tummy warming meals

It's been cold here.  Seriously cold.  This kind of weather (which will only get worse) calls for foods that fill you up and make you warm.  We had three of these types of meals in the past week, and one of them was definitely a winner.  It's also the one that I took the worst picture of, which figures.  

Soup, friends!  Hearty, veggie-filled, lentil and rice soup!  I'm not the only one who's been soup-crazy lately though.  Liz and Jessy have been souping it up recently as well, which only fueled my fire.  This particular soup was made by me totally on the fly and in 15 minutes (from conception to leaving it alone time) no less!  I was going to an art show in the next town over and wasn't going to be back in time to make dinner before Michael got home, so I made it superfast before I left.  Because of this, I don't really know how long it took to cook...  Anyway, enough stallin' (like Russia), here's the crappy photo of this wondeful soup:

i think the steam got on the lens

By the time we ate last night (late late late...bah), I was too hungry to fool with getting a decent photo.  Ah well.  Recipe?

Smushy Lentil Rice Soup with Veggies

1 onion, chopped

3 carrots, cut into 1/2 inch rounds

1 bunch of kale, destemmed and torn into medium pieces

1 small summer squash, cut into medium sized chunks

1 medium zucchini, cut into medium sized chunks (we were sent home with these when we went to Michael's sister's house)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup lentils (any color, I used green)

1 cup brown basmati rice

1/4 cup wild rice

3 bouillon cubes (whichever type you like...I used unchicken)

2 bay leaves

1-2 Tbsp sriracha chili sauce

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp dried rosemary

1/2 tsp dried marjoram

1 tsp garlic powder

1 Tbsp olive oil

water

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large stock pot.  Add onions and carrots, cook until onions get soft.  Add squash, zucchini, and garlic, cook, stirring often for 3-4 minutes.  Add in the thyme, rosemary, marjoram and lentils and stir until coated in the herbs.  Cook another 2 or 3 minutes.  Now take your pot over to the sink and fill it up with water until it's 2/3 full.  I didn't measure because I didn't have time to mess with it, sorry!  It's maybe...8 or 10 cups?  Put the pot back on the heat and turn it to high.  Add bouillon cubes, garlic powder, bay leaves, sriracha, rices and kale.  Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer until rice and lentils are cooked.  I let mine simmer for about 25 minutes, then turned it off and came back ohh...a little over 5 hours later and the risidual heat had cooked it all, and I only had to heat it back up haha...  Anywho, this next step is optional, but I think it's totally worth the little extra work.  If you have an immersion blender, use it to puree about 1/2 of the soup, just a few whizzes to make it smooth, but still with chunks of veggies hanging about.  You could also pour half of it in your blender and puree it there.  It's just a million times easier to use an immersion blender.  At any rate, add your salt and pepper to taste (it may need quite a bit of salt, depending on your bouillon) and enjoy!  It makes enough for leftovers for at least a couple lunches, so the big pot and loads of ingredients is really worth it.

Going completely out of order here, this is some mac n cheese n peas (and spinach and chickn bits) that was made on Monday night:

well, i guess technically it's ziti n cheese n peas

This was the result of a yucky Monday after a 4 day weekend.  Sometimes you just really, really need mac n cheese.  This was good, but not fabulous.  I used my basic cheese sauce recipe, but added a bunch of poultry seasoning for some crazy reason.  It didn't taste bad, but it did taste like...poultry seasoning.

chickn flavored pasta

Still, it was nice and gooey and smushy.  Plus, I added spinach and peas to make it healthy.  Sure.  The chickn is part of a can of Worthington's that we got on sale forever ago because our grocery store stopped carrying it.  I wish that stuff wasn't so expensive...  Kroger has the swiss steak, hot dogs, and chili still, but they're like $8 a can!  I can't bring myself to pay $8 for a can of fake meat.  No wonder they stopped carrying the others.

