celery, Edamame, Fennel, Lentils, Okra, Red Cabbage, Romanesco Broccoli, Yellow Squash

Tomatoes, for the win.

Green Kitchen: Fresh Garbanzo Beans and the Excitement of New Vegetables

Green Kitchen is a bi-weekly column about nutritious, inexpensive, and ethical food and cooking. It's penned by the lovely Jaime Green.

Don't get me wrong – a good chunk of my love for the greenmarket is love of, and belief in the goodness of, local eating. I like meeting my farmers, I like minimizing my food's road trips, I like the dirt on my kale that comes from nearby. (Okay, I did not love the cocooned caterpillar that came along with that local kale and its local dirt this weekend, but that's my own problems with squeamishness. In theory, I loved that caterpillar.)

But I also fell in love with the farmers market because, during our early courtship, everything was so new. Kale, collard greens, kohlrabi, lambsquarter, Brussels sprouts still on the stalk – my first couple of greenmarket years, I took home something new and strange almost every weekend. I hit the internet and hit the books, and almost every time I added a new and delicious veggie to my repertoire.

I still love the greenmarket, lo these many years later, but things have become a little... predictable. A few extra bucks in my wallet this summer are opening a few new doors – berries, grapes (that actually taste like something!), and endless varieties of stone fruits – but the veggies are all familiar territory. As each veggie comes back into season, sure, there's a weekend or two of excitement, but true vegetal strangers are few and far between.

So I hope you'll allow me a digression from the agricultural bounty of the greater New York area (love you, Pennsylvania peppers!), as I allowed myself when I met an international temptation too strange and exciting to ignore.

Fresh garbanzo beans.

The bin of fuzzy green pods was nestled between portabellos and quail eggs in the Whole Foods produce aisle, and I could not resist. At $4/lb I thought my few experimental handfuls would cost me a buck or so. These beans are so light, though, that my bag rang up at a mere twenty-nine cents. Score one for the beans.

I hit the internet, and hit the kitchen, and here is what I learned:

1. Fresh garbanzo beans can be eaten raw. Popped out of the pods they look just like their canned and dried cousins, just green. They have a fresh, not particularly strong taste, like starchier edamame.
2. The internet will tell you that they should be steamed in salt water in their pods. This works, but the pods are so roomy that they become little saline capsules, which then burst in your mouth or in your hands. The beans are still tasty, but they get lost in the saltwater, and it doesn't really work. So, fresh garbanzos edamame-style: technically works, but not so awesome.
3. If you use the same method, though, but shell the beans first, well bingo, there you go. A quick boil in salted water gives you bright, salty, tasty little beans.

The internet is full of more elaborate preparations, but I like to get to know a new veggie simply, at first. (Okay, I often end up sticking with those most basic preparations – salt, and sometimes oil, usually make veggies taste like their best versions of themselves.)

Next time – if I even see them again, because their appearance was sudden and they may vanish as quickly and with as little fanfare - I may try some sort of pan-frying, with cumin and other chickpea-friendly spices. I bet the green flavors of the fresh beans would play nicely with that. But for now, for my new friend the fresh garbanzo, simple and quick is the way to go.

~~~

If you enjoy this, you might also enjoy:

• Pasta with Zucchini and Chickpeas
• Steamed Asparagus
• Sweet Potato and Chickpea Puree

~~~

Fresh Garbanzo Beans
Serves 2

1/2 lb fresh garbanzo beans (about 1 cup shelled)
1 T (or so) salt

1) Shell the garbanzo beans. They usually pop out easily, but scissors can be helpful.

2) In a sauce pan or small soup pan, bring a couple of inches of salted water to a boil.

3) Add the garbanzos. Boil, covered, for about a minute.

4) Drain, and eat warm or cooled.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, Protein, and Cost Per Serving
134.5 calories, 2.1g fat, 6.3g fiber, 7.3g protein, $0.26

Calculations
1 cup fresh garbanzo beans: 269 calories, 4.2g fat, 12.5g fiber, 14.5g protein, $0.50
1 T salt: 0 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.02
TOTAL: 269 calories, 4.2g fat, 12.5g fiber, 14.5g protein, $0.52
PER SERVING (TOTAL/4): 134.5 calories, 2.1g fat, 6.3g fiber, 7.3g protein, $0.26

Ask the Internet: Top 5 Fruits?

Sweet readers! The results of last week’s Top 5 Vegetables inquiry are coming a little later today. (Hint: Celery does much worse than expected.) In the meantime, we had a few requests for this follow-up question, which could be even tougher to answer.

Q: What are your top five favorite fruits, and why?

A: Mine, in order:

1. Cherries. I fear death as a concept in general, but mostly because I wouldn’t get to eat cherries anymore.
2. Pluots. I don’t particularly like apricots, but this plum/apricot hybrid is a genetic anomaly I can get behind.
3. Plums. There's nothing more satisfying than digging into a cold, juicy plum on a hot summer’s day. William Carlos Williams was right on.
4. Bananas. Portable, cheap, and packed with potassium, they're the reliable utility outfielders of the fruit world.
5. Lemons: You can’t eat them by themselves, but they brighten up so many savory dishes, I can’t imagine cooking without them. Also? Lemonade. BAM.

Mangoes, blueberries, limes, and a really good pear just miss my top tier, and cantaloupe, kiwi, and apricots are way at the bottom.

Readers, what about you? Keep in mind we’re going with the conventional idea of fruits here, which means no tomatoes. And again, look for those veggie results later today.

Want to ask the interweb a question? Post one in the comment section, or write to Cheaphealthygood@gmail.com. Then, tune in next Tuesday for an answer/several answers from the good people of the World Wide Net.

Calling it Quits! Why I Started Really Caring About What We Eat.

Salmonella, e-coli, PBC's, mercury, antibiotics, injected artificial hormones, ammonia based fillers, nitrates, additives and preservatives, pollution, environmentally destructive, fossil fuel hoarders, Chicken and Cow "Farms" that make Federal Prison look like a Day Spa.


I'm trying to reason with myself. Tell myself I'm over-exaggerating. Make rationalizations. It's not working.

