Dinners have been a little cheese and carb heavy this week, and for the most part, equally delicious.

Week 3 Menu:

• caramelized onions and blue cheese veggie burgers (2x, I can’t get enough of caramelized onions and blue cheese)
• veggie lasagna (still eating leftovers of this one)
• tomatoes Provencal
• black bean burritos
• brown rice bowl with shrimp, snow peas, and avocado (remind me I don’t like shrimp that much next time)
• catfish with pineapple avocado salsa & arugula side (best meal of the week! The recipe was from Everyday Food, which called for halibut — which I was told at the store is not in season right now. So catfish it was. And it was delicious.)

Thankfully, no accidental mimosa mishaps this week, although I did take a Mastering Macarons cooking class at Sur la Table (more on that soon) last weekend, so the “less sugar” goal was kind of blown out of the water for Saturday, as I sampled my fair share of macarons.

Restaurant Pick this Week:
Mi Mero Mole. Thus far, we’ve been hitting our favorites on our once a week dining experience, so this week we checked out a new place that’s been on my list. I was left with mixed feelings about Mi Mero Mole. They’ve been open for a couple of months and specialize in guisados, which is Spanish for ‘stew’ and apparently popular particularly in Mexico City. The guisados plate (which was kind of like a build your own tacos plate) I ordered was burn-your-face-off hot. Yes, I’m kind of a wimp with spicy food, but it would have been nice to know that I needed to bring a box of tissues with me. :( So I wasn’t blown away, but I’ll give Mi Mero Mole another shot at some point.

Dear Internet, I have a confession to make. I had a mimosa! What!?! was I thinking? I wasn’t. I completely forgot, because it wasn’t at a restaurant/bar. I had a salon appointment on Saturday and when I arrived they asked if I wanted a mimosa, and they never ask that, so naturally, I said “Of course”, and then on the way home I almost got in an accident when I realized that I’d had a mimosa. Le sigh. So I messed up. I guess I’ll call this Sober January*.   *except for that one morning when I accidentally had a mimosa.

Week 2 Menu:
Breakfasts have been fairly similar to last week: fresh-squeezed juice, green drink, avocado egg chipotle breakfast sandwich, oatmeal, banana peanut butter smoothie, breakfast burritos, and fruit/nuts.

Dinners have been veggie stir-fry lettuce wraps, caramelized onion & goat cheese flatbread with Herbes de Provence, Tomatoes Provençal, and curried lentils with Paneer (a really quick and tasty recipe from the latest Sunset magazine. We ended up doubling the recipe so we could have leftovers for lunches.) I always love finding good recipes in the Sunset magazine. While it’s not the first magazine I think of when I’m recipe hunting, it’s one of the reasons Sunset is one of my favorite magazine — unexpected finds (and it’s always a nice pat on the back to be reminded of how awesome my Northwest is, even though I still think California gets too much attention).

Restaurant Pick this Week:
Bamboo Sushi. Knowing you only get to go out to eat at one restaurant a week, forces you to make excellent dining decisions. So Saturday, we headed to my favorite sushi place in Portland — Bamboo Sushi. For what it’s worth, they’re the first certified, sustainable sushi restaurant in the world (with fairly reasonable prices considering). After ordering their tart blackberry drink (sans alcohol), we gorged ourselves on sushi (the green machine, tataki carpaccio, and albacore carpaccio were our favs, if you ever get a chance to go).

Tofu Stir Fry Wraps

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 package firm or extra firm tofu, cube
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, ribs and seeds removed, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar (optional)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch, mixed with 1 tablespoon water
• 6 to 8 Butter lettuce leaves, (about 1 head, also called Boston or Bibb lettuce)

Directions:

1. Prep Work: This recipe doesn’t take long to cook, so you need to have things ready to go. Slice the onion and bell pepper, have the garlic ready to “press”, grate the ginger, mix the cornstarch/water in a bowl, and wash the lettuce.
2. Cube the tofu, season with salt and pepper. In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over high heat. Add the tofu; cook, stirring/flipping every few minutes, until almost golden brown, 4 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate, set aside. (If the tofu is still too soft, you can also put it on a cookie sheet and bake/broil it for a bit)
   
3. Add remaining tablespoon olive oil to pan, along with the onion and bell pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until onion is tender and golden, about 2-3 minutes (reduce heat if browning too quickly).
4. Reduce heat to medium; add garlic and ginger; cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 to 60 seconds. Stir in soy sauce, rice vinegar and cornstarch mixture; remove from heat.
5. Add tofu; toss to coat. Serve in lettuce cups.

