have lunch, will travel

I can't say it enough - I love that I work in the city now.  Every single day I find a new or rehashed reason to appreciate it.  Some of the highlights include being able to walk to work somedays (there are two center city locations and one is only a little more than a mile from my home), being able to walk from one location to the other, and being able to walk to a variety of fun places for lunch.

Although I really haven't been doing anything special in the kitchen since I started (which should change sometime this week), I have had some wonderful lunch time adventures, so I figured we could do a little lunch-time round-up.

My first day of work it was pouring rain, but apparently the Big Guy managers like to take the trainees to lunch, so we ran through the rain to a crappy little bar next door.  I don't want to sound ungrateful and I don't think I will, since everyone acknowledged that we only went there because no one wanted to be outside any longer than we had to be.  The place was kind of a dump.  Several years ago, Philadelphia passed a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants - this has been both a blessing and a curse (since making people stand outside to smoke then creates a serious loitering problem for people who just want to walk down the sidewalk unmolested), but I swear, this place either still lets people smoke or so damn many people smoked when they were allowed to that the musty, stale scent of leftover ashtrays will never leave.  In addition to smelling awful, the menu was honestly burgers and salad.  I was very excited when I saw that a veggie patty could be subbed in any of the dozen burger configurations...until the "waiter" told me they didn't have veggie patties.  Okay, then - salad it is!

Our second day, they ordered Thai food.  I was cautious about anything with sauce, but all in all, I fared far better.  The third day, they let us go out on our own and that is where the fun begins.

Friday, I happily ambled over to Pure Fare in my brand new cowgirl boots (more in a minute).  It's about a block and a half away from one location and I could very happily go here every day for lunch.  If they double my salary, I could afford to do so, too!  Since that's not likely to happen anytime in the foreseeable future (I need more than a week to take over the world), I'll just let it continue to be a special treat.

There was a new salad I hadn't seen before (in the whole four times I've been in there), so I picked up the Wheatberry Salad with beets, roasted yams, tons of happy kale, and wheatberries, dressed in a nutty, tahini-like dressing and sprinkled with tiny, cute sesame seeds.  It was absolutely delightful and far more filling than I expected it to be.  I topped off with something I've been meaning to try for a while now: a Kale-Apple Smoothie.

This could absolutely become an addiction if it weren't so expensive.  It tastes incredible - just the right amount of sweetness from the apple (and I think they snuck a banana in there... I'm not complaining) with a lightness and, for lack of another word, greenness from the kale.  In a word?  Love.


Sunday found me at the more central location because of our Grand Opening of that store, and I was about 5 hours into my shift before we slowed down enough to send people to lunch.  I needed something fail-safe, so I headed to Starbucks.  I grabbed the Sesame Noodles Bistro Box, a banana, and my beloved Americano.  No, the beverage sure didn't go with the rest of the meal, but it made me happy for the last two hours of my shift...

photo from Starbucks' website

Yesterday, I remembered we're kind of poor and I'm just starting this job and should be cautious about finances, so I packed Leftovers Lunch and ate it on the steps of a church just off of Rittenhouse Square while eavesdropping on the organist practicing.  Have I mentioned I love working in the city?

By dinner, my plan kind of backfired.  I got home way later than I thought I would because I stopped into Trader Joe's to get food and ended up having a delightful surprise encounter with an old friend.  By the time I got home, I was lacking two things:

1. complete ingredients for anything on the menu (I didn't get to Superfresh)
2. the energy/desire to cook.

So, my money-saving Leftovers Lunch saved us the money to go out to Pietro's for dinner.  I wish I'd remembered to take pictures but please trust me when I tell you that the simple Spaghetti con Pomodoro Fresco was out of this world with flavor.  I only stopped eating so I wouldn't waddle home and I can't wait to eat the leftovers.  Mister essentially had a pile of mozzarella cheese (mozz sticks appetizer with a ricotta-less Broccoli Calzone).  I also had a pleasant Chianti that would have gone better with pizza, but I didn't want pizza.

Today, I completely forgot to take food, but a colleague used the opportunity to introduce me to my new favorite lunch spot for that location: Greenhouse.  As you approach, it just looks like a convenience store with normal convenience store stuff.  When you actually enter, you find a second room, as big as the first, and full of a hot/cold buffet.  Everything is labeled and looked fresh and delicious and it was far less expensive than I expected it to be (and the least I've spent on food so far).  I got mixed greens with sesame-sauteed spinach, snow peas, big chunks of cantaloupe, 3 halves of kiwifruit, a stuffed grape leaf, two pieces of teriyaki-glazed tofu that was stellar, and some black olives. It was an amusing combination (fusion, if you will) of Asian and Mediterranean fare and it was awesome.

