imaginary chili

I never ate chili until I stopped eating animals.

To be honest, I'm not sure I've ever eaten chili I didn't make.  Fortunately, there is no shortage of vegan chili recipes - I'm pretty sure I have over 20 among my various cookbooks and I've made at least half of them.  Our reigning favorite continues to be a Sarah Kramer recipe, which isn't surprising considering her husband approaches recipe taste-testing with trepidation, telling her that he gets nervous because he thinks she got it right the first time and will never make a better recipe than her original.

Mister has no problem favoring one of her later chili recipes... or her Shepherd's Pie recipe.... or one of the few recipes where he will actually isolate the spice-coated tofu and eat it without other things to distract him.  Let's just say Sarah's a favorite around here.

Nevertheless, in the spirit of my newfound poverty and desire to use all the extra time I just got in place of a paycheck, I have created my first (and possibly last) chili recipe.  It was fine, but I just couldn't be confident about it with so many great recipes jeering from the cookbook shelf, waiting for me to fail.  Mister supported my effort, encouraging me when I said I was just going to put a bunch of stuff in a pot and see what happened, saying "That's how chili works!"

Mister liked it at least enough for 2 bowls, so my made-up-as-I-went-along chili couldn't have been bad!

Imaginary Chili
6 servings

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, pressed/minced
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 generous tsp salt
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
2 small green bell peppers, diced
3-4 small carrots, sliced
1 small zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced
1 1/2 cups corn
15 oz beans (I used pinto, you could use black beans if you wanted)
1 and 1/2 Tofurky Italian Sausages, quartered lengthwise and sliced.  Or dice them, whatever.
28 oz diced tomatoes
12 oz crushed tomatoes

Heat the olive oil over medium-low, then add green peppers and garlic.  Stir well and allow to saute for about 10 minutes - lower the heat to low if necessary to prevent burning and stir occasionally.  While the peppers and garlic saute, slice your carrots and zucchini and measure out your corn.  If you have some leftover time, you could even rinse your beans!

After 10 minutes, add carrots and zucchini, stir well and cover.  Saute 5-7 minutes until you can see the zucchini beginning to "wilt."  Sprinkle on the chili powder, salt, and paprika, then stir well so that all of the vegetables are coated.  Add the diced and crushed tomatoes, beans, corn, and tofurky sausage.  Stir very well to ensure everything is mixed up, including distributing the spices, then cover.

Allow chili to simmer covered for 10 minutes, stirring once or twice.  Sprinkle in the vinegar, stir again, then cover again, lower the heat to the lowest setting and allow to simmer another 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve with cornbread or tortilla chips.  Enjoy!

there was a little girl

There was a little girl,

Who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good,

She was very good indeed,

But when she was bad she was horrid.

That poem, composed by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow while trying to quiet a daughter for sleep, is a perfect narrative for my relationship with Trader Joe's.  Well, the Trader Joe's in Philadelphia, anyway.

I love Trader Joe's for a few reasons.  First (and possibly most importantly), they have an amazing 10-grain bread that makes amazing toast (it gets all crispy and chewy in the best possible way) and even Mister likes it.  I bought the multigrain bread at Whole Foods for years before he told me he didn't like it.  Second, and also important, is that I usually save a ton of money buying produce there, rather than Whole Foods.  Let's compare: $0.69 for a red bell pepper (when they're in season) versus $4.99/lb (meaning the average pepper is over $2).  $0.39 for a potato versus the seeming bargain of $1.99/lb.  You get the idea.  Finally, they have the most palatably store-brand soymilk.

So what's horrid?  Ever trying to shop quickly.  Which can be important to me.  Also, ever trying to shop between 5 and 6 pm.  It doesn't matter if it's a weekday or a weekend - trying to shop at that hour is maddening.  The lines literally run halfway down every aisle and I'll be in line longer than it takes to shop.  Also, since their low prices do rely on seasonal produce, they don't always have stock of what I want, where I know Whole Foods almost always will (even if it's $8 asparagus).  This is not a bad thing, per se, but when it's already inconvenient to go there (on the other side of town completely), I want to get as much as I can to make it worth the effort.