Wednesday night was enchilada time.  Or...burritos.  I've had this dilemna before.  They're baked, but they don't have enchilada sauce on them.  So.  We'll call them baked burritos.

we made enough for a small army

The theme this week seems to have been to make enough food to have leftovers so that we don't have to cook again the next night.  Seriously, it's so cold in the apartment that it's almost painful at times to pry yourself away from a space heater and go into the kitchen to cook.  You can't even imagine what it's like going to bed.  Sheesh.

Anywho, Michael and I made three types of burritos:  bean and corn in a burrito seasoning, spinach and chickn in a fajita seasoning, and potato and mushroom in a taco seasoning.  We wrapped them up in wheat tortillas and baked them underneath some salsa, jalepenos, and black olives.  

nom

I  made a giant batch of guacamole from a bunch of avocados that the sushi chef had given Michael to take home (they were presliced and wouldn't last until the next shift).  That with the addition of some sliced scallions made these burritos pretty fabulous.  

I'm getting sleepy.  I was going to do a review of some holiday soy drinks, but I think I'll save that til next time.  Instead, I'm going to drink one of those drinks, watch more Harry Potter, and possibly take a nap.  Because it's doing this outside:

the view from my kitchen window...dreary isn't it?

And I'm not going anywhere just yet.  You see those specks?  It's actually snowing right now.  Finally, something to show for all this cold weather.

Oh, one more thing.  You all are not the only ones enjoying my xmas tree:

cuddle puddle

They like to try and screw stuff up.  Luckily for them, they do it cutely.

Veganomicon Overload

Dare I say that I finally like tempeh?  I dare.  I don't know what it is, but lately...  I like it.  I never used to like it.  But there ya go.  I think, for me, the key is to marinate the holy hell out of it (after boiling the life out of it) in order to render it more likeable.  The texture still gets to me after a bit, but...  I'm getting over it.  Oh!  Another key is to slice it as thin as possible before marinating.  You know, so there is more surface area for the marinade to attach itself to.  Here's the recipe that sealed the deal with me:

i want it again.  now.

Yes, that is the hot sauce glazed tempeh from Vcon.  Originally, I really just wanted a whole lot of the soft poppyseed polenta (also from Vcon) and some brussels sprouts.  But I knew that wouldn't satisfy my Michael's raging hungerbelly.  I had made the hot sauce marinade and put it on tofu once before, and knew it tasted super yummy, and since I had some tempeh, well...  there you go.  It ended up being a full-on comfort food meal.  Especially since the brussels sprouts had like...waaaaay too much EB on them.  I also added another 1/2 cup of cornmeal to that polenta recipe so that it would be more...gloppy instead of soupy.  If you've made this before, you know what I'm talking about.  Anyway, you should make it.  The flavor is subtle and delicious and it's warm and filling and PERFECT.  But make sure you make it with veggie broth (or bouillon like me) and not water.  Duh.  

Next up is a meal that should have tempeh in it, but does not since the grocery store sucks.  Here's the story (there's always a story, isn't there?):  I wanted to make the southern corn pudding (haha..still from Vcon).  My parents make it all the time and absolutely rave about how wooooonderful it is.  But it has cilantro in it, therefore Michael didn't want it.  I explained that, though I too hate cilantro in general, you can't taste it in this dish.  I promised!  It ended up with him getting to choose what we made with it, as a compromise.  Aren't we nice?

He chose the baja tempeh tacos (guess where this one's from?).  Which, funnily enough, also have cilantro in them.  Anyway, cool.  But no tempeh at the store so we did those evil Morningstar Chickn Strips.  Which aren't really evil I suppose (though...they sort of freak me out now that I don't eat them as often), but they are expensive.  Like, $4.  And I would swear on my life that there are fewer of them in a bag now than there used to be.  Anyway.  We made the stuff for the tacos.  I knew immediately that I would not like the slaw...because of the ginormous amount of vinegar involved.  I hate vinegar, guys.  When I can taste it in something, I'm done.  It gags me.  The smell is almost worse.  I just. hate. it.  No one seems to ever understand this about me, but I swear it is true.  I don't even like balsamic vinegar.  Yeah, that's right.  Start throwing stones as you see fit.