Tonight, I actually bothered to cook (Mister, angel that he is, went to Superfresh for me today) and I decided to keep going on the faux-Asian theme with Seitan Pepper Steak from The Accidental Vegan.

As always, it was tasty - this time around, it seemed to have a more distinct ginger taste than I remember.  I wonder if that is because I used organic ginger - I don't think I do, ordinarily.  It seemed much "fresher" than what I get at Whole Foods, but I might have just used more or be imagining all this.  I wanted to make this first because it involves slicing 4 peppers and I hate when they sit too long and get all shrivelly.

Tomorrow is another adventure, but I have tons of leftovers in my fridge, so I must take my lunch again tomorrow....Pure Fare will have to wait at least another couple of days.  (I really could eat there happily every day if I had a million dollars.  Now that that song is stuck in your head, I'm going to skidaddle.)  

basmati biryani

I've solved the mystery.  It really had been Brown Rice's fault all along.  I'm going to go out on a limb and assume it's the whole "complete grain" thing, with the germ and bran being intact which prevents brown rice from cooperating with my evil plans to saute and cook it with other stuff.  If Basmati is good enough for traditional Indian cooking, it's good enough for me!

I knew before I even got home that I was going to make Vegetable Biryani from La Dolce Vegan for dinner.  How could I go wrong?  It's fast, it's easy, it has relatively few ingredients to fuss with and the spice mixture comes together in less than a minute.  If that's not enough, it's delightfully flavorful, especially since I substituted Trader Joe's broth for the recipe-prescribed water.

I'll admit, I was still a bit skeptical that everything else in the pot would let the rice cook, especially in the short 15-20 minute time-frame provided, but to my surprise and joy, it most certainly did.  So, in about a half hour, I went from gather ingredients to gathering my husband for dinnertime.

This is a great biryani recipe, especially since it's so easy, but I'll admit, it does make me crave the more labor-and-time-intensive recipe in my Moosewood cookbook, so I might have to pull that out for a weekend meal some time.

By the way, the long-promised post is up about my recently not-so-great experience at Whole Foods, if you want to stop by and check it out.

If not, you won't hurt my feelings :)

midweek mediterranean

If you're into words, you might find the timing of my mediterranean menu a bit amusing - if you just use words and don't find their make-up particularly fascinating, feel free to jump down a paragraph 'cause I'm about to geek out and get super boring.  Medi means "middle" (terra means land/earth, so terranean is just another form that complements the prefix) - Lord of the Rings geeks are overjoyed at this moment, I imagine, but the point I'm trying to make is that this geek thinks it's funny my three-day fest of Mediterranean dishes starts in the middle of the week.

Okay, Geek-Out over.  On to the food!  When I got home from work last night, Mister was feeling ill, so we took a short but welcome nap on the couch together, then he got up and played his video games for a little while and I ate what was left of the Fusilli with Lentil Sauce with a side of Hummamole on Bread. That gave me plenty of time to think about what I wanted to cook tonight.

I had determined by the time I got home that I was going to make pasta, since there were two pasta dishes left and I'd prefer to put the one rice dish in between them.  Moderation, you know...  Anyway, as is usually the case as Friday nears and I still have "fresh" vegetables living in my crisper drawers, I inspected them to see whether the escarole or the broccoli was closer to sliminess.  Escarole won, so we had Penne with Cannellini Beans and Escarole from Vegan Italiano tonight:

It is just as delicious as it looks and I'm glad I made this tonight.  I've made it once before and it was my first encounter with escarole, so I was caught a little off-guard by the crunchy, toothsome texture of the escarole.  This time around, I knew what to expect from the greens so I could just enjoy the whole experience - the green (escarole) + red (tomatoes) + white (cannellini beans) palette of the dinner is delightful enough - just as the colors echo an Italian flag flapping in an arid Mediterranean breeze, the taste of those ingredients transports me to the terra cotta villa in which I've never dined (but hope to in about a year!).  Regretfully, since it is Wednesday and not Friday, I did not have a nice, deep glass of red wine to help me through dinner, but the water and olives were quite appropriate accompaniments.

bonus round: VIP BBQ dinner

I know I only posted a little more than 5 hours ago, but I wanted to devote the whole post to the farewell to Horizons and not spread it out into a mega-post also detailing last night's dinner adventures and the super-awesome BBQ skillet I threw together to celebrate our country's independence.  Aside from obvious cultural norms, I don't know why July 4th food needs to be slathered in BBQ sauce, but I figured it was as good an excuse as any to use more of my gourmet VIP BBQ sauce.

