Sunday Funday

Hickory Syrup

Actually, the Ravens lost so it was not a fun day.  But there is food to write about.  When driving through Virginia last year, we came across this hickory syrup harvested in Virginia.  It is flavored with vanilla and definitely has a hickory taste.  You would not mistake it for maple, yet it has a smokey satisfying sweet taste.  I used it this week on banana pancakes.

Banana Pancakes

The batter was made by mixing oats and almond milk in a blender, then adding banana, flour and baking powder. I topped them with chopped walnuts.

For dinner tonight we had a skillet meal of shallots, red bell pepper, jalapeno, roasted corn, broccoli, arugula and toasted cashews. A simple sauce of sherry and soy sauce was added and I sprinkled nutritional yeast on top.  Yesterday, we did a 6 mile walk on the BWI Loop.  Afterwards, we stopped on my favorite vegan restaurant - The Great Sage in Clarksville.

Black Bean Quesadilla

I started with a serving of a Black Bean Quesadilla with salsa on a soft corn tortilla. Tommy started with a Tomato and White Bean Soup.  We then split a Quinoa and Green Chili burger that we devoured so quickly, I forgot to take a picture.

Soup

For dessert I had a Chocolate Mousse Tart with granche and pomegranate seeds.  Yeah, this was good.

Chocolate Mousse Tart

Addicted to Results 5/4

Pistachios

Workout - Weekend Warrior Workout (WWW) - that one needs a new name
30 minutes treadmill - incline walk
Air Yoga

Fresh Orange Juice

Breakfast - Smoothie - Fresh Orange Juice, banana, soy protein powder and chia seed

Lunch - Chicken style Tofu Salad over mixed greens with a tomato and Everyday Vinaigrette (finished it off, that one lasted a long time)
Rice Crackers

Great crust

Dinner - At Iggie's Pizza.  Iggie's offers a unique variety of pizzas including vegan, vegetarian and gluten free.  I had a small Vegetable Solo which had a tomato sauce base topped with artichoke hearts, spinach, garlic, roasted red peppers and onions with balsamic vinegar.  I also munched on some pistachios from Tommy's canoli.  We also split a bottle of wine.

Snack - Waterstone Bar and Grille.  Tommy and I split a appetizer plate that consisted on red bell pepper hummus, dolmades, falafel, feta (Tommy ate that), olives, roasted red pepper and toasted pita bread.  I had a pomegranate martini and a glass of wine.

Fun Day

Green Smoothie

Tommy took Wednesday off work and we made it into a fun day.  First, the dogs went to daycare and grooming. We love taking them places, but it is much more relaxing without them mooching.  We started out at the Agora Market which is part of the Inn at the Black Olive.  I had a green smoothie made from kale, spinach, banana, strawberries, green tea and cocoa. I did take a cue from the dogs and mooched a piece of whole wheat toast and some apricot jam. The weather was perfect and we sat outside sipping tea and coffee for a while. The menu at the Agora Market is very vegan friendly.  At lunch there are a variety of salads and sandwiches for the vegan.  There is even a Woody Salad named after Woody Harrelson who stayed in the Inn while filming a mini series.

For lunch I finally got to try Liquid Earth which is a vegetarian/vegan restaurant in Fell's Point.  I had a pulled tofu BBQ sandwich and an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie.  The food was great.  There was a very interesting crowd.  You would expect a lot of the hippie type and there were a few.  Most of the customers were business people in suit and tie.  Everyone is this group were buying juices.  There is a very large juice culture around.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

After some shopping, we headed to the bar at Wit and Wisdom in the Four Seasons.  We have chilled here quite a few times. However, this was the first time since I started my vegan adventure.  I am glad I was not hungry because there was nothing on the bar menu I could eat.  I am sure that if we were in the main restaurant they would make something for me, but for some chill out time at the bar there was nil.  Luckily, we had just come to drink.  We started with a half bottle of a Gavi.  Then I had a glass of the Oliver LeFlaive white burgundy.

