soup, nuggets, and beer

I'm almost embarassed to post these pictures, and if the dinner wasn't so good, then I wouldn't. But it was delicious, and I feel bad talking about amazing food if I don't post photos of it. So disregard the pics. Look past the blurriness. I promise that someday I will find my tripod and start taking decent photos. If we didn't eat so late at night and the lighting in my apartment was better, this wouldn't be a problem. But oh well.

So. This dinner was comfort fall food at its best. If it's possible to beat that pot pie. Well, it didn't beat the pot pie, but it was yummy on a different level. Comparing soup to pot pie is like comparing apples to oranges. Both are fabulous in their own ways, but they just aren't even close to being alike. Without further ado:

soup and nuggets = happiness

Ok, so the soup you are seeing is the One Wild Chick Soup from Eat, Drink & be Vegan. There is only one word for this soup: omnomomnomnom. Cookie monster style. Like, shove it in my face ultra fast and enjoying every moment of it: nom. This book is, to me, a little daunting because some of the recipes seem a little complicated or use ingredients that I don't just..have. Which eventually I will get over and won't bother me at all. But this particular recipe.. I had everything already in my cupboard, and I followed the recipe exactly, and it. was. wonderful. I took leftovers for lunch today, and even though it was super thick like day old soup gets, it was even BETTER (if possible) than last night. It tastes just literally like chicken and rice soup from back in the omni days. Minus the nasty meat and meat juice and plus lots of healthy ingredients (the whole recipe calls for like 1 tsp of oil). I'm gushing a little bit here...but it was that good. One last look:

i would tentatively describe this soup as 'orgasmic'

I had some leftover seitan from the pot pie, so I made a recipe for Spinach Nuggets from VegWeb. I've been wanting to make this recipe for awhile now, but have never had tofu and seitan just on hand to do it. And I'm really not energetic enough to just make some seitan for something that calls for tofu anyway. It just seems a little silly. Well, not silly. Because they were really, really good. Except for the fact that I added way too much salt. And forgot the tomato paste. The tomato paste omission didn't really matter, I don't think. But the recipe says to add extra salt to the mix because it might be flavorless without it. Maybe their seitan wasn't as naturally delicious (and salty) as mine. So if your seitan is salty to begin with, don't add extra salt. Wait and taste the mix first. Also, I baked these for about twice as long on each side than the recipe said. It really firmed up the texture and made them...handle-able. I couldn't figure out the right dipping sauce for these... ketchup wasn't it. Michael dipped his in goddess dressing, but I didn't like that. So I just ate mine plain, and they were just fine like that. Give this recipe a try. If you have a food processor, it's super easy to throw together.

anything in nugget form is tasty. i wonder why that is...

There ya go, that was our Thursday meal. Fairly simple, and highly delicious. Thank goodness it's soup season.