cheerio, little cat

Angst has become more insistent that I share my breakfast with him in the past few days, going so far as to pull on my arm while I'm eating it!
Wednesday (no cook night), I had to get more coffee anyway, so while I was in the store I figured I'd pick up one of those frozen dinners I hear about. After examining them, I found them less than tempting, so I headed to checkout with my coffee. As I did so, I passed a sale display - substantial discount on Cheerios! So, I got a big ol' box for $2 and my coffee and went home to have 2 bowls of Cheerios with soymilk for dinner. Well, Angst caught on, and when I had Cheerios with blueberries for breakfast yesterday and today, he felt like I should share. He likes cereal a lot more than I thought.

(mommy's favorite little piggle)

Anyway, dinner last night was kind of a failure, but I figure if everything I made was a success, how would I ever learn and grow as a cook? Secretly, though, I like the stories of Mozart - how upon finding his original manuscripts, there are no erasures - he got everything perfectly the first time. I wouldn't mind having that ability - learning is overrated.

I don't even remember the first fancy name I gave last night's dinner, but by the end of the night I had dubbed it Red Rice and Beans. I cannot understand why sometimes rice cooks up perfectly (in the amount of time it's supposed to take) and other times it takes 90 minutes of simmering to even approach being done. By the way - that's my patience threshold for rice. If it's not saturated and tender after 90 minutes of cooking, I am crunching my way through half-cooked rice... which is more or less what happened last night. It has potential, I'll give it that, but it's not close enough to being more than merely edible for me to post up here yet. Let me give it another try (with more time and spices!) and then I'll share the recipe and take pictures.

I had a delightful and creative day off today and I have my refrigerator and "pantry" stocked with ingredients for what will hopefully be a week full of amazing flavors and foods. I am very pleased to share this week's menu, once again with only 2 meals from someone else's brain!

1. Cinnamon Bulghur with Pomegranate Saute
2. Red Lentil Coconut Curry
3. Mediterranean (Mock) Risotto
4. Farro Pasta with Sunshine Sauce; accompanied by Tomato Rosemary Scones from Vegan Brunch by Isa
5. Cuban-Style Black Beans with Rice and Plaintains from Vegetarian Times Fast & Easy
6. Black-Bottom Pineapple Tofu with Cashew Coconut Rice (also from Vegetarian Times Fast & Easy)

I'll check in later to let you know how tonight's dinner goes (it would be difficult for it to suck more than last night's adventure). By the way - I kept apologizing to Mister about how long it was taking, then when I finally gave up (after about 2 and a half hours of cooking, I'll add), I thanked him for eating it and apologized for how much it sucked. God bless him - he told me it was good (it really was only barely edible).