Let's take a step or two back, though.  I thought about posting earlier yesterday afternoon about our fabulous finale at Horizons, but I got distracted by iTunes being a pain in my butt about importing the new Symphony X CD and then my computer promptly crashed. Horribly.  So much so that Mister and I were not completely certain it was going to come back to us.  Fortunately, my little Mac paramedic spent several hours last night in emergency surgery while I played solitaire on my old laptop and drank the last of the Riesling so now we're back in business.  Also while Mister was administering some form of human-machine CPR and the equivalent of a brain transplant (probably a little prayer and voodoo mixed in for good measure), I cooked up a long lost favorite for dinner.

The last time I made Bulgur and Red Lentil Pilaf with Kale and Olives from The Complete Vegan Cookbook I was trying to remember where I had a similar recipe.  I knew there were some subtle differences, such as the actual presence of kalamata olives in one recipe and the imagined/substituted presence of them in the other.  I found that other recipe when I was poking through The Accidental Vegan while creating our menu on Saturday afternoon, so I made Kedgeree for dinner last night.

Instead of chopping the carrots, I thought it might be more fun to julienne them (especially since I have that neat toy to help) and in place of the mushrooms Mister can't stand (and I don't exactly have a taste for either), I chopped up some kalamata olives.  The kedgeree itself was made up of brown rice and lentils, which I cooked together to save space (three pots on this smaller stove was not in the cards), resulting in a creamier dish, spiked with cumin and mustard, dotted with the charmingly contrasted colors of green (kale), orange (carrot), and purple (kalamata).

Angst was not at all impressed, electing to take a nap on the bathroom floor (a nice, cool, summertime nap spot) rather than watch his favorite food show, "the Mommy show."  I think he was just mad at me for changing my mind last minute about making the Jerk Seitan from VwaV.  By changing my mind, what I really mean is that I picked up the seitan at Whole Foods, put it down to pick up Tofurky sausages and smoked tofu and completely forgot to pick it back up and deposit in my cart.  Missing a vital ingredient (you know, the one in the recipe title?), I thought I should probably make something else.

Speaking of making something else, I had that same inclination after I finished the last little droplets of Riesling (insert sad face here) and Mister was still poking away at my computer on life-support.  I have had a recent hankering for tropical cocktails, and I figured a bottle of rum, which which I would mix things, will probably last a little longer in this house that a bottle of wine (which I feel compelled to drink quickly so it doesn't spoil), thereby stretching our budget a little until I get some figuring done.

I love this picture because it looks like my little baby Murloc is either trying to steal it or guard it.  That pretty little glass contains about one ounce of Malibu Pineapple Rum and a few more ounces of Santa Cruz organic Cherry Lemonade - delightful combination, by the way.  It made Solitaire a little more fun than usual.

So, tonight with dinner, I decided to make another little cocktail, this time using the last pouch of Honest Kids Berry Lemonade.  I'll admit, there's something a little twisted about using a children-oriented juice pouch product as a mixer, but we don't have kids, so someone's got to drink it.

Epic Cocktail

So, tropical drink prepared, I set to work on our BBQ dinner to celebrate the nation's birthday.

BBQ Tofu-Veggie Skillet
serves 4-6 (depending on portion size)


Ingredients:
14 oz extra-firm tofu, pressed and cubed
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 cup frozen/fresh corn
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup BBQ sauce


white basmati rice to serve over (1 cup rice to 2 cups water)
broccoli slaw, optional garnish


Heat the oil in a deep-sided skillet/sauteuse.  Add tofu and toss gently to coat with oil, then cover and cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tofu is golden-brown on most sides.  Remove lid and add celery and peppers; saute 2-3 minutes.

Add zucchini, corn, and salt; mix well and cover.

Saute 3-5 more minutes, then stir in BBQ sauce.  Cook, uncovered, until heated through and mixture is evenly coated with BBQ sauce.

