Anatolia is a Mediterranean restaurant just off of Restaurant Row in Orlando.  The menu boasts a variety of dishes, with plentiful vegan and vegetarian options, which is a rare treat for non-meat eaters and omnivores alike.  Lunch specials appear on the menu there, but not online-  which is a shame, because these really are a fantastic deal.  You can get a four course meal for under $20, including soup, salad, an entree, and a dessert.  My Dad took up the offer, ordering the Lentil Soup, Shepherd’s Salad, Gyro, and Sutlac (Rice Pudding).  I went with Dana Sote (Beef Saute), which was a perfect Paleo pick without an ounce of bulgur wheat, couscous, or bread.

Every seated guest also is treated to a complimentary dishes of kalamata olives soaked in olive oil and herbs, and a sour cabbage that I can only describe as ‘yuck’.

The Lentil Soup and Shepherd’s Salad came out next, with my Dad taking the former and giving me the latter.  The Lentils were actually blended rather kept in their bean form, which gave it a very exotic and rich consistency.  However, it still fell a bit short of expectations, so this is another dish where I’d suggest giving it a miss.

The Shepherd’s pie doesn’t come with any surprises, just a really good salad.  Tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, and onions in a lemon and olive oil vinaigrette.  This dish is full of great tasting fresh vegetables, and seemed perfectly proportioned throughout.

The Gyro (at least I remember it as being a gyro, so if it’s not, boo on you) that my Dad ordered seemed a little…flat.  And non-substantial.  After a closer inspection of the contents, it appeared that the majority of the contents were potato wedges rather than meat, which was really disappointing.  All filler and no substance, and I give this one a big thumbs down.  My Dad liked it well enough, but he agreed that it was definitely more potato and bread than meat.

My Keyser Sote dish looked pretty enough, and definitely tasted great.  Lots of spices in the sauce, and well decorated with paprika garnished around the plate  as well as fresh cilantro on top.  But again, where’s the actual meat of this dish?  For the price, the substance is really lacking.

Then onto dessert.  The Sutlac is unquestionably just rice pudding, despite the fancy description provided by the restaurant.  They give you a good size of it here, though, what would amount to probably a pint of what’d you’d pick up at the store.  I remember the days when I used to pick up pints of Kozyshack Rice Pudding and Tapioca Pudding and absolutely decimate it in a single sitting.  It’s prepared with lots of sugar here, and definitely a dessert that that’s easily shared between two people.

Overall, Anatolia is a great place to eat…if you’re a vegetarian or vegan.  From either of those two perspectives, this place is a nice find, tucked away in Orlando, with a large variety of dishes to choose from.  However, the meat dishes do not come close to satisfying or making you feel as if you’ve really gotten a good meal at a good value.  The tend to be very light on what you’re actually ordering.  The presentation remains excellent on everything served here, but just not what I was hoping to get out eating here.

Recommended for:

• Vegan
• Vegetarians
• Mediterranean Aficionados
• Zone Zealots
• Paleoheads

Not Recommended for:

• Raptors
• Carbophobes
• Carnivores

See Anatolia Mediterranean Cuisine on a map here.

Not being a devout vegetarian myself, I wasn’t quite sure how well this recipe, and even Jen had her reservations as I was making it for dinner the other night.  It primarily consists of onions, beets, brown rice and beans.  So how does that really stand up to being a burger substitute?

Pretty well, actually.  Jen really took a liking to these with every bite she had.  The beans provide a good amount of protein, and well, let’s not talk about carb counts here.  We also subbed the bread out for a large leaf of boston lettuce as a wrap, which helped provide an added crisp texture to the veggie burger.  The real key to making these, though, is a cast-iron skillet.  If you haven’t gotten one yet, I can’t reiterate how you should go buy one. Now.  Put the baby down and go by a Lodge cast iron skillet.  They are ubercheap, and come in handy more than you’d think.  The burgers get a nice bit of crust to them when being seared on one of these, and the creaminess of brie on top of these burgers make it a favorite on Jen’s list of foods that I make for her.

One other note-  the beets give these things a deep red color…very reminiscent of some very bloody meat.  It might turn off some of the more hardcore vegans, but trust me when I say there is not an ounce of meat in this.

