stiiiilllll going...powered by smoothies & espresso

I'm not sure there are words strong enough to express my longing, yearning, pining even, for Friday.  Once I have safely made it to and through Friday, I have a glorious, much needed, and much deserved 3-day weekend.  I do mean 3 days, too - I'm not teaching on Saturday and I don't have to go back to Diet Land until Tuesday.  Nevertheless, powered by three things that are becoming steadfast favorites, I am powering on, pushing myself to endure every day that stands between me and Friday night.

What three things?

• Espresso (say what you want about Starbucks, but I will not apologize for my iced caramel americanos - they taste like iced heaven in a cup)
• More Italian food - old habits die hard, especially when I can't think of a terribly good reason to stop this addiction.
• Smoothies!  Tasty, frothy, drinkable nutrition!  If I got enough sleep at night, I could probably easily sub out a smoothie for my espresso.  But I don't get enough sleep.  I love you, Starbucks.

I really don't think anyone wants to read my Ode to Caffeine and besides, I am well aware that this is not a healthy way to go about life.  Like I said, I don't get enough sleep.  It's a long story.  I'm pretty sure any faithful readers are also growing quite weary of my pasta-worship, too, but let me just share for a moment before moving on to the "good stuff."

Last night, I finally made Italian-Style Rice Casserole from Vegan Italiano because I finally bought peas.  In the course of preparing it, I realized I was woefully short of carrots, a fact that did not truly "hit home" until I started to prepare dinner tonight.

I love this risotto-like dish.  I love it because it's hearty and creamy and fully of veggie goodness (the peas nearly outnumber the rice!) with a few spikes of salty mixed in from the chopped kalamatas.  I love that even though it's supposed to be a baked dish, it comes together stovetop in approximately 30 minutes - I think that is at least partially owed to my use of the not-so-indigenous-to-Italy Jasmine rice.  After a ton of pasta dishes, I was happy to let go of my Italian fetish with a rice dish.  Or so I thought.

Tonight, I started to get everything together for Naked Burritos, and then remembered that I used the last four pitiful carrots for dinner last night, leaving me no carrots for the burritos.  Stop asking yourself what kind of sick person puts carrots in burritos and follow me back down the path to Il Belpaese.

So, I opened up my little gold book of magic and started to assemble ingredients and found myself lacking a fairly important one, so I looked at my menu for a quick-cooking one, as my stomach was trying to eat itself, and decided upon a recipe from Appetite for Reduction.  Broccoli Con Pasta, to be precise.  I made Dynise's version of this recipe not long ago, but I think I prefer Isa's.  It has a hot little kick from the red pepper flakes which can be at least partially dimmed by balsamic vinegar and wine, or left to simmer on your tongue and lips a bit.  It also does not involve trying to dissolve miso in hot oil with a flat whisk.  It also fits into that wonderful and welcome category of Perfect Portions/no leftovers.

With my continuing tribute to Italy out of the way, we can get to the real fun: Smoothies.  A few weeks ago, I posted about my smoothie virginity.  At least one daring and caring soul stepped forward to help me overcome my scarcity of smoothies: Kelly from Living on the Vedge.  She offered to meet up with me for a smoothie date, which we did on Saturday and it was delightful.  Prior to our meeting, though, I decided to dabble a bit - test the chunky, fruit-filled waters, if you will.

I began my Smoothie Odyssey on my way to work one morning.  I had an unintentionally light breakfast, leaving me quite ravenous by the time I got to the train station.  As luck would have it, there is a delightful little corner joint right where the Gallery meets Market East.  I have stopped a few times in the past for one of their abundant and varied fruit salads.  I noticed they had fresh-pressed juices, so I thought maybe I'd give one a try, but as I drew closer, I noticed a smoothie menu.  I shrugged a little to myself, then smiled at the waiting countergirl and ordered the Pink Lady: banana, strawberry, and carrot, blended with ice.

isn't she pretty?

