Ugh!

This is a picture of the ad my brothers found so awesome, they felt the need to display it on the refrigerator for a long time. Oh darn, I think it disappeared.

Go Naked

There are something you like just because they make you feel good. 'Green Machine' Naked is one of those things for me. Love. Love. Love. Naked Green Machine was my breakfast with a sun-dried tomato bagel with melted cheese and pesto for lunch. (This is what happens when one is out running errands and does not want fast food.)

Dinner was all about embracing some black bean chili I had in the freezer paired with toasted cheese on a roasted garlic bread picked up at the grocery today. Yum! A banana for dessert.

Quiet NIght on the Food Front

As much as I love soups, stews,, and chowders, I am taking a break today from the Soup Stocking (I've spent a few hours cleaning out and re-organizing the kitchen cabinets and drawers) and pulled out a Spinach Mushroom Pastry I had frozen when I made them for Christmas dinner. I love having stuff in the freezer for nights I don't feel like cooking. I Stuck the pastry in the the oven with some carrots roasted with onion and seasoning. A very nice supper for me, even if it is just for me.


Food Pyramid Reference for Vegetarians and Vegans.

Freezer Stock 2011 - The Soup Tour Continues: Frenchie Onion Soup

My soup stocking tour for this chilly January continues as today I made a lovely homemade French Onion soup using a vegetable stock, onion, garlic, a touch of vegan Worcestershire sauce (for richness), and seasoning, topped with some toasted multi grain bread and cheese under the broiler. The onions sweated and then the soup simmered for a while. After topping it with the toasted bread and cheese under the broiler, I served it along side some beautiful roasted veggies (carrot, broccoli, mushroom, onion, and a bit of garlic). I love it when a good meal comes together. Unfortunately, for my family no one else partook in the yumminess and they continue to find it "weird."

For those out there that don't believe that a vegetarian can still be a "foodie" I say to you, "HA!." There is something so marvelous about good food that is cooked slow and with care and without a lot of crap thrown into it.

Alfredo Pizza Triangles

Looking for something easy for lunch I found a roll of crescent rolls in the refridgerator, topped the unrolled triangles with leftover alfredo sauce, sauteed some onion, garlic and frozen spinach on top of that, then some sauteed mushroom sliced and topped with shredded cheese. Baked until the crusts were golden and the cheese was melty. Easy and even my brother ate some (he cut out the spinach and onion mix and used taco stuff from last night instead).

Rehearsal tonight, so dinner will probably be something on the run. It comes down to what I can grab and go (and hwo much time I want or have to put in to even things like defrosting and reheating).

"In an earlier stage of our development most human groups held to a tribal ethic. Members of the tribe were protected, but people of other tribes could be robbed or killed as one pleased. Gradually the circle of protection expanded, but as recently as 150 years ago we did not include blacks. So African human beings could be captured, shipped to America and sold. In Australia white settlers regarded Aborigines as a pest and hunted them down, much as kangaroos are hunted down today. Just as we have progressed beyond the blatantly racist ethic of the era of slavery and colonialism, so we must now progress beyond the speciesist ethic of the era of factory farming, of the use of animals as mere research tools, of whaling, seal hunting, kangaroo slaughter and the destruction of wilderness. We must take the final step in expanding the circle of ethics." ~Pete Singer

Bring on the Yumminess!

It's been a fairly long weekend and I am ready for a break in this chilly weather. In the meantime I've been embracing some of those foods that are easy to fix for vegetarians, especially along side a family of non-vegetarians. Last night we had stir fry choked full of vegetables and mushrooms served over some white rice along side of a vegetable egg roll. Sliced mushrooms, onion, garlic, carrot, water chesnuts, and some snow peas made me happy. (The meat-eaters here added meat to their seperate serving.)

Tonight, after an afternoon/early evening rehearsal I came home to find the starts of tacos (okay, so the meat for them had been prepared). I sauteed up some diced onion, mushrooms, and a touch of garlic (my standby) in olive oil, then added some pepper flakes and black beans I had in the freezer (i usually don't use a whole can at once and have found freezing whatever I don't use for later to be super handy). Spiced it all up and let it simmer with a little water until it thickened and cooked down nicely. It didn't take too long to thicken.

I warmed some soft taco shell in the microwave between damp paper towels, then topped with my black bean/mushroom mix, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, and some black olives. Then served it along side some nacho chips and salsa. (Vegan, with the exception of the shredded cheese although that is getting easier to substitute or replace with something else.) Bring on the yumminess!

"Cruelty must be whitewashed by a moral excuse, and pretense of reluctance." ~George Bernard Shaw

Simple, Yet Hearty

The lastuple days I've been in one of those moods where I have wanted hearty food that is fairly simple to make. Last night I had to be at the theater so I fixed up a toasted cheese sandwhich (on a nice whole grain bread) and made a homemade vegetable soup out of the selection of vegetables from leftover, frozen, and fresh vegetables, mushrooms and rice that I had around. I thickened it a little with a seasoned flour I keep around and spiced it up. It made an easy take-along in a plastic-lidded container to the theater.

For lunch I sauteed up some onion and spinach with peirogies I had in the freezer. Dinner was a simple parmesan pasta with some spinach and mushrooms thrown in, served along salad with homemade croutons and some garlic bread.

"Drinking without being thirsty and making love at any time, Madame, are the only things that distinguish us from other animals." ~Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro, 1784, translated

Happy New Year

I haven't forgotten, it's just been a rather busy time with the holidays and all the family stuff that goes around it. For Thanksgiving I made my own version of a Portabella Wellington for my Grandpa and myself and for Christmas dinner I made something between a Portabella Wellington and a Meatless Shepard's Pie inside the puffed pastry I had leftover from Christmas. Both are things I will probbaly try again.

The last couple days I have been back to my cooking self, making sure I had stuff tucked away in the freezer for my upcoming show. I made bulgar/black bean chili and black beans and rice. (Both with extra helpings in the freezer.)

Today, I decided to make the meatless version of the sandwhich the fast food chains wish they could make. My not sausage biscuit breakfast-inspired sandwhich. I made two biscuits (we keep the kind in the freezer where you can make one or the whole bag) and two Morningstar "sausage" patties with a single egg scrambled with a couple sliced mushrooms, a bit of green onion, salt, pepper, and a dash of milk, topped with a small bit of cheese. The mushrooms and green onion made a nice addition to the sandwhich. Served with apple slices it made a nice lunch.

"You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ode to Almond Butter

Yesterday, I baked. I was flipping through one of my cookbooks ("Table for Two" a dairy and egg free cookbook) and was debating on making the recipe for peanut butter cookies (vegan at that). But instead of using good old fashioned peanut butter I went to another pantry favorite of mine- almond butter. I discovered it while living at a youth camp where I worked as finding new ways to keep things on hand that were meat-free and tasty. I started using it part of the time on my pancakes instead of peanut butter (a family favorite) and even got my foreign vegetarian roommate embracing it on pancakes as well. The cookies turned out great and just the right amount when you are cooking for yourself. Of course everyone else in my family looked at me like I was nuts making cookies without butter or eggs. Yummy.

"God made all the creatures and gave them our love and our fear,

To give sign, we and they are His children, one family here".~Robert Browning