So here we go:

Best-Ever Beet and Bean Burgers (recipe from the Kitchn)

Inspired by the veggie burgers at Northstar Cafe in Columbus, Ohio
makes about 6 burgers

• 1/2 cup brown rice
• 1 onion, diced small
• 3 large red beets (about 1 pound), diced small
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons parsley, minced
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
• salt and pepper
• slices of brie
• 1 medium sized head of boston lettuce

Directions:

1. Bring four cups of water to a boil. Add a handful of salt and the rice, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook the rice until it’s a little beyond al dente. You want it a little over-cooked, but still firm. This should take about 35-40 minutes. Drain the rice and set it aside.
2. Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, reduce the heat to medium, and cook until the onions are translucent and softened. Stir in the beets. Cover the pot and cook until the beets are completely tender, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and cook until it is fragrant, about 30 seconds. Deglaze the pan using the cider vinegar.
3. Empty the black beans into a large bowl and use a fork to mash them up a bit. Add the cooked rice, the beet and onion mixture, the lemon juice, the olive oil, and all the spices. Stir to combine and then taste for seasonings. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once it tastes the way you like it, add the flour and stir until you see no more dry flour.
4. Heat a cast-iron skillet over the highest heat. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil – the oil should completely coat the bottom of the pan. When you see the oil shimmer and it flows easily, the pan is ready.
5. Using your hands, scoop up about a cup of the burger mixture and shape it into a patty between your palms. Your hands will get very, very beeted.  Set it in the pan, where it should begin to sizzle immediately. (If it doesn’t sizzle, wait a minute or two before cooking the rest of the burgers.) Shape and add as many more patties as will fit in your pan. Once all the patties are in the pan, reduce the heat to medium-high.
6. Cook the patties for 2 minutes, then flip them to the other side. You should see a nice crust on the cooked side. If they break apart a little when you flipped them, just reshape them with the spatula – they’ll hold together once the second side is cooked. Add enough brie to cover the burger if your a vegetarian, go naked with the burger if you’re a vegan. Cook the second side for another 2 minutes.
7. Serve the veggie burgers on a lettuce leaf, and serve as a wrap!
8. Cooked burgers should be eaten that same day. You can also save leftover mix in the fridge for up to a week and cook just one or two burgers as you want them.

It took me a good while to prepare the burgers, but if you’re a vegetarian or vegan, they’re without a single doubt in my mind, worth it.  The taste is fantastic, and the burgers are filling, even to a carnivorous bike riding raptor such as myself.  Do it…and don’t skip out on the brie.  Luckily, we had a small wheel of brie on hand:

Enjoy!

I made this dish as one of the sides for our New Year’s Resolution Party over the weekend. There are two ways to prepare the sweet potatoes for this dish- as a mash or a hash, and I’ll go over both in this recipe.  As you can probably guess, the mash has a much creamier texture, and is a perfect setting as a bed for whatever protein you’d like to add to the meal.  The hash is a bit more along the lines of a traditional breakfast side starch, but either way, you’ll still get a great tasting dish.  It gives a little bit more of a variety than just eating your sweet potatoes straight out of the skin with some runny side up eggs, and you can always double or triple the recipe to save some for later in the week.  The reddish purple of the onion combined with the orange of the sweet potato has a nice color to it, and can make almost any ordinary meal look immediately more appealing.

Ingredients:

• 3 medium sized sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed into 1/2 inch chunks
• 1 tbsp walnut oil
• 1 large red onion, roughly chopped into 1/2 inch chunks
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Directions for Sweet Potato Mash:

1. Pour 3 cups of water into a large pot over high heat and wait until the water starts to boil.
2. Carefully dump the sweet potato chunks into the water, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes.
3. Drain the sweet potatoes in a colander, sprinkle the pumpkin pie spice on top, and set aside.
4. Place a large non-stick skillet over high heat, and add the walnut oil after the pan has started to get hot, about three to five minutes depending on your range.
5. Turn the heat down to medium-high and add the onions and sauté them until they have started to become translucent.
6. Add the sweet potatoes, mixing and occasionally stirring for another five minutes.
7. Serve immediately!

Directions for Sweet Potato Hash:

1. Place a large non-stick skillet over high heat, and add the walnut oil after the pan has started to get hot, about three to five minutes depending on your range.
2. Turn the heat down to medium-high and add the onions and sauté them until they have started to become translucent.
3. Add the sweet potatoes, mixing and occasionally stirring for another 10-15 minutes.  Your sweet potatoes will get a nice slight crust to some of the pieces, but won’t turn complete into a mash.
4. Serve immediately!

