Here’s a stew I made sitting next to a ukulele I played. They’re both super rad and super vegan. The stew has a veggie broth and tomato base so it’s warm, but bright. I laid it on some brown jasmine rice right before I laid down some mad jamz on that uke.

Seriously though, this stew was perfect. It took about 20 minutes to prepare and it was one of those kitchen sink stews that actually turned out really well. If you’re a fan of the kitchen sink stew, you know that you’re taking a leap of faith when you throw what you have in your fridge into a pot.

Here’s my winning combo:

• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 can garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)
• 6-8 fingerling potatoes (halved)
• 1 bunch med organic carrots (cut into two inch chunks)
• Handful of sugar snap peas
• 3 ripe roma tomatoes (cut into chunks)
• 2 small red onions
• several tiny white onions
• 3 gigantic cloves of garlic
• salt and pepper
• cumin
• chili powder

So you’d think that since I’m doing this regularly that I would have fewer updates. Alas, there’s always a lot of life flowing my way. It’s just the way it is.

There are two kinds of sufferers in this world: those who suffer from a lack of life, and those who suffer from an over-abundance of life. I have always found myself in the second category.  -Waking Life

It looks like the winds of change are taking me to Denver for a month in the spring to do Forrest Yoga foundation teacher training with Ana Forrest! Yoga! Teaching! The Ana Forrest! Okay, maybe that’s only the most exciting thing on the planet to a yoga nerd, but I’m pretty jazzed about it, to say the least. So jazzed that every time I write about it or tell someone I say it like that… The Ana Forrest.

I was waiting until everything fell into place before I shared it on this blog, but I jumped the gun and let it slip on another blog I write for about health and wellness. Amazingly enough, the kind lady who runs the Forrest Yoga newsletter saw my post and asked me to write a piece about my love of Forrest Yoga and my anticipation for the training. So, booyah! Super excited about getting to be a part of that.

So should I tell the truth in that piece? Should I write about how the anticipation of it is making me a lot more competitive with myself. Should I let on that I walked five miles today to do yoga at two different studios. That I’m doing Bikram, Hatha, Vinyasa, Iyengar… really, any yoga I can get my hands on. Should I let on that this has turned into my yoga bachelor party. The practices might not be super meaningful since I’ve found ‘the one’, but before I commit, I need to see what else is out there really quick.

Just playin’. I really want to be in great shape and I’m fortunate enough to be in a city with so much fantastic yoga going on that I can try out a lot of stuff right now. I’d been kinda hating on Bikram for some time now, and I wanted to get the full experience of it to see if I wasn’t misjudging it. I’ll let you know when my month at Bikram Chicago is through. I also found this sweet little studio called Village Yoga nearby that I really like. I also want to check out The Lab and Moksha. Of course, I still want to spend some more time doing Forrest Yoga at Turbodog.

So this is what my life has become: touring the Chicago yoga scene, long nights with the Ukulele, makin’ up some tasty stew and putting words onto the web for a livin. I can’t complain. As a matter of fact, I really feel the need to pinch myself right now. Life is beyond good.

-wwffg

How are you all doin’? Any suggestions for a studio I must try while I’m still in Chicago? Any variations of this stew that you want to share?

Aha! I’ve made it back by the end of the week! That means I win something, right? There’s got to be some sort of blogging reward/award for that.

I’ve still been crazy busy (a.k.a. eating gross pumpkin pancakes and watching mildly humorous British comedy for hours on end… whatever, it’s winter). In all seriousity, I’ve accomplished a lot this week. I found a ukulele and I’ve been playing that. I’m almost finished with all of my work for the week. I went to my first ever Black Hawks game (do people clap through the entire national anthem at sporting events now?).

And I’ve… Okay well, that’s pretty much it. The ukulele has pretty much taken up all of my time. Soon I can accomplish my dreams of making my very own YouTube video showing of my uke skillz playing Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. It seems that that’s the only reason white Midwesterners learn how to play that particular instrument. I picked it up to write dark and disturbing songs about my ex that sound deceivingly cheerful. Think Jason Mraz meets Saw V. It’s been cathartic to say the least.

Okay, so here’s some more polenta inspiration for you. I call it inspiration, because they’re not quite recipes. If you want recipes, you can head over to the blogs that I write for a living: Dorm Room Menu and Scratchncook. I just picked up Scratch N’ Cook today, so the recipes are only mine from this day forth, but the old stuff on there is good too.

