Betty Crocker, eat your heart out

No matter how vigilant you are about your health, no matter how healthy you eat, no matter how many toxins you avoid, when you come into contact with 100+ people a day, you will get sick.  It's unavoidable.

So, in an unusual departure from the Mister's Sick theme, I am sick.  It's just a cold and I honestly believe it will be gone sooner than later without any lasting ill-effects.  Nevertheless, it's annoying and has successfully knocked me [somewhat] on my butt.  I started to feel a little sneezy on Thursday night, so, being the smart young lady I am, I went to bed a bit early, hoping to head things off with a good sleep.  I thought I'd succeeded... until about halfway through yesterday, when it became apparent I was not okay.  Eventually, I was interrupting client interactions to run to the bathroom and blow my nose before I dripped on the iPads.  Paints a lovely picture, I know.

I still thought I would come home and make the Kale Barley soup I almost made the other night, but I didn't.  By halfway through my walk home, I was a sniffling, hiccuping, angry mess.  I'm not sure if there is something more irritating that sniffling and then getting a vicious bout of hiccups because you're sniffling and being unable to control your breathing (thereby stopping the hiccups) because you're still sniffling.  Anyway, I was in quite a state by the time I burst into our home.  After I blew my nose and calmed down, I sent Mister out for vitamin water, V8, tissues, and food.  He returned with the least offensive flavor of Vitamin Water I've ever had and a falafel salad, heaped with roasted broccoli and cauliflower and a Wawa hoagie for himself.

Angst was all over that.

To my surprise, you can now get baby spinach on Wawa hoagies.  To my greater surprise, Angst wanted nothing to do with that!  Mister tried to give him some and he wouldn't even touch it until Mister also put some Ranch dressing on the spinach.  Then he licked the dressing off and started squeaking for more.  He started pulling Mister's wrist toward him when Mister picked a piece of Provolone cheese off of the sandwich to share with the poor, malnourished, starving kitty.  I told Angst I was disappointed in him skipping his spinach for cheese and asked him exactly what I was supposed to call the blog now?  Mister suggested Angst Loves Stinky Italian Cheese, but I just don't think it has the same ring.

Shortly after dinner, I went to bed and slept for 12 hours before getting up and stubbornly trying to go out and teach lessons.  That didn't end up happening, so after returning to bed for another few hours, I got up and tried to make dinner.  It was at this point Mister intervened.

"Stop trying to do stuff!  Sit down."

There will be no recipe because I have absolutely no idea how he did this, but my husband morphed into Benny cRocker and made a vegan version of Biscuits with Sausage Gravy.

So it turns out my husband is actually pretty good at making biscuits!  They were soft and puffy and tasty and split right down the middle when I pulled it apart at table.

He was a little weirded out making the gravy with "fake" sausage and soymilk, since he hasn't tried to make this since giving up meat, but it was so cute watching him putter around the kitchen.  Although a bit confused, Angst genuinely enjoyed this Special Episode of the Cooking Show.

He used Lightlife Gimme Lean sausage, but it wasn't quite as crumbly as he wanted it to be.  The gravy was pretty thick and started to congeal, but he decided it was due to not using enough fat, not the soymilk that set off the fire alarm upon being added to the skillet.

I'd never had Sausage Gravy and Biscuits before (I wasn't actually a huge sausage fan when I did eat meat), but it was tasty and Mister said it was "close enough."  Mister is a CookingWithoutARecipe kind of chef, but it turns out Lightlife actually did the work for him and you can check out their recipe here.

I've been upright long enough.  Time to drink more liquids and recline a little while I digest.  Hope everyone out there in the cyberverse is feeling okay!

green goodness! it's special sauce!

I'm a little slow to jump on the Green Juice Train and I'm not ashamed to admit it's partially because I don't have any unquenchable desire to drink algae.

I think my mom might need a moment.

Anyway, I'm sure it would be more enticing and rewarding if I made my own green juice like this superstar, but I do not have:

• the time
• the desire
• the juicer

So instead, every once in a while, when I feel like I need an extra kick of Healthy, I'll buy some.  I've found that I quite enjoy Naked's Green Machine - enough that I can ignore the algae as long as I shake it before every sip.

Tonight, I stopped into Whole Foods to grab a couple of items I had intended to get at Trader Joe's before remembering I wouldn't be able to get there until Sunday and I didn't have the ingredients for enough complete meals without those things to get to Sunday, so it was all a moot point.  Anyway, I had picked up everything I went in for (except cauliflower, which was either hiding or absent, but I didn't see it) and I'm not even sure how I was in a position for this to catch my eye, but I did see Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness and decided to give myself a little punch since my chest is still tight and I keep hacking up a lung if I breathe too many times in a row and I make too much noise at night trying to breathe for poor mister to sleep and it's probably bad form to cough on customers.... enough reasons?

Good, because truth be told, once I got it home, my courage and drive somewhat evaporated.  I mean, really - you cannot look at this and tell me it screams, "Ooooh ooh, ME!  I'm tasty!"

Not exactly irresistible.  Nevertheless, I hate being sick and I like taking care of my body and if "8 delicious juices" delivering "14 powerful nutrients" including iron, vitamins B6, B12, A, and C has to be green....well....I guess it has to be green.  I have nothing against green, by the way, but that "juice" is what we call in my world murky.

Fortunately, it is quite delicious.  I think it might be slightly less sweet than Naked's Green Machine and I'm okay with that, though I think Naked will still be my favored green smoothie.  I almost bought R.W. Knudsen's Mega-Green juice when I was there yesterday, but I just cannot do it.  There's something about the way it's marketed that makes it look as though there's no way it will be anything but straight-up nasty.  Maybe someday I'll be adventurous enough to find out, but this week was not that Someday.

In other news, Mister and I have an astonishing talent for being at our most OughtToSeeADoctorness during the three months out of the last 5 years that we haven't had health insurance but I still don't regret not devoting an entire paycheck to COBRA coverage between now and when my coverage at work kicks in.

Dinner was chock full of veggie goodness, though (by the way, is everyone else aware of how awful Chock Full O' Nuts coffee is?  Well, now you are).  With the snow peas I picked up at Whole Foods, I was able to make the Hoisin-Braised Tempeh Tofu with Chinese Vegetables from Vegetarian Times Fast & Easy that I was daydreaming about all day.  Everyone at work was female today, so instead of music, we had the Food Network on and watched way too much Rachael Ray, who I have deemed The Anti-Vegan.  I swear, I've never seen anyone include that many animal products in their recipes. 

Back to dinner.

It was good and the tofu worked so well I can't really imagine tempeh being better, but I'll probably never know since Mister dies if I even say the cursed word out loud.  Dinner is always fun when it involves snow peas and hoisin sauce amuses me because it kind of looks like Chinese BBQ sauce.

It was good, but not outstanding.  There were two weak points - one the fault of the book and one was my poor choice of accompaniment.  I served it over brown rice, expecting the braising sauce to be more potent.  It wasn't dreadful, but I can almost taste how much better it would have been with rice noodles instead of rice, so I may try that in the future.

