I promised forever ago that I would post some quick and easy recipes that you can make when you only have 2 minutes to cook and eat in total. The drumsticks below are SO SUPER easy you don't even have to do anything. I almost feel like I shouldn't post it because now you all know how lazy I am, but they are so good that I don't even feel bad about it. What I do feel bad about is subjecting my roommate to me singing that part of the "One Week" song by the Barenaked Ladies while making these. You know, that interlude where it goes "chickty china the Chinese chicken. Have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin'."

Anyway, another thing that I wanted to talk about was labeling. I know that my last post was on labeling, and you are just like how much can one person really care about the words pasted on to food packaging. But read on--it's interesting.

A few months ago I went to this talk hosted by the Harvard Law Society on food labeling and it's implications (yes, now that I am in Boston I just casually drop Harvard, MIT, Brown, etc. into my conversations to make me seem smart). The panelist were talking about how food labels don't really mean anything. Something that says "all natural" on the label could mean jackshit, and could actually be full of a number of artificial ingredients. Even more interesting was that studies found that when people ate things that were labeled as healthy or all natural or fat free or whatever else that is perceived as "good for you," they actually ate more of it. So like for example, if someone ate oreos that were labeled as organic (organic oreos? whatever the fuck that means), they would subconsciously eat 5, whereas they would normally eat 2 of the non-organic oreos.

Essentially, food labeling has a big impact on us whether we realize it or not. It frustrates me that companies stick these arbitrary "healthy" labels on things, and then make us pay more it for it. They are pretty much stealing money right out of our pockets. This is why I think, as a consumer, it would help us to :

a) Shop more on the perimeter of the supermarket where things do not need to be heavily labeled because you recognize the ingredients in it (veggies, fruits, meats, cheese, eggs, etc) rather than the inner aisles which carry pre-packaged food, and

b) Educate ourselves on the variety of labels that are out there. There is an excellent guide to labels published by Animal Welfare Approved: Food Labeling for Dummies. If you get a chance, I would highly recommend checking it out. It eliminates much of the confusion surrounding all-natural vs. organic vs. cage free vs. free range, etc.

Chinese Chicken Drumsticks

1 lb chicken drumsticks
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp chinese 5 spice
1 tsp sambal olek (or more depending on the kick you want)
3 tbsp coconut aminos
3 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp olive oil

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2) Combine all ingredients except for drumsticks in a bowl and whisk.
3) Pour ingredients onto drumsticks and marinate for at least 20 minutes in the refrigerator. I marinated for about 2 hours.
4) Place drumsticks on foil lined baking tray and bake for about 45 minutes.
5) Turn chicken over onto the other side and scoop up the sauce or from the bottom of the tray or from left over marinade and pour over chicken.
6) Bake for an additional 20 minutes or until cooked through.

2012 flew by. I can't believe it's already time to celebrate a new year. It feels like I was making my 2012 resolutions just days ago. 

While bedridden with the flu, I've spent the last few days thinking about what I want the new year to bring and I thought I would share a few of my resolutions with you (if only to have it in writing and be accountable for them a year from now).

1) Take more risks.  I feel like my 20s are years where it's okay to take risks.
2) Find the work that I can't not do. I know there is something out there that will allow me to go to bed feeling like I have made an impact on the world; I just have to find it. This year will be a year of self-examination and discovery for me.
3) Be grateful/accept things as they are. I am blessed with so much, but I tend to dwell on what could be better more than what is already good. There's a really good post on zenhabits (one of my favorite blogs) by Leo Babauta about how happiness lies in recognizing what you already have. I am going to strive to do that more in the new year.

Taking the time to write down your resolutions and sharing them with others will help to make sure you stick to them. I would encourage you to email your resolutions to your friends or family. When this time next year rolls around, you will have something to reference as a benchmark to see how far you have come.

I don't have a good transition from resolutions into the recipe, but my brother and I roasted this marvelous duck with a pomegranate red wine glaze for our holiday party. It was fantastically tender and succulent. We got the duck from the Redding Terminal Market in Philadelphia. It was so hectic before Christmas that I forgot to get the name of the farm. Although, they did tell us the duck was from Lancaster and antibiotic/hormone free.

