Friday Five: food blogs you should be following

In the spirit of the blog's facelift, I'd like to share five Paleo-ish food blogs that everyone should be following (if you're not already). You don't have to eat Paleo to appreciate the recipes you'll find here. Delicious is delicious, no matter what kind of meal plan you follow.

1. Nom Nom Paleo: An amazing blog with lots of tasty recipes and beautiful food photography. If you happen to have an iPad, you're in luck--the Nom Nom app is equally amazing. Seriously, if my roommate's iPad ever goes missing, she'll only have to look as far as my thieving hands...
2. PaleOMG: The highlight for me here is all of the Paleo-friendly (or Paleo-ish) dessert options. Like the sweet potato brownies that I plan on making this weekend. And the sweet potato ice cream I want to make to go with the brownies. And the triple chocolate truffles I plan on making for Christmas goodie bags...and well, a lot of other stuff.
3. Civilized Caveman: This guy is pretty amazing, too. He's got some great ideas for meats, crock-pot meals, and...wait for it...pumpkin butter cups.  I'm not even going to lie. I ended up making these for a Halloween party...and have made variations on them every week since. If I hit a plateau, these bad boys will be the sole reason.
4. Against All Grain: I'm fairly new to this one, but I've loved everything I've seen on the blog thus far. The blog is good for a variety of restrictive diets, namely ones that benefit those with Crohns' disease, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease and autism. 
5. Balanced Bites: Diane Sanfilippo, one of the blog contributors, wrote Practical Paleo. So you know I love this website.

 Happy Friday! And happy reading! 

facelift time!

Now that my diet lifestyle has changed, I suppose it's time to change the focus of this blog. I mean, everything I make will still be a "Maggie Meal", for sure. But if 98% of what I make and consume follows particular dietary restrictions, I'd like the blog's name to reflect that. Especially if it means a wider viewership. I mean, the seven of you are great, don't get me wrong. But if my dreams of total world domination are to ever come true, I'm going to need more minions.

It's all about the minions.

Anyhoo...hopefully the name change doesn't turn off the handful of people following. I'd like to take this introductory post as an opportunity to offer up some information about the Paleo lifestyle to those who might not be familiar. Hopefully it's not too "in your face" or preachy.

The Paleo diet is gluten-free, so it's perfect for those with celiac disease, sensitivity to gluten, certain autoimmune diseases, poor digestion, and just about every health condition known to modern man.  The whole approach is based on the idea that the best diet for us is the one we're genetically adapted to. And what our bodies were not designed to process are the very things that foods of convenience are full of. The biggest offender? Grains.

But wait...aren't grains supposed to be healthy? Well...yes, they're supposed to be, but they're really kind of not. They're full of lectins (one of which is gluten), which can cause or aggravate intestinal damage, inflammation and digestive issues like IBS. They also contain phytic acid and other junky things that strip much-needed nutrients from your body. Grains also cause insulin levels to rise.  Know what else has these lectin jerks? Beans and legumes (including soybeans). What about dairy? Well, even though it doesn't have lectins, many people have some level of lactose intolerance (myself included). What can I say? I love the stuff, but it just doesn't love me back.

So to break it down in lay-dieters terms: Paleo is a high-protein, low-carb, grain-free, gluten-free and sugar-free diet. So you might ask...what the heck are you eating? Meat and fish. Eggies. Veggies. Berries. Nuts and seeds. And more avocado than is probably kosher. 

I'm not very good at explaining the science behind it, but I am good at giving people TMI when it comes to how this diet has affected my body. (And let me just say...I can't believe the difference.) So, in the spirit of over-sharing, here are some handy resources I encourage people to peruse:

1. This post on Simple Good and Tasty is an excellent overview/starting point. Want to learn more? Keep on reading.
2. I know I've recommended Diane Sanfilippo's book (Practical Paleo) to just about anyone who will listen to me, but I can't stress enough how much it's changed my whole approach to food, health, and wellness. If you don't want to commit to buying her big book and sifting through the massive amounts of information it contains, I suggest visiting her website and listening to some of her podcasts to get a feel for her approach. She's awesome. I really, really, really regret brainfarting and missing her book signing here in Dallas last month.
3. Robb Wolf is another genius, and the little grandaddy of the movement. I've heard excellent things about his books, but his website is also packed with information. 

