Yesterday, I made only my second run to the Food Pantry at the College. I was meeting some of Paul's coworkers for lunch. They are becoming good friends and fans of Eat Like a Rabbit, too! Anyway, they saw the bags as Paul was lugging them into Student Services and said it was so nice of us to do the giveaway. I kept insisting, I did not do it on my own. It was a combination efforts from friends, too. And we all love helping out those less fortunate.

To make a really long story short, we misread our ticket and arrived only 40 minutes before our plane departed for Denver. Naturally, our bags didn't make it and we had to wait for the next plane from Orlando to deliver our clothes for the week and. . .more diapers. Paul did some research and found a vegetarian restaurant in downtown Denver where we could spend our time. Although the GPS took us an odd way through a not-so-nice area of town, we eventually got to Uptown and had no trouble parking near this amazing restaurant.

Confession: Given the choice between a decision that's healthy or a decision that's cheap, I'd prefer to go for the decision that's cheap. And there are times when I make unhealthy choices because I want to splurge and am happy it's cheap, like when I got Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream for $0.90 a carton. This recipe came about because I was being cheap. And luckily it's healthier, too.

The first time I heard of Paxia, I was getting off of I-4 and saw a guy dancing around with a sign saying it was the best Mexican restaurant in Orlando. The next time I heard of Paxia was less than a week later when I was researching the restaurants participating in Eat Local Week sponsored by Slow Food Orlando.

Now that it's really cold in Florida, I feel like I can share these creative plasticware snowflakes from New York and fit right in. Especially since this morning it was about the same temp as it was in New York early December. What's up with that!

Click on the photograph to go to Paul's Flickr page for a closer-up view of the monkeys. There's nothing like sitting in a boat having a picnic lunch and watching the monkeys watch you and wonder how they can get across the river to partake, too. We had quite a show. One of the best times was when a piroux came by with a dog and three adults. The dog watched us 'til he saw the monkeys. He got in really big trouble for barking and scaring them. Thanks, Connie and Jack for a great day!

Paul's folks had a major issue with their kitchen earlier this year. Their upstairs water heater flooded their kitchen and ruined--among other things--years of collected recipes. You can see all the marked pages in the cookbooks that the insurance company replaced. I also benefited because we learned one of the cookbooks The Occasional Vegetarian was out of print. Kathleen graciously sent me a used copy when she found a source. I'm happy my stomach is more settled because I've already read it cover-to-cover.

The luncheon item in question is in the center right of the photograph. It is a package very similar to the Uncle Ben's 90 second Wild Rice packs that I love. I heated it at work and dumped only 3/4 of it out onto a plate with all eyes on me, amazed that such a tiny package could contain so much. It actually contains two servings, and I could barely eat half of it. I think for a guy, like Paul, it would easily make a full meal.

Sign up on the Uncle Ben's website to get $1 off of two packages coupons. Use them at Publix where the Country Inn versions are on sale (Buy one, get one free) until Wednesday night of this week. You can use one coupon and pay just $0.25 per box.

Le Potager du Marais

22, Rue Rambuteau
75005 Paris
Tel: 01 42 74 24 66
Certified Organic Vegetarian and Vegan

We love burritos. I try to have them at least once a week as it takes the stress off of the creative side. Sometimes, we are even lucky enough to get them for lunch if we are on the road. Moreover, it is our most common meal just before leaving or just after arriving at the Orlando International Airport. All of this makes me wonder if a trip to Taco Bell once a week would be a better option than buying the supplies and making them at home. It's time to make an evaluation.

Paco's is a small restaurant on Fairbanks Avenue and should almost have a downtown Orlando address instead of a Winter Park address. With its size and mismatched table linens and chairs, it might be hard to imagine how the restaurant could be celebrating 27 years and consistently have a line of hungry patrons waiting in the small entrance. The easiest answer would be really good food and really good service.