FAIL: Creamy Tri-Pepper Dressing

I was actually really surprised this effort failed. When I rely on my own devices in the kitchen, I often end up with a meal that is mostly good but could use some tweaking or refining. That's okay, I expect that. But I made this from an ETL recipe online. Usually if I have a recipe, it's a no-fail, no-brainer. I expect for someone else to have ironed out the kinks. Which is why I was totally bummed to open up the fridge and see a cup full of what looks like chicken fat!
I suspect it was the soy milk. The recipe called for unsweetened soy milk. I only had light. That's the only thing that differs from the original recipe. I am determined to try again (and I'm honestly curious to find out where I made a mistake).

Carrot-Ginger Salad Dressing

I discovered a delicious no-oil salad dressing at the Darien, CT Whole Foods when I was staying up there for work last summer. I placed a special order for it at my local WF 3 months ago but I am starting to suspect it's never coming. So, I think I'll try to make my own! Here's my first try (totally on the fly), without much preparation:

1/4 cup carrot juice
1/2 tbs. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. ginger paste
Few splashes golden vinegar
(All measurements are approx. I just eyeball everything.)

You can use a blender or fork to mix it up. This took me about two minutes to throw together. I really want to experiment with a variety of preparation methods. I'd like to juice my own carrots and use the pulp to thicken up the dressing. Also, I think I'll try white wine vinegar next time and I think it needs sesame seeds.

Travel at your own risk.

The single most complicated aspect of ETL has to be: TRAVEL. For more than just the obvious reason that you can't reasonably carry fresh, natural food everywhere you go. It's also really hard to deny yourself all those things you used to eat when out and about and on vacation, no less.

This weekend I was in Tampa, FL visiting my husband. I certainly indulged while there with him (totally worth it), but on my return flight I was determined to stay focused on my Eat To Live life. So, this is was ETL looks like at an airport. If you're lucky. I've eaten dry iceberg lettuce at an airport once. The hummus had soybean oil in it, but I reasoned that at least I wouldn't eat the pita. I'll be flying A LOT this summer and I'm curious to see how I can beat this one! (Last year I had an awesome ETL meal at a cafe called French Meadow inside the Minneapolis Airport. That one wins, hands down so far.)

Natural beauty

Look at these gorgeous colors. Never ceases to amaze me. Truly. THIS is Eat To Live.

Salad: Spring lettuce mix, beets, grape tomatoes, lentils, Zesty Tahini dressing.

Zucchini & Kidney Beans

Thank goodness for ETL because even on a day like today, when I'm just really tired and on mental auto-pilot, I get to eat like this. I had a large zucchini sitting in the fridge and I just threw this together off the top of my head. It was delicious!

I water-sautéed the zucchini with one large diced clove of garlic then poured on an 8oz can of Hunt's no-salt-added tomato sauce. I seasoned it with 1/2 tbs of Mrs. Dash salt-free tomato, basil, and garlic blend then added a can of no-salt-added kidney beans and let all the flavors blend for a little bit on low. It was actually a lot of food in the end so I split it and just ate it for dinner too. Perfect for an evening of going to bed early.

Zucchini, garlic, nsa tomato sauce, Mrs. Dash, nsa kidney beans.

Farmers Market Meal

My girlfriend Anne Marie came to Casa De Schmidt on Saturday, bearing gifts from her Farmers Market run that morning. She brought me heirloom tomatoes, snap peas and a gorgeous bundle of basil. I was so inspired by the brilliant colors that I pulled out the fancy vinegar for this meal. I used a little bit of water to start off the peas and squash, then added the vinegar later with the tomatoes and basil. I find that if you use vinegar instead of water to sauté, the vinegar burns off before you can get a good infusion of flavor, so I add it as a seasoning at the end instead. This was totally delicious!

Sauté: summer squash, snap peas, heirloom tomatoes, basil, Lucini Pinot Grigio vinegar.

Squash "pasta" sauté.

Ahhh, the water-sauté. Such an important cooking method in ETL. It's super simple, yet requires a lot of attention. The trick is in the amount of water used because veggies release water as they cook too. Best to start low (less than 1/4 cup) and add as you go. Also, it really helps to have all your ingredients prepared before you start or you might end up with soggy veggies from interrupting the cooking time. Always start with the hard, crunchy veggies like onions or carrots first and add the softer more delicate ingredients as you go along so that everything cooks evenly. Add your seasonings to taste. If I have any greens on hand, I will toss those in last and give them just a quick flash saute to wilt them.

Truly, you can add whatever you want. I LOVE to play with flavors and colors. Often I find myself influenced by what is fresh at the market, naturally.

Now to the squash "pasta". I found instructions online for how to best make these ribbons. The video tells you to discard the core, but that is just too wasteful for me. No reason for it. I dice it up and add it to the sauté.

Sauté: onions, capers, exotic mushroom mix I bought at Wegmans, summer squash, and cumin.