Of Two Minds

I have almonds in everything. If I'm trying to avoid eggs, I'll throw some in fried vegetables for protein in the morning, I mix almond butter with carob powder and raspberries for a dessert or just eat it plain, and I recently discovered the many uses of almond meal. I'd had the suspicion for a long while that I could make fried chicken with almond meal breading and, after looking up a few recipes to get a vague outline, I gave it a go with my lets-just-try-it-and-see cooking style. It was awesome, though perhaps a little flavorless. I tried to make it again last night and it was AMAZING> amazing. So good. Next time I'll even measure myself so I can try and do it again. Another food I've been missing is pancakes. I love pancakes. And it turns out you can make them with almond meal. I tried to make them for the second time this morning with questionable success. Well, I wasn't going to to do it at all, but I ran into a problem with a cracker recipe .

Speaking of new tastes, do you remember your first oreo? First candy bar? Of course not, but you've probably heard about it. Your parents were trying to keep you off the stuff for as long as they possibly could but then, one benevolent aunt came along and saved you from a childhood of aromatic deprivation. Your eyes lit up and suddenly you were a fiend for the sugary pleasantries of life. Not being able to have any kind of sweetener or sugary fruit for 3 or 4 months, I was able to experience in memory what that was like. Over break, Joseph and I went to Mischou , an incredible bistro in Pike Place. Among other things we got a little bit of a wild rice mixed salad without realizing that it had been sweetened in orange juice. The first bite blew my mind. My eyes lit up and I exclaimed, "It's so sweet!" staring at Joseph, incredulously. Like a pioneer at Christmas, I was full of appreciation for the intense syrupy brightness oranges contain within. Since I'm not

As of late, I have been contemplating the addition of a cooking blog to my current blog repertoire. I do a lot of experimenting in the kitchen and I want a way to document the things I try. Furthermore, I am currently working with a pretty restricted diet. As more and more people are becoming aware of intolerances and allergies that they have to the foods that are staples of our cuisine, it's important to have resources for working around these foods. Another problem I run into with the resources that are available is that many raw, food intolerance, or allergy websites present these extravagant recipes that, while delicious, may cost an arm and a leg. Sometimes the barrier is simply that since I'm cooking for one, I can't keep a large assortment of vegetables in my refrigerator at all times. However, building an additional blog for that seemed unnecessary since I have a hard enough time keeping these two updated. Plus, my cooking is very inexact and doesn'

I was just feeling tired. like REAL take-a-nap-and-sleep-til-4am tired. But it's way too late for me to have coffee without oh-my-god-i-can't-fall-asleep-and-now-its-5am awakeness. Which was when I remembered cocoa powder has milder levels of caffeine (yes? i don't know.) and that i could totally make a smoothie with that and some almond butter. Because I use almond butter for everything all the time. I honestly have no idea how much i used of everything because this was a "lemme taste. what do i need?" procedure. First taste was really weird because I haven't had cocoa since being put on this diet in October. Immediately afterward being put on the diet, I tried to make some cocoa almond butter bite things, but that was when I realized that cocoa is mad bitter. Also, the only sweeteners I am allowed are Stevia and xylitol. Since you have to work so hard to find xylitol and I was just embarking on this journey, i used stevia. Which, if you're used to re