To serve, lay a bed of rice on the bottom of a bowl or plate, sprinkle with broccoli slaw, if using, then cover with a few spoonfuls of the tofu-veggie BBQ mixture.

It was very good - every component played well with the others - the sweetness of the corn and peppers stood out within the pungent BBQ sauce, which the tofu and zucchini readily absorbed.  The lightness of the basmati rice provided a gentle foil to the intense flavors represented in the tofu-veggie mixture, calming the fire of the Ancho Chili BBQ sauce just enough but not too much.

Happy July 4th all!  I'm going to watch a movie with my mister to finish off a lovely long weekend of time spent together.

worst thing ever

Frozen Kale.  That's it.  That is the worst thing ever.  Wanna know the second worst thing ever?  Frozen beans.  Yup, frozen beans.

I may be exaggerating slightly, as there are probably worse things, like war, famine, tornadoes eating the entire southeastern part of the country, Japan being swallowed up by the Pacific ocean, and the possibility that Obama really does possess an American birth certificate (sorry, couldn't resist).  Yet, as far as culinary experiences go (and aside from The Saffron Incident), frozen kale is absolutely the most disappointing.

Tonight was the second experience I've had with frozen kale and it was even more disappointing than the first.  I love kale so much fresh that I thought I'd hit a goldmine when frozen kale started popping up all over the freezers in Whole Foods...but it was more like a landmine, causing two recipes to more or less blow up in my face.  Not literally, thank heavens.  Story time!

A little while ago, can't remember just when, I was in the frozen foods aisle of Whole Foods and as I extracted whichever bag of organic goodness I had originally sought out, I noticed something different out the corner of my eye.  I looked closer and saw a little flat box with kale, kidney beans, and navy beans.  I thought to myself, "Hey, this might come in handy some night when I'm feeling lazy pressed for time!" and dropped it into my basket.  Well, tonight was that night, and I thought I would make a cheater version of my already pretty quick-cooking Easy Tuscan Linguini by subbing the frozen kale-n-beans side dish for the shredded kale and can of navy/cannellini beans in the original recipe.  Also, for a little added flavor (and to use up the other two Tofurky from Tuesday's Cajun Rice and Beans), I sliced the sausages and sauteed them lightly in olive oil before adding the frozen stuff.

I was so sad when the bag open and spilled kale stems and hard-looking beans into the pan...I had really hoped for a more substantial presence from the kale...and some leafy bits, I might add.  Nevertheless, I heated everything through, mixed it together with the marinara sauce and linguini and hoped for the best.  It was "decent" as long as you ignored that the kidney beans were not thoroughly cooked before being frozen or they don't freeze well, because they were crunchy and that is not a quality I seek out in my kidney beans.  However, I still believe this has a lot of potential as a fast-and-easy weeknight recipe, as long as you substitute organic frozen spinach or fresh kale - not frozen kale; it's gross.  So, I promised you a recipe and a recipe you get (modified, so there's a chance you'll actually enjoy it):

Pasta Marinara with Kale and Beans
* about 4 servings *
Ingredients:
24 oz prepared marinara of your choice
1 cup canned kidney beans
1 cup canned navy/great northern beans
2 Tofurky sausages, flavor of your choice (I used Kielbasa)
2-3 cups fresh kale, finely chopped or 10 oz block of frozen chopped organic spinach 
8 oz linguini (whole wheat if your loved one will eat it - mine won't)
2-3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
1 Tbsp olive oil

Boil water for pasta, then cook according to package directions, about 10-11 minutes.  Drain.

Meanwhile, cut each "sausage" in half lengthwise, then slice into 1/2" pieces.  If using fresh kale, chiffonade or chop finely and set aside.  When the pasta is halfway through cooking time, heat the olive oil over medium heat and saute the garlic about 30 seconds, until fragrant and slightly golden.  Add sausage and stir to coat with oil.  Saute on medium for 2-3 minutes, stirring once, then reduce heat to medium-low.  Add kale, beans, and marinara; stir to combine, then cover and cook 2-3 minutes, until heated through and kale is lightly wilted. [if using frozen spinach, you'll want to thaw and drain it first, then add with the beans and marinara.]

Add drained pasta to the pot and toss to combine.  Remove from heat and serve immediately, preferably accompanied by a small bowl of mixed olives and a generous glass of red wine.

the fruitier side of Atkins

I'd like to start by saying that the Atkins diet and fruit couldn't possibly put too much more distance between each other - did you know that you can't even eat an apple until you've nearly reached your weight loss goal?