This blog is too cool for recipes. It’s all free form and hip and what not. It’s like a revolution that will hit the food blogging world faster than minimalist food photography. Eff your recipes.

Sweet Vegan Polenta Breakfast

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup cooked polenta
• 1 apple
• 1 cup almond milk
• 2 t honey
• 2 t maple syrup (optional and possibly not a good idea)
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t cardemom
• 1/4 t cloves

• Combine all ingredients except for the polenta. Heat on med until apples are tender.
• Add polenta and turn the heat to med low. Stir until polenta is creamy.

Hearty Non-Vegan Polenta Breakfast

As soon as I named this easy version of spicy Italian polenta, I realized that Chicago style polenta should probably have celery salt, sport peppers and mustard in it. That sounds gross, and I also really want to try it. I just moved to Chicago and I can’t tell you how crazy exhausted I am this week. I spent the past four days practicing Forrest yoga, going to the Second City for class, house sitting (tis awesome! Photo below), meeting all sorts of new folks, actively pretending that I’m good at staying up late and waking up early, and trying to get my bearings in this town so I can figure out what to do next and how I can get there without getting stabbed.

Sweet New Temporary Digs

I have hella work to do today, I have to go get some winter boots and I’m going to a Star Wars themed burlesque show tonight (best first date idea ever?), so I’m still crazy busy. But I couldn’t help but give in to the compulsion to post something on WWFFG today. I didn’t want to leave you with that stupid awesomely compelling and important peanut butter and nanner post any longer.

Since I’ve been all over the place these past few days, I wanted to have a breakfast, lunch and dinner staple prepared so I could mix in some extras and it’d be ready to go. Polenta is my go-to for that kind of thing.

This simple ground corn can be made into a sweet or savory breakfast, quick and pasta-like for lunch, or fried and all fritter-like for dinner… That, and the word sounds kinda fancy. All of those variations of polenta are awesome and I have pictures and recipes for every single one of them ready to go up on here. I also have a recipe for a French Toast Casserole, and a quick vegan Nicoise Salad type-thing. What I’m saying is that it should comfort you that someday you maybe might possibly see these things on this amazing blog one day. But enough of my empty, half committed promises. Here goes…

Chicago Style Polenta

Stuff:

• 1 cup cooked polenta
• 1/2 cup spicy spaghetti sauce
• spinach
• dried/fresh basil and oregano
• salt, pepper to taste

Method:

• If you don’t have a batch of polenta prepared, or if you have no idea what I’m talking about when I say that word, there’s more info here. If you’ve never made polenta, I’d suggest making a big batch and experimenting for a few days. It’s extremely versatile and it’s fun to play with it. That’s what she said.
• Heat your spaghetti sauce in a small pot over med-low heat. That’s not what she said.
• Add chopped spinach, basil, oregano and polenta.
• Stir continually until smooth and hot.

It should only take you about 10 minutes to prepare this for a quick lunch or dinner. Polenta takes about 30-40 minutes to prepare a large batch, so I like catching up on Wait! Wait! Don’t tell me! and Radiolab while I cook up big batches of rice and polenta on Sundays so I have it ready to go for the next week.

So, that’s all I have time for today. Wish me luck on getting all of my shiz done. Wish me luck on the sexy Star Wars themed first date. Wish me luck on getting back to this blog and posting some more stuff later this week. After you’re done wasting all of your wishes on me, go make some polenta! Let me know how it goes.

What are your favorite vegan polenta recipes?

I was jungle hungry, so some of this sandwich didn't make it to picture time.

People give cockroaches too much credit. I’m pretty sure that after the apocolypse, those crunchy little creatures are going to be hailing to the all important and all powerful peanut butter and banana sandwich. Why? Because they’re awesome, and you can find the ingredients for them pretty much everywhere and they’re hearty, fatty sweet and vegan. Case closed in one poorly constructed run-on sentence.

