Eat Less Meat. Save the Planet.

Ideal Bite had a really great tip yesterday that I thought I would share:

Don't wanna give up meat altogether?

The Bite
Try for a happy medium - go meatless at least once a week for ginormous environmental and health benefits, without compromising your taste for the occasional sustainably raised burger.

The Benefits

• More-than-middling health payoffs. Compared to meat eaters, vegetarians have lower rates of diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers, and obesity.
  
• Coming together for the planet. Livestock accounts for 18% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and 8% of water use - and a meatless diet is 50% more effective at cutting CO2 than switching from a standard car to a hybrid.

Wanna Try?

• Try cutting out meat one day a week. Meat substitutes and eco-focused cookbooks make it easier.
  
• 101 Reasons Why I'm a Vegetarian - facts to help you stick with it ($3).

I created a poster on this same subject matter for a course last semester:

Giving up meat just once a week is not only good for you, but the environment. Start a family tradition -- Meatless Mondays! :)

Easy -- And DELICIOUS -- Broccoli Casserole

On my first visit to North Carolina to visit my mother-in-law, oh about 6 years ago, she made us a wonderful Christmas dinner. I left that visit with three recipes that have now become tradition with my family as well. In fact, I have many friends that have requested those recipes after having joined us at one of our holiday meals. By that far the most popular is this Broccoli Casserole. And the best part -- it's super easy!

Casserole Ingredients:

• 10 oz. package frozen broccoli (or I use two bunches of fresh broccoli)
  
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (I use the reduced fat Campbells)
  
• 1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar (I usually double this :p)
  
• 1/4 cup milk
  
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise (low-fat works great)
  
• 1 egg, beaten

Topping Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter (Start with this and add more if needed. I usually end up using a whole stick! For reducing the fat, try Smart Balance 50/50)
  
• Ritz crackers, crumbled (Enough to cover top of casserole. I crumble one pack in a zip lock bag and gradually add to the melted butter. And yes, there is a Reduced Fat version that is just as tasty.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
   
2. Cook broccoli according to directions, omit salt (or steam to crisp/tender if using fresh broccoli). Drain well and put in 10" x 6" casserole dish
   
3. Mix all remaining ingredients (except Ritz cracker mixture) in large mixing bowl. Pour over broccoli.
   
4. Melt butter over low heat and add crumbled Ritz crackers. Top casserole with Ritz cracker mixture (make more if you need to).
5. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes (you want topping to be golden brown).
   

If you try it, please let me know how it turns out!

Is It That Time of Year Already??

The most wonderful time of the year??

Yup - it's back! The 5 Cent Sale is back at BevMo! Cause I always gotta hook a brotha/sista up...

You know the drill -- buy one bottle at full price, get the second for 5 stinkin' cents. Of course there are only select bottles included in the sale, but they always throw in some good ones. Pick the 90 point wines if you're not sure what is good. 

And shop online for easy in-store pick-up!

Cheers!

It's Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

Don't say I never do anything for you (faceless people of the interweb).

I just got the BevMo "Pssst....Our 5-cent Wine Sale is Here!" email.

You know the deal: Buy one bottle, get the second for FIVE FREAKIN CENTS. 

Sorry. I got excited.

Check it out here in all it's grapey goodness glory. Shop now before they officially advertise the sale - and all the good stuff is gone!

Yo Berry Yummy Goodness.

First of all, is it really March already? Holy cow. When did that happen. Seriously, this weekend is Daylight Savings (yay for saving the daylight!!).

The sun has been shining, the hills are green - perfect froyo weather if you ask me. So you can imagine my excitement when a few weeks ago on our weekly Target trip, we stumbled upon an organic yogurt spot! Yes it's true! Only five miles away from my house!! God loves me! (Yes, I judge whether God loves by how close an organic froyo place is to my house, and how many NBA championships I've won).

So just as I was overjoyed with Fraiche (remember, the place with all the MacBooks that I so identify myself with), that first bite at Yo berry made my taste buds sing and my little mouth smile. Apparently I'm not the only one excited by having an organic tarty goodness froyo joint in the south side - check out the reviews on Yelp.

