fizzy lifting drink

Commoners might call it Champagne or Sparkling Wine.  I can't get over how delightfully the little bubbles race to the top of the glass, awaiting their turn to melt on my tongue like a little sparkly snowflake.

Sometimes you need a little lift.  Today was definitely one of those days for me:
"Champagne?" you say, "What are you celebrating?"
"I survived work today."

I won't bore you with the details of me burning off my Champagne calories in advance by dashing hither and yon throughout the building, making my best attempt to produce myself in triplicate.  It's not easy, you know, trying to simultaneously be in two trainings on different topics in different rooms, while also compiling data for one's own small part in another person's project.  Nevermind that an update to our website caused it to explode and vomit false pricing information at our sales agents.  Nevermind that all their supervisors had quite enough cleaning up to do to have a spare minute to help me.  Just focus on the sheer impossibility of any one person trying to be three places at exactly the same time.

Yes.  Champagne.  Fortunately, I happen to have some since one of my dinner recipes lists it as an ingredient.  Excellent excuse for stocking the bubbly, wouldn't you say?

Despite my Ode to Tiny Bubbles, I did not make the braised bok choy tonight (almost, but it definitely required the energy I left at work to use tomorrow).  Instead, I made the easiest recipe on the menu: Savory Spinach on Chamomile Couscous.  Although, I suppose if you chilled and carbonated it, the chamomile could probably resemble a mellow Asti.  Anyway....

Chamomile Couscous with Savory Spinach
serves 6

Ingredients:
a little more than 2 cups water
2 chamomile tea bags
1.5 cups plain couscous (one box of Near East brand couscous)
1 tsp agave nectar
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp yellow mustard seeds
1 Tbsp garam masala*
2 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
1/2 tsp salt
28 oz (petite) diced tomatoes
15 oz chickpeas, rinsed and drained
9 oz fresh baby spinach

Boil the water, then place the two tea bags in the pot, lower heat to a slow simmer, and cover - allow to steep at least 5 minutes. Remove tea bags, stir in agave until dissolved, then add couscous. Cover, remove from heat, and allow to sit for at least 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a deep pot. Add the mustard seeds and cover. When mustard seeds begin to dance, add garlic and sprinkle in the garam masala.  Allow to saute about one minute and then stir in the undrained tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then lower heat, stir in chickpeas and salt and simmer a few minutes. Add about 1/3 of the bag of spinach, cover to steam 1-2 minutes, then stir into tomatoes and chickpeas to wilt. Repeat with second 1/3 and final 1/3. If your cat enjoys spinach, share some with him (or her) before you destroy it all in your dinner. Once all spinach is added and has wilted, uncover and allow to simmer about 5 minutes.

Fluff couscous. Serve spinach mixture over a fluffy white cloud of couscous!

*Garam Masala is merely a mixture of popular spices used in Indian cooking. One brand will have one mixture and another will have a completely different mixture.  For the record, my favorite Garam Masala (so far) is McCormick brand, which is made up of coriander, black pepper, cumin, cardamom, and cinnamon.

one, singular sensation

I can't believe it's only Tuesday - I'm exhausted and would like to go to sleep now.  Instead, I'm posting about one of my favorite meals!

I will never stop loving Punjabi Peppers and Tofu from La Dolce Vegan, but I have to admit, I loved it more tonight than I've loved it in nearly a year.  Why, you ask?  Well, because I got to sprinkle my newly acquired McCormick Gourmet Garam Masala all over it and it tasted so much better than my normal attempts to compensate for blends I don't like as much.

The recipe was contributed to Sarah from the creators of Matt & Nat handbags, which meant very little to me until a local eco-fashion boutique started carrying their line of bags.  I make this all the time so it comes together very quickly, which Mister and I both needed tonight.  I noticed something I've never noticed before, though, while I was explaining to Mister why it's so easy to whip up (besides remembering the steps after so many makings).

