Tonight I’m going to review a few products from Rice Dream and some recipes I found. In The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone she raves about her weakness, mint ice cream pies by Rice Dream. So last time I was at Mother’s Market I picked one up and a chocolate one. While there I also saw the “Nutty Bar” that Rice Dream also makes, so I got that as well.
My sister has been asking me about the recipes that I cooked out of The Kind Diet, and I have been wanting to do this post for a long time, so here it is. I recently have become interested in eating better and that has led me to reading up on the subject. One of the first books I read was Food Matters.
Then later I watched Food, Inc., A very disturbing documentary about where our food (American’s) comes from. After that movie, you could say I was on my way to at least trying to eat more vegetarian food and a lot less meat and dairy. Being lactose-intolerant makes the decision really easy. When I looked at some vegan recipes I was ecstatic because they were good for me and none of them contained any dairy. These revelations lead me to the book by Alicia Silverstone called The Kind Diet.
The book has her thoughts on kind and “nasty” food in the beginning and then the last 3rd of the book is vegan recipes. So far I have tried about three of them. Here they are:
This is actually two recipes. Rustic Pasta on page 147 and Pecan-Crusted Seitan. What’s seitan you say? Well in this recipe it is like a meat ball, but in the book it looks like a pork chop. All depends on the size of Seitan you can find I guess.
Seitan (pronounced “say-tan”) is a meat alternative.
Wheat gluten, also called seitan, wheat meat, Mock Duck, gluten meat, or simply gluten, is a food made from thegluten of wheat. It is made by washing wheat flour dough with water until all the starch dissolves, leaving insoluble gluten as an elastic mass which is then cooked before being eaten. [wikipedia]
Back to the recipe, the rustic pasta was easy to make and didn’t really need in alternations. The seitan, needed a lot though! The first time I made it I just followed the directions. It makes a ton, and I mean at least 3 times as much as you need for the marinade. At least for the 16 ounces, two packages of seitan that I bought. then of course the breading was WAY too much as well. If you buy the packaged seitan buy at least four packages, 8 ounces each unless your going to alter the recipe. The finished seitan was VERY hearty. I could only eat about four of them.
From the Kind Diet I also made the Polenta Casserole with Seitan on page 223. For this I just bought some fake chicken at Trader Joe’s. It didn’t say seitan, but I was having a hard time finding it at the time (its not sold everywhere), so I found this stuff and thought it would work. I was right it did, but there is one alternation that I need to make next time I make this dish. It called for a ton of water to be added, 5 cups! You can find seitan sold at Whole Foods. I found Polenta at Ralphs where the pasta is.
But if you use polenta that is packaged with water (like above) you don’t need that much water. I would say cut it in half. Well, that is it. I’ll let you know if I try anything else from the book. I did buy the book because I liked it so much. I recommend reading it and I am looking forward to making more of the recipes out of it.
Image credit for polenta tube: dissonance
Image credit for the box of seitan: phil_g
This year I read 14 books. My goal was 12, so I’m happy that I met my goal, but I would really like to have read more. It’s all about how much time you have though I guess. And how much time you are willing to spend reading instead of spending time on the Internet or watching TV. Below are the books I read ordered by the date (ascending) I read them and what I thought of each:
1. Middlemarch by George Eliot Buy on Amazon.com
4 out of 5
I did enjoy this book eventhough many modern readers would point out that it is very slow. It is not a short read at 880 pages. I used this character map I found on the Internet and found it very helpful! However, I listened to this book, for free and legally, via librivox. This was a very interesting way to experience the book. Some readers were obvisouly better than others. Some I even had a hard time understanding. There are about 17 different readers over the 86 different chapters. Each chapter is a separate download. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it with the caviotes that I mentioned earlier. I would also recommend Librivox and would use it again.
2. The Pirate Queen: The Story of Grace O’Malley, Irish Pirate by Alan Gold Buy on Amazon.com
4 out of 5
It shouldn’t surpise anyone who knows me that I enjoy reading history. After all, I do have a podcast all about histiry, which I hope to get back to in 2010. The first thing I should mention about The Pirate Queen: The Story of Grace O’Malley, Irish Pirate by Alan Gold, is that it is a fictional piece. However, please be aware that the books language is not for the fainted hearted. The strong language was a major turn off for me. The other warning I will give, is the book sometimes reads more like a romance novel than anything else. All in all, I would say that you should read this book, if you are at all interested in female pirates or history. I did enjoy the novel, despite the strong language and minor love scenes.
3. Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes by Mark Bittman Buy on Amazon.com
4 out of 5
Pretty good. The book is divided into two parts. The first part is about how we (Americans) got so fat and how eating the “Food Matters” way will help the environment and help you lose weight. The second half is 77 recipes to help you eat better. I really enjoyed the first half of the book. I looked through the recipes in the second half, but didn’t see anything that screamed out cook me! I wanted this book to be more than it was, so I guess I was let down. Anyone have something better?
4. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter Buy on Amazon.com
2 out of 5
By this point your porbably wondering if I give anything other than a 4 out of 5, well here it is. I couldn’t even finish this. Everytime I picked it up I wanted to put it down. A complete waste of time for me. I guess I’m just not an intellectual reader, cause this bored the begees out of me! I was looking for a fun stimulating read. This did not fill the bill. Felt like homework.
5. Your Baby’s First Year (Second Edition) by American Academy Of Pediatrics Buy on Amazon.com
4 out of 5
This is closer to a 5 than a 4 really. Best baby book I have read yet. We got this from our pediatrician. I started reading it right away. It has great detail on ages 0 – 6 months, then strangely lumps months 6-12 together. Would have liked the same detail in those months as the first 6. The last third of the book is all the depressing diseases and illnesses that babies get. Good book to keep as a resource if any of those things should happen. *knocks on wood*.
6. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Buy on Amazon.com
3 out of 5
My boss at work intorduced my to Gladwell’s writings with a few chapters of Outliers. This book is a great “thinkers” book. Filled with great idea and examples. Gladwell certainly did a lot of research for this book and I can really appreciate that. I think he did a great job with this book. I would recommend this (and all of Gladwell’s) book.
7. The Hunger Games (Hunger Games, #1) by Suzanne Collins Buy on Amazon.com
5 out of 5
That’s right a perfect score! 5 out of 5! This was a great book, but more inportantly I’m happy I read it because I was introduced to the triliogy of books. Later this year I would read Catching Fire, which was wait for it.even better. This book is a must since it is the first in the triliogy. I doubt you will be dissapointed it has a 4.56 on Goodreads currently.
8. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell Buy on Amazon.com
4 out of 5
Another good one from Gladwell. Not as engrossing as Outliers, but defiently worth reading.
9. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell Buy on Amazon.com
4 out of 5
Best out of the three (blink, tipping point and outliers). This is the book that started it all for me. This is a must read. I found it very interesting.
10. The Intellectual Devotional: American History: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class by David S. Kidder, Noah Oppenheim Buy on Amazon.com
5 out of 5
A gift from my firend Melissa, this was a great book! Very enjoyable. It did take me a while to read it. It does not lend itself to long sittings of reading as each story is only one page long. However, this may also be the best part about the book. No matter how much time I had to read I could always finish at least one story. Great topics!
11. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift Buy on Amazon.com
4 out of 5
I’m just about the only person I know who didn’t read this book in grade or high school. This is the first book I read on the iPod Touch. I would read another book on that device too. I enjoyed this novel and am disappointed I did not get the chance to read it when I was much younger. There will be a pop-quiz after reading this book.
12. Shogun: A Novel of Japan by James Clavell Buy on Amazon.com
5 out of 5
Another perfect score! I really loved this book. Ever since I saw the made for tv mini series, I’ve wanted to read the book. This is another book that I didn’t read but instead listened to, however, I didn’t use Librivox. Great book, in the top three out of these 14 listed.
13. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li Buy on Amazon.com
5 out of 5
Read this for a social media class I took. Great read, I highly recommend for anyone in a leadership position of any size company. Also, great for anyone just interested in social media. Really well written!
14. Catching Fire (Hunger Games, #2) by Suzanne Collins Buy on Amazon.com
5 out of 5
GREAT BOOK! Can’t believe it but, I think it was better than the first! I wish I could say make this the one book you read this year, but you really should read the first book Hunger Games and this book! The Hunger Games: Book 3 will be release August 2, 2010.
Currently Reading:
1. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs Buy on Amazon.com
So far this book is a little slow, but very interesting insight into a slaves life. It is non-fiction and I’m reading it on my ipod touch.
