Moving...we are moving...this blog has moved!!

Good Afternoon !
I have moved this blog to continue it at a new address!
the new address isssss:
www.adventures-in-the-kitchen.blogspot.com

see you there!!

Meatless Monday!

So, Jeremy and I have started following the mantra that is "Meatless Mondays." We were entirely successful last night! We had the littlest pants join us for a delectable meal of Falafel Salad, and let me tell you, it was glorious.

Is there really anything better than three-four falafels laying on a bed of lettuce with cucumbers, tomatoes, and banana peppers surrounding them? Not on meatless Monday there's not.

Jeremy whipped up the falafel, while my sister (the littlest pants) and I prepared smoothies for dessert, and spun the romaine lettuce, and diced tomatoes and cucumbers. A great effort by all!
Falafel is delicious and if you haven't had any get yourself to a Mediterranean restaurant and try some real falafel, mmm so yummy.
With the falafel we prepared hummus (same recipe that was listed earlier)
and used Delicious raw tahini dressing...mmmm
all in all it was glorious!

After dinner we enjoyed a round of mini-sized smoothies, a great night.

Until Next time! Keep Keepin it healthy, and eat some falafel!

"Welcome to Dunkin Donuts, are you interested in trying one of our new egg white flatbread sandwiches?"

Right, Imagine asking that question for 8-10 hours a day, from 5am to 3pm or so. I know what you're thinking, who, honestly, who would choose that life? I didn't choose, but my bills sure chose, things like rent, auto, renters, and health insurance, credit card payments, and bank accounts. THAT is who chose, if it were left up to me, I would start my own business and clean my house a lot. I spend days at home experimenting making new juices and smoothies for my future smoothie/juice bar I plan to open on Park Ave. Everyone who had a birthday would receive a card in the mail from me, friends who live in far away lands wouldn't have to wait so long before I could call them again...unfortunately none of those things (at least not right away) allow for any of those bills to get paid.





Anyways, I no longer am a slave to dunkin donuts, instead I work in insurance, and spend time helping people, or calling people telling them they are late on their payments, when I myself haven't quite found the time to pay my own auto insurance. I work 50+ hours a week, and only get paid for 40, and my boss is most often inn appropriate, and even more often obviously sexist. But I fight those battles every day so that I don't have to work at dunkin donuts.

I told you I would find some time to tell you all about my adventures in the dunkin donuts world.


Working in Dunkin Donuts, despite what many may have heard is certainly no picnic. In order for them to be qualified in any realm of sanitation in any way at all there had to be rules. I mean, there were rules, and making rules. There were unflattering terrible uniforms, with even more uncomfortable headsets (for the drive thru) and if all of that wasn't bad enough...there were "up selling phrases" everyone was "required" to say. Personally I didn't take part in that, not because I'm a bad employee, but rather because I knew what I was selling could be partially blamed for the death of certain people, of that much I was sure and certain.

There is mopping that occurs 2-3 times a day

There is re-stocking

The "sandwich" egg/meat are refreshed every 10 minutes (so only the freshest most processed foods are ingested)

There are specific orders in which the coffee, sugar and cream/skim milk/2% milk are to be added to the cup.

You MUST write the order on the cup.

As for the severe health downsides...

Here's one or two things to think about:

One Large Iced Dunkin Donuts Coffee / Latte = 32 ounces. That is far too much for anyone to consume, and incredible unhealthy.

The Delicious coffee cake muffins, amongst a few other muffins, have 400+ calories in them.

in ONE muffin folks...ONE muffin.

All of Dunkin's health info can be found conveniently at their website, but certainly not in store. They also are sure to keep the health information from their employees, and should any find out, we were instructed fiercly not to report our findings, or what we knew, we were instructed to instead, refer customers and consumers to the website for specific ingredients.

That would have been fine with me except that there was the slight issue involving ingredients for less than just health purposes, for food allergy. We had to appear dumbfounded and useless when asked questions regarding ingredients in order to protect the Dunkin name.

Here are a few other fun tips:

All the donuts in the greater Rochester area come from ONE donut shop in Buffalo. At said shop the donuts are all prepared at 3am, at which point they are driven to Rochester for store openings at 5:30am. By the time those of you who enjoy these "treats" or "death sentences" depending on which side of the fence you sit on, by the time they reach you, or your mouth, they've already been shelved for almost 12 hours. How about that one to think about?

Just a few notes on my experience at working at dunkin donuts, it is only opinion, and while i appreciate the job, so that all those bills could be paid, I'm not sure how i ever worked there.

So then after working there, i officially loved the D&D medium iced coffee, with 2.5 pumps of Carmel...This was until just recently really, I've been off DD for about a month now, but it swear they put something in their coffee to keep you coming back. Folks there is nothing cool about DD...find a cafe, if you're a real coffee drinker places like Starbucks and DD can't be pleasing because (and i was a Barista at a few real cafes for some time) they don't make half the drinks the right way.

