slimy noodles

Ordinarily, when I make Better-Than-Takeout Tofu Stir-fry from Vegan on the Cheap, I serve it over rice.  "Ordinarily," I say, as though I make this all the time and not just twice before.  Anyway, it's a pretty saucy "stirfry" and I'm not talking about its demeanor.  As such, when I put it on the menu, I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be fun to see how this works as a noodle dish?"

I'll admit, it's because I like to eat Asian-inspired food with chopsticks and in my opinion, noodles are far more fun and far easier to eat with chopsticks than rice dishes.

Anyway, as I was cooking the tofu and veggies, I boiled half a box of linguini and once it was finished, added it to the nice, thick, goopy sauce.

It came out great!  A little messy, I'll grant you, but very tasty and I am pretty sure I will make it like this again... possibly always.  The sauce made the noodles a bit slippery, which made my eating a bit slurpy and napkin-intensive.  Mister was eating with such gusto that I asked him if he had eaten anything today.  He explained that he had, but that he had to eat the noodles quickly because they were "slimy" and wanted to fall out of his chopstick grip.  He has such a way with words.

Today was a gorgeous fall day, part of which I spent on a coffee-date with an old friend and part of which I spent shopping for the following menu:

1. Penne with Spinach and Chickpeas in Garlic Sauce from Quick Vegetarian Pleasures.  I used to make this all the time so I hope my memories haven't built it up too much - I hate being disappointed!

2. Curried Bulghur with Chickpeas and Vegetables, also from Quick Vegetarian Pleasures.  I really find the name of that book rather amusing.  This is another dish I made so much that I took a long break from it and the last time I came back to it, I couldn't believe it was so tasty.  Then again, I suppose there was probably a reason I used to make it so much!

3. Spicy Ragout of Vegetables and Tofu, also from Quick Vegetarian Pleasures.

4. Rice Island Casserole from Vegan on the Cheap.  This recipe specifically names dark red kidney beans in the ingredients, but at least once I've substituted light-colored beans because SuperFresh is doing this weird thing where the dark kidney beans cost almost twice as much as the light ones.  Can anyone provide insight, like dark kidney beans are very rare and only grow from one bean plant located on top of a craggy mountain in Turkmenistan?  No?  What then?  The point, though, is that dark kidney beans were on sale this week (maybe they found a second bush somewhere) so I'll be true to the recipe.

5. Black Bean Soup with Kale and Rice from the Slow-Cooker chapter of Vegan on the Cheap.  I've made this once before, though, so I know the secret way to make it without a slow-cooker (hint: it involves your stovetop and a soup pot).

these are some of my favorite things

Laughing 'til it pisses everybody off,
Pulling up my dress at a dinner meeting,
Kissing 'til my lips are ready to fall off,
Screaming all night, then just say I'm singing,
These are some of my favorite things.
 - Beth Hart - "Favorite Things"


It's a fabulous song, really - I earnestly encourage you to click the link and have a listen.

Anyway, sorry about the absence - things have been a little crazy here: upcoming life changes leading to deep, long, slightly tear-soaked conversations about the future and goals, getting trapped in a flood plain and taking 2 hours to get home from work, too much thinking, not enough writing.  Here's a quick synopsis:

Right before a long and somewhat stressful conversation about some changes coming up in the foreseeable future, Mister and I had a tasty dinner of Blessed Broccoli and Tofu StirFry from La Dolce Vegan.  It was so good, and the leftovers I had for lunch the next day, once resolutions had been reached and I was done freaking out, were even better.

Friday was a Bizarro Day but also exciting and stimulating.  Nevertheless, the end of the day couldn't come fast enough and I was more than happy to get out of work.  Unfortunately, this weird thing has been happening over the past few weeks - it waits until I'm about 10 minutes from leaving work and then the skies open up and pour rain.  That is what happened last night.  Fortunately, the nice young man who was trying to drive me to the train station also lives in Philadelphia and volunteered to take me to my actual home.  This was nice, since every single road we tried to take to the train station was flooded and emergency personnel wouldn't actually let us pass.  There were a few terrifying, fingers-crossed moments when we drove his tiny, low-to-the-ground Chrysler Crossfire through some pretty deep "puddles."

Adorable, sporty little car and if he ever gets tired of it (while it still works), I wouldn't mind taking it off his hands, but they are not built for inclement weather, much less the Apocalypse.  I haven't seen flooding that bad in years....since the last time it took me three and a half hours to get home from work.  Sorry to anyone who lives in PA and is reading this, but I have a deep-seated hatred for Montgomery County.  It loves to flood there.  I don't appreciate it.

Anyway, two and a half hours after leaving the building, I arrived safely home in Philadelphia with no desire to cook but very hungry.  Mister suggested Maoz for dinner and I was absolutely on board with a falafel salad.

