Sunday, October 3, 2010

like caviar, but without the fish zygotes

What a delightfully crisp second day of October today was!  It was a delightful mid-60s day with a gentler breeze blowing than the gale-force winds I've been fighting my way through all week.  Most importantly, for the first time since last weekend, I saw the sun.  I'm actually not a big fan of sunshine, but after a week of rain every day and every night, I was pretty happy to squint today.

I was remarkably productive for a Saturday - I'm pretty sure I owe that to knowing how little I'm going to accomplish tomorrow, since the wedding we are attending is at the Lancaster County Winery, over an hour and a half away from Philadelphia.  I got up only about fifteen minutes after Mister left for work, and after my breakfast (waffles with pears cut up and lots of Earth Balance - so tasty and exactly what I wanted on this first truly cool day of autumn) and shower, I headed out to replenish my supply of matcha, as well as my supply of canned goods from Superfresh.  I always think it's ironic that I go to a store called SuperFresh specifically for pantry staples (canned beans, tomatoes, pasta), but really, let's compare: $.71 for chickpeas at Superfresh versus $1.99 for chickpeas at Whole Foods.  They may be organic, but when it comes to canned beans, I really don't care $1.28-worth.

When I returned from teaching this evening, I headed over to Whole Foods for the fruits and vegetables portion of my groceries and had a staring contest with a bag of arame.  More specifically, I had a staring contest with the price tag - it was a little higher than I wanted for a little more quantity than I felt comfortable with since I've never used the sea vegetable before and don't know if Mister or I will actually like it...we're not big fans of sea fare.  There were a few things I couldn't find for some reason, so I'll be heading over to Essene tomorrow at some point.  We'll see if they have a sample-sized bag of seaweed...er...vegetable.

So, true to last night's warning, my menu is composed completely from The 30 Minute Vegan and Vegan Express and will be marked only by "30MV" or "VegEx."

1. Udon Bowl from 30MV.  I love their "bowl" recipes and I believe this is one of two that I haven't made yet...this is the recipe that is asking me to try eating that thing that clung to my legs in a most horrific way when I was a child, contributing to my lack-of-desire-bordering-on-phobia for "swimming" at the Jersey Shore.

2. White Bean-Tarragon Soup also from 30MV.  I was a good girl - I managed to restrict my soup-happy heart to only one soup on this week's menu.  I can't make any promises for next week, though.  I had gotten Isa's amazing lentil soup into my brain, but it takes over an hour to make, so when I saw this, I thought "yay for tarragon!" and put it on the menu.  I picked up some Rice Vegan American "cheese" and intend to serve the soup with my best attempt at vegan Grilled Cheese sandwiches.  Don't tell Mister!

 3. Pasta Florentine from 30MV.  I've made this several times now.  It's tasty, it's easy, and having made it more than once, it's familiar, which is helpful on a broken-brain night.

4. Put the Tex in Your Mex Chili from 30MV.  Yes, I got chips.

5. Curried Chickpeas with (Chutney) Bulgur from VegEx.  I made this last August and not since then because the Chutney Bulgur kind of sucked.  I remembered, when I came across the recipe in my cookbook, that I liked the Curried Chickpea part, so I decided to fudge the chutney bulgur and see what happened.

6. Stewed Lentils with Soy Sausage also from VegEx.  This was dinner tonight.


When I made it before, right after I got the cookbook, I commented on how ugly it was.  In the instructions, Nava clearly recommends black beluga lentils.  Unfortunately, at that time I could not get any.  As you see in my happy picture, I did get them this time.  They smelled delicious while simmering and look like little caviars - which is probably where beluga lentils got their name...

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