refluxy.

I'm paying for my gustatory indiscretions today, oh yes. I get acid reflux when I eat things that are very spicy, fatty, or acidic. You know what kinds of foods those are? The best kinds!*

Take our dinner last night, for example. I finally made the vegan version of butter chicken with the spice pack I bought at the Indian market. I prepared it pretty much the same way Laura did here, except I pureed my tomatoes for whatever reason. Then I made jasmine rice cooked with full fat coconut milk along with a few tablespoons of dry garlic chutney. We had these with my first attempt at homemade dosas (too thick, but tasted awesome) and a heated up package of Tasty Bite bombay potatoes. The results? Dinner of the year. So damn good, it was worth the pain in my gut.



(yes, my pictures are still looking weird. The camera won't focus correctly anymore. Lame.)

On Wednesday night we decided to try a new meat analog that just arrived to the store. A vegan version of the Turkish Doner Kebap. Weirdest analog ever? Weird, but not as weird as the haggis.
Weird or not, the kebap is mighty tasty. We had it in a wrap with lettuce. tomatoes, hummus, and Tofutti sour cream.



Let's see, what else did we eat this week..... Oh! I made Tofu Mom's delish Bourbon Tofu. But since I'm not really in the habit of buying alcohol for cooking or drinking, I just made it with apple juice. The result was a crispy, slightly sweet and awesome. Much more awesome than the blurry photo.




The last great meal of the week was lunch from Sevananda's hot bar. They had a Mexican theme going on with spanish kale, Mexican rice, refried beans with tofutti sour cream and vegan gourmet cheese, some other spicy beans with tomatoes, seitan stir fry and heartburn. This kicked much ass. I love Sevananda. Even though they recently started selling a certain specialty item that up until now only we sold in Atlanta. I forgive you, Sev. Just keep making the good stuff.



*apologies to Seth and his dick-shaped foods.

That's one crazy sandwich.

I have lots o' food to talk about, but first here's Miles being all mad at me for trying to make him wear a shirt. Settle down, kitty.



Now. About that crazy sandwich. I know I've posted about trying to watch the sweets, going to the gym, etc. That's why I feel bad about this sandwich. But not too bad, mind you, because Ken and I split it.



Damn you, Paula Deen. This is her stupid sandwich. A grilled (ie:fried) peanut butter and banana sandwich, coated in cinnamon and sugar. The funny thing is, in Paula's version, she mixed the peanut butter with honey to "make it sweeter". Uh.....what? That being said, you must try this sometime. I mean, it can't be worse than say, french toast. Can it? Ooof.

Speaking of breakfast, we had a glorious breakfast dinner a few nights ago. We had the typical tofu scramble, but I also made some devil potatoes. Whoo! I love these! The idea came from a dish of devil potatoes that Lisa brought to a recent potluck. I don't remember all of the spices that she used in hers, I just remember the bright redness from Hungarian paprika. So I used a generous amount of Hungarian paprika I procured at the farmer's market for cheap, and added it to some shredded potatoes, along with some garlic, salt and pepper. These are the best potatoes ever. Ever!!! Try this immediately.
The devil potatoes paired up well with another batch of Kittee's cheezy grits. The half of a garlic bagel really pushed this meal over the edge calorie-wise, but scooping scramble and grits to the mouth via bread is essential to me.



Speaking of Kittee, I finally tried her crispy stuffed tofu pockets from Papa Tofu. These were labor intensive, but so very worth it. for the crispy crust, I chose some health food store corn flakes. So crunchy! So crispy! The filling is mostly Kittee's (a spicy spinach and onion mix), with the omission of peas. Cause ya'll know how I feel about peas.
The picture does not do it justice, as usual.



Along with the tofu pockets, I made a batch of Brussels sprouts. I've never liked Brussels sprouts, but somehow I keep falling into the trap and continue to try them. Verdict? I still don't like them. I feel bad about this. Oh well.



At least I finally made a pepper this week that I liked.

ahh, food network.

I do love to watch the Food Network. Ace of Cakes, My girl Paula, good ol' Alton, and all the others. I enjoy watching that tiny little Giada De Laurentiis make food, because it always looks so fresh and pretty. Well, except for when she does some gross meaty stuff.
My mouth was practically watering when I watched her do a simple vegetable salad with potatoes, green beans, roasted peppers, scallions, garlic, herbs, and a lemon vinaigrette. It's ridiculously easy, and the recipe is here.


Ken and I both loved this. I had fun making it too, because I got to roast a pepper for the first time, and peel the skin. I've never been a big fan of bell peppers, but I can handle them better when they're roasted. They were mild, and slightly sweet.
I learned something, too. Don't roast things on parchment paper. Duh. I'm dumb.

Before, burned parchment, and yummy pepper:


I had intended to make the Tempeh Hot Wings from Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk that we have all the damn time, but for some reason the tempeh was all crumbly when I removed it's packaging. So I improvised with a basic "chicken" salad recipe. Crumbled tempeh (boiled), veginaise, mustard, chopped onions, a few shakes of La Chikky, chilled.



