There are few things I hate and fear more than having to drive in the city. But with BART and Caltrain I rarely have to. Even though the BART trains are absolutely disgusting (a study found e. coli on the seats, among other things), I still get excited to take it. I love the convenience of it, and today my mom and I had a great time meeting new people on the packed commute train. 

The one thing that would make me love BART even more (other than it actually being clean) is if it went to more places. The city and part of the East Bay have great service, but the rest of the Bay Area is left lusting after better public transit. I would love to one day be able to take efficient public transit to work. A girl can dream.

Recipe:
1a. *I decided not to roast the garlic, but if you do roast it, then preheat the oven to 425 and prep the garlic to be roasted (tutorials are online), otherwise:
1b. Preheat a soup pot over medium heat


2. Saute the onions in the olive oil for 5-7 minutes, until soft and translucent. If you do not roast garlic*, add 6 cloves of minced or pressed garlic in with the onion.

3. Add the rice, bay leaves, thyme, marjoram, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes.

4. Add crushed tomatoes, four cups of vegetable broth or water, and fill one of the 28-ounce cans with water once and pour it into the soup.


5. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low or low, cover, and simmer for about 45 minutes until the rice is cooked. 

6. Add the beans, turn off the heat, and wait until the beans are heated through before removing the bay leaves and serving. 

This recipe is quite possibly my favorite tomato soup. It has complete protein in it with the rice and beans and it definitely isn’t lacking in flavor. Thanks Veganomicon!

Yesterday my parents and I decided to visit the Treasure Island Flea in San Fransisco. The flea market is hosted in the 1939 Historic San Francisco World’s Fair building on Treasure Island, and to be honest most of the allure of the flea to us was the location. I had never been to the Island before, and the entire concept intrigued me. 


The Island itself is a man-made island that was created for the World’s Fair, but later used as a naval base in World War II. We drove around the island and although some areas are rented out and people live there, most of the island looks like something right out of a zombie apocalypse with boarded up windows and moss/mold covered empty windows. 

The flea market itself was the fanciest flea market I have ever been to. Outside the building food trucks were lined up and people were willing to stand in the rain to get a taste. 

Unfortunately I forgot the camera at home, so sorry for the grainy cell phone photos. 

Flea markets are a great way to find used items or your next new treasure. We came home with a great new tablecloth and some cloth napkins. By the crowds it’s safe to say that flea markets are no longer a place for trash and are becoming a popular way to find what you are looking for. 

My first vegetarian cookbook was the Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites. Now that I am home on spring break it is time to dig it out and make some of my favorites. Part of why I love this cookbook so much (other than the pure fact that it is vegetarian) is that it holds a variety of foods from breakfast to dessert and many different Asian, Spanish (and more) inspired foods. With a week to do what I want, I can’t wait to get in the kitchen and get my hands dirty.

A great thing about most vegetarian cookbooks, and this one too, is how easy the recipes are to make vegan. Check out these past posts for some recipes from the Moosewood Cookbook: Homemade Veggie Burgers and Black Bean Chilaquile.

It amazes me how obsessed the U.S. is with paper towels. Even though we have real towels and cloths in our closets that could do the job just as well, if not even better, than a paper towel, we insist on spending money on the disposable version. 

All red meat is bad for you, no matter what the serving size, according to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times. A study that followed more than 110,000 adults for more than 20 years has found significant correlation between eating red meat and the chance of dying. Even just adding a 3-ounce serving of unprocessed red meat (no bigger than a deck of cards) daily was enough to increase the chance of dying by 13 percent during the course of the study.


According to the article, “All red meat is bad for your, new study says:”

“Even worse, adding an extra daily serving of processed red meat, such as a hot dog or two slices of bacon, was linked to a 20% higher risk of death during the study.

“Any red meat you eat contributes to the risk,” said An Pan, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and lead author of the study, published online Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.” 

So what are your options? Obviously not eating red meat would be best:

“Eating a serving of nuts instead of beef or pork was associated with a 19% lower risk of dying during the study. The team said choosing poultry or whole grains as a substitute was linked with a 14% reduction in mortality risk; low-fat dairy or legumes, 10%; and fish, 7%.”

What is it about red meat that makes it so bad for your health? Researchers have hypothesized that the nitrates and nitrites used to preserve them, the chemicals created by high-temptertaure cooking, and the iron and saturated fat in the meat may be to blame. 


If you really are absolutely unwilling to cut red meat out of your diet at all costs, the researchers recommend limiting yourself to one or two servings of red meat per week and to eliminate all bacon or other processed meats (such as hot dogs). 

With finals beating down my door I am drowning in what feels like endless stress. One of the worst parts about finals is how long they drag on for. For some classes I will end up studying or writing a paper over a week or more. 


To deal with some extra stress I have been cleaning. It’s amazing how much better I will feel after cleaning the kitchen floor or unloading the dishwasher real fast. I can study for hours and then see progress after only a few minutes of scrubbing. To finish something and actually see progress makes the biggest difference.


What do you like to do to relieve some stress?

Before I went back to college this year I had very little interest in cooking. I thought it took way too long and was ridiculously dangerous. (You may laugh now, but think about the last time you burned or cut yourself, or when you saw someone who cooks on TV slice their finger open. The open flames alone is enough to make anyone a little apprehensive.). Throughout high school and my first two years of college I refused to learn to cook or help. I truly believed that toast and mac and cheese out of a box were hot meals.