Think you might be ready to try your hand at cooking a Paleo meal? Don't want to eat strictly Paleo, but want a handful of other recipe resources? Stay tuned. Up next will be a list of my top five favorite Paleo blogs. Until then, happy eating!

chicken enchilada stew

So...it's been almost a year since I updated this blog. A lot has changed in that year, and I like to think that most of those changes have been for the better. One major difference between then and now is my eating habits. For the last several months, I've been following (sometimes very loosely) a Paleolithic meal plan. I don't use the word "diet", because it's more of a lifestyle change than it is a temporary solution. In the month of October, I did a strict 30-day challenge (much like The Whole30) and dropped almost 20 pounds. IN ONE MONTH. Along with the weight loss came increased energy and dramatically improved digestive health, the latter of which I've struggled with for more years than I can count. So needless to say, I am very motivated to stick with this lifestyle change, for all of those reasons and more. 

Anyway, after following one of the 30-day meal plans in Practical Paleo (a book I think everyone on the face of the earth should have), I've started to seek out more and more Paleo food blogs and recipe sources. Yesterday I stumbled across PaleOMG and instantly wanted to make pretty much everything I saw. I was interested in making this one particular stew for dinner, but I ended up changing so much of it that it became my own little chicken stew baby. So here's the modified version. Hope you enjoy!

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil (or bacon grease)
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 bell peppers, chopped (I used one red and one orange, but any combination will do)
• 2 fresh serrano chile peppers, finely chopped
• 1 fresh jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
• 2 medium carrots, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 rotisserie chicken, de-boned, pulled/shredded (about 4 cups of chicken)
• 1 (28 oz) can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 (32 oz) box chicken broth
• 1.5 tablespoon cumin
• 0.5 tablespoon chili powder
• salt and pepper, to taste
• bundle of cilantro, chopped (to garnish)
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped (to garnish)
• 1 avocado (to garnish)

Instructions:

1. Heat coconut oil (or bacon grease) over medium-high heat in a dutch oven (or your favorite big stew pot).
2. Add the onion, peppers, carrots and celery. Cook until translucent, then add in the garlic. (Note: for a spicier stew, reserve half of the serrano and jalapenos, and add them in after the stew has been simmering for 10-15 minutes.)
3. Once the veggies start to get sweaty, add the pulled chicken, tomatoes and chicken broth. Give it a big stir.
4. Add the cumin, chili powder and salt and pepper. (I get a little heavier-handed with the cumin--it's a genetic thing.) Cover halfway. Once it's bubbly, reduce heat and let simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Spoon some in a bowl. Top with cilantro, green onions, and avocado. 
6. Go back for another bowl. This time, top it with super spicy Green Sauce from your neighborhood Pollo Regio (or, say, a random taco/convenience shop that sells their own version by the liter. BY THE LITER.) Or plop some of your homemade Green Sauce on top (Hilah Cooking has an excellent and easy-to-make version). You know what? Just promise me you'll get or make the Green Sauce. I can't live in a world where Green Sauce is ignored.
7. Dream about how good it's going to taste again for lunch tomorrow with Green Sauce all over it.

recent happenings

DISCLAIMER: This post has nothing whatsoever to do with cooking. I'll get to that later, but for now, I need to get something off my chest.

Some people may or may not know, but I recently applied for my dream job. Or my dream job of the moment. Or a really good job that I was really looking forward to having because I would have been writing about food. Or something.

As it turns out, I didn't get the job.

At first, it burned. There may or may not have been selfish, "always the last kid to be picked for dodge ball" tears. And then, very quickly - more quickly than I expected - there was pure and total acceptance. As it turns out, what I thought was the perfect opportunity really wasn't so perfect. Not for me, anyway. I would have been an assistant dining editor for a local magazine's website/dining blog. I still consider myself to be new-ish to Dallas, but it didn't take me long to nail down the audience for this publication: wealthy, pretentious social butterflies. I am none of those things. So what made me think I, of all people, would be picked for this team?

The position required someone who could take long periods of monotonous data-entry type work. I can.

The position required someone with an eye for detail. I have it.

The position required someone who could adapt her writing style to that of the blog. I can and did (I assume that if my writing test hadn't illustrated that, I wouldn't have made it through the two rounds of interviews).

The position required someone who could come up with new and different ways to expand the blog's audience and readership. I did, and was told that my ideas were "really good".

Dandy. Right?

Well...hold up, sparky. Not so fast. From what I could gather with my hindsight goggles, these may or may not have been the reasons I wasn't offered the job:

• I have no real experience of the journalistic nature (which I know would not have been a problem for me. I'm a fast learner, but oh well. In their position, I probably wouldn't have been comfortable taking the chance, either).
  
