2 ways to pre-game Friday

Today is kind of like Friday Part One.  I took tomorrow off from work because Mister and I have big plans.  Well, actually, Mister's and my big plans could have been accomplished by taking a half day, but I decided to take advantage of the fact that PIFA is still going on and avail myself on some free arts stuff.

Some women go to a salon/spa to pamper themselves.  I go to museums and live music with food carts.

Today was also an interesting food day.  It was Hot Dog Day at work.  It never fails to completely astonish me how much crappy food we serve our employees at a weight loss company.  This year's Hot Dog Day was only more civilized than last year's in two small ways:

1. We managed to avoid polluting Earth Day with our little tubes of nitrates and leftover skin.
2. We managed to avoid the novelty of a fat and toothless man serving hot dogs from his little cart.

Apart from that, it served as a reminder of two more things:

1. Just because we work for a company trying to establish itself as a total wellness solution and just because we aim to teach overweight and obese people how to establish healthy eating habits while losing weight on our program does not mean we feed our employees healthy food.

2. If there is something novel available, like, say, veggie dogs, people will choose that over their pink tubes of manipulated meat out of pure curiosity.  Unfortunately, this can end with no food for the people who can only eat the veggie dogs...people like me.

I'm trying to "be the bigger person" (not literally, obviously) and look at this from a generous and enlightened perspective, but there are two points at war within me:

1. I really, really want to focus on how awesome it was that so many meat-eaters voluntarily chose to eat something that was not dead.  I want to be happy for their excellent choice of a [albeit processed] vegetarian protein over their usual choice of rotting, preserved flesh.  I want to believe that running out of veggie dogs before the event was half over will indicate to management that there is a larger interest in good, non-meat options than they originally thought and that this revelation will result in more veggie choices in future events.

2. I wish they had "reserved" at least enough for the known vegetarians, and allowed omnis to eat "extras."  I mean, really.  I, like everyone else, had believed the company was feeding me today, so I did not bring lunch.  Them running out of veggie dogs resulted in me having to buy my lunch at the cafe, who, fortunately, had vegetarian lentil soup for me to dunk my naked hot dog rolls in.

In any case, I was happy to head home at the end of a very busy and hungry day and find that Mister was actually awake and alert.  I had nothing to say last night because when I got home, Mister was passed out in the dark in the bedroom, got up for about an hour and a half before giving up and going back to bed.  In the absence of a formal, cooked dinner, I had a grilled peanut butter sandwich and a plate of strawberries.  It was a nice little dinner, but nothing to blog about, especially since the strawberries could have been a lot closer to in season.  Speaking of seasons, I know Mister and I are quite ready to wave Allergy Season goodbye.

So, despite Mister's ambivalent hunger, I set about making Mediterranean Chickpeas and Vegetables, from the July 1998 Cooking Light magazine.  Click the meal name for the recipe - and you should - it's tasty and very easy.  If you have precooked rice, or use a faster cooking rice like Basmati or Jasmine, or even a fast-cooking grain like bulgur or couscous, you can easily get this on the table in 30 minutes, which was exactly what I was aiming to do.

It has been such a long time since we've had this that I'm pretty sure I've never served it in those bowls...which we got the first Christmas after we were married (2007).  See, it took me quite a long time to find my cooking "wings" so for the first several years of our vegetarian lives together, I just kind of made the same things in an ever-widening rotation.  I was always trying to learn new recipes, I just hadn't become confident enough in my ability to cook to take as many chances as I do now.  So, before I learned how fun it is to be adventurous in your menu selection, even if it leads to disaster from time to time, we would generally do a rotation of pizza, pasta, veggie burgers w/fries, pizza, rice and beans, my own weak version of veggie lo mein, pizza, and rice cooked in vegetable broth with whatever vegetables I found palatable that day sauteed in some olive oil with not quite enough garlic.  And pizza - did I mention that?  Yeah, Mister and I ate a lot of pizza when we stopped eating animals.

