2010 Project 365 :: Day 023 + 024

Taken @ 10:32 am EST on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

A myriad of teas to choose from. OK, 5 of the 6 are herbal teas, which aren’t really “tea” per se (since they don’t contain leaves from the tea plant), but they are all very tasty. Drinking one of these each morning makes me miss my San Francisco tea shop all the more.

In case you are curious, these are the teas in the photo: Traditional Medicinals Organic Lemon Echinacea Throat Coat; Numi Organic Chinese Breakfast Tea; Organic India Vanilla Creme Tulsi Tea; Organic India Sweet Rose Tulsi Tea; Chopra Center Organic Relaxing Herbal Tea to balance VATA (for me); Chopra Center Organic Soothing Herbal Tea to Balance PITTA (for the hubby)

Taken @ 9:42 am EST on Sunday, January 24th, 2010

The beginnings of my first attempt at beef stew. The Shaws grocery chain has an amazing deal going on this week: buy a beef or pork roast (minimum 3 lbs.) & get a FREE 5-lb. bag of Maine potatoes, FREE 2-lb. bag of white onions, and a FREE 1-lb. bag of whole carrots. I personally wanted a pork roast, but when we got there, all they had was beef.

Our concoctions is brewing in our brand new 7-quart slow cooker that we got for Christmas from my husband’s parents. This thing is a beast & I love every inch of it!

Stew, like soup, is pretty straightforward to make, but there is one hitch: my husband hates stew. First, he doesn’t like cooked carrots – too mushy for him. Second, he doesn’t like the taste of stew broth. Despite those issues, we’re still giving the stew a shot. Technically, stew is the same as a roast, but you cut the roast up into pieces & add a bit of extra liquid (I used organic low-sodium vegetable stock). We also went easy on the carrots.

[Images taken by Victoria Klein]