Oh, I wish we had a better camera. And perhaps some natural light.

hand to mouth.

So yeah, I loved my first experience with Ethiopian food. Laura and I went here and had the vegi platter, which was an array of lentil-based somethings along with some finely chopped, mildly spiced collard greens. All delivered to our maws via pieces of injera. Love, love, love it. I think that Ken would like it too, so we will have to go together soon.

Laura also let me in on the cheap finds to be had at an Indian imports store next to the restaurant, called Taj Mahal. I picked up a few mixes and spices, including a pack of spice mix for butter chicken, which I originally found out about from Megan the Vegan. I must try a vegan butter chicken! Also in my pile is a dry garlic chutney, some vindaloo curry paste, a dosa mix, and an adventurous little container of asafoetida. I don't know what to do with it yet, but the smell of it is very rich, and seems like it would be nice with a stew of some sort. Or maybe in a breading. Hmm.
Here's my $7.00 Taj Ma-Haul:

because I'm a child

I think this is pretty fantastic. Because I'm a child.

a valentine's diet catastrophe.

Our camera is still acting up, so I stole another picture from the internets.



So we blew the diet completely on Valentine's Day. First, I was caught red-handed picking up some lunch take out from Soul Vegetarian. I ran into fellow blogger Lori and her husband Jared, enjoying the famous Soul V mac & cheese. I skipped the mac & cheese (for some weird reason) and opted for the BBQ cauliflower instead. There is nothing healthy but everything awesome about battered, deep-fried cauliflower smothered in BBQ sauce. Seriously. But Soul V is certainly not diet friendly.

We took it a step further by having pancakes for dinner. We topped them with the smooth, creamy goodness of Dreena Burton's Celestial Cream. Lordy Be. You must make this cream. Like, right now. If you don't want pancakes, just make it and lick it off a spoon or something. It's crazy.

Tonight I have a date with Laura for Ethiopian food. I've never had it, so she's going to be my food guide. I'm so excited!

pareve.

What the hell do I know about kugel? Nothing. I'd never heard of it until I opened my copy of Veganomicon. But I like noodles and casseroles, so how could it be bad?
So this is the Spinach Kugel from 'nomicon. It was good, but probably not great enough for me to make again. Aside from the fresh taste of dill, it was fairly bland. I kept expecting more creaminess out of it, too. Ken and I agreed that it tasted much better with a dollop of Tofutti Sour Cream.
Behold, the blurriest casserole photo ever (sorry, camera trouble):



The noodles are orange because I used these.
I'm not too dissappointed in though, as it's fairly healthy and lower-fat than I would normally make a casserole.
Oh yeah, there's that. We are trying to eat healthier. I've gained more than 30 pounds in the past year, which has put me in an uncomfortable "overweight" status. So less sweets, more exercise! Yippee. No, I haven't been running as much, but we are going back to the gym instead. The gym machines are easier on my knees than the asphalt.
So I've been trying to think of things other than baking sweet treats and cooking comfort food. here are a few of my favorite diversions of late:

Fido on DVD. Second best zombie satire I've seen. It's so perfectly goofy!

Free Rice. Man, I love vocabulary teasers. It's the only smarty-pants thing I'm good at. But I have yet to beat my score of 41. It's driving me nuts.

Stuff on my Cat. Do I even need to explain this one?

a fiesta or something.

I had some extra time today, so I decided to drive myself nuts by going to Harry's (a whole foods-owned farmer's market). That place on a Saturday afternoon is insane. And to make matters worse, they were having a stinkin' crawfish boil in the middle of the prepared foods section! Complete with a four-piece fiddle band, too. I really hate Whole Foods. I grabbed what I needed and got the hell outta there as fast as I could, because I could feel my blood sugar drop. I ended up eating some prepackaged vegan sushi in my car before going across the street to my co-op to buy some bulk goods.
All of this happened after a trip to the gym, so I was plum tuckered out by the time I got home. But I still cooked, oh yes!

First up is the Tamale Pie from Yellow Rose Recipes. This is a bottom layer of cornmeal polenta, with a layer of corn, black beans, "beef" strip thingies simmered in mexican sauce, topped with Vegan Gourmet Monterey Jack shredded and some polenta dollops on top.
Two words: Freaking Awesome.
This is so simple to make, and the flavor payoff is tremendous. The only bad thing is that the casserole virtually exploded in the oven, so now I have a big mess to clean up. Here's the messy but delicious Tamale Pie:



To go along with our theme, I also made a batch of the Mexican Mullet...er, Millet from Veganomicon. This also had a crazy good flavor payoff. And we hardly ever eat millet, so hooray for new grains!