Anyway, this had a high priority in our rotation because it was the first time I thought to combine canned tomatoes with the sauteed veggies and definitely the first time I realized you could have beans (chickpeas) and rice AND veggies - I know, it blew my mind at the time, too.  So, I probably overdid it a bit, so when I started building my cookbook collection, it fell away.

I'm glad I made it and I'll probably try to remember to make it a little more frequently than once every 3 years or so, because it's really good and simple.  I always enjoy the recipes that involve bay leaves because they lend such a bizarre flavor to dishes; smoky, like I mentioned.

Anyway, I have some French wine to drink in preparation for my day of French fun tomorrow.  I'm so glad I decided to take the day off - I so enjoyed the PIFA gala and I've wanted to attend far more than I have, but alas... that whole pesky working-6-days-a-week thing gets in the way of a lot of things I want to do.  I plan to enjoy every moment of tomorrow and hope to capture as much as I can on film so we can have a little picture party tomorrow night in preparation for Real Friday.

Bonne nuit et Beaux rêves, mes amis, à demain!

three swings and a hit

Tonight is actually the first time I've cooked anything since the last time I posted.  While it was slightly less messy to have other people preparing my food, it was only marginally more relaxing this time around.

On Thursday, we had another management dinner.  We were so rowdy, the VP ended up buying a bottle of wine for the neighboring table as an apology for our behavior.  Don't let his contrite behavior fool you, though - he was complicit in his own (quieter) way.  Eschewing the Brazilian steakhouse this time in favor of Redstone Grill, dinner involved less meat only in a way that involved each person getting their own plate, rather than servers continually presenting a "parade of meats" on skewers, even if your little placard says NO.  There were exactly two items on the menu that I could eat, which is still two more than there were at the last dinner.  I spent more time than was probably necessary trying to decide between a pesto and tomato flatbread or a fairly generic salad.  I went with the flatbread.  Aside from the [male] colleague seated across from me challenging me to a pickled ginger eating contest, nothing blog-worthy happened.  After a while, you can't really put a comical twist on the same tired remarks about what the crazy vegetarian is going to eat in these delightful veg-unfriendly suburbs.

Friday night's dinner was far more enjoyable, both for the culinary and the company.  I met up with a dear old friend for dinner at Cedars.  It has been far too long since I've seen her, which probably helped me in my adventurous menu choices.  Mister and I have a fairly standard order when we go:

• an appetizer of falafel, dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), hummus, and baba ghanoush
• fries with grilled peppers and onions
• Mister gets a falafel sandwich or spanakopita
• I get Imam Baldi

Following Dear Friend's lead, I started my meal with the Tabbouli salad, which was surprisingly parsley-heavy.  The tomatoes were uniform in dice and marinated to perfection, and there was just barely enough bulghur to hold everything together.  I would definitely recommend this and will get it again in the future.  At my urging, Dear Friend ordered the Imam Baldi and I ordered the Vegetable Sayadia.  It was very tasty, kind of like a Lebanese risotto, though there were far more mushrooms involved than I would have liked.  In the most ladylike way possible, I shifted them, one by one, to the side of my plate and happily shoveled the rest into my mouth.  It was a delightful dinner, complete with fun and intimate conversation.

I finally got to make Fusion Enchiladas and Mango & Black Bean Salad for tonight's dinner.  The enchiladas are from the Sept/Oct 2009 issue of Clean Eating magazine.  I have been holding on to the salad recipe from the March 2008 issue of Cooking Light magazine.  I made the Fusion Enchiladas immediately after purchasing that issue of Clean Eating, noting at that time that I would have to make them again, substituting seitan for the recipe-prescribed sirloin.  I did just that tonight and it came out much better.