Tonight, then, after successfully making it to and from lessons without washing away in the effusive sunlight, I came home and slow-cooked a nice hearty dinner: Tasty Tempeh TVP Chili, also from La Dolce Vegan.

If you don't think that looks hearty and savory and chewy and all the things a good chili should be.... check for a pulse, please.

We love Sarah Kramer's chili, but I haven't made this recipe in a while because Mister is allergic to tempeh and did not at all appreciate the time I made this with barley substituting for the tempeh.  This time around I used TVP and it made an incredible difference.  This may very well be our new favorite chili recipe and we ate every last morsel with the help of our Tostitos "spoons."  We also love (at least, our sometimes over-packed fridge loves) how all the recipes in La Dolce Vegan are the right size for our two-human-one-kitty family and there are rarely leftovers.  That was certainly the case tonight!

After dinner and dishes, I got down to my favorite part of the week - menu planning!  I might have a different favorite part of the upcoming week, but we'll get to that when it's time. For now, feast your eyes on this week's list of...well, feasts.

1. Pasta e Fagioli with Spinach from Appetite for Reduction.  Actually, although Maoz (and our 1-block proximity to it) is one favorite thing and the chili recipe is another favorite thing, I came up with the title of the post because this week's menu is a throw-back to a lot of my favorite recipes that I haven't made in a while.  Normally, when I plan my menu, I pull out a book or two and force myself to pick recipes from those two.  Tonight, I allowed myself the luxury of hopping throughout my cookbook collection if one recipe reminded me of another I'd rather make.  This is how this recipe came to be part of the menu - I was looking in The Urban Vegan and came upon her Pasta e Fagioli recipe, but I wanted to make this one instead.  So there you go.

2. Modular Pakistani Kima from The Urban Vegan.  This is a great recipe because I can pick a different combination of ingredients from her provided lists each time I make it.  I've made it a few times, but this time I'm using yet another configuration of ingredients - kale + TVP + peas + all the standard stuff.   This is a very pantry-friendly dish.

3. Chickpeas with Tomatoes and Spinach, also from The Urban Vegan.  That's all I have to say about that for the moment.

4. Spicy Ragout of Vegetables and Tofu from Quick Vegetarian Pleasures.

5. Jerk Seitan on Coconut Rice, both from Vegan with a Vengeance, and a recipe that I specifically sought out after something else reminded me of its amazingness.

6. Orecchiette with Cherry Tomatoes and Kalamata Tapenade, also from VwaV.  I had actually forgotten about this recipe (which seems like a statement that should get me hung) and only "rediscovered" it because I was flipping through the book looking for the Jerk Seitan recipe as well as the recipe for Sunny Blueberry-Corn Muffins, which I will be baking tomorrow to share with the nice young man who went way out of his way to get me home when SEPTA didn't feel like doing so (probably because their tracks were underwater, the trains are electric-powered, and the busses could cross the moat that was developing around my business center).

Anyway, I'm off to start writing a long-overdue letter....stay tuned for more fun and the revelation of Secret #2 shortly...

speedy vegan?

I was originally going to title the post "Speed Vegan" but I didn't want it to be confused with the cookbook by the same name.  Although I sure would enjoy the SEO hits that may result from such a clever title, I don't want to be the cause of all the disappointment people would feel upon discovering this was not an associated blog.

However, I do want to share with you one of my cookbook gems: Vegetarian Times Fast and Easy.  This is a pretty good book - a lot of recipes are surprisingly tasty.  That truly was not intended to be the backhanded compliment it looks like.  What I mean is that some of the recipes combine bizarre (and sometimes difficult-to-find) ingredients but it always comes out well.  Other recipes you can look at and just know they'll be great.  I enjoy the first kind - I love being surprised by dinner.  This is actually pretty funny, considering what a picky eater I was as a child and how I hated to "try new things."

A few nights ago, I made one of the latter - an old, faithful standby, Tuscan Vegetable Ragout.

It's an incredible melange of crunchy, creamy, squishy, and squeaky.  Squeaky?  Well, yes - haven't you ever noticed how sometimes artichoke hearts make a squeaky sound?  You'll notice now.

Anyway, there are general ingredients - white beans, tomatoes, zucchini, artichoke hearts - which make up the standard Italian cuisine base, wouldn't you say?  Then there are embellishments, just like a good opera. [If I could take a brief detour: through my adolescence, I was trained as a classical vocalist.  One of my favorite things about Italian music was the Aria - the purpose of an aria is to showcase the ethereal voice and undeniable talent of, normally, a soprano.  As luck would have it, that was the part I sang.  The structure of an aria is similar to a canon in instrumental music - you start with a simple theme, but then to "show off" you sing through the exact same tune a second time but with wild - yet tasteful and perfectly articulated - ornamentation.  I am not saying that I fulfilled all the lovely descriptions I just gave of the Diva, but I did adore singing the second round of an aria.]

