Beach weather

The daily temperature is regularly reaching the mid- to upper-40s here in Chi-town, and you know what this means: day-drinking outdoors. Yes. I don't care if I still need to wear mittens to prevent frostbite while I hold my beer, we're drinking outside, damnit!

You know what goes really well with beer? Burgers. More precisely, veggie burgers. Twice last week I had the good fortune to dine with friends at Dunlays on Clark (2600 N. Clark St.). The Dunlays veggie burger, available at dinner and brunch, is a delicious blend of rice, beans, walnuts, sweet potatoes and wild mushrooms. In addition to being delicious, this burger is actually quite nutritious. We've talked about the benefits sweet potatoes recently, and the substantial walnuts provide some much-needed and under-consumed omega-3 fatty acids. (Does anyone else think "fatty acids" is a horrible term for such a nutritious substance?) Dunlays also offers a small but decent selection of sides to go with your burger: on Thursday I ordered grilled asparagus, and on Sunday at brunch I caved and got the shoestring-cut french fries, to go with my mimosa, obviously.



Product of the Day: Imagine Foods soups. I just finished a carton of the Organic Creamy Broccoli Soup. It is delicious both while you are waiting for dinner to cook or when you wake up from a hangover craving green and salty food (another strange side effect of being vegan). The soup is low in calories and has no unpronounceable ingredients.

Tubers are tubular

My cousin Alisa and I were discussing the merits of sweet potatoes last weekend, and I realized that I eat them far too infrequently considering how tubular they are. Nothing against good old Russet potatoes, but pretty much every traditional potato dish can be re-made deliciously with sweet potatoes: mashed, baked, French fries, even chips...you just can't go wrong with a sweet potato.

Caution: Vegecagoan is going to be a bit educational today.

For this post I did a little research on the nutritional value of Russet potatoes and sweet potatoes. Check out the comparison of some of my fave nutrients:

Source: Nutrition Data (www.nutritiondata.com) which apparently trademarked the term "Estimated Glycemic Load™" or "eGL." But I made this chart myself!!!

Contrary to popular belief, partly due to that crazy Atkins™ phase Americans went through around the millennium, Russet potatoes are not "bad" for you. It is true that sweet potatoes are stars when it comes to fiber, Vitamin A and Vitamin C, but other than that they are quite similar to their friend Russet.

I expected the eGL of the sweet potato to be lower than it is. Estimated Glycemic Load™ is Nutrition Data's take on the glycemic index. A higher number means that when you consume a certain food, your blood sugar spikes. This is not good. Ideally you want to keep your blood sugar levels consistent throughout the day, or at least on a smooth trajectory. This prevents a ton of bad outcomes, ranging from sleepiness (a mental "crash") to breakouts. As a reference point, a serving of tofu has a eGL of about 2. This is very good.

That's enough for today. Now please don't make fun of me if you witness me succumb to the temptation of regular white French fries.

Quick recipe that you can easily remember: Cut a sweet potato into slices. Lay the slices flat on a baking sheet and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and fresh pepper. You might also try a little paprika. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.

Full disclosure: the tuber in the picture is actually a yam (and that's tempeh in the bottom left corner). It turns out that the yam is not the nutritional powerhouse that its döppelganger is, but I didn't know this when I was cooking earlier this week. Choose sweet potatoes...learn from my mistakes.

Product of the Day: Another Giovanni product...Giovanni Invigorating Conditioner - Tea Tree Triple Treat conditioner. I've been using this for about a week, in combination with semi-weekly treatments of NutraFix Hair Reconstructor. My bathroom is quickly filling up with Giovanni products. Great products, great prices, no critters.