Not too difficult, right?  It’s a little more effort than just nuking a sweet potato for a few minutes, but if you’re like me and you eat them every day, a little bit of variety goes a long way.  You can also add 1 tsp of quickly chopped rosemary to the skillet, which gives the sweet potatoes a slightly more complex flavor.  You could also add 1 tsp of fresh chopped mint instead of the rosemary and get even more out of this recipe.

It’s a little difficult to ascertain the exact Zone amounts of this dish, but I’d say a cup of this is roughly 4 blocks of carbs and four to five blocks of fat.  Completely paleo, vegetarian, and vegan as well, although the hash will give vegans and vegetarians a bit more strengthening with their jaws.  Try some of the variants and let me know how it works out for you!

Kale's quite the extraordinarily intimidating motherfucker. I've spent years passing it by at the grocery store in favor of other vegetables or fruits. I know it’s good for me, but look at it. I mean, fucking look at it. It's got this presence, like a pigeon wielding a chainsaw. I shouldn't be scurred of the damn thing, but I still run off like a pansy all the same, off to the tubers and onions.

"Oh sweet potato, you'll never treat me wrong!"

Well no more. After shanking some Whole Payczech prepared Garlic Kale and putting it into my gullet with great satisfaction, I grew the resolve (see also: balls) to try and cook it myself. And you know what?

It's pretty damn good.

So here's my offer to you. If you don't like kale, you can go back to sucking on a tuber, or a banana, or whatever fruit or vegetable you'd like to insert into this phallic joke. No hard feelings.

This recipe was totally stolen from Epicurious, one of the best recipe databases out there, and slighly adapted to suit my masochistic needs. Ready?

Ingredients:

• A bunch of kale
• wasabi powder
• 1 tablespoon of crushed garlic
• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon of wasabi sesame seeds or regular sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon of water, preferrably from the polar bear exhibit at the zoo
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• sea salt
• fresh ground pepper

1. Separate kale and break the leaves off the stem, discarding the stem and placing the chunks of kale into a colander. When you’ve separated all the kale from the stems, give it a good rinse to wash off any dirt or grit.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a very large pot at high heat, which should happen pretty quickly, maybe one or two minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of crushed garlic, which will pop, bubble, gurgle, and try to attack you. Do not let the garlic intimidate you in your own kitchen. The cups and plates are watching. This is very important.
3. Add the kale to the pot, which you may need to shove down a bit. Add 1 tablespoon of water, reduce heat to medium high heat, and cover.
4. After the kale has cooked for about a minute, stir the kale around a bit so all that delicious sesame oil and garlic at the bottom gets mixed up a bit. Re-cover the pot and let it cook for another three or four minutes.
5. Turn off the heat, and add 1 teaspoon of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of wasabi sesame seeds, 1/4 teaspoon of wasabi powder, a few shakes of sea salt, and as much ground pepper as you like. Give this a good stir for even distribution, or you're going to get whacked in the mouth with a giant clump of wasabi. Or maybe that's what you want. In which case, I suggest half a teaspoon of wasabi powder.
6. Serve kale immediately! Goes great with a beef tenderloin steak.

A few notes…this recipe would be paleo, except soy sauce is not. Check the ingredient list. It's a shame. 1.5 cups of cooked kale is approximately a block of carbs, so you can totally go crazy with this stuff.

Zone Blocks:
Carbs: ~3 or 4 blocks, depending on the size of your bunch of kale
Protein: 0 blocks
Fat: 6

Enjoy!

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Vegan Cupcakes

Over Thanksgiving, I had to plan for a vegan guest, which led to find this vegan cupcake recipe. They’re pretty damn good, and for having never made cupcakes before, I thought they turned out pretty well! The one thing to note is that you should definitely find some cupcake/muffin tin liners so that the delicate cake comes out of the tin easily. You can also use parchment paper to line each of the cupcakes which not only will help you get the cake out of the muffin tin easier, but also serve as a nice little way to keep a ton of frosting on top of these things like Baked & Wired does.

Cupcakes:

• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract or more vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour, I prefer King Arthur brand
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or parchment paper liners.
2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. You won't see it curdle, but give it about 5 minutes to let it work itself out. Add the rest of the wet ingredients – sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients – the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and sea salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain.
4. Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

This is where using the parchment paper can come in handy. Initially I tried halving the amount of frosting, but it wouldn't be enough to cover all 12 cupcakes. So just be forewarned that you’ll have a little bit of frosting leftover with this (oh right, as if that’s a bad thing).