In Tuscan Vegetable Ragout, the ornaments take the form of cubed smoked tofu, sliced kalamata olives, and occasionally small pasta.  I skipped the pasta this time around because I felt like the menu was already quite noodle-heavy, so I served it on brown basmati instead.

The flavors of the various parts combine into a mouthful that is at once sweet (from the artichokes and tofu) and a bit savory (from the tomato-drenched beans and zucchini) with the satisfying crunch of zucchini combined with the smoothness of creamy cannellini beans.  There is nothing outstanding about this dish other than how perfectly its parts come together to make a whole.

Tonight's dinner, on the other hand, was quite outstanding, flavor-wise.  Tonight I made Singapore-Style Noodles with All That Other Stuff.  I nearly forgot how stirfries worked, which is amusing to me as they were all I did know how to do before I learned to cook.

I have gotten so used to chop-as-you-cook recipes that when I know I'm making a time-saver, I tend to automatically go to that.  You cannot pull of a successful stirfry this way.  No, fortunately, I remembered just in time that you really do need to prep all of the ingredients before you heat the oil.

This required 4 prep bowls, 2 knives, 2 measuring spoons, 2 measuring cups, and 1 whisk to accomplish, but I did pull it off and the result was terrific.  Love at first bite for Mister.

Me?  Well, it bit me.  Does it look tasty?  It totally is.  Does it look spicy?  It definitely is.  Furthermore, it's that sneaky spicy that doesn't hit you at first and then all of a sudden you're like "holy cow, my mouth is on fire!"  This should have been obvious as I was whisking nearly a tablespoon of curry powder and a teaspoon of harissa into the sauce, but it wasn't really.  I'm still stupidly brave about both of those ingredients and continue to forget how much harissa especially likes to kick me in the throat halfway through my meal.

It was absolutely worth it, though - I could only handle one bowl.  Mister had plenty of time to plow enthusiastically through two bowls while making mean jokes about dinner eating me.  He also had a good laugh as I tried to cool my burning tongue and lips by unwrapping the last Li'l Dreamer and pressing it to my tongue, which was sticking out through my lips.

Hey, ya know what?  I may have looked like a doofus, but it worked.  And it was delicious.

broke the streak

After three days of Italian meals, I finally pulled my tastebuds [temporarily] away from Europe and convinced myself to make one of the Asian-influenced meals I've been putting off for a week.  I made Better-Than-Takeout Tofu Stir-fry from Vegan on the Cheap and as always, it was delicious.

I will admit, I was having a little bit of trouble deciding between that and the other "leftover" recipe which shared the Asian theme.  Both required broccoli, and the two heads I had sitting in the crisper for a week were certainly the impetus to make one of these meals.  On the one hand, I had a red bell pepper that had been languishing in the crisper drawer just as long as the broccoli, and while peppers are slightly heartier than fragile broccoli blooms, I didn't want it to get all shrively and ugly.  On the other hand, I wanted to use my new toy and I knew I wouldn't have the patience to wait an hour for it to do its magic on a weeknight.

For my birthday (yes, the one in January that I didn't see my parents to celebrate until February...again), my dear mother got me something I've wanted for a while - Tofu Xpress.

I had kind of hoped it would speed up the pressing process a little more than it does, but I had to admit it was pretty cool how quickly the reservoir fills with water after you screw the compressor in place.  After an hour of pressing, there wasn't going to be too much more water squeezed out of my tofu and I was quite pleased with its texture.  It also seemed to get crispy on the outside a little faster, though that could have been my imagination.

I can see this little tool coming in quite handy in my culinary future, especially if I can teach Mister how to use it (which shouldn't be hard - you literally just put the block of tofu in the box and screw the top on) so the tofu can begin pressing while I'm on my way home from work.  However, this week we have a completely tofu-less menu.  I did decide to try to tire myself out of this incessant desire for Italian food, so everything on our menu this week (except the leftover Asian dish) caters to that flavor profile.

1. Rice Noodle Bowl with Broccoli and Bell Pepper from Vegetarian Times magazine.

2. Fusilli with Lentil Sauce from Vegan Italiano.  I hope no one's surprised this was the first book I grabbed when preparing the new menu...

3. Penne with Cannellini Beans and Escarole, also from Vegan Italiano.  I've almost made a bunch of recipes that list escarole among the ingredients, mainly because I've never tried this particular leafy green, but then I never end up doing so because I can never find escarole.  It's kind of like my Bok Choy Curse, but to my great delight, when I got to Whole Foods, there were a few heads of escarole hunkered down in their bin just waiting for me to discover them and take one home.