Okay, look, I try not to be that New Yorker (you know, the one who hates on Boston all the time), but it gets hard when you are living in the land of Uggs and American Eagle jeans. Since I came back from Miami/the Bahamas, I haven't been able to get over the cold - which consequently has made me have a not-so-positive attitude towards Boston. So I thought while I make this stew, instead of stewing over all of the things I don't like about Boston, I would make a list of things I do like. 

1) It's really pretty. Architecturally, Boston is gorgeous. There is so much history here; it's actually very charming.
2) No more FOMO. Boston doesn't have as much going on. It's kind of freeing to not always have a fear of missing out.

That's pretty much as far as I got. I know, that's a lame list. BUT I am hopeful that this list grows - just as soon as I get used to the cold. In the meantime, get used to me making dishes that will keep me warm.

Coming back from Thanksgiving weekend has been rough. My cousin had his engagement party on a cruise to the Bahamas, and after a weekend of warm weather, I am just not liking this cold winter feeling going on in Boston. 

I wanted something quick and hot to combat the cold. Since my oven still isn't working (and my management company is non-responsive), my options were somewhat limited. I remembered I had recently Evernoted* this recipe for a Paleo Chicken Stir Fry on The Healthy Foodie. I didn't have all of the ingredients, so I kind of improvised and ended up with something amazing. Literally. so. good. It tasted like really good Chinese food without the MSG. Who would have thought that to be possible?

*If you are not Evernoting or using a similar kind of app/add-on, you are stuck in Web 2.0 buddy. Get with it and start streamlining your digital life.

Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Bad news: I totally abandoned the blog over the past few weeks. Good news: I am back from Argentina, officially all moved in to Boston, and started my new job yesterday! It is so weird to be working and living somewhere so new, but so awesome at the same time.

While I was on #funemployment, I made this awesome Ground Beef and Butternut Squash Casserole (adapted from Health-Bent). Health-Bent makes it as a lasagna, but I wanted to be a little innovative (aka too lazy to cut up the butternut squash into planks) so I just bought the precut stuff from Trader Joes and tossed it in there. 

This weekend Rachel and I made a feast to honor our last weekend together in the apartment. We made two of our favorite go-to sides: Curried Cauliflower and Japanese-style Cabbage Salad. We also made a main dish with fish since Rachel is Kosher and I like to know the source of my meat. It usually takes a situation like that for me to cook fish. When I first started the paleo diet, I tried really hard to get into fish, but I just can't. Fish is just overwhelmingly fishy sometimes.

The Japanese-style Cabbage Salad is super easy to make. It doesn't even require any cooking. You just mix some ingredients together and throw in some pre-cut cabbage, and you are good to go! The Curried Cauliflower is delicious and super easy to make, but you have to give the cauliflower sometime to cook down. The Israeli BBQ fish had a very strong tamarind flavor to me. I've never cooked with tamarind before, and it's a very unique flavor.

I wanted to make these during the week, but with all of my going away madness* and my brother leaving for his freshman year at UCLA**, I just didn't get a chance to be in the kitchen. Anyway, since I am going to LA on Tuesday***, I thought I would get rid of all of my local produce in the kitchen and cook these stuffed zucchinis to last me for lunch today and tomorrow. I got the pork from Violet Hill Farm at the Union Square Farmers Market. I have gotten chicken from them before, but I usually get my pork from Flying Pigs. I actually really liked the ground pork that I got from them this time, and I will probably put them into my rotation more.

The zucchini turned out excellent. The tanginess of the mustard combined with the sweetness of the zucchini made a wonderful and totally yummy combination. I don't think it lacked a sauce, but a sauce would have taken it up a notch.
 
*My coworkers and I may have taken #YOLO to a whole other level.
**I could not be anymore jealous. The kid lives the dream, all day everyday.
***Unfortunately, I am going to have to take a week off from the Locavore Challenge since I am going to be traveling, but when I come back I will have a week off of work (that hopefully won't be taken up with apartment hunting in Boston) to prepare lots of recipes with local ingredients!