Maybe the vegans have it all figured out. Maybe the rest of us are being naive. Denial can be bliss. I consider myself more aware than the average person when it comes to health. Partly because I'm in the health profession, although you could easily argue that medicine and health don't always go hand in hand. Partly because I'm a mom and a worry wart and partly because I'm informed, I read a lot, obsessively almost when it comes to natural health. Maybe it's genetic. My mom is a true naturopath in every sense. You can't help but be affected when your mom lives with you and lives so naturally and healthy that she hasn't been sick in.... well since I've known her. Not to mention we are starting to look closer and closer to being the same age.

BTW, my mom has a great nutrition and herb/spice blog; Nutrition Queen you should really check out, she knows her stuff!

Most people, myself included are somewhat aware of the abuse and filth that goes on within the animal factories. It's been in the news more and more. However, when the subject of meat comes up, peoples attitudes vary widely. Most are aware of the health, environmental and humane benefits of vegetarianism but push it to the back of their minds in a what are you gonna do attitude. Some simply don't care. Some are meat-o-holics (those are the ones who refer to my everyday salad I have for lunch as " Lawn shavings". Some are in varying stages of denial with excuses galore. I myself float between "I can't afford it."  "What the heck am I going to make for dinner if it doesn't include meat?'" and  "It's to much work/effort." And my personal favorite, " My family would rebel, rebel Big Time."

I've never liked red meat or pork in the first place. As a matter of fact beef and pork churn my stomach at the mere sight and especially the smell of it. Chicken is in my house only to appease my husband and boys, a sort of compromise in my refusal to cook beef or pork. I could most definitely live without it. After the most recent "Egg Scare" and in viewing the utterly horrific conditions in which chickens are kept, I am somewhere in between banning all chicken then setting these "farms" into a bonfire, and maybe, possibly just buying an Organic, Free Range hen and eggs once every month or so...... maybe.

UPDATE..... Once a month chicken for dinner was absolutely do able. In fact, we eat it less than that now and don't miss it one single bit. 

"CAFOs house them as tightly as possible where they never see grass or sunlight. If you can envision one thousand chickens in your bathroom, in cages stacked to the ceiling, you're honestly getting the picture. (Actually a six-foot by eight room could house 1,152)." — Steven L. Hopp (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life)

Honestly, besides the fact that my family would rebel I really, truly am not now, not in the near future about ready to give up seafood. I love it. Luuhuuuuve it. I mean fish is good for you right? Right?......

Geeeesshh, even seafood has it's issues. PBC's, Farm raised, antibiotic, corn fed, genetically "enhanced", environmentally dangerous, mercury levels that would kill a small dog.... but it's o.k. to eat once a month fish. Urrrggggghhh!! Maybe I should wait to post this until I've regained some composure. Oh who am I kidding, what composure?

Is veganism really the answer to total health safety and well being? I mean even supposedly harmless things like spinach, lettuce, jalapenos, pistachios, peanut butter, apple juice, canned foods and baby food have been linked to many instances of food poisonings, not to mention genetically engineered seeds and toxic pesticides. Some of these are the result of the foul water runoffs from these
for mentioned animal factories, some are simply from poor hygiene and over handling. The average item on your grocery market shelf has traveled further than most people travel on vacation. This being a result of us wanting everything now. Forget about seasons and geographical planting zones, we have scientists who've figured out how to bypass the natural scheme of things, hooray.

"If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week." — Barbara Kingsolver and Steven Hopp (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life)

pictures from CBS and MSNBC news

P.S. I was going to post some pictures of the chicken, cow, pig "farms", but it was to upsetting.

I encourage you to do some research and see for yourself where the food your feeding yourself and your family comes from. Food Inc. was eye opening to say the least. I'm not an emotional person by nature, but this had me in tears.

What are your thoughts?

Do you eat meat? Do you buy anything Organic or Free Range?






some information gathered from: CNN.com

Peanut Butter and Jelly Oatmeal: Quick and Tasty Nostalgia

Today on Serious Eats: Pork Roast en Cocotte with Apples and Shallots – an infallible America’s Test Kitchen recipe that tastes as good as it sounds.

I apologize for being horrifically negligent with posting lately. But, woof. Thangz iz crazy here at CHG central. Husband-Elect’s bachelor party was this weekend. Friends and family are already starting to trickle into Brooklyn. And oh, the wedding is Sunday.

Mommy?

Anyway, I’ve been keeping Peanut Butter and Jelly Oatmeal in my back pocket (um, the recipe, not the food itself) for just such an occasion. It’s the world’s easiest breakfast, and will fill you up clear through the next morning. Not to mention: tasty.

There’s the nostalgia thing, too. Like everybody, I’m sure, peanut butter and jelly holds a special place in my heart (um, the idea of it, not the food itself). My mom packed my lunch with PB&J from first grade clear through to sixth. I didn’t touch it for years after that, being as tired of the sandwich as the general U.S. populace was of Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” by November 1996.

But now? I will house that sandwich without ever coming up for air. And having a bowl of it for breakfast feels indulgent, like a treat. Like Mrs. Nall let me clap the erasers out back after school, because I scored a 99 on the spelling test. (Note: In the Morissettiest of ironies [meaning, not really an irony at all], I misspelled “sandwich,” adding an extraneous “t.”)

I urge you to commit the oatmeal to memory (um, the recipe, not the food itself). It’s a culinary trip back in time, not to mention a fast meal when the world becomes busier than you ever thought it could.

~~~

If you enjoy oatmeal and related recipes, you might also dig into:

• Banana Oatmeal Muffins
• Gingersnap Oatmeal
• Oatmeal with Soy Sauce and Scallions

~~~

Peanut Butter and Jelly Oatmeal
Serves 2.
NOTE: This is not my picture, but a placeholder, and a pretty good approximation of the real thing. It comes from one of those ad-drenched blogs that obviously steals content, so I won't link to it here. Apologies to the actual photographer. My pic is coming a bit later.

1 cup dry 5-minute oats
1 cup water
1/2 cup skim milk
About 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 or 2 tablespoons natural creamy peanut butter
1 or 2 tablespoons your favorite jelly
Kosher salt to taste

1) Combine oats, water, and milk in a small pot. Heat over medium.

2) After a minute or two, add vanilla extract, peanut butter, jelly, and salt to taste. Stir to combine, though the peanut butter will gradually melt into the mixture as the oatmeal heats up. Cook a few minutes, stirring occasionally.