4. Italian-Style Rice Casserole, also from Vegan Italiano.  Don't worry!  I haven't lost my head - I have very little intention of actually baking this.  Since the recipe starts out simmering stovetop for half the cooktime, I'll probably just finish it stovetop, too, out of sheer laziness and the desire to eat dinner before midnight.

5. Pasta e Fagioli from Veganomicon, served with roasted asparagus.  I saw a recipe for Paste e Fagioli in Vegan Italiano, but decided to go with what I know.  I have a dozen recipes for this bean and pasta dish and this one reigns as chief (at the moment).  I didn't feel like discovering a new recipe - if it ain't broke, you know what they say.

6. Chickpea Piccata from Appetite for Reduction.  Again, I saw a recipe for Piccata in either Veganomicon or  Vegan Italiano, but remembered how phenomenal this recipe is, plus I already know I can serve this Piccata over mashed potatoes, and it's been a little while since I've mashed up some potatoes for my mister.

I should get to bed soon so I can start the new work week rested and rejuvenated by another fabulous weekend.  Unfortunately, I slept late today and my body has very little desire to return to unconsciousness just yet.  Fortunately, that means I'll probably bake cookies and may even craft my "bonus post."

remember me?

Wow - I didn't realize I just let three entire days pass with nothing... sorry about that.  Let me fill you in on the dinner situation:
Maoz falafel salad
Maoz falafel salad (so fortunate that they are right around the corner now)
Peanut Butter and Apple Butter sandwich

Exciting, I know.  The rest of the time?  Spent it lying flat on my back or drinking vitamin-enhanced water and slurping soup (Mister made it last even longer by adding leftover pasta to it).  I can't believe how sick I ended up being!

Anyway, last night, Mister and I finally completed our move and today I turned in the keys to the old apartment.  How liberating!  We're both in a decent amount of pain and are unanimous in our decision that next time we move, we're paying someone else to carry all our crap for us.  We're too old for this. 

In all seriousness, though, you have to come to a point where you realize that even if you're only moving from one apartment to another one that is only marginally larger, you can't continue to pull off the college-style move: get a group of friends and DIY.  There comes a point when you can no longer deny that you are a grown-up with a lot more stuff than you want to carry down two flights of stairs and down the street to the only legal place to park, then repeat, except this time you're going up two flights of stairs.  By the way, everything is heavier when you're carrying it up stairs.

Nevertheless, we are finished moving things in and out of places and all that remains is finding time to put it all somewhere.  I don't have much time that I'm not at work, in transit, or sleeping, and the time I do have I try to spend cooking (and then babbling about it), so I'll be brief tonight and hopefully get a few things "put away" before bedtime.

As I'm sure you can imagine, after about 2 weeks of at least 50% take-out dinners, I'm really ready to just have everything set up so I can actually cook food.  It's far less expensive and I enjoy it.  As I set out to make dinner tonight, I realized how discombobulated I am right now.  I couldn't find my cookbook, even though I knew exactly where it was (and exactly how peeved Angst was that I put books all over his favorite Lying-On Shelf).  I couldn't find towels upon which to drain the tofu, even though they were just a short arm-reach away.  Finding a prep bowl was maddening.  And, because this is my cooking M.O., I set off the fire alarm for the first time - but I'll tell you, that was some crispy tofu!

I made Better Than Take-Out Tofu Stirfry from Vegan on the Cheap; it seemed a bit ironic.  Besides, when I went to Superfresh to get munchie-things to make Mister happy, I picked up some fresh, pre-cut broccoli (despite it being a complete waste of money) and I wanted to use it before anything went too wrong with it.

I made this before, to mixed reviews.  Mister loved it because broccoli is awesome.  I was not at all pleased with the tofu; in the recipe, you are instructed to coat the tofu in cornstarch.  All it did last time (in my opinion anyway) was make a huge ugly mess, so this time I just flash-fried the tofu and I liked the results much better.  I would have enjoyed the whole experience more if I had a bit more kitchen feng shui going on and wasn't so busy trying to figure out where my spatula was to actually read the recipe.  The sauce is outstanding, though, and I'm always amused by how the seemingly disparate flavors of Asian-influenced sauces actually come together into a tasty cohesion.

One final note that is part question: I served our stirfry in stoneware bowls with painted wooden chopsticks.  At the conclusion of our meal tonight, Mister requested that we not eat out of those bowls with chopsticks ever again, as the chopsticks scraping against the bowl made a sound he likened to nails on a chalkboard.  I didn't get that, but I refuse to use these bowls for anything that involves silverware for the exact same reason.

Have any of you encountered this auditory trouble when using stoneware dishes?

Our favorite bowls are also stoneware, but they are coated in a thick glaze, which seems to make the difference.  These bowls are just straight-up stoneware with matte coloring; no nice glossy glaze to protect our ears.  Does anyone know what I'm talking about?  Any last suggestions before they're relegated to prep bowls or decor?

is corn the devil?