Gavi

The next stop was to the Landmark Theater to watch the new GI Joe film. The 3D version was the only one available during our time frame. It is hard to say if I like the film or not because I was so annoyed with the 3D aspects of the film It was impossible to tell what was happening during a fight scene.  There were several scenes with people sitting at a table.  All you say was a large blurry shoulder blocking the screen.  It felt like you were watching the film with someone sitting in front of you blocking your view. the theater showed 3D trailers as well.  I have seen the one for Star Trek into Darkness before.  The 3D version was awful. It was hard to discern the actors and the action.  That is a film that I will see in regular format.  I hope this 3D trend ends soon.

Post film, we picked up the dogs and feed them. We had a little down time to get over the headaches that we both had from the 3D format.  Next was a trip to our neighborhood favorite place, Jack's Bistro.  Jack's has been here for 5 years and has always been fabulous.  They have a new bartender that is a cocktail specialist who also makes his own bitters.  I had one called the Hindenburg that was citrus and had some sparkling wine.  For the meal I had the Bondi Dahl.  This is a regular item on the menu, but Ted, the chef, changes the style from time to time.  This one was Moroccan in style with a curry sauce and lots of veggies. It was served over rice with pita bread.  We had a white Rioja with the meal.

Odds and Ends

Fruit smoothie

Tommy and I have been out on the town quite a bit lately.  Monday started with a smoothie at home. This one was made with cranberry juice, lime juice, frozen raspberries, almonds, rice milk and ground flaxseed.

Salad and hummus

Lunch was a simple salad of mixed greens, tomato, sunflower seeds, dried apricots and nutritional yeast with avocado dressing.  I had some hummus and carrots on the side.  At dinner, we went to Chesapeake Wine Company for a tasting of Domaine Pierre Matrot of Bourgogne.  We tasted the 2011 that will in the store in a few months plus a few 2010's to contrast them with. Our favs were the Meursault-Blagny 1er Cru, Puligny-Montrachet Les Chalumeaux 1er Cru, Monthelie 2010, and Blagny la Piece sous le Bois 1er Cru. These will go into the cellar for a few years.  While tasting I had a house salad and bread.

After the tasting, we were a little hungry and stopped by Fork and Wrench for a cocktail and snack. They have great cocktails, but the food choices were almost non existent.  The only thing I could eat were the parsley fries.  They were awesome, but a bit heavier for that time of night and the order was huge.

The bar at Fork and Wrench

  Tuesday started out with a whole wheat bagel and peanut butter at THB bagels.  The weather was gorgeous and the dogs joined us on the patio. At lunch we went to Tavern on the Square. I did the half salad and half sandwich special.  The salad was roasted pear with pecans and a balsamic glaze.  The sandwich was a roasted vegetable panini made with zucchini, eggplant, red peppers and onion.

Tavern on the Square 

We had dinner at home.  It was a mix of leftover ingredients.  I sauteed the veggie mix of mushrooms, carrots, onions, and celery with some kidney beans and pickled beets.  I added some nutritional yeast and seasoned it with soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce.  We had some garlic green olives on the side.

A nice French pear cider accompanied the meal.

Easter Weekend

Started having juice meals again, this time with vegetables that will not make me sick. Breakfast was a safe and flavorful mix of 2 apples, fennel, and 3 carrots.  It was also one of those rare juices that was not green.

Lunch was a mix of spinach, watercress and 3 carrots. This was a major juice fail. The watercress has an unbelievably strong taste to it.  It is very bitter.  I tried cutting it with sparking water, but it did not help much.  I went through a liter of water and still had not finished the juice. I will not use watercress in a juice again.