My wonderful husband, who loves me so much he's surprised me with Yo Berry twice now (again today!), says the service is great. They have a super friendly staff that insists he bring an ice pack home each time so that the yogurt stays nice and cold on the (albeit short) trip home.

My recommendation: Plain with dark chocolate shavings. Love. It.

Why I Will Never Eat At Sino Again.

So it was my mom's 70th birthday last week, and to celebrate this momentous occasion, my sister, brother and I had a wonderful weekend planned for her. A nice dinner with just the family on Friday, and then game night with friends on Saturday. As mom said, it was the perfect plan.

If you know my mom, you know that she loves appetizers. She's known for filling up on appees before the main course is served, and is just fine with that, thank you. So my sister and I thought Sino would be a a great choice, since they serve small plates and mom could get lots of different dishes to try. So my sister made reservations for 8 at 7:30 PM on Friday through Open Table. She even put, "Celebrating Mom's 70th birthday" in the Special Requests for the Maitre D' box.

I case you don't know, this is what Open Table is, per their website:

When you book a table on OpenTable.com, your reservation is instantly recorded in the restaurant's computerized reservation book - the same one the restaurant's host uses to track all reservations. (It's the black terminal you may see when you arrive at the restaurant.)

Unlike other "online" reservation services which rely on faxes or table allocations, OpenTable has live Internet connections into the restaurants themselves. So restaurant availability information is up-to-date, and your reservations are confirmed.

My dad being the obsessive early bird that he is, we arrived at the restaurant about ten minutes early. We checked in and were told to come back when our entire party had arrived, and that they were just waiting for our table to clear. So as soon as my sister got there - right at 7:30 - we went back up to the hostess. They comment on how the enormous and beautiful flower arrangement my sister gave my mom was as big as she was, and we told them we were there to celebrate her 70th birthday. They told her happy birthday (lies!), and we were given a pager and now told that they "were just setting our table up". So we go outside to wait as the bar is crazy crowded.

10 minutes pass. Lots of people are walking in and getting tables. We have not.

Another 10 minute pass. We see a Sino employee outside having a smoke (yuk). My sister goes in to check on our table. Once again the hostess tells her they are "just setting it up". We are concerned that their employees are too dumb to know how to set up a table, but were tricked by the word "just" and continue to wait.

10 more minutes pass. It is now 8:00 and mom is irritated and hungry. So my sister goes back in and comes out a few minutes later and tells us they are missing a chair (what???), but to bring us all in. So we all go in and continue to stand around the hostess desk for a few minutes, when my mom, miss prissy pants, decides to go up there and tell the hostess that it is inexcusable to have us wait 30 minutes when we had a reservation.

This is when it gets good. So then the hostess tells us they don't actually take reservations, that using Open Table is similar to calling ahead, and that you are basically behind all the people that have already put their names down. So once you get there, even though you have made a reservation, you still have to wait behind all the other people that arrived at the restaurant before you.

Okay, I want to repeat that. Sino does not take reservations. Using Open Table, an online reservation service does not mean you have a reservation. Even when the restaurant calls you the day before to confirm your reservation - which is exactly what they did. No where on their Open Table page does it say they don't take reservations. Confused? So were we.

So my mom asks to speak with the manager, who incidentally turned out to be the same guy we saw having a smoke out front (apparently his cigarette was more important then finding his customers a chair). He comes over with this totally patronizing, "What seems to be the problem? Your table is ready now." Umm yeah... over 30 minutes later. No thank you.

So we told them we were leaving.

My sister reiterated how stupid it was that they had someone call to confirm our reservation that apparently did not exist. He told us it will be "very hard" to find a table for 8 in Santana Row at that time. We didn't care. We left.

We all discussed and decided to call our local sushi joint, Furu-Sato, to see if they could seat us. They said not a problem, that they would set up the table right then. As soon as we walked in they all greeted us warmly, gave mom the royal treatment all night, and we were happy to give them our hundreds of dollars rather than Sino. As mom and dad said, it was meant to be.

And now I will tell everyone I know that Sino has probably the worst customer service of any restaurant I have ever been to and I will never go there again.

My New Obsession.