No! Wait!  Don't run away!  This won't be another CORN IS EVIL post to add to the rest of the propaganda you've carefully placed in the circular file.  I don't think corn is making America fat - overeating is what's making America fat.

I just kind of dislike cornstarch once in a while.  That's all.

Cornstarch is another one of those things with which I have a love-dislike relationship.  On the one hand, it makes baked goods surprisingly more squishy (in a good way) and has the magical power to thicken sauces.  On the other hand, if added to sauces "incorrectly," it has the magical power to form little tapioca-looking globs that do not look at all appetizing.  Also, it makes tofu stick together.

Tonight's dinner was Better-Than-Takeout Tofu Stir-Fry from Vegan on the Cheap.  The recipe instructed me to cube the tofu, sprinkle it with what I felt was an excessive amount of cornstarch, and then "toss to coat."  Easier said than done, friends.  If you've never done this, let me make two recommendations.

1. DON'T
2. If you insist on ignoring my first suggestion, for the love of all things beautiful, use something other than your hands to "toss to coat."  This bears repeating if you have beautiful, long fingernails that tofu and cornstarch could lodge themselves underneath.

I still don't know exactly what the point of that little adventure was.  It was probably supposed to make a nice crispy outside for the tofu but I messed it up somehow.  It was crispy, but nothing that couldn't have been achieved without making the huge mess I made.  Also, I have mixed feelings about unnecessary additions to food.  The sauce was outstanding and Mister was completely psyched about the broccoli, so we'll definitely have this again, but next time, I'll probably just saute the tofu sans messy white powder (okay, that didn't quite come out the right way).

As busy as I've been this week, it looks like the next two weeks are going to be even crazier... I'm in a little bit of a conundrum in terms of the upcoming weekend and new menu planning.  Maybe, if you're so inclined, you could offer some assistance.  I am growing increasingly exhausted and worn out as the days pass, to the point where only our financial situation has kept me from ordering pizza (since I pass Blackbird on the way home from work) or dragging Mister out to Maoz or Cedars.  I am contemplating doing something I have never done before: making a week's worth of dinner on Sunday and refrigerating/freezing it until it's time to eat it.  The main reason this idea is unattractive to me, though, is because I enjoy cooking - it actually helps me to relax sometimes.  I guess I could do a combination of make-ahead and fast-cooking dinners as a middle ground.

What do you do about dinner when your life gets super busy?

can we do that again?

Wow!  I don't know what happened yesterday but it seems like a lot of you enjoyed my Apple Almond Oatmeal recipe...or maybe it was my stimulating discourse on queso-less quesadillas?  Probably the Via...  In any case, I appreciate all the folks who came to my blog and who directed others here as well!  Within the first 24 hours Refriedillas and Via-to-go was up, it skyrocketed to the top of my most popular posts, unseating the picture parade post that had held that spot since July.  I hope I don't disappoint tonight!

Backing up a moment to yesterday - it was an absotively, posilutely gorgeous Sunday, which I spent wandering all over my fair city, without so much as a light jacket.  I really had one major goal in mind - I wanted, nay, needed to go up to Sephora.  I have been without pure white eyeshadow for too long and it's really starting to limit my color palettes.  I'm also approaching the bitter end of my two favored lipsticks, so I was in search of lip color.  Before I had a chance to do that, though, I got notice from Candi KaBoom that Salon Sugar had a cancellation, so I darted across the street for a desperately necessary haircut.  Have you noticed I wait for the last possible minute to do most things?  For the record, I have never run out of gas....in my Prizm.

That's actually a really dorky picture of me, but it does show off my hair.  It also shows off how crooked my face is, but check out that lipstick!  I did head up to Sephora after getting my hairs did and I got my white eyeshadow, as well as the lipstain you see modeled so demurely above, and a bonus prize - I found vegan, roll-on perfume!

Urban Decay Yeyo matte eyeshadow and Greedy lip envy lipstain, with my shiny new vial of Pacifica Mediterranean Fig.  I don't ordinarily like smelling like food (aside from garlic), but it's really more of a green floral scent and very subtle.

Later in the evening, Mister and I braved the severely beautiful weather and went on a date to Pizzeria Stella.  We split an appetizer of broccoli rabe and rosemary flatbread, then Mister got a quattroformaggio (=4 cheeses) pizza while I got the marinara - spiced sauce, sprinkled with fresh oregano (what a treat!) and juicy slices of garlic.  I washed it down with the house red, which is a light, easy-to-drink Montepulciano d'Abruzzo and Mister had a Kutztown Red Cream Soda.

Today, though, was back-to-reality time for me, and even though I think I nodded off on the train, I did make it up to work and then got through most of the day by reminding myself that this was a three day week and when I was finished today, I'd be 33% through it and that much closer to my California vacation!  Yes, in case you were wondering, I do have "California Girls" stuck in my head, relentlessly "hearing" the chorus over and over again.