There is one of every ingredient.  1 Tbsp of olive oil.  1 of each color pepper.  1 tomato, and on it goes.  All the spices are 1 tsp.  Now that I've made that connection, it should be even easier to make because I have the ingredients committed to memory already and the steps are common sense.  It cooks up very fast because you are essentially layering your prep.  Get the rice steaming, then start the tofu sauteing while you chop the peppers and tomato.  Once you add the veggies, sprinkle on the three 1 tsps of spices, give a good stir, cover and leave it alone for about five minutes.  Voila!  Super Simple Sensational Supper!

Chai is the Hindi word for Tea

That's my fun fact for the evening - because it cracks me up! From now on, every time I hear someone say "Chai Tea" I'm going to laugh inside my head. I wanted to share that so you can laugh inside your head, too, or if we're together we can laugh out loud and give the person who said "chai tea" a complex.

I saw that in a little color patch in The Vegan Table, which is funny since dinner came from a different cookbook. I can't remember why I had that one open, but let me move on. Dinner tonight came from La Dolce Vegan and it's one of my favorite recipes. It is extremely simple to make, comes together quickly, smells fabulous, and tastes even better. I think this dish was the first time Mister realized he could actually like tofu.

*Gasp* A vegetarian who doesn't like tofu??? It happens.

Anyway, I'll share the recipe at the end of this post because it doesn't actually belong to the author so I don't feel bad reposting it. Hopefully, too, it will encourage you to buy this wonderful book. There are three:
How It All Vegan
The Garden of Vegan
La Dolce Vegan <-- my favorite

I actually stumbled upon Sarah Kramer and her BFF Tanya Barnard and their amazing trilogy of cookbooks as the result of my wonderful mother trying to accommodate my crazy new lifestyle and make a vegan recipe for some holiday dinner (Christmas, I think), but it didn't quite work out for her, so she gave me the cookbook (HiaV). It had some of the best soup recipes in my collection so it won a fast place in my heart and I got the other two over the years.

Anyway, today I had my Chocolate Cherry Jocalat bar, finally.
I think my favorite thing about this bar is that the cocoa is Fair Trade Certified, which is important to me. To be honest, much like the Chocolate Mint Jocalat bar, the first bite was absolutely horrific. However, considering how well the Mint bar worked out by halfway through, I gave this one another chance and had the same result. Dried cherries are a little more tart than I would like, and these were unsweetened (unlike my craisinets), but it gave a good finish to the bar and I would probably get this one again...but it will never stand up to my Nectar cacao bars.

Now, as promised, I'll share the recipe for tonight's delightful dinner. I love this recipe so much! I chose it because we don't have any more room in the fridge for leftovers and there are never leftovers when I make this. That's another "favorite" thing about this cookbook - Sarah is just cooking for herself and her husband, so her recipes are usually the right size for me and my husband! The recipe was submitted to Sarah from Inder and Vandna Bedi from ViaVegan.com:

Punjabi Peppers & Tofu

Ingredients:
brown rice (or grain of your choice), enough for two people*
1/2 lb firm tofu, cubed**
1 small onion, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp hot chili powder
1 large tomato, finely chopped

In a medium pot, cook the rice accordingly. While rice is cooking, in a wok or large saucepan on medium-high heat, saute the tofu and onions in oil until onions are translucent and tofu starts to brown. Add the green and red peppers, salt, chili powder, garam masala, and tomatoes. Reduce heat and cover with lid. Simmer for 4-6 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Serve over rice. Makes 2 large or 4 small servings.

Notes:
* I used 3/4 cup brown rice in 1.5 cups water.
** I used a whole 14 oz container of tofu. I have no idea how much a 1/2 lb would be and I don't really care - the point was not to have leftovers, so I didn't want whatever was left of the tofu after I skillfully carved away exactly half a pound to sit in some far corner of my fridge awaiting the opportunity to become a science project.