I tried to reserve my judgment a little as I had nothing, really, to which I could compare my pretty pink smoothie, but it was darn good.  There was enough ice to give it texture, and I'm pretty sure they used a frozen banana, too, but it was totally drinkable as well.  I can't deny I was a little bit attracted to the color, especially since I thought the carrot would make it a little more orange...kind of like the Pineapple-Carrot Smoothie I got at Pure Fare on Saturday (the prettiest little Judgment Day there ever was!):

However, lest you believe that was all carrot turning it that amazing shade of orange, I think it was more the orange juice than anything else.  It was a tasty smoothie, profuse with citrus flavor between the OJ and the pineapple.  It was obvious there was carrot, though, as the blender did not completely pulverize it, resulting in the occasional chunk lodging itself in either the straw or my teeth.  Hot, I know - it's a good thing I wasn't trying to charm Kelly with my good looks and graceful smoothie consumption.  It was very thick but there was a certain comfort to be derived from drinking something that was clearly whole fruits and vegetables only moments before.  Kelly sipped on the Detoxifying Green Juice - she had been in a few days earlier and fell in love.  I think I am destined to return and try the Kale-Apple Smoothie and the green juice...and possibly one of the brownies I was assured is vegan!

Finally, when I got my hair touched up a few weeks ago for BIL's wedding, I stopped into Cups & Chairs to pay a long-overdue visit.  I had my detox tea for the first time since I finished Mister's this winter and could have kicked myself for forgetting how refreshing and addicting they are.  While I was waiting, I glanced up at the newly revamped drink menu and noticed something I hadn't seen in the past (probably because it wasn't there): a Matchanana Smoothie.

I correctly assumed it was matcha and bananas, as well as some plain soymilk and ice.  I headed over to Salon Sugar with my detox tea, but returned the following morning for a Matchanana to sip on my way to work.  By the time I made it to the train station, I'd sipped through half of it.  It was okay, but a little strange - first of all, it was way more soymilk than anything else.  Since she used a fresh banana, it didn't really stand out the way the texture of a frozen banana would have.  The matcha added a unique grassy-green flavor, but overall, it was not outstanding.  It was kind of like green milk.  Which doesn't sound that good.  It wasn't bad, but I won't get it again.

I wanted to try a Starbucks (anyone surprised?) Vivanno Smoothie, but the whole focal point is a blend of fiber and whey protein they add to promote energy and satiety.  Considering whey is a milk protein, that kind of went out the window.  I have my smoothie-eyes open wider now, so if I find anything exceptional, I'll report back, but for now, I'm going to sign off and dream of kale-apple smoothies and maybe treat myself to another smoothie from the corner place at Market East tomorrow...if there's time and space after my SBUX run ;)

raising hell (making seitan)

I have this amazing, fail-proof seitan recipe.  Granted, what happens to the seitan after I've baked it has the possibility of all sorts of fail (<-- foreshadowing), but the seitan itself is amazing.  It is a bit time consuming, so I set aside part of what I had hoped would be a slightly more productive afternoon to make a loaf.

First, I gathered all of my ingredients together for a nice little family portrait (and to show how not scary making seitan is):

Sure, it might look like a lot of ingredients, but it's really not that much once you get going.  Plus, if you hop over to A Vegan Riot, there are step by step instructions along with pictures.

First, I put together all of the dry ingredients in my pretty Martha-Stewart-Blue bowl, and combined all the liquid ingredients in my handy-dandy 2-cup measuring cup.  Then I poured the wet into the dry and squished it all together with my hands until it toughened up a bit and started to look like a little taupe brain.

After spraying a piece of foil with olive oil, I squooshed my little brain of seitan into a shape vaguely resembling a rectangle, then wrapped it up tight and put it on a baking tray.  After 75 minutes in the oven and several flips, it came out looking and smelling delicious.