I had dinner with a friend in Palo Alto last night, and after our yummy noodle bowls from Zao, she suggested we go get some frozen yogurt. Of course I was up for it, but prepared myself for being let down, as I knew it wouldn't compare to Yummy Yogurt in Santa Clara. That place is seriously the bees knees.

So after our brisk walk down Emerson, we get to Fraiche Yogurt, and I am immediate in love. The decor is perfect. The staff was hip and helpful. And judging by all the Mac laptops - well, these were my people.

But it doesn't stop there. In fact, it only gets better. Like waaaaaay better. I should let them explain:

Fraiche is a homemade, organic fresh yogurt and frozen yogurt café located in downtown Palo Alto. All of our European-style yogurts are made from scratch, in-house using local Clover organic milk and a special probiotic-focused culture. Our fresh yogurts are the basis for our frozen yogurt. So, whether you feel like fresh or frozen yogurt, you'll still enjoy the same health benefits.

We believe in the goodness of pure, simple foods and that you shouldn't have to choose between "great tasting" and "good for you". We use only the finest ingredients to handcraft the most delicious yogurts and specialty toppings you can find. With our selection of fresh-cut fruits, local honeys and purees, toasted nuts, homemade granola, and hand-shaved Callebaut chocolate, we hope you have fun creating your own mouth-watering treat!

I think it goes without saying which topping I got on my soy froyo. And yes, it was as good as it sounds.

Actually, it's even better.

Check out this recent SF Chronicle article. And then go there. Fast. And bring me some.

Merry F'n Christmas

I'm trying really hard to stay in the holiday spirit. But there are so many a-holes in my universe that it makes it very difficult.

After a wonderful date night Saturday (the Cirque du Soleil show Kooza, enjoying the lights at Union Square, then dinner at Millennium), Mr. Johnson and I woke up Sunday ready to tackle a long list of to-do's. We spent the morning cleaning the house, did our Winter cleaning of the closet, then went out to run our errands.

First stop was Crossroads Trading Co., where we brought in FOUR bags of clothes and accessories. There was a line when we got there, so we looked around the store. We knew some of the stuff we brought in wouldn't be purchased, but once we started looking around, we knew quite a few would.

Looking around... looking around...Oh my gosh, I kid you not... LA GEARS. And not just any, but HIGH TOP LA GEARS. Okay, now I know they will be taking a bunch of our stuff.

So then it was our turn and the girl starts going through our stuff. Another employee - who hopefully was on her break - was trying on clothes and kept coming behind the register for her co-workers approval, which kind of bugged. A few minutes go by, then she calls me up. Did she really have time to go through all FOUR bags?

"Hi. I bought 2 of your items, for a total of $7.18."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Ya, those were the only things we'll be buying."

"Okay, I know I had some Old Navy stuff in there, but what about the Betsey Johnson dress, the four Urban Outfitters jackets, the Chanel sunglasses, or the Dior scarf? Or the polo shirts that had never been worn?"

"Ya, they weren't really the quality we look for."

But dirty-ass neon-pink high top LA Gears from 1991 are? I'm so confused. And why did I feel like this twenty year old was judging my fashion sense? My handbag cost more than her rent!

But I'm not vain like that (ya I am). We were offended for about 5 minutes, and figured we'd probably benefit more from the Goodwill tax write-off anyway. I'm sure there's some kind of science to having your clothes purchased there (probably should have separated out the Goodwill stuff), but I just don't have the time for that. I barely got around to cleaning out my closet - now I have to go through and determine what some wanna-be hipster thinks other wanna-be hipsters would want to buy? Not happening.

So we took our $7.18 and went to our next stop - Cost Plus.

We had to go to Cost Plus because a few weeks early I had bought some wine glasses, and the top of one of them looked like some kind of crazy weapon. Meaning it was totally jagged and you could definitely hurt yourself with it.

While Mr. Johnson looked for the glasses, I walked up to the register just as the salesperson was putting up her "Closed" sign. To which she looks at me and says, "I guess I'll help you first". Off to a great start. So I told her the deal, showed her the glass, and she told me to just go grab one out of another box and replace it with the lip-cutting one, and that they'll just give the next person that buys it a discount.