Well, another post later, on the most delicious round of smoothies Jeremy and I have come up with, our latest on meatless Mondays, and how we're surviving life without meat, a posting of a "Day in the life, Raw food lifestyle at 50-50 for now"

Until next time....keep keepin it healthy, have you tried a new fruit yet today?

Dunkin Donuts The Evil Empire

PS. Just a quick note about Dunkin Donuts and Their Evil Empire...

Salmonella Poisoning in all their powdered drinks...
I used to work there, more on that later, however,
All you super trendy cool chai-tea drinkers from dunkin donuts, or ice tea drinkers, just a heads up...ALL of those drinks are powdered drinks at Dunkin...Don't get poisoned! steer clear of D&D!

Hum..Hum...Hummus!

Gooood Morning all my health food gurus!,
As I eat my 11:00 snack I wanted to share the creation of this snack with everyone.
Is there anything better/healthier/tastier than hummus as a snack? The answer is no, there is not. Hummus is one of my absolute favorite snacks!

So, since Jeremy and I are such "do-it-yourselfers" we of course decided to have a mediterranian meal last night, which of course hummus is a staple of. So, we made our very own Hummus
Here's how we did it:
The Ingredients:
2 Cans of chick peas drained, washed and dried
Juice of three bright yellow, freshly squeezed Lemons
A small cup of water
3-4 tablespoons of Tahini (we buy ours raw from the co op)
2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
4 Cloves of Garlic

Drop the Garlic into the food processer first, with just a handful of the chickpeas, grind that up, when that is ground add 4 tablespoons of the lemon juice, and another two handfuls of chickpeas. When that is starting to look smooth add the rest of the chick peas, the olive oil and a little water to achieve the consistency that you want. Grind again, as you're grinding notice the consistency, and add more lemon and juice to get that nice smooth consistency.
when you reach the consistency that you desire, pour it out of the food processor, and into a beautiful dish and put in the refridgerator. (the colder the better!)
Dice up some veggies, my favorite are cucumbers, and tomatoes, and kalamata olives, grab some gluten free crackers, and snack away!

Just a quick post for those of you attempting to be more "do it yourselfers" too!


Peace, Love, and Hummus!


Until next time, keep keepin it healthy!

My Superfood Smoothie Recipe

Good Morning (I believe it still counts as morning since it doesn't actually say 12:00 on my computer clock)

Today, I'm going to talk about my favorite concoction of smoothie that I have invented. I call it my superfood smoothie. I really enjoy it when i get back from a really rigorous work out, or I'm feeling sluggish and tired. It has lots of replenishing and cramp-preventing fruit, and the flavor is amazing!

I make it two different ways depending on funds, and resources.
Here is the first way:
1 Ripe Banana (diced)
1 Sweet Pear (it can be any pear you like that has a sweet flavor) Diced
7-10 HOME grown strawberries* sliced
5-10 ice cubes (depending on your size of the ice cube, and what consistency you're looking for)
blend it, pour it, drink it! feel replenished!

Here is way # 2
1 Ripe Banana diced
1 Sweet pear cored and diced
7-10 HOME grown strawberries*
5-10 ice cubes
1/2 of the bottle of Odwalla's "original superfoods" fruit / vegetable juice ( i know it looks gross, but it is SO good for you, and the flavor is Delicious) since its expensive i pour only half the bottle in per smoothie (the small 12 oz bottle)
blend, and enjoy

both of these smoothie recipes usually yield two smoothies, in my case i share the other half with my love, Jeremy. But you could always just put it in the fridge for after another work out, the next morning etc. Its a great smoothie and i love it!


I hope you try it at home, let me know what you think or your variations of it.
or YOUR favorite smoothie recipe.



** In regards to strawberries. I just wanted to make a quick note here it is best to use home grown strawberries for this recipe because homegrown strawberries have a sweeter taste naturally. Store bought strawberries (which are just fine in the winter...but cmon is strawberry season!) are meant to last for days on shelves in stores in order to be profitable. Homegrown strawberries, while they don't last long, not any more than 5 days in the refridgerator, have great flavor and are full of sweet juices. As a result of this it is best reccomended to go to your local farmers market and get yourself some of those home grown strawberries!


Until next time...keep keepin it healthy!

grass-good for the soul?

Good Afternoon!
Today I wanted to take a few moments to talk about Wheatgrass. Since theres only ONE juice bar I know if in Rochester, I went there and tried it, but more on that later.
Are you wondering what is wheatgrass? why would you eat/drink it, and who drinks grass honestly?!

