Summer!

Hello folks! I have not forgotten about this blog, though a busy schedule has seen to it that I have been unable to post in a very long time! I recently graduated, so final exams and the craziness of the commencement itself had me pretty well tied up.After graduation, I was pleasantly surprised with a promotion at my lab, so I have been buried in training to prepare me to take over one half of our operations. All the while, however, I have been diligently using my chopsticks to eat and continue to talk with people about the issue of food insecurity in the U.S.

On a note so wonderful note, the camera I was using (my phone) met with an untimely demise and I unfortunately lost WEEKS of meal photos. I was at a loss as to what I should do now, but I think I have come up with a solution: I will no longer be posting photos of EVERY meal. The time required to get one photo posted with commentary is just too significant, given my new schedule (and my general dislike of dealing with my fussy computer). Have no fear! I will still be using my chopsticks for each meal, and I will continue to write about my culinary adventures as the summer crops become more plentiful. I hope that my decision to discontinue daily posts does not upset, and I promise to provide any skeptics with photo proof of my continued use of sticks, should anyone send me a personal message requesting such!

Cheers and good eats!

Day 71

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Day 66

Day 65

Day 64

In the interest of time...

I have uploaded a handful of photos from recent meals, sans commentary, in the interest of time. I am hoping that once I can manage to get caught up, I will resume adding some notes to each upload, so stay tuned! In the meantime, any questions or comments about individual posts, or anything in general, and graciously accepted!

Cheers~

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Day 50

Behind...

Ahhhh! I am so far behind in uploading my photos, my apologies folks! I wanted to let you all know that I have been diligently documenting my meals, as usual, but I have been so busy that finding the time to upload them and provide commentary is nearly impossible. I will fix this, soon! Thank you all for being patient with me...perhaps I'll think of something truly difficult to eat as punishment...taking ideas now!

UPDATE

UPDATE: I have been so busy with some special work projects, and beginning my last undergraduate semester, that I have fallen behind on uploading my food photos to the blog. I just uploaded a bunch, and will have more coming very soon. Thank you all for your continued support of both me and the Chopsticks365 project.

Please send me suggestions for more foods you would like to see me try, or recipes that are tasty!

Cheers!
~Ari

Day 49

Sorry for the dim lighting, this is actually a HUGE fake chicken melt with tons of veggies, beans, salsa, and other spicy things. My eyes were clearly bigger than my belly, but I managed to not waste any. I wonder how many pictures I have of Mexican foods on this blog? Maybe I will have to do a count...

Day 48

White sauce Greek pizza from Belfast, Maine. I had to pick off the calamata olives, but the rest was amazing! The spinach was fresh, not frozen, and the garlic was nice and chunky. I prefer white pizzas, especially when it base is just olive oil and some spices. Yum!

Day 47

Lentil and potato soup from scratch, not by me though. There is also some home made bread on the side, little garlic bread sticks perfect for dipping.I have never really enjoyed lentils, but this soup blew me out of the park. It was so simple and filling, and I probably ate 5 or 6 bread sticks!

Day 46

Tomato soup from a mug with a grilled cheese, jalapeno, and fake chicken quesadilla on the side. I finished the soup first and struggled to get the wrap down. It was so big! And, the person who made it for me loaded it with about 20 jalapenos, so the heat index was higher than I would have liked! You know who you are...thanks!

Day 45

Mexican. If I were stranded on an island and could only have one type of food for the rest of my life, it would be Mexican. This is a pepper-jack, lettuce, salsa, black bean, jalapeno and fake chicken burrito. There is just something about burritos...you can cram all of your favorite things into one! Also, this tortilla was bigger than my face, no joke. If you look closely, you can see my chopsticks just off to the side under the plate....yes, there is a plate beneath that monstrosity.

Day 44

My birthday! I was so happy that I got to spend my birthday with my mother, she came to surprise me and we had a ladies day out. We topped the day off with teh largest bucket of popcorn you could buy at a movie theater, and we saw We Bought A Zoo. I'm a sucker for based-on-real-life movies, and this one was an obvious win given the wildlife subject focus. Eating popcorn with chopsticks is fun, and we actually got a refill for the ride home! (Don't judge me...)

