I am a creature of habit and as such, I am more likely to thrive in what’s familiar to me.  This applies to every aspect of my life.  Including food.  Especially food.

For our weekly brunch, Hugh and I decided to go visit Yardbird, a comfort food eatery located in South Beach.  Our friends have raved about it and yelpers in general have been very generous with their reviews, so on a morning like today when I was craving everything under the sun, it was only fitting that we went to check it out.

I had never had southern comfort food and I’ve decided that I don’t like it.

As I saw Hugh all kinds of excited over fried chicken and biscuits (he is from Texas so he likes dead things) and other patrons having bloody marys with bacon and waffles with fried chicken (because apparently all southern comfort food comes with fried chicken), I have to say that I was kinda grossed out and kept thinking about Paula Deen.

Quite frankly, I didn’t find comfort until we left Yardbird and made it to the Pinecrest Farmer’s Market. Even though we get the bulk of our veggies from Farm Fresh Miami, every Sunday we go to Pinecrest to get whatever veggies we may be missing, as well as fresh fish, fresh pasta, and organic, all-natural soaps from Pixie Dust Naturals.  As you know, I am a big fan of sustainable living and so I am a huge advocate of green, local, and organic.
Today we got all kinds of stuff including an obscene amount of onions and shallots so I can make some homeopathic concoction that my grandma swears is going to help me shake off this flu.

Yes, I am still sick.

Since I started “The Skinny Bitch Project,” in order to cut down on carbs I stopped eating all the nutrient rich fruits and veggies that make up my usual diet and tried to replace them with multi-vitamins. The fact is that I’ve never felt unhealthier and am convinced this is the reason why I’ve been sick for so long.  It ends now.

That said, tonight I am going to make some strawberry muffins that were featured on Edible South Florida and some carrot-beet-apple-ginger juice.  YUM!

For the muffins:

Ingredients:
2 cups of strawberries hulled and chopped
 3/4 cup of sugar (I use Splenda baking blend)
1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs slightly beaten (I use 1 egg and 2 egg whites)
1/4 unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp. orange zest
1 tsp. vanilla

Preparation:
Combine strawberries and 1/2 cup of sugar in a bowl and set aside for an hour. Drain; reserve liquid and strawberries separately. Preheat over to 425F. Use baking spray on 12 muffin pans. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Combine eggs, butter, orange zest, vanilla, remaining sugar, a liquid from strawberry. Add flour mixture and stir. Stir in strawberries. Spoon into muffin pans and bake for 20 minutes.