2. My Point…And I Do Have One by Ellen DeGeneres Buy on Amazon.com
I once listed to The Funny Thing Is… on a long road trip and enjoyed it. So when I saw this book outside the local library for $0.25, I bought it. So far, it is as funny or funnier than The Funny Thing is…
This is a call for your vegetarian recipes. Please email me or post your favorite vegetarian recipe in the comments section below. Once the comment is approved it will appear. Michelle has recently taken more of an interest and I have always wanted to eat less animal products. Substitutions are welcome. For example, being lactose intolerant, I often eat cheese substitutes.
Image from Flickr User: museinthecity
About 3 or 4 months ago we cancelled our cable. Not because we are hippy luddites, but because we spend all our time playing with Samantha when we are home. We couldn’t justify paying $70 for cable anymore. So we canceled it. I still watch all the TV shows I did before: Eureka, Family Guy, Flash Forward, Fringe, Heros, Lost, Sanctuary, The Simpsons, SG-U, and Warehouse 13. Even the NHL has some games on Hulu and sometimes they are on Yahoo Sports. When we watch Hulu content, we hook up our Apple laptop to our TV via a cable I got from monoprice. To make everything even easier we use a free program called Plex. Plex can also be used to view Netflix, YouTube and pretty much anything online or any video you already have on your computer. Its a great application.
Recently, my wife and I have been talking about getting cable again so we can watch the Olympics. Paying $70 a month so we can watch maybe 5 hours of Olympics a week did not sit well with me though. Then I saw a great deal on a DTV antenna at monoprice. So I picked it up. It was only $15 shipped so I figured any channels that it got would be a big plus. Its back to its regular price now. Had I not been a fan of monoprice.com on Facebook I would have missed the sale.
After installing the antenna literally like 2 minutes! We got 66 channels. Mostly foreign language channels. But we do get CBS, NBC, KTLA and like all the PBS stations. Including HD channels. So now we don’t have to order cable just to watch the Olympics. We save $70 plus on cable every month now! Anyone who wants to save a little cash, should really consider doing this. If anyone has any questions please feel free to post them in the comments and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
10 Celebs Who Worked at Disney:
1. Steve Martin
2. Teri Garr
3. John McEuen
4. Michelle Pfeiffer
5. Alyson Reed
Read the whole thing at mental_floss.
Facebook!
Read the whole c|net article on Facebook.
Continue reading Cool Stuff I Found Online…and wanted to share with you
Tonight when I came home from work there was a helicopter flying over our neighborhood. So I went online and searched the usual places for news: OC Register and Google News. When they turned up blank I went to Twitter. I found that my local police department had a twitter account so I sent them a message.
As of this post I have yet to receive a response. I then did a search in twitter with the keyword “irvine”. This turned up a lot of tweets on the concert tonight. But weeding through that mess I found some people were actually talking about all the police activity in Irvine.
I checked the radio, nothing. Saw the ABC 7 chopper in the air, so I asked them what’s going on and they still have not replied either. Back to my search:
This twitter user actually was notifying the OC Register, to what was going on. Still nothing on their twitter account yet.
Possibly the most exciting tweet of the ones I saw tonight about the action. But still no answers. Things get even more interesting with this next tweet:
This was the apex of the action this evening. Later I saw:
That seems to be the end of it. As of this posting I have not seen anything more about the police activity in Irvine. I did call the Irvine police department’s non-emergency line. They said they have detained someone, and everything is ok now. Then the operator said she had 80,000 other calls and had to go.
The experiments outcome? Twitter provided more information to me than any other medium when the action was actually happening. Nothing was on TV, or the major networks websites. The twitter accounts like the Irvine Police, OC Register, etc, did not have anything about the events that were unfolding in my city. The lesson I learned tonight? Twitter is great for instant information, but the whole story cannot be told in 140 characters. I look forward to reading about whatever it is that happened tomorrow morning.
This has been a great experiment for me, especially since I begin my Social Media class next week at UCI. Of course, the class is online!
UPDATE: Irvine Police Tweet and post press release. This was VERY close to our house. I’m glad everything was resolved and no one was hurt. I think it is very cool that the IPD tweeted this!
Truly, awesome images at Out of Ruins website.
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
rating: 3 of 5 stars
A great “thinkers” book. Filled with great idea and examples. Gladwell certainly did a lot of research for this book and I can really appreciate that. I think he did a great job with this book.