Later that night, I dug into a cookies and cream cake with the sticks. Cookies and cream may be my very favorite flavor of ice cream, and when you put that into cake form it only gets better. Best birthday in a long time!

Day 43

I absolutely love making sushi. This is vegetarian sushi with avocado, cucumber, and carrot. It was only after I filled the plate with beautiful little rolls that I realized it was way too much for me to eat. Don't get me wrong, I didn't waste a single piece, but I was more than comfortably full by the time the plate was empty. Also, this is one of the least expensive meals that we make...a grand total of around $5 per person. Gotta love eating healthy on a budget!

Day 42

Breakfast on the go....oatmeal with apples, golden raisins, raisins, craisins, and brown sugar. While I don't like getting breakfast while on the road, I was pleasantly surprised to find this at a fast food stop. The oatmeal was perfect, and the fresh fruits really helped bulk it up a bit. Also, very easy to eat with chopsticks, mostly because I managed to use them more like a spoon and sort of scoop the oats into my mouth.

Day 41

Greek cal-zone with feta cheese and fresh baby spinach. This is from a local pizza shop in town, and seriously one of my weaknesses. I love feta cheese, and when you put it in some bread mixed with sauce and spinach...mmmhm! This is one of the more difficult things to eat with chopsticks, mostly because it it super hot and stringy with cheese. We make our own cal-zones sometimes, but they never seem to turn out as yummy as these!

Day 40

Corn on the cob! I have to admit here, my lovely camera lady cut the kernels off the cob and I then proceeded to eat them with sticks. I love corn, more than I should probably....Oh well, it was a nice reminder of summer, and since this Maine winter has been kinda wimpy, I figured I would reminisce a bit.

Day 39

Asian inspired meal! Meg and I made HOMEMADE rice noodle soup with diced scallions, carrots, mushrooms, and veggie stocks with a side of cold rice noodle spring rolls. This meal was super delicious and light, and I finally got to use the chopstick bowl that my brother gave me for Christmas...it is made by a potter right in Blue Hill! It meant so much to me, thanks Bro!

Day 38

This is the stuffing for my first ever batch of stuffed pasta shells baked with Florentine spinach and four cheese red sauce. We had a craving for something new and exciting, so I decided to whip this dish up from my imagination...and with a bit of recipe advice from my father's mother. She always made this yummy dish called Pasta In A Pot, and I thought using the ricotta and cottage cheese from her recipe would be a good idea. I took ricotta, cottage cheese, fresh spinach, sweet onion, and spices ans mixed it all up, stuffed the shells, smeared with the sauce, and baked at 325 for about 25 mins, then added sliced Colby-Jack to the top and finished baking for 5 minutes. This meal made me think of family style dinners growing up, and I was thrilled that it turned out well. Try my recipe, if you need more details, fee free to contact me through my Contact page!

Day 37

I know that this dish looks pretty sparse, but vegan buffalo tenders are one of my guilty pleasure meals, I just can't get enough! And they are spicy too! I go all out with this meal, haha, and dip them in spicy barbecue sauce and ketchup. The bad thing about the delicious nuggets is that they are a bit pricey, and I can eat an entire box in one sitting. Judge me if you will, but try these gems and tell me they aren't addictive. I challenge you!

Day 36

Mmmm, lunch at the lab. Baby spinach and julienne carrots with spicy sesame dressing. I like to keep it light at work, so I tend to snack on trail mix with almonds and have a huge salad for lunch. Man, I can pack away the spinach! Next time you are looking for a super healthy lunch that will give you a blast of fiber, try a spinach based salad with lots of veggies and a light oil dressing....you won't be disappointed!

Day 35

Baby spinach, tomato and onion salad with Greek dressing as a side with thin spaghetti topped with vegan spicy poblano alfredo sauce. I love past so much, and I decided to spice things up a bit with this new recipe. The salad was so crisp and juicy, and one of the easiest things to eat with chopsticks. The pasta was a nice change with the added spice, I think next time I will up the spice even more....MWAHAHA!

Day 34

This is my grandmother trying her hand at using chopsticks, and kicking butt! We put out a bowl of M&Ms, nuts, and popcorn and had a blast trying to pick them all up. She had so much fun using the sticks and is a complete natural. She can use them both right and left handed too!