One thing they're hit and miss on is arugula.  This week, it was a miss, so I ended up with fresh baby spinach, even though I have two bags of frozen spinach in my freezer.  Why the hunt for arugula?

Pasta Della California from Veganomicon had cried out to be made one last time before I do a snow dance and hunker down with a wintery menu of stews and chilis and other impossibly hearty things to be cooked slowly and to warm my innards from head to toe (or... at least my belly).

When Mister and I were shopping at Superfresh last week, I saw a surprising thing for December - a sale on Haas Avocados!  So I gently poked a few, trying to find a ripe one.... then took one that looked a good size and let it ripen on my counter the last few days.  It is so rare to find avocados for less than a dollar here in Philadelphia (not exactly prime avocado-growing climate), I couldn't resist the urge for a flavor and texture that always brings me happy memories.

Failing to find arugula, I opted for a slightly easier-to-eat green and honestly, I may always make it this way now - it was really good with the baby spinach and its silkier texture.  It seemed a better match for the nice squishy, creamy avocado.  The arugula provides a bitter foil for that creaminess and it works, but this was so good even Mister commented on the flavor.

So, with this last delightful dish (before I continue pressuring my friend to go to El Vez for their unbelievable guacamole and delicious margaritas via facebook chat), I bid farewell to the last gasp of warm days in December and look forward to some snowy weather....

autumn minestrone = awesome sauce

This is truly one of my favorite times of year.  I love each "first" of fall - the first cool day, the first time you pull on a long-neglected jacket, the first scarf draped loosely around your neck.  I love the first nip in the air and the first time it is truly justified and not just paranoia to button/zip up your jacket and maybe hunch up a little against the wind.

I love the smells - the crisp scent of firewood set ablaze in someone's cozy fireplace, the smoke wafting from their chimney and filling the air with an unmistakably autumnal feel and smell; the first emergence of cinnamon brooms and pine cones in the supermarkets, and the syrupy aroma of freshly baked apple cobbler in your own kitchen.

Yours.  Not mine.  I'm not baking until Wednesday at the earliest.  But you can share your smushy, cinnamon-y, warm apple-y cobblerness with me if you'd like.

Today was the first day the sunlit temperatures couldn't find their way out of the 50s, which meant it was also the first day we didn't have the a/c on at work, which meant it was the first day I was actually warm.  Regardless, the walk home was all the chilliness I needed to be perfectly provoked to make Autumn Minestrone from the Moosewood Restaurant Soups & Stews Deck.

To a soundtrack of Apoptygma Berzerk, I lovingly made the broth myself last night, following a recipe from the same deck for Garlic Broth.  Believe me, anything involving 3 heads of garlic is okay in my book.  I expected the resulting soup to be a bit brothier, since it called for 6 cups of the broth I painstakingly simmered while playing on facebook,  but I guess I underestimated the sheer volume of veggies that would be going into it.  Believe me - I'm not complaining about the veggies.  Every time I eat something this full of veggies, especially lovely, dark green, Tuscan kale and Vitamin C-rich cauliflower, I can just about feel the health flowing into me.

I could use a little boost right now.  But hey, when I can breath without tightness in my chest, I'll appreciate breathing all the more, right?  This is just another opportunity for gratitude.

Nevertheless, I did anticipate the soup would be, well....soupier, so I asked Mister to pick up special rustic Italian bread for us to dip in the broth and make our soup dinner a little more substantial.  Turns out I needn't have worried, but the seeded spelt bread he picked up was still a delightful addition to our light Mediterranean feast, which I topped off with a generous bowl of mixed olives.