3) When the oatmeal reaches your desired consistency, taste it. If you’d like a little more of either PB or J, add it in.

4) Serve, and wonder why you’re not eating this for every meal.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, Protein, and Price Per Serving
304 calories, 7.4 g fat, 2.9 g fiber, 7.9 g protein, $0.38

Calculations
1 cup dry 5-minute oats: 147 calories, 2.3 g fat, 4 g fiber, 6.1 g protein, $0.30
1 cup water: negligible calories, fat, fiber, protein, $0.00
1/2 cup skim milk: 45 calories, 0.4 g fat, 0 g fiber, 4.4 g protein, $0.11
About 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract: 6 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g fiber, 0 g protein, $0.03
1 1/2 tablespoons natural creamy peanut butter: 135 calories, 12 g fat, 1.5 g fiber, 5.3 g protein, $0.09
1 1/2 tablespoons your favorite jelly: 84 calories, 0 g fat, 0.3 g fiber, 0 g protein, $0.21
Kosher salt to taste: negligible calories, fat, fiber, protein, $0.01
TOTAL: 609 calories, 14.7 g fat, 5.8 g fiber, 15.8 g protein, $0.75
PER SERVING (TOTAL/2): 304 calories, 7.4 g fat, 2.9 g fiber, 7.9 g protein, $0.38

Tahini Cookies

One of the blogs I read, Cooks Book, had a great recipe for tahini cookies. Since I always have a jar of tahini in the fridge for emergency hummus cravings or for a quick Asian, peanutty dressing I thought I'd give it a try. They turned out really wonderful! Not to sweet and slightly less peanutty than peanut butter cookies. Tahini, in case you didn't know is made from sesame seeds but has a peanutty flavor ( I keep saying peanutty, is that a real word???)  I altered Marissa's recipe only slightly, cutting the butter in half and using applesauce instead as I do for most of my baked goods ( 1/2 the fat ). I also cut out a bit of the sugar, so my cookies were fluffy and not overly sweet.  Thanks for the creative and yummy recipe Marissa!

YIELDS     3 DOZEN SMALL COOKIES... MORE OR LESS ;-)
What you will need:

- 3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp kosher salt

- 1/2 cup  unsalted butter, softened

- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

- 1 cup well-stirred tahini

- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

- 1 cup (loosely packed) dark brown sugar

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 1 large egg



Putting it all together:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.

• In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle, beat butter, tahini and vanilla on medium speed until no streaks of butter are visible, about 3 minutes. Add both sugars and beat to combine. Reduce speed to low, add applesauce and beat in half of flour mixture. Add egg and beat to combine, then beat in remaining flour mixture.
Lightly spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray, or line with parchament paper.

• With lightly floured palms, roll dough into balls about 1 1/4 inches in diameter. Place them about 1 1/2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. With two fingers, gently but firmly press each dough ball to flatten slightly and create indentions.

• Bake, rotating the sheets halfway through, until cookies are golden on bottom, about 14 minutes. Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks and let cookies cool completely.



PRINT THIS RECIPE!

 A bit of strawberry preserves went well with these little treasures!

Variation:  top them with a pecan or other nut.

Skillet Nachos - vegetarian

I met my friend Lia about 10 years ago when we were living in a small, cute townhouse in Scottsdale, Az. Back then, it was just me and my son Britton, then about 5 years old. Lia lived in the townhouse across the little courtyard from ours. She had two young sons herself and so we became acquainted through our boys and spending lots of time outdoors. We both immediately bonded through our love of food and cooking. We could ramble on all night about recipe ideas, spices and the proper temperature for cooking salmon or chicken. We hung out together almost every night in either our little kitchenette or hers sharing a glass of wine and debating on all important topics such as how small to dice some vegetable or whether or not black olives should go into home made chili ( most definitely NOT in my opinion! Mushrooms maybe but black olives, please! ) Those were the good ol days.

I still talk to Lia but not near as much as I would like to. Our lives have gotten crazy, especially since I got married, had 3 more lovely children and moved to the other side of the valley. The valley of the Sun spans about 4 hours from one side to the other making it just as easy to drive to San Diego for the day as it is to visit a good friend in Scottsdale. When we do get together nowadays, it's inevitably to cook and eat and most importantly hang out and chat *sighhhh, I sure do miss doing that.

This is one of the delicious dinners my very talented friend would make for us and that I still make often.

Skillet Nachos or "Cowboy Nachos" are one of our family's favorite dinners. These baby's are piled high with spicy beans, sauteed zucchini, peppers and onion. You could add some shredded chicken to these to make them even heartier, but we all love them veggie style. They are sooooo yummy and full of flavor. You have to try these to get a taste of the South West!

SERVES 4 TIME 20 MINUTES

You will need:

1 can spicy chili beans, drained but not rinsed
1 large red or green bell pepper, diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 zucchini, quartered, then chopped
handful of shredded Jack or Cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

For garnish:

Cilantro

3 Roma Tomatoes, diced

light sour cream

Black Olives ;-)

Most importantly, a heavy, cast iron skillet!

Putting it all together:

Heat a tabelspoon of oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.

Saute chopped onion and peppers till browned, about 3 minutes. Don't stir to often, let them brown.

Transfer to a bowl. Add Zucchini to skillet and saute till brown, about 3 minutes. Transfer to bowl with other veggies.

Pile tortilla chips into skillet, pile beans and veggies on top. Sprinkle with cheese.

Put skillet into a preheated oven at 400 degrees F.

Cook just till cheese is melted and browned, about 6 minutes.

Serve with garnishes.

*mental note to self...... buy larger cast iron skillet to accommodate the fam!!!

Veggie Might: Oooh, Shiny--Sweet and Spicy Jicama Slaw

Written by the fabulous Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about all things Vegetarian.

You may have guessed by now, longtime CHG-VM readers, that I am most inspired unfamiliar ingredients. I get distracted by anything the least bit unexpected at the market. I’m like the Homer Simpson of home ec. Oooh, shiny.

So on recent trips to the farmer’s market and neighborhood grocery, despite list/menu plan in hand, I’ve come home with game changers. That’s the joy of the farmer’s market - you never know exactly what you’ll find. Callaloo was a perfect example. Then it was papalo, a Mexican herb.

