ApproximatelyInfinite

hit me if someone's posted this already: GOOP ----- This week brings easy, delicious, healthy options for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I absolutely love these buckwheat and banana pancakes, which I came up with when making breakfast for a friend who doesn’t eat eggs or dairy and doesn’t love wheat. I like the challenge of making super healthy food that doesn’t taste like it belongs in California in the 1970s. If my son likes them, then anyone will like them! The quick tuna sandwich makes a satisfying lunch and the soy-mayo spread really makes it sing. The chicken dinner is so easy it’s ridiculous. Just make sure your pantry is stocked with fish sauce and rice vinegar from the Asian market – they add incredible depth of flavor, it will taste like you have been slaving all day. If you only buy one organic item, it should be the chicken. Cook with love! Make it great! BUCKWHEAT AND BANANA PANCAKES I’ve got a thing for pancakes. This combination of nutty buckwheat and sweet, sticky banana is just great. You could sprinkle chopped walnuts on the pancakes as they’re cooking for a full-on pancake-meets-banana bread experience. These happen to be vegan, but don’t taste like it. Buckwheat flour adds a lot of value to the plain white flour – it’s rich in nutrients like calcium, iron, B vitamins and protein, and it's gluten-free. Definitely worth a trip to the health food store. SERVES: 3 or 4 (makes about a dozen pancakes) TIME: 15 minutes 1 1/4 cups soy or rice milk 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 tablespoon maple syrup, plus more for serving 1/2 cup buckwheat flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour or white spelt flour (substitute rice flour to make pancakes completely gluten-free) 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 bananas, thinly sliced Mix all the wet ingredients together in a small bowl. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a slightly bigger bowl. Add the wet to the dry and stir just enough to combine – be careful not to over-mix (that’s how you get tough pancakes). Heat a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium-high heat (I love Jamie Oliver’s nonstick cookware – it’s so slippery that I don’t need to use any oil or butter). Ladle as many pancakes as possible onto your griddle. Place a few slices of banana on top of each pancake. Cook for about a minute and a half on the first side or until the surface is covered with small bubbles and the underside is nicely browned. Flip and cook for about a minute on the second side. Repeat the process until you run out of batter. Serve stacked high with plenty of maple syrup. ASIAN TUNA SANDWICHES WITH SOY AND SESAME MAYONNAISE This started as an elegant, plated tuna dish, but it quickly turned into an out-of-this-world sandwich. If you’d like, you can omit the bread and simply serve the tuna on a bed of arugula and use the soy and sesame mayonnaise as a dressing. SERVES: 4 TIME: 10 minutes 2 tuna steaks, about half a pound each 2 tablespoons peanut oil 1 tablespoon finely minced ginger 8 slices ciabatta Extra virgin olive oil Soy and sesame mayonnaise (see recipe below) Freshly ground black pepper 1 cup arugula Slice each tuna steak in half horizontally so you end up with four thin steaks (more bang for your buck!). Rub them with the peanut oil and ginger. Set a large, nonstick skillet over high heat. When it’s hot, cook the tuna steaks for 20-30 seconds on each side or until just seared. Meanwhile, grill or toast the bread and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil. Spread the soy and sesame mayo on one side of each slice and sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper. Distribute the tuna and arugula evenly on four slices of bread and sandwich with the remaining four slices. Devour. SOY AND SESAME MAYONNAISE Beyond quick and simple but full of flavor. Also a nice dip for steamed vegetables. MAKES: 1/2 cup (more than enough for 4 sandwiches) TIME: 1 minute! 1/2 cup prepared mayonnaise (or Veganaise – the only substitute that tastes good) 2 teaspoons shoyu (soy sauce) 2 teaspoons roasted sesame oil Whisk everything together. CARAMELIZED BLACK PEPPER CHICKEN I recently found this recipe in Food & Wine magazine. It’s from Charles Phan, who runs the great Vietnamese restaurant, Slanted Door, in San Francisco. When I make it, I use a little less sugar, a lot more cilantro and organic chicken breasts (I prefer the texture of white meat in this preparation). This literally takes minutes, is so easy and tastes like what you always imagine take-out will taste like (but sadly never does). Serve this with jasmine or brown rice and stir-fried or steamed vegetables. SERVES: 4 generously TIME: 10 minutes 2/3 cup dark brown sugar (unrefined) 1/3 cup fish sauce 1/3 cup rice vinegar 1/2 cup water 2 teaspoons finely grated garlic 2 teaspoons finely grated ginger 2 teaspoons coarsely ground pepper 1 or 2 fresh Thai chilis (to your taste!), halved 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 shallots, thinly sliced 2 pounds organic boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into small pieces (1/2”) 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped cilantro In a small bowl, combine the sugar, fish sauce, vinegar, water, garlic, ginger, pepper and chili and reserve. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat and cook the shallots until softened and a bit brown, about 3 minutes. Add the chicken and stir-fry, browning it all over, about a minute. Add the sugar mixture and simmer over high heat until the chicken is totally cooked through, about 6 minutes. Stir in the cilantro and serve. NEXT WEEK We’ll talk to three very cool doctors about how to achieve general health, well-being, detoxification and weight loss. --- hmm, i can't get the pictures in here like mich can...