I rewarded myself by making Bok Choy and Baked Tofu Stir-Fry in Ginger-Citrus Sauce from Fat Free Vegan blog.

Aside from lacking mushrooms, I'm happy to report that mine doesn't look too different from Susan V's and that's always a victory in my book.  Her picture is much prettier, but she is a much better photographer than I am and almost definitely has a much better camera for that very reason.  Regardless of the way it looks, this little dinner was just as tasty as I had hoped it would be.

In her recipe, Susan mentions that the sauce will only have a hint of citrus flavor which can be enhanced, should the chef desire, by adding in some grated zest toward the end of cooking.  I have to admit, I didn't believe that it would be that subtle, since the freshly squeezed OJ is more than half of the liquid in the sauce, but she was right - it was very subtle and as a result, the sauce was perfect.  I would have liked it to be a little thicker, but it clung to the leaves of the bok choy magnificently.  I was really just excited that Whole Foods decided to have baby bok choys this week, because I've actually  been wanting to make this for the two weeks since I found it, but sometimes WF is a bit of a stinker about consistently stocking non-local foods.  The nerve! ;)

Tomorrow, I have one last "fresh" recipe to make before we enter "Eat everything in the house" mode.  Honestly, we'll only be away for a long weekend and I just finished soup that had been hanging out in the fridge for longer than that, but there's something about actually leaving the apartment for an extended period of time that makes me panic that any food left in the entire apartment will rot and sprout new wiggly life.  Hopefully, nothing will eat Angst's auntie/pet-sitter!

KISS: keeping it short & sweet

I feel like I am forever offering this excuse, but I have just been so busy both physically and mentally this week that I can barely process the steps of making dinner much less thinking of a witty way to share it.  I was doing alright earlier in the week, but the last couple of days have just been the worst.

Last night, my boss and I wrapped up early so he could go see Tommy James & The Shondells at the Keswick and I could do my best to say farewell to a special young man who should have had more time.  It was one of the most difficult experiences I've had in a long time and didn't exactly put me in the mood to be creative.  Fortunately, there was only one dinner left on my menu, so I didn't have to think much.  As always, in the most amazing way, making our dinner of Seitan Gyros and Crash Hot Potatoes brought me joy and I was able to enjoy dining with my dear husband.  Now for a brief photo essay:

Whole Foods miraculously came into some not-yet-expired Ray's Seitan and I happily deposited one tub into my basket.  I had forgotten how amazing this stuff is.  It smells incredible when it's cooking, and even managed to brown a little on the edges, despite being sauteed in a nonstick pan.  I sprinkled it with lemon juice, some dried dill, and sea salt and it was astonishingly moist and tender.  If I weren't about to embark on several days of exclusively eating other people's food, I would have insisted that Mister and I go to Horizons tonight.

These are the amazing Crash Hot Potatoes I found on VeganYumYum and knew it was my destiny to make.  "Lorraine, I am your destiny!"  Does anyone recognize that line?

A couple of weeks ago, while scanning the spice shelves at Superfresh and hoping against hope that my favorite Garam Masala would magically appear before my eyes, I found a different treasure: 

McCormick Gourmet Mediterranean Spiced Sea Salt.  It looked like fun and it was SO GOOD sprinkled [generously] over the potatoes.  They were actually far simpler to make than I thought they would be. 

Tonight I made Blessed Broccoli and Tofu Stirfry from La Dolce Vegan.  I hadn't made this previously so I decided to give it a whirl.  It was very tasty, but a little tofu-heavy for the Mister.  Actually, I think the problem wasn't as much the quantity of the tofu as it was the complete lack of flavor in the tofu.  Perhaps if I season/marinate the tofu next time I'll have better results.  Of course, I don't know how much better we could have done since we finished every last bite.

If I could just toot my own horn for a New-York-minute, I am extremely pleased with this picture.  I am not a photographer - when my father got me [and Mister] a digital camera as a wedding gift, he asked what features I wanted - my answer resulted in him getting what he called a "point and click."  At the time, I did not have any camera, and the last time I had a camera that wasn't a disposable, it was definitely one of those deals where you put film in and have to give that film to someone else in order to see what you took pictures of.  What I'm trying to say is this: my sister has a talent for photography and I'm art-retarded, so I'm really pleased with the perspective in this picture.  It looks like someone else took it, but I swear it was me!

Now, minus my artsy-fartsy horn-tooting, that's what dinner looked like.  We had fun salads with mixed greens, cubed jicama, diced tomatoes (leftover from the gyros), sliced orange pepper, and sliced kalamata olives.

We even had dessert!  Blondies a la mode (the mode was Chocolate Fudge Tempt).

