secret dinners and veggie ribs

it's been about a week since my last post. i have found it somewhat hard to keep up with these and especially since i have been trying to be better about not eating out quite so much.

i was a little saddened this past weekend to confirm that dairy is causing me some stomach problems. i didn't eat any cheese until this past friday for 2 weeks. i luv cheese to death and it was hard to go off of it for 2 weeks. this past friday, at panchita #3 i opted to go for cheese again and had pupusas and cheese enchiladas. of course i thoroughly enjoyed my meal but my tummy paid dearly for it the next few days. so, i am off cheese again but i have bought some lactaid to keep on me for when i can't hold myself back.

on a positive note i was treated to a wonderful vegan meal on saturday night. our friends maya and ben invited us along to celebrate their engagement and their cousin's birthday. it was a fun night with friends and good food. we were treated to a wonderful salad with strawberries and pine nuts, some empanadas stuffed with potatoes and some other veggies i can't recall, lemongrass skewers with grilled mango, tomatoes, starfruit... these were the main dishes. there were some others but sorry they escape me. i really liked the idea of using the lemongrass stalks at the skewers and the starfruit made them very cute. the empanadas were good but i wish they had been a bit more juicy or maybe had some salsa to go with them. we were also treated to a chocolate vegan cake that was incredible. there was raspberry sauce and fresh raspberries to top it off with. maya had asked some of us to bring extra desserts and so i made some brownies (not vegan) i found off of epicurious and they were amazing. very chewy and made with ghirardelli chocolate (my decision) not coco powder. all in all it was a fun night with good food.

since saturday i haven't eaten out for dinner. well i take that back, i had a burrito at el metate on sunday night and as usual it was very good. and you know, i actually had cheese that night because i was starving. geoffrey and i went on a 50 mile bike ride and that was hard but fun.

i did eat out lunch yesterday and had some thai food from plearn in berkeley (i work in downtown berkeley). plearn is my go to place when i want a lot of good thai food at lunch. i always get the green curry with tofu. it's not on the menu but you can ask for it. yesterday it was especially spicy which i liked. if you get the combination lunch plate you get a salad, 3 mini spring rolls, 2 are fresh and one is fried. the fried one has taro in it and is yummy. you also get a nice piece of fruit, like watermelon, to eat when you are done. oh, and before the meal even starts you get a bowl of their wonderful rice soup. it's salty with a few chunks of celery. sounds boring but i promise it's good. they swear its veggie but sometimes i do wonder if they don't put some stock in it. let's hope not.

tonight i cooked at home and tried something new that caught my eye in the grocery store recently: garden burger bbq riblets. i usually don't buy fake meat except for gimme lean sausage. however, occasionally the weird fake meat product will catch my eye. so, i deciced to try the riblets because i like the garden burger brand. what i forgot though is that i never really ever liked pork when i did eat meat, except very crispy bacon and sausage. so, i was only able to eat half of one of the riblets. at first i thought it tasted ok and the bbq sauce was good which is crucial. however, the taste was a little too real for me and i had to throw the rest out. so, overall i say if you miss ribs and are veggie or vegan (yep, they're vegan) then give these a try. also i may try to grill them in a few weeks for a cookout (the picture from the garden burger website gave me that idea), they might be better in small pieces mixed with other veggies.