The recipe makes about two pounds, which is fortunate, since there are two recipes on the menu this week which each require one pound of seitan.  Once he'd cooled down to touching temperature, I cut the little bugger in half, wrapped up one half, and cubed the other.

Before that, however, I diced a whole white onion as small as I could.  This next picture makes my blood run cold.

That bowl is actually pretty big.  That is way more onion than I am comfortable with, but I was testing a recipe for Dynise, and she was very specific that she wants the recipes tested exactly as they're written (which makes a great deal of sense, since she's the cookbook author), so I chopped a whole large onion, hoping it would saute down to something I couldn't taste by the end.

I literally grimaced when I emptied that bowl into the waiting skillet.  There are just so many onions.

Fortunately, after an hour of simmering in the broth and sauce, they really did become nearly unrecognizable and although I can taste my own dragonbreath as I sit here, I could not actually taste the onions as I was eating dinner. 

After an hour of simmering/braising, this is what Seitan with Prunes looked like.  I think it looks tasty in a Persian-ethnic kind of way.  Personally, I like the sweet-n-savory combination of some south-middle-eastern cooking (think Persia/Iran and the northern bits of Africa, like Morocco).  Mister...not so much.

I knew this was a risk, but no one else had dared to test this recipe yet and the allure of being the first (possible only) tester for a recipe was too much for me to resist.  I'm in a place where I find myself extremely unfulfilled by my job, so most of my daring feats and feelings of accomplishment occur in my kitchen.  I was pretty sure Mister didn't like prunes, because he generally does not like dried fruit, especially when the drying of the fruit involves a name-change (think grapes --> raisins, folks).  As such, I hid the name of the recipe from him until after he'd taken a bite.  I watched as he tried really hard not to make a face to match the total revulsion he was feeling, then stifled my laughter as he tried to ask "What is this?" as respectfully and expressionlessly as possible. 

In short, as far as Mister was concerned, dinner was a complete failure.  Angst agreed, as he retreated as far away as he could get when I let him sniff my dish.  I didn't think it was that bad, but Mister hated it.  He got about three bites in before going to the fridge for bread while saying that it was just "way way way way Waaaay too sweet."  Even the decent bit of strong broth and way more onions than I'm comfortable with were overpowered by the chopped prunes; the addition of cinnamon and agave nectar did little to assist the savory nature we had both hoped for.  For the first time in nine years, Mister conceded that beef would actually taste better in this dish than the seitan did - he had a point, though.  Beef holds onto its flavor far better than seitan, which by design, takes on the flavor of the things with which you cook it.  If you cook beef with dried fruit, you will taste the sauce, but the flavor of the beef will be uninhibited.  When you cook wheat gluten with something, it tends to absorb that something's flavor...in this case, prune sauce.

Of course, Mister couldn't let go of how revolting he thought the name was and postulated that the name alone was probably what prevented other testers from trying it out.  It's true - there is a certain [unfortunate] word association that occurs when a person says prunes.

Maybe my parents would like the recipe...

I'm going to hide now.

speed shopping and pasta fail

I nearly blew away today.  It is so windy in Philadelphia and its suburbs, it puts me just one level above my usual hatred for wind to a maddening frustration.  Wind is absolutely my least favorite weather.  Wind in conjunction with other things is the Worst Thing Ever; for example, wind + cold rain = misery.  Fortunately, today it was just so windy I thought I might take flight and my hair might become a single, huge dreadlock.  (psst!  for a fun story about me truly almost being swept away by the wind, click here)

I managed to make it to and from teaching without becoming airborne, so I decided to press my luck and go food shopping...since I haven't done that yet and we've been here nearly a week.  Mister was very excited that I was actually going to put food in the refrigerator and cupboards.  In fact, he was so excited that without my knowledge, he decided to join me at Superfresh.  I got home, found that the kitty was quite lonely, and asked him where his Mister was.  A couple of minutes later, Mister burst through the door, exclaiming that he went to Superfresh to "visit" me and I wasn't there.  He's so cute.