In the book, it doesn't actually tell you when to add the hoisin sauce, so I added it just before the 15 minute simmering time.  I figured this was probably right since it was meant to braise the "tempeh" and wouldn't do a very good job of that if I didn't add it before the braising time.  I tasted the sauce when I added the snow peas for the last few minutes of cooking and it barely had any flavor since it was diluted with nearly the same amount of water, so I added more.  The recipe calls for 1/3 cup, but next time I make this, I will probably go with a half cup from the start and possibly less water, since the bok choy seemed to still have some clinging to its leaves, which added to what I had poured in.

Despite the slightly frightful tightness in my chest, I am still looking forward to the first truly cool day of autumn this Saturday.  Since I'm teaching, I can even dress appropriately for the cold, thereby decreasing my chances of catching tuberculosis!

photo credit

huge apples and lentil hummus

Everyone around me has been raving on and on about these apples.  What apples?  Honeycrisp Apples.  Everyone seems to have something to say about how amazing they are and how in season.  I must confess - that is one of the myriad reasons I love fall.  Not honeycrisp apples, per se, but the pure bounty of varieties I've never seen before that crowd my grocery bins and await Mister and I should we actually make our way to Linvilla one of these days.  At the moment, I have a bag full of a new surprise favorite, Gingergold apples, in the fridge.  I discovered these little beauties at Essene and then found a whole bin of them for a lower price at Whole Foods.  I expected them to be a little spicier, but they are "just right," to steal a phrase.  However, right next to the bin of yellow apples was a display of apples the size of a baby's head.  Honeycrisps, of course.

I mean, seriously - I have abnormally large hands for a woman, to give you an example of that apple's size.  If anyone plays the piano, you might be further intrigued to know that I can reach a 10th with those hands.  Yet, I could barely capture the entire honeycrisp with it.  Wonder how much apple that is when you cut it up for breakfast?

Enough to be piled upon a dinner plate.  Best breakfast ever.  Well, except for all the other times I've said that - I just really like breakfast.  There's no shame in that.

Last night I was sick by the time I finished work - my throat was so swollen and hurty that I could barely swallow.  I was dizzy and my eyes were crossing from being exhausted.  By the time I took off my shoes and visited the loo, my cheeks were bright red with fever and my skin hurt.  By 9pm, Mister had tucked me in for a long Autumn nap which lasted until my alarm yelled at me at 7am this morning.

I still felt kind of awful, but my mega-dosing on vitamin C and other things that are good for me (had a Naked smoothie on my way home from work) and 10 hours of sleep seemed to at least fend off disaster for the moment, so I showered, dressed, took two aspirin and went to work.  Fortunately for me, my attendance was requested with a new trainee starting today - I'm beginning the structuring of future trainings, so I get to participate in training opportunities between now and when we start implementing.  It was much easier to get through today sitting most of the time.

As luck would have it, the boss took me and the new hire to lunch at Pure Fare and it was utterly delightful.  Normally, I get one of their outstanding salads.  I had kind of gotten it into my mind last time, though, that I want to try one of the sandwiches.  Today was that day and I happily chowed down on the Lentil Hummus sandwich on multigrain bread.  The bread was very good, though a little too soft/flimsy to support the weight of all the awesome things inside:  green hummus (I can't even imagine how they made it), halved cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, fennel, and broccoli raab.  Delicious!

That got me through the rest of the day and when I came home, I still had some energy for making dinner!  I made Sloppy Joes from The Urban Vegan with one small twist.  I thought I had more TVP than I did, so I ended up adding about 1/3 cup of red lentils to make up the difference, which resulted in me also needing to add some vegetable broth to be absorbed by the lentils, and having to cook it a little longer.  That was fine, since I also wanted to serve "something green" with dinner, especially since I'm not feeling 100%.

It was tasty and I love how the broccoli is eager to soak up the herbs and spices as well as the broth when I steamed it with just a little.  It's amazing how easy it is to make a tasty veggie side dish - it really required almost no thought and slightly less effort (granted, the broccoli was pre-cut).  I had one sandwich and thought about having another - they really weren't that big.  However, I reflected on the vague nausea I've been carrying with me since this morning and decided against that.  Considering my belly is still a little sad, I think that was the right decision.

Well, kids, I'm off to try for another "full night" of sleep, so I'm signing off for now.  Sweet dreams!

something old, something new

What a strange day.  Originally, the weather was predicted to be stormy and scary - thunderstorms and other such severe weather.  Instead, today was mild enough that I only wore a light jacket out of stubbornness and paranoia - the last thing I need is to get sick right now.  I suppose there's never really a convenient time to be sick, so I'll rephrase that: I really don't want to get sick again - I feel like I've spent the better part of the last six months either ill or trying (normally in vain) to battle some pathogen.

Mister, on the other hand, is definitely sick.  He slept most of today.  I left the apartment mid-afternoon and headed over to Whole Foods; I returned to the lingering scent of a recently extinguished candle and found Mister was not where I left him.  Instead of sitting at his computer, he had crawled back into bed, fully clothed.  He was fast asleep and remained so while I went to SuperFresh, CVS, and Essene, even stopping on the way home from Essene to chat with cousins (Greeks can't live too far from one another or they wither and die, I think).  He slept through two rounds of dish-doing, as well as some fun on You-Tube (you haven't lived until you've cried through this video) and Facebook.  The sun set, my belly began to growl, and all my plans to have a completely Mama Pea-inspired dinner, including dessert, went out the window as I looked in on his slumbering form.

I heated up what was left of the Salsa Rice and Red Beans and poured a glass (or few) of my newly acquired bottle of Apothic Red (did I leave out the trip to the wine store?  Yeah, that was right before Superfresh).  Nothing exciting there.  We did not make it to the Eiffel Tower light show, either.  In fact, unless you count the joy of spending almost $200 on groceries, wine, and toiletries, today was pretty well wasted.  Nevertheless, I do have a new menu for you!

1. Mama Pea's Meatloaf with braised skillet potatoes (and possibly cake).
2. 2nd Avenue Vegetable Korma from Appetite for Reduction.  I have passed over this recipe several times because Mister doesn't like brothy food (he refers to it as "runny").  However, he's gotten Kormas at restaurants, so he'll be okay.
3. Pasta Florentine from The 30 Minute Vegan.  It's been a while since we've had this - heck, it's been a while since I've cracked open this cookbook.  Anyway, I was glancing through some old posts and saw this and thought, "well, that's easy and always goes over well...why haven't I made it lately?"
4. Jerk Seitan with Coconut Rice, both from Vegan with a Vengeance.  It's been a while since we've had this, also, and the jerk spices of the Rice Island Casserole always make me long for this dish.
5. Pasta Puttanesca from One-Dish Vegetarian Meals.  If it's been a while since I cracked open 30MV and made the meal from there, it's been eons since I've bothered with this book.  Sad to say, ever since my "Vegan Experiment" became a way of life, I have largely neglected any cookbook that is not expressly vegan.  This is not without good reason - I never realized until the last 6-9 months exactly how dairy-heavy many vegetarian cookbooks are.  Nevertheless, this recipe is naturally vegan and supernaturally incredible.
6. Vegetable Etouffee also from One-Dish Vegetarian Meals and also a recipe I've neglected far too long.

Now, as I was putting my menu together, I had intended to only choose 5 meals because I thought Mister and I would go out to dinner tonight, either before or after seeing the Eiffel Tower in the plaza of the Kimmel Center put on its little light show.  Right now you're probably thinking (if you actually read the first part of this post), "Good thing you added that Etouffee, then, huh?"