One final thing of note, merely because I'm making such a concerted effort to improvise more: somehow, in a moment of brain malfunction, I used up the zucchini I meant to add to this soup.  After a thorough interrogation of the cat, I remembered what I had done with the zucchini and moved on to being grateful I was too lazy to make the roasted cauliflower appetizer I had intended for a few nights ago (when I used up the zucchini without realizing), so I subbed the cauliflower for the squash.  Mister loves cauliflower and merely tolerates zucchini because it's a part of so many recipes there would be nothing left for me to cook if he outlawed that ingredient, too (along with eggplant, mushrooms, tempeh, quinoa, and "squishy wheat").  Mister and I agreed, though, that this soup was far better completed by the cauliflower than it would have been with zucchini.  The texture it leant was perfect, as was the subtle flavor and the barely perceptible way it soaked up the garlic broth.

squiggly pasta and other favorites

So, Friday finally marks the official start to my favorite season.  I get excited about the Autumnal Equinox the way most people get excited about Memorial Day marking the inaugural beach weekend.  For me, the First Day of Fall marks the end of the hot, sunny season that makes my husband sneeze and sweat and makes me squint too much.  More importantly, it reminds me that other favorites are just on the horizon - my favorite month (October), my favorite time of year (between Thanksgiving and Christmas), my favorite weather - cool, dry, a little bit of a nip on your nose by the time October bleeds into November...that first time a starkly cold breeze whips your breath away or colors your cheeks with the slightest crimson.

I put my husband in charge of determining how we would celebrate the arrival of Fall (it's his favorite time as well) and upon conferring, we came to a mutually agreeable decision - we planned to go to Linvilla Orchards, a little outside the city.  They have baskets upon baskets of freshly plucked apples of many varieties we don't commonly see in Whole Foods or Essene.  There are apple cider donuts, dozens of different pies, and of course, apple cider and coffee.  This year, Mister has his heart set on funnel cake with gooey cinnamon apples piled on top.  There is also plenty of lovely land upon which to wander and enjoy each other.  We went to Linvilla to celebrate our first wedding anniversary (and left with every imaginable apple product that you don't have to plug in).

Fast forward to the weather forecast.... of all the days this week, the day it's supposed to pour and be absolutely miserable?  No, you don't get a prize if you guessed Friday - it was kind of a "gimme."

So, new plans?  Baking.  Probably lots of it, too.  What this is all leading up to is that there is just no way I will have the energy to care about making good spanakopita until Friday, when I've sat inside all day watching P!nk videos on YouTube and trying to decide whether to bake cookies or cupcakes or both.  Instead of spanakopita, tonight I made Pasta Twists with Cauliflower and Spinach from Vegan Express.

Let's see - pasta, cauliflower, garlic, kalamata olives (subbing for sundried tomatoes, about which Mister can sometimes be a bit wary), and spinach... yup, lots of favorites in there.  I will almost definitely make this again - it was easy and tasty.  There are, however, a few things I will do differently in the future.

Since there is no "sauce" to speak of, there needs to be something else lending flavor.  Cauliflower is not the most exciting vegetable (especially after you slightly over-steam it...sorry, Mister) and spinach is good, but again, not a hugely flavorful vegetable.  The only real flavor came from the kalamatas and the dried cranberries (subbed for raisins, which Mister hates more than I thought possible), and unfortunately, they didn't play together all that nicely.  In the future, I'll steam the vegetables with broth, not water, and I will be a bit more generous in my sprinkling of Mediterranean Sea Salt.  I may also involve a flavorful finishing oil, like a fruity olive oil or possibly walnut oil with the slightest drizzle of dark sesame oil.

As you may be able to see, there is a round of garlic bread peeking in on the pasta...

Mister was kind enough to go to Superfresh for me while I was at work today (second time!), and when I got home, he explained that there was a sale on the big round kaiser rolls I asked him to pick up for sloppy joes, so he got 12 instead of 6.  I know he'll use some for sandwiches, but 12 is a lot of rolls when they're the kind that are freshly baked and without preservatives, so they'll go bad before Monday.  Remember - no kids - it's just me and Mister.  So, I figured two of them could turn into garlic bread to accompany our meal.