I thought this was too funny not to share.

After I put the food into the various places it belonged, I told Mister I was going to try to go to Whole Foods without blowing away, and before I could button my coat, Mister had his coat and shoes on and was ready for a field trip!  Let me pause for a moment and fill you in on the geography of our new home: it is 2 blocks east of our old home...Whole Foods is 5 blocks west of our old home...which means Whole Foods just got further away.  Granted, two blocks isn't a huge deal, but when it's so windy that you want to give up and go home after one block, well, you find yourself scheming about how to get all of your groceries in 10 minutes.  We detoured to Essene and I sent Mister after the pantry items while I picked through the produce.  Miraculously, and to the cashier's delight, we were checking out at closing time.

Now might be a good time to share the menu I constructed on my train ride to and from work today:

1. Vegetable Lentil Stew

2. Radiatore with Escarole and White Beans

3. Salsa Rice and Red Beans

4. Coconut Curry Rice

5. Savory Sausage and Peppers

6. Better-Than-Takeout Tofu Stir-fry

All of these dinners come from Vegan on the Cheap, since the moving out/in process has been a somewhat expensive one between the U-Hauls and the take-out, not to mention our Valentine's date (which was still far less expensive than it would have been at Horizons).

I didn't have the same trouble I usually do in deciding what to make first.  The reason is because I chose Radiatore with Escarole and White Beans specifically because the recipe said I could substitute spinach, which would allow me to use up the rest of last night's bag before it got all slimy and gross.

It came together just as quickly as the recipe implied it would and it sure looks pretty, doesn't it?  I'm not sure if I messed something up along the way or if I just need to get better at seasoning "to taste," (I'm not a big fan of tasting dinner while it's cooking unless it's a sauce or soup), but there really wasn't anything a person could call "sauce."  Mister took note of this and attempted to correct the "naked pasta" by dowsing his with olive oil and sprinkling quite liberally with the Mediterranean Sea Salt blend.  He was a good sport, but if I ever make this again, I will have to do something about the sauce situation - an idea that struck me during dinner was to combine recipes: I have this great recipe by Sarah Kramer for a spicy garlic sauce.  I usually use it for stir-fries or other Asian-influenced noodle dishes, but it might be worth a try here, too.

In other news, we're going to have to do something about the "dining room" light or else I'll have to take all my pictures by the stove. 

father knows best

My dad is a very smart man.  I crack a lot of jokes at his expense, which could cause a person to overlook the genius hiding inside his goofy exterior, but it's true - my dad knows his stuff.

I am a stubborn pain-in-the-a$$.  Although I frequently give the outward appearance of intelligence, I am That Person who needs to learn from her own mistakes.  All my life, people have warned me about things from taking the ease of youth for granted (guilty!) to continuing to pour money into a car that Kelley Blue Book would laugh at (also guilty).  All my life, I have ignored their sage advice, only to turn around when all is said and done and admit my stupidity and attempt to prevent someone just like me from making the same mistakes...and knowing I'll fail.

Many years ago, when my father began his daily commute from the far-flung suburbs of Philadelphia into the heart of the city for his [new, at the time] job, he had the option of having money withheld from his paycheck for a train pass.  He has been blissfully commuting by train since then.  When I started complaining about my long commute to my job and the stress it was putting on my aging car, he suggested I look into taking the train.  I laughed and made excuses about how inconvenient that would be, not to mention expensive...and no, if you're wondering, I didn't listen to the fact that it wasn't that expensive.

When my car died on the side of a highway in early May, my father said, "why don't you get a new car?"  I said, "No, that's stupid and I don't want to spend the money.  Besides, it will run fine after the engine transplant."  When my catalytic converter blew shortly after the engine transplant, he said, "Why don't you just look around a little, see what's out there?"  I said, "No, the CC is still under warranty, so I only have to pay for the other things that are wrong with it."  Maybe my error was that every time my car broke, I went to lunch with my dad while it was at the doctor so we could argue briefly about what he thought I should do and what I thought I should do.

