Sunday, July 23, 2006

Smoothie & Adzuki Beans

Wow, lots to update on! First the food and then everything else.

I had some left over kale from Leslie's sloppy lentil recipe. A few of you had been posting smoothies with some leafy veggies added, so I gave it a go. This has some frozen mixed berries, kale, Rainier cherries, soy milk powder, and a few kale leafs! Verdict---not bad! I definitely detected something more healthy than normal in it, but the kale didn't deter me. The picture has one of my pint glasses from The Great Lost Bear in Portland, Me. GLB is veg friendly, though not exclusively veg. One of my friends bought me two pint glasses from GLB as a house warming present a few years ago. She knows, I love to stop there when I am in Maine.

Unfortunately, I still had kale left and it is not one of my favorite veggies. I looked around and found this recipe for Kale and Adzuki Beans. One fortunate side effect of needing adzuki beans is that I finally had an excuse to drive out to the Asian grocery store which I will write about shortly. Anyway the kale and adzuki beans are cooked with garlic, tamari, coriander, and cumin. Though I knew I liked adzukis, I wasn't sure about making this recipe. In the end, I gave it a thumbs up. This photo got submitted to allrecipes for the recipe as it was lacking a photo, so maybe it will be there next time we look it up!

My trip to the Asian grocery... I was pretty excited about this as I might be able to find yuba which is something I love. When I am in NY they sell this macrobiotic yuba meal that I am addicted to. Additionally, I was pretty psyched to just wander through the aisles and check out all the funky foods. I made it there without getting lost and meandered through the store for awhile. I found many neat things including adzuki beans, super cheap rice paper for making veggie rolls, and funky sesame crunch bars.

I couldn't find the yuba and finally stopped to ask someone. No matter what I said, the employee immediately responded with, "No, understand." I don't know if there was someone else who could understand me because she never offered to look and I could only see one other person busy at the register. Finally, I just walked slowly through each aisle. Eventually, I did find the yuba. I'm not sure if I am being unreasonable hoping that someone speaks English at the Asian grocery, but I was a little frustrated.

In the freezer section, I was very excited to see sweet red bean buns. I used to love these at DimSum as a vegetarian. Unfortunately, they all had milk in them. I'll have to make them on my own some day. They had super cheap tofu at the asian grocery, so I may go there to stock up next time.

This afternoon, I headed out to the Toyota dealer to talk about a Prius. The question was really if I could trade in my Mini Cooper (Yes, when I started making real money...I went and purchased the car I loved.) for a Prius and end up with an equal or lower car payment. Conveniently for me, someone traded in a Prius with 27,000 miles on it the other day. Guess what? That means Gary (you read that right...Gary Cooper) will be traded in on Wed for a shiny almost new Prius. I'll miss Gary, but I need to put my money where my mouth is...so to speak.

My very last thing to post about today. I'm sending Leslie's some of the cookies I will be making later today. She is going through cookie withdrawal due to the Arizona heat. Perhaps, the lack of homemade cookies contributed to her vertigo. A few days ago, I stumbled onto a vegan cookie swap at livejournal. The group doesn't look too active, but I thought I would throw the idea out there. How do you guys feel about creating a vegan cookie swap among our little blogging community? It might need to wait a few months for the weather to cool down. Let me know what you think about that.

12 comments:

Eat Peace Please said...

Hey Jody. It's not the heat that has detered me from cookies, it's my broken oven. Look under my February archives and you can hear the whole story. It is well-known in blogland that I do not use the oven, am terrified of fires, and prefer stovetop or raw cooking only! I do miss oven-made foods, especially cookies and banana bread (which I make the best banana bread).

As for the cookie swap, I'm down, but you all would get some raw "cookies" from me. Hence the oven thing. Good thing I have a PO box... even non edible items melt in the heat here.

Jody from VegChic said...

Leslie - The downside of meeting you guys later after your blogs started is there are a whole bunch of things I don't know unless I go back.

I'll have to post about my cookie experiment tonight!

BTW - Raw cookies are ok with me. I'm all about trying new foods. I've got two raw foods cookbooks.

KleoPatra said...

Hey, you have been busy, Jody!

Nice glass, nice place that your friend got the glass from, and one heckuva smooth-lookin' smoothie.

I enjoy going into Asian stores except for the fish area. That depresses me!

btw, i'd love some cookies too. (i'm just lazy and it's too hot for me... i do use my oven to bake but not lately!)

I love your Prius shopping story. What a great deal for you. Hope Gary Cooper will find a new home, too!

Dori said...

Nice looking smoothie. I just finally was inspired to use my adzuki beans to make some calico bean salad. You added some pretty interetsing flavors to your kale. I have a sack full of kale to use up, it is the last of my garden harvest.

Anonymous said...

Glad I'm not the only one who isn't too fond of kale. I just can't seem to warm up to it. Congrats on your Prius! I wish we had one. I currently drive a PT Cruiser and have a few more years to go before I can even consider a new car. Hubby and I just watched a very interesting Discovery Channel show on Prius' and how they made one run on electric power only.

I would definitely be interested in a cookie swap. That sounds like a lot of fun.

Emily said...

congrats on the prius! I think that's fabulous. Sometimes it's really hard to actually "put your money where your mouth is". I'd love to have a hybrid someday- perhaps if we need to buy another car or a new car someday.

Jen said...

Hi Jody,
Enjoy the Prius! I'd love to read more about how you like it once you've been driving it awhile. (I'm not *really* in the market for one, but it's my fantasy car!).

And a cookie swap! That is BRILLIANT.

KleoPatra said...

P.S. Jody, i e-mailed you from my Yahoo! address because my hotmail won't work from home... Grrrrrrrr!

Hope you're stayin' cool today...

Catherine Weber said...

Jody, you'll have to take pictures of the Prius and let us know how you like it! I'd like a Prius someday, but for now, I just need to get the heck rid of my rustbucket, ancient, ghetto-cruiser Chevy Blazer (yes, from 1993 -- my car has been driving longer than I have,) and walk and bike for a few years. I hope I can sell it.

Speaking of taking pictures, did I ever email you about getting advice from you regarding purchasing a digital camera? (You were the one who offered help, right?) I still very much want one, but have no idea where to start.

Jody from VegChic said...

Dori - I am so jealous of your garden. I've got strawberries and tomatoes and some watermelons and pumpkins growing....not much. Next year, I hope to have more.

Crystal & Orangina - I'll try to set something up on livejournal or something like that for a cookie swap. I'll post and everyone who wants in, can join up.

Kleo - I got in really late last night, but did email you back real quick. Hopefully you got that. Your hotmail at home is probably a cookie problem (ironically enough and not the tasty kind of cookies). Go to tools, internet options, privacy in Internet Explorer. Then click sites. If passport.com, msn.com, or hotmail.com is listed as blocked...remove it. I am a geek by day!

Catherine - Definitely drop me an email about cameras and we will figure something out for you!

Everyone - Thanks for the well wishes and comments on the Prius. I am pretty psyched and will keep you updated on it. My dad is pretty happy with his Prius and the guy at the office loves his. I'll definitely take pics.

funwithyourfood said...

how did the car thing go?

teddy

KleoPatra said...

Hey, Jody, thanks for the info about the cookies on the computer. Wish they were as tasty as certain other ones *smiles*! I am going to check out the cookies and see what i can figure out. Thanks very much for the e-mail and the photos of Tommy the terrific and gorgeous and funny... what a sweetie!