No.

We did not go out tonight, but due to some mixed-reaction news I got pretty early in the day (as in, some time during the four hours Mister and I were both awake), we most certainly will be going out to dinner this week.  Specifically, we will be dining at Horizons.  The news?  They're closing.

This is devastating to me - Horizons is my favorite restaurant in all of Philadelphia (and we have a lot of great restaurants!).  One of my favorite parts of living in Queen Village is how close we've been to Horizons.  Don't get me wrong - the pricing still keeps it in the "Special Occasion" bracket of restaurant choices, but it was nice to know it was there.  Mister and I have often mused about a phenomenon we've both recognized during the time we've lived in the city: depending on where you live, your idea of proximity changes.

When I lived in the sticks, the last gasps of the Main Line, in a town that is more sub-rural than sub-urban, I thought nothing at all of driving 15-30 miles to find something fun to do.  When I moved into my Art Museum apartment, I enjoyed that there were many places (Art Museum, Wawa, restaurants/bars, work) that I could walk to, but I was still in a place where I didn't think twice about driving to a different part of Philly or out of the city altogether to find fun.  When I moved to the ghetto, the only time I went anywhere without being inside an enclosed vehicle was the one time we got three feet of snow and the only way to the bar was to walk.

Everything changed, though, when we moved down to Queen Village.  I had never been so close to everything I could possibly want.  Three supermarkets, Essene, two Farmers' Markets, flower shops, all of my favorite restaurants (except Azure, but they closed shortly after I moved) and bars (except Fergie's, but I stopped going there shortly before I moved) - there was no need to drive anywhere and the parking situation made me loathe to do so unnecessarily anyway.  Suddenly, if we couldn't walk there, a place was simply "too far away."

The point of all that babbling? Well, the mixed-blessing of the whole Horizons situation is this: they are closing Horizons, but opening a new place somewhere in Center City.  Presumably, the move is because they're doing so well they are always completely booked, but it makes me sad because I know Mister and I will not be as inclined to travel to the new location.  I'm hoping it will be somewhere close, like Washington Square or Old City, but with my luck, they'll have done so well that they'll end up in Rittenhouse Square.  Sad to say, if that's the case, we'll probably go once just to check out the new digs...and never again.

So, sometime this week, we'll dine at Horizons.  Some time in a few more weeks, we'll dine at Horizons.  I intend to go as many times as we can afford and Mister will let me before they close (tentatively set for July).  It's funny, because we didn't end up going there for Valentine's day because it was "just too far" from our new apartment for us to want to make the trip on a frost February evening.  Just a week or so ago, we had planned to go, "just because" and I postponed it, telling Mister I wanted to wait until we had a good reason to go, like a celebration of some sort.  Well, I wouldn't call this a celebration by any stretch of the imagination, but it's certainly a good reason if ever I had one.

angry belly

This has been the sickest winter in years.  I don't think I've been ill this frequently since I was working part-time in a public school and the other part of the time I was going into relatively filthy homes to tell other people how the county thought they should raise their children.  Just when I finally stopped sniffling and sneezing, something horrible happened to my digestive system.  But first, pictures of what has transpired since Friday:

On Saturday, I went food shopping.  In an utterly adorable move, Mister followed me out the door when I was on my way to Whole Foods.  Like a little puppy, he walked beside me and explained that he wanted to spend time with me (since I'm never home since I'm always either at work or commuting to/from).  He misses me when I'm at work, which I love.

However, after dodging drunkards to get to Whole Foods and Superfresh and filling our baskets despite a large number of people milling around without the vaguest clue why they came to this magical place with so much food, I had no desire to actually cook any of the food.  I don't want to lay blame on one of my favorite restaurants, but that may have been my most recent undoing.

Pictured just above is the Vegetable Sayadia at Cedars on 2nd and South.  We haven't been to Cedars in ages, but now it is literally around the corner.  In fact, I think if I could leap moderately tall buildings in a single bound, I could walk out of the little tunnel that leads to the street, jump one block East and be directly in front of the restaurant.  I got this once before with my friend, which inspired this recipe, and when I proposed that we dine there on Saturday, I knew that was what I was going to get.

Mister always orders fries with peppers and onions.  I always steal a few and eat around the onions.  We also got baba ghanouj for an appetizer and Mister wanted a plate of olives and feta.  I ordered my Sayadia without mushrooms this time, and as a testament to their continually spectacular service, our server asked if I would like to substitute eggplant for the fungus.

I love Cedars and would never want to accuse them of wrong doing, but something has not been right with my belly since Saturday night.  There was some kind of little growly thunderstorm going on Saturday night and woke up Sunday feeling extremely nauseated.  I'll spare some gory details, but let's just say my digestive system felt the need to cleanse itself of something...

That being said, I have also been dizzy and have a strange taste in my mouth, so I'm wondering if I have some kind of inner ear infection.  Since I get motion-sick pretty easily, being dizzy could be enough to nauseate me.  I'll admit, I was more than a little nervous about taking the no-way-out train to work today (and took two plastic bags, just in case).  I'm kind of hoping for the infection because I don't want to think I got food poisoning from one of my happy places.

Anyway, since I was not feeling my best, Sunday was not as productive as I wanted it to be, although there was an exciting hour and half that gave Mister and I the opportunity to see just how wet we could get when there is a drenching downpour and the Philly Car Share car won't unlock.  I made dinner last night and did not stuff myself with it only because I thought it might make me puke.  Not the dinner - dinner was awesome.  Just that whole putting food in my mouth and swallowing it action.

I made Forty-Clove Chickpeas and Broccoli from Appetite for Reduction.  I can't get over how wonderful it smells when its roasting away in the oven (which I'm still trying to figure out how to work, but I could probably fill a whole post with that adventure).  I really could have gone to town on this if my belly was behaving, but I could barely finish my broccoli on mashed potatoes.

When I got up this morning, I had really high hopes for my stomach.  Within minutes of waking, I was fairly certain I was going to lose my breakfast...although I hadn't actually eaten any yet.  For reasons I may never know, I did cut up and apple and make tea, even though I thought I was going to lose it the moment I put a slice of apple in my mouth.  Miraculously, I ate breakfast and took a shower before needing a short nap.  I made it to work (with my two bags) and upon returning home, was just hungry enough to try my hand at an old favorite:

Pasta with Beans and Chard from Vegan Express never lets me down.  I always forget how good it is until I'm eating it.  I put it on the menu because I remember that it's super-easy to make and tastes good, but then I take my first bite and can't believe I don't make this more frequently.

It's tasty, it's attractive, the only thing I would improve is how soupy it is at the bottom.  I think I should start draining the tomatoes, but I'm hesitant to do that since they're "Italian" which means the juices have all the good stuff.  Regardless, there is just too much liquid, so maybe it will be a compromise...half-drained?

In any case, I like the way the savory garlic-infused olive oil brings out the sweetness of the dried cranberries I sub for raisins since Mister is personally offended by them.  Although the recipe says a person could use cannellini beans or "pink" beans, I can't imagine anything fitting the texture need the way the cannellini beans do. 

Sweet dreams!  Here's hoping I don't wake up wanting to barf again!

I sure tried...

...to go to work today, but I slept most of the day instead.  Right now, I've been upright for the longest time since my failed attempt to go to work.  I don't know what I have, but it's seriously kicking my butt.