Whatever, though.  Fine.  They seemed to be really awesome.  All of it did.  And easy!  Plus, the beer marinade gave us an excuse to buy a 6pack of mexibeer!  (which I incidentally drank none of for some reason.)  

and look how tasty they appear!

The corn pudding was so beautiful.  I baked it in the cast iron skillet.  I use this thing all the time...  what did I do before it?  Thank goodness for birthday presents.

so festive!

Can you tell from the language I'm using how hopeful I was that it would be awesome and how sad I was when I liked....none of it?  I know, I'm terrible.  Jeez.  Well, I tried out my first taco like a real trooper with the slaw and everything the recipe actually calls for.  All I tasted was vinegar.  That was it.  Just...vinegar in my mouth.  

So fine.  My second one, I took out the slaw and ate it with lettuce.  Somehow...I still didn't like it.  I don't know what's wrong with me.  Michael LOVED it.  Like, seriously.  He kept raving about how he wants this to be in our rotation of things we make all the time.  Hmm..  well, is there still hope for the corn pudding?  I would like to say yes.  The flavor was really, really wonderful.  But it wasn't like the bite that I had at my parents' house.  Because the corn got really gummy and stuck to me teeth in a bad, bad way.  Maybe Mom and Dad blend all their corn and pepper mixture and not just 2 cups of it.  I'm not sure.  But the texture was really off-putting for me.  I will, though, be trying it out again.  I have hopes that I can make it good, because the flavor really was quite tasty.  

happy go l(y)ucky dinner!

Oh, my other problem was that I used a whole wheat tortilla as you can see...and it was stupid.  It kept breaking and I ended up with 2 hands covered in various sauces, which was icky and annoying.

I'm full of complaints tonight, aren't I?  I'm sorry.  I'll end on a happy note.  Cuteness.

bill murray lying on my halloween wig (that i wore last year)

ghostface killa lies down sideways and it is hilarious.

Have a good weekend, guys!  It's gonna be rainy and chilly here.  Hmm...was that a...hint?

deep dish pizza and dinner at my bro's house

I promised pizza, and I do not disappoint!

chicago-style deep dish pizza

Yeah, that's right.  Deep dish pizza.  That's my cast iron skillet you see that pie of awesomeness nestled in.  Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've had deep dish pizza?  Guh...a long, long time.  Even before I went vegan, I stopped eating this stuff because it's just so bad for you.  Like sooooo bad.  Greasy cheese.  And lots of it.  But not this one!  This is a pizza filled to the brim with: spinach, fresh basil, tomatoes, green peppers, shiitake mushrooms (mistake), onions, garlic, and a full recipe of cashew ricotta from Vcon slathered on top.  Just look:

you really only need one slice of this bad boy.

This would have been even better with olives and banana peppers, but I forgot to buy them.  Oh well.  That messy piece in the back is the first piece out of the pan...  it's not easy to get out.  I found the cashew ricotta to be a tad bit lemon-y (1/4 cup of lemon juice?  hmm) so I added some extra salt and a dash of beet sugar, which cured it immediately, and it was especially good after sitting in the fridge for a couple hours.  The crust has my usual additions of dried basil and garlic powder.  My only complaint was the mushrooms.  They just tasted...weird.  When I ate my second piece (for lunch the next day), I picked them all out.  Blegh.

On Sunday Michael and I went to my brother, Jonah's, house for dinner.  This was their first venture at vegan cooking, so they went on the delicious (and foolproof) route of veggie soup.  And it was SO good.  Terri (his lovely wife) made this up in her crockpot (genius!).  It's a tomato base, and if I remember correctly contained: green beans, carrots, corn, peppers, peas, and garbanzo beans.  She also added a little bit of salsa to add some flavor, which it totally did.  Michael picked up on the slight cilantro taste immediately, which he later clarified meant that cilantro, in small quantities, actually makes things taste good.  And boy did we love this soup!  

big pot 'o soup for a big group of people 

Terri also whipped up some lovely rolls:

i could not love bread more.  it's just not possible.

These were tender and fabulous and just absolutely perfect dipped into a big bowl of this:

so. frigging. good.