I marinated the seitan briefly with a crushed [huge] clove of garlic and a tsp of cumin, then browned it as much as you can brown fake meat in a nonstick saute pan.  I stirred in a diced red pepper, a cup of frozen corn, and two cups of baby spinach, and while that cooked I pureed the "refried" edamame with its various components (click the link above for the recipe).  It occurred to me while I was cooking just how miserably displayed my growing photography skills were when I made this in September, so I decided to get some action shots, rather than just an ugly and concealing whole wheat tortilla lump.

a thin layer of pureed "refried" edamame, topped with the seitan filling

all my ducks (enchiladas) in a row, ready for their brief baking time

I believe I pulled the salad recipe out of a special feature Cooking Light was doing about 6 essential foods to eat each day - the ingredient highlighted in this recipe was the black beans, but I was thoroughly impressed with all the ingredients and how they played so well together.

I did learn a fairly valuable lesson while preparing the salad: ripe mango is really slippery.  I don't know what, if anything, can be done about that for future preps (and they will happen!), but I nearly lost that little sucker right off of my cutting board a few times!

one down, one to go

Work days, that is. In a stroke of good fortune, as well as possibly the stupidest combination of responsibilities, there are only 2 [very very busy] days in my work week this week. I managed to get through today...well, I should rephrase that and let it read more like this: today completely took over and before I could blink I was 75% through my work day and upon completing aforementioned blink, the imaginary whistle was blowing and it was time to go home. I imagine tomorrow will be very much the same way and despite the joy it brings me to just work my normal workday, there is a part of me that thinks I should head in early tomorrow so I can leave on time, and I don't see HOW Monday will happen without overtime. Did I mention I was a little busy?

I was also kind of a babbling idiot by the time I got home from work tonight and my mind just stopped spinning with myriad thoughts about 15 minutes ago after forcing myself to focus on providing my sister with an answer to her question about Jews, Muslims, and pork (as well as their apparent mutual exclusivity). Fortunately, dinner required almost no thought and relatively little effort. I think the total hands-on time for the Lentil-Edamame Stew was approximately 5 minutes, including the time to put it in bowls and set them on the table. This is a great recipe for those days when you simply cannot focus on a dinner that requires constant attention.
Speaking of dinners which require all of your attention every minute - I made that one last night. The first meal of the "week" is always the hardest because I have everything I need for all of the recipes and can choose any one I want, really. Once you pick one, though, the rest are easy. I consulted with my tastebuds to see what we were feeling - the answer was a resounding "umami" so I decided to go with the Seitan Stirfry with Black Bean Garlic Sauce.
It was very good and quite simple as well = a pound of seitan, a pound of green beans (I'll admit, I used frozen), a wok. I added some bok choy because I had some leftover for reasons I'll probably never know. Also, I finally broke down and bought Cooking Rice Wine. I have dozens of recipes that call for it, which I have generally overlooked because I thought, "What an esoteric ingredient! I'll end up with a huge useless bottle to use only when I make that recipe....a few times a year." Somewhere along the line, though, I realized that I have a bunch of recipes like that, so it might not be quite as esoteric as I thought...it smells really good.

By the way, I'm still trying to figure out where November went. Anyone?

Finally, I did make cookies last night and I'm proud as hell that they made it to my work potluck because they smelled SO good baking. I think Mister and I deserve some serious kudos for only doing our quality analysis on two samples... I made Banana-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies from the July 2009 issue of Cooking Light.
I veganized the recipe very easily. I mean, seriously? Banana-anything cookies/muffins/cake beg for another banana to replace the eggs, so that was a no-brainer. I also replaced the butter with 1/4 cup canola oil. They were a big hit - they smelled just like banana bread, but had the toothsome texture of whole oats and the squishy sweet surprise of dark chocolate chips. Hopefully, they provided a healthful polemic to the Turducken one group brought in. The smell of the turducken = utterly revolting and at least somewhat nauseating. Not one, but 3 roasted corpses, each one crammed into the next size up...mmmm..... NO.