We have been trying to watch it with the desserts, but Ken is better with the willpower than I am. I made these quick and pretty safe little treats, pretzel sticks with one end dipped in chocolate. They are good for a little salty chocolate fix, without getting all crazy with cake or something.
The little celluloid cats in the window were astounded!



And now for something completely unrelated, Moe loves to bask in a sunray. So here's a moment of zen from Cosmo:

late night eatin' and a burger question

We have been cooking and eating some good things this week, but I have no way to prove it. Ken and I have been trying to hit the gym after work, which means we haven't been eating dinner until after 9PM. As you can imagine, this has made us lean towards more quick-fix type of meals. It also means that food photos have been sucking due to the lack of natural light. So how should I remedy that? Why, steal some random photo from the internet, of course!

Random photo not taken by me:



The one quick recipe of note I made this week was the Cucumber Tomato Toss from The Everyday Vegan. A very summer-filled dish isn't really ideal in February, but hey. We do manage to stay in pretty good tomatoes year round here in Georgia. In fact, it's been in the upper 60F during the day most all week! But anyway.
The salad was very delicious. It's like it was created especially for my palette. Chopped cucumbers and tomatoes were tossed with lime juice, balsamic vinegar, basil, and a few other spices to make a perfect side dish to go along with our veggie burgers. It's like we had a winter picnic! Ha.

Speaking of veggie burgers, what is your favorite way to eat this stereotypical vegetarian dish? We like to be quick and easy by making thin patties from a roll of Gimme Lean, covering them with salt, pepper, garlic salt, and pan frying them. They're high protein, and fat-free, until you fry them in oil. This is one of Ken's favorite things to eat. I also have a soft spot in my heart for the Fantastic Foods Nature's Burger dry mix. These were the first veggie burgers I ate back fourteen years ago, when other packaged veggie burgers were yet to be available.

But what do you do? Do you make your own burgers from grains, beans, etc? Do you buy frozen patties? What's your favorite kind?

on tee vee.

See me blather on, and use the word "actually" 100 times here.

a little off.

Ken got very excited when he found out that I was going to make one of our old favorites from Vegan with a Vengeance- the BBQ Pomegranate Tofu. It is awesome, but it takes something like 1.5 hours to make, so we haven't had it in a while because of that. So I made it last night, along with some brown rice made with coconut milk in place of water, and some asparagus roasted with salt and red pepper flakes.
Ken was one happy vegan. I was... eh. I think my taste is a little off because I'm coming down with a cold, because every bit of this dinner tasted slightly wrong to me. Nothing I made was unfamiliar, so I don't get it. Ken swears it was the same as always.

Blah.



And doesn't my low light, blurry, point and shoot picture make it even more wonderful? No? Eh, again.

a good food day

A girl could get used to this having-a-day-off-once-a-week stuff. I'm enjoying the kicking around for too long in my pajama pants, avoiding housework, and excessive cooking.
I had the best breakfast! But I have no picture to prove it. So I could be lying to you, but really I'm not. (huh?)
I made the Cheezy Grits recipe from Papa Tofu, along with another batch of those lovely buttermilk biscuits from Yellow Rose Recipes. I could eat grits every single day, I love them so much. And Kittee's simple, slow cooked version of cheese grits was extra special. Who knew just a bit of Vegan Gourmet Monterey Jack would add such depth to the humble grit? Anyway, I had the grits, biscuits, a soy sausage link (generic Publix brand soy links are vegan, believe it or not..) and some fresh blueberries and strawberries. I feel bad for those of you in the Northern climate, still suffering without good strawberries.

Speaking of strawberries, I bought the cutest strawberry plate today at the thrift store for $.75. And I got a slightly used bundt pan for another $.75. It was awesome. I went there with a pocket full of silver change, hoping to find some round cake pans. Even though I didn't, I'm happy with my bundt.
The thrift store happens to be in the same shopping center as a comic shop, and I couldn't resist the pull of my "other" hobby (the one that doesn't make my ass fat). Zombies. Can zombies be a hobby? I say yes. I'm behind on my reading of The Walking Dead series, so I picked up the latest graphic novel of that while I was out. Of course I could have bought brand new cake pans for the money I spent on the comic, but hey.

So more cooking! I broke out the ol' slow cooker and threw together some lentil soup. It turned out so good, and it was nice and light.



Here's what I did:

Slow-Cooker Lentil Soup

1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, chopped
2 cans of brown lentils (gasp! canned? the horror!)
2 cups vegetable broth
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried basil
splash of olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

Set slow cooker to fastest setting (mine is four hours). Coat the bottom with olive oil, and add the onions and garlic. Let those warm for about ten minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients except for the fresh parsley.
Cook with the lid on for 2-3 hours, until carrots are soft. Add parsley. Take immersion blender and pulse around in the pot until mostly smooth, but with a few lumps.
Eat a ton of it, until your stomach feels like exploding from the gas pressure. Hey, this is lentils we're talking about here.

The soup went great with the leftover biscuits from breakfast, too. :)