Tasty little quails, and why I'm mostly givng up meat.

Last night I had one of the most wonderful meals… I won’t go as far to say “in my life” but it was pretty spectacular. I ate the entire thing standing up, hurried mouthfuls between busing dishes, and pouring more wine. 10:30 PM found me with my shoes off, picking cold pieces of Parisian gnocchi of a plate with my fingers, sipping dregs of wine from the unfinished open bottles… the entire staff agreed, it was the best event we had ever put on.

The meal was prepared by Andrew Biggs of Hunt and Gather catering… The table was decorated with air plants and terrariums, candles , burlap, and the meal was exactly what we wanted it to be. a Hearty winter meal. (but surprisingly it didn’t leave you feeling heavy and gross… it was rich, but not overly so)

Pan Seared Albacore Tuna with Bana Couda Dipping Sauce

Vegetarian Option: mozzarella cheese and oven dried tomatoes, wrapped in fresh zucchini, drizzled with basil oil.

 (Sadly no pictures of this, but they were beautiful!)

Hubbard Squash Soup with Crispy Pig's Ear Gremolata, Finished with

Olio Nuovo Tuscan Blend

Nicky Farms Boneless Quail Stuffed with Pheasant and Calmynia Fig Sausage, Sautéed Root Vegetables and Parisian Gnocchi, Finished with Arbequina Oil

 Cara Cara Orange Cake with Olio Nuovo Koronieki Ice Cream

And after all that… I think I’m ready to turn over a new leaf.

The food was impeccable… but I’m coming off a weekend filled with documentaries, you know the kind that tell you how unhealthy American’s are, and how we are essentially killing ourselves with what we eat. I know there are two sides to every story, but the thing that stood out to me the most was that 500 calories of plant based food essentially fill up your stomach… so not only do you feel full, but you are also getting tons of essential micronutrients. 500 calories of processed food only fill up about half of your stomach, leaving you still feeling hungry, and not getting the essential nutrients that you need.  And I figure I owe it to my body to do a bit of a detox… and what better month than February? (ok there are plenty of better months than February… like any month when there are actually fresh things readily in season… but I’m going to give it a try)

Just looking at my family history, it seems as though making healthy choices now will really be beneficial. My mother has had cancer, twice. My grandmother has had cancer, twice. My Great aunt is dying of cancer, my other great aunt just discovered pancreatic cancer… The odds are not in my favor. So it only makes sense that starting at a young age, I should make a conscious effort to be active, and follow a lifestyle that will reduce my health risks.  I don’t think that I am currently un-healthy… but I do sometimes fall into a food rut, and I rely far too often on burritos (though I think there are far worse things I could be putting in my body… at least it has vegetables and isn’t deep fried)

I’ve blogged about it before, but my typical life cycle seems to be that I eat really poorly when I am stressed… therefore my body isn’t getting everything it needs to combat the stress, my immune system gets weak, my body gets sluggish, and the overall overwhelmingness of the stress effects my body… It makes so much sense to me that the busiest and most stressful times are actually when we need to be taking care of our bodies the most. This is when we need the healthy home cooked meals… and for me this is when I get them the least. It takes 5 minutes to get a burrito, or grab some take out, but it takes planning and foresight to plan out healthy meals... and it takes time.  And it’s something that I’m working on.

Last weekend I planned out menus for the entire week. I spent most of my day off grocery shopping, cooking for the week, and doing dishes.  I was prepping lunches, prepping snacks… and it was kind of awesome. It was a week filled with meetings, extra yoga classes, after hours networking, late night events… and here I am at the end of the week feeling no worse for ware, and ready to tackle another hectic week. It often meant eating dinner at 9PM, and getting up early to make breakfast… but my energy level is great ! And so next month I’m taking it a step further…adding in a whole foods, essentially plant based diet (god I wish I had a juicer).

I essentially grew up in a vegetarian house-hold. I didn’t eat meat until the age of nine, and even though I love meat now, I rarely ever cook it for myself. There are a few exceptions to this… and there will be at least one exception to it this month, since I have a Coconut Chicken night scheduled with my good friend.  My own personal philosophy on a wholefoods plant based diet is “everything in moderation” I am pledging to cut out meat (minus the coconut chicken) and cut down on dairy, eat fewer eggs, and try to focus more on plants… especially eating more raw vegetables. But I’m not going to give up coffee, I’m not going to give up wine… (will I drink less of it? Probably. ) Perhaps if I were knocking on deaths door, I would be inspired to make a radical change… but really it’s just an experiment for now, and the last thing I want to do is completely inconvenience my life, or the life of others around me. I don’t want to show up for a dinner party, springing my vegetarianism on someone… but like I said, moderation. I plan on spending the month eating less non-plant food, and plan on pumping up the vegetables.

Dear quail stuffed with sausage and figs… you were freaking delicious. Thank you for being a wonderful send off into the land of temporary vegetarianism.