Frosting:

• 1/2 cup non-hydrogenated shortening
• 1/2 cup non-hydrogenated margarine like Smart Balance
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup soy milk

Directions:

1. Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes.
2. Add the vanilla and soy milk, and beat for another 5 to 7 minutes until fluffy.

There you have it! Cupcake goodness, right at home. Be careful and make sure you hide these the day after you've made them, or someone in your home might be having a few of them first thing in the morning for breakfast…

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When fall comes and decides to stay for a few weeks here in DC, it’s hard to find a better excuse to strap on some boots and go walking around the city. The nights here teem with electricity and life, with people out everywhere, off in search of food and fun. Jen and I wandered around from place to place, trying to find something new that could quell the pangs of hunger and subdue the low growls emanating from our bellies.

It wasn’t until we started walking down the U Street corridor did we start to find places that weren’t completely filled to the gills, but also didn’t have such a din that we’d be forced to shout our conversation across the table over dinner. And that’s when we found ourselves walking into DC Noodles.

DC Noodles is one of the many restaurants that have sprouted up along the U St. corridor in DC. The restaurant is paired with an open doorway to the retail store Stem next door, offering various Thai fashion and home decorations, and is the latest offering from the Sak Group, who also lay claim to the successful restaurant Rice along 14th street.

The decor inside is simple and contemporary, with a large spray-painted mural on the wall greeting you as soon as you walk in. The staff here is very good, with quick service, attentive to filling your glass when it gets too low, and always appearing at just the right time with more food.

While noodles get a lot of the focus here, that doesn’t keep the chefs in the kitchen from playing with seasonal tastes and textures. Jen and I instantly gravitated towards the pumpkin empanadas as our appetizer. They arrived neatly packaged in a golden, flaky crust, with a sweet, warm, and creamy filling on the inside. The taste of the empanadas were strong enough to stand on their own, but a different experience altogether once dipped in with the accompanying spring roll sauce.

Pumpkin Empanadas

Jen put in an order for the Lad Na – wide noodles with tofu and a creamy gravy sauce, an unexpectedly filling comfort food. I was instantly envious of her superior choice in noodles. Damnit. How the hell does she keep doing that?

Lad Na - Noodles in gravy

The picture above doesn’t really do it justice, but this dish is HUGE. Not even a ravenous Swiss midget expedition team would be able to finish off the amount of noodles that comes in this bowl.

I ordered the Kua Gai – wide rice noodles with chicken and soy sauce, mostly because of a pretty seriously craving for the noodles. A very simple dish that wasn’t very complex on flavors or textures, but does wonders to sate those noodle yearnings.

Kua Gai - wide rice noodles with chickum

Again, these noodle dishes are enormous. How enormous?

Large enough for me to have a hard time finishing to bowl.

Well, to be fair, I did have a small tenderloin steak just a couple of hours prior to heading to DC Noodles, but still. You get your money’s worth here, which in a sea of high priced restaurants that can easily cost run you close to a Franklin for two, it’s always refreshing to see that some places can still provide great food at a great price.

Best of all, this place delivers.

Recommended for:

• Noodle afficianados
• Chopstick experts
• Vegetarians
• Secretarians
• Those birthed through Cesarian

Not recommended for:

• Low talkers
• Carb nazis
• Strict paleo diners
• If your last name is Venkman, Stantz, Spengler, or Zeddmore

DC Noodles can seen on a map here.

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If you are a vegetarian or vegan, DON’T GO! Taking a bite into a dish that was served to us as “mango???….” was the worst experience I have had in a restaurant (even the meal that turned me into a vegetarian wasn’t as bad as this mango anchovy dish). I inspected the inside of the mango??? before dipping my spoon in for a small taste. I really did almost heave at the table. I was pretty embarrassed and was super cautious for the rest of the meal. Also, TWO of the vegetarian dishes come covered in a sunny-side-up egg. I still eat eggs in cupcakes where they are well disguised, but many vegetarians can’t look a little chick fetus in the face and then devour it. Odd, I know. Feel free to judge and call us hypocrites. That’s fine, but veggies be warned. You’re better off at a steakhouse. At least they serve you a beefsteak tomato salad and you know it isn’t going to secretly have anchovies stuffed inside.

On a positive note, I enjoyed the company, the wine, and the ability to walk home rather than deal with the car, parking, etc.