I got home from work around 4:30 and promptly went to bed after assuring Mister I still had a job (more later, like I said).  Although I had only intended to take a short nap, I didn't wake up until sometime in the 8pm hour.  Mister heated up my soup and gave me a bottle of vitamin-enhanced water; I ate, drank, blogged, and went back to bed.  I got up at 7ish this morning and after failing my valiant attempts to shower and dress for about 2 hours, I went back to bed...until 2pm.  Made and ate some cinnamon-date oatmeal, then took a nap on the couch (I'm so glad we have a couch again).  Mister made me more soup; ate it, drank more vitamin-enhanced water, and went back to sleep.  About an hour ago, Mister made me a "sausage" sandwich and gave me a bottle of V8.  As soon as I finish the V8, would you like to guess what I'm doing?

Some fun highlights of my otherwise unconscious day?  While I was still trying to go to work this morning, I was treated to an amusing and slightly heart-stopping show of kitty gymnastics.

That's the top shelf of a presently-unsecured, and mostly-empty 6-shelf bookcase.  That is the ceiling.  That is Angst.  Shortly after I took this picture, he realized he had no idea how to get down.  Fortunately, he did recognize the harm he would do to himself if he tried to jump to the hardwood floor from that height.

Sometime this afternoon, after soup and before sandwich, Mister went back to the old apt because we still have some stuff to move and throw away and it's trash night.  He returned with our DVD/VHS player (yes, that's what I said) and a stack of movies for me to continue to lie on my side/back and watch.

How I'm getting most of my sustenance ^ through liquids.  That is box number #2 of tissues.  My nose hates me.  On that note, I think I need a nap.

"fortune" teller

I love when I can see just a little glimpse into the future...enough to allow me to make a good decision. 

I was about halfway through yesterday when my throat started getting a little sore, so I wrapped a scarf around to keep it warm (I don't know why warm is supposed to battle sore, but follow me) and puttered through the rest of my day.  By the time I got home, I was frozen and just wanted to make Vegetable Lentil Stew from Vegan on the Cheap for all its warming comfort.  I'd actually skipped over this the first few times I went through the book because I know Mister prefers food he can chew on for dinner, but this time around I said, "It's February, it's snowing, and I want a warm, homey stew."

It's not a terribly attractive picture, but since I snuffled my way through preparing the stew and was pretty sure I was getting sick but still in a state where I could turn it around with enough vitamin C, detox tea, and sleep, I just didn't have the energy or investment to take a picture in the nice, bright light of the stove.

Despite all appearances, this soup is a real winner.  I would have rambled on about it all last night but I went to bed so soon after dinner that I didn't even clean up the dishes (thank you, Mister).  I'm glad I didn't write about it last night, though, because after sitting in the fridge overnight and then being reheated by my loving hubby after I woke up from the four-hour nap I took when I came home early from work today (which is a whole other story for a whole 'nother time), it was nothing short of heavenly.  With a rich, smoky broth made up of crushed tomatoes, bouillon, and some secret herbs and spices and packed with good-for-me veggies, I could eat this stew all day long...and I may need to if I don't shake whatever has claimed me.

On that note, I think it's time to reconsider my 2-hour Awake Spree.

mine over manners

In one hour, it will be my birthday.

I am all snuffly but still hopeful that if I just keep warm and get a good night's sleep, I will wake up tomorrow feeling rested, refreshed, and most importantly, not sick.

I have recently come up against several obstacles to maintaining my awesome record of health.  In case you haven't been paying attention, I've spent at least one sentence in almost every post I've written since November complaining about just how darn cold it is in Philadelphia.  Stick with me - I promise I only want to say one thing about it.  In addition to making my face hurt (insert mean, overused joke here), prolonged exposure to cold does actually weaken the immune system, making a person more susceptible to....everything else.

I'm sure walking a mile in the cold and then traveling via public transportation are probably a Disaster Cocktail, garnished with a few well-placed germy hand-rails that you could avoid touching if the stairs weren't slick and wet with the melting snow and slush of dozens of boots... I'm not a fan of that weird evaporating sanitizing germ-weapon people call Purell, but I may reconsider my position shortly.  It seems like I've been at least a little sick each month I've been traveling by train.

Even if we somehow pass through the gauntlet of hostile micro-organisms and get to work safely, let's not forget that I work in a cube farm with about 500 other people.  At any given time, at least 25% are sick and 2-5% have some kind of plague.  This time of year?  It seems like every January, at least 50% of the people I work with the closest/most frequently contract Black Death and then spread it around the office before staying out of work for a week.  Also, I am always the last to fall.  Maybe it IS because I take care of myself or maybe it's because I am stubborn wench and I'm still in denial that I'm sick (even though my nose is getting raw).

You know what I think is the icing on the proverbial cake?  The buffet.  Feel free to put on your flashback hat and travel back in time to read about The Salad Plague last year.  I may have mentioned that management is providing lunch again this year, but this time, instead of hand-delivered pre-plated meals, they set up a buffet for self-service.

There are a million things wrong with this.  The obvious one (especially if you click that link) is that every single person who partakes is using the same tongs to grab their food.  If you take just a moment to think about the implications, you'll realize the absurdity that we don't want them to pick up the rolls or cookies with their hands.  They'll get their germs everywhere!

The one that is less obvious will lead into tonight's PSA (a little different from my summer rant).  Three times every day, the catering crew sets up the food and helps supervise the buffet.  Although they regularly bring multiple trays of whatever (non-vegan) thing they are serving, they run out of food every single day at every single serving time before everyone has had a chance to eat.  The food is usually completely gone within 20 minutes of being set down.

The enthusiasm the employees are showing for the food they've been provided is not what troubles me.  What troubles me is their complete disregard for one another.  There is absolutely no thought given to how many people might be in line behind ME as long as I get MY food.  Maybe it's just the way I was raised (you know, with manners...), but when I go through a self-service buffet, I take a roll, a modest but appropriate amount of salad, one moderate portion of the offerings that interest me/I can eat, and one cookie.  Not these folks...nope.  Apparently, they will never eat again so they pile their plates so high there is an actual, visible peak of food, as well as possibly a whole second plate for their mountain of salad, and a smaller plate piled up with 3-5 cookies.  So, here's your friendly, office-hood PSA about self-service buffets:

1. First of all, you work for a weight loss company, for God's sake.  Do you really need 5 cookies?

2. The first shall be last and the last shall be first: the closer you are to the front of the line, the more miserly you should be in your own portions, to ensure your hard-working colleagues will also be able to eat.

3. If you feel like you need to hide that you are taking 5 cookies, you must know you're being a jerk, so just don't do it.

4. If there are only 3 rolls left in the bowl, you should try really hard to limit yourself to one.  If you want to go the extra mile, you could let the caterers know we're about to run out of something.  Of course, you could just take two or three because you're actually the only person who matters and if people wanted rolls, they should have gotten here sooner so it's really their fault.  Or, you're a big jerk.

I could keep going, but I think you get the idea.  I just do not understand the reasoning.  Where are these people's manners??  Who raised them?  Did they all come from the slums of Norristown and have to fight their five half-brothers for cereal in the morning and then have to eat it with water because their jerk half-brother used all the milk?  That might be a reasonable excuse, but I refuse to believe that it the case for half of the employees.  It's just appalling to me.  Appalling because I think you should practice what you preach, and we preach portion control, and appalling because it displays absolutely no respect for another single human being in the office.

