sunday, lazy sunday

I set my alarm for noon today.  I still hit snooze several times before convincing myself to get up.

I sat around in my bathrobe for hours, drinking cup after cup of amazing coffee.

That's right - Dark Chocolate Ecstasy.  You can't tell me that's not a killer name for a coffee.  It made the kitchen smell amazing, so Mister and I made and drank two pots.

I've been peeing almost all day, but it was totally worth it.

All day, or more likely between each new cup o' joe, I asked myself with a touch of anxiety, "Isn't there something I should be doing?"  Each time, the answer was the same - NO.  I did all the food shopping yesterday and we can wait a few more days for laundry, so no, there was nothing that needed doing.  It was great to just relax and enjoy my day off.

I'll admit, though, I'm still a little jittery from all that coffee - it's a bit more than I usually drink in a day and it was nearly as consistently administered (via hand to mouth) as it would have been if I had that sought-after IV drip of caffeine.  Mister just brewed a pot of decaf, but I am definitely done with coffee... until tomorrow.

Between being overly lazy and overly caffeinated, I definitely had the energy to cook dinner.  I made Mexican Rice and Bean Bake from Vegan on the Cheap, although I really ought to put "bake" in quotation marks (like I just did) because I haven't baked this since the first unnecessarily time-consuming time I made this.  I find it comes together much more quickly and with less gnashing of teeth when I cook the rice separately from the rest, adding it in once it's fully cooked.

While the rice was cooking, I minced a dark green poblano chili because I think it's wasteful to get those expensive little cans of flavorless and mushy diced chilies.  To soften the pieces up a little, I sauteed them with olive oil and garlic for at least 5 minutes, probably longer, before adding in everything else.

That smelled so good and only got better with the gradual addition of salsa, beans, sweet white corn, and then finally, the cooked rice.

I haven't made this in a long time and now I'm kicking myself because I did not remember it tasting as incredible as it did tonight.  I'm not in the habit of buying/using white corn, but it added a neat "surprise" to the dish.  It was crunch and sweet when you were not quite expecting something like that to be part of the dish, providing a nice contrast against the otherwise savory nature of this recipe.

Last night we had Pasta Florentine from The 30 Minute Vegan.

It was tasty and I always enjoy the nooch-heavy "cream" sauce, but aside from that, it was nothing special and I couldn't think of a single clever thing to say about it.  So you just get a half-decent picture.  Lucky you!

nooch noob

The past couple of days have inadvertently presented plenty of opportunities to try new things, or at the very least, [accidentally] develop alternative versions of tastes I associate elsewhere. For example, last night I made Pomegranate Saute on Cinnamon Bulghur. Unfortunately, in so doing, I found the bottom of my previously bottomless bottle of pomegranate molasses, and I found it after adding only half the amount I had written into the recipe. I also discovered that I had no more red wine vinegar and it didn't occur to me exactly how different white wine vinegar would taste, especially with the not-100% apple juice I used. While I wouldn't call the results disastrous, I don't want to repeat the version I made last night. I prefer the original.


I used Mott's for Tots, which is only 54% juice - the other 46% is water, in an attempt to cut calories. They come in perfectly portioned 6 oz servings, which was exactly how much I needed for the recipe, and since they're almost half water they have only 50 calories. I don't actually care about that, but I got to thinking about two things: how sick it is that we have calorie-reduced drinks for toddlers, but more importantly (since I work in the weight loss industry and have parents calling frequently about their obese offspring) how sick it is that we actually do need to worry about this.

So, the half-juice, the half-pomegranate molasses, and the not-red wine vinegar combined in a way that might actually be beneficial in a chili, but not in my saute. It tasted like beer. I don't like beer, but at least now I know how to emulate the flavor in case a recipe calls for it.

Thursday was kind of lost to me because I finally got my taxes done, but it was so windy and cold I didn't feel like going grocery shopping if I didn't have to. And I didn't have to, because I still had the ingredients for the Saute and could easily pick up a couple of things on my way home from work last night if I needed to. I finally made it to the store today and when I was studying the Wall of Bars at WF, in order to drop one off for Mister on my way home (he works around the corner from WF - lucky dog!), I found something new! I was hoping that if I stared hard enough I might be able to will the Luna cookies to transform into Nectar bars. No dice, but I found this instead:
The brand new Clif C bars, meant to replace my truly defunct Nectar treats. These babies pack about 130 calories each, making them a reasonable snack, and they also provide 1 serving of fruit per bar. That's a little disappointing, since Nectar bars provided 2, but I actually like eating fruit, so I guess it's not necessary. Clif C bars are available in four flavors: Apple, Blueberry, Cherry Pomegranate, and Raspberry. I picked Apple because it seemed the least likely to be a bad first experience. It was pretty good, but the nuts on top were not crunchy and I felt they should be. I will not be excited about these until they find a way to replace my loved-and-lost Lemon Cashew bar. Sniff.
I have one left, which I am hording in my drawer at work, waiting until the perfect moment to enjoy it for the last time. I should probably check the expiration date soon.

Tonight, with all the ingredients assembled for a week of dinners, I faced my usual conundrum of where to start. Today was actually a really nice day in Philadelphia and since I came home from teaching to find my husband had actually opened one of the windows (which he does on every first day of 50-degree weather after weeks of mid-30s highs), so I didn't think his hot Greek blood would tolerate a soup dinner. Fortunately, that eliminated two choices. Ultimately, even though there was almost nothing perishable in this dinner, I made Pasta Florentine from The 30 Minute Vegan.

This was my first time ever cooking with the magical ingredient known across vegetarian and vegan circles worldwide as "nooch." I have seen multiple recipes calling for nutritional yeast, but I have shied away for two main reasons. First, I couldn't find it for the longest time, until another Philadelphia food blogger told me she gets it at Whole Foods. I looked in the bulk aisle, where she said it would be, and to my great surprise - it was there! Second, it just sounded so bizarre, I couldn't believe I would actually want to eat it. Like many things, though, the power of persuasion lies mostly in presence: the more I read about it in cookbooks and blogs, the more I thought, "Surely, all these people couldn't be wrong."

My first encounter with the Clif C bar was slightly better than mediocre. My first encounter with nooch was sufficiently impressive to balance that out. I'm not sure I would say it tastes like cheese, but perhaps if I hadn't eaten cheese for years I could draw that correlation. It is certainly savory and has a good flavor. I only got a small bit from the bulk bin because I didn't know how things would go, but I think it's fair to say these funny little flakes will find a permanent home in my "pantry."