Actually, that is probably the best segue I'll have to throw out this little thought-nugget: my sister emailed me an article from the New York Times. It's an Op-Ed by Gary Steiner, a vegan professor at Bucknell University. In the [very well-written] article, Professor Steiner points out the stunning dichotomy present in the growing concern over how Thanksgiving turkeys lived prior to having their heads chopped off, feathers plucked out, and being roasted in an oven for a bunch of gluttonous Americans to eat. Free-range poultry is all the rage, as omnivores everywhere try to assuage their consciences of any guilt that might be associated with killing a big bird that you know you won't finish, so you make sandwiches and soups and other stuff from the plethora of recipes that come out about this time of year to help you use up the leftover turkey. How often, though, does someone stop and think about how little it matters whether the turkey was happy before you ate it because it was bred, born, and raised specifically to DIE and be roasted on the fourth Thursday of November?

That's enough from me - I'll let the good professor [angrily] make his point.

bees and cows and sheep, oh my!

Okay, so maybe there isn't the same sense of fear as there would be when confronted with lions and tigers and bears, but these gentle creatures offer a more cerebral challenge. While the wild beasts of Oz may threaten physical danger, our honey-producing, leather-wearing, and wool-covered friends threaten our paradigms and ethical stands.

I had some great responses to my honey-flavored ramblings. A few helpful readers pointed me in the direction of some other resources I had not found in my own hunt for answers as to why honey was not considered vegan. And though I still needed some time to ruminate on that information before coming to realize that I do, in fact, find so many things wrong with the human consumption (and by necessity, burglary) of honey, I'm going to push my luck and appeal for help again.

It is a gorgeous autumn in Philadelphia. I have more or less given up on believing weather forecasters, because I really think they employ only slightly more science than native Americans who raised their eyes to the clouds and said "I think it will rain." I also put absolutely NO faith in a book written hundreds of years ago and its alleged ability to foresee the weather this winter. Nevertheless, whether we get the super-cold-and-snowy winter everyone is screaming about or not, it really does get very cold in this part of the country.

A few years ago (actually more like five or six), I got a beautiful black lambswool cashmere coat for Christmas. Not only is it beautiful and stylish, it is extremely warm when the winter wind blows. It is also starting to show its age - the lining is beginning to tear and I noticed some "balding" spots where the seatbelt rubs against my coat when I'm driving. If I don't replace it this winter, I will probably have to do so by next year. The urgency, however, to replace my coat comes from the going-on-now Macy's coat sale. When I visited the website, I found a couple of beautiful and warm and comfy looking wool coats for what I found to be a reasonable price.

This, of course, raises the conundrum about how ethical (or not) it is to rob sheep of their wool in order to craft a coat to keep me warm for many winters to come. I am not wasteful. I wear my clothing until it is threadbare or faded beyond what could vaguely pass for professional. I wear my shoes until they have holes in them or are broken in some other way. I drive my cars until they don't go anymore. If there is even enough leftover from a meal I've made to pass as a single-serving side dish, I will put it in tupperware and save it for later. So believe me, my stuff lasts. Like I said, I have had my current wool coat for 5-6 years. I also have a leather jacket that has lasted me a decade of winters and isn't even close to quitting. Unfortunately, it's not quite warm enough for January and February.

Admittedly, I have not done any research into this yet. If I don't hear back from any of you, I will do my usual google nonsense, but if someone already knows a compelling reason why I shouldn't buy a new wool coat this winter, I would love to hear it. Currently, I just can't see the harm - after all, it grows back. Obviously, there is something at least a little exploitative about stealing the fur off an animal to make clothes for me, but unlike silk or leather or a fur coat, which actually involves killing the animal who "supplied" the material, the sheep lives to bleat another day. I guess that is what keeps me from feeling bad about wearing wool.

So if anyone has some insight they would like to share with me, I would really appreciate it.

On a lighter note - I made Stir-Fried "Beef" with Broccoli and Peppers for dinner tonight. The steak strips were so much different stir-fried than they were in that funny Irish stew I put them in last time. I couldn't tell if they were saltier or if that was the soy sauce I sprinkled them with while discovering that my wok has decided (without consulting me) that it no longer wishes to be non-stick.

parmesan-crusted pork? no, thanks

Yesterday was the first day of my favorite month. I love October for many reasons:
1. the weather is perfect
2. it starts smelling and tasting like fall
3. the leaves in Pennsylvania are at their peak of beauty
4. people start lighting fires in their fireplaces (I love that smell when I'm out taking a walk on a crisp autumn night)
5. we're coming up on another wedding anniversary (I love that!)
and now,
6. because of all the wonderful posts to read (and write) for Vegan MoFo III! I am so excited to be a part of this!