Since the weather was nice on Saturday, we decided to take a walk into Fell's Point with the dogs.  We settled in at Bond Street Social  Which has a huge out door seating area.   One of the specialities of the bar are liquid nitrogen martinis.  Liquid Nitrogen is poured on top of the drink which becomes extremely cold and it 'smokes' as it evaporates.  I had the New Fashioned made with Grey Goose Cherry, muddled orange and cherry, bitters and lemonade. Great drink. The food menu is not very vegan friendly.  I had the curry chickpeas which are side and thought that maybe I could mash them into a hummus and spread on some bread.  When I asked if they had baguettes or pita the waitress said "no".  While I was eating the very spicy beans, I saw an order of mussels come out with long slices of toasted baguette.  So much for accommodating your customers.  I would have paid extra for the bread.

After we left, we walked back to Canton and hung out at our favorite water hole, Chesapeake Wine Company.  I had the tapenade and roasted pepper salad with baguette slices.  After the chickpeas, that was enough for my evening meal.  Tommy and I split a bottle of Rose as we sat outside until close to sunset and the temperatures dropped.

For my breakfast juice I made a pineapple, spinach and lime drink. This was much more pleasant tasting.  Today, I ate a brunch and returned to the juice for dinner.  I made a bottle of orange juice and a liter of soda water. We also had a Pouilly Fuisse wine. I made a simple cocktail mixing the three liquids which made a nice light juice cooler.  If only the weather had been nicer for sipping.

I did a Tofu Scramble for the meal that was made with asparagus, chives and nutritional yeast.  It really does look like scrambled eggs.  The turmeric gives it that look.

An Easter brunch is not complete without homemade biscuits.  These were made using Earth Balance and rice milk in place of butter and heavy cream.  They were very light and flaky.  I spread some leftover lemon curd on mine.

Dinner was back to the juice.  Tonight's was made from a head of romaine, kale, a lime, cilantro and 2 apples.  It is sort of weird making juice from lettuce.  However the taste was good, which is the most important thing.  I also found myself more full today by having the food meal during the middle of the day.

Cafe Zen

For my Sunday lunch, I had a salad plate.  A mix of romaine and spinach was topped with endame and some carrots and hummus.
For dinner we met with 14 of our friends and their children at Cafe Zen in the Belvedere Square area.  It was St. Patrick's day, so a Chinese Restaurant was the obvious choice.  These were folks that had attended the salon at house during a 5 year time frame.  I brought my camera to take pictures of the food and totally forgot to take pictures of the people. Cafe Zen had a lot of vegan choices which was great.  I started with the Vegetable Dumplings that were steamed.The dough was nice and chewy and reminded me of pasta.

For the main course, I had the Vegetable Green Bean Rolls.  These are considered a speciality of the house. These are deep fried and very crunchy.  The order was huge and I took half of it home.  I would the restaurant 3 of 5 stars.  Solid food with a good variety of vegan choices.

For breakfast, I am continuing to experiment of different smoothies.  This one was oat milk, frozen blueberries, frozen banana, almonds, cinnamon and cocoa.  Anytime banana and cocoa are in a smoothie, it was a rich taste.   This one was made in the food processor and had a soft serve ice cream texture.  It was like having dessert for breakfast.

 For lunch I used leftover spring roll filling inside a pita pocket with spinach.  For dinner I broiled some tempeh with BBQ sauce and mixed it in with quinoa cooked in vegetable stock.  I made another serving of Crispy Kale. If you are keeping score, that is the third bunch of kale this period.  This time I used red kale coated with olive oil and lemon juice and sprinkled with garlic powder.  The lemon just evaporated off and did not leave a taste.  

Keeping Tabs

She hates having her picture taken

  Last week I forgot to bring my camera when we had an early dinner at Pazo.  We will have to go back soon because the Cava Battered Cauliflower is awesome and needs to be documented.  I also discovered that the NY Times has a vegan section.  There was a slideshow on restaurants in Southern California that were omnivore but had serious vegan sections on their menus.  Some of the items looked awesome.  That is what Baltimore needs more of,  restaurants that  actively cater to both meat and non-meat eating customers.

I started the week off with a simple breakfast of brown rice cakes with almond butter and apples.  I bought a pre-made almond butter with some maple syrup in it.  Really good.  It had a smoother texture that the grind yourself kind and a nice touch of sweetness.

