Veggie Might: Wild Rice Salad with Edamame (or Fresh Fava Beans and Three Hours)

Written by the fabulous Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about all things Vegetarian.I’ve been so bored by my lunches of late: repeat appearances of grain-bean-green bowls, salad after endless green salad, and I’ve been looking for something new and exciting, but simple enough to make quickly or ahead in bulk. I was seduced by the photograph accompanying this recipe Wild Rice and Edamame Salad at Chow.com. Mmm...wild rice and edamame. So pretty! So healthy! So springy! But when I clicked through, the secondary and tertiary ingredients were woefully disappointing. Dried fruit and nuts? Five tablespoons of oil? Honey? So sweet! So oily! So blechy! (I probably hold the minority opinion here, but bear with me.)But I was inspired....

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Posted in: Sides,Vegan,Vegetarian,Veggie Might

Dietary Restrictions 101, Part II: Macrobiotics, Locavorism, and More

For the first half of our quick guide to dietary restrictions, head to Dietary Restrictions 101, Part I: Allergies, Diabetes, and Beyond. This article was originally published in November 2009.Being a LOCAVORE is an old concept with newfound popularity. It involves buying chow either grown or raised close to your geographic location. (A 100-mile radius is the most common parameter used.) Locavorism is better for the both the environment and your health, so you really can’t go wrong here. Call your CSA, man!For more on locavorism, try: La Vida Locavore (Really, the title alone deserves a click.)Do you know somebody on Atkins? Or Zone? Or, to a somewhat lesser extent, South Beach? Then you’ve encountered some of Earth’s most popular LOW-CARB...

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Dietary Restrictions 101, Part I: Allergies, Diabetes, and Beyond

This was originally published in November 2009. Part II to come later today.Maybe you’ve prepared a lovely pot roast dinner, only to discover one of your guests is a lifelong vegan. Perhaps you accidentally ordered chicken parmesan for a lactose-intolerant friend with poultry allergies. Or mayhaps your 13-year-old just announced she’s now a Slow Food-oriented locavore with dreams of going completely raw by sophomore year. At one point or another, we’ve all been confronted by dietary restrictions. Some, like vegetarianism, are commonplace enough that they don’t pose much of an obstacle anymore. But what do you feed someone on an elimination diet? Or a diabetic Mormon? Or a Muslim with Celiac Disease? What do these words even mean?Whether they’re...

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Ask the Internet: Dealing With Food Allergies?

Today's question is born of a full-body rash, and it's kinda many questions.Q: How do you deal with your food allergies? Do you cook mostly at home? Do you buy special food products? (In which case, which are your favorites?) What happens when you go out to eat? Do you alert the server or the cook? Do you find managing your allergy is an expensive undertaking? Is having it a pain in the butt, or do you barely think about it anymore?A: Still no idea about my own outbreak of hives, but I'm super curious to read how y'all cope, and I think I might turn responses into tomorrow's article. Fire away, and thank you!Want to ask the interweb a question? Post one in the comment section, or write to Cheaphealthygood@gmail.com. Then, tune in next Tuesday...

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Peanut Dipping Sauce: Allergies Unwelcome

Sweet readers! Thanks very much for being so patient with us last week while we got drunk on Jagermeister worked on work-stuff. It was fun doing the wayback recipe thing - I hadn't looked at some of those in quite awhile, and it made me want lassis.I had a different post set up for today, but instead, my entire body has been possessed by a zombie demon a nasty case of hives. So, instead of going to work and bringing home the bacon (mmm...bacon) like a boss, I'm sitting at HOTUS' computer, awaiting a swift and merciful end to my pain callback from the doctor. It's very exciting, unbelievably itchy, and also kind of weird, because this has never happened before, and I don't have any allergies, as far as I know. And now there's one on my face....

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Posted in: 15 Minutes or Less,Dips and Sauces,Vegan,Vegetarian

Wayback Machine: Chocolate Cherry "Ice Cream" Popsicles

Sweet readers, we're taking the week off to catch up on some real-life work. In the meantime, we're re-posting some of our favorite recipes and essays. This one, from Jaime, is from July 2010. Enjoy!When you're in the midst of a week of high-90s days, as New York City is now, it is very easy and tempting to have all meals catered by The Messrs Ben and Jerry.“There's no cooking,” you say. “I'm saving electricity and gas by not turning on my stove! And ice cream has dairy and protein and dark chocolate's antioxidants!” I can't find it in my heart to counter any of those arguments, mostly because ice cream is so dang delicious. But what's one of the cardinal rules of eating green? Make it yourself!Lucky for us, with our hotness, frugality,...

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Wayback Machine: Spaghetti Squash Casserole

Sweet readers, we're taking the week off to catch up on some real-life work. In the meantime, we're re-posting some of our favorite recipes and essays. This one is from November 2007. Enjoy!I’m turning 30 tomorrow. It’s the kind of age that brings up a lot of questions. Were my 20s spent wisely? Am I where I expected to be at this age? Why, after 90,000 days on this planet, do I still suck at buying bras? (Has Oprah taught me NOTHING?)Being a food blogger/freak, I’ve also wondered (a LOT) how much my tastes will continue to change. Will my palate dull over time? Will I hate candy at 40? Love anise at 55? Will Werther’s Originals ever, ever appeal to me, even when I’m old enough to call Methuselah a punk kid? (“Get off mah lawn, old man!”)My...