A few weeks ago, there was a new stand at the market, staffed by a Mexican woman selling the usual carrots, celery, and potatoes, but also poblano peppers, habaneros, and herbs. The papalo, a robust green herb, caught my eye. The woman told me it’s kind of like cilantro and is particularly good on sandwiches and in soups.

How to describe the taste? Well, papalo has a strong, fresh smell and flavor, reminiscent of lemon and tarragon. Does that make sense at all? Just know that it’s strong, you don’t need much, and hey, look over there.

Of course, it wasn’t soup weather at the time (though it has been the last couple of rainy East Coast days). So I decided to use it in a jicama-summer squash slaw recipe I found in Jay Solomon’s The Global Vegetarian, a newly resurrected staple in my kitchen. The recipe called for cilantro, so I went for the easy substitution.

Sweet and spicy, the papalo took the crunchy summer slaw to a place I’d call...Interesting. It was on my Lunch Buddy menu and I almost didn’t serve it to JBF, it was so odd tasting to me. But caveat in place, I sent it along, and she loved it. I took a little longer to get there.

Papalo is pungent and takes some getting used to. I had made a big batch, and by the third serving it had grown on me. What I didn’t know then that I know now: a cilantro:papalo substitution should come in at around 3:1.

That said, the jicama, chipotle peppers, and squash made for a satisfying side salad. Tossed over greens or just on the side of a sandwich, this zippy little number would be a refreshing change of pace at what summer picnics remain.

While it can be time-consuming to julienne a bunch of veggies for slaw, I find it relaxing and therapeutic. (I also enjoy untangling the matted yarn balls that collect in my knitting stash, so there’s that.) A food processor or coarse grater will cut down your prep time enormously.

If you can’t find papalo where you are, put back in the cilantro (or parsley, if you have that sad, sad soap thing) and you won’t be sorry. But if you do, allow yourself to be distracted by the deep green and pretty scalloped leaves. It’s a taste worth acquiring.

(Additional photography by flickr user h-bomb.)

~~~

If you dig this recipe, you may also dig:

• BBQ Slaw, Y’all
• I Can Maike That: Daikon or Jicama and Mango Salad
• A Relaxing Evening with Kale and Root Vegetable Salad

~~~

Sweet and Spicy Jicama Slaw
adapted from The Global Vegetarian by Jay Solomon

1/2 large jicama (about 2 cups), julienned
1 medium yellow squash, julienned
1 large carrot, grated
2 chipotle peppers (canned in adobo sauce), minced
1 lime, juiced
1 tbsp canola oil
3 tbsp cilantro or 1 tbsp papalo
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt

1) Combine all the julienned veggies in a large mixing bowl.

2) Add lime juice, oil, herbs, and spices, and toss.

3) Stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes to combine flavors.

4) Serve this sassy little slaw over salad greens or as a side dish at your end-of-summer barbecue.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, Protein, and Price per Serving
48.1 calories, 3.5g fat, 5.4g fiber, 2.3g protein, $.97

Calculations
1/2 large jicama: 98 calories, 0g fat, 12g fiber, 2g protein, $1.10
1 large carrot: 31.25 calories, 0g fat, 2.5g fiber, 1.25g protein, $0.20
1 medium yellow squash: 31 calories, 0g fat, 2g fiber, 2g protein, $0.75
2 chipotle peppers: 7 calories, 0g fat, 1g fiber, 0g protein, $0.36
1 lime: 9.5 calories, 0.03g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.10
1 tbsp canola oil: 120 calories, 14g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.08
2 tbsp p√°palo: 2.75 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.06
1/2 tsp cumin: negligible calories, fat, fiber, and protein, $0.02
1 tsp salt: negligible calories, fat, fiber, and protein, $0.02
escarole salad greens: 32 calories, 0g fat, 4g fiber, 4g protein, $1.22
Totals: 192.25 calories, 14g fat, 21.5g fiber, 9.25g protein, $3.91
Per serving (totals/4): 48.1 calories, 3.5g fat, 5.4g fiber, 2.3g protein, $.97

Ask the Internet: Top 5 Vegetables?

Sweet readers, this one was born of a backyard barbecue conversation. It got unexpectedly (and excitedly) in-depth, and it could help to determine future content of the blog (especially recipes).

Q: What are your top five favorite vegetables, and why?

A: Seems like an easy question, right? But my list took awhile. Eventually I came up with:

1. Sweet potatoes. The candy of the earth.
2. Red bell peppers. So versatile, so delicious.
3. Tomatoes. In any form, any time.
4. Swiss Chard/Kale. Who knew leafy greens could be so tasty?
5. Onions. Is there food that exists without them?

Eggplant would have been #6. I don't care for radishes (which is why you almost never see them here), and cauliflower has to be pretty heavily doctored for me to dig in.

And with that, I throw it to you. I wonder what will win? We can even post the results on Friday.

Want to ask the interweb a question? Post one in the comment section, or write to Cheaphealthygood@gmail.com. Then, tune in next Tuesday for an answer/several answers from the good people of the World Wide Net.

Thai Garden Veggie Wraps with Peanut Sauce

This is my new favorite lunch! I ate a big whole grain wrap stuffed with fresh veggies and herbs and was satisfied but didn't feel heavy and stuffed . I love what living in the Arizona heat does to inspire me to come up with these quick, light meals. I suppose there's not much else to do other than sit around indoors and think about food since it's to stinking hot to go outside!

At first I was simply going to toss the veggies with lime juice and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and hot chile flakes for some kick, but then I started craving a peanuty sauce. It was so perfect and was my favorite part. It helped the little guys gobble them up too!

*Flavor with fresh herbs and citrus instead of mayo, salt or jarred marinades.

What you will need: 

2 carrots, julienned
1 seedless cucumber, peeled and juliened
1 red bell pepper, seeded and juliened
broccoli slaw
big handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
handful of fresh basil, thinly sliced
whole grain wraps/tortillas
toasted sesame seeds
hot chile flakes ( optional) 

* mint or cilantro would be good too, I just used what I had on hand.