I was previously unaware that this day even existed, but yesterday was also World Vegetarian Day, which I celebrated in grand style...because nothing says, "we love animals" like a Brazilian steakhouse featuring a "parade of meats." Not exactly how I imagined observing World Veg. Day or kicking off VeganMoFo2009, but long story short it was my boss's fault.

As I mentioned before, we recently added about 100 new agents to our staff at work. My colleagues and I make up the management team of the sales department and the Vice President wanted to thank us all for hiring and training these new staff members, as well as hitting projected sales goals in August, so he took us out to dinner. Fortunately, the salad bar was really good - hearts of palm, chunks of cantelope, tabbouleh, herbed cucumbers, steamed asparagus, and a really good mixed greens salad. The greens were so fresh and spicy there was no need for dressing. Also, on the table were fried polenta and bananas. Despite the continuous parade of servers carrying 12 different meats on 12 different skewers for my dining partners to pick off with little tongs, I thoroughly enjoyed my salad (to the great amusement of two male colleagues who had two of every meat). I also especially enjoyed two conversations:

Vice President to female colleague: "Why isn't she (me) eating?" as he observed me passing on all the meat presented to me.
Female colleague to VP: "Because she's a vegetarian."
Evidently, no one told him this earlier.

A server presents a skewer of parmesan-encrusted pork loin to my Jewish colleague who has just finished observing Yom Kippur.
Her: "Ooh, what is that?"
Me: "Parmesan-encrusted Pork."
Her, to server: "No, thank you."

In case you missed that, the combination of Pork and Cow's milk cheese is not exactly kosher.

So that was how I kicked off World Vegetarian Day and the first day of Vegan Month of Food.

Tonight I made Two-Bean & Kale Soup without the cheese toasts. The kale is really a mouthful! I think I need to chop it smaller next time...the pieces were way too big. I feel like either I should know this, or I did something wrong, but kale is really....sturdy. It doesn't wilt like other greens. It looks like it does, but it doesn't, it just turns greener. It's a very hearty green and I enjoyed having to chew it so many times before I could even consider swallowing, but I definitely think I need to cut it up a little smaller next time. It's a good soup for a mildly chilly night, getting a little touch of creaminess by blending cannellini beans with vegetable broth - I love that trick!

Anyway, due to good times and good wine*, I was way too tired to start my MoFo blogging last night, so I may do a "double issue" one of these days to make up for it. Enjoy and please feel free to leave me comments if there is anything you'd like me to write about this month.
Possible topics:
1. Why aren't you vegan?
2. What's wrong with honey?
3. Why isn't your cat vegan?
4. How did you make a cupcake so good someone wants to make love to it? (funny story)
5. What makes some sugar vegan and some not?
6. Amazing egg substitutes
7. Insert interesting topic here______

*Crios Malbec, Argentina - sooooooo good. Soooooo smooth. It was like drinking velvet.

entertaining an army

I've made a progressive sequence of meals over the past few days. On Tuesday night I made Punjabi Peppers and Tofu so that we wouldn't have any leftovers (and it worked brilliantly). On No-Cook-Wednesday, I just heated up what was left of the corn bisque I made earlier in the week and threw in some leftover rice to calm the flavor of the nutmeg. I continue to be perplexed by how much heat that sprinkling added and I cannot find information anywhere on why nutmeg would make soup bite me.