• I could not, on command, name drop the best chefs in Dallas.
  
• I could not, on command, name drop the founder of a specialty food store, founded in Dallas.
  
• I follow more cooking blogs than dining blogs, and am, frankly, more interested in cooking than having others cook for me.
  
• I have the appearance of someone who would be a "cutey-cute" writer, and one of my would-be bosses said that she hated "cutey-cute".
  

Fair enough.

So, my readership of six may be wondering why I was upset at not getting the job, based on these factors. First off, no one likes to be rejected, for any reason. Secondly...again with that hindsight stuff. I think that with maturity comes the power to get over things more quickly, to see things for what they are, and realize that maybe it's better that things don't work out the way you want them to. At least, that's what it seems like to me. As an early twenty-something, this kind of rejection would have sent me into a week-long couch-parking, pizza-eating, wine-drinking frenzy. As an early thirty-something, though, I gave it one night. A night filled with national-chain/totally not artisan pizza, cheap wine, and spontaneous eruptions of statements like, "F*** that magazine!" (Maybe the "f-word" will stop appearing spontaneously when I'm in my forties.) And I worked up to the conclusion that I was actually happy to have been rejected. Happy to have not gotten the job.

Why?

Because that wasn't the best opportunity for me. And here's why.

• The position would have required me to eat out at trendy, hip restaurants three to five nights a week. That's not me. I actually enjoy cooking meals at home, look forward to it even. Cooking helps me unwind and is a creative outlet I cherish.
  
• The position would have required me to schmooze chefs at press dinners. That's not me. I'm not a schmoozer. I don't kiss anyone's ass, nor do I want to.
• The position would have required me to care about and track the kinds of people who eat at certain restaurants. That's not me. I mean, people-watching has its place. But the kind of people-watching this publication requires seems overly pretentious and judgmental.
  

Only three reasons, yes. But those are big reasons to me. See, not getting this job was, I think, the best thing. It gave me a much-needed dose of motivation to start doing the things that I want to do. There are several aspects of food culture I'm interested in, and dining out - at least the way this publication reports on it - doesn't even rank among my top five. Chris and I have big ideas and plans for something, a very exciting foodie-type thing, that we're both passionate about seeing through, and me not getting this job made us both all the more interested in getting started on that project as soon as we can. The best part about this project? It's all us, and there's no one to tell either of us that we're not capable of making it work.

I think that by only reporting on dining trends, you exclude from the conversation entire subsets of food-driven people - those who actually a) enjoy cooking at home, b) enjoy dining out and then trying to replicate what they eat in those trendy restaurants in their own kitchens and c) would love to dine out three nights a week but simply can't afford to do it. And ignoring all of those people...well, that's just not good business. Not in my opinion, anyway. I don't want to report on high-end restaurants doing the "farm-to-table" thing or the "nose-to-tail" thing or the "locally-sourced" thing because those are the new, hot trends. I want to write about those things because they're important to me, and to a lot of other people, who are interested in cooking that way at home and making it part of a lifestyle.

Maybe I'm not a journalist, but I'm a writer. I'm a damn good one, too. Thankfully, I grew up with a mother who taught me that I could do anything I wanted. What I want to do is write, and I've made a life doing that. But instead of writing for a corporation that doesn't appreciate/takes advantage of my work ethic, I want to write for me, about the things that matter to me. And those things matter to a lot of people. Getting this job wouldn't have allowed me the freedom to focus on those things. Instead, it would have required me to focus on the superficial aspects of a superficial dining culture in a city overrun with superficial, spoiled, snotty, pretentious people.

So, good riddance to you, so-called dream job. Not getting you was the best thing that ever happened to me and my food-writing career. Because I will start from nothing and build something that maybe one day you'll deem important enough to write about. And maybe I'll think about returning your call.

(P.s. readership: be prepared for blogging with purpose, and a new direction, in 2012.)

Dutchie

Meet my favorite kitchen-friend...Dutchie, my Mario Batali-brand Dutch oven (because I'm too frugal to buy myself a Le Creuset...maybe one of these days):

(I like to think that "M" is for "Maggie" and not "Mario". And please ignore the hulk-like reflection in the lid, as my arms and chest look distortedly beefy. )

Dutchie is amazing. Dutchie does everything right. Dutchie makes me so happy sometimes, I want to kiss him.

