Thursday, June 17, 2010

Pescatarian: Pesky or Pleasant?

Today was one of those efficient, get-things-done-days. I just love those.
I finished an application for a job I really, really want with my study abroad program. The experience is the pay, but I see that as invaluable right now, and I think I'd really enjoy and be good at it...fingers crossed!

Today was also a mix of new & old. The new:
Justin's Honey Almond Butter. The packs were on sale at WFs, so I figured, why not?

Trial #1:
1/2 Tbs on toasted sprouted bread with a bit of cinnamon + cinnamon apple jelly, and

Trial #2:
Pre-gym snack of 1 Tbs on a cracker.

The verdict? Well, I'd like to know where the honey was supposed to come in, I didn't taste it at all. I suspect it's one of those "you'd notice if it wasn't there" type of things. Still, it tasted like, um, almond butter. It had a bit of grit to it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I found it just lacking in flavor. Especially when compared to Barney Butter & Maranatha! Maybe it had to do with the packet - like it wasn't mixed enough? I got a Honey Peanut Butter packet too, so we shall see...

Newbie 2:
Nonfat Strawberry Chobani.
Sideways spoon test:
Fail. In more ways than one.
I really wasn't going to bother reviewing this - I figured, it's just another flavored Chobani, how different could it be? But it WAS! And not in a good way. The texture was not at all thick and almost a little gritty (?) - it was like eating regular yogurt. Maybe I got a bad cup or something, but I found it totally different from my Raspberry & Pomegranate experiences. The flavor was alright, but I was expecting something a little more worthy of its 1.50 price tag.

And the old:
Chips and dip, a la Gillianasana. For the chips, I used a very complex recipe: I took a cucumber out of the fridge and chopped it. I know...I'll go to great lengths for my chips. In all seriousness, cucumber & hummus is probably one of my top five go-to snacks. It's just a perfect combination - especially when it's garlic hummus!
My mom found this brand at WFs and since I've come home, I'm in looove:
This is probably the best garlic hummus I've ever had. It's so fresh and...well, garlicky!! And I don't think it's much more expensive than other brands, either. If you are a hummus lover and find this, definitely try it!!! It packs a serious flavor punch.

After a trip the gym with mia mama, we returned home to my dad - and a $25 gift card to Legal Seafoods. Legals is a major go-to restaurant in my family, because the quality of the food is unfailingly incredible. In fact, two years ago we started a new Christmas tradition: after opening presents, we go to an afternoon matinee movie and the an early dinner at Legal's. Recently a HUGE new mall was built in our town (where my beloved Whole Foods is - you have NO idea how excited I was) and with it came a biga$$ new Showcase Cinemas and a Legals. If and when I have to name a favorite restaurant (when we're talking the U.S. - otherwise I'd obviously name, um, all of Italy), I turn to Legal's. The seafood is always super fresh and they have these rolls that I little dream about. Golden and crunchy on the outside, doughy and sweet on the inside. And now, the one in my town serves them with this amazing herbed white bean dip that I absolutely must figure out how to duplicate. 

Anyway, the wait was a little long and I was stAHving, and after demolishing a roll, it hit me...I forgot LULU!! This is the 2nd time I have forgotten my camera going to a restaurant. SO annoying - and when my beautifully presented plate arrived, I almost cried. It may be silly, but 1) I know if i freak out about it enough, I will be much less likely to forget it next time, and 2) going to restaurants is one of my favorite things ever, and it's SO nice to share pictures of some professional, beautiful food every so often!

So, I will try to recreate it for you.
I ordered a medium-rare yellowfin tuna steak that looked much like this:
 +
A chickpea ragout that looked an awful lot like this:

It. was. AMAZING. Classic Legal, every bite was delicious. Seriously, this chickpea ragout blew me away. Whatever flavors the chickpeas were cooked in totally brought out their naturally buttery flavor and smooth texture and I was in legume heaven. It also was supposed to come with an arugula-pistachio salad in a blood-orange vinaigrette, but I saw a pitiful amount of arugula on my plate. The amazingness of the chickpeas and the tuna definitely made up for it, but the arugula was part of the reason I ordered it, so I was a little letdown. But as always, can't go wrong with Legals. Thank goodness my body is still ok with eating fish!

And on that note - I have mentioned it before, but I have noticed recently that the idea of eating animal meat is completely grossing me out. The mere thought of a piece of steak kills my appetite and chicken is making me gag. I am absolutely fascinated by it; I tend to eat mostly vegetarian anyway, just out of preference - I very rarely crave protein in general so the vegetarian options usually end up sounding more appealing - but I have never experienced this kind of innate disgust. Two years ago I gave up red meat for a year and found it incredibly simple and hardly noticed it, and confirmed what I already knew, that I just don't like red meat much anyway. But with my eating disorder in mind I'm careful about putting any foods "off limits", so I never felt the need to label myself. But BAM! Here I am. I'm toying with the idea of trying pescatarianism for a while, just to see what happens. Either way, I'm glad that I'm honoring my body by listening to it. Now I just need to work on listening when it's telling me to take the spoon out of the ice cream carton...

~Namaste~

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