Ummm okay.

So I go and find another box (where the heck is my husband?) and go to replace the glass. But then I start having these visions of some grandma excited to take her first sip of Chablis, and as she puts it to her mouth she cuts her lip open, blood starts gushing out all over the place, and she has to spend the rest of the night in the emergency room.

Yeah, I can't do this.

I bring the deadly glass and the new box of glasses up to another register, at which point Mr. Johnson joins me. I tell the new sales person the deal. And she says, "Oh ya, these aren't the hand blown ones, they're factory made, so you'll have some defects."

Nice. For the second time today my purchases are questioned by some twenty-something. Don't judge me bitch. We have a mortgage and student loans.

"Well someone could seriously hurt themselves on this defect," Mr. Johnson sternly says.

"Oh yeah, you're right. I'll put this in the damages." Oh, so she'll listen to him. But then she wrote "Scary Broken Glasses" on the box and that made me smile. You have redeemed yourself.

Off to OSH, to buy a carpet cleaner. We're merrily on our way, over the fashion judgments of Crossroads and the near grandma-lip-cutting at Cost Plus.

I'm feeling the Christmas spirit again; I've got $7.18 burning a hole in my pocket. Things are good. I turn the radio to the holiday station.

<singing>
"Oh the weather outside is frightful..."

We're first in line at a stop light. I look over and see a panhandler holding a sign:

MONEY.
ARM.
ANY THINY WILL HELP.

Me: "Wait. What does that guys sign say?"
Husband: "I think he's trying to be clever. He only has one arm."

Now, usually I try to avoid any indication that I acknowledge a panhandlers presence. But I was so confused by this guys sign, I had to make sure I was reading it right. And I was. But it was too late.

He saw me looking.

So he starts to do a little dance with his sign, and we pretend we see something interesting on the other side of the road. You know, the "look over there!" routine.

We were not to be let off so easily. He starts to walk up to the car.

"I know you know how to read mother f***ing english."

Oh. No. He. Didn't.

Yes, yes I do know how to read "mother f***ing english", kind sir. But last time I checked "thiny" was not part of the english language.

<sigh>

So there you have it folks, a day full of Christmas cheer.

Epilogue

This story does have a happy (in somewhat roundabout way) ending.

Mr. Johnson received an email today from one of his colleagues that a friend suffered an apartment fire over the weekend. They unfortunately didn't have renters insurance, and 60% of their belongings were lost. As the fire happened near their closet, 90% of their clothes were lost.

The husband happens to wear the exact same size as mine. And the wife, although of normal size thus not fitting into any of my pigmy-sized clothes, will be pimping some Chanel sunglasses and Dior scarfs.

Thanksgiving is for Lovahs.

Well, Thanksgiving is over, and obviously from my lack of posts, I've been quite busy. So thought I would bring ya'll up to date!

First, Mom & Daddy came on Wednesday. Mom and I went for a hike, and came back to find Daddy nugglin' with the grandkids.

Then we had sushi for dinner. Daddy recognized that the server was Korean and started spittin' some Korea geography knowledge (No, my dad isn't Korean. He just knows everything about everything). He must have made an impression, as the husband and Daddy got some Kirins on the house. Not that this surprised me. Things like that happen to Daddy all the time.

Next day, Thanksgiving at Sissy and Keith's in Oakland.

First I made Tristan pose for me.

Renee made super yummy apps. Yum. Yum. YUM!

Keith took pictures. I took pictures of Keith taking pictures.

And Brother got kisses from Tristan.

Sissy did a Martha-riffic job of setting the table.

And here it is folks - the piece de resistance. Our first Tofurky!

Isn't it gorgeous??

Well it smelled like ass and tasted like nothing. Neither of us really cared for turkey when we were meateaters, so it was kinda destined for failure. Oh well. We tried. Next year just straight "tofu" minus the "rky". Thank goodness we had lots of these:

But everything else was wonderful, and I ate waaay too much. Dur.

So then the sun started to set, and made some bitchin shadows on the wall. Keith was jealous he didn't have his camera close by (and apparently walking up a flight of stairs is impossible after a Thanksgiving binge).