I've made my feelings about the Fadkins diet pretty clear over the course of multiple snide remarks snuck into myriad posts, so I'm not going to babble on too long about what a horrible diet it is and how backwards the "nutrition" is.  I would like to state, though, that there is something very wrong with a diet that tells you not to eat lean cuts of animal (oops, I mean meat) and not to pull the skin off of that animal (let that sink in), and that if you really feel like you must do one of those things, for heaven's sake, add a pat of butter (not margarine, even) to your vegetables (God forbid they escape the fat-fest unscathed) to "make up for it."  Don't believe me?  Check it out for yourself - prepare to be horrified.

Actually, I spent a large part of my day today in a horrified state.  The time I wasn't horrified was spent in confusion, I think.  In order to more thoroughly equip my new hires to answer objections to our weight loss program, I was doing research to update our competitor comparisons.  Some of our competitors impressed me, to a point of near-disappointment in our own program.  Others mystified me in that way in which you don't know whether to be more impressed with the skill of the snake oil vendor or the stupidity of his patrons.  I've settled for a contemplative place in between.

Against my better judgment, though, I found myself surprised and impressed with one "improvement" or innovation taken on by the folks behind the Atkins diet.  They have assembled a group of chefs to create Atkins-friendly/approved recipes.  This is nearly identical to something my company launched this Diet Season, but is still in the preliminary stages of development....but hey, 2012 should be a great year...as long as the world doesn't screech to a halt on May 21st.  Anyway, I was intrigued by something on their chefs' page - something I didn't think could possibly be reckoned to a meat-and-fat-oriented diet: Mark Reinfeld, of The 30 Minute Vegan fame is one of the chefs.

That's right.  Vegan Atkins.  Does that blow your mind as much as it blows mine?  I spent the rest of the day pondering that one.

So, it seemed only fitting to make Pasta Florentine, from 30MV, for dinner tonight.

This could actually be a meal in The Twenty Minute Vegan, if such a book existed, because it really doesn't take 30 minutes.  Do you want to know what took me the longest in making this dish?  Boiling the pasta water.  The rest is such a snap, whether you use organic frozen spinach (highly recommend) or fresh spinach.  I love the "cheesy" sauce, and I especially love how Mister eats it all up without realizing that the source of the savory is nutritional yeast, not cheese.  I also like how the strength of the nooch's flavor covers up the "soyness" of the milk.  I can't really taste it, but Mister can, so whenever I can cover it up, I do.

Well, time to clean up...right after I spend a little quality time with the slice of Apple Spice Coffee Cake that's been whispering to me the whole time I've been typing...

cheap, fast, and easy

There used to be a club night in Philadelphia called Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control - I never actually went because it was a little too "punk" for my tastes - never was a big fan of punk or ska (punk's grandkid) and like I've mentioned, beer isn't really my thing, so $1 PBRs don't exactly get my fire burning.  But I like the idea - have a good time; eat, drink, and be merry, all for very little money and in very little time.

Let me introduce you to dinner:

Salsa Rice and Red Beans is quickly becoming one of my top 5 recipes in Vegan on the Cheap.  I don't really have top 5 lists, but if I did, this would be on it.  Depending on the rice you use and your [possibly] growing proficiency at cooking brown rice, this recipe gets faster-cooking every time I make it.  I don't know why I expect any recipe I make from a cookbook whose expressed purpose is not necessarily to get dinner on the table in under 30 minutes to take SOOooooo much longer than 30 minutes, but I'm always pleasantly surprised when I find a quick-cooking recipe in an unexpected place.

In my brain, anything involving brown rice will take upwards of one hour.

Fortunately, I don't know whether it's the basmati or the new [to me] stovetop, but I haven't had my usual trouble with brown rice since we moved.  Here's hoping the streak continues!

SuperIsa to the rescue!

I had truly intended to heat up leftovers for dinner tonight.  I wanted a quick dinner (because someone stayed up too late baking and eating and blogging) and we have a growing colony of Rubbermaid citizens in our fridge.  I guess there's always tomorrow, because I got my brain hooked on making Isa's Seitan and Broccoli with Pantry BBQ Sauce.

