Summer Squash and Soba

What i had for dinner tonight: zucchini and summer squash sauteed in onions and garlic over soba, or buckwheat noodles, with salad on the side.

How to make it:
Get frying pan heating.
1 small onion, sliced thinly and separated
garlic to taste
sautee in 2 tbs of olive oil. While those are sauteeing on med heat,
1 small zucchini, thinly sliced
1 small yellow summer squash, thinly sliced
mix into the sautee.
1 cup water
soy sauce to taste. Start with 1 tsp, then keep stirring, tasting. I tend to like somewhere between 2 tsp and a tablespoon.
3/4 tsp herbes de provence.
Stir and simmer medium-high heat.

When the water is gone, turn the heat off. Serve over noodles (i really like it with buckwheat noodles (soba), but i don't usually eat wheat, so i'm weird), eggs, salad, or as a side. Fresh parmessan preferred, sprinkled over everything. YUMMY.

On Organic Produce

Just a brief note on organic produce. One image that is usually associated with being a vegetarian is eating organic food. I want to talk about produce. I'm not going to try to talk you into buying organic food. What i will tell you is that organic food lasts longer. The reason for this is that it is typically local. The closer to the source you are, the fresher the food is going to be, for obvious reasons: it didn't have to go through such a strange packing ritual, it didn't have to be shipped, etc. I'm all about supporting local farmers.

Let's iron this all out a little bit. Something might be organically farmed on a local farm, but is not "certified organic." How can this be? The organic certification, to me, is something of a scheme, because the farmers have to pay to become certified organic, and most farmers i know simply can't afford to keep their licence AND have their vegetables sold at affordable prices. That's why i liked to by things in the grocery store that say, "locally grown," because 9 times out of 10, it's also organic. What i like even better is to buy things at the local food co-op that doesn't necessarily say organic. If a food co-op has it on its shelves, the co-op thought highly enough of that farm to sell their produce without it having been certified.

What you have to decide for yourself is whether it's generally more important to you to make certain that your personal food is certified organic, or whether you think it's more important to you to support farmers who are farming organically who can't afford the certification. Of course there are other considerations as to the cost of organic farming -- it's not just the licence that costs money: when somebody farms organically, that means they're not using pesticides, which means they're losing more of their crops to bugs. That's just all there is to it. So naturally, they have to charge a bit more per pound to make up for that loss. All farmers who don't use pesticides have to make up for that loss, not just the farmers who have the organic certification.

Nothing is cut and dry -- organic stickers doesn't automatically mean that the politics behind the food is without its problems. Food that doesn't say "certified organic" isn't always bad. All i ask is that you think a little bit about where the food is coming from, and what you feel best about at the time. For me, what i feel is best most of the time is going to the local co-op and buying the cheapest vegetables i can find. They last longer! I've had too much lettuce and cucumber from Stop & Shop go bad before i could eat all of it because it was shipped from California. It spent the peak of its good-eatin'-hood in a truck. And i'm too cheap to be OK with that.

Eating While Traveling

Most people think that traveling is going to be expensive on the pocket, partially because they're going to be eating out all the time. That, simply put, does not have to be true. My boyfriend and i went to Paris on $850 (yes, American dollars, the weak one) each this past February. We got tickets of $400, our place came out to about $175 each for the whole week, and we spent about $275 out of pocket while we were there. We went to museums, we ate out for dinner at restaurants that looked interesting with food we wanted to eat that was also in our price range, we went out for coffee/tea/hot chocolate every afternoon. So where did we save our money? Breakfast and lunch. We ate the breakfast that was included in our hotel room, which was a simple but much appreciated petit baguette and croissant per person along with whatever kind of warm beverage we wanted, along with orange and grapefruit juices. Perfectly adequette. For lunch, we picked up some bread, fruit, and dairy to carry us. We mixed it up! Fruit is a great way to keep being able to go to the bathroom. The dairy in Europe is not worth passing up, so definitely include that, too. The yogurt is exquisite, the cheese is phenomenal, and you can always get fresh bread of any sort at a bakery. If you're feeling protein deficient, make sure you get more yogurt. Also, most boulangeries carry quiche of some sort, and you can always get it with cheese. If you're lucky, there might even be spinach in it.

Dinner is where you can get more of your vegetables. Fixed price menus always come with a salad, and it's worth it. They have quite the array of fresh veggies in there. As far as what kind of restaurant to go to if you want to make sure that there is something veggie-friendly, i highly recommend creperies. Crepes don't have to be sweet. In fact, it's only the second course that is sweet -- the first course is savory made with buckwheat rather than regular white wheat flour, so i got mine with mushrooms and cheese.

I realize that when you're traveling, you're not always traveling in Paris, France, so there might not be creperies available. Most places have sandwich shops you can visit. Paninis seem to be large in Europe, and Italian restaurants are widespread. Get out of your head the notion that Italian food has nothing to offer vegetarians except for pasta in marinara sauce. That's really only the the States. It's just that meat-heavy dishes are what sell in the States, so that's mostly all they have on the menu. Once again, don't skip the salad every night if it's not included in the meal. Remember that's where you're getting half of your nutrition, so try to get it at least once every couple of days. For the main course, try to get something that is held together with pasta, but not entirely comprised of pasta. For example, I liked to get manicotti filled with spinach, cheese, and mushrooms. Gnocchi, a potato pasta, is also a great option, as is ravioli filled with cheese and something else. The basic thing is to remember that whenever you can get vegetables, you should, because the rest of the day, you're eating bread, cheese, and fruit. Try not to eat just starch and cheese for dinner if you can at all avoid it.

The moral of the story is that if you're willing to deal with delicious European bread and dairy for the first half of the day, you can nutrify yourself with the meal that really means something for the last half of the day. If you're going to be traveling for more than a week, i would recommend eating more fruit than bread. I myself have a terrible time digesting wheat products, so i was constipated for a week after getting home.

A Final Note About Altering One's Philosophy

While traveling, many vegetarians also find it advisable for them to eat meat while they're on the road. It is easier to simply take what comes to you instead of being adamant about not eating meat, especially if you meet a family who is willing to feed you, for example. I have not traveled for longer than a month, but for those who have, they were always grateful to eat whatever was put in front of them, regardless as to what their philosophy would be at home. The thing to remember is you have to do whatever is most comfortable for you. If you normally feel bad about eating meat, but you're really feeling deficient while traveling, don't feel bad about giving your body what you believe it needs in order to stay healthy.

A Final Note about Eurocentricism

I'm sorry if anyone is offended by how Eurocentric this section is. It is the only place i have traveled, hence, it's the only one i have any authority on at all. However, i will say that friends of mine who have traveled in places other than Europe (such as India, Japan, the Middle East) did not find it hard at all to eat vegetarian. The one exception to this rule is Russia, where you can apartently eat cabbage if you don't want to eat meat. I think i might avoid Russia.