National Post Gastropost - Bacon VRS Buffalo Cauliflower

Hey Michelle, Congrats — you made it into today's National Post! In case you can't pick up a copy of the newspaper, I've taken a PDF,check it out! Thanks again for picking sides in our latest tasty battle, and enjoy the rest of your weekend. Leora Team Gastropost

FOLLOW This Link to see the GASTROPOST IN THE NEWSPAPER March 2, 2013 PAGE TWO

So This Happened Yesterday ...

The funny thing  was that I was having a bad kitchen day and this meal was the one I pulled out of the hat to save dinner and The National Post's Gastropost thought it looked pretty yummy too.

I've been cooking a lot lately and am really enjoying toying and modifying recipes to suit my gluten free, meat free and dairy free diet.  My husband won't eat any of it, he is a meat and cheese kinda guy, but Fin and I and my friends are enjoying the Mother Ship kitchen experiments.

Mmmm TOFU

Have I ever mentioned that I was a fish eating vegetarian for a good 8 years or more? I am allergic to pork so I have to avoid all kinds of foods that may come in contact with pork. I ate chicken for a long while before I grew soooo tired of it I gave up eating meat all together. It's only been in the last three years that I have been "trying" meat. It started with a few select cuts of beef from Whole Foods where I could get grass fed free range beef. It was good. My body was craving red meat and so I happily ate it for a while. When I was pregnant I didn't meet a steak I didn't like!

Then we moved to the middle of no where south where pork is the state food and laws governing the processing, antibiotic and steroid use in the production of meat are to say the least, lax. Finding free range non medicated meats are like trying to find a synagogue in NC. There has to be some somewhere....but where? The shift away from meat and all the highly processed foods found in the grocery stores was an easy one.

For the most part I find meat gross and after seeing too many documentaries on how cruel the meat packing industry treats their animals and birds I now have an ethical reason to say no to meat again. I've been cooking a lot of vegetarian dishes again and am feeling a whole lot better about my diet and my body feels better too. Whenever I have a few ingredients in the fridge I think will work together I throw them in the Google bar and see what recipes come up. This one was awesome!

Baked Tofu with a Tahini Crust

I served it up with quinoa and red beans and a mixed baby greens salad with apple, cranberry, red onion and sunflower seeds. I topped that sucker with a drizzle of blue cheese dressing.

The meal was simple to make and all came together in about 35 minutes. Finley and i devoured it. My kids hasn't met a tofu product she doesn't like!

Alicia Silverstone has a really great web site called The Kind Life about all things sustainable, earth friendly and veggie. My friend Sharon turned me onto this site and I love it so I thought I would share it with y'all.

Salad Daze

I am a lover of a warm climate. The last month has brought us temperatures in the high 90's with humidity and that makes me so comfy in my skin! With the hot weather comes my complete and total lack of desire to eat much of anything unless it's fresh salads.

I've been composing some pretty creative salads lately!

A sampling of salads.

Organic herb salad greens with grilled tofu.

Organic herb salad greens with chilled grilled sockeye salmon, tofu and avocado.

Shrimp salad with cucumbers, black olives, capers, sun dried tomatoes and goat's cheese.

In a Dijon lemon basil dressing

Black eye pea, spring pea and mini pasta salad with cilantro.

I have also whipped out an avocado and shrimp salad and a blueberry jalapeno and corn salad in the last two weeks- but alas- no photos!

Are you hungry now? Me too.

I'm off to create with my new favorite food quinoa!