So, obviously the Broccoli and Tofu stirfry was item #1 on this week's menu.  Here are tomorrow and Monday:

Broccoli Pasta with Savory Sauce - new recipe...I'll let you know how it goes.

Punjabi Peppers and Tofu also from La Dolce Vegan.  I wanted to do my best to avoid leftovers these next few days, since we'll be winging out to Arizona on Tuesday morning (shhh....don't tell Mister we're leaving in the single-digits part!) and we're good enough at cultivating science experiments when we're home.  Were you aware of the fascinating speed with which the peanuts in chunky peanut butter can grow hair when separated from the butter part, cooked, then left on the counter for a day or two? You learn something new every day.

By the way - the menu is short and sweet, not the post...obviously.

fast food - have it your way

So, apparently I've been too busy to bother posting here, so the very first thing I want to do is plug for The 30 Minute Vegan again. Without that book, dinner this week would not have been possible. At the very least, it wouldn't have been healthy. I've mentioned before that Mister would be happy to eat pizza for dinner every night, and he almost got his wish, so maybe he's not as big a fan of this book as I am. In any case, my time continues to be limited, so on with the parade of fast food.

First up, Sunday's dinner - Easy as Pie Stirfry. It was absolutely easy, though there was a great deal of chopping involved. It probably would be easy-as-pie if I would just invest the $20 in a mandoline. I'm getting faster at my prep, especially thanks to my new "chop & scoop" cutting board that funnels my newly chopped bits into whatever vessel they need to occupy, but I'm starting to think I'll never be Food Network fast. I guess I'll never be a celebrity chef, unless America's lazy rise up and demand a narcoleptic hostess.

On Monday, I made the super-duper-fast Mediterranean Hummus Wraps.


They were far tastier than I expected them to be and I had pretty high hopes for these babies to begin with, so let me make a recommendation - get this book and make these wraps. Next on my list of food-blog-feats-to-accomplish is to learn how to take a better picture of wraps, burritos, fajitas, and quesadillas. In other words, I want to figure out how to take attractive photos of enclosed dinner - I'm sure the answer lies in cutting said dinner item in half and propping one end up on the other, but I was afraid they would fall apart if I did anything other than wrap them as well as I could and then push them, seam-side down, onto the plates and hope they made it through our dinner prayers. By the way - if you want to see some amazing pictures of food, check out Another One Bites the Crust - you can also link to it on the right side of the page.

Tonight's dinner, then, was the last dinner on my humble (and fast) menu this week: Seitan Curry Bowl. By the way - this one and the wrap were part of the Lunch section of the book - I figured those meals would probably be even faster to make and I was more or less correct. This one comes together so quickly you almost run out of time to gather the spices. It's perfectly flavorful and not as overwhelming as I thought it would be considering how much curry powder, cumin, and soy sauce is in there. Also, it allowed Mister and I to take advantage of the amazing depth of flavor present in in-season asparagus. I anticipate a decent amount of asparagus recipes for the next couple of weeks, since the season is so tender and short and as tonight's experience proved, there is a remarkable difference in taste when [Mister's favorite] veggies are in season.

I'm off for now - one more day of work before my one-day weekend, so you can count on a new menu either tomorrow night or Thursday, if I get to it in the midst of re-planning my mini-vacation to Arizona and baking Irish Soda Bread :)

no one to blame but yourself

I can't even count how many times I've made my menu selections from Vegetarian Times Fast & Easy and completely skipped over the Spicy Stir-Fry with Clementines, Asparagus, and Tofu, quite on purpose, I'll add. It's not like I just didn't see it - no, no, I saw it, I looked at it, and I said, "That sounds like way too much effort - who wants to peel and segment three whole mini-oranges?"

Apparently, not the person who has no problem spending a half an hour cutting four bell peppers into paper-thin strips... Yet somehow, I managed to find the energy to peel those little clementines after a long, unwelcome Monday. It wasn't actually that difficult - a little aggravating and tedious, but not difficult.

So, now I'm kicking myself for waiting so long. Dinner was so good and we ate every last bite of orangey, tofuy, asparagusy goodness. The sauce was exceedingly tasty and easy to make - I would honestly be quite content to just eat tofu slathered in that. If I wasn't planning on constructing my next menu entirely from my new birthday cookbook, I would probably feel the need to add the Orange-Laquered Tofu from the same cookbook (VTF&E).


Also, feel free to notice the much better quality of this photograph than other recent food porn. It's amazing how the bathroom light burns out so Mister decides to replace every lightbulb in the apartment. That's okay - I like being able to see my food!