Last night I made Vegetable Etoufee (pronounced eh-too-FAY) from One Dish Vegetarian Meals by Robin Robertson. Etoufee is french for "smothered" which refers to the thick tomato-based roux in which the vegetables simmer. This dish is apparently standard Cajun fare, although it normally includes shrimp or crayfish (straight out of the Louisiana bayous?).
Yesterday was a hungry day. Mister thinks it's because we don't eat a normal dinner on Wednesdays, but I don't think that explains all of the other Thursdays that weren't hungry days. I had a bigger breakfast than usual and thought to myself, "surely, this will hold me through training until I can have a snack." I had a meeting right when I got to work and went from there directly into my training class. I got about an hour into the training and realized I was so hungry that I felt weak and wasn't sure I was making sense. Miraculously, I finished the module I was teaching and then unloaded my trainees on the more seasoned agents they would be shadowing until lunch time. I immediately ate my gnu bar (more on that later) and to my profound disappointment discovered that I actually felt hungrier than I did before I ate it! I thought, "oh, my body just needs a minute to realize I ate something," but about 5 minutes later I was still so hungry I was becoming nauseated and shaky. Against my better judgment, I went to the cafeteria and bought an iced tea, a banana, and a "home-made" granola bar. After wolfing down the banana and granola bar, I finally felt better and made it through the next couple of hours until lunch. I happily slurped up my big bowl of soup and was good to go for a little longer. About halfway home, though, I realized I was starving again. I'm pretty good about recognizing my body's symptoms and it usually gives me a little more warning before going into full-on we're-never-going-to-eat-again panic mode, but when I say I was starving I was seriously hungrier than I've been in a long time. In fact, I couldn't even think about cooking dinner until I had eaten a piece of bread with my Dark Chocolate Dreams PB on it. The point I'm trying to make is this: I made Vegetable Etoufee because it was the fastest-cooking meal on my menu.

On to the next! Although we do have a decent amount of last night's dinner to make into upcoming days' lunches (probably 2), the sheer volume of tonight's meal amazed even me. At least I know what I can make the next time I have to feed an army (or my husband's side of the family). Tonight I made the imaginatively named Penne Pasta with Fresh Veggies from The Vegan Table. The yield was even huger than Isa's Seitanic Jambalaya - see for yourself!

That's the biggest pot I have and the food comes up to the handles! I got this recipe from the section of Colleen's book she intends for dinners with 4-6 people. I think she's assuming they will all have seconds (maybe thirds) and not eat any of the clever side dishes or appetizers also on the menu/table. I had 2 of those servings and Mister had 4 (he must have really liked it!) and we still had about 3.5 qts of leftovers. I got an idea of how much bigger this dish was than I thought it would be when I was prepping the vegetables and they filled a 2.5 qt bowl to the top.

Anyway, it was very tasty - the penne was only one ingredient, equal with the rest due to their abundance. This will probably be a good dish to bring to family dinners, potlucks, and any USO shows I do when I'm famous.

I constructed and shopped for this week's menu today - it was a gorgeous day for walking around my neighborhood.

1. Fusion Enchiladas from Clean Eating Magazine. This magazine is awesome, though admittedly "out there" sometimes. The basic principle is to fuel your body well by eating minimally processed, whole foods. I can dig. This recipe actually calls for beef sirloin, but I have some tricks up my sleeve.

2. Two-Bean Soup with Kale, with Cheese-Tomato Toasts from Cooking Light Magazine. I don't have anything witty to say about this yet.

3. Pomegranate Saute on Cinnamon Bulghur - it's time to use up those last 5 peanuts. I might give it a tropical twist with some pineapple juice this time around, if I don't feel like hunting down apple juice. It's harder than it sounds!

4. Five-Spice Vegetables & Tofu with Green Tea Rice - and this time, if I actually use the 5-Spice powder instead of ground cloves, I'll actually post the recipe!

5. Brazilian Black Bean Stew from Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook. There's a story here, too. First of all, I think it's awesome that this soup recipe calls for chunks of mango. Second of all, mangos appear to be at the peak of ripeness right now. Finally, a friend of mine actually took a picture on his vacation with his wife that made me crave this soup. You know those little cards they stick up on posts next to soup tureens to let you know what kind of soup is inside and what's in the soup? He saw a Vegan Black Bean Soup card and thought it would be funny to send me a picture, so I thought, "I haven't made that incredible (and beautiful) black bean stew in a while..." Isn't that a heartwarming story?