By the way, I don't know what "tea" is in Punjabi and Google won't help me.

nom nom nom the spinach

First, though, tales of today's bar. Today I had the thinkFruit Chocolate Pomegranate Power bar. It left a much more favorable first impression than the Jocalat bar yesterday, though I think that if I had to choose between the two, I would actually choose the Jocalat bar.
First of all, there's just something about me that cherishes the simplicity of 3-5 ingredients. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the thinkFruit bar had the most ingredients - granted, only ten, but they included things like added pectin and the ever-enigmatic "natural flavor." Also, I don't care for the trickery of using pineapple and pomegranate flavored cranberries to flesh out the bar. I would not have been less inclined to purchase the bar if it had said Chocolate Cranberry Power or something like that because honestly, I was more excited about the chocolate. Speaking of chocolate - the chocolate taste was subtle...possibly even more so than the Jocalat bar, which surprised me for some reason. On the plus side, this bar is lower in fat than other fruit & nut bars, with the added bonus of being enriched with omega-3s despite the lower fat. Also, there were a couple of times when I could swear I tasted figs, but there were none on the label...unless they are the "natural flavor." I guess we'll never know.
Anyway, it wasn't a bad bar at all. I'm still trying to decide how I feel about thinkProducts in general, but as it goes, I wouldn't turn my nose up if this was offered to me. I just wish pomegranate wasn't dead last on the ingredients list since it's part of the bar's name.

For dinner tonight, I made the Chamomile Couscous with Savory Spinach (but there was actually only one piece of spinach - the rest was spinach-flavored basil*). It was fun and different. I think it'll take a little tweaking, but all in all it came out well. Also, when you are absolutely certain you have an abundance of chamomile tea in your tea chest, please check before you arrogantly write it into a recipe as though you'll never run out. You can also read that as: My dumb butt didn't realize I only had 1 of the 2 tea bags I had written into the recipe, so I substituted one chamomile tea bag with Stash Sandman tea, which contains chamomile...and spearmint, which way overpowered both that chamomile and the pure chamomile tea bag. Also, in an effort to draw out the flavors of the tea and not just the scents, I think I overdid the honey. Below you will find the amended recipe, with less honey.

Chamomile Couscous with Savory Spinach
serves 6

Ingredients:
a little more than 2 cups water
2 chamomile tea bags
2 cups plain couscous
1/2 Tbsp (1 1/2 tsps) honey
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp yellow mustard seeds
1 Tbsp garam masala**
1/2 tsp salt
28 oz (petite) diced tomatoes
15 oz chickpeas, rinsed and drained
9 oz fresh baby spinach

Boil the water, then place the two tea bags in the pot and cover - allow to steep at least 5 minutes. Remove tea bags, stir in honey until dissolved, then add couscous. Cover and allow to sit for at least 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a deep pot. Add the mustard seeds and cover. When mustard seeds begin to dance, sprinkle in the garam masala, then stir in the undrained tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then lower heat, stir in chickpeas and salt and simmer a few minutes. Add about 1/3 of the bag of spinach, cover to steam 1-2 minutes, then stir into tomatoes and chickpeas to wilt. Repeat with second 1/3 and final 1/3. If your cat enjoys spinach, share some with him (or her) before you destroy it all in your dinner. Once all spinach is added and has wilted, uncover and allow to simmer about 5 minutes.
Fluff couscous. Serve spinach mixture over a fluffy white cloud of couscous!

*this was a joke...read about the pomegranate-flavored cranberries again if you didn't get it.

**Garam Masala is merely a mixture of popular spices used in Indian cooking. One brand will have one mixture and another will have a completely different mixture. For this recipe, I used Whole Pantry brand - a.k.a. the Whole Foods store brand - which ended up being much heavier on cardamom than I would have preferred. Cardamom is one of those very pungent and peculiar spices that is better seen but not heard, so to speak. Whole Pantry Garam Masala has the following spices: black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, coriander. To balance out the pungency of the cardamom and cloves, I added just a pinch of cumin for its savory and a generous pinch of turmeric for its bitterness. You'll be able to smell if it needs something. For the record, my favorite Garam Masala (so far) is McCormick brand.

Finally, I got Angst to dance for his spinach. I tried to get some action shots to share:"mmm... is that my spinach?"
"nom nom nom"