When Dan and I spend the day together we always seem to manage to buy things I don’t need but want. He is such a bad influence, but I love it. All I have to do is look at something and he says, “If you want it get. It is only money and life is short”. What this means is yesterday somehow turned into a me day. We stopped at the bookstore and bought a few mores books (just what I need). I added a Japanese cookbook to my collection, “Clean Food” by Terry Walters, and “Thrive Vegan Nutrition Guide” by Brendan Brazier. I have skimmed them all, and they look great, but I need to properly read them before I can say for certain.
After the bookstore we stopped at Tuesday Morning. That store can be really dangerous. Sometimes they have nothing, and other times it is the opposite. I picked up a bunch of organic tea, in a variety of flavors, blood orange marmalade (my personal favorite and only 5grams of sugar per serving), and two beautiful Irish lead crystal glasses for our green drink in the morning.
We also stopped at Best Buy and the Daisy Fuentes Wii Pilates game just happened to jump into my hands. I don’t know how that happened. ;) Today I will be trying that out.
After shopping we stopped at home briefly and then met our friend Louis for dinner at Jesse Wong’s in Hunt Valley. I was so excited to see Louis I completely forgot my camera. What a bad blogger I am. Normally when we go to Jesse Wong’s we get the veggie sushi, edamame and maybe a “faux chicken” entrée. Last night we decided to try the “faux duck” Hunan style. All three of us decided it was amazing. Louis even said it was the best “duck” or any type he had ever had. The hubby and I definitely will be exploring other “faux duck” dishes on the menu.
Once we were finished with dinner we had to stop at Wegman’s. We were hoping for more sea beans, but no luck. Dan tracked down a produce guy and found out that the sea bean inventory will be replenished tonight and would be out on the floor by Thursday morning. I guess you know where I will be tomorrow morning.
We did find some great stuff at Wegman’s though. They are carrying a lot of the Navitas food line now, so we picked up some maca powder, camu camu powder, and lucuma powder. Do I know what to do with these yet? Of course not. But I will do my research and figure it out. I will share my research with all of you. My intention is to add these to our smoothies but they may also have other applications.
Finally we picked up this root vegetable. The label said, “name” and that it has a nutty flavor. Again, I have no idea what it is. Once I again I will be researching this vegetable so I have some idea what to do with it. If any of you have an idea please let me know.
We did a little research last night and it may be Caribbean, South American or Japanese. At the moment I am really not certain. But I will know more about it in the next couple of days. We love trying new foods at our house. I think that by mixing up our food we are maximizing the vitamins and minerals we are consuming.
I will be back shortly with the very interesting, tasty and healthy smoothie we had yesterday morning.
Sounds like a shopping excursion that Jason and I typically have. Yesterday he asked what I wanted to do and I had to rethink going out and about b/c that just typically means we'll end up in stores buying random things that look tasty or fun. Whole Foods is a bad place for us to go together! Sounds like it was a really good day though.
ReplyDeleteHeather,
ReplyDeleteI always spend more when Dan is with me. Many of those things would have stayed at the store if he weren't with me to encourage me to "just buy them" as he likes to say.
Whole Foods is also dangerous. Wegman's is very similar (we have both stores near us), but Wegman's is almost always cheaper. If you have one near you, you should check it out.
We had a blast. And ... when we got home the new juicer was waiting for us. You know what that means!
Alicia
That tuber looks like a yucca root to me. Sounds like a fun day out.
ReplyDeleteRose,
ReplyDeleteSince I have never worked with yucca before you could be right. Does yucca oxidize once it is cut?
Alicia
I think so.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, I worked with a woman from the Dominican Republic and she prepared yucca by boiling it for quite a while then topping with salt and butter.
I'm sure you'll find a delicious and healthy way to prepare it.
Rose,
ReplyDeleteI hope that the tuber is yucca, that would make it easier to find a recipe. It was in the Asian and Indian produce section of the store, which was why I wasn't certain what it was. When I find out, I will let you know.