Well!  It's still early, which is one of the many things I love about my new job, so I've been able to devote a few hours a night to redeveloping myself into an intelligent and well-rounded human being.  Let's compare:

Old Job:

• get home around 9pm
• hurry to get dinner on the table between 9:30 and 10
• eat
• clean up
• screw around on Facebook for a few minutes and probably drink a glass of wine depending on the day
• Go to sleep (and still only get 4-6 hours a night)

New Job:

• get done work around 6:30 or 7, depending on the day
• stop at Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Superfresh or anywhere else on the way home
• take my time saying hello to Mister and telling him a little about my day, maybe lying down for a couple of minutes before starting dinner.
• Dinner is on the table and we're eating between 8 and 9pm
• By 10, the dishes are done, the leftovers are put away, and I'm blogging (sometimes).
• Now, I will spend a little time doing work homework (that I'm happy to do because I like what I'm learning and know that extracurricular work will help me to succeed at a growing company that is willing to take a chance and invest itself in me)
• Then I will continue reading my silly Anne Rice book for my own adolescent pleasure,
• then bedtime with 6-8 hours of sleep.

Cheers!

try new meals, but keep the old

One is silver and the other, gold.


Oh, no, wait a second - that's friends.  Make new friends, but keep the old... Was anyone else a Girl Scout? In case you can't tell, I was.  I did the cute little Brownies thing and then felt very mature when I progressed to a green uniform...until I realized two things:

1. The only thing you need to do to enhance your "rank" in Girl Scouts is get older.  Not die.  That may help some people achieve great things, but I need a little more incentive.
2. Only dorks are Girl Scouts after Elementary School.  Sorry if I just offended any life-long Woman Scouts out there (I guess that's the rank we'd be at by now, right?), but that's how it was where I grew up.  It might be different elsewhere.

Anyway, the point of using that little ditty is that I didn't make the new meal on the old menu for dinner tonight.  I made the old meal on the new menu.  Follow?  No?  Okay, I'll break it down - The only thing left on my old menu was Ginger Bok Choy and Soba, which is a new recipe, since I don't think I've made it before (to my elderly recollection).  I'm having a little trouble rounding up the enthusiasm to make it, though, especially since napa cabbage will be subbing for the ever-elusive bok choy.  So, instead, I made an old favorite from my new menu, Punjabi Peppers and Tofu.

I've made this at least a dozen times before, so I'm not going to rave about how easy it is to make or how incredibly tasty the tofu is, but I'll show you...

After the tofu had a little quality time with the oil and skillet, I piled in the chopped red and green peppers for a short saute while I chopped the tomato and assembled the spices.

Does it get easier than this?  Yes.  I needed exactly one teaspoon of each of those things.  One measuring spoon makes everything easier.

Here it is, coated with that delightful spice mixture and sauteed to juicy perfection.  Mister and I noticed, between this and whatever thing I made with tofu last week that Trader Joe's tofu is much sturdier than Whole Foods.  It's denser and therefore chewier, which makes Mister happy since he could still probably live his life happily without his crazy wife making tofu a part of his regular diet.

I guess I could fill you in on the rest of the new menu, couldn't I?

1. Ginger Bok Choy and Soba from Appetite for Reduction.  Yes...it's still on the menu.  Honestly, I would have made it tonight, but Mister said "no pasta" because he had leftover Broccoli con Pasta (from last night) for lunch today and felt that would be overkill, and I really want him to perceive soba noodles as pasta.

2. Garlicky Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes and Basil.  I have no idea where I got this recipe but it's killer and it's tomato season here in Pennsylvania.  Also, I'm amazed I haven't yet killed the hydroponic basil plant my mom gave me a couple of months ago, but it's really not looking that great, so I plan to use up the healthy-looking leaves that are left on it and then try again with a new plant.  I think soil might be important next time.

3. Blessed Broccoli and Tofu Stir-Fry from La Dolce Vegan, as are the rest of these recipes.  It's been a little while since I've gone into this book and I do enjoy cooking from just one cookbook sometimes, since I can just leave it there on the counter until tomorrow night.

4. Vegetable Biryani because I recommended this to a friend via Twitter and now I want some.  And because it is super-simple and extremely tasty for how little effort goes into it.  If I have some downtime coming, maybe I'll go back to the original and spend a few hours making an "authentic" biryani.  We'll see.

