Day 16: Keeping it Simple

A friend called me out on Facebook last night for having the hipster dad post of the year. It went something like this, "So here I am. I put the baby to sleep, finished my blog, put on some Elliot Smith and am cutting up strawberries for a spinach salad. My 25 year old self would be baffled. My 70 year old self is going to thank me."

Is it hip to eat plants? That'd be great if is! And here is what I was up to:

Keeping it Simple

Ingredients:

• Spinach
• Strawberries
• Raw Walnuts

It doesn't get much simpler than that. Also, I fully admit to being weird. I've never cared for salad dressing. I've rarely used it my entire life, which suits me just fine. If you do want a dressing, a vinaigrette would probably go well with this.

Also, not to leave any of you who read about yesterday's fajitas in the lurch, I managed to sneak a photo of the ingredients. I whipped out my phone, fully expecting someone with dread locks and a Whole Foods apron to tell me I couldn't do it, but that scolding never came.

Hard Earned Recipe

Looks pretty simple, but "Adobo Sauce" caught me off guard, so I had to search it out. The first few Google hits showed meats of varying origin and I nearly broke into a cold sweat. Did I unwittingly eat meat? That's a dirty trick Whole Foods.  Luckily, I found that it is just often used in marinating meat, mostly in Spain and Portugal. Here is a vegan recipe I found if you'd like to give it a whirl yourself. I know I'm going to:

• 7-10 chipotle peppers, stems removed and split lengthwise 
• Fresh tomatoes peeled, chopped and seeds removed
• 1 cup Low-Sodium Vegetable Broth
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 
• 1/4 cup onion, minced 
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin 
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 1/8 teaspoon allspice 
• pinch of cloves

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a pan and simmer, covered on low for 30 minutes.
2. Remove the lid and simmer on low for an additional 30 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken.
3. Once the sauce has thickened, allow the peppers to cool and then store for later use.
4. The sauce should keep in the fridge for about a week. Or you can freeze it for later use.

I borrowed and modified this recipe from rubiesandradishes.com (changing beef broth to Low Sodium Vegetable Broth and leaving out the honey).

The Future is Now!

On a completely non-food related topic, for those that don't know, I'm a certified diver and absolutely love being underwater, so understandably I got a little excited about the announcement of this Star Wars-esque breakthrough. I hope that it's real and that I can get my hands on it asap!!

According to AboveTopSecret.com, "It's called the 'Triton Oxygen Respirator', a small but remarkable device that will do away for the need to carry bulky tanks on dives...It's amazing function lies in the design of tiny, nano scale 'artificial Gills', a series of small strands or threads have tiny holes along their length, which are smaller than water molecules, and can effectively separate the Oxygen from the water while diving, on demand."

But what I really want to do is this:

So much for "Keeping it Simple."