Although the pile of leftovers in my fridge worries me a little bit, the half-loaf of baked seitan from Sunday worried me more.  Since it's baked, it doesn't sit in some broth in an air-tight tupperware, it's merely wrapped in foil and being a lump on the shelf.  I wasn't sure exactly how long it would sit there peacefully before trying to rile some of the other leftovers into a coup d'etat, so I decided to cook him.

Thank heavens that isn't how we do politics.  "I didn't want any competition, so I ate him."

Anyway, this ended up being a pretty quick-cooking recipe after all, which was fortunate since Mister forgot he was hungry until I was halfway through prep.  Then his belly started grumbling and he helped set the table while I finished up mixing 500 ingredients together for the BBQ sauce.

A quick aside: there are fundamental differences in the way Mister and I set the table.  I set it the same on both sides - my napkin on my right, his napkin on his right.  You get the picture.  Mister puts both napkins on the same side, although that means my right and his left.  I almost always use bowls, since it seems easier to chase rice, bulgur, and/or pasta around a vessel with sloped sides.  Mister stubbornly sets the table with plates, no matter what I'm cooking.  Similarly, the only utensils in Mister's universe are forks, occasionally knives.  Spoons, I find necessary on an almost daily basis and Mister loathes, aside from their function as a coffee stirrer.

Fortunately, the mashed potatoes made an adequate base for the chewy chunks of seitan and the tender broccoli that magically sops up all the BBQ sauce the seitan left behind.  Mashed potatoes require no gravy when eaten in this way, but I must admit, my brain was already working out how to adjust the BBQ sauce to make a hearty, thick gravy for Thanksgiving (yes, I know it's more than half a year away, but I live for the time between Thanksgiving and New Years).

Once again, on so many levels, Isa was my hero.  So many things Mister loves all on one plate: mashed potatoes, broccoli, seitan in BBQ sauce.  So many things I love: quick cooking, savory with a little hint of sweetness, textural contradiction between the fluffy mashed 'taters and chewy, "meaty" seitan, as well as the crisp, clean bite of broccoli.  This dinner is a winner and will definitely find its way to our table again.  I'm just so glad I made it to thePPK.com!!!

neighborhood tourist

I truly regret that I haven't cooked a meal in a week.  My poor utensils are dry and my pots are getting dusty (yes, I did just unearth them tonight).  I still haven't found and unwrapped my plates, dishes, and cups and we're unwrapping a new mug every day for matcha and coffee.  My mission is to locate and unpack the things upon which we eat and from which we drink (other than my wineglasses, which are unpacked and ready for action); I plan to embark upon that mission shortly after filling you in on exactly what we have been stuffing our guts with, if not home-made food.

I have mentioned before how fortunate we are to live where we live and we are both ecstatic that we were able to move into a home only two blocks from our previous apartment, thereby staying in our happy little neighborhood.  Other folks actually make an effort to drive, bike, or otherwise make their way to my neighborhood for their social activities; all I have to do is walk out my front door.  As such, it has been rare over the past few years for me to really take advantage of everything my neighborhood has to offer - I plead guilty to taking it for granted.  That changed with this move.

With no food in either home and no plates or other dishes to serve dinner, Mister and I have been creative in our meals and have taken advantage of being even closer to some of our favorite convenient restaurants.  We visited the South Street Diner for the first time in a while, possibly over a year, and found the new management has made some great improvements, including the delightful Mediterranean Focaccia I ate two nights in a row, along with perfectly cooked fries and water I slurped down like I would never drink again.  We also made our way over to South Street Philly Bagels - I am ashamed to admit that although I've lived in Queen Village for 6 years, I have never gone to this bagel store.  Never, that is, until yesterday, when I went with Mister and got a whole wheat everything bagel, toasted, with a thick hummus slathered between the top and bottom.  It was heavenly and my little gray angel was happy to lick the hummus off the paper they wrapped it in.

In the absence of our coffeemaker, we remembered how perfect Wawa coffee is and Mister didn't mind getting a nice big hoagie or his Swedish fish.  In the relative dearth of fresh veggies, I was happy to pay a visit to the prepared foods bar at Essene.  We were both quite content by our post-Valentine's Day date at Pietro's - the food, chianti, and ambiance more than made up for not going to Horizons as originally planned, and we hadn't been to Pietro's in at least a year, generally favoring La Fourno since it was ever-so-slightly closer to the old apartment.  Pietro's is notably closer to our new home, so I'm sure it will become our new Italian home-away-from-home.