This is by far one of my easiest recipes, and one of the most rewarding. It’s simple, doesn’t require a ton of ingredients, and if you make enough, you’ll have plenty leftover for any unwanted or wanted house guests you may have.

Just sayin’.

So let’s get started.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. of brussel sprouts
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, truffle oil, or lemon oil
• 1 lemon
• fresh ground black pepper
• sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Farenheit, or whatever that converts to in Celsius. Let’s say, 90,000. 90,000 degrees Celsius. (It’s actually 204.4, just so you don’t set your house on fire)
2. Cut each brussel sprout lengthwise, and place in a large bowl.

 



 

3. When you have cut all of the brussel sprouts, add the 2 tablespoons of EVOO, about 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of ground pepper. Toss the brussel sprouts with your hands until they have a fairly even coat of oil on them. Don’t worry if they’re not completely coated, just get them as even as you can.

 



 

4. Place each halved brussel sprout on a large baking pan face down.

 



 

5. Place the pan of brussel sprouts in the oven, and set the timer for 35-45 minutes. Temperatures may vary depending on altitude, climate, and whether or not you’ll likely be watching a really good show when the timer goes off.
6. While the sprouts are cooking, cut a lemon into quarters, removing any seeds that are visible.

 



 

7. Check the sprouts once the timer has gone off. They should have a slightly browned appearance, but you don’t want them completely charred! Take them out and place them on a surface that can handle hot temperatures, like the stovetop, or a granite countertop.

 



 

8. Juice and drizzle each of the lemon quarters evenly over the brussel sprouts.
9. Tuck in!

Now tell me that wasn’t easy. The lemon juice is crucial here, and gives the brussel sprouts a nice taste. Add more salt and pepper if you need to, but the lemon goes a long way. You can always top your dish with some lemon zest for a little bit extra something, you fancy devil, you. Look at you, cooking all fancy in your ascot.

Zone Blocks:
Protein: 0 blocks
Carbs: ~4 blocks
Fat: 18 blocks

Every 1 1/2 cups of cooked brussel sprouts should give you 1 block of carbs, and somewhere around 4 1/2 blocks of fat.

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I love this recipe because it’s filling and scalable to fit your carbohydrate needs. Feel free to experiment with the portions (1 cup of onions = 1 block carbs, 2 cups of cabbage = 1 block carbs) or even the types of onion and cabbage.

Well, not all types of cabbage.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sliced yellow onion
• 2 cups sliced Napa Cabbage
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 3 oz sausage
• 1 cup vegetable or chicken stock
• Fresh ground pepper, to taste
• Sea salt, to taste

Optional:

Cayenne pepper, marjoram, bay leaf, basil, rosemary, for garnish

Directions:

1. Cut 1 cup of yellow onion, making the slices approximately 1/2″ thick. Set aside.
2. Cut 3 cups of Napa cabbage, slicing the head vertically into 1/2″ to 1″ shreds. Set aside.
3. Turn on a stove burner to medium high heat.
4. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pot, letting the oil heat up for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add 1 cup of sliced onions, tossing them in the olive oil for even coverage.
6. When the onions begin to turn a light gold color, add fresh ground pepper to your liking.
7. Add a pinch of sea salt.
8. Continue to sautee onions for a few more seconds, and then add 1 cup of stock to the pot. Once the stock begins to simmer, add the sliced Napa cabbage and cover the pot.
9. Set the heat to medium low, and let cook for approximately 15 minutes. Check the onion and cabbage at 10 minutes, stirring and mixing the two together.
10. Cut 3 oz of sausage into rough chunks, approximately 1 1/2″ thick.
11. Once the cabbage has started to steam and soften, add the sausage to the pot and re-cover. Continue cooking for an additional 8-10 minutes.
12. Stir the pot so that the ingredients are mixed evenly.
13. Serve immediately.

Zone Blocks:
Protein: 3 blocks
Carbs: 2 blocks
Fat: 9 blocks

Note: Protein blocks can be added or reduced to meet meal requirements. Red cabbage also works very well with this recipe. Add an additional cup of sliced onion for 4 blocks of carbs. Alternatively, add an additional cup of sliced onion and 2 cups of sliced cabbage for 5 blocks. Another option would be to reduce this recipe from 4 cups to only 2 cups of cabbage for 2 blocks of carbs total. You can reduce the olive oil to 1 teaspoon for only 3 total fat blocks.  Add a 1/2 teaspoon of Sriacha sauce for a spicy kick.

Enjoy!

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