Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Going along with my previous post...

I opened up a jar of jalapeño peppers tonight that have been sitting in my cabinet for an indeterminate amount of time. I tried to take one out and it was completely mushy. Ew ew ew ew ew. There was no date printed anywhere on the jar either, so I have no idea how long it was sitting there.

Lesson learned: Don't buy something just because its cheap if you don't plan on using it within a few weeks or months.

I also threw out a jar of Sriracha that has been in my fridge for well over a year now. I was sad to see it go, but I never find enough stuff to put it on and also the inside cover was NASTY. It could have been moldy, but honestly I didn't want to examine it too hard.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Blogger is irritating me today and messing up my post, so what I tried to say originally was that this list obviously isn't all vegan, but it's a good place to start. Personally, I've kept jars of spaghetti sauce for weeks, but I've always been weirded out by using it after too much time has passed.

Food Safety: A Guide to Expiration Dates on Pantry and Refrigerator Foods

The FITNESS Food Safety Chart

Most expiration dates printed on packages are intended primarily for store employees, so they know when to remove a product from the shelf. They don't necessarily indicate how long the food will keep once you've opened it. To find out whether it's safe to slather your sandwich with the last smidge of mayo that's been in your fridge for over a month, consult our guide.

After Opening... It’s Good For...
pasta sauce 4 days
pickles 1 to 2 weeks
yogurt 1 to 2 weeks
sour cream 1 to 3 weeks
olives 2 weeks
eggs (in shell) 3 to 5 weeks
salsa 1 month
shredded cheese 1 month
butter 1 to 3 months
mayonnaise 2 months
salad dressing 3 months
cooking oil 4 months
jams, jellies 6 months
ketchup 6 months
margarine 6 months
mustard 1 year
maple syrup 1 year

Originally published in FITNESS magazine, May 2006.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Condiments

Does anyone else eat a ridiculous amount of condiments? I sure do. I have ever since I was little and my dad even made up a song for me called "Condiment Girl".

I don't have too much time to write at the moment, but here are some of the combinations I enjoy. Please note that I don't ALWAYS use these, but I do pretty often.

French fries - french dressing or bbq sauce; ketchup as a last resort

Broccoli - ketchup or mustard

Kale - tahini sauce(from VwaV)

Brussels Sprouts - mustard

Mashed potatoes - gravy or vegenaise/tofu sour cream/vegan ranch

Cauliflower - mustard

Pirogies - bbq sauce

Pizza - balsamic vinaigrette


That's just a short list, but I can't think of what else I eat at the moment!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Pad Thai Review #2

As you may recall, I was going to do this awesome list of pad thai reviews for you. Well, this is the last in the series (also the second). I was going to review Trader Ming's Pad Thai Noodles & Sauce, but honestly I can't even get the courage to open it up. I had one before and I thought it was NASTY. The sauce is overly sweet, the noodles are weird and there are no vegetables. It's one of these shelf stable microwavable things from Trader Joe's. The last one I tried I had to add some peanut butter in order to make it more palatable, but even then I couldn't finish the whole thing. Plus it says it has 2 servings (yeah, right) at 260 calories each. If it were possible to get through the whole box that is a hefty 520 calories for someone to eat just for noodles and sauce.

Here's another review of this particular Pad Thai. The person reviewing it gave it a relatively good score, but it was mostly because of the box. Read the comments and you'll see how other people feel about it.


I was also going to review my favorite Pad Thai EVER, but the restaurant that made it no longer makes it. It was offered on the menu at The Living Earth (local health food store that had a cute little cafe inside). They recently renovated the whole place and added a brand new restaurant. While the new place is amazing and classy (I'll review that after I try a few more things), I miss their Pad Thai. It was perfect. They used roasted organic vegetables that were different every time. It was enough for two meals, so I always go to enjoy it more than once. I suppose I could try to recreate it, but I am trying to watch my weight a bit.