I expect to post more frequently (really???) in October. I'm going to be taking part in Vegan Month of Food III, aka VeganMoFo 2009. I'm also considering going vegan for the month as an experiment, and as part of the detox effort I mentioned earlier. I guess that means I'll have to get the soup with cheese toasts out of the way before Thursday, as well as my cupcakes.
By the way - I am completely unimpressed with Gnu Food bars. They had them at the register at Whole Foods, so I figured I'd give them a try. Well, I've tried three and I didn't like any of them.
1. they don't taste very good
2. they have a gritty texture and hard bits that stick between my chewing teeth. I don't appreciate that.
3. they're twice as expensive as any of the bars I do like (PS I got another box of Nectar Cacao bars today)
4. not only do they not satisfy my hunger, they seem to enhance it!

3 meals, 3 things

It was a dark and stormy night...the rain beat against the windowpanes and below the window, cars could be heard splashing through the puddles. Angst had tucked his feet beneath his body and greatly resembled a large, fuzzy, gray egg.

So I made one of the most colorful meals imaginable, just for spite.
Tonight I made Fiestadillas again, although I did actually add a sprinkling of shredded mozzarella to each one to help it adhere to the tortilla better. It kind of worked, though I probably could have used more cheese. Surprisingly, I just wasn't all that interested in piling on something that used to be a favorite food and now seems to be loaded with unhealthiness. Don't mind me - I'm just over-analyzing. I did actually take a picture this time!Also, in my continuing attempt to make "well-rounded" and balanced meals, I made a side dish - Spiced Potatoes & Green Beans from the September Cooking Light magazine. It was pretty easy, smelled great, tasted even better, and to my delight and astonishment, it looked very much like it did in the magazine!No cupcake stories today...and it turns out my assistance is needed at work tomorrow, so I will have to hold off on my good-neighbor-cupcake-baking until Sunday (as well as the accompanying story). I won't leave you sweet-less, though!

When I was at Whole Foods the other day, I picked up this sweet treat - Clif nectar cacao bar, flavor: dark chocolate walnut.

At 160 calories and delivering two servings of fruit cloaked in the most realistic dark chocolate taste and texture I've found yet, this chocolate-oriented fruit & nut bar is my winner (as far as vegan chocolate fun goes). It actually reminded me a little of the first bar of vegan chocolate I ever ate, on my honeymoon in Lake Tahoe. My (brand new) husband and I went to a paradise within my heaven: a wine and chocolate store. Honestly - the only thing better than a wine & gourmet chocolate store was that it was located in the most beautiful and peaceful place I have ever been. So anyway, we gawked at $500 bottles of special vintage wines, poked at some way-too-exotic-for-our-tastes chocolates and ended up leaving with about $50 worth of organic, fair-trade, and vegan chocolates.

Not a bad flavor association for a $1.19 bar made of dates, walnuts, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa, and vanilla (all organic) that can be easily purchased a mere 5 blocks from my home (rather than about 3,000 miles). So I think it goes without saying I was very happy with this bar and it will definitely find its way into my basket again!

I feel like it's Reverse Day. I started the blog with dinner, babbled about my midday snack, and now I'm going to tell you about breakfast (because I just remembered). Anyway, I think I got all my fruit servings in for the day with this morning's breakfast: Oatmeal, cooked in unsweetened soy milk, but here's the twist: I hulled 5 large strawberries and peeled my two remaining bananas, stuck them in my handy food processor, then stirred the resulting slop into my oatmeal. Oh my heavens was it good! It was just the right amount of sweet and perfectly thick. I was only going to do one banana until I realized that if I left the other one hanging there, fruit flies would take control of my home.

One last thing before I go - if you're feeling philosophical, check out my old buddy's new blog:
3 Things in DC.