I have had a love-hate relationship with Pad Thai for a while now. I loved it when I had it in Thailand and I hated it anytime I ordered it at a restaurant stateside. You see, the so-called Pad Thai I’ve had in restaurants has always been coated in this weird orange-colored sauce that scares me. It tastes funny too. But when I visited Thailand 7 years ago, I learned that real Pad Thai is not orange or scary. Not even a little bit.
I also learned that the peppers in the panang curry in Thailand are not bell peppers like they are over here. I learned this as the locals in the restaurant all laughed at me when I burst into flames. Well, maybe I didn’t burst into flames and maybe they didn’t laugh at me, but it was a lesson I will never forget. Peppers in Thailand are hot… even the ones that look like bell peppers.
Anyway, enough about spontaneous combustion. I was telling you about my love-hate relationship with Pad Thai. I still sometimes order it, holding out hope that I’ll find the same light, fresh noodles sans freaky orange sauce that I loved in Thailand only to be disappointed once again.
But no more. Not since I found an easy and tasty Pad Thai recipe in the latest issue of Everyday Food (which by the way is quickly becoming my favorite food magazine).
Granted, the recipe is not 100% authentic — it doesn’t use fish sauce and tamarind and the 100 other ingredients the authentic version calls for — but it is light and fresh and easy with a capital E. You can seriously have this ready in 30 minutes flat (and most of that time is just soaking the noodles). I’ve made it 4 times in 2 weeks and unless I am on a beach in Thailand, I am never ordering Pad Thai in a restaurant again.
Now, let’s make some Pad Thai…
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Tagged as: dinner, gluten free, healthy eating, noodles, pad thai, thailand, vegetarian
Yep, you heard me right: A week without sugar. Can a girl who has eaten brownies for dinner really give up sugar? Better yet, why would she even try? I have no idea. Hehehe. Okay, to be completely and embarrassingly honest, I ate an entire buttermilk cake by myself… over two days. Well, technically over about 16 hours, but it was only a single eight inch layer. And it had cherries in it (cherries are healthy). But in addition to the cake, I also ate a handful or two of marshmallows with chocolate (think s’mores minus the graham crackers and fire). And all of this was really just the culmination of several months of carbo-loading in the form of pure refined sugar (and a little butter of course).
You see, I am addicted to the white stuff. So in a moment of weakness strength, I gave it up. That’s right, cold turkey. I reasoned that I needed to reset my sugar cravings. Kind of like the recasting Mireille Guiliano recommends in French Women Don’t Get Fat
except without the leek soup weekend and only concentrating on my biggest offender: sugar. I’ve been working out more and seeing progress in how my clothes fit, but my weight hasn’t budged. And in this moment of clarity I thought maybe, just maybe, eating a bit less butter and sugar might help. Maybe. I wasn’t convinced but thought it could be possible. So there I was, resolute and determined… and on Monday, I declared that I would cut out refined sugar from my diet for an entire month. Fruits and naturally occurring sugars are fine… and some natural sugar substitutes are okay in moderation (I mean, I have to have something sweet. I might implode if I have no sweets at all).
Then on Saturday, Dan and I had a couple of friends over for dinner. And they brought dessert: a chocolate cake called “Black Magic” with strawberries macerated in balsamic vinegar. So I had a piece (or two)… it would’ve been rude not to have some. Did I mention the maker of this Black Magic is a pastry chef named Christine who also makes fabulous truffles? I’m not just saying this because I know her… NeoCocoa truffles are decadent and delicious just like truffles should be. I’m only human, people. What would you have done? That’s right, the sugar-free streak bit the dust. And it was totally worth it.
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Tagged as: agave syrup, brownies, fitness, french women don't get fat, good housekeeping baking, healthy eating, sugar free, sugar substitute, weight loss
A couple of years ago, while reading French Women Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano, I was inspired to buy a yogurt maker. I started to make my own yogurt using 2% organic milk. And I was hooked. I couldn’t eat store-bought sugary yogurt any more. Well, not back then anyway. Then the work-and-stress-blah-blah-excuses started and I stopped paying attention to my eating and stopped making yogurt and the yogurt maker was left neglected stuffed into the cabinet with my seldom used blender.
Fast forward to this month. While I have been baking all sorts of goodies, I have also been trying to eat healthier. It’s contradictory I know, but c’est la vie. While pondering my predicament, I ran across French Fridays on Joie de Vivre’s blog. She’s been doing a weekly recap of a few chapters from French Women Don’t Get Fat. So I’ve been reading along. And while my “recasting” is going very slowly, I decided to start making yogurt again. So yesterday I started with a fresh (just opened) half gallon of 2% organic milk and organic plain yogurt and set it up over night in the yogurt maker. This morning it was ready for the refrigerator.
And this afternoon I had some for a snack with a teaspoon of lemon curd:
I had almost forgotten how good fresh yogurt could be. I’m also excited to start playing with add-ins again. My favorites are honey or maple syrup (not a lot, just enough to get a little of the flavor). Maybe this is just the incentive I needed to get my eating on track…
Tagged as: french fridays, french women don't get fat, healthy eating, joie de vivre, yogurt