...you send a card :lol: :D

i do think its impossible to generalize entire nations of people, but i think we all do it. for example, i have preconceived notions of british men, but when i'm being serious, it really is pretty much just the accents that get me. and i definitely do think it's a "grass is greener" sort of thing, for whatever reasons.

JUST SAW THE PROMO CHRIS IS TOO CUTE :bomb: "...or handsome..."

AWWW. too cute! regardless of the fact that he's chris martin and gwyneth paltrow's son, he's still a kid i would contemplate stealing if i saw him on a playground or something :P

haha, well i do have to say that i was expecting like real "art," whatever that means these days. basically something more than a doodle. not that i mind, of course :P

i'm majoring in american studies, which is basically anything you want it to be. i have to take a few classes in american history and government and all that, but mainly you can make the major into whatever you want. i plan to focus on studying things like contemporary fiction and films and popular music and how they affect the culture. my minor is going to be creative writing :D ultimately i want to become a writer, but for now my plan is to teach high school english on the side. i'd love to write enough so that i could live off book royalties or something, but that's not exactly realistic.

haha, i most certainly agree about this board being filled with really sensitive people. to me, it's an online forum and i'm not going to take anything seriously. i do wish that everyone else would see that too sometimes. i feel like i know nathan's not actually an asshole, he's just messing with people. if you look, lots of times he says things of worth. for me, the difference is in knowing that things i say could offend people. i know not everyone thinks the same way, but i just don't like ruffling feathers, which is why i try my hardest not to, even when i think people are way too sensitive and take things way too seriously. some people don't care. it's less about doing away with the people that bother you and more about handling it in an appropriate way: using "ignore," not responding back, or responding back like briggs does. we're never going to make the people that people seem to have issues with into lovey-dovey coldplayers, so why try? i say handle it yourself by ignoring or not letting it affect you (its a FORUM, people, not a household), or actually look for the humor in it. usually there is humor in it, too. [/butting in]

OOOH THE PROMO. i forgot about that! :dance: they HAVE to play one during the office!

oh man, this TOTALLY crossed my mind as a possibility, barack doing a cameo that week. too bad its the week AFTER, because i think chris would probably wet himself if it was the same week he was on. ohhh man. if they happened to be in a skit together, i would KILL for chris to play an american :lol:

:lol: haha, well thanks :D seriously, though. of course, everyone can write WHATEVER the hell they want, but i did mention it might be best to write some sort of personal, specific story in the rules. i really think it'll mean a lot more.

write a personal story about how they helped you in a time of need or something, if that ever happened. i think something very small and specific like "'amsterdam' really helped me when my parents got divorced" or something like that would mean a lot more and stick with them more than an "OMG I LOVE YOU" postcard, or even an eloquent one with only general statements.

awww, that's so scary! but yeah, i was expecting something...artistically...better :lol:

it's not too late to join, believe me :nice:. we haven't even gotten an address yet. really, we're thinking the last date for mailing postcards will be around november 30, so anyone can join up until then, really.

if only chris's hair could grow another inch by sunday :bomb:

let's just hope the vast majority of people on the project don't procrastinate too long until it's too late....

on the bright side of all this, i made both of my postcards. one of them could be better, but it'll do. i also worked out what i'm going to say on one of them :D

:cheesy: thanks! :nice: and clear instructions too! :dance:

new rule-thing (whatever you want to call them) added: DO NOT PUT YOUR RETURN ADDRESS ON THE CARD. There is limited room on postcards as it is, and postcards usually don't allow space for return addresses. If you put on your home address as well as Debs's P.O. Box, the post office may get confused about which address to send the card to and either hold it for a long time at the post office or at worst, send it back to you. semy's making a few updates to his templates, and once that's done, i plan to add all the ones we have into the first post :D

haha, well i had exactly $42 in BILLS...i always have tons of random change :P and i did get the shirt, yeah! :nice: i love it! i wish i could get the 42 one too, though THIS. AD. IS. AWESOME. :wideeyed: even without the coldplay reference, i would think it was AWESOME.

threads like this remind me of why i spend so much time on this forum :nice: lore, even though bad grades make you feel awful, really in the long run it doesn't make any difference. in 20 years, you might remember you got a really crap mark in that class, but it won't have made ANY bearing on where you end up. and everyone gets shit grades from time to time, even brainiacs. in the end, you're still going to get your degree--a few bad grades won't change the sort of degree you get or how qualified you are for what you do. anyway, the long-run perspective always helps me out with stuff like that. i really hope you feel better soon. coldplay always does wonders for me :D

dayum, briggs...:wink3: :P

Official logo voted on! thanks, Semy :nice:

WEOOOO semy wins! :dance: i wish he got two more votes, though :P :lol:

ooh, really? maybe you're right. hmm. well i really want some blue ones, but 20 would be a LOT of bracelets...:thinking: