Thursday, October 13, 2011

Vegan MoFo Day 13: My Love/Hate Relationship With My Salad Spinner

Since I've been avoiding the evil juicer, let's focus on another "appliance" for the day, shall we?  My new salad spinner!  I did not grow up in a house with a salad spinner because VM thought it would take up too much room.  They do that, but since I've been using it every day it never seems to make it in the cabinet anyway (fail).


When I got my spinner home and realized that it wasn't dishwasher safe, I considered tossing it.  It may leave things spotty, but I'm convinced the dishwasher sanitizes things to sterility and I therefore want to put everything in it.

I realize this is only funny if I point out that this is my garbage pail.
Once I'd resigned myself to the fact that it would have to be washed by hand, I began using it for- what else- kale.  Wow!  This is what people must feel like after they buy a Tofu Xpress; what was I doing all this time drying the kale on towels in the sunroom when all I needed was this gadget to make the leaves almost completely dry in seconds? 

Curly kale:


Dino kale:


Mixed greens:


Even broccoli:


Basically at this point I'm putting anything in there that I want to wash & dry pronto.  Ok, except lentils; they'll slip through the cracks (I did think about it).

Although it came highly recommended, it is a little more flimsy than I expected.  I thought it was going to be glass; it's not.  Also, I have to keep my hand firmly pressed on the lid while spinning or else it will go haywire.  The main problem, though, is definitely having to handwash the stupid thing (I am fickle indeed!).  The bowl is easy enough, but the strainer tends to "catch" bits of things and not want to let go.  Worse, however, is the lid.  The pieces don't separate; so, apart from threading a paper towel between the two parts with the utmost patience, you're forced to, for the most part, let it air dry.  I vigilantly check for mold or any other such daily.


And what about these holes?  They're open,


they're closed.  Water has to be sneaking in there regardless of my vigilance; where does it go?


Basically what I'm asking is, are there secret germs lurking in my innocent-looking salad spinner?  I just want to know!


As you can see, this cleanse has done nothing if not made me extremely mellow ;-)

In other news, my eats of the day weren't that exciting.  I fully intended to juice this morning, but people forget how to drive in the rain, so I couldn't risk losing traffic time cleaning my juicer.  I was going to grab a banana and some almond butter to go, but instead I decided to make a quick smoothie in the bulletBanana, almond butter, almond milk, cinnamon, ice (to thicken and chill):


Accidentally, my proportions were on point and it was actually tasty and only minorly banana-y.  I know, no greens.  But also no nausea or chewing!  I think I would have preferred the actual banana with almond butter, though....

smoothie to-go
For lunch: my kale salad of the week (same as yesterday):


Mid-afternoon I was freezing; I decided to give yerba mate a try, as it was recommended by CSD.  Tell me, is it supposed to taste like a cup of green tea that was left uncovered in an extremely smoky room?  With all of the delicious drinks in the world, why must my cleanse beverages all be so horrid!?


With tea/ashtray mouth, I met a friend at P.F. Chang's for dinner.  We shared an order of edamame and I had the vegetarian lettuce wraps.  The server told me this dish did not contain sugar, but why was my heart beating out of my chest during my shopping excursion afterwards?  I did have my standard decaffeinated ginger peach tea, but I wouldn't have thought that the trace amounts of caffeine would have affected me like that.


Well, if there's one thing I'm learning, it's that I know even less about food than I thought.

13 comments:

  1. My own salad spinner vexes me tremendously. The edges of pieces of lettuce end up sticking out and jamming the thing as I spin. I should try another.

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  2. Try unsmoked yerba mate. My SO had the same experience and he refuses to ever drink the smoked stuff again. Look for one that specifically states unsmoked. ;)

    And, as predicted, I'm in a total detoxing state after PDX. I've been eating beans, greens and rice for lunch and dinner the last few days.

    Today we've got leftover black rice, azuki beans and kale. Yesterday was black beans, red rice and kale. With lite goddess dressing. OMNOMNOMNOM. Kale is freaking fantastic.

    My favorite raw kale salad recipe is here, in case you're interested! Thought it DOES contain apples...

    http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1375130

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  3. Abby, I think the little shrimp that infest NYC water is probably in NJ water as well, and therefore, you may have a small, but growing shrimp community in your salad spinner. Enjoy ;-)

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  4. Haha, I'm no fan of yerba mate either. I reeeeally want a salad spinner though! I feel so dumb wasting all those paper towels but yeah I don't feel like buying another contraption.
    Smoothie sounds great, though. Perhaps you could have strained your other one through cheesecloth? It would still taste like kale, obv, but you wouldn't need to chew.

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  5. Mylene- that's annoying! Mine never jams. It's Zyliss 4-6 cup.

    Melissa- I appreciate knowing the difference, but I'm w/ your SO. I love kale, but really; let's discuss your PDX eats. Back to Eden?!?!?!

    Anon- when you put it that way I like to think of them as a little shrimp smurf family or some such. At least not in my belly!

    FF- I don't know; I'm thinking the green drinks are not for me. Today wasn't any better. But the salad spinner I ultimately recommend- so dry, so fast!

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  6. I feel exactly the same about the dishwasher, and I have an Oxo spinner and I too wonder if it's really clean!

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  7. Abby, I personally hate raw broccoli but was happy to learn that broccoli becomes more healthy when it is steamed, so if you are like me, and you don't like raw broccoli, then I highly suggest you steam those bad boys!

    http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/raw-vs-cooked-broccoli-2/

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  8. Aaron likes the unsmoked mate a lot. He just HATES the smoked, precious. He haaaates it.

    PDX food recap!

    Three visits to Back to Eden. Mostly for ice cream, caramel and cookie sundaes because, I realized, I like ice cream more than most baked goods. Except their pumpkin whoopie pies, sweet mother of god. And the almond butter fudge. The chocolate lover's cupcake and butterscotch white choco chip cookie were also good. Luckily, I was with Aaron as we split all baked goods so I didn't have a sugar headache/stomach. I would have eaten 50 pumpkin whoopie pies, though. OMFG.

    We went to Hungry Tiger, Too twice. And completely STUFFED ourselves full of carbs and starch. First day Aaron got corn dogs, I got a sm order of mac n cheeze and biscuits and gravy. Holy. BALLS. Both were amazing.

    Next trip we each had a corn dog, shared a small order of biscuits and gravy, shared the "chik'n" and waffle and shared a small order of mac n cheeze. Yes, we'd like some starch and fat with our carbs, thanks.

    We hit Prasade for a healthy meal once (the beans, greens, grain bowls that I'm mimicking now for all my meals save brekkie), did Blossoming Lotus (not as memorable this time. GOOD but not outstanding) once and hit the Bye and Bye for that amazing meatball sub.

    Did Vita Cafe and had an excellent club sammich and their amazing homemade fries! Aaron got the chik'n fried tempeh with almond gravy and wow, that was good!!

    Hit Homegrown Smoker cart for bbq tempeh, seitan, mac n' cheeze and greens. Sweetpea for a mediocre pb brownie. Too dry, dammit. Cakey brownies suck. Why do I keep trying ones I don't bake!? Oh, that's right, it had pb on it. The pb bits were gooood.

    I think that's it!
    I'll be posting food porn pics on my FB later. LOL. <3

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  9. Oh! and I forgot we went to Sizzle Pie for a couple slices of vegan pizza (AMAZING) on our way to the first Hungry Tiger trip. LOL.

    And, of course, Voodoo donuts.
    Three times. I got an Old Dirty Bastard (oreo, PB, chocolate icing on a raised donut) for me and a PB chocolate cake to share with Aaron the first trip. The second, Aaron went to Voodoo while I was racing and had another ODB for me and a Cock n' Balls giant cream filled one to share after the marathon.

    Third trip, Portland Creme for me and an apple fritter to share. OMNOMNOMNOM.

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  10. Melissa, you had so many of my favorites at Back to Eden! Yea, I wasn't at all impressed by Sweet Pea; I would have thought they would have upped their game by now with such competition. Thank you; I vacariously gained 20 pounds through your comments! Oh, those corn dogs.

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  11. Wonder of wonders, I think I managed to not gain anything?! Between walking like 25 miles Friday and Saturday and running 26.5 on Sunday, I think my body just went "ACK. JUST EAT, we give up!"

    And yes.
    I want to teleport a Hungry Tiger, B2E and Lula's into my town. And a Cinnamon Snail and Cinnaholic, too. Dream big!

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  12. Abby,

    Nothing about a cleanse and PF Chang's go together. You may as well run three miles and end up at Lula's. This Crazy Sexy Diet is turning you into a Crazy Crazy Lady.

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  13. That may well be, MVG, but you can't opt out of life for a diet or a cleanse. P.S. I would never run to Lula's. Well, maybe the last block.

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