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!

omni-vegan feast

Where to begin? Thanksgiving was really an adventure, challenge, and delight. As it turns out, my mom and I were almost matched dish for dish on the dinner table. Representing the Omnivores, she had prepared a hunk of turkey, our family tradition - pineapple casserole, a sweet potato casserole, and a salad with some biscuits. On the Vegan team, I brought my tofu turkeys (absolute triumph), spiced potatoes and green beans, and chai applesauce. Mom also had pumpkin pie and chocolate ganache sandwich cookies for dessert. Buckle your seatbelts, folks, I think this is going to be a long, picture-filled post.

here's the dinner table, all decked out for the holiday and covered with more food than I think any of the four of us had anticipated.
here's the Chunky Chai Applesauce, looking quite regal in gold and ivory
Tofu Turkeys keeping the Sweet Potato Casserole company
Spiced Potatoes and Green Beans in front of Mom's traditional Pineapple Casserole
my happy little plate, with my tofu turkeys bathed in just a bit of the gravy I made from the leftover marinade...which my father liked so much he wanted to keep it to use on his turkey leftovers this week!
And here's Dad, showing the whole world that he DID eat a tofu turkey. He also liked it so much that he had a second turkey with no prompting! I'm so proud.

Speaking of tofu turkeys, I ended up with a bunch of tofu leftover after I cut out the cute little turkeys, so I packed all the pieces into tupperware, covered with water, and sealed those suckers in there. Today, around brunch-time, I thought, "What a perfect day to make scrambled tofu!" I have never actually made scrambled tofu, but the idea has been growing on me for a couple of months at least, but probably more like since I got my copy of Vegan Brunch. I didn't have any nutritional yeast, so I consulted How It All Vegan because I seemed to remember Sarah Kramer also having a love of scrambled tofu. Sorry, Isa, but hers is much easier... So I heated some oil in a fry pan, blotted some of the leftover tofu on a paper towel and then "crumbled" it into the fry pan. I let it sizzle for a little while, then I sprinkled it with some turmeric, cumin, and garlic powder. I stirred it for a good while (at least a minute), then I sprinkled in some tamari and let it soak in for a bit. I think the whole process took a little more than 5 minutes and the effort was so worth it that I'm kicking myself for not doing this sooner...not that I frequently have scraps of leftover tofu lying around.

seriously - who needs eggs?

Tonight, then, we had the last thing on last week's menu - Beef and Cabbage Stir-Fry with Peanut Sauce. It didn't come together quite as smoothly as I would have liked, but I think I could have been a little more organized. I was rushing myself because I got a late start and because it is my opinion that stir-fries should be fast, adrenaline-pumping experiences. I got to use my new juicer to get the 1/3 cup orange juice I needed (2 oranges, if you care) for the sauce. It came out very delicious and looking much like its picture, which always thrills me.

Now, on to this week's menu:

1. Saffron-Spiked Moroccan Stew on couscous, from The Vegan Table. I have stayed away from things that call for saffron, since it is excessively expensive, or I just substitute turmeric if it's not a main ingredient. I have decided, upon reading this recipe, that it is worth the cost of the saffron to try it out.

2. Orzo Pilaf with Roasted Red Peppers & Peas, also from The Vegan Table. This looks like a fun and savory pasta risotto kind of dish.

3. Cuban Black Bean Soup, also from The Vegan Table. I read this recipe three times, mulling the ingredients over in my head before deciding I want to make it. It is really a weird soup if ever I've made one, which both intrigues me and worries me. I have little doubt that I will think it's fabulous, but I never know how Mister will react to some of my more adventurous dinners.

4. Hearty Stew, also from The Vegan Table. I have made this before, but I want to make it again now that I have discovered the amazingness of Ray's Seitan. Yes, I know amazingness is not a word - spell check told me so, but I don't care - it's the best way I can think to describe this stuff. If you've ever been to Horizons, you'll understand.

5. Chickpea Stew with Fried Polenta from Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook. I love this enough to have made it a few times in recent history, and it'll make a fast, easy dinner on one of my insanely busy nights next week (which one? pick one).

6. Thai Pineapple Stir-Fried Rice from Vegan Express. I would be lost without this book. What amazes me is that I have been relying very heavily on his book since I got it and I still find new things to make every time I go in there! This looks fun. It looks like it may be a lot of work, but her recipes really never seem to take longer than a half an hour, so I think I can make it happen.

7. Pasta with Beans & Chard also from Vegan Express. Okay, so I've made this one before... I didn't say I never repeat a dish.

I didn't forget! Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I should have started then, but I was too fat to type. Today, then, is day one of Operation Gratitude Attitude. Remember our deal? I'll start with my four things:

1. I am grateful that I have enough money to keep my home as warm as I want it to be.

2. I am grateful my parents love me and support my crazy aspirations and experiments.

3. I am grateful that I have over 145,000 miles on my car and it hasn't given me any real trouble yet.

4. I am grateful to be able-bodied enough to walk to the grocery stores tomorrow.

Your turn! What one thing are you grateful for today?