We finished off dinner with the last of Michael's birthday cupcakes (I love that my family doesn't care if baked goods are a week old, as long as they still taste good).  The cupcakes were enticing enough to get my niece to eat her veggie soup.  She promptly ate all the icing and then the dog snagged her cupcake.  I love families!  Endless entertainment.  The evening was rounded out with some watching of Jonah rock out to Rock Band and coloring + puppet making with my neice.  My nephew made the evening better just by being so darned cute (despite being impossible to put a diaper on).  

Must you have pictures?  Ok.  I hope J & T don't mind me putting up pics of their kids on my blog, but they're so darned cute that I can't stand it.  

Observe, the proper way to hold a baby:

And a slightly less proper, but still functional, way to do it:

can you believe he's only like 7 months old?  trenton, not michael.

And here is Allie, somewhat unhappily holding her new kitty, Lisa:

i'm hard pressed to decide who's cuter, here...  but allie wins in the end.

Until, that is, you see just how tiny and adorable Lisa is when paired next to a grown person:

i say 'grown' rather than 'grown-up' for a reason, hahaha...

Ah.  So as you can see, a lovely gathering.  My brother and his family are totally rad.  Next time, though, they're coming here and I'm gonna show 'em that vegans eat more than veggie soup ;)  (just kidding, guys, i eat a crapload of soup, honestly.)

corndog bread! and cookies...much needed cookies.

I like corndogs.  However, I am a bit fry-phobic.  It just seems...unnecessary to fry stuff, most of the time.  All that added fat, for what?  I say that anything that can be fried, can probably be successfully baked.  Oven baked fries?  sign me up.  Baked mock crabcakes?  yes, please!  So why not corn dogs?  Well, they have to be battered, which wouldn't hold up in the oven, really.  All of this is an example of the roundabout conversations Michael and I have had over the past few months as to how to get a corndog into our dinnertime without frying it.  Then he had a brilliant idea:  encase the dogs in cornbread.  Now, I will admit, after he came up with this, I researched it a little bit and saw a few blogs with corndog muffins.  Well, I didn't wanna screw with muffins.  So I made cornbread with hotdogs in the middle of it.

i couldn't get to it before michael cut it

I used the skillet cornbread from Vcon, and it worked perfectly.  Since the cast iron skillet was preheated in the oven, the bottom layer of batter firmed up pretty quick so that I could put down a layer of cut up hotdogs without them sinking to the bottom.  Slather on the rest of the batter, bake, and voila!  Corndog bread.  And it was good!  We ate it with some ketchup and mustard, baked beans (that I spruced up with spicy mustard and some vinegar), and these:

roasted brussels sprouts, broccoli, and leeks

The leeks didn't mush up like I thought they would, but this was still pretty yummy.  I just put them all in a pan, sprinkled with fresh rosemary, dried thyme, garlic powder, and pepper, then poured on a little veggie broth.  Cover with foil, roast in a 400F oven for 30 or so minutes.

All in all, it came together quite nicely.

it works best when you smoosh all this together to eat

Earlier in the evening, I had made a batch of cookie dough to refrigerate until after dinner, so they could be freshly baked when we ate them.  I made some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies from Celine's blog, Have Cake, Will Travel.  If you haven't been there yet (where have you been!?), go.  She comes up with some fabulous ideas for baked goods that will make your knees tremble.  These are the first recipe on that page:

oh so perfect cookies

These cookies are amazing.  I had to modify because I didn't have any arrowroot, but I found something online that said 1tsp arrowroot = 1 Tbsp wheat flour.  The recipe calls for 1 Tbsp arrowroot, so I used 3 Tbsp wheat flour.  It made them a little dry, so I then added more pumpkin.  Didn't make any difference, in my opinion.  These are SO GOOD!  This is my first recipe tryout from Celine's blog, and I'm happy to say that she's a genius.  These have the texture of a really fabulous oatmeal cookie (not the kind with coarse chunks of oats..you grind the oats in this cookie) with a lovely pumpkin flavor and sweet chips everywhere.  Any recipe that calls for the same amount of chocolate chips as it does flour, I'm game.  So!  Very well, Celine, I am convinced of your complete awesomeness now.  I did manage to make 8 cookies instead of 6, thank goodness.  Seeing as I ate 3 of them last night, I'd be sad if they were all gone so quickly.

Next up, the results from my 3 hour baking spree on Monday.  Vegan Addict got her package and put up pics, so I will now show mine!  Although...I think hers might be better.  First up, Lemon Poppyseed Crackle Cookies from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan.  These were really, really, really amazing.  I kept a couple of each thing I made for...Michael...to...taste....yeah.

little drops of lemony wonderfulness

Next up are cookies that I based on the carob-carob chip cookies from the same book, but didn't have carob anything (or any real reason to use it), so I put chocolate everywhere it said carob.  Those are crushed cashews on the tops.

much chocolatey goodness

For a sort of healthier option, I made the hearty autumn muffins from Vegan Dad.  I reaaalllly liked these.  They are just slightly sweet with nice little apple chunks and not too many raisins.  Pumpkin-y, but mostly spicy.  Not like hot spicy...you know what I mean.  Plus, there is a full cup of bran (wheat and oat) in these.  So, yeah.  They're good for that reason too.

i love my vegan muffin tops

That's it for now...  I don't think I'm cooking tonight, but you never know.  I might whip something up.  But I just had a giant bowl (i.e. an entire package) of popcorn with nutritional yeast and am going to a party later, and I have the feeling (given my mood this evening) that I will be happy to dine on the remainders of those pumpkin cookies and go straight to bed.  But we shall see.

Hmmm?  What's that?  You want a cute and cuddly kitty picture?

Geesh.

Well, ok.

Vegan Mofo day 10: my love affair with leeks

I've been home for 20 minutes and someone's car alarm has gone off a grand total of 4 times and counting, right in front of my house.  I'm tempted to go out and give that alarm something to go off about.

On to brighter topics:

i love leeks.

That's not my photo by the way.  I found it on the internet because I'm too lazy to go take a picture of the 2 leeks left in my fridge (that I'm tempted to cook up and eat right this minute).  I could seriously eat leeks 5 days a week.  And still be sad on the 2 days I don't have them.  Unfortunately, they are a bit expensive here (about $5-6 for 3 or so), and in my attempt to save money on groceries, leeks went out the door along with Morningstar Chickn Strips.  However, as a true leek addict, I must relapse every now and then.  Even if it means that my next grocery trip I'll need to buy the chickn strips, since they're Michael's favorite (not that I won't enjoy them).  And I found the perfect recipe for them.  Not that you probably don't already know about it, since it's been around for awhile.  I've been eyeing the Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits in Veganomicon since before I got it over a month ago.  I'd heard about it, and I wanted it, but my frugal ways prevented me from eating it.  Well, I caved.  I kept telling myself, 'Once fall hits, you are allowed to make this recipe.  It will be worth it.  It will be rainy and cold and that will be the perfect meal for you.  Just wait.'  

Well, I waited.  Fall came.  And it's been in the mid to high 70s and sunny and beautiful almost every single day.  Finally, I said screw it, I cannot wait another moment before I make this recipe.  Sunny fall weather be damned!

And I'm so glad.   

i want to see this in my kitchen more often

As you can see, I use the dark green parts of the leeks as well.  I think they are tasty and wonderful.  I fully ignore any recipe that tells me not to use that part.  I think people are crazy.  Luckily, Isa and Terry did not specify which parts to use, so I didn't have to feel guilty about going a little leek-crazy.  I put 2 huge leeks in this bad boy (well over the 2 cups it calls for).  And it was good.  

The whole thing was perfect.  I also have a mini love affair with thyme.  I used to not care about thyme, but recently I can't get enough.  This recipe was made for me.  Plus, just look at my biscuits!

the only word for this is glorious.