Game time! YAAAAAAAAAAAHTZEEEEEEEEEE!

Ahhhhhhh yaaaaaa. That was me biotches.

How my sister-in-law slept while we played Yahtzee I'll never know. Girlfriend was tired (or maybe drunk, but we'll just say she was tired).

And then Marie Claire proclaimed it was time for all of us to leave. "Out thee minions!"

To quote the great Ice Cube, "I gotta say it was a good day."

Friday was more eating and drinking and a 6 hour marathon of Rock Band. Papa Bear - AKA me (on vocals and bass), Mr. Johnson (on lead), Brother (on vocals and drums), Sissy (on vocals and bass) - made their first appearance in Campbell and rocked it. Keep an eye out. We're going to make it BIG. In our imaginary Rock Band world.

And then it was game night at our house Saturday night. Fun times. Lots more drinking and eating. Brother and I put together a puzzle of the Biltmore Estate - one of our NC summer vacation stops. Cat was not helping.

Mr. Johnson, Miguel, Chris, Steve, Amii, Nay, Jackson and Sarah all played Yahtzee. And apparently doodled.

Sunday was laying on the couch recovering. All day. It rocked.

And now here I am back to work and blah blah blahdiddy blah. Sad.

If Oprah likes it, it must be good.

So remember all that talk of work and school and the hubby - well kind of the reason why I haven't blogged much lately. Sorry about that. I'll try to sleep less.

Anywho - I couldn't sleep again on Saturday night. Surprise surprise. (I know, I should have been blogging, but I was in bed and my laptop was all the way downstairs. So there.) So as Mr. Johnson lay in a dead sleep next to me, I flipped between Jon Bon Jovi hosting SNL (I know, right?), and a replay of Oprah (I know, right?). Oprah won.

So what could tear me away from the acting genius that is Bon Jovi? Believe it or not, it was a cook book, Deceptively Delicious, on how to "sneak" vegetables into meals, specifically targeted towards kids.

I know this might seem like an odd intrigue for someone without kids, and well, a vegetarian (a lot her recipes include meat). But it was her main solution to sneak in the veggies that sucked me in: purees. And not only purees, but pre-packaged wonderful little colored bags of goodness. I'm known to prewash, cut and bag my veggies, so seeing this was like heaven! I think I may have to buy it for the spinach brownies alone. Oh wait, she posted the recipe on Oprah's site!

Brownies (with Carrot and Spinach)
Created by Jessica Seinfeld (yes, that Seinfeld),
From the book Deceptively Delicious
Makes 12 brownies

Brownies (with Carrot and Spinach) These brownies fool everyone! You won't believe how scrumptious they are (or how good they are for you) until you make them yourself. Just don't serve them warm—it's not until they're completely cool that the spinach flavor totally disappears.

INGREDIENTS

* Nonstick cooking spray
* 3 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
* 1/2 cup carrot puree
* 1/2 cup spinach puree
* 1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
* 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 2 Tbsp. trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread
* 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
* 2 large egg whites
* 3/4 cup oat flour or all-purpose flour
* 1/2 tsp. baking powder
* 1/2 tsp. salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Coat an 8" x 8" baking pan with cooking spray.


2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or over a very low flame.


3. In a large bowl, combine the melted chocolate, vegetable purees, sugar, cocoa powder, margarine and vanilla and whisk until smooth and creamy, 1 to 2 minutes.


4. Whisk in egg whites. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt with a wooden spoon.


5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into 12 bars.

Oprah couldn't stop eating these - although I don't know if that is a testament to the brownies or not.

I was also pleasantly surprised when I went to the book's website. Super super cute!

I like wine.

It's the most wonderful time of the year! That's right - BevMo's 5 cent sale!

I spent $60 and got 12 bottles. For all you non-dividing peeps, that's $5 a bottle. And all of them were 88 points or more (I'm not exactly sure that that means, but it sounds good, right?).

I suggest you get there quickly, before all that's left is crap (not that I could tell you what is crap or what isn't - hence me dependency on their point system). I also suggest placing your order online, as it will be waiting at the store for you. Seriously, one of the best marketing ideas ever.