Kelp Noodles

What the heck are these little noodley buggers? People i've been reading say they are the insides of kelp...the sea vegetable. I went on the hunt for them. I tried my local organic grocer (because kelp noodles are a "raw" product)...no luck. I tried the specialty store...no luck. I tried the Japanese market where no one spoke English....no luck. Okay let's google. Well apparently kelp noodles are HUGE on the west coast...who's surprised there? The company provides the noodles to almost all the Whole Foods in LA and San Fransisco and then a few extra health related stores (i swear they have at least 45 or more stores selling kelp noodles) and New York has ZERO! count'm ZERO stores selling kelp noodles. Oh wait i lied, in Buchannan, NY, Flushing, NY and Pine City, NY there are stores that sell them.
Because we live in a world where i CAN get anything i want, i went online and ordered them. Well here's the annoying part, the company who makes them "Sea Tangle" only sells them in cases of 12, so the search continued until i found a small raw/vegan/organic store that sells them. They arrived in that fancy packaging that i already wrote about and here i what i created.

I call them Asian inspired noodles.


You rinse the noodles and they are ready to eat. The thing is they have NO taste. It's so strange, they are ridiculously crunchy, but have no taste. I'd say they are kinda like a cucumber, but even cucumbers have a taste. Because of the lack of taste i added some other yummy thing.


I added some tofu for protein, carrots, and later some cucumber. For sauce i made a peanut butter, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, toasted sesame seed and cilantro mixy deliciousy thing. I swear i could drink this concoction!
And Voila....an up close and personal shot of my lunch.


HIGHLY recommend at least trying them. You can't loose in this one. no taste, lots of crunch and ridiculously good for you!

What DO you do all day?

I'm sure many of you are wondering what I do with all this free time i've got since i'm still unemployed. Now that i'm all caught up on sleep...that was about 20 years of backed up exhaustion I now have time for other things i like to do. Other than search daily for jobs i've been doing A LOT of reading and cooking.

The cooking thing did a bit of a skyrocket thing when Joe and I moved in together. Cooking for more than one person is so much more enjoyable and i like learning all these cool new recipes and new products available. Also there are a bunch of farmers markets near by and seeing all the local and organic produce just makes me want to get creative.

I'm not exactly sure how this all started, probably something to do with all my stored up recipes that i never tested out, and a link sent to me from a friend of mine, but i started to learn about organic, nutritional cooking. The idea of more healthy, whole grain, fruit and veggies in and processed food out. I'm a good eater as it is. I have variety in my diet, but sadly produce is where i would cheap out. I've never been a person who eats a lot of pre-made frozen foods, but who doesn't like convenience? With all my reading I started to learn more about why i should buy local, eat whole grains, why i should cut down on my meat intake (that's the hardest one for me) and why organic is better for us. I'm not going to start on you guys to change....but i did want to show you some of the stuff i've been doing! These foods are probably old news for some of you, but for me, it's exciting and this is what i do all day. Read about crazy things and then try to make them.

A message before i finish. I have never called myself a cook, nor do i believe that i create beautiful things, and Joe can attest to this i'm very critical of my cooking always wanting to make my recipes better. So when you look at my food don't judge on the presentation, just know that it's a learning experience (because how else do you learn to cook?!?!).