In other news, since my rye roll and chocolate chip cookie appear to have finally infected me with Bubonic Plague, helped along, no doubt, by the intrinsic cleanliness and sterility of public transit, although I briefly entertained the notion of making Corn Chowder for dinner, we ordered Chinese.

If you're ever in Philly, Golden Empress Garden on 5th St, just below South St, has one of the best veg-friendly menus outside of Chinatown.  That's the Garlic Chicken.  It was supposed to have red and green peppers, but I like snow peas, carrots, and baby corn, so I'm okay with the substitutions.  It was just as tasty as it looks.

jerk seitan and the perils of wannabe gladware

 
You know that song that the Whos sing to welcome Christmas in How the Grinch Stole Christmas?  I want to sing it about the weekend.  I'm halfway through it, but I have a fun and action-packed day tomorrow, so hopefully I'll spring just the right balance between relaxation and productivity.  Besides, I have a shortened week coming up and then a long, glorious break from the insanity.  I might even refrain from my usual Sunday night whining to Mister about how "I don't WANT to go to work tomorrow..."

Besides, since he is actually conscious today, Mister has taken over whining privileges:
"I don't wanna be sleepy"
"I don't wanna be sick"
"I sweated through 4 shirts last night"
"My pillow is a soggy mess"
"I'm dizzy"
And much sticking out of the lower lip.  Awww....poor baby.  He's adorable, even as he creeps closer to sporting a full-grown beard (amazing what a few days without shaving does to a Greek).

As all his little white blood cells run around trying to heal him, much the way I have been running around the past few weeks trying to do two peoples' jobs, he actually became hungry enough to eat not one but two helpings of Jerk Seitan on Coconut Rice, both from Vegan With A Vengeance.  Way to rock the solid food!

 Every time I make this, I am amazed anew at not only how tasty it is, but how attractive it is.  I could eat that picture...if I wasn't already full from my two servings.  I guess we can add this to the No Leftovers category.

I learned a valuable lesson, though, while I was preparing it tonight.  I've noticed that ordinarily, when you have something sitting in a marinade, say tofu or seitan, the instructions direct you to stir or toss now and again to ensure equal soaking/coating.  It occurred to me a while back that the easiest way to do this was to put the ThingToBeMarinated in a shallow Gladware container and then pour the marinade over it, shove the top on and shake it every 5-10 minutes.

Not too long ago, I came into possession of NoName Gladware Wannabe containers.  When you look at them, they don't look all too different from my "real" Gladware containers, so I didn't think twice about depositing my sliced seitan into one of the impostors and coating it with sticky, sweet-sour marinade.  After the third haphazard shake, I felt something wet on my fingers.  I looked down and was reminded of the old Glad Ziplock baggie commercials - does anyone know what I'm talking about?  Anyway, in the messiest way possible, I learned that the magical, vacuum-like powers of Gladware are not inherent in their mimics.  I wiped up the mess and resorted to carefully jiggling the container without picking it up off the counter for the rest of the marinating time.

Tomorrow morning, I'll be joining a dear, long-time friend for brunch at Mi-Lah Vegetarian, then I am going to try my darnedest to get as much of my Christmas shopping done as possible.  At some point, I will also shop for the following menu:


1. Farfalle with Shallots and Chard

2. Pan-Seared Tofu with Basil-Balsamic Glaze with Lemon-Champagne-Braised Baby Bok Choy, I hope... It seems like every time I specifically want to prepare baby bok choy, there are none to be found.  I almost didn't write it down, even though I intend to make it, in a desperate attempt to fly under Murphy's radar.

3. Chamomile Couscous with Savory Spinach - I haven't made this for a very long time (a year, to be exact) and since the "grain" is couscous, it comes together very quickly.  When I was selecting my menu, I thought about doing a few more labor-intensive ones, but then my brain kicked me and said, "Hey, Einstein - why don't you save those for the week you're off from work and have nothing better to do with your day than spend hours prepping and cooking?"

4. Easy Tuscan Linguini because I've really been in a mood for salty-garlicky Italian food lately AND because it also comes together pretty quickly.

I also have not yet made the Warm Chickpea Ragout from last week's menu, so that will happen soon...or the chard will rise up in revolt.

mister's miso noodle soup

Anyone here on facebook?  As 2010 approaches its end, I've noticed a lot of my friends doing what's called a "status cloud," in which the most frequently used words in a status are compiled and sorted.  For example, one of my friend's most frequently used word was "bus" and another friend's cloud revealed she spends the overwhelming majority of her status updates to inform the world about her elder son's exploits...her daughter trails by nearly 66%.

The point of all this is that every now and then, I start to post something and have an odd sensation of deja vu.  I have not actually done a data-based query, but from patterns I notice, if I had to guess my top three most focused topics they would be:

1. kale and my kale-heavy recipe list
2. how exhausting my job is, especially this time of year (you may have noticed that I let two nights go by without posts for the first time in months)
and finally...
3. mister being sick

My poor mister has such a challenged immune system.  I'm fairly convinced that the way he eats when I'm not around to give him a hard time might be preventing him from at least somewhat improving that, but he just naturally gets sick easily.

Can you guess the topic of this post?

Mister is sick.  I don't know what's wrong with him, but I am amazed at how dramatic his illnesses can be.  He can't just have a cough - no, he has to cough until he's in pain and then make miserable noises while shaking uncontrollably because he's freezing, even though we turned up the heat.  He's been getting progressively more ill over the last couple of days, but when I came home tonight and found our living room dark and empty, my first thought was still that he had gone out somewhere.  It took me about 15 minutes to realize he had gone to the bedroom and was so utterly unconscious that I had to hold my breath to hear if he was still breathing.

He was, so I returned to the kitchen to figure out what I was going to eat with the bottle of 2009 deBoeuf Beaujolais-Villages I picked up on my way home from work tonight.  I had far less than no desire to make one of the two leftover recipes on my menu if I was the only one eating, so I evaluated my ingredients and nearly made something fun with angel hair pasta, leftover fire-roasted tomatoes, and Swiss chard (and of course, oodles of garlic), but then I realized that despite my enjoyment of the cooking process, I wanted nothing to do with the clean-up.  That ended up backfiring (<-- foreshadowing), but I decided to head over to Essene to check out the hot foods bar.  I was a little torn between the quirky, healthy food at Essene and the sheer comfort I would get from a slice or two of Blackbird pizza, so I figured if there wasn't anything truly exciting at Essene, I would just go to Blackbird.  This is one of the many, many things I love about living where I live - they are each a block and a half from my home.

Turns out, Essene had plenty to fill my to-go box: amazing mashed potatoes, roasted yams, broccoli raab with garlic, harvard beets, tuscan white beans (with tomatoes and basil), and tofu cutlets.  I wish I'd taken a picture, but I was still in a pretty special state of mind, recovering from today and this week in general.  I'll fill you in more tomorrow, but for now, let's return to the theme of MISTER IS SICK.