The only thing I changed about the biscuits was that I added about a teaspoon of cream of tartar to the mix.  I learned this from my mom and it gives biscuits this wonderfully tart flavor that was only enhanced by the fact that I let the vinegar sit in the soymilk (to make 'buttermilk') for a good half hour.  By the time I poured it into the dry part, it was almost chunky.  You might think this is gross.  I sort of did for a second, but then I quickly forgot about it once I tasted the biscuits.  They.  Were.  Perfect.  Next time I might use whole wheat pastry flour though, in order to make myself feel better when I eat 3 of these in one sitting.

topped with fresh thyme...i'm swooning over here.

Basically, I am in love.  Thank you, Isa and Terry, for inventing such a mouth-watering dish.  It came out perfectly (even though I had to use a sweet potato because I only had 2 tiny regular potatoes) and Michael loved it and we had the leftovers for lunch, which were just as awesome, and that fucking car alarm is going off again but I'm rising above it, trying to just imagine eating this for every dinner for the rest of my life.

*sigh*  I'm sad that it's all gone.  I might cheat and make it again next week, since I have 2 leeks left.  Unless I find something equally wonderful to put my leeks into.

On a side note, Michael ordered a soymilk maker and it arrived today.

this is like the vegan holy grail, sort of

We will be making our own tofu as soon as the million pounds of soybeans he ordered come in.  So get ready!  I can't wait.  I'm going to make herbed tofu, and it will be outrageously awesome.

To summarize:

leeks are the best thing on this planet.

soymilk machines are exciting.

kitties love fall, too:

some hits and misses

I am not above blogging about my failures as much as my successes. Naturally, I'd love to have more good dishes than bad.... but sometimes things just go wrong. And you can learn from my mistakes! Lucky you. First though, how about some pics from my life. Like my bike.

just imagine me cruisin' around town. oh yes.

radtastic pinstriping action

Next, you can see that mom sent me an apron in the mail. She included a note that said 'A sassy apron for a sassy cook'. Awesome! Thanks, Mom, and I totally wear it all the time.

me in 50's garb. i looked happier before the pic was taken but then the camera screwed up. this is the best we could muster.

Oh, and I came up from taking photos of my bike and was watching the kitties under the door. They were watching me, too. The ever curious Ghostface Killa:

'hey! get up here and feed me, already!'

K, food time. You'll notice a pattern soon.

FAIL: bread. I made two loaves, one herb, one normal. I used half WW, half AP flour. And then I made the mistake of startling the loaves after they had risen (an awesome amount) and they fell, and it became all dense and sad. Which in turn makes me sad. But it tasted pretty good.

mom, i seriously need that bread tutorial we keep talking about. i keep screwing up and i'm tired of it!

SUCCESS: turkey style lunchmeat from Vegan Dad. Even though I tried my hardest, subconsciously, to mess this up, too, it turned out good. First, I added waaaay too much soy sauce. Then, while steaming, I steamed out all the water and almost burned my pot to a crisp. Actually, it turned out really great, but could use just a tad more... flavor. I'd add more liquid smoke and more... just everything that adds yum. It'll be ok. This makes a HUGE loaf of seitan and the flavoring in the original recipe gets a little lost, is all. Generally, I'm really happy with how it turned out. It slices thin, scarily just like meat. But way more rad. Vegan Dad is easily the best seitan maker I've seen so far, and his recipes turn out for me most of the time. Plus, steaming seitan is GENIUS!

doesn't this look like meat in a deli? ew! but awesome!

SUCCESS: turkey dinner. Well, this one's fairly obvious. I used the above seitan to make a nice little turkey din for my boy. There with it is some smooshed potatoes (I always leave the skins on potatoes because 1. I'm lazy and 2. no one around here seems to mind) with loads of garlic and scallions, and some steamed Brussels Sprouts and squash with loads of the Mustard Sauce from Veganomicon. This mustard sauce is simply fabulous. Muy Sabroso!

everyone needs a little turkey din in their lives now and again.