Okay. That may be going a little overboard. But suffice it to say that if I had to abandon my apartment at a moment's notice (say, if I had to pack a Tornado Bag like I used to do when I was a kid), the one thing in my kitchen that I would save would be Dutchie.

See, I'm a one-pot meal kinda girl. I love stews and soups and generally thick things that hang out in a single pot for a long time. Dutchie has helped me make more chilis and cassoulets than I can even count. He has housed many a homemade macaroni and cheese, braised all manner of meats (mostly lamb, if we're keeping count), and even traveled with me to and from distant and not-so-distant cities so that I may cook, in my mind, a more perfect meal.

So, during my Lenten vegetarianism thing, it just seemed all sorts of right that Dutchie be involved. One of the vegetarian recipes I was really looking forward to making was Eritrean Lentil Stew, courtesy of one of my favorite food blogs in the history of time, Global Table Adventure. And let me tell you, it did NOT disappoint. I ended up using a bit more carrot than the recipe called for -- because a) I love me some carrots, and b) I needed to use up some carrots I had hanging out in the veggie bin --, and I made my spice blend using pre-ground spices. Here's what it looked like while it was hanging out, cooking:

It may not look like much, but trust me, it was goooood. That's five 'o's. And, though Ethiopian and Eritrean food is traditionally sopped up with injera, a delicious, spongy, expand-in-your-stomach bread, the packaged naan/flatbread I picked up in the grocery store worked really well with this stew.

Yum! I will definitely be making this again, with or without Lenten vegetarianism.

And, p.s., if you are ever in the Dallas area and get the urge to try Ethiopian food, please let me know! There are a couple of really good places I've been to, and still more others I want to try, though Lalibela holds a special place in my heart.

Happy eating!

going back to Cali

So, I've been a bad little food blogger. I would feel kind of bad about that, but I think all of my three followers probably either didn't notice or are very forgiving people. Also, I was in California, and it's hard to feel bad about anything when you're basking in the afterglow of perfect LA spring weather (even though the locals probably didn't consider it perfect). See, last week I made the annual trip to Los Angeles for work, followed by a weekend of fun in San Diego. I failed to take pictures of every great thing I ate while away because I am, as previously stated, a bad little food blogger. But anyhoo, I did manage to snap pictures of most of the food-related highlights.

Spinach and mushroom frittata with tomato relish (aka hotel egg whites with rubber veggies)

Pictured above is Wednesday morning's breakfast. In the interest of full disclosure, this was only a highlight because I was starving, having gotten to the hotel two minutes after the restaurant closed the night before. The orange juice was the best thing on the tray.

Thankfully, lunch that afternoon proved to be a much greater success. My work/travel partner and I happened to be driving around USC when we stumbled upon what would become our lunch spot: The Lab gastropub:

After scanning the menu briefly, I settled on the falafel burger, and it was even more awesome than it looked:

The next day's highlight: awesome fish tacos from The Fish Dish, which I failed to get a picture of because I was too excited about having just picked up Christopher from the Bob Hope Airport before lunch. Boo for lack of pictures, but yay for Christopher-picking-uppins.

Fast forward to Friday, when we were so busy making a mad dash to finish up work-related stuff before putting my work/travel buddy on a plane back to Dallas that we failed to eat lunch until about 4:00. Needless to say, we were hungry. Very hungry. And in slow-moving traffic on the way to San Diego. Because we hadn't really yet had a chance to explore the various non-touristy food offerings of LA, and because I have a strict "no national chain" rule while traveling outside of my home state, I consulted Yelp in the hopes of finding something amazing and close to our immediate position on the 405. Enter: Zacatecas in Hawethorne. A seemingly barren, dirty place at the end of a sketchy strip mall. (Just goes to show that looks aren't everything.)

Being new at this food-blogging thing, and being starving, I failed to get a picture of the most amazing Mexican ceviche I've ever had before Christopher and I scarfed it down...but I did manage to get a picture of everything else we ordered.

For Christopher: al mojo de ajo (shrimp in garlic sauce) and chilequiles. For me: camarones ala plancha (grilled shrimp). Both meals came with a healthy serving of guacamole (yay!), refried beans, and the best Mexican rice from a restaurant I've ever had. Plus warm flour tortillas.

Oh Holy Yum:

If you ever find yourself craving Mexican food in California, this is your place. The staff is so awesome--attentive, familiar, and oh-so friendly. And did I mention the best ceviche in the world? Oh. Yes.