For the peanut sauce: 

2 big spoonfuls of All Natural peanut butter or Tahini paste
2 tablespoons Tamari (similar to soy sauce, minus the additives and less sodium)
2 limes, juiced
dried onion flakes

Whisk all ingredients together in large measuring cup. Fill the wraps with veggies and herbs and drizzle sauce over the top.

Tomatoes with Balsamic Dressing: A Recipe of Timelessness

Wow, you guys. It’s crunch time. There are less than two weeks to go before our nuptials, and Husband-Elect and I are up to our eyeballs in place cards, strappy shoes (him not me) and various tulle-embellished paraphernalia. The cat must be wondering when he wandered off the streets and on to the set of My Big Fat Swedish Wedding.

If you're unfamiliar with the process, planning a large wedding is slightly less logistically complicated than the Rebel Alliance’s attack on the Death Star. But only slightly. We’re attempting to maintain so many piles of Stuff and spreadsheets and word documents (in Gill Sans, The Official Font of Soon-to-be-Married People), any thought of cooking has perished along with the idea of a comfortable, but supportive bra. I am suddenly very thankful for my years working as an Associate Producer, where the daily tracking of data/minutae rivaled that of the Pentagon.

What I’m trying (rather longwindedly) to say is this: we’re eating things that require as little effort and forethought as humanly possible.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? Awesome!

Spaghetti and jarred sauce! A little involved, but okay!

Candle wax? Is it flavored? Sure!

It’s times like these when simple, 10-second salads are vital to preserving any semblance of health. What’s more, they provide variety for a palate increasingly accustomed to tortillas spread with mustard.

Take Tomatoes with Balsamic Dressing. I threw it together for lunch yesterday, and man, it hit the spot. It sated my craving for fresh food and salt, and felt way more substantial than a reg-oo-lar green salad.

Just – you gotta know: The quality of TwBD is entirely dependent on the quality of your tomatoes. You could go at it with anemic supermarket Romas, which will surely be less expensive, or you could opt for greenmarket dealies, which may cost a little more, but will elevate the dish immeasurably. In this case, option #2 was our girl, and it made all the difference.

And now, back to wedding planning. Maybe later, there will be time for some frozen peas and chipotle sauce. *Fingers crossed*

~~~

If this looks good to you, these might look, uh, just as good:

• Baked Plum Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomato Crisp
• Pasta with Eggplant, Zucchini, and Tomatoes

~~~

Tomatoes with Balsamic Dressing
Serves 1

1 1/2 ripe plum tomatoes
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Stem tomatoes and cut them into eighths. Place them in a small bowl. Add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir to combine. Serve.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, Protein, and Price Per Serving
58 calories, 4.7 g fat, 1.1 g fiber, 0.8 g protein, $0.98

Calculations
1 1/2 ripe plum tomatoes: 17 calories, 0.2 g fat, 1.1 g fiber, 0.8 g fiber, $0.92
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil: 39 calories, 4.5 g fat, 0 g fiber, 0 g protein, $0.04
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar: 2 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g fiber, 0 g protein, $0.01
Kosher salt: negligible calories, fat, fiber, protein, $0.01
Freshly ground black pepper: negligible calories, fat, fiber, protein, $0.01
TOTALS/PER SERVING: 58 calories, 4.7 g fat, 1.1 g fiber, 0.8 g protein, $0.98

Saturday Throwback: The Problem With Diet Foods

Let’s get this out of the way up front: I eat diet products. I drink Diet Coke, dig low-fat granola bars, and am not ashamed to love No Pudge brownies as if they were my own mother. Moreover, I challenge anyone who insists that their yogurt tastes better than Weight Watchers’ Amaretto Cheesecake brand to an all-out dairy war. (Note: I will win.)

Like most people who’re even slightly concerned about the magnitude of their bum, diet products are a part of my everyday life. I buy them regularly because they let me think that I care about what I eat, without actually having to care about what I eat. And in a world of 770-calorie Strawberry Frappuccinos and Deep-fried Cheesecake, doesn’t that borderline awareness count for something?

As it turns out, maybe not.

A flood of recent studies and articles claim that many diet foods may not be as beneficial as they initially seemed. While they can keep calorie counts down, there’s apparently a link between consumption of certain products and the tendency to be overweight. Some foods have even been found to flat-out promote obesity in animals, as well as high cholesterol and other exciting conditions.

I don’t mean to condemn diet products altogether, but these findings definitely raise some questions: like what, exactly are the problems with them? How do we address those issues? And in the long run, does it even matter? Let’s explore.

THE PROBLEMS

Diet products may cause overeating. This occurs in two ways. The first happens when an individual gorges on a diet food, since she believes it won’t hurt her as much as the full-fat version. (There’s even a name for it: “the SnackWell Syndrome.”) The second cause of overeating, according to Time Magazine’s Alice Park, is that “people are preprogrammed to anticipate sugary, high-calorie fulfillment when drinking a soda or noshing on a sweet-tasting snack. So, the diet versions of these foods may leave them unsatisfied, driving them to eat more to make up the difference.” In other words, you’ve initially tricked your brain into less calories, but your body won’t stand for it later.

Diet products might help people develop tastes for full-fat versions of the same food. One study suggests that this might be especially true of children. Says Sarah Kliff of Newsweek: “when we eat diet foods at a young age we overeat similar-tasting foods later in life, suggesting that low-cal foods disrupt the body's ability to recognize how many calories an item contains.” Think about it: if you’ve gobbled fat-free hot dogs your whole childhood, doesn’t it make sense that you’d wolf down the full-fat varieties as an adult?

Diet products can cost more. If you’ve ever priced shredded cheese against lower-fat versions of the same brand, this may ring particularly true. It may only be a $0.10 or $0.20 difference, but they add up over time. The most egregious example of this trend, however, is the rise of the 100-Calorie packet. You know, those baseball-sized bags of wafers purchased for $3.99 when three cookies would cost a fraction of the price? According to Morgan Stanley food industry tracker David Adelman, “The irony is, if you take Wheat Thins or Goldfish, buy a large-size box, count out the items and put them in a Ziploc bag, you’d have essentially the same product.” [Peters, NY Times.]