I know what you’re thinking guys. Willworkforfoodgirl is such a good food blog written by an amazing food writer that knows everything about food. Don’t I know it? Don’t think that every time I sit down to hammer out a post, I don’t realize that each one is going to revolutionize the home cooking world. Look at this one. I’m sure you’re thinking, “Holy shit! Peanut butter and banana sandwiches… that’s more revolutionary than the occupy movement and DDR combined!” But I wish you guys would stop thinking that because really it’s a lot of responsibility. I’m not the V for Vendetta guy. Although I would like to challenge him to an ‘eggs in a basket’ off. In the end he would probably win and then brainwash me. It’s okay. I’d look good bald.

Since you already know how to make a peanut butter and banana sandwich, this post is just to serve as inspiration. Go eat one now! No bananas? Sub out another fruit. I used papaya when I was in Panama. It was awesome. Pineapples and mangoes also get the green light. Then experiment… Grill it, fry it, batter it and fry it (umm…. yes).

This post is also to serve as a “Hello! I’m back in the states! U.S.A! U.S.A!” I’ve been in Panama, where the grass is literally greener and the heavens are closer. I’ll probably share some photos and some travelogs on here later on this week. Perhaps it’s time to start separate photo and travel sections here on wwffg. Perhaps.

Ahhh… It’s good to be back home. Hot showers. An oven to bake in. A big computer. WiFi. Oh shit, I sound so domesticated. If you would have seen me on Sunday morning you would know that this is not really the case. I strolled into the hostel covered in crusty dried mud, wearing the last of my dry clothes (jorts, a sportsbra and a hippie belly shirt… you know, super stylish stuff), and I’m pretty sure that’s the moment when I knew I could totally make it as a traveling vagabond.

Man, this post is so dimensional… Not only is it’s purpose to talk about those other super blogworthy things, it’s also a call for suggestions. I’m going to do some baking for this blog and my family tomorrow (see who comes first?) and I was wondering if you have any awesome citrus and cardemom baked goods that you absolutely love. I have some sweet little oranges and hella fresh organic cardemom that are begging to be put together. I’m kinda feeling bundt cake, but I’m not completely sold on the idea…

But enough of this for now (don’t you dare let out that sigh of relief). I’ve got a bunch of catching up and lazing around to do today. Stay tuned for some travel tales and for a wwffg baked goods monstrosity.

Thanks for stopping by!

Corinne

• 2 Tablespoons Ghee
• 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/4 Teaspoon Fresh Ground Black Pepper
• 1/4 Teaspoon cardamom
• 2 Teaspoons Fresh Ground Ginger
• 2 Tablespoons Honey
• 2 cups Almond Milk

Method

Melt ghee in a pot over medium heat. Add ginger, cinnamon, and black pepper. Simmer until aromatic.

Add almond milk and honey. Continue to stir until the concoction comes to a boil. Immediately remove from heat and serve warm.

Seriously, this stuff is the best. It’s absolutely my new favorite thing. I have a mug of this and some dried dates for an afternoon snack when I’m feeling chilly and it’s probably one of the best parts of my day. Nay… my life. Try it and you’ll know that that statement isn’t so much sad as it is true. This stuff is, shall I say, perfect? 

Try it out and let me know what you think.

 

]]> http://willworkforfoodgirl.com/2011/11/20/the-wwffg-winter-concoction/feed/ 0 willworkforfoodgirl DSC_0149 ginger almond milk ghee ginger almond milk cinnamon pepper ghee drink Ayurvedic tea for a cold http://willworkforfoodgirl.com/2011/11/20/a-willworkforfoodgirl-update/ http://willworkforfoodgirl.com/2011/11/20/a-willworkforfoodgirl-update/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:28:16 +0000 willworkforfoodgirl http://willworkforfoodgirl.com/?p=745 Continue reading →]]>

I've spent the past few months buying up the worlds coolest stretchy pants...

Well, well, well… It’s been awhile. This morning I woke up with the realization that that needed to change. But with that epiphany came a deep sense of ‘what the heck am I going to tell you guys about the past two months?’  I’ve been doing this long enough that it’s become my sixth sense.

You know the willworkforfoodgirl motto, right? No? Well let me drop some personal blogging philosophy on you that will make Eckhart Tolle look like Perez Hilton… Or maybe it will make Perez Hilton look like the Geekologie writer (I’m not sure where this is going anymore, but get ready for some pure blogging wisdom):

“Write a few posts about how you’re excited to be back and writing for your audience, let them know what you’ve been up to, drop a few recipes like they’re hot, and fall off the face of the planet for a few months.” -willworkforfoodgirl

With that, I’d like to say I’m super excited to be writing for you guys again (see?). I’m going to give you an update of what I’ve been up to in a tweet-sized nugget (#imtweetingnowandfinallyunderstandwhathashtagmeans). Then I’ll give you a recipe for one of the most comforting winter concoctions on the face of the planet (which I will try not to fall off of this time around).