After making it to San Diego, we were still completely stuffed from our late Mexican lunch, but we decided that we had to take advantage of staying at a (somewhat strange) hotel in Little Italy while we had the chance. We settled on a close place open late: Bencotto. Again with the bad food-blogging though. Not pictured are our amazing appetizers: pecorino di fossa (sheep's milk cheese, honey, and dried figs) and fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with ricotta cheese. Halfway through the main courses, I did remember to snap pictures, though...so, apologies for the forks and...half-eaten-ness of it all:

Chris ordered the squid ink tagliatelle with shrimp and spicy cream sauce:

...but I hit the jackpot with the cioppino (cioppino Bencotto):

We ended up finishing off the cioppino together and leaving what was left of the squid ink pasta in the picture. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't as amazing as the cioppino.

The next day, we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, then ice cream at the zoo. Late that afternoon, we finally decided to be hungry for something great. Yelp saved the day yet again by recommending Aladdin Mediterranean Cafe.

We started with a half-order of dolma (vegetarian-stuffed grape leaves):

...and I decided on Jasmin's vegetarian pizza:

Chris had the eggplant wrap:

Both were delicious and lasted us until the next afternoon. We skipped breakfast in anticipation of an awesome seafood meal before we hopped the plane back to Dallas. Of course, I was too distracted by the scenery and deliciousness of it all to remember the pictures. Arg. But, The Fish Market, located next to the USS Midway Museum where we passed the morning, offered up some smoked swordfish, grilled swordfish, and more cioppino (because I just can't get enough of that stuff).

In short, it was a pretty successful trip to Southern California. Although a lot of it was work-related, it also turned out to be a lot of fun. I got to see some sights, as well as some old friends, and spend time with the person I love the most. And, food-wise, I'd call the trip a success. Also a success? Cheap wine purchased from a Fresh & Easy, smuggled back in my suitcase, which basically sums my sentiments up in one cute little label:

I love CA. I always considered myself to be more of an East Coast-kinda gal, but these last two work-related-but-still-fun trips to California have changed my mind completely.

Pizza, Pizza!

You know that saying that goes something like "pizza is good even when it's bad"? Well, I disagree. Wholeheartedly. For me, pizza is one of those things that is rarely perfect. Don't get me wrong. I have a love for Pizza Hut that is totally inexplicable, so I'm not what I would consider a pizza snob by any stretch of the imagination. But more often than not, I actually like to make my own pizza at home, because that way I get to put everything I want on top of it. See, some of my toppings of choice don't come as standard toppings on any chain pizza I've ever come across (see avocado in picture above).

This week I opted for pizza-making at home, because when you start with a pre-made, store-bought crust, it takes at most 15 minutes to make...and this was set up to be one busy week. So, Monday night I broke out the Boboli and started piling on the ingredients (mostly whatever was in the fridge that I needed to use up). Here's what I ended up with (quantities are estimates, when given...I really need to start writing things down):

---

Not-So-Homemade Pizza for One

ingredients:

• one personal-size, pre-made pizza crust (this time I used a Boboli one)
• Candoni sun-dried tomato pesto (this is stuff is on the incredible side)
  
• part skim, low moisture mozzarella cheese, shredded
• about 1 cup of a blend of spinach, arugula, and basil, chopped
• 1 tbsp red onion, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup button mushrooms
• a handful of grape tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 small avocado, chopped
• crushed red pepper
• pine nuts
• sprinkling of feta cheese crumbles
  

prep:

• Preheat the oven according to crust directions. Chop all veggies (if they're not already chopped and stored in a hundred different plastic containers, like they are in my fridge)
• Place your pre-made crust on a cookie sheet and slather the crust with some sun-dried tomato pesto (seriously, I don't ever want to make pizza with anything else. It's that amazing). Refrain from eating it straight out of the jar, if you can.
  
• Sprinkle on a tiny bit of cheese (this will help everything else stick) and start layering the veggies. I started with the greens, to make a nice little bed for everything else. Then went the onions, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes.
• Sprinkle with crushed red pepper, if you like that kind of thing.
  
• Top with as much cheese as you want, within reason (I used the part-skim mozzarella and feta). Top the cheese with the avocado. Sprinkle on some pine nuts. Behold the mountain of pizza you've just created and be thankful that you remembered to put the crust on the cookie sheet before you started assembling.
  
• Pop in the oven and wait about 10 minutes until the cheese is golden.

Yum!