Totally normal questions to find yourself asking...
There are a few websites that discuss or include wheatgrass in their recipes, and the truth is, its absolutely amazing for our bodies.
a couple of the websites that I found to be really worth while in explaining this are
www.welikeitraw.com and www.rawfoodnation.org

If you go to these sites and check out what they have to say you'll see that not only can you do shots of wheatgrass juice, grow it yourself and juice it...but it also works as a sleep aid,
relieves dry irritated and or ichy skin.

My personal review would tell you that it is a very, VERY unique flavor at first, but the more you have it the better it is. I also have a very sensitive scalp and it drys out quickly on occasion, especially in Rochester NY with all the weather changes. So I used it as a PRE-shampoo measure and I haven't had an itch in four days! Amazing...if you want to read on, i made it easy and
I borrowed this article from rawfoodnation.org, which is what inspired me to try wheatgrass for all different purposes. check it out...

10 Benefits of Wheatgrass Juice:
10. Wheatgrass juice loves your blood (not in a vampire kind of way). It increases red blood-cell count and lowers blood pressure. It cleanses the blood, organs and gastrointestinal tract of debris. Wheatgrass also stimulates metabolism and the body’s enzyme systems by enriching the blood. It also aids in reducing blood pressure by dilating the blood pathways throughout the body.
9. It also works great on your skin! Externally applied to the skin can help eliminate itching almost immediately. Will soothe sunburned skin and act as a disinfectant. Rubbed into the scalp before a shampoo, it will help mend damaged hair and alleviate itchy, scaly, scalp conditions. Is soothing and healing for cuts, burns, scrapes, rashes, poison ivy, athlete’s foot, insect bites, boils, sores, open ulcers, tumors, and so on. Use as a poultice and replace every two to four hours.
8. Wheatgrass gives you sweet dreams. And this is without you juicing it. Wheatgrass works as a sleep aide. Just place a tray of living wheatgrass near the head of your bed. It will enhance the oxygen in the air and generate healthful negative ions to help you sleep more soundly. Oh yeah, no work involved there!
7. It’s great for your mouth! Yes, it sweetens the breath and firms up and tightens gums. Just gargle with the juice.
6. Wheatgrass contains beneficial enzymes. Whether you have a cut finger you want to heal or you desire to lose five pounds…enzymes must do the actual work. The life and abilities of the enzymes found naturally in our bodies can be extended if we help them from the outside by adding exogenous enzymes, like the ones found in wheatgrass juice.
5. It’s a powerful detoxifier, and liver and blood protector. The enzymes and amino acids found in wheatgrass can protect us from carcinogens like no other food or medicine. It strengthens our cells, detoxifies the liver and bloodstream, and chemically neutralizes environmental pollutants.
4. Wheatgrass juice restores alkalinity to the blood. The juice’s abundance of alkaline minerals helps reduce over-acidity in the blood. It can be used to relieve many internal pains, and has been used successfully to treat peptic ulcers, ulcerative colitis, constipation, diarrhea, and other complaints of the gastrointestinal tract.
3. It also stimulates the thyroid gland, correcting obesity, indigestion, and a host of other complaints.
2. Wheatgrass juice s a beauty treatment that slows down the aging process when the juice is consumed. Wheatgrass will cleanse your blood and help rejuvenate aging cells, slowing the aging process way down, making you feel more alive right away. It will help tighten loose and sagging skin. No prescription from a dermatologist or laser skin procedure will take care of you inside and out like wheatgrass.
1. Wheatgrass juice is 70% chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the first product of light and contains more light energy than any other element. Chlorophyll is the basis of all plant life. So drinking wheatgrass juice is like drinking life! Bottoms up!
Quick Tips For Getting Some Green:
To give wheatgrass juice a try, do an internet search for local juice bars and raw/vegan friendly local restaurants. A lot of these establishments are introducing more raw options into their menu, including juices.
Fresh wheatgrass juice is best. Local organic markets and larger chains (such as Wholefoods) carry wheatgrass. You’ll have to invest in a juicer, but wow will that juice really be fresh!
Grow your own! Do a quick internet search for wheatgrass growing kits.
No room for wheatgrass kit and juicer? No worries. Some larger chains offer flash frozen wheatgrass cubes that you can purchase in bulk. Naturally thaw a serving as needed, pour in shot glass, and enjoy. Be proactive for this one. Call your local store and ask them if they carry frozen wheatgrass juice. Do an internet search for your area and wheatgrass juice distributors. See if you can pair the two together.
As a last resort, although its only half as powerful as the juice, you can purchase the powder and add it to smoothies, water and juices.
Consider really showing the world that you’ve gone green.



So today's post is all about keeping that body of yours running strong and keeping it youthful. Go out and try wheatgrass shots! post your opinions of that first time tasting it in the comments...its definitly something you have to get used to!


until next time, keep keepin it healthy, and try some wheatgrass!