I was about two bites into my luscious mashed potatoes when I heard Mister hacking up a lung in the bedroom.  I went in, since I figured he was awake, to see if I could get him anything.  Apparently, he wasn't awake, but every time I spoke to him, he had a coughing/shaking/moaning fit, so I figured it was probably best to leave and finish the Beaujolais my dinner.  About 30 minutes after dinner, while I was sifting through Twitter timelines and FB updates, Mister emerged from the bedroom looking like a cross between a bum and a caveman (not flattering, I know).  When he sat down at the table, I asked if I could get him anything.  To my surprise, he requested soup.  That surprises me everytime.

I put down the wine and got to work while Mister took a short nap on the table.

Miso Noodle Soup
2 servings

2 cups vegetable broth
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
1/2 tsp minced ginger
2 small carrots, sliced
1 cup chopped broccoli
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 tsp tamari
1/2 tsp thyme
1 oz angel hair/cappellini, broken into 2" pieces
1 tsp white miso, dissolved in 2 Tbsp warm water

Heat oil in a large saucepan on medium heat.  Add pressed garlic and lower heat; allow to saute for about 5 minutes but be careful not to burn or brown the garlic.  Add carrots and ginger, stir to mix and allow to saute for 1-2 minutes.  Pour in stock and tamari and bring to boiling, then add broccoli and peas.   Return to boiling, stir in the broken pasta, then reduce to a lively simmer for about 4-5 minutes.  Stir in thyme and miso and remove from heat.  Stir to combine and allow to sit for 5 minutes.

the spark is gone

I have had an on and off love affair for years...pretty much the entire time I've known Mister, to be honest.  He was the one who introduced us, even.  But I have to admit, the romance is going in the "off" direction again... I am losing interest in Yogi Detox Tea.

My basic strategy for handling illness is to try to force it out with foul-smelling, strong-tasting tea, while nurturing my little inner warriors (aka Antibodies) with particularly nutritious food.  As you've probably noticed if you've been reading for, well, let's say a month or more, I generally stuff Good-For-Me things down my gullet, but when I get sick (or perceive a threat of becoming so), I up the ante a little.  Anyway, I have relied on Yogi Detox Tea for nearly a decade - it's meant to detox the liver, but I swear it speeds up my recovery time when I get sick, possibly because a detoxed, clean liver allows for quicker clean-up?

The two things that alternately make me love and despise my detox tea are the taste and the hang-tags.  The ingredients are impressive and might give a little bit of insight into the bizarre flavor of this tea:  indian sarsaparilla root, cinnamon bark, ginger root, licorice root, burdock root, dandelion root, cardamom seed, clove bud, black pepper, long pepper berry, chinese amur cork tree bark, japanese honeysuckle flower, forsythia fruit, gardenia flower, skullcap leaf, chinese goldenthread root, rhubarb root, wax gourd, and juniper berry extract.  mmmm....tasty.  However, once you drink it frequently enough, you get used to the flavor and it does actually taste....well, palatable, as opposed to OMG-drink-it-fast-so-you-don't-taste-it.

And then there's the transcendental, inspirational, feel-good hang-tags.  I've been presenting them as little moments of zen because the first few were really pretty and did actually make me feel good, despite feeling so bad.  Then they started getting super-fruity, and will probably continue to, since we're on that downward trend.

Tonight's moment of zen?

Wow.  Really?  Thanks for letting me know, Yogi.  I've also gotten such gems as "Be your own best friend" and some other ridiculous piece of fortune cookie wisdom.  We had such a good thing going for a while... I guess all good things must eventually end.  Unlike the truth, which is everlasting.

I'm tired of being sick.  Yesterday was awful and I went to bed way before I usually do, fell asleep immediately, slept for nearly 10 hours and still needed my second alarm to get me out of bed this morning.  However, once I got going, I felt fine!  I coughed all day, but I only sneezed a few times and was sniffly once.  Then I waited 30 minutes for the train in 30-something degree weather (it was only supposed to be a 10 minute wait) and walked home through the same temperature.  I couldn't even feel my legs by the time I got home and my feet had frozen and were very angry with me.  Now?  I've been sneezing in patterns of four to ten sneezes in a row and blowing my nose left and right.  I really hope for the same miraculous recovery overnight because I really don't like this and I want to break it off with the Yogi before he leaves me (aka, tea runs out).

So, here's your real moment of zen:

nothing says "zen" like a peacefully sleeping kitty

victory is mine...for now

I knew it would happen eventually.  I knew if I just kept trying, plotting, scheming, and trying again that someday, I would win.  I had some strategy on my side, with plenty of time to mull over my course of action to be sure that this time I would prevail.

I beat Brown Rice.

It took some time and some of the tricks I had hiding in my sweater sleeve, but tonight, I made Mexican Rice and Bean Bake in only one hour.  Better yet, it was quite pleasing to the eye, so I took a picture this time!

It was every bit as hearty and savory as it looks.  I devoured it.  I was hungry, I was still a bit bone-chilled from the walk home, and...I think I'm getting sick.  What a time!

I have my many weapons to battle this nemesis as well, so hopefully, between my echinacea and herbal detox teas, I'll knock whatever this is out of my system before it knocks me out of commission - I absolutely cannot miss a moment at work this week.  That brings us to tonight's moment of zen:

thank you, Yogi Tea...sometimes we need remindin'

spicy joes meet Mister's belly

Let's play a game of pretend.  You be the cook, I'll be the storyteller.  Here's the set up:  Your spouse has been sick to the stomach for three days, unable to eat without experiencing pain and nausea.  When you return from work tonight, your spouse's condition appears to have improved and you find that he/she even had lunch today!  You set yourself to making dinner for the first time in days.  Do you make:

A. Tunisian Soup with Grilled Cheese, omitting the harissa in order to be gentle on Spouse's tender belly
B. Pasta e Fagioli, due to it's mild flavor and your spouse's affinity for pasta
C. Snobby Joes with all three Tbsps of chili powder + spicy mustard

If you chose C, you think like me!

Why go gentle?  I wanted to make sure that Mister was sure his belly was better, so I figured something spicy would be an adequate test.  I got a few bites in before I started to wonder if Snobby Joes from Veganomicon usually came out this hot.  Glancing over, I saw Mister was eating a little more slowly and gingerly than his usual gustatory gusto, so I asked, "Are they usually this spicy?"  Mister laughed at me and then confirmed my suspicions - No, they are not normally this spicy and Yes, Mister was finished after his first and only serving.  So was I. 

They are really very good, so I'm trying to figure out what I did differently this time.  Here is what I've come up with: I bought Dijon mustard a while ago, intended for use solely in recipes.  Along the way, I discovered that Mister likes all kinds of mustard and is an Equal Opportunity Sandwich Builder.  What I'm trying to say is, the only mustard I had to put in my lentil mixture was Spicy Brown mustard.

I asked Mister if he thought that could be it and he looked at me like a second head was getting ready to sprout out of my neck.

"You didn't do anything else differently?"

Well, I used all three tablespoons of chili powder.  It is possible I've never done that in the past, because even as I was sprinkling it over the lentils, I thought it looked sufficiently coated after the second tablespoon.  It is likely that in the past, I haven't used all of the chili powder and that might be the difference.