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Wayback Machine: Light Chicken and Mushroom Marsala

Sweet readers, we're taking the week off to catch up on some real-life work. In the meantime, we're re-posting some of our favorite recipes and essays. This one is from March 2008. Enjoy!One of my least favorite words in the English language is “moist.” I don’t like the way it slides off the tongue, stabbing it at the end with a sinister, pointy “t.” The sound squicks me out, like the feel of cheap velvet or foam rubbing against itself. What's more, “moist” makes even the most harmless utterances seem a little dirty. Lewd, even. I actively refrain from using it on a casual basis, especially when describing people. Because, let's face it: there's nothing creepier than, “Hey Bob, you look moist today."This aversion is unfortunate, partly because...

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Wayback Machine: Bruschetta Chicken Bake

Sweet readers, we're taking the week off to catch up on some real-life work. In the meantime, we're re-posting some of our favorite recipes and essays. This one is from November 2007. Enjoy!I realized recently, after four full months of blogging, that I’ve managed to make my Ma look like the culinary equivalent of the Miami Dolphins (painful to watch, drops the ball a lot, etc.). Really, she’s a pretty good cook. None of us were nutritionally deficient growing up, AND she managed to stay under budget, which was super-important for a young family of five in the lean times of 1981. (Stupid Reagan.) Somehow though, to the shock and awe of my friends and neighbors, she did this without ever cooking a casserole.I’m not sure how it happened. The...

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Wayback Machine: Baked Apples

Sweet readers, we're taking the week off to catch up on some real-life work. In the meantime, we're re-posting some of our favorite recipes and essays. This one is from March 2008. Enjoy!WOW. These Baked Apples are good. Let’s just start right there. Imagine an apple pie without the annoying crust part, and you pretty much have the idea. Dairy-free, virtually fat-free, and shockingly low in calories, they could be the perfect dessert for dieters. They're DEFINITELY the perfect dessert for lactose-intolerant vegan dieters.I made them twice in two days, and would have kept going if we didn’t run out of fruit. (Oh, cursedly weak upper arms, why can’t you hold more grocery bags?) In fact, I liked the recipe so much, I wanted to do a Letterman-esque...

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Wayback Machine: Spring Soup, So Many Ways

Sweet readers, we're taking the week off to catch up on some real-life work. In the meantime, we're re-posting some of our favorite recipes and essays. This one was written by Leigh last week. Blogger ate it during their 24-hour loss of service, so we're re-posting. Enjoy!New Yorkers like their soup. Just how much was a phenomenon unfamiliar to me when I moved here in the mid-’90s and found myself serving it by the bucket to insatiable Upper West Siders. Diners based their lunch orders on the soup du jour and were often despondent if told their favorites were off-menu or, even worse, sold out. It’s just soup, I would think, sometimes aloud to my fellow waitrons. But what did I know; I grew up eating soup from a can. Occasionally, my grandma...

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Posted in: Mains,Sides,Soups and Stocks,Vegetarian,Veggie Might

Wayback Machine: Oh, My Sweet Lassi

Sweet readers, we're taking the week off to catch up on some real-life work. In the meantime, we're re-posting some of our favorite recipes and essays. This one is from November 2007. Enjoy!In the two years following college, I lived semi-large with three ladyfriends in a medium-sized Brooklyn apartment. We had starter jobs, very little money, and an unnatural obsession with singing Jock Jams in Ross Perot voices. (Try it! It's fun.) We were also not very interested in cooking, except for K.Born in upstate New York, K was the only one who actually used our pots and pans. She bought things like “produce,” and “dairy products.” A few times, she whipped up this Saltine-butter-chocolate dessert that I can’t even think of without salivating all...

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Wayback Machine: Sublime Fruit Salad with Mint

Sweet readers, we're taking the week off to catch up on some real-life work. In the meantime, we're re-posting some of our favorite recipes and essays. This one was written by Leigh in June 2009. Enjoy!Fruit salad always seems like a good idea for picnics and barbecues. It’s beautiful; it’s summery; and unless it’s overrun with marshmallows and bananas (barf), it’s yummy. However, one thing you can count on when you take fruit salad to a party: you’ll be taking it right back home.You can be assured there will be no leftover cheese, no leftover guacamole. Crudités has slightly better odds if it is accompanied by a good dip, but fruit salad…unless there is just no other food, you’ll be eating it for breakfast the next few days.Unless you make...

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Wayback Machine: Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp - A Multiple Choice Quiz

Sweet readers, we're taking the week off to catch up on some real-life work. In the meantime, we're re-posting some of our favorite recipes and essays. This one is from April 2010. Enjoy!Please mark off the following questionnaire with a #2 pencil. Should that process begin to cause excessive damage to your computer, you may point to your answers onscreen.This dish seems familiar because:A) Déjà vu.B) Leigh posted a similar Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble less than a year ago, and Kris (that’s me) forgot to double check when she was making the recipe. Doy.C) It is your father.Rhubarb and strawberries are/is:A) Mellifluous.B) Almost in season, and natural sweet/tart compliments for each other.C) Peaches and Herb’s original name.The difference between...

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Wayback Machine: Easy Vegetarian Bean Chili - A Play in Two Acts

Sweet readers, we're taking the week off to catch up on some real-life work. In the meantime, we're re-posting some of our favorite recipes and essays. This one is from November 2008. Enjoy!When: Fall, 1986Where: A small suburban kitchen in Long Island, New York.Who: Kris, a precocious, bespectacled eight-year-old who is already four feet taller than every single one of her peers. L, a Barbie-loving, bespectacled seven-year-old who is already much, much better at sports than her sister Kris. E, a somewhat adorable five-year-old who is already becoming the terror of his sisters and the neighborhood bullfrogs alike. Pa, a bearded, loving 37-year-old who’s already running out of culinary options, having been left to feed his children while his...

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