I plan on eating a lot of sweet potatoes in the coming week. This lunch was seasoned dry tofu and baked sweet potato with a cumin sauce.  On the side was a Tomato Cucumber Salad with Cranberry Dressing.

Dinner was also simple fare.  Spicy Black Beans and Quinoa and some Crispy Kale. I used the dinosaur kale for the first time.  I coated it with sesame oil and soy sauce and sprinkled on  some salt, garlic powder and onion powder.  For a snack I had toast and hummus.

Because the food was more simple, I was to tally a calorie count and composition list.  I want to make sure that I am getting a proper nutritional mix.  My calories were 1500 for the day. The other breakdown

Fat          44.9 g  31%
Carb     187.1 g  55%
Protein   50.7 g   15%

I want at least 50 g of protein daily, so I was right on target.  My fat percentage was too high, the sesame oil and a big contributor to that.  I will try to use less oil with the kale.

Date Day

Monday was a date day for Tommy and I. We started out with breakfast at Lamill Coffee in the Four Seasons.  They have a great selection of coffee and teas.  The vegan food selection is very limited. I had a fruit cup that was cantaloupe, honeydew, and pineapple.  That was it for the menu.  They serve an English Muffin sandwich with egg, so I asked for a plain toasted English muffin with some jam. It is the Four Seasons, they will accommodate you.  We should have gone to Wit and Wisdom because they have a few more options according to the website such as oatmeal (as long as it is not made with milk) and bagels.

For lunch we went to one of my favs, Sticky Rice in Fell's Point.  This is one of the few places I can go and have multiples choices on the the menu.  For an appetizer we split the Fried Teriyaki Mushrooms.  The mushrooms were marinated in a teriyaki sauce and lightly tempura fried with a Sweet and Sour Sauce for dipping. For the main course I had the Dirty Vegan.  This was tofu and buckwheat noodles tossed with a peanut coconut sauce and broccoli, peppers, and onions.

During the late afternoon we went horseback riding at Happy on Hooves.  This was a beginners trail ride for an hour.  This is only the 3rd time I have been on a horse.  My horse, Sadie, was likes to lag behind the group then sprint to catch up.  Oh wonderful.  I get the horse whose ideal rider is adventurous.  I guess I am,   Sadie and I did fine.  The faster trots were fun and by the end I was able to stop her from doing that.

Dinner was the same as last night - salad and pasta with marinara sauce.  No chocolate bar. Before dinner I had some Basignani Merlot.  It was okay, but a bit green on the end.

During the afternoon we found out that Tommy's Uncle Pat died in Mississippi.  He was medical doctor that had practiced in Macon, MS until we was 70.  Pat was 86.  Our thoughts are with the family.

Ra Sushi

We had lunch today Ra Sushi in Harbor East. I was hoping a Japanese inspired restaurant would have several vegan options.  They really did not have  that many.  Several vegetable appetizers are cooked in garlic butter.  I am thinking that is not very authentic. I started with a Strawberry Sakitini.  Sake is used in place of the vodka.  I am not a big sake fan, but I thought the strawberry might over power the sake taste, it didn't.  If you like sake, this might work for you.

For the an appetizer, I had the Miso Soup.  It tasted like it was made with a chicken broth.  That is okay for me, because miso has a lot of good health qualities.  The soup was very tasty once I got to eat it. The bowl was not very stable and my first bowl was dumped on the table and floor before I had any.  Tommy had a shrimp appetizer that was in an unstable dish that kept tipping over.  Function should outweigh aesthetics at a restaurant.

I had some grilled vegetables next.  They were are mix of sweet potatoes, asparagus, onions, bell peppers and Japanese eggplant. I had eaten most of the dish before I remembered to take the picture.

I finished off with the Tempura Vegetable Sushi.  This was very nice with a mix of sweet potato, asparagus and eggplant for the filing.