Do you like tofu?
Based on this recipe from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast
Originally published October 2007

Prompt #11: For some of us, food isn’t just a part of our travels, it’s the reason why we travel. Whether you travel the globe to try new foods and use food to form a deeper connection with the culture or just eat to live, food plays a big part in the travel experience. Share a food-related story from your travels or describe your best meal.

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” –James A. Michener

Eating is one of my favorite things about travel. I love to discover new foods, and usually wish that there were more meals in a day so I could have it all. So for today’s 30 Days of Indie Travel post, I’m over on my work blog, with 67 Memorable Meals from 23 Countries — chattering about all the interesting stuff I’ve tried so far on my travels from the questionable, deep-fried tarantula in Cambodia to those addictive potato wedges in New Zealand…

What’s one of your favorite meals while traveling?

Join the 30 Days of Indie Travel project and share your story.

This week

- Watched the Portland Twilight Criterium bike race around the North Park blocks on Friday. More cowbell!

- Let’s talk about my container garden. It’s amazing… and so tasty. I made a tomato salad this weekend which included: tomatoes, red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and more tomatoes.

-We were going to go berry picking at Sauvie Island on Sunday, and ended up spending so long at the beach (no, not the nude beach!) that we missed the U-pick hours. So we ended up buying berries from the stand instead. Next time!

- I got a silly email from Gilt Groupe telling me “good news, your Hype Silk Naomi Strapless dress is now available”, meaning it had sold out ages ago, even though I really had no intentions of buying it. And I had a $20 off any order special coupon and so it ended up being $59 instead of ummmm… a $175 dress. Yay!

- Just started listening to Liam Finn’s new album FOMO. This video is ridiculous and kind of adorable. Those kiwis.

-Portland Soap Box Derby was also this weekend on Mt Tabor. We arrived kind of late, but it was still fun to sit on a blanket, and legally drink beer in the park. Also, there was a tank with some kind of potato gun cannon. Next year, I’m going to wear a derby hat.

What are you up to this week?

New Restaurants Visited September – November:

1. Pok Pok – possibly over-hyped — awesome regardless
2. Olympic Provisions
3. Dragonfish Asian Cafe
4. Kennedy School (Counts! I had never eaten there!)
5. Ugarit (foodcart)
6. North 45 – awesome patio
7. Pyro Pizza (foodcart) – tasty, tasty pizza
8. Whiffies Fried Pies – I could maybe [not] eat 11 pies?
9. Madison’s Bar & Grill
10. Red Flag
11. Tabla Mediterranean Bistro – 3-course meal: delicious
12. Afrique
13. Muu Muu’s
14. Gold Dust Meridian
15. Chopsticks Hawthorne
16. Bridgeport Ale House
17. Pizzicato
18. Night Light Lounge – Dr Spaceman!
19. Cabezon – finally used my Groupon for this one. Tasty pescado!
20. Broder – squares = good.
21. Pix Patisserie (other location) – desert & wine
22. Pad Thai Kitchen
23. Pambiche – cafe con leche = bueno
24. Clarklewis – Gorgonzola pear sandwich = bliss
25. ?Por Que No? – horchata. indeed.
26. Habibi – good Lebanese, another Groupon, still like Ya Hala better. :)
27. Stumptown (diff location! Ace Hotel)
28. Clementine Bistro – No. Just NOOO.
29. The Standard
30. Holman’s
31. Bertie Lou’s
32. Public Domain Coffee – I need to use my Groupon to here.
33. Sweet Basil Thai – Really tasty.
34. Spints Alehouse – Exceeded my expectations.
35. City State Diner
36. Cafe Babalu – Reykjavik, Iceland – fun cafe
37. Icelandic Fish & Chips – Reykjavik, Iceland – good sauces!
38. Grai Kotturinn – Reykjavik, Iceland – loved their lattes. Tucked into an adorable little corner.
39. Eldsmidjan – Reykjavik, Iceland
40. Tapas Barrin – Reykjavik, Iceland – Tapas with an Icelandic spin. Fun.
41. The English Pub – Reykjavik, Iceland
42. Cafe Paris – Reykjavik, Iceland
43. Kaffitar – Reykjavik, Iceland – Iceland’s Starbucks!
44. Svarta Kaffio – Reykjavik, Iceland
45. Baejarins Beztu Pylsur – Reykjavik, Iceland (hotdog stand) – yep, I ate a hotdog. And it was tasty.
46. Fish Market [Fiskmarkadurinn] – Reykjavik, Iceland – Best. Meal. Ever. Also, most expensive meal, ever.
47. Cafe Oliver – Reykjavik, Iceland
48. Greasy greasy spoon brekkie – Reykjavik, Iceland
49. Tiga
50. Candy Ultra Lounge
51. Screen Door – fiiinally
52. Cacao Chocolate – you can get “shots” of drinking chocolate here. $2 = win!