5. Tasty Tempeh TVP Chili, even though this is usually a cold-weather food, I found myself craving a nice, hearty chili.  It could be because Percy Street BBQ, owned by one of our celeb chefs, just won "Best Pie" in the Best of Philly issue of Philadelphia magazine and in addition to all the grilled animal bits, they also have a vegan chili.  In any case, hold the alarms - I got the chips.

grocery shopping on saturday night

It's the thing to do.  It'll make you feel good.  All the cool kids are doing it.  Or, well, nothing quite says "party animal" like going grocery shopping on a Saturday night.  I'd say I'm a total loser, but working six days a week and not getting home until 9PM on five of them tends to make the food shopping schedule a little bizarre.  Besides, since everyone else is already at the bar, restaurant, dance club, or strip club, I don't have to dodge as many people as I do on say, Sunday afternoon.

I only did one "leg" of my shopping adventures.  I really just wanted to get enough food to make one of the recipes on my new menu, so I went to Superfresh and got a head start on about a third of my list.  My menu is short but my shopping list is relatively long.  The main reason for this is my desire to stock the shelves, fridge, and freezer with enough appetizing and affordable food that Mister won't eat pizza every single time he's hungry while I'm in California.

That's right.  I'm going back to California on Friday, for my first ever Sister-Vacation.

We've gone on plenty of vacations together, obviously.  I mean, we did live together growing up and all, so if my parents decided to go on vacation, they usually took us both with them.  However, we've never done more on our own than just hang out for a day at the mall or go out for dinner and drinks.  I've visited her at college and stayed with her when she graduated, but we've never actually gone somewhere together.

We're off to San Francisco and I am stoked.  I'm reading and re-reading my VegNews magazines for ideas of where to go and what to do.  Sometime in the next couple of days, I will make our reservation to dine at Millennium, a fine-dining vegan restaurant I've heard plenty about but never been to.  Very excited for that.  The other thing I am absolutely the most excited for (besides spending plenty of time with my sister) is our trip to Cinnaholic.  I want to drool just thinking of it.  Mountains of vegan cinnamon buns waiting to be turned into your own personal cinna-bundae (clever, yes?) with custom icings and toppings.  It might be fruitful to walk back to San Fran after that...

It seems so long ago this was just a little, crazy idea hatched through text messages and now it's nearly here!  I'm sure I'll ramble a little bit about the trip every day between now and Thursday, and then possibly go missing for a few days, then come back with a massive picture parade post, so let's move on to my mini-menu to carry us through until Mister gorges himself on pizza and sandwiches and I eat, drink, and breathe in everything I can on the West Coast.

1. Mexican Rice and Bean Bake from Vegan on the Cheap.  I was going to make the Salsa Rice and Beans, but I continually and unfortunately neglect this tasty recipe in its favor almost every time, so I decided to mix it up a bit.  It's not like I'm actually going to try baking the brown rice.  Can you hear me laughing from wherever you are?

2. Better Bean Burgers also from Vegan on the Cheap.  I was actually intending to make these tonight, but Superfresh was hiding the cheap black beans, so I will have to wait until I see the prices at Whole Foods tomorrow.

3. Pasta Shells with Black-Eyed Peas from The Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook.  I was poking through some old posts and I came across the first time I made this, so I decided it was time to repeat.

4. Pasta Primavera with Fresh Veggies and Herbs from The Vegan Table.  Talk about a cookbook I've been neglecting!  I nearly had to blow the dust off of it!  Anyway, I wanted to make the last meal I cook this week to be something very big with lots of leftovers (for obvious reasons, I would assume) but more importantly, leftovers Mister would find attractive.  I remember this making a huge yield, so I specifically sought out the cookbook for this recipe.  Regardless, when I return from Cali, I'll have to devote a whole week to this book because I'd forgotten how many great recipes there are in there.

