Is storing food in plastic bad for your health?

I consider myself somewhere in the middle when it comes to being green and up to speed on the latest healthy practices. By that I mean, I am way behind folks who seem to have known about certain health risks and green issues for years and are part of a whole subculture who are really up-to-speed on these things. On the other hand, I am ahead of any of many folks I personally know who are surprised when I tell them things like coconut oil is good and canola is bad.

Anyway, my point is that I believe I am jumping on the "plastics are bad" bandwagon now. This is going to be a weird change since I store pretty much all of my food in plastic bags and my boyfriend and I bring our lunches to work every day in plastic and I even microwave in plastic.

I recently read Jillian Michaels' "Master Your Metabolism". I was NOT expecting her to go off on so many every day practices that she and many folks believe are disrupting and hurting our bodies. I was really scared away by many of her suggestions that seem like drastic changes. I really needed time to let it sink in and do some more research. One of these include the use of plastics for food storage and heating.

So, what is wrong with plastic? I am very new to this but I'll give you a teaser. Apparently some types of plastic leach chemicals and other bad things into our food, especially when used to microwave or when storing fats. These things can can have all kinds of effects from disrupting your hormones to causing cancer.

You don't have to eliminate all plastics for food immediately; I personally am going to try to do this gradually. Here are some immediate things we can do:

• Do not microwave any foods in plastic. Use glass or ceramic instead.
• Check the bottom of your plastic containers and look for the recycling code. If it says 3 or 7, stop using them for food.
• Start using glass, stainless steel, and wax paper storage products. If you drink a lot of water on the go, get a stainless steel water bottle.
• Check out the resources below and search for more info. Decide whether you want to take more steps to reduce or eliminate your use of plastics or buy special plastics.

Resources:

• http://www.care2.com/greenliving/kitchen-plastic-easy-greening.html
• http://www.care2.com/greenliving/safe-plastics-for-lunchboxes.html
• http://www.thegreenguide.com/buying-guide/plastic-containers
• http://lifewithoutplastic.com/
• http://preserveproducts.com/index.html
• http://www.pyrexware.com/
• http://www.amazon.com/Master-Your-Metabolism-Naturally-Balancing/dp/0307450732
• http://www.greenfeet.com/itemdesc.asp?kw=Wax-Paper-Bags-Unbleached-60ct&ic=6006-00009-0000&eq=

Cupcakes for a BBQ

I made some cupcakes for the boyfriend's bosses BBQ last weekend and they were a big hit. I opted for the vanilla/vanilla flavor combo because of its general likeability. People really loved them, but I honestly felt they were not as moist as I would have liked. I have to say the most moist cupcakes I have made have been from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, despite the obvious lack of butter. I used the recipe for cake and frosting from Bakeralla's site.

Also, apologies for my last of posts lately. I've actually been to a lot of restaurants and have made some tasty food lately but I have been so busy during the day with my new full-time job (4 month mile stone in a couple of days, yay for me) that I have not been in the mood to spend much time on the computer when I get home. But, I must try harder.

Cheerio

Delicious Birthday

I had a wonderful birthday. My boyfriend made it truly special and I am very lucky to have him. He not only puts up with me.. he makes life more and more amazing with each passing day, week, and year we are together. : )

The day started out with breakfast in bed, followed by a nap, then a 6 mile hike through the Santa Monica mountains, followed by dinner at Yamashiro. I had never heard of the place but it's this really cute Japanese-inspired Cal-pan-Asian restaurant in the Hollywood hills. It was awesome!

Hanging Rock, Santa Monica Mountains





View from Insiration Point, Backbone Trail, Santa Monica Mountains


Mango martini... so delicious!!


Spicy tuna and snow crab napolean. A refreshing, pimped out version of tuna tartare. The arugula on the side had a delicious dressing.


Asian baby back ribs with five-spice cornbread and mashed sweet potatoes. The meat just fell of the bone. I loved the Asian flavors in the BBQ sauce.

I liked this dish the most. The black cod was cooked to buttery perfection and the wasabi mashed potatoes were amazing.