I was actually looking forward to making dinner tonight, going so far as to stop at Superfresh on my way home to pick up provisions for just one dinner.  As I walked home, I realized we had no dishes or water glasses unpacked, but I figured I could just locate and unpack them while the dinner cooked.  I also ignored that the recipe I selected requires two pots and I had only unearthed one.  All these things could have been overcome, but when I got home, I discovered that my poor Mister had worn himself down to the point of being sick all day.  He's okay now (we think), but he had no interest in eating, so at least now I can say we're ready for dinner tomorrow. 

I've already found the pots.  Now, let me go search for our dishes...

give me $5 and I'll feed the world

Okay, that might be a little ambitious.  Why don't we start with the city or a very large family?

I would like to start by saying I hate McDonald's.  I hope I live to see the day they go bankrupt.  Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I would have to break all kinds of records (like the ones in the genealogy records of the Old Testament) to accomplish that, but a girl can dream, right?  I merely dislike Burger King - at least they don't cook their fries with natural beef flavoring and they do have a veggie burger on the menu.

McDonald's has been spending a bit of time in the ol' Limelight lately, for both good and bad reasons (although which one is which will be determined by the witness).  San Francisco has successfully begun a legally enforceable ban on including toys in children's meals (Happy Meals) that don't meet certain nutritional guidelines, although the mayor is poised to veto anything that would get in the way of a parent's right to poison their offspring.  In the opposite vein, in a mind-boggling move, the United Kingdom is going to let McDonald's help draft the national health policy, with help from other nutritional giants like PepsiCo, Mars, and other pushers of packaged crap.

In Skinny Bitch, Rory and Kim point out the tremendous conflict of interest involved in our own nation's USDA being steered by big players from the various industries protected by the USDA.  I'd like to believe the UK is involving Junk Food Giants in the composition of a policy aimed at ensuring good health as a way to proactively direct them to choose on their own a more healthful course.  Unfortunately, I think it's just the money.

The money.  That is ultimately what the problem boils down to.  Money, or lack of money, must be one of the reasons McDonald's, Burger King, and other fast food tycoons are so successful.  When I go to Essene's food bar and create my own little "value meal," I'll pay a not-so-pretty price.  The hot bar at Whole Foods is around $14/lb and you don't know how easy it is to put a pound of food into a takeaway container until you're forking over $20 for lunch.  Can I afford this?  Most of the time, yes, but I would still find a way to afford it over a $6 Value Meal at Burger King consisting of a microwaved veggie patty on a bleached white bun and an order of oil- and salt-drenched fries.  Have I eaten that?  Absolutely, and I've been quite happy to drown in my occasional puddle of fried food.  The reason I can occasionally indulge in crap like that is because it is occasional.  A "special treat" if you will, although sometimes I think the only thing about it that's "special" is my irrational desire to let all the carcinogens involved infiltrate the body I try so hard to keep healthy.

As I was walking home from the train station tonight, I passed Burger King.  Sitting outside of Burger King were two separate, homeless men, begging for money.  They may have thought they were strategically positioned, since most people would see them outside of a food-serving establishment and draw the obvious connection that they intend to use whatever money you give them to buy food.  However, if I'm going to give a hungry person money for food, I'd rather actually give them food.  Real food - not deep-fried poison.  I've been successful and I've failed, but I'll never give someone money when they're sitting in front of a place I think is trying to kill people.

Walking past those men made me sad, though.  It's easy to judge the long lines of people inside the McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts I also pass on my nightly walking-commute from the train, but what I really see when I look at the people in line and the men begging outside of BK is an indictment of our country and values.  Would people like to eat good food?  Yes, probably if given the chance, but can people afford good food?  Most marketing, in any case, would tell us NO.  Fast food places have Dollar Menus.  At a west coast chain restaurant called Del Taco, you could probably feed a family of 20 for about $5.  Why is this stuff so cheap?  Because it's just barely food - and when I say food, I mean it's edible and won't kill you immediately.