5. Chickpea Stew with Fried Polenta from The Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook.  As I was making this for dinner tonight, I found myself reflecting on how this is truly one of my favorite recipes.  Because I've grown to love cooking so much and since I'm continually trying new recipes I find myself hesitant to declare "favorites" the way I imagine a mother avoids and appearance of liking one child more than another.  Realizing, however, that food does not have feelings, I would like to let you in on a personal secret:

I love this one the most.

welcome, Spring - you're only a month late

If I could figure out how to take a screenshot on my Mac, I would show you the weather forecast for Philadelphia this week - in the 70s all week.  Granted, tomorrow has a red outline and a warning to expect severe weather, but they've been calling for rain all week and I haven't seen a single raindrop.

Now that I've said that, you can expect a photo tomorrow night of the huge bruise I'm going to get when a golfball-sized piece of hail hits me in the forehead.

For now, though, you can see photos of our delightful spring dinners!  I have been at least halfway fortunate this week - I have worked earlier than usual yesterday and today, meaning I get home earlier than usual, so I've had a little more time to cook.  It also means I've been able to enjoy a few minutes of sunlight on my walk home from the train.  So with all my "extra" time (more like "different," since I've had to retire earlier as well to ensure adequate sleep), last night I made Cajun Red Beans and Rice from The Accidental Vegan, and was able to use "better for me" brown rice since I could let it cook longer.

I'm having kind of a huge ton of fun with my new measuring bowls.  I didn't actually need to measure a cup of diced green pepper, but I used the bowl to hold it while I was prepping other ingredients and I thought it looked pretty enough to share.

Unlike the Battle of Pasta Fagiolis, I don't think I will ever find a beans-n-rice recipe to knock this baby of her throne.  The combination of ingredients is nearly perfect: the savory and toothsome Tofurky Kielbasa, the smooth and creamy kidney beans with their gorgeous garnet hue, the crunch of lightly sauteed green peppers that most certainly taste "green."  I was reflecting on the amount of rice in the recipe, though, on my way to work - there is even more time to ruminate on pointless quandaries now that I don't have to pay attention to exits and traffic lights. 

After piling his second helping into his bowl, Mister went to the fridge and returned with a slice of bread.  Almost every time he does that, it means he perceives an absence in the carb department of the meal.  He was not completely off this time, either - the recipe calls for 1.5 cups of cooked rice, but that really spreads the rice thin, as though it's just kind of a decoration on the beans and tofurky.  In the future, I think I'll double the rice and see if that's sufficient for Mister's grain-appetite.

Tonight, I was home even earlier and therefore had even more time to play in my kitchen.  I had originally intended to make a quick-cooking meal tonight, but when I saw how much time I had, coupled with the surprising amount of energy I maintained after working a whole shift that started so early that I actually got on the train about the same time I usually get in the shower, I decided to make Spring Vegetable Curry, also from The Accidental Vegan.

DIY Curry spice mixture, clockwise starting at the top: cumin, cardamom, turmeric, coriander, and sea salt.  After I carefully mixed them all together into a fairly homogenous powder, I made a little well in the middle to hold the garlic and ginger.

Once the spices had a minute or two to cook and then garlic and ginger had softened slightly, I added my mountain of vegetables (the actual cooktime -apart from the rice- is only about 15 minutes; the rest is prep, lots and lots of prep): big, thick stalks of asparagus, a red bell pepper, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, and red chard.

By the way - did you know that 2 cups of red chard has 25 calories and 1 gram of protein?  Yeah, I didn't either until I read the nutritional label.  That's right - wrapped around the bottom of the bunch was a little piece of cardboard that contained the nutritional facts on a bunch of greens.  I don't know if that shows progress for our country or if I should mourn for abused paper.

Regardless, the curry was outstanding.  I'd never actually made this recipe before.  When I make curries, they are generally of the "warm you from the inside out" kind of curries, made up of generally hearty vegetables and beans (chickpeas).  This was definitely a lighter curry and I have 2/3 left of the 6oz can of coconut milk to prove it.  Now I'm trying to scheme how to get Mister to use it in his coffee.

rain in december

It just seems like that shouldn't happen.  Not in Pennsylvania, anyway.  It's been relatively overcast for a couple of days and yesterday we had a few moments of snow-globe weather that we paused a meeting at work to observe.  Tonight, streetlamps and traffic signals are reflected on the slick city streets.  I'll admit, I'm grateful they are reflecting on wet roads and not ice-coated roads, but there is something more depressing about December rain than rain in any other month (except possibly February).