It's funny - whenever I eat a really spicy dinner, I have a strong urge to end the meal with dark, bittersweet chocolate.  It seems like that is the most efficient (and tastiest) way to quench the burning (aside from Banana Daiquiris).  Coincidentally, as I was cooking dinner, I was teasing Angst about how he didn't get me any chocolate today...so much so that Mister was getting ready to go out and get me chocolate while I cooked.  I assured them both (because if you know Angst, you know he was concerned...) that I was fine and would not require chocolate until tomorrow, but halfway through my Snobby Spicy Joe, I was wishing I'd let one of them fetch me just a little piece of dark chocolate...

cold = simple overload

So, sometime after I got home last night, I sneezed at least ten times in a row, then proceeded to snuffle my way through the rest of the night.  That happens sometimes, as though there is some latent allergen in the air on my walk home from the train which waits until I'm home to make its attack.  I used nasal spray, which is completely against my nature, but I was getting really darn tired of sneezing and blowing my nose (my poor red nose also objected). 

Now would be an appropriate time to clue you in on why I generally don't treat any of my ailments (not that there are many) with drugs: for one, the long list of side effects which accompanies all meds make me wary; when I was a child, I can remember wondering how the little white pill knew that my head hurt and not something else.  As I grew older, I became more aware of the side effects, which essentially mean that the little white pill is really just making its best guess and probably messing up something else in the process.  The other reason that I specifically don't take medications for my respiratory system is that they always seem to do the opposite to me that they do to everyone else.  Cases in point:

• the most alert I have ever been in the morning was the result of an utterly sleepless night thanks to Sudafed.  I was "high" for 36 hours before crashing at a dance club and nearly losing consciousness on a chaise.
• the second most alert I have been was the time I took Nyquil immediately before going to bed so I wouldn't keep Mister up with all my snuffling.  It did, in fact, prevent me from snuffling and coughing through the night, but it also prevented me from getting a single wink of sleep.
• Contac Day and Night meds have bizarre and opposite effects on me.  The happy yellow Day pills make me fall asleep for exactly two hours, then I wake up and I'm fine for the rest of the dose.  The evil blue Night pills give me muscle spasms; on a minutely basis, every muscle in my body tenses and releases.  Not comfy and not terribly conducive to sleep.

So, back to the nasal spray story, armed with that new and pertinent information.  Can you guess what happened?

Yes.  It did make it worse.  My nose refused to stop running, so half a box of tissues later, I read the side effects (yes, that was stupid) and found that on a few freak people, it irritates the nasal passages and increases snot production.  Guess who's a freak?

So, although I made a serious effort to get to work today, when I still wasn't ready to walk out the door two hours after I woke up because I had spent so much time blowing and/or dabbing at my poor, abused nose to do other important things like putting on my shoes, I called my boss and called it a day.  I slept most of today, but when the sun started to set, I thought I should probably try to be conscious for a little while and see if Mister needed dinner.  A couple of hours after joining Mister and Angst in wakefulness, I stood in the kitchen trying to decide whether the Moroccan Lentil Stew or the Bulgur-Black Bean soup would require less (germ-covered) hands-on time.  As I was pondering, a [probably germ-fearing] compassionate Mister asked if I would like him to pick something up for dinner.

Blackbird to the rescue!  Yes, Mister, I would like the Yukon Pizza with all its delightful, paper-thin, crispy potatoes spread over the focaccia-like crust and liberally sprinkled with sea salt and rosemary.  I swear, it's like someone took homemade potato chips and stuck them on a pizza instead of a baking sheet.

And while you're out, why don't you also get me one of their salads?  I think the Antipasto Salad sounds fabulous, with marinated slices of eggplant, strips of roasted red peppers, seitan pepperoni, and thin slices of baked tofu on a bed of mixed greens.

Because of the thick, puffy nature of the outer crust (the part not smothered in salty, potatoey goodness), I decided to play with one of my new herb-spice blends from Oliver's.  I used a heaping 1/4 teaspoon of the Tuscan Seasoning, spritzed on two sprinkles of white wine vinegar (you know, the amount that comes out when you leave the 3-holed plastic thing on top of the bottle), then stirred in about 2 Tbsp of higher quality olive oil to make a dipping sauce.  It was everything I wanted it to be and I can still taste the garlic...mmm....

Time to clean the cat hair off of my faithful winter coat, because it seems the time for light jacket passed sometime last night.  If I make it through without too many snuffles, I may reward myself with a glass of tempranillo-shiraz and a square of dark chocolate.

Who am I kidding?  Unless I lose consciousness before I finish, I most certainly will reward myself.  Even if I'm a complete slacker tomorrow and Sunday, I promise I will actually cook for my impending VeganMoFo posts!

vegan soup for the sickly soul

It's been a nutty week!  I really wish I could turn that into a pun involving the cashews in my crisper, but I can't.  Not yet, anyway - maybe later, but that's another tale for another time.

I could have posted about Tuesday night's dinner, Pasta Della California, but it didn't look any different than it did before and I didn't think it was blog-worthy to exclaim my excitement about finally finding and using a ripe avocado.  Scratch that - I don't think there was a single ripe avocado in the whole avo-pyramind they had set up at Whole Foods. I did, however, discover a secret that everyone else probably already knows - if you let your avocado sit on a pile of citrus (think lemons and limes) for a couple of days, it ripens up really nicely.  Think about that the next time you have a useless pile of citrus lying around.

I can't remember what I ate on Wednesday, but I know that it involved my leftover Eggplant Bites from my date.  Oh, and the leftover Pasta della California.  So I guess I do remember, it just wasn't anything special - before you know it, I'll rename Wednesday to Leftover Wednesdays (formerly One-Serving Wednesdays, formerly No-Cook Wednesdays).  Needless to say, it wasn't nearly exciting enough to photograph or write about.  "Mmmm, tonight I had leftovers that I barely bothered reheating!"  That'll keep you reading for sure.

Anyway, somewhere in there, Wednesday night, if memory serves, poor Mister got sick.  I woke up Thursday morning to find a cute little note he had written me while I was sleeping and he was sitting up sick and sad.  I called his work to let them know he wouldn't be in and left him sleeping while I trekked off to my new office (I didn't get a new job, just a new building and I'm still adjusting - it makes for an even longer commute in my aged and dying car). 

He wasn't up for eating when I got home, so I just threw something fun together for me.  I should have taken a picture, but I didn't know if it would be very attractive in the half-light of my kitchen.  It was made up of dark food - I took the last serving of Chickpeas Romesco, added some frozen spinach and one Tofurky kielbasa, quartered and sliced, and cooked up some of my black beluga lentils - it was very fun and I succeeded in making enough to take leftovers to work today.

Poor Mister realized he was a little hungry around 11 pm last night and here is my absolute favorite part of yesterday:  at 11:30, I was standing at my stove, in my apron, stirring a pot of aromatic, nourishing, steaming soup for the love of my life.  Many a time I have found myself popping a tray of cookies (well, almost-cookies) into a hot oven at that time of night, or maybe checking the "done-ness" of a batch of banana blondies, but there was something heart-warmingly nurturing about the soup.  It gave me such joy to throw together a bunch of fun ingredients (carrots, green pepper, shallots, garlic, chives, edamame, spinach, and orzo, along with the broth and some thyme and tamari) and make something tasty for my husband and his unfortunately challenged immune system. 

I have two distinct feelings about this soup:
1. PRIDE that I finally have enough "fluency" in cooking that I can just throw a bunch of things in a pot and call it soup...and then have someone else verify (without prompting) that it was very tasty.

