EAT Everyday: Healthy Wednesdays

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Healthy Wednesdays

Look! White peaches peeking out!

This morning, I went to the Santa Monica Wednesday farmers market to buy my vegetables for the week. I didn't really have a specific grocery list; I just wanted to check out what was new and in season and take inspiration from there. Spring is here! I saw first signs of cherries and peaches, and tomatoes, strawberries, asparagus, and corn were at multiple stands. The warmer weather and variety of new fresh produce is making me in the mood for some "lighter" cooking, so I bought ingredients for lots of salads and more:

Butter lettuce from the Japanese vegetable vendor, avocado and grapefruit
Italian salad mix from Maggie's Organic Herb Farm (includes arugula, mizuna, and a red leafy green), organic fava beans (dinner tonight! I'm making a simple salad with fava beans, fresh lemon vinaigrette with goat cheese and almonds)
My summer staple: a variety of small tomatoes from Gloria's Vegetable Stand, good for salads or pastas
Some baby spinach from Maggie's Organic Herb Farm (unfortunately they were out of arugula); maybe I will make another spinach pizza
Organic asparagus, to be chopped raw for a salad or pureed for soup or as a topping for pizza
Organic squash

I bought some of these, but not sure how to peel them, even if they only have 1 peel

I see cherries! Despite being the first of the season, they weren't bad, but I'd still wait a bit longer

I love lilacs (some of Mom W's favorite flowers too)

The rounder yellow ones are my faves, so sweet. The red are more acidic and the yellow oblong ones are a little too mild. I could eat the entire bowl though, just like this!

Goodbye winter (last remnants), see you next year and please don't hurry back

After the farmer's market, we stayed on the healthy bandwagon and went to Real Food Daily, an organic vegan restaurant for lunch. Now, I've always been skeptical of not only vegetarian food, but particularly of vegan food, as I can't imagine life without meat or cheese. However, I decided to give this place a shot after S. brought some amazing vegan oatmeal cookies on our Mammoth ski trip. I don't usually even like oatmeal cookies, but these were great. For lunch, we ordered vegan "crab" cake, Not-chos (tortilla chips, melted cashew cheese, black beans, pico de gallo, guacamole, tofu sour cream), and the club sandwich (Seitan, tempeh bacon, avocado, lettuce, tomato, vegenaise, sourdough bread) with acai berry iced tea. I have to say, the food was really good! I particularly enjoyed the "crab" cake, which had lots of interesting spices, textures and flavors, and the club sandwich, which was hearty and well-balanced (and I really liked the tempeh bacon). The not-chos were also very good, tasted just like the real deal, but it was just such a large plate that I got tired of it after awhile. My only gripe is that it is expensive (I know it's organic, but there's no meat!); it was over $50 for two people, although we did have some leftovers. I will be back however; I'm going to try and convince K. to come with me. I have a bunch of work to do this afternoon, but I hope to make it to an early evening yoga class to complete my healthy Wednesday! (update: did not make it to yoga, hopefully will Thursday morning)