Update

breakup.movedbackhome.followedwookiefootaround.livingwithparents.meetinglovelynewpeople.seeingsomegoodoldfriends.goingtopanamanextweek.

I was hoping it would sound less pathetic in 140 characters. Did it work?

I’m actually in a really good place right now. Beyond that, I’m actually super jazzed. Things are all working out for the best, and I get to embark on an amazing new journey filled with travel, blogging and wonderful people.

I’ve learned more about myself, what work needs to be done to overhaul this old soul, and what I want out of life in the past two months than I ever have.

Buiznass

My job is still fantastic! I have some new blogs that I’d love to share with you if you’re interested in taking a peek. Here’s a list of what I’m working on right now:

• Friggin’ Hippie
• Dorm Room Menu
• College Health and Wellness
• Photnograf
• Weekly Geeky

Well, good evening folks (or good morning depending on when I get around to posting this)!

I’m so excited to share some news and a quick idea about using all of your veggie scraps to make something delicous, nutritious and, you guessed it, cheap.

Exciting Update! Guess who’s got two thumbs and has a real job professionally blogging for a living? This girl. That’s right, a real live company pays me sit around the Fayetteville Public Library and do this every day. It’s a really great gig  with a fantastic company and I’m having a great time doing it. Online education to all of my PMA Media Group peeps! That was an anchor text shout out (blogger humor). I promise, it’s not nearly as much fun as doing it for you though. They tend to point out when I make grammatical errors and you guys are nice enough to pretend you don’t see them.

Tonight, I got home ready to spend my evening laying around and doing nothing. As fun as writing is, I constantly feel like I have some major search overload. Example ramble: “Did you know Florence from Florence + the Machine was discovered drunkenly singing in a bathroom. Public bathroom door nobs have the least amount of germs compared to other bathroom fixtures.  Lindsey Lohan is a fixture at nightclubs.”

But instead of throwing my groceries straight in the fridge and heading for the couch, I did the smart thing and prepped them for easy access (I was going to make a Lindsey Lohan joke here, too. I must be tired). Once I started chopping, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop there. I was looking at the leftover celery stalks and broccoli stems, and the thought of chucking them in my almost full trash can made me sad (I try to make sure that Zach’s always the one who throws in the thing that makes it undeniably full so he has to take it out. Before that, it’s like playing the garbage version of Tetris). I checked in the fridge and we had some carrots and tomatoes past their prime. I kept looking and kept finding. It was that moment that I knew. I was destined to finally make my own vegetable broth.

So here’s the tiniest tutorial known to man:

How-To Make Your Own Vegetable Broth

Take all of your veggie scraps and veggies that aren’t still beautiful but aren’t quite rotten and throw them in a pot.

My broth used:

• Celery stalk bits
• Broccoli stems
• Baby carrots
• One Potato
• Four roma tomatoes
• An onion
• 3 cloves of garlic smashed
• Parsnip shavings
• A couple of strips of bell peppers

Really, you can use practically anything as long as you rinse it. The skins can stay on. Don’t worry about chopping everything up.

Add 1 Gallon of water to your large pot filled with leftover vegetables.

Bring to a boil.

Turn down the heat and let it simmer for an hour.

You can use a regular pasta strainer to strain out your vegetables if you didn’t have any super small bits.

Now that we have a gallon of vegetable broth that tastes awesome, but looks really lackluster, do you have any unique ideas about how to use it?

-wwffg

P.S. If you want to see what I’m working on, you can check out Lifestyle U, Hubpages or Campus Greenly. I promise that’s not shameless self promotion. Deb just wanted the links and I’m a web diva who has no time for email. Kidding, it’s me bragging about how cool my job is. I’m done now.

It’s been fiscal responsibility week at the willworkforfoodgirl encampment. We’re battening down the hatches of our savings accounts and shoring up every penny. I wanted to learn how to invest some money, move it around, make more of it. But I thought I already knew how to save it. Since I’ve become a freelance writer, I’ve been clinging to every dollar so hard that you’d have to tear my arms off to get it… Or so I thought.