Perhaps #9 should have been visit 200 new restaurants?

“Now in its third year, Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.”

I wouldn’t consider myself an expert on environmental change, but one thing I’m fairly expert-ish at is being a vegetarian. After reading both Food Matters (Bittman) and In Defense of Food (Pollan) this summer, I was reminded again how utterly insane meat consumption — and in turn its affect on the environment — has gotten. Americans eat about 200 pounds of meat, poultry and fish per capita per year (and this excludes dairy)!  So who’s eating my 190 pounds? (As a recent pescatarian, I probably eat about 10 pounds of fish a year.) And we eat twice the global average. Obviously, some of that statistic is slightly skewed from other Western nations, as developing nations can’t afford to eat as much meat, but their consumption has doubled in the last 20 years.

So I guess we could probably all agree that it would be smart to eat less meat. As Americans, we’re getting double our daily protein requirements.

3 Ways To Eat Less Meat:

1. Eat more beans. Black beans are a staple in many Latin American countries, and are an excellent source of protein to boot.
2. Don’t go cold turkey. Ahhahaha… sorry about that. Anyway, I’m all for balance. Swearing off meat entirely isn’t for everyone, and if you don’t replace it with something you’ll probably just give up. So try being a “Monday, Wednesday, Friday” vegetarian by only eating meat a few times a week.
3. Think Asian. Asian countries have some amazing ways of creating brilliant meatless food, originally out of necessity, but now a huge part of their cultures… think bean curd (China), tofu (Japanese for bean curd), chai pow yu (Vietnam glutony stuff).

See how I cleverly got on my vegetarian soap box for Blog Action Day, and didn’t have to actually make any personal changes? :) I need a challenge… anyone?

Although there are probably a lot of great crepe recipes out there, I really loved the simplicity of this one. After putting all the ingredients in the blender, you just put it in the fridge overnight — and voilà it’s ready in the morning… other than the “making them perfectly thin” part. Next time, I think I’ll try savory crepes.

Here are some of the new restaurants I’ve checked out on the Cheap Eats list:

• Binh Minh Sandwiches - 7821 SE Powell Blvd
• Kalga Kafe – 4147 SE Division St
• Ken’s Artisan Bakery – 338 NW 21st Ave
• Cha Cha Cha Broadway – 2635 NE Broadway
• Mio Sushi – 2271 NW Johnson St
• Malay Satay Hut – 2850 SE 82nd Ave #104
• Saint Cupcake – 3300 SE Belmont Ave

I probably should have defined this goal a little more — like “Go to 12 new restaurants” or “Go to a new restaurant once a month”. On that note… I’m going to Chipotle. ;) Photo credit: eyeliam

Radish Avocado Salsa

• 1 avocado
• 6 large radishes
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 tablespoon chopped pickled jalapeno chile
• 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 teaspoon olive oil

Directions
1. Half, pit, and peel the avocado, cutting into 1/2″ cubes. Trim the ends of the radishes, half, and thinly slice.

2. In a medium bowl,  stir together avocado, radishes, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice, and oil; season with salt. Serve over black bean tacos.

Thinly sliced radishes are a really interesting twist to this recipe, and they look amazing with the avocado.

What’s your favorite radish recipe?