It isn't that "good food" is prohibitively expensive, but there is something to be said for covering operating costs as well as food supply.  Could I open a veggie fast food stand with prices that rival McDonald's?  Absolutely.  Could I do that for a year?  Doubtful.  My guess is that I would go out of business in 6 months or fewer, because the present paradigm of fast food is so far ingrained into our minds at this point.  Mister recently shared with me that years ago, a friend/colleague shared his "get rich quick" scheme one day: a Spaghetti cart.  It was sound logic - dried pasta costs next-to-nothing, and if you do it right, sauce costs only nominally more.  The biggest costs that could be incurred would be the actual cart and corresponding licenses and utilities.  The City would put you out of business before you boiled your first pot - it would probably take months to recoup the start up fees.  Additionally, I think the carb-crazed brainwashing that has occurred in the last decade would prevent a pasta cart from having a huge amount of success. 

Enough rambling - anyone who's still with me deserves a picture:

Can you believe all of that built up to Pasta e Fagioli?  Tonight, I opened up The Urban Vegan and made this delightful and substantial dish - after Mister and I each had two servings that would make the homeless men outside of BK blush, we still had 9.5 cups of leftovers. 

The scent of the garlic sauteing, the simple but rich taste of a sauce made with canned tomatoes, dried herbs, and broth, poured over a box of dried macaroni is the connection.  This dinner was high-quality and high-taste.  I would happily eat this any day over beef-flavored fries and bleached McNuggets, even if they are going to give me a toy with it.

Follow me on a quick cost comparison before I go all paradoxical and end my evening with relatively expensive chocolate:

1 lb of Barilla macaroni - $1.50
28 oz can of Hunt's crushed tomatoes - $1.50
2 - 15 oz cans of store-brand cannellini beans - $.79 each ($1.58)
a few cents worth of olive oil and dried herbs

For less than $5, I made a nutritious meal with quality ingredients.  I provided my husband and I with an adequate amount of protein with a moderate amount of heart-healthy fat, as well as cancer-fighting lycopene and fiber-rich unrefined carbohydrate.  Not only did we eat until we were full, but when we got to that point, we still have enough leftover to eat it for lunch tomorrow and share those leftovers with my buddies outside of Burger King.

fast food - have it your way

So, apparently I've been too busy to bother posting here, so the very first thing I want to do is plug for The 30 Minute Vegan again. Without that book, dinner this week would not have been possible. At the very least, it wouldn't have been healthy. I've mentioned before that Mister would be happy to eat pizza for dinner every night, and he almost got his wish, so maybe he's not as big a fan of this book as I am. In any case, my time continues to be limited, so on with the parade of fast food.

First up, Sunday's dinner - Easy as Pie Stirfry. It was absolutely easy, though there was a great deal of chopping involved. It probably would be easy-as-pie if I would just invest the $20 in a mandoline. I'm getting faster at my prep, especially thanks to my new "chop & scoop" cutting board that funnels my newly chopped bits into whatever vessel they need to occupy, but I'm starting to think I'll never be Food Network fast. I guess I'll never be a celebrity chef, unless America's lazy rise up and demand a narcoleptic hostess.

On Monday, I made the super-duper-fast Mediterranean Hummus Wraps.


They were far tastier than I expected them to be and I had pretty high hopes for these babies to begin with, so let me make a recommendation - get this book and make these wraps. Next on my list of food-blog-feats-to-accomplish is to learn how to take a better picture of wraps, burritos, fajitas, and quesadillas. In other words, I want to figure out how to take attractive photos of enclosed dinner - I'm sure the answer lies in cutting said dinner item in half and propping one end up on the other, but I was afraid they would fall apart if I did anything other than wrap them as well as I could and then push them, seam-side down, onto the plates and hope they made it through our dinner prayers. By the way - if you want to see some amazing pictures of food, check out Another One Bites the Crust - you can also link to it on the right side of the page.

Tonight's dinner, then, was the last dinner on my humble (and fast) menu this week: Seitan Curry Bowl. By the way - this one and the wrap were part of the Lunch section of the book - I figured those meals would probably be even faster to make and I was more or less correct. This one comes together so quickly you almost run out of time to gather the spices. It's perfectly flavorful and not as overwhelming as I thought it would be considering how much curry powder, cumin, and soy sauce is in there. Also, it allowed Mister and I to take advantage of the amazing depth of flavor present in in-season asparagus. I anticipate a decent amount of asparagus recipes for the next couple of weeks, since the season is so tender and short and as tonight's experience proved, there is a remarkable difference in taste when [Mister's favorite] veggies are in season.

I'm off for now - one more day of work before my one-day weekend, so you can count on a new menu either tomorrow night or Thursday, if I get to it in the midst of re-planning my mini-vacation to Arizona and baking Irish Soda Bread :)