In addition to serving up delicious food, our goal here at GMS is to create nutritious recipes. Though we love butter, we also love vegetables, fruits, fish, and anything that can boost our energy levels!

Enter “Food Revolution Day.” This day, May 19. From the website:

Food Revolution Day on 19 May is a chance for people who love food to come together to share information, talents and resources; to pass on their knowledge and highlight the world’s food issues. All around the globe, people will work together to make a difference. Food Revolution Day is about connecting with your community through events at schools, restaurants, local businesses, dinner parties and farmers’ markets. We want to inspire change in people’s food habits and to promote the mission for better food and education for everyone.

Here at GMS, we’re passionate about cooking, and about food education, because we believe everyone deserves a long, healthy life. Here is some more information on how to change the way the world looks at food.

We’re supporting Food Revolution Day by bringing food education to you each Friday in May. So grab your notebooks and your pencils, and get ready to learn. Here’s a special bonus infographic for you:

by FoodRevolution. Browse more infographics.

 

This is a silly little project my co-workers and I have been working on, and so I thought it appropriate to share with you today, rather than posting about food! Happy Friday!!

A few weeks ago, Jeff saw this on the Internet and wanted to try it. Inside-out grilled cheeses ended up being super easy to make, fun to eat, and fast to clean up!

Get ready for your mind to be blown.

Start, of course, with cheese. Always. We used cheddar!

Cheese your bread. Also, make sure your pan is well buttered, so it doesn’t stick.

So you’re going to brown one side, then flip it. Here comes the inside out part…

Put some cheese on the side you just flipped to the top. Ahh, magic.

Now, get ready to flip!

Now repeat with the side, and flip that side down so the cheese melts. Make sure to rebutter the pan so nothing sticks! (I didn’t say this was healthy!)

The inside out cheese gets nice and cripsy, and you end up with a delicious texture on the outside!

Delicious. Double delicious, even!

Serve with tomato soup (arugula, optional) for dipping!

Do you ever make the intention to bring a salad for lunch, then realize that actually you think salad is boring, overrated, and that you’ll be hungry in twenty minutes? Well, luckily for you, I have some salad tricks up my sleeve (like those delicious veggies above!) to bring you through the afternoon feeling perked up, full, and happy because you just had SALAD for lunch. Becca posted about this back in September, but as spring has sprung and delicious ingredients are back in season, here we go: Step 1: Vary your base.  Ever since I saw kale as a base for a salad at Trader Joe’s, it’s been my new go-to green. If you’re sick of romaine or iceberg, try mixed greens, or start with something hardy like kale, or endive, or arugula. This will make your salad more interesting and give you a wider array of nutrients, too! Step 2: Protein, protein, protein. You’re going to get hungry if you have a bowl of vegetables, because you need protein to keep you going! Try adding turkey (low sodium if from the deli), tuna, or tofu, eggs, or beans if you’re a vegetarian. And, if you’re not lactose intolerant, add cheese, too! Protein will help your salad become more hearty, lasting longer throughout the day. Step 3: Toppings Make sure you add some toppings. If you just have lettuce and dressing, you’re doing yourself a disservice by missing even more nutrients and wasting calories on dressing. My favorites? Olives, sundried tomatoes, Snapea Crisps, blueberries, cranberries, cashews, pine nuts, peanuts, carrots, tomatoes, clementines...the list goes on. Try to add a vegetable, fruit, nut, and something crunchy. A variety of textures will help your salad stay interesting through your whole meal, too! Step 4: Make it in the morning Making your salad more than 12 hours in advance (read: before you go to bed or the next morning) might end with a soggy salad, and on one wants that. Step 5: Light dressing (or skip it) I, myself, don’t like dressing because I like to taste what I’m eating, but if you DO like dressing, keep it light. This way, you’ll save on calories and taste what you’re eating. Don’t like what you’re eating? See Step 1.

We at Garlic, My Soul are avid readers in addition to being avid cooks. Corelyn introduced me to Ender’s Game in book club, while I gabbed on and on about how great Barbara Kingslover is. We helped start and fuel a book club among our LA friends, and we constantly are passing recommendations back and forth!

Last night, Becca and I got the chance to participate in World Book Night, a night dedicated to celebrating reading! We were volunteers and each tasked with handing out twenty books – Becca ended up with Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, and I ended up with The Poisonwood Bible, by none other than Ms. Kingslover.

It was something that was just up our alleys — encouraging adults who may not read to be inspired to pick up more books by enjoying one of our favorites!

We headed to the LACMA (The modern art museum across the street from where Rebecca and I work) and got down to business.

Becca was perhaps a little bit better of a salesman than I was…can you tell? Her book was also easier to carry, and I blame that on my hard sells 😉

Special copies of The Poisonwood Bible made especially for World Book Night!

Becca and I with our books!

In all honesty, it was pretty hard to do (it took us 2 + hour to give away our forty books) but we learned a lot for next year: Step 1, we need buttons (I believe they were available somehow but we didn’t have them.) Step 2, we need to head to a more crowded place/have a back up plan (LACMA wasn’t crowded due to cloudy/chilly weather, so we should have headed somewhere like the Grove.) Step 3, figure out how to use ‘free’ in the first two seconds (otherwise people think you’re trying to sell something!)

We had so much fun, and I can’t wait to participate again next year. I hope if you like reading you’ll check out this organization and join us next Spring!!