Right now, we’re reading a book that challenged us to find our “Latte Factor.” You know, all of that little stuff that you don’t actually need, but you get it any way because it’s only 2 bucks? When I heard that, I thought to myself, “Huzzah! This is a section for my lover, but not for me! I am perfect at this! I do no wrong in this sector of life!”

But then, of all the horrors, it asked us to write down everything we spent in a day. It is astounding, I repeat, astounding how quickly all of that adds up. For a person who thought she was already only buying the things that she needs, it was  a pretty big wake up call. I can’t say I can give up everything I found out I was spending my money on (a girl can only give up so much), but when I add up how much I spend on gum and drinks with our buddies at Kingfish over the course of the year, it made me cringe.

I found out by using the Latte Factor Calculator, that if I gave up catching up over drinks (never), the occasional cup of coffee (maybe), all of that damn gum (absolutely), and the few packs of cigarettes I’m still smoking (god willing), in twenty years I would save over $70,000. That’s if I invest it and make a 10% annual rate of return.

Now that’s just for the small stuff. The big stuff, like cable and rent, well that stuff is like setting fire to your money.

Anywho, I just figured I would share. I suggest you try to find your Latte Factor just to see how much you could save. It’s like peeking at the nutritional content of a Big Mac. It’s not pretty but someday you’re going to have to do it.

Michael Crane from Dripping Springs Gardens on Thursday. This guy can make a hellofa bouquet.

Tomorrow is Saturday: Farmers Market day! It has finally cooled down and the farmers market will be a lovely place to spend a lazy morning. But, this week I just couldn’t wait.

I’ve been making my Fayetteville Farmers Market Pizza for over a year now. The thing I love about it is that it’s always different. Every time you make it there’s a new local ingredient that you can add. When something you usually incorporate it goes out of season, it forces you to get creative and it makes for some interesting pies. And it’s not just for Fayettevillians either. I picked very common ingredients that can be found at farmers markets all over the U.S. for those of you who live elsewhere.

Jet Setter Tomatoes from Sister Sprouts

This Thursday, I tried to get an ingredient from each stand at the farmers market. I usually play favorites and shop around for the best deal, but doing this gave me an opportunity to get to know about each of the farms. It was a wonderful experience, one that is much more difficult on a busy Saturday than on a Thursday. I’d suggest you try it anyhow. Our farmers are great and well worth waiting to meet.

I tried to add the directions as captions in the slideshow, but some of the images move too quickly. The instructions are simple, and each pizza cost well under $5. It’s an easy way to feed a family of four for under $10. Plus, you have to add in the entertainment value. The kids love making their own pizzas and they can play with the dough for hours (exaggeration: we have a wii).

Without further ado:

willworkforfoodgirl’s Fayetteville Farmers Market Pizza

Ingredients (This is just an outline. Experiment!)

Sauce & Toppings

• 5 Medium Tomatoes
• 3 small zucchini
• 3 small squash
• 3 onions
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• salt & pepper
• olive oil

Crust

I use the Bob’s Red Mill Perfect Pizza Crust recipe found here.

Instructions

Sauce: Quarter your tomatoes, drizzle them with olive oil and turn the heat up to med-high.  Add basil, onions, garlic, red pepper, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 10-15 minutes. When the sauce reduces, drain excess liquid (save it) and pour the tomato mixture into a blender. Blend until combined.

Crust: I like the Bob’s Red Mill Perfect Pizza Dough recipe. When it doubles in size, it’s time to make your crust. This recipe makes two 12 inch pizzas. Divide the dough in half. Sprinkle corn meal on your surface and work the dough out from the center to form your crust.

Pizzazz: Pour sauce into the center, work toward the crust. After your sauce is smoothed out, layer on onions, peppers, zucchini and squash. Add cheese and another layer of veggies.Bake at 475 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Tadaaa! That was a good time and a late night. Totally worth it in my opinion.

So, this is the point in the show where I’d like to hear from you, yes YOU. What are your favorite farmers market finds and recipes? Who are your favorite farmers? What local ingredients would you like to see featured in a recipe on wwffg? Please let me know. I love to hear from you!

-wwffg