Alicia
Alicia, I am so NOT a shopper, but I think I would have a lot of fun if I were shopping with you!
ReplyDeleteJanet,
ReplyDeleteMy shopping excursion normally revolve around food, cooking gadgets, and cook books. Do I see a theme emerging? ;) My fellow foodie friends and I love to go to Sur La Table and Williams Sonoma and of course the International Markets. We always have a great time.
thanks and talk to you soon,
Alicia
I have wanted “Clean Food” ever since it came out! You will have to let us know how you like it...I am jealous :-)
ReplyDeleteCourtney
Courtney,
ReplyDeleteI haven't gotten through the entire book yet, but so far it is full of recipes that are calling my name. Once I have had a chance to read the entire book and cook a few of the recipes I will post a thorough review.
Alicia
Ha, parallel lives! BW and I spent about an hour on Monday in the local kitchen gadget shop (and did not walk out empty-handed, I can assure you!), and went grocery shopping yesterday. He's such fun to shop with and sounds just like Dan. I'm Ms. Tightwad Frugal-Britches, he's Mr. Fork It Over and Live a Little Spendy-Pants. :-) It's a combination that works well, though. But cut us loose in a Whole Foods Market (or anything similar) and it's a hedonistic vegan free-for-all, baby! :-D
ReplyDeleteI must say, you sure have access to some intriguing food! I've never heard of some of the things you bought (like that "name" root or those powders!) I'm curious to find out what you learn about and do with them! Bummer about Wegman's lack of seabeans! :-(
Funny, I was just on Brendan Brazier's Thrive in 30 web site yesterday, seeking fodder for a blog post I hope to do today (we'll see, I have an ambitious to-do list, though your blog always makes me feel like I'm the laziest, least productive human on the planet! LOL!) But first, I must leave thee another comment or two, since I've gotten so behind lately. There's a chocolate smoothie one post up that's crying out for a lip-smacking comment! ;-)
Laurie,
ReplyDeleteI love a good kitchen gadget store. Those are right up my alley. I have so many kitchen gadgets it is amazing that I can find any new gadsets to buy.
We sound very much like you and your hubby. Both Dan and I are frugal with ourselves but not each other. He loves to buy me anything food related as he says, "he reaps the benefits of those purchases"" (which makes complete sense .. he is very practical that one).
There are suppose to be more sea beans this morning (although it did snow overnight so I may pass). Marylanders don't drive well in snow so I prefer to let them be on the roads alone.
We are fortunate to have great shopping very near. I had heard of the Maca powder but the other two were new to me.
I still don't know what the tuber is. Dan thinks it is either Mapuey or Nagaimo (those could be misspelled). I will find out for certain when I cut into it.
Thanks for the link to Brendan's site. I haven't been there before. I will definitely check it out this weekend.
Please don't let me make you feel lazy. I type very quickly and frequently have a laptop on my lap (along with a feline or two). I also love to develop new recipes. When I don't document them immediately they tend to fall right out of my head.
talk to you later,
Alicia
lilly approves of faux duck
ReplyDeleteMichelle,
ReplyDeleteThat was precious! Tell Lilly the faux duck was made of tofu skin (nothing remotely "ducky" was used to make the faux duck). ;)
Alicia
I love the mystery vegetable! How fun. I've had similar experiences in Asian markets with poorly labeled things but I wasn't brave enough to buy those things.
ReplyDeleteSo what do you think of the new Wii game? I just got a Wii but I don't have any of the fitness games yet, and I'm in the market for one. I have my eye on Wii Fit Plus.
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI got my Wii Fit for Xmas last year and got the Fit Plus this year. My favorite Wii fitness "game", hands down is My Fitness Coach.
I have only used the Pilates once so I will hold off on a rating until I have used it a few more times. My first impressive was positive but my mind wasn't in the workout that day, too much going on around here.
Alicia