Ice cream sandwich! Warm chocolate peanut-butter cookies with dulce de leche ice cream, toasted walnuts, and chocolate and caramel sauces. Loved these flavor combos.. especially the nuts with the sauces.

I didn't know they were going to bring this too! Light cake with tasty strawberry sauce.

Sweet lounge over looking a pool. Not sure who swims in it.

Beautiful views of the city.

Thai Supermarket: Silom Market at Thai Town's Thailand Plaza

This morning I ventured out to Silom market in Hollywood's Thai town. Thai town is a small, nohing like Chinatown or Koreatown, but it does hold a little microcosm of Thai culture and food that is worth exploring.

Silom market is part of Thailand Plaza, a building with a restaurant and stores. Parking in the complex is free with a receipt from one of the merchants. Getting there right when it opened at 9:00 am, I successfully avoided the traffic!

Silom had all of the things I needed to make an authentic Panang curry. This market is about 4 or 5x the size of Simpang Asia over on the west side. I was able to get fresh galanga, kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, Thai chiles, and other ingredients. I also picked up some tasty little pastries right outside the back door. A nice guy was loading them hot and fresh off of his truck. I just loved the big pieces of fried banana he was selling. Pastries pictured below.

My experience here was actually one that reminds me of why I love food so much. Food isn't just about eating, it's a door into the lives of the cultures and people who cook, share, and consume it. I say this because as I walked out the front door I saw a beautiful procession of Buddhist monks, all dressed in their bright orange robes. They were lined up and walking past the many Thai people who were putting food in the monks' baskets. This is a tradition that takes place in Thailand and I had only seen it on TV. I did some more research on it and learned that this is the daily alms round that provides Buddhist monks with their food and is part of the monk's philosophy which promotes dependence on well-wishers. They only eat between dawn and noon. I was lucky to have arrived at 9:00 am when this was happening! I hope I explained all of that correctly. I felt like I shouldn't just stand there and stare at them.. although I wanted to because it was quite beautiful. It was a very quiet and solemn ceremony and the people greeted eachother with praying hands. I was the only whitey there and felt a little bit like a tourist all of a sudden. So, I slowly walked back into the store and then went home.

Silom Supermarket
5321 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Open 9-9 every day

First Annual Yelp Restaurant Week

That's right. Restaurants are offering prix fixe menus this week in honor of Yelp! Check it:
http://www.yelp.com/events/park-la-brea-1st-annual-yelp-restaurant-week-and-lacma-muse-artwalk-specials

Quest for the Best: Cornbread Recipe

As some of you know, I recently finished a 6-month culinary program. This has really sparked my desire to work on my cooking skills and stop messing around. So, I think part of that is to really find the best recipes I can and learn to execute them as well as I can. I figure I'll start with things that are the basic foundations of cooking, as well as things I just love to eat. Since cornbread and corn muffins are pretty much in my top ten of favorite foods, I am working on finding a great recipe I can use. I have alluded to my love for corn muffins in a previous post. I love a really moist, sweet corn bread. I found and tried this recipe for buttermilk cornbread from Allrecipes.com (photo above). It was really good, and pretty much what I was looking for. I've already gobbled down 1/3 of the pan with some orange maple compound butter.

BUT, I am not satisfied. A recent trip to Austin Texas opened my eyes to the Southern cornbread. This is the cornbread that's less sweet, more "bready" if you will, and is delicious when sopping up BBQ sauce and eating with ribs. So now, while I love my sweet cakey New England corn bread, I am on a quest for the best Texas cornbread. Got a good recipe?

Awesome Tuna Tartare Salad

I just polished off this great salad that i brought into work using the tuna tartares from the previous post. I didn't want to have just tuna on rice because it would be a lot of fat, carbs, and cals. So, I took some arugula, dressed it with a little bit of rice wine vinegar and sesame oil. Then I added a small portion of Japanese rice and some of each kind of tuna tartares. I then chopped up a whole tomato and added that in and put a little more of the vinegar on those. Then I topped the whole thing with edamame, sesame seeds, and scallions. Yummy!!