Here I am with my grandmother, posing for the camera. She is trying not to laugh and inhale that piece of popcorn! I am so proud of her, such a pro!

And here is my lovely mother, sporting my chopsticks as hair accessories! She tried her hand at using the sticks as well, and I'm beginning to think that it runs in the family....Such a fun holiday with family.

Day 33

Chocolate. Cream. Pie. And oh my was it good! My brother made this pie over my holiday vacation, and it was probably a good thing that I had to eat it with chopsticks, or else I would have eaten the entire pie myself! I was so full already from dinner, but I somehow managed to fit a huge slice of that pie. Gosh I love winter and winter food!

Day 32

Green bean casserole and porcini stuffed ravioli for the holiday dinner at my grandparent's house. My brother made the green bean casserole (he is an amazing chef!) and my step mother made the ravioli. I seriously could have eaten myself sick on this dish, but alas, other people enjoyed it as much as I did. I have never made a green bean casserole, so I think trying my hand at one will have to happen soon. This was a great dinner, I can't wait until next year's holiday season!

Day 31

Holiday Vacation!!! What better way to start the holidays than with sugar cookie dinosaurs sprinkled with green candy dust? This dino was courtesy of my step mother, and I probably ate a dozen or so before dinner. Not too difficult to eat with chopsticks, and definitely fun. Oh, and in case ya'll couldn't tell, I REALLY like the color orange. The End!

Day 30

And here we have my staple dinner, brown rice stir fry with lots o' veggies and soy saute. I seriously will never grow tired of this meal, there are so many ways to mix it up. I almost added some vegetarian chic'n meat to it, but that would have been too filling. Another great thing to add to stir fry is cubed tofu that has been browned in a sauce pan with some olive oil, it adds some texture and makes the meal a bit more complete.

On another note, I have not forgotten about the cereal and apple sauce winners from the poll on the blog! We are traveling out of town for the weekend to see family, and I will make sure to take photos of whatever goodies I eat. I will plan on tackling the cereal and apple sauce when I return! Happy Holidays!

Day 29

Oh.my.goodness. This spinach and feta cal-zone was the best lunch I have had in a while. I stopped into Unity House of Pizza and grabbed it on my way to work, it was so filling that I ate half the next day for lunch. I love feta cheese, and when mixed with spinach, you just can't go wrong. This was a bit tricky to eat with chopsticks,  and I ended up mostly twirling the cheese around them like you would do with long pasta. It worked for the most part. Yum!

Day 28

Rice crispy balls...perfect for chopsticking! Pay not attention to my slightly cross-eyed look I have going on, I was concentrating hard on not dropping the ball (so to speak!). I would be lying if I said I cut these into nice little squares and ate them at an appropriate pace...the truth of the matter is, I merely stuck my sticks into the pan and grabbed chunks. I think the pan was gone in two days...is that bad?

Day 27

And here we have a shinning example of the doughnuts available from our Amish neighbors. I added some sugar to this one, and it was good! You can only get these every Wednesday morning at the Amish store in town, and there is usually a line waiting to snag a box. If you have never experienced an Amish doughnut, you must! Oh, and you may have guessed, I used my chopsticks as sort of a pole to hook the doughnut and munch away. Again, cheating? Who knows, but it worked!

Day 26

How can you tell it's the holiday season? I start posting photos of sweet treats only! This is my apple crisp pie with orange juice. I know it sounds weird, but right before you stick it in the oven, add a bit of OJ around the edges and drizzle it over the oats, this makes it nice and moist and gives the apples some zing! I think I made about 6 of these last December alone, let's see if I can beat my own record. of course, I will have to give them away, that is just far too much crisp for two people to eat....not that we couldn't make a serious dent in them.

Day 25

This is the beginning of Meg's famous homemade bran muffins. One of my most favorite foods, and not too hard to eat with sticks! I kind of just stabbed the muffin and ate if off the stick, is that cheating? Anyway, I must apologize for falling slightly behind in my photo uploads, I recently recovered from an illness and went away for the weekend with family. So, now you are barraged with about a week's worth of food! Haha, I hope all these photos make you hungry!