Additionally, it seriously interferes with my weekend ritual of food shopping.  That is the one advantage I'll grant to suburb-dwellers - grocery shopping in the rain isn't that big a deal because you shop inside and are only outside long enough to move your groceries from your cart to your car before returning home in an enclosed, heated box.  I, on the other hand, walk to the store and walk home and I have to say - it's not easy to carry groceries and an umbrella.  I got the first leg of my shopping in before the rain but I'm a little leery about what tomorrow brings (according to weather.com, it brings nothing but more rain, but there must be a break in the clouds sometime).

Even though I didn't have my usual hectic schedule today, I still taught my lessons, which is becoming more time and effort consuming with the recent addition of two bright young ladies, so I didn't get a chance to relax.  Tomorrow morning is definitely for lounging, especially if it's going to be raining and gloomy, so I'm already plotting a luxurious breakfast (we'll see if it actually happens).  The point of all this blithering nonsense is that I got home from teaching around 7ish with exactly no motivation to make a pastry crust, find space to roll it out, and then take all the other necessary steps to make Samosa Pie.

Fortunately, Dragani and I put together a handsome menu last night and one of the options could be constructed solely from food I buy at Superfresh, so tonight's dinner was the perfectly hearty, homey, and savory Chickpea Stew with Fried Polenta from Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook.

I can't say it enough: I love this meal.  It is so easy to make that I probably should have saved it for a night I'm feeling more braindead, but I guess you could say I'm still recovering from the week.  It combines nearly all of my favorite things: polenta, blended sauces, savory garlicky-tomato goodness.  How could I go wrong?

As you've probably observed, I branched out for this week's menu, consulting more cookbooks than the one I've been using for three weeks straight.  We still don't have any money, but I had a few recipes on my mind that I really wanted to make and this week I am more interested in quick-cooking meals than inexpensive ones.  As a result, I spent twice as much at Superfresh as I spent on all of my groceries a couple of weeks ago, but I think Mister was about to cry for lack of frozen pizza anyway.

1. Samosa Pie from Vegan on the Cheap will be tomorrow night's dinner.  Tomorrow will probably be a lazy, inside-chore day (yay for laundry and the Christmas tree!), so I'll have plenty of time to make the crust during the afternoon hours. There might even be time (and energy) for cookies!

2. Jerk Seitan on Coconut Rice from Vegan With a Vengeance.  I got a huge craving for this when I made the Island Rice Casserole last week, so now, I'm going to fulfill my own fantasy.

3. Warm Chickpea Ragout with Swiss Chard, Carrots, and Harissa from Vegetarian Times: Fast and Easy because nothing warms you up inside quite like a burning tongue and lips.  Look how diverse I was this week - three meals, three cookbooks!

4. Chili and Polenta Casserole also from Vegetarian Times: Fast and Easy.  Once again, a meeting of all things beloved by me and the Mister: chili, polenta, and [ta da!] something I can prepare tomorrow and stick in the fridge for a couple of days before we eat it, a convenience that will come in darn handy by mid-week, I'm sure.

5. Potato Corn Chowder from The Accidental Vegan.  I couldn't tell you exactly what caused me to crave this, but this was another recipe I specifically hunted through this book to find.  I just seem to recall loving it more every time I made it, so it's kind of like comfort food.

6. Cajun Red Beans and Rice also from The Accidental Vegan.  Speaking of comfort food...as long as I had the book out, I flipped through looking for a final fast and easy meal and found this - I may be a vegan cliche, but this is my favorite rice-n-beans recipe.  Speaking of vegan cliches, how's this one for you: as I was riding the train to the southwest suburbs today, the train stopped to pick up passengers in University City (imagine that).  As I sat against my window, I noticed a little weed garden full of long, green leaves and thought to myself, "I wonder what those taste like.  Someone should gather those for cooking."  Then I realized they were probably skunk cabbage.

PS: I still haven't slept, so it's still Saturday.   ;P