2. REGRET that I didn't pay more attention while I was doing it so I could write up my first soup recipe...oh well, October will get here eventually.

When I returned from another fun and fascinating day at work and what felt like miles of loops looking for parking, I was still somewhat disappointed when Mister didn't want dinner again.  I briefly considered making the Pomegranate Tofu anyway, but that's a ton of work for just one person and more than half of it ending up as leftovers.  I poked around my cabinets and fridge, as well as prodded my little brain to come up with something creative and nutritious (otherwise, I could just take advantage of the charmingly close proximity of a bunch of great take-out restaurants).

To accompany my Yellow Tail Shiraz-Cabernet, aka Purple, I made what I have dubbed Carrot Noodles with Soba and Spinach.  Clever name, don't you think?  No, actually, you're probably thinking, "I wonder if she knows Soba are noodles and Carrot is a vegetable."  I am aware, thank you.  However, if you happen to have a nifty julienne peeler (which I do) or a spiralizer (nope, not yet), you can make "noodles" out of things like vegetables - in this case, carrots.  Here is a fun [rough] recipe:

Carrot Noodles with Soba and Spinach
4 oz soba noodles
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 medium carrots, julienne or spiralized (what a great word)
6 oz baby spinach
2-3 Tbsp brown rice miso (or whatever miso you prefer - white miso would probably taste good here, too)
1 Tbsp tamari/soy sauce

Boil noodles in water.  Meanwhile, briefly saute the garlic in oil on medium heat, then add carrots and stir well to coat with oil.  Saute, stirring often, 3-5 minutes, until carrots are noticeably more bendy (I hope that makes sense!).  Add spinach and stir in to wilt.

Before draining soba, reserve 1 cup of the water.  Mix water with miso until completely dissolved, then stir in tamari.  Pour this mixture into the carrot noodles and spinach, then add the noodles and cook another 10 minutes, stirring frequently to allow the noodles to soak up some of the sauce.

Eat with chopsticks because it's a sin to eat noodles like this with a fork.  Enjoy!

the Fail is strong with this one

Now comes the self-berating, naughty-blogger, why-does-anyone-bother-reading-this-crap post. I feel like being sicker than I've been in over a year probably warrants a five-day absence from the blogosphere, but that doesn't mean I like it. My husband held a career for the first several years of our life together that required him to stay in front of people's eyes and minds - to be absent too long meant to risk being forgotten, which would result in failure. I'm no rockstar, but I know my own tendencies and when I notice a blogger start to post less and less and updates come less and less frequently, I am less interested in that blog than I once was. I don't want to lose the 6 people who do bother reading my mumbo-jumbo, so I'm just a little mad at myself for going so long without posting something.

Great - now that we've gotten that out of the way, I can move forward with the fun part of this post.

As I might have mentioned, I've been kind of sick. Nothing serious, just The Plague. People at work (aka, the Carriers of Disease) are absolutely boggled when they learn that I am not completely doped up with OTC drugs, cough suppressants, vitamins and other various supplements. Our culture has become so focused on quick fixes and distracting ourselves from reality that it doesn't seem to occur to anyone that it is actually possible to get all of the vitamins and nourishment your body needs to heal itself through our food. I realize you probably weren't expecting that, so I'll give you a moment to grab the dust pan and collect the tinier bits of bone and gray matter that may be littering the floor right now.

You all back together?

Good. Let's keep going before I lose my momentum.

So, when you live on a diet of Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, something from the Cafe of Death or a vending machine for a snack before you run to Burger King or Wendy's for your lunch, and God only knows what happens after you get that soda and bag of Doritos from the vending machine before you leave for the night, I guess it could be hard to figure out how to help your body recover from a bout with germs. I guess that's why there is more hand sanitizer at my office than there is whiskey at an Irish pub. [Funny side note: two of my colleagues cannot be dissuaded from the opinion that the hand sanitizer we stock smells like margaritas. I couldn't disagree more, but I'm not a tequila-hound.]

After completely astonishing one of my team members today by explaining that I wasn't taking medicine, sucking on an endless supply of lozenges, drowning myself in vitamins, or any of the other things that she thought were normal and I found utterly repellent, we came to the "staring contest" part of the conversation. At this point I took it upon myself to explain that if you are vigilant about the things you use to fuel your body and actually make the effort to eat clean, less-processed, nutrient-rich food, you can actually take care of yourself and anything that ails you....naturally. She stared at me, presumably looking for the second head about to sprout from my neck, and I proceeded to explain to her that the only actions I was taking to banish The Plague related to eating foods that were even more nourishing and dense in the vitamins and other nutrients your body needs to rebuild itself at times like these. I thought if I said "dark, leafy greens," her head might explode, so I walked away.


Before I allowed myself to wallow completely in my germs and misery, I made one of my dinners - what I considered to be the "most healthful" of the menu, not to mention the most comforting. I started the week (Thursday) by making the Tofurky and Kale Minestra.

If that doesn't scream healthy, I don't know what would.

I served it up with a big bowl of fruit salad (admittedly from the precut bowls at Superfresh - sue me, I was already feeling like crud). I can't think of a way to pack more things my body needs into one meal: we had kale, a hearty bit of protein from the Tofurky slices, honeydew, cantelope, strawberries, and blueberries, just to name the power players! The fruit was perfectly ripe and sweet and I had been craving the melon, which is slightly unusual - I'm not normally a melon gal, but recently I have been. Maybe it's especially good this season?

The soup actually lasted me about three days, since we each only had one (big) bowl on Thursday. When I say me, I assume Mister didn't have more because he either wanted me to have it all or because he thought I had contaminated it with my germs (probably), but I'm glad I had it all. It was just like chicken noodle soup, except without the chicken or the noodles. Seriously, though, if there was a perfectly vegan alternative to chicken noodle soup, this is it - the Tofurky ended up with the right taste and texture and there was something noodle-y in the slurpiness of the kale ribbons. I am in love with this soup.

Also, I am in love with the sensory effects of hot, savory soup with cold, sweet fruit. Absolutely perfect combination.

I was out of work Thursday though Sunday and finally forced myself back on Monday for no other reason than that it was Monday and I felt obligated to be there. I felt like death, but I made it through the day to everyone's surprise. I had intended to make dinner when I got home, but Mister thought I should sleep, so I did that instead - I was exhausted! So, another reason for my recent silence is that I didn't have any fun food stories (and didn't spend a lot of time upright). I finally got to make dinner again on Tuesday night, so I made Braised Broccoli Rabe with Orecchiette.
Actually, that's Rotini. The strangest thing about the recipe was that despite the title, it did not call for orecchiette pasta, not even shells! So, I figured rotini was more fun than penne, and there you have it.

Cooking the pasta in broth didn't actually do a whole lot for its flavor, but braising the broccoli rabe with the pasta in the broth did amazing things to reduce the acute bitterness associated with this nourishing green. A review of the recipe that I read commented that there was too much broth, and I thought 5 cups sounded a bit much, so I kept it to an even quart. I think it worked out just right, though the pasta was definitely swimming in a pretty little puddle of it.

Tonight was No-Cook Wednesday, so I had a kimchee-like cabbage salad and a piece of peanut butter toast. Unexciting and not the most nourishing thing I've had all week, but it beats McDonald's.