Foodie, Formerly Fat

1. How can I subscribe to your blog?

On the top right hand side of any page on the blog there is a button marked “subscribe by Email”. You can click that and fill in your information to get e-mail updates every time something new posts. Or, you can follow me on Facebook by “liking” our Facebook page, which also gets daily updates of the posts here on the blog. Or, you can follow me on Google Reader by clicking “add a subscription” on your Google Reader feed page and putting in “Foodie, Formerly Fat” or by copying and pasting my URL (http://foodieformerlyfat.com/) into the text box there.

2. You often refer to using “powdered” dry spices, but I only have the regular ones. Do I have to go out and buy the powdered ones for your recipes?

Definitely not. When I make spice blends for anything from dry rubs for meat to salad dressing I am usually grinding up the spice blend into powder in order to make the spices blend to the maximal degree. I have a small coffee grinder that I use exclusively for spices (and never for coffee, we have a different one for that). I put the whole spice blend mixture into the coffee grinder and give it a few pulses to make it powdered.

3. Some of your recipes are tagged vegetarian when they aren’t, what gives?

You caught me! But seriously, often I tag something vegetarian when by changing only one or two ingredients it can be made vegetarian and it won’t impact the taste. For example, many of the soups I make (broccoli soup, spinach & quinoa soup, pasta fagioli) can be made with any kind of broth or stock without altering the recipe in any significant way. I often list that I’ve used chicken stock, but using vegetable stock would be just as good. In these cases I try to always make it clear in the post what can be changed to make it vegetarian. The same is true of other recipes, like the “Super Salad” where the recipe calls for chicken, but it can simply be omitted without any negative impact on the taste.

4. What’s the deal with you saying “sweetener” sometimes instead of “sugar” and why do you use all these weird things like muscovado, evaporated cane juice, and blue agave syrup?

I’ve written a post on this subject, so check it out here and it should help explain why I do what I do with sweeteners.