Or maybe my error was not listening to him the first time.  I would be many thousands of dollars closer to my financial goals if I hadn't replaced the engine, catalytic converter, tensioner belt, compressor, side mirror, and a few incidentals over the past few months.  I could have used some of those thousands to buy a new car that wouldn't have caused me so much trouble.  Or, I could have recalled his words of wisdom about the train sooner, because he is absolutely right; it is the best commute ever.  I can't believe I survived so many white-knuckled obstacle courses to work or back, wondering who was going to pull out right in front of my car or run into the back of my car when I stop for stop signs.  I get to walk to the train station, hop on a train and just sit and listen to my music as we speed through the ghetto and out of the city.  It's also far less expensive than owning a car.

So, in honor of my dad, I made a real meat-n-potatoes kind of meal...okay, seitan and potatoes.

Savory Vegetable Cobbler was slightly more labor-intensive than most meals I've made lately, but as you can probably tell, I like to do things the hard way.  In this case, however, the outcome was absolute success.  Even my father would want seconds on this guy - the seitan stands in for chunks of beef, soaking up the gravy along with the carrots, potatoes, and friends.  The topping was a little thicker than Robin probably makes it, but it was the perfect accompaniment to the rich, savory sauce and tender veggies.  Mister and I did quite a number on that dish and I don't think we'll have trouble getting through the leftovers, either.

I have constructed the new week's menu from Vegan on the Cheap as well and although I didn't feel like I saved a ton of money last week, I was very happy with how perceptibly shorter my grocery list is this week.  Here is our new menu:

1. Peanut Noodle Salad

2. Coconut Curry Rice

3. Indian-Spiced Lentil Ragu - because I've been really good lately about not having an Indian dish on the menu every single week.

4. Mexican Rice and Bean Bake

5. Tuscan White Bean Pizza - because Mister loves pizza and I am attracted to anything that begins with a reference to Tuscany.

6. Black Bean Soup with Kale and Rice - this was listed in the Slow-Cooker section of the book.  I don't actually have a slow-cooker, and until I have a larger kitchen, I do not want one.  However, this recipe has kale in it just looked too good to resist, so I'm just going to cook it stovetop and hope it comes out. 

there's always room for F-A-I-L

It's kind of like JELL-O but without the fun and happy (and boiled bones, but we'll leave that off for now).

Despite an ardent desire to stay in my bed this morning when Mister rose for work, I got up and threw on something that at least partially resembled what they call "an outfit."  I did this because the maintenance guy told Mister he would be coming to fix our drainage situation around 10am.  As time ticked by (and I grew more ticked off), I started to wonder whether he meant 10am Eastern, Central, Mountain, or Pacific time...by the time I had to take a washcloth "bath" for the third day in a row so I could go to work, I didn't really care what time zone he was on as long as I came home to a functional bathroom.

That didn't happen and that really tweaked me.  If there is one thing in this world that really gets under my skin, it's incompetence.  How hard is it, really, to be where you say you'll be, when you say you'll be there, doing what you're paid to do?  I do it with relatively little effort 5-6 days each week!

Mister had to call because I didn't think I could be nice.  To my great surprise, Captain Can't-Do-My-Job did find his way here at 8pm, and seemed to feel that his excuses would somehow pardon our still-broken bathroom.

• If you are in my building but not my apartment, you failed.
• If you failed to do your job right the first time, don't look to me for compassion about having to come back to do it.
• When I haven't showered in three days, got up early, and didn't go food shopping because I was expecting you to arrive 10 hours ago, do not anticipate sympathy from me that you had to park 5 blocks away because it's Saturday night and I live near Philadelphia's version of Bourbon Street.

