Friday, July 30, 2010

It’s On!

Plans for Winston-Salem’s first vegetarian restaurant are on again. A sign at 209 W. Fourth St., the former site of Downtown Deli, promises that The Grilled Asparagus is coming soon. It was reported in May that the restaurant would be in the building vacated by Mary’s of Course! but those plans fell through. It’s very exciting that they have take root at another location—especially one in easy walking distance from my office.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Farm-fresh meal

Serendipity (and an inexplicable police barricade of Sandy Ridge Road) led me to discover the J&S Country Store several months ago. You might remember J&S Farms and their organic produce from their space at the right rear of the retail building at the Triad Farmers Market in Colfax. Well, now they have their own small country store about a mile away at 2301 Sandy Ridge Rd. It’s a wonderful place to find quality organic produce—plus freshly baked goodies, since they share the space with an artisan bakery, SwedeBread.

I visited Saturday and came away with a nice assortment of produce, including several pints of what I mostly went for, organic blueberries. One of the fun things about summer farmers markets is buying what is fresh and in-season and then figuring out what to make with it. Here’s a picture of what resulted from my buying trip:

I made an eggplant, squash and tomato gratin; sauteed kale with white beans, red onion and veggie bacon; and baked sweet potatos with pecans and maple syrup. All the produce came from J&S, apart from the tomatoes and fresh herbs, which came from my own garden. The hearty, multigrain roll came from SwedeBread.

All in all, it was a bright, fresh, filling (and tasty, if I do say so myself) meal. So take this summer challenge: Next time you visit a farmers market, try going in without a meal plan and see what develops!

The phone number of the store is (336) 665-0350, and you can contact them at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). They send out an e-mail weekly to let subscribers know what’s fresh in the store that week. (Just a note: The SwedeBread baker, Lena, is on vacation in Sweden, so there won’t be any fresh bread there for the next month. You can see her Web site here.)

Monday, July 12, 2010

A story to relish

Make sure you check out this Thursday’s edition of relish. The cover story is just for you! Laura Giovanelli talks to area vegetarians and vegans to find out some of their favorite local dishes and places to eat—plus how they get creative when eating out.

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

28-day vegetarian meal plan

Eating Well magazine has an online 28-day vegetarian meal plan, breaking down what you can have for each meal, with links to recipes. You can choose a per-day calorie target of 1,200, 1,500 or 1,800 calories. This looks like a nice plan to follow if you’re looking for a vegetarian diet, though you’d probably have to have more free time for cooking than I do to be able to follow it completely. If nothing else, it will give you some great ideas and links to yummy-sounding recipes (Asian Slaw with Tofu and shitake Mushrooms! Carmelized Onion and White Bean Flat Bread! Squash, Black Bean and Goat Cheese Tamales! Carrot Saute with Ginger and Orange!).

Thursday, July 01, 2010

Morningstar Farms

I was at Lowes Foods in Clemmons last night and discovered that Morningstar Farms has added several new products to its line, including: a turkey-style burger with avocado, a 1/4-pound veggie burger, sweet-and-sour “chicken” and a “chicken” enchilada. I didn’t get any, because my freezer is currently stuffed to the maximum capacity, but I look forward to trying them. Has anyone tried them yet?

You can read more about the new products here.

I still haven’t forgiven them for discontinuing their “steak” strips, though.