A Rainbow for Dinner

I'm not sure there's any more beautiful culinary site that delicious and fresh vegetables, raw and chopped, just begging to be dressed, sauteed, steamed, roasted, or just eaten the way nature provided them. Unfortunately, such a scene is as rare as it is beautiful for many students.

Nearly everyone at Harvard is on a meal plan and even with the ever-present salad bar, most of the prepared dishes use frozen, pre-cut vegetables; many students leave without ever having (or knowing how) to prepare meals to enjoy themselves... at least we have a series of cooking class before graduation for those about to embark into the real world of self-sustained eating.

So any chance I get, I love to host dinner parties with my on-campus classmates. Cooking together, eating together creates such an incredible bond and fun experience. This weekend, craving Thai food, instead of going out to one of the city's many restaurants we decided to try it on our own at home.

Green curry, panage curry, and pineapple fried rice--I could not have asked for a more delicious meal! I'm particularly addicted to Thai Pinapple Fried Rice and so this gave me the opportunity to try my hand at the recipe at home--brown rice, no fish sauce, everything fresh.

It was wonderful. If you're an addict like me, or just looking for a new way to use that rice cooker, try this recipe. The best part? Extra pineapple chunks for dessert!

Thai Pineapple Fried Rice

Ingredients

1 ½ cups salted/roasted cashews

1 cup frozen green peas, defrosted

½ red onion diced, sautéed

1 green chili minced

4 garlic cloves minced

¼ vegetable oil

3 shallots diced

2 cups chopped pineapple (about 1/4^th a pineapple)

1 carrot shredded (optional)

1. Cook: 1 cups brown rice w/ a bit of curry powder

2. Mix Sauce: ¼ cup soy sauce + Tbsp curry powder + 1 tsp sriachi

3. Cook Vegetables, then add cooked rice and then sauce once vegetables are softened to desire. Stir-fry for five minutes until desired consistency is achieved.

Easy as One, Two, Three :)

Peace & Love<3

My Thursday Night Dinner Date: New Rafiki Bistro near Harvard Square

So I was just alerted as to the soft-opening next Tuesday of Rafiki Bistro, a health-oriented up-scale bistro with a focus on using all-natural, eco-friendly & organic products. If you know me, you know that the words health-oriented, all-natural, eco-friendly, & organic are music to my ears... the only thing that could improve such a phrase would be the word 'vegan'. Sure enough, they not only have numerous vegan options (from vegan scones to vegetarian chili to lentil burgers) but they offer tofutti cream cheese! I've just become a recent convert to tofutti cream cheese: I love real cream cheese & so I was amazed this stuff was such an amazing replica of the yummy taste with way less fat & calories (& suffering)!

Anyway, I digress. As soon as I saw my email I knew this was going to be our next date night dinner for next Thursday... though I am just as compelled to go there by myself for a cafe trip (they have free wifi!) for some fair-trade tea & delicious vegan baked goods.

I suggest everyone check out their menu & website. I, for one, am very excited about this opening & will post as soon as I get the chance to try it out for myself!









Rafiki Cambridge Bistro
1682 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
617.661.7810

Falafel Dinner

Homemade Dinner: Falafel, Hummus, Tabouli, and store-bought whole-wheat pita (with flax seed, rich in Omega-3)