FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Resolution #Fail

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So… I’ve officially broken all but one of my New Year’s resolutions.  My 365 Project lasted only a few weeks.  I try to make the most of Tampa, but I can’t stop longing for LA.  I just couldn’t help myself in the dairy department when faced with sea salted caramel brownies at the Taste of South Tampa.  And then meat…  I hadn’t had a single non-seafood meat craving until I went to Animal (THE carnivorous hip spot in LA) and sampled all sorts of animal.  It was at that point that I downward spiraled.  It’s a darn good thing I’ve been keeping good company!!!

On my last day in LA, Hansell grilled a feast complete with feta filled risotto, meat skewers, and grilled glazed donuts toped with melty ice cream.  Even I’m not crazy person enough to turn down that degree of temptation.  I gorged.

GORGED.

Upon my return home, I immediately reverted back to my non-dairy veggie state. Relief!  Relief that was totally destroyed when car accident Friday happened.  I nursed my neck-ache with champagne, fume blanc, and real cheese pizza.  Oh and I had real cheese pizza in LA.  I had fallen so far off the wagon.

But it gets worse…  When I drove home from St. Pete on Saturday, I lost complete control.  To avoid completely grossing you out, let’s just leave it at… I ate both Taco Bell and McDonalds on Saturday.  Are the WTFs flying yet?!

Even after all of this, I had zero intention of being a perma-meat eater again. But I’m not one to deny myself a little bit of out of control (OK a lot a bit of out of control).  I decided to give myself a proper send off  to veggie-ville by visiting an ultimate favorite of mine, the bar at Bern’s Steakhouse.  I ate the whole shebang: french onion soup, salad, baked potato with sour cream, chateaubriand, onion straws, and veggies.  Leftovers?  Ha!  Not at all.

The moral of this gluttonous story is…  My body is so far out of whack that I’m happily returning to non-dairy, veggie Kristin.  I stocked up on my pre-LA guilty pleasure spring rolls (which seem a lot less guilty now) and stir fried some marinated tofu and green beans for dinner.

 

Winning!

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I was hoping spring rolls would be an easy to whoop up kind of dinner before heading to the Celebrate The Web Event “Raising The Bar”.

There turned out to be a significant amount of prep work involved.

Softening the noodles, frying the tofu, cutting the veggies…

I was racing against the clock.

However, once all of the details were taken care of, finishing was easy breezy.

We used rice stick noodles, fried tofu, mango, cilantro, red onion, and cucumber as the stuffing.  And at some point during my speedy roll construction, I completely forgot to add the lettuce!  A little bit of a bummer, but they were still super tasty.

Ariel and I ate (standing) as we rushed to get ready while Matt cleaned the whirlwind of a kitchen that I left behind.  Savior.

Then we were off!

We re-watched all thirteen web pilots, anxious to find out who would be Winning! that night.  When they announced Relapse as the Audience Choice Winner, I looked next to me only to find a completely frozen Team Discovery Channel.  It wasn’t but seconds later, the entire crew hopped on stage to humbly accept the award they so deserved.

Sharing this moment with Ariel couldn’t have made me an ounce happier!!!

And then we celebrated!