The always-interesting, style-inspiring raw chef Ani Phyo has a new uncookbook coming out in the spring! She promises lots of full-color photos and I can’t wait. In the meantime, look at how pretty and fashionable she is (not to mention that she is ethically cool too: a recycling vegan who lives in Portland!). I wanna be her when I grow up.

As a vegetarian, I know that it’s important to include lots of beans in my diet, to make sure I get appropriate levels of protein and fiber. As a picky eater, I pretty much avoid beans. Oh sure, I’ll eat green beans now and then, and I’ve had baked beans in the past, but I’m not much of a cook, so I don’t really explore new foods very often.

But I recently checked out The Daily Bean, by Suzanne Caciola White. Filled in 175 recipes for black, white, red, and garbanzo beans, plus lentils, this book is pretty interesting. The standard fare is there: burritos, salads, soups, pastas…but she also makes bean pancakes, pies, and puddings. Right now, I’m considering a fairly simple-looking black bean salad; we’ll see how it goes.

Once the weather turns colder, I might turn my attention to soup. (I’m also not much of a soup eater, to the consternation of pretty much everyone I know). I like pumpkin and Rachael Ray, and I found a recipe of hers that looks pretty tasty and easy: pumpkin black-bean soup. I actually have this particular recipe on a DVD, so I’ve seen it in action, and it looks very simple to make. I can’t find an online version of the video, but I did find someone else’s version of the soup on youtube, so I thought I’d share it:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wx1Kt2suzOY

If anyone tries either of these recipes, please leave me a comment and let me know how the soup turned out!

My doctor recently told me to avoid foods with gluten, which isn’t a big deal for me. Unfortunately, he also said to stop eating soy replacement foods, which was pretty devastating to me, the hardcore vegetarian. And on top of that, I’m not one of those vegetarians who loves beans and vegetables. Nope. I love(d) Morningstar Farms fake chicken and bacon. But my health comes first, so in the spirit of doctor’s orders, I’ve said farewell to soy, wheat, barley, oats, and spelt. (Well, not spelt so much. Can you say goodbye to a food you’ve never eaten?) I also am apparently a little low on protein and iron, so in desperation, I’ve begun experimenting with power-packed grains. Quinoa is pretty much at the top of the list. Revered by the ancient Mesoamericans, it’s one of the few grains (technically, it’s not actually a grain, but whatever) that is a complete protein, so it doesn’t have to be paired with beans to give me maximum benefits.

As someone who doesn’t cook, I was a little daunted to just buy some bulk quinoa and start from scratch. So luckily, I found this French Herb blend from Seeds of Change. It’s comprised of quite a few organic ingredients, and although it’s a bit high in sodium, I can usually stretch out the package to last 3 or 4 days. It’s pretty delicious, with the unexpected side benefit of having all the same spices as the gumbo I used to love. When I was a kid, my Dad made a killer chicken and sausage gumbo, but I had to give it up when I went veggie. Now I get a bunch of the same flavor notes in a super grain. Not too shabby.

I said I wanted to learn to cook, right? What better motivation could I need?

I enjoy the web comic xkcd. I don’t always understand it, since it frequently deals with coding and complex math, but I generally get a kick out of it (enough that I bought my husband an xkcd shirt for his last birthday). Anyway, there was a recent strip about fruit that I thought was hilarious. I totally agree: grapefruit tastes terrible and is a pain to peel and separate. But that got me thinking. What are my favorite fruits and veggies? So Lindsay and I decided to each post a list of our 10 favorite fruits and 10 favorite vegetables. Here are mine, though they are not ranked in any particular order.

I also love juiced Ginger root. And most definitely hate olives. Always have.

My mom called me a couple days ago to tell me she dropped her grapefruit at work. It ended up rolling under a bus. Awesome. Right where grapefruit belongs.