Diet products contain more artificial flavors and preservatives. This is more my own observation than the research (so please take it with a grain of salt), but diet foods seem to have lots more chemicals than their regular counterparts. Compare the ingredients of Lay’s Classic Potato Chips (Potatoes, Corn and/or Cottonseed Oil And Salt) with those of Lay’s Light Original Fat Free Potato Chips (Potatoes, Olestra, Salt, Alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Tocopherols, Vitamin K, And Vitamin D). Though I’m sure an abundance of cottonseed oil isn’t spectacular for the heart, isn’t olestra the stuff that “may cause anal leakage”? (Mmm … anal leakage.) Yikes.

THE SOLUTIONS

Shop smart. Nowadays, it’s pretty commonly accepted that the prices of nutritionally sound eats are too high. Yet, with a little planning and some strategic shopping, whole foods are as affordable as a pack of low-fat Twinkies (and they’ll satiate longer, too). Making a plan, drawing up a list, shopping the perimeter, clipping coupons, stockpiling, and ESPECIALLY paying attention to circulars are just some of the brainy strategies available to anyone with healthy ambitions.

Read nutrition labels. If you do buy a processed diet product (and who doesn’t?), take the time to scan the Nutrition Facts and ask some questions: what’s the saturated fat content? How many calories are in a serving? In what order are the ingredients listed? Are you comfortable with all the additives? Once there’s a better understanding of what goes into a product, your perspective on it might change. For help with decoding, here’s the FDA’s guide to food labels.

Eat real food. Straight up, it’s better for you, and there’s an easy guideline to separating the real from the processed: “Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” (Thanks, Michael Pollan [yet again]!)

Cook. Preparing meals at home instills healthy habits, encourages quality time with family, and allows eaters to know exactly what’s going into their dinner. It de-emphasizes diet products and promotes a reliance on whole foods, as well.

Limit portions. Admittedly, I haven’t read French Women Don’t Get Fat, but friends and reviewers sum it up thusly: Gallic chicks eat almost whatever they want, but know when to say when. Conversely, we Americans aren’t raised to savor taste; we gulp our food down, and then look for more. That means one thing: dude, we need to get on the ball. Reasonable quantities are essential to both a balanced lifestyle and weaning ourselves off diet products, and the American Diabetes Association and Mayo Clinic have more.

Drink water. In almost every article I read, diet soda was cited as a main villain in the product studies. Water is free, abundant, crazy-healthy, and can actually be very tasty.

THE CONCLUSION

While I hardly think diet victuals are the devil, this research has helped convince me of something: we gotta try to eat right. That means no (or fewer) shortcuts. That means fruits and vegetables, rice and grains, and lean meats and fish (environmentally sustainable fish, of course). It means cooking and keeping a careful eye on what’s piling up in the pantry. It means indulging intelligently and avoiding chemical-laden science projects that attempt to pass themselves off as actual edibles.

Alas, nobody’s perfect, and being on-point all the time is exhausting. But, if once - just once - I can sub an orange in for that 90-calorie pencil-sized granola bar, at least it's a step in the right direction.

FURTHER READING/SOURCES

Can Sugar Substitutes Make You Fat? by Alice Park (Time, 2/08)
Diet Soda No Better for You Than Regular by Marisa McClellan (Slashfood, 7/07)
Do Diet Foods Lead to Weight Gain? by Alice Park (Time, 8/07)
Four Ways Not to Lose Weight by Sarah Kliff (Newsweek, 10/07)
The Oreo, Obesity, and Us by Delroy Alexander (Chicago Sun-Times, 8/05)
Skip the Diet Soda by Lucy Danzinger (SELF, 3/08)
Snack food companies are placing bigger bets on smaller packages by Jeremy W. Peters (New York Times, 7/07)

(Photos courtesy of Things, ecandy, and DK Images.)

Top Ten Links of the Week: 8/13/10 - 8/19/10

As promised!

1) Money Saving Mom: How do You Feed Hungry Teenagers Without Breaking Your Budget?
I have never seen a human being eat so much in a single day – or sitting – than my brother did at age 15. Moms, I salute you, and I salute your suggestions in this extensive comment thread. Now, who’s up for half a pizza?

2) Village Voice: The 10 Easy Diet Rules of the Sietsema Weight Loss System
Number six is a little strange, but this common sense approach to dropping a few pounds from the Voice’s food critic is worth a gander.

3) Lifehacker: Master the Art of Low-Effort Cooking
Behold! It’s all your rice cooker, microwave, and hot pot questions, answered! If I had read this in college (heck, if the internet existed like this in college), I would have eaten far fewer chicken fingers.

4) Jezebel: The Hierarchy of Food Needs
Interesting pictorial representation of what humans require from food, moving from rock-bottom basic needs to more extravagant wants. It goes a long way towards explaining hunger and obesity in America: when folks don’t have access to the basics, it’s foolish to think they’re going to give a flying you-know-what about much beyond that.

5) Serious Eats: 6 Ways to Build Your Spicy Food Tolerance
Also effective for iocane powder, for your inevitable battle of wits with Vizzini.

6) The Simple Dollar: 48 Things Frugality Has Taught Me
What a neat read. I’d love to do something like this soon. What about you guys?

7) Lifehacker: Keep Your Eyes on Your Food to Avoid Overeating
More evidence that visual cues are invaluable to gauging the amount of food we consume.

8) Huffington Post: The Myth of Superfoods
There’s more, but here’s the main thrust: “If you want to get the most from your diet, you're much better off focusing on dietary diversity rather than loading up on the top 10 foods some magazine says you should eat more of.”

9) The Kitchn: 9 Essential Things for a Joyful Gluten-Free Life
You guys! Who can’t do the Wheaties! Look at this.

10) stonesoup: 7 Tips for Cooking with Vino
Number 4: “Don’t expect all the alcohol to be removed by the cooking process.” Say wha?

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Casual Kitchen: Who Does the Cooking in Your Home? The Results May Surprise You
Via Twitter, Dan asked followers who did the majority of household cooking. 80% of the time, it’s the ladies.

New York Times: For Moister Chicken, Tuck the Flavor Inside
Chicken wraps, in which the chicken is the wrap.

The Simple Dollar: The Challenge of Couponing
Interesting take on coupon sites. Dunno if I agree, but if you have a couponing problem, yo, Trent solves it.