Okay, maybe it's not that bad...all the time.

Anyway, while we waited for Repeatie McDoItAgain to arrive, I ran up to Superfresh to get that leg of food shopping over with, as well as so that we would have something for dinner.  I happen to know from past experiences with the stellar maintenance guys that it would be stupid to hope to go out.  Tomorrow, now that we have a functioning bathroom and can therefore behave like normal people, with all that cleanliness nonsense, I intend to visit the Headhouse FarMar to see if it's any better on Sundays than it was two Saturdays ago, then (if it sucks) the Italian Market for garlic and cherries at least, and finally (if it doesn't suck) Whole Foods to complete my list.  And then, I'll be able to make...

1. Chickpeas Romesco on Saffron-Garlic Rice, both from Veganomicon.  I must admit, I'm a little nervous about using saffron again, but I'm hoping the garlic will keep it's floral scent in check...or it will be the most nauseating smell ever.  I'm not hoping for that.

2. Pasta Della California, also from Veganomicon.  I feel like I've been quite adventurous enough lately and need to remember it is okay to repeat dishes more than once a year.

3. BBQ Pomegranate Tofu on Coconut Rice, both from Vegan With A Vengeance.  Just because it's soooo good.

4. Jerk Seitan on the leftover rice, from VwaV.  I'm working my way into a pattern here.  I use up the extra Coconut Rice with this recipe, and then (you should know this is coming), I use up the extra Pomegranate BBQ sauce (best thing ever) with....

5. BBQ-Flavored White Beans with Sausage and Spinach from Vegan Express.  Someday, I will find another recipe that calls for that 1 cup of leftover BBQ sauce, but until that sad day, I will continue to make this recipe within one week of making the BBQ Tofu.

6. Broccoli Pasta with Savory Sauce, recipe here.  That was dinner tonight.

Now that the bathroom works, maybe we'll focus on the kitchen light.  Again.  Even though my heart stops beating every time Mister has to climb up and change it (roughly monthly).

I mentioned when I made this dish originally that I wanted to tweak the sauce a little.  To compare with the recipe you can link to above, this time I used 16 oz V8 Spicy Hot instead of tomato sauce, compensating for the thickness by making a slurry of 1 Tbsp cornstarch dissolved in an equal amount of room temperature water.  I still did not add the harissa because I wanted to see how Spicy Hot the V8  made the sauce without harissa's help (not very).  I increased the PB to 1/4 cup, the tamari/soy sauce to 2 Tbsp, as well as the red wine vinegar to a full teaspoon.  It still needs a little something, but it's getting there!

would you like some seeds with that?

A little while back, I was singing the praises of Wawa. Wawa, for those of you who do not live in Pennsylvania, Delaware, parts of New Jersey, and possibly the most northeast part of Maryland, is a convenience store. It is actually a very popular convenience store in these parts, because it is generally much, much better than the best 7-11 or other such establishments. I would like to take a moment to share a list of all the awesome things about Wawa:

• there are normally at least 3 within a five-minute drive from anywhere
• they have really awesome coffee and an impressive selection of flavored non-dairy creamers
• they have a milkshake blender (I've never used it, but I've watched children and I think it must be the coolest thing in their day)
  
• they have "healthy" food, in the form of Luna bars and other such nonsense
• some locations have very low-priced but high-quality gas
• there is an impressive selection of hot food, even if most of it contains meat
• the Wawa where I went to college also carried individual-sized Pizza Hut pizzas
• they are open 24 hours
• their frozen cappuccinos are the only blended coffee drink (including Starbucks) that doesn't make me sick to my stomach
• they have a make-your-own sandwich bar (well, you choose your selections from a touchscreen computer and then a washed and gloved employee makes your sandwich)
• they have amazing soft pretzels (another big deal in the Philadelphia area)
• there is a truly impressive array of fresh prepared foods, such as wraps, hoagies, salads, fruit cups (I got sliced mango yesterday, but there's also grapes, sliced apples, and mixes), whole fruits, "protein platters" made up of an appropriately portioned multi-grain bagel, natural PB, a hardboiled egg, and a packet of almonds. The list goes on, but those are the things that stand out