SEMI-FAIL: pasta casserole. This tasted better the next day. Consisted of: WW penne, some sauteed squash and zucchini, tofu-spinach-basil ricotta, vegan meatballs, and sauce. I was feeling lazy and needed something I could pop in the oven and forget about. It actually turned out being more work than I wanted. And the ricotta tasted weird or something. But the next day I had it for lunch and it was good. So. I dunno. I've never had that ricotta taste weird before, maybe I was just in a weird mood that night when I ate it. Anyway... just another boring pasta casserole for the masses. Woo!

i mean, it LOOKS good, right?

SUCCESS: coconut black beans, coconut rice. Oh. My. Goodness. Please make both of these, immediately. Go look at the recipes, like RIGHTNOW. Don't change anything about the beans. Definitely eat them with the avocado and mango. I even add some shredded unsweetened coconut. I do cook them for awhile longer than it says, so that they thicken up. Now, the rice. I straight up cooked mine in the coconut milk, not water. Then towards the end, when it seemed a little dry, I added about 1/4 cup of water. I also used a package of oyster mushrooms instead of white mushrooms because I hate white mushrooms and oyster mushrooms are the only kind I like, really. Sounds weird to say that I like a type of mushroom, but oyster mushrooms are nice and chewy, NOT meaty like most mushrooms. Anyway, if you like whatever mushrooms, just add whichever you feel like or have on hand. I just like the oyster ones.

bad pictures of a delicious dinner

FAIL: marinated italian tofu and couscous w/tomatoes and capers (from VCon) and some sauteed spinach with walnuts. Ugh. Everything about this fail is my fault. I used frozen tofu for the tofu dish, which sucked up so much marinade that it made it extra salty. Oh, and I baked it IN the marinade, which I guess just made it worse. The flavor was good though. The couscous.... I was so sad. I'm still a little sad. It says to add optional cloves in the recipe. I don't know what I was thinking, but I added them. And the entire bottle of cloves accidentally got dumped in. I thought I got it all out. I didn't. At all. I was left with a huge container of clove flavored couscous that was impossible to remedy. Nothing really covers up the very strong flavor of cloves. I'd reccommend you skip the cloves altogether on this one. Oh, and that spinach was just very blah.

damnit.

SUCCESS: soft polenta w/poppy seeds (from VCon) and kale w/white beans (from Yellow Rose Recipes). Obviously, those aren't white beans. They're kidney beans. They were the only beans I had in the house, and they were canned. And it turned out just fine! I also added a handful of cherry tomatoes for a little punch. This dinner was SO delicious. The flavors were very subtle, but very yummy. Comforting. Nutritious. Heaven. I added about 1/2 tsp dried thyme to the polenta and I used veg broth, not water. Perfect.

ultimate perfection. i am in love.

FAIL: beanball hoagies. Beanballs from VCon. Are. Mushy. I need to add more wheat gluten, I guess. I thought they were just ok, Michael hated them. He didn't even finish his. Which is rare, honestly. The texture was off, the flavor was off... it was all kind of just...bleh. He made a veggie soup to go with this. It was ok, in my opinion. Sorry, Hunny! Too much cabbage, and I don't add potatoes to my veggie soup. Other than that, it was good though.

how can something that looks this good taste so weird? like mush in your mouth. sorry, Isa.

SEMI-SUCCESS: jalepeno poppers. I got this idea from a really old post from VeganYumYum. I stuffed them with a nooch sauce that I already had in the fridge, and these jalepenos were just dying to be used for something. So. This:

neato!

Served these up with some sloppy joes (Fantastic brand) on that bread from above. The poppers were beer battered (winged that one) and deep fried. I didn't even care, cause they were pretty good. Outside my comfort zone (fry-phobic here), but good.

and in the pic they become shapeless mounds. oh well. there's jalepenos under that batter.

Ok, I'm getting tired here, but I'll just end with a couple things.

LUNCH SUCCESSES: Michael made me lunch a couple times this past week. First off, some pasta that was nice and fresh tasting. I topped with nooch.

pretty

Next up, 'steak' sammiches. These are sliced up Boca patties, sauteed peppers and onions, homemade bread and steak sauce. Very yum.

big lunch, good lunch.

Last but not least.... a silly zucchini.