Thank you so much for visiting Cheap Healthy Good! (We appreciate it muchly). If you’d like to further support CHG, subscribe to our RSS feed! Or become a Facebook friend! Or check out our Twitter! Or buy something inexpensive, yet fulfilling via that Amazon store (on the left)! Bookmarking sites and links are nice, too. Viva la France!

Peanut Butter Crispies

I am so thrilled about this post for several reasons.

1. It's a super simple, very yummy recipe... everyone can do this.
2. It's a healthy snack...... that's the name of the game here.
3. You can make a big batch of these for penny's on the dollar from what you'd pay for store bought granola or protein bars.
4. Last, but not least, I had so much fun photographing and playing with the pic's from this shoot.

I wanted to thank my friend  Lauren  at Foodie House  for sharing her honest feelings about food photography sharing sites. It's easy to get caught up in all of the publicity and glamour ( yes food can be glamorous) of it all. It seems that many of us, I can only speak for myself, start blogging for purely personal reasons and yet in the excitement of it all, change our personal style for the want of publicity. I've been having fun journaling some of my favorite recipes so that someday I might make a simple cookbook for myself and my kids. Also, it is a fun, creative outlet for me. I love cooking and blogging has been a nice getaway of sorts from everyday chaos.

These peanut butter crispies are a favorite in our house. I've adapted them from a basic recipe that I have here, and make them with what ingredients I have on hand. With 3 very active boys in our home who have seemingly bottomless pits for stomachs these snacks are a true life saver! Served with a glass of cold milk, they are a great after school snack. My teenager downs an apple or two along with several of these little PB balls.

Check out the list of healthy ingredients going on here! You could grab a couple of these for a
quick on-the-run breakfast and feel good about it. There's protein, whole grains and bits of fruit, what more could you ask for in a snack?


I just add the cereals and fruit then pour in some peanut butter to get the consistency I like.  Honey gives it just a touch of Natural sweetness and keeps them from falling apart. I use my KitchenAid mixer with the dough hook and a firm spatula for scraping the sides in. You could start mixing these with a big heavy spoon but you'll probably need to get down and dirty and use your hands towards the end.

TIME 20 MINUTES ACTIVE 2 HOURS REFRIGERATING
MAKES ABOUT 40 BALLS

You will need:

2 - 2 1/2 cups All Natural peanut butter
1 cup Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal
2 cups *Puffed Millet
1 cup craisins, raisins or other bits of dried fruit
1/2 - 1 cup Honey (eye it, it's easier than messing with a measuring cup)
1/2 cup Wheat Germ (optional, I didn't have it this time, but it's in my original recipe)


Mix all ingredients together. Shape into bite size balls with your hands, adding a spoonful of PB if they become to crumbly.
Place on wax paper lined cookie sheets and cool in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Keep stored in an airtight container in fridge. These will be perfectly fine to send to school, they will keep their shape.

*Millet is a super healthy whole grain used for centuries in Egypt, China, Africa, India and all across Europe.
Millet is highly nutritious, non-glutinous and like buckwheat and quinoa, is not an acid forming food so is soothing and easy to digest. In fact, it is considered to be one of the least allergenic and most digestible grains available.
Millet is tasty, with a mildly sweet, nut-like flavor and contains a myriad of beneficial nutrients. It is nearly 15% protein, contains high amounts of fiber, B-complex vitamins including niacin, thiamin, and riboflavin, the essential amino acid methionine, lecithin, and some vitamin E. It is particularly high in the minerals iron, magnesium, phosphorous, and potassium.






Other healthy snacks you'll love:


Banana Chocolate Crisp Granola Bars

Carrot Date Energy Ballz

Old Fashion Fig Bars

Home Made Gold Fish Crackers

Tropical Nut and Seed Bars

All Natural Oat Cookies

Coconut Almond Oat Crunchies

Granola Quinoa Fruit Bars

Ginger-Roo's with home made crystalized ginger

Thank You!

Hi sweet readers,

Links are coming shortly, but I wanted to thank everyone who wrote in to Monday's kitteh-heavy Ask the Internet. Your suggestions have been invaluable, and in the last four days or so, we:

• Started feeding Tim Riggins like a nine-pound cat instead of a 35-pound dog. This has already made a Hummer-sized dent in our scooping responsibilities.
• Are gradually switching him from Target brand litter to Feline Pine. I swear, I could taste the clay dust on my tongue last week, so this has been huge.
• Combed the pet store, reading ingredient lists on cat food bags. We settled on a small bag of Nutro adult, and will see how he adjusts. (Though, I think we'll be okay. This cat eats anything vaguely food-shaped.)
• Gave him a wine cork, milk container seal, and a paper towel tube to play with. Between those, a $2 packet of jingly balls, and the feather-on-a-stick our neighbors left when they moved, he's been pretty happy.

We're still working on a slight nipping problem, but beyond that, it's all systems go. Thank you again for helping us go from feline-ignorant to feline-semi-knowledgeable.

Links are on their way!

Kris & Husband-Elect

Veggie Might: Traveling While Vegetarian

Penned by the effervescent Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about the wide world of Vegetarianism.

Hello from Canada! Bonjour du Canada! My good pal KC and I are wringing out the last bit of the summer travel season with a road trip along the Bay of Fundy to Prince Edward Island.

Almost as much fun as being here (whales! porpoises! seals!), was plotting our course and picking fun things to do with her 6-year-old daughter (whales! porpoises! seals!). My additional task was ensuring there were places for me to eat along the way, here in the land of abundant seafood/fruits de mer.

Vegetarian/vegan travel can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be. In my 19 years of vegetarianism, I’ve never gone hungry from lack of choices. There are a few things I do when I’m traveling to unknown locales, but starve is never one of them.

For this trip, and this post, I called on my own Veg Posse (VP) and Friends of the VP to bring you the best vegetarian/vegan travel tips they and the Web have to offer.

Meet the VP:
LEIGH: me, writer/tea-drinker, lacto-ovo vegetarian
DH: roommate/pal, actor/orator, lacto-ovo vegetarian
BA (in absentia): pal, rock star/bon vivant, vegan
LB: pal, rabble rouser/animal advocate, 98% vegan
HC: friend of the VP, giver of good email, vegan

1) Do Your Research
When traveling to an unfamiliar destination, make a plan. Both LB and HC agreed that researching restaurants online is the best way to find veg-friendly places to chow down. Sure, you can get French fries/pommes frites/chips and salad just about anywhere. But sometimes you want a healthier/less boring option.

