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

Trying Something New with Old Fav's

I had rehearsal tonight and went early to work on some costume things (that I have managed to get myself put in charge of). I knew I went be there awhile and when I made lunch I went ahead and packed myself a dinner. Now anyone who knows me, probably knows that I love food and enjoy eating. I love flavor and trying new things. I made a mushroom rice (with little pieces of sliced mushroom stems in it) then lighted sauteed some a garlic clove. I added a little balsamic vinaigrette I had in the refrigerator to the garlic and oil and let it all mix and warm. I cleaned and removed the stems from a couple small portabella mushrooms (about 2 inches in diameter) and placed in a small baking dish with the bottoms up. Then poured over the garlic/balsamic mixture. I roasted the mushrooms for about 20 minutes at 450 degrees. Then sliced a few carrot sticks and another small glove of garlic (its great for the immune system) and sauteed them. It was yummy even reheated at the theater. I packed some olives, a bottle of water, and some mini cookies to go with it. Definitely made the evening go easier. Oven roasting the mushrooms like that may also have become a new favorite (I use a lot of mushrooms at times). Sometimes its entertaining to me how non-veggies will look at what I am eating (or smell in cooking or reheating in the microwave) and look and comment and sometimes even drool a little. It's great to try something new and LOVE it. It makes me kind of want to experiment with preparing vegetables in all sorts of ways that I may not yet have tried. In the meantime I think I may curl up with a nice steaming bowl of homemade French onion soup (leftovers form the other night). Yummy yummy in my tummy.