Day 34 Or... Thankful

As I being the final week of this experiment, I just want to go ahead and say a quick thanks.

Thanks for reading this blog. I recognize that most of my readers are friends, family members, and my students, but also there are actually a few strangers that have stumbled their way here. Wherever you fit along that spectrum, thanks for taking the time to follow me on this journey and for being so supportive thus far.

And speaking of thanks... Thanks to another good friend and faithful reader, we were loaned a copy of "Moosewood Restaurant: Low Fat Favorites." The Moosewood Collective has authored some of the most successful vegetarian cookbooks in history. Moosewood is also an award-winning restaurant in New York state that was called "one of the thirteen most influential restaurants of the 20th century" by none other than "Bon Appetit" magazine.

A quick look through the cookbook has revealed lots of recipes that I want to try. I didn't even know where to start first. I decided that tonight I should make either Caribbean Stew or Bakes Potato Cakes with Mango-Peach Chutney. But, I couldn't decide between the two of them. So, I let my Facebook friends vote and after about 10 votes came in, the consensus was to try the Caribbean stew... new recipe #15. You can find the recipe in the cookbook I mentioned earlier. [If you'd like for me to write out the entire recipe, I can later, just leave me a comment.]

The recipe was a wonderful mix of some admittedly unusual ingredients: Sweet potatoes, chopped onions, allspice, thyme, tomatoes, lemon juice, chiles, cilantro, kale, and zucchini. The recipe claimed that it would "fill the kitchen with a heady, tropical aroma" and that was certainly true for me.

Something about a simple mix of the onions, the thyme, and the allspice really embodied the stereotypical scents of Caribbean cuisine.

I hadn't had kale before and, while it was certainly my least favorite part of this dish, it did help to hold everything else together.

Each bite was something a little different. You'd get a bite that had some spicy heat, a bite that was quite sweet, a bite with semi-crunchy zucchini and kale, a bite of soft sweet potatoes, etc.


In fact, I'm not sure my words, especially my words written this late at night, can do it justice.


- What did I eat on Day 34?

Breakfast. Now that I think about it, I rushed out the door without eating breakfast. Shame.
Lunch. Carolyn and I ate the rest of the leftover pasta.
Dinner. We thoroughly enjoyed the Caribbean stew. I'm actually even looking forward to the leftovers. By far, it's been one of the best things I've consumed during the past 34 days!

34 days down. 6 days to go!