Anyway, not too long ago, I extolled the virtues of my favorite Wawa feature: the build-a-salad feature. I fell in love at first bite with salads so magnificently constructed that they don't need dressing. They are also the perfect fit for my mid-winter fresh-raw cravings (I must be orthorexic!), which have officially begun, at almost exactly the same time as last year. Unfortunately, they were either a "limited time offer" or they were not as popular with everyone else. I went to a Wawa for lunch the other day and was utterly disappointed to find they did not have salads on their touchscreen order boxes, so I picked up a ready-to-go salad. It was just slightly better than awful - primarily the white, nutritionally useless parts of iceberg lettuce, some dried out "shredded" carrots, fair cherry tomatoes, "meh" diced bell peppers, and sorry looking chickpeas. There was also a terrifying sliced hardboiled egg that I removed upon opening it. Although this is how Wawa wants to represent it, it looked nothing like this:
It is the only prepared salad, though, that doesn't have meat on it. I don't understand the need to add meat to salad. Different strokes...

So, silly me, since I had never been to that particular Wawa before, I thought they just weren't offering that option. Yesterday, I had a hankering for a salad that wouldn't infect me with Swine Flu, so I went to my tried-and-true Wawa to get me a made-to-my-specifications salad. I was profoundly disappointed to find that the option had disappeared from the menu...no matter how many times I walked away from the touchscreen and came back (three times - the staff must have thought I was insane), so I grabbed the same garden salad from the prepared foods island and headed back to work.

If it's possible, this one was even more of a salad failure than the first one! I figure that to dice the bell peppers, they must have just thrown a whole one into a blender or something because I can't figure out how else there would be a 3:1 seed to pepper piece ratio. To put this in other words, my love affair with Wawa has been tainted.


Tonight, I made Curried Udon Noodle Stir-Fry from Veganomicon. I know I've made it before, but I'm too lazy to dig through my posts to find the link. It's fun making the curry roux, and it comes together faster and easier than most rouxes (?) I've made. It's a good dish and I enjoy the taste and texture of udon noodles, but the sauce needs just a little something more. I'm thinking "soy sauce" is that something, because this is my issue: the curry powder smells so good when it's cooking, but then it's somewhat bland when you taste it...it must need some kind of salty agent to enhance the flavors present in the scents.

Finally, since we went out for Valentine's day on Tuesday and had leftovers the night I was too pissy to cook (Monday?) this week's menu includes a few of last week's leftovers:

1. French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme from Veganomicon

2. Red Lentil Artichoke Stew from The Vegan Table

3. Potato Corn Chowder from The Accidental Vegan. I really pondered this one for a few minutes because I feel like it makes the week soup-heavy again. I decided to go ahead when I realized that soup season will actually end in a couple of months and remembered how good and thick and hearty this soup is.

4. Lo Mein also from The Accidental Vegan. Veggie Lo Mein was one of the first things I learned how to cook when I became a vegetarian and it was really ad hoc. This is the first time I've actually bothered with a recipe, so we'll see how that comes out.

5. Kedgeree also from The Accidental Vegan. This is actually a very common middle-eastern dish of brown rice and lentils (a complete protein) with herbs and spices. I haven't been a fan of it as a main dish because there are no vegetables involved, unless you count the herbs - I don't. With this recipe, Devra apparently feels my pain, because she has included dark leafy greens (kale, my new love), carrots, and...fungus. Mister, as I've mentioned, is not a fan of mushrooms. I solicited advice from some friends on a substitute that would incorporate the earthiness and meatiness of the mushrooms and the suggestion I fell in love with was olives. Brilliant!

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.