HC wisely recommends calling ahead whenever venturing out to a new vegetarian restaurant. “One thing I have learnt is that vegan restaurants close down so frequently that information can be out of date. The number of times I have trekked through a town to find that the restaurant is no longer there...rather depressing.”

Get out your guidebooks, interweb resources, and maps, and plot a course for the nearest veg-friendly restaurant. Here are the most highly recommended sites for searching veg-friendly travel.

VEG-SPECIFIC:
Happy Cow.net: Hands-down the most popular and comprehensive vegetarian directory on the Web. You can search restaurants by country, region/state/province, and city. You can define results by veg-only and vegetarian-friendly, user ratings, and/or veg type: vegan, vegetarian, and veg-friendly. Plus, Happy Cow provides other resources, such as travel and health articles, as well as forums for members to share information. I used Happy Cow to find a great vegetarian restaurant in Moncton, New Brunswick that not only pleased my palate, but a picky 6-year-old’s.

VegGuide: A community-maintained veg restaurant and market guide. It allows you to search for restaurants, groceries, and markets all over the world by country, region, and city; describes each entry by “How Vegetarian?”; and allows for user ratings.

Vegan Forum: Message boards like Vegan Forum are a great way to get the skinny on local joints from local folks. After you’ve found a place that sounds good on “paper,” search for it, or ask about it, on a forum and find out if anybody really eats there.

GENERAL:
Trip Advisor: An invaluable resource when planning any trip. You will find user ratings and reviews on hotels, restaurants, and destinations of all sorts. Since I knew seafood would be all the rage where we were going, I did a little digging on Trip Advisor and found several Lobster Suppers with vegetarian options on Prince Edward Island. After emailing the proprietors, I found the one with the best veggie deal for the price.

Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree forums: The first (two) name(s) in travel guides for the modern adventurer. Just enter your destination and the word vegetarian or vegan in the Lonely Planet search window, and you’re almost guaranteed to find a thread loaded with information from fellow travelers.

2) Pack a Snack
A frugal traveler of any stripe packs a few snacks or meals for the road (or airport). For a veg, it’s especially helpful if you’re unsure of your options where you’re headed or along the way. BA, rock star and world traveler, always stocks my fridge with single-serve soymilk and soy yogurts when she’s passing through NYC. HC swears by raw cashews and veggie sausage sandwiches. LB packs apples, carrot sticks, and rice cakes for the road. Me? I’m a tamari almond, granola bar, and peanut butter sandwich traveler—plus single-serve almond milk for continental breakfast cereal.

3) Make a Few Concessions
As DH said so eloquently said, “sometimes you just have to give up eating healthy when you travel.” So true, DH. Fast food is inevitable at times, and a moment of calm and surrender can be worth far more than stress about finding organic, seasonal, local produce in the suburban jungle. HC and LB agree, though we all make an attempt to avoid it unless unavoidable. LB says, I just find it hard to patronize places that promote an unhealthy diet, nutritionally, ethically and environmentally, on such a large scale.” Preach it, sister/soeur.

Fast food joints are getting better about offering vegetarian fare. Salads are prevalent, though often less than appetizing; veggie burgers pop up every now and then, though vegans should ask for an ingredient list before ordering. I had a fast-food veggie burger on Tuesday when we kicked off our road trip with the kid’s choice of restaurant, and it was pretty good.

Still, there will be times when your only option is fast food French fries/pommes frites/chips. Remember when you were a kid and you begged to have only French fries/pommes frites/chips for dinner? When you’re a veg/vegan on the road—especially in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.—that kid gets to live his/her dream.

4) Know You Will Not Starve
There will always be something for you to eat. Don’t be afraid to ask questions of your waiters and the locals. Someone will be able to guide you toward food you can eat and enjoy.

Since my international travel experience is limited to the Great White North, I put the following question to LB and HC: How do you negotiate what's available/cultural norms/etiquette? Their answers were so brilliant that I’m just going to quote them outright.

LB: “In my first serious solo trip overseas to Tanzania, I spent the first 2 weeks with a volunteer group working in a local village. The village women were responsible for preparing our meals, which we ate with our hosts. I honestly don't recall if I specified that I was vegetarian but amazing vegan options were available at every meal. Their diet in general is not very dairy-rich, probably due to limited dairy production in [that] area of Tanzania, and also, I imagine, cost. My colleagues were actually a little jealous of my diet, as the meat they were served was generally of the chewy animal sort—not very appetizing! Later, when I did a 10-day walking tour with just me and a guide, I told him I was vegetarian, and so he would buy rice and vegetables in the markets of the various towns and have our hosts for the evenings prepare them for me. I don't recall anyone thinking my diet was odd or out of place and, again, I think this is largely due to the fact that Tanzania is not a wealthy country and so meat, while available, is costly and not served at every meal.”

HC: “I find that in many countries where they have dietary restrictions for religious reasons, they find it easier to understand the concept of veganism, and it's not so strange to them to hear that someone can't eat something as a result of their beliefs.”

No matter where you go, in the whole wide world, there will be something for you to eat. Except, says HC, maybe in France if you’re a vegan.

If you’d still like a little help explaining your diet, check out this article:
WikiTravel—Vegetarian and Vegan Food

There you’ll find a link to the International Vegetarian Union’s Vegetarian Phrases in World Languages page. You’ll be able to say, “I am a vegetarian. I do not eat meat, pork or chicken./Je suis un végétarienne. Je ne mange pas de viande, de porc ou de poulet,” in a bajillion/baguillion languages.

5. Relax and Enjoy
Sometimes, the best way to plan your vegetarian/vegan vacation is not to plan at all. Just get out there, meet some people, and have fun. And eat some French fries/pommes frites/chips.

All the veg-specific guides mentioned in this article, and many more, can be found at

• Circle Our Earth
• Vegetarian Guides and
• Vegetarian Resource Group—Travel

~~~

If you adored this article, vous adorerez:

• Cheap Healthy Vacation Food: 61 Tips for Travel Eats on a Budget
• Cheap Healthy Vacation Food, Part Deux: 10 More Tips for Travel Eats on a Budget
• Feeding a Group on Vacation