Dinner!

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Later!

In about 2 hours I'll be boarding a plane for Dallas, off to visit my dear family (including my new little niece!).  It's always hard to leave my family here, though, especially when it's for 9 days!

This trip is not just any trip home, though.  I'll be spending time with my family until the 19th.  Usually after a good 5-6 day trip, I head back to MN.  But this time I'm treating myself to a second trip just for fun- because it's my birthday on the 20th!

On the 19th I'll fly to Vancouver, BC to visit my friend Sarah.  After enjoying her favorite spots, restaurants, and playing with her cat Theo, we'll head down to Seattle for a day and a half of vegan restaurant tourism.  Sarah knows all the best spots and we're planning on eating 4 times a day so that we can fit them all in.  I can't think of a better way to spend my birthday!

So I won't be posting full entries for a little while, but I will send in some random thoughts and pictures when I get a chance.  You know, like vegan donuts.  And a certain cute little baby.

My Weekend in Food

I kept meaning to post some of this yesterday, but here we are at the end of the weekend and I have a ton of pictures to share.

Yesterday I chilled out all day, knitting, reading, and snuggling with the dog and cats.  I left the house to give Mike and the kids a ride and grocery shop and that was it!

Lunch was awesome- the last of the leftover black beans and broth, pureed into a simple black bean soup.  The really exciting part was the toppings, though.  Avocado, green onions, cilantro, and crushed chips!

Today I was really excited to try making Karina's gluten free foccacia bread.  Her pictures look amazing and I haven't made Mike any bread in a while.  I made a few substitutions because I don't keep sorghum flour on hand, but other than that I stuck to the recipe.  Here's the dough going in the oven to rise.

I'd show you a finished product, too, except that the dog ate the whole damn thing before I could take a picture or taste it.  She is an evil beast sometimes.  Now she has a stomach ache and it serves her right.  How could she even reach this bread?  I had it WAY far back on the counter.  I think the cats helped her.

My lunch was a simple, but tasty butterbean soup with crackers.  I love butterbeans like you wouldn't believe.  Here they are cooked up with about 8 cloves of garlic, onion, carrots, celery, and lots of rosemary, thyme, and lemon.  It would have gone great with foccacia...

For dinner Mike and I went to Cat Man Do, a ew-ish Nepalese/Tibetan restaurant on Grand Ave.  I feel a bit like a traitor going there because we usually go to Everest, another Nepalese/Tibetan restaurant on Grand Ave.  I now know that I prefer Everest, but I had to try the new place!

We started with Pyaji, jalapeno and onion strips battered with chickpea flour and deep fried.  There is no way I could not love this dish.  Served with mango chutney and another sour/sweet red sauce.  Yes, we were playing Boggle in the restaurant.

Next I had a simple vegetable soup, which sounded pretty average on the menu and was really delicious.  It had asparagus, mushrooms, onions, other little veggies and herbs...and something.  I couldn't place any of the spices because no one really stood out.  But this was very flavorful!

Last, but not least were the momos, steamed dumplings filled with spinach, onions, and I think cabbage.  The momos were not as good as at Everest (these were a bit dry and not as tender), but were still tasty because dumplings totally rock.  I was just reading about the history and making of dumplings across Asia this morning, so I HAD to order these!

All in all, this weekend contained some pretty delicious food.  Maybe I'll get a chance to re-make the foccacia bread soon.

Mmmm. Coconut Milk!

I'm back in business.

I know I'm on the mend when I have the energy to practice yoga, make a huge batch of pho, and bake cookies.  Ah, normalcy.

The pho was rockin'!  Lemongrass, onion, garlic, mushrooms and jalapenos simmered with some Edward & Sons "Not-Beef" bouillon.  Thai Kitchen wide rice noodles, cilantro, mung bean sprouts, mint, green onions, and lime juice.  Yum!

After eating a ridiculous amount of soup, I needed a sweet treat.  The past week I've been nibbling on peanut butter with chocolate chips sprinkled on top.  Tonight I felt up to some baking, so I whipped up some of the gluten free chocolate chip cookies from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan.  I enjoyed them with a little glass of So Delicious Coconut Milk.


I sampled some of this milk about a month ago and fell in love.  Alas, I had to wait until the Co-op could actually order the product before I could take some home.  But now it's here and it's on sale!

Now, don't get scared that this is like drinking coconut millk from a can.  This is a whole different story.  This milk isn't thick and doesn't have something like 56 grams of fat per cup.  It has 5 grams.  And it doesn't taste strongly coconut-y either.  It's very mild, but still rich and delicious.  

Dipping cookies in it is heavenly!

The kitten likes it, too.

Noooooooo!!! Sick again!

Just when I was feeling great, the common cold strikes.  Everyone at work has had this and it only makes sense that Mike and I would get it after spending nearly 2 weeks fighting off the stomach flu.  

This time, though, I'm prepared.  It's like my body knew that I would not be up to cooking this week- Because yesterday I was a cooking machine.  I got bread, applesauce, brown rice, black beans, rasam soup, and lasagna made.  

If anything is going to knock off this cold, it's a piping hot rasam with all of these spices.

And WOW, was I happy to pop this lasagna in the oven for dinner tonight.  It was actually really easy to assemble yesterday.

Seriously Good Lasagna!

The Kale

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 yellow onion

6 cloves garlic

2 bunches of kale, stems removed and chopped

Bragg's or tamari to taste

Heat a large skillet over med-high heat.  Add the olive oil and onions and saute until transparent and lightly browned.  Add the chopped kale and garlic and put a lid on it.  Kale is done when it is bright green and tender.  Splash a little Bragg's or tamari on it until slightly salted.

The Ricotta

1 batch of Cashew Ricotta or Pine Nut Ricotta from Veganomicon

The Sauce

1 quart of homemade or store bought tomato sauce

The Noodles

1 box of Tinkyada gluten free lasagna noodles, uncooked

The Topping

1/2 (or more...) a block of Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella cheeze, shredded

In the bottom of a glass baking dish, pour 1/2 cup of sauce and 1/2 cup of water.  Layer dry lasagna noodles, ricotta, kale, and sauce until all ingredients are used, ending with tomato sauce on top.  Top with shredded cheeze.  You can put this in the fridge at this point and cook it tomorrow or put it in the oven now.  Bake at 400F for 30 minutes with foil or parchment loosely covering the top.

Now I can look forward to this in my lunch tomorrow, along with leftover green salad with carrots and cucumber.  

An Organic Weekend

For the last few days I've been at The Organic Farming Conference in LaCrosse, WI.  This is my second year attending and I'm just as impressed as last year.  

I'm also pleasantly surprised to reflect on my past frustrations about the absence of food in the political debates and find that things are a bit different this year.  Sure- there's no garden on the White House lawn yet.  But there are some new folks in charge and they care about high quality, sustainable food.  

This little spark of hope helps me not get too worked up about the sad state of our food system.  Perhaps next year at this time we won't be in the middle of the biggest food recall in America's history or watching commercials about how good high fructose corn syrup is.  

Okay- back to the conference.

The keynote speakers this year were AMAZING!  I'm a huge fan of Dr. Vandana Shiva.  She is ridiculously intelligent, totally radical, and can get her point across like nobody's business.  She's my hero!

Here's a little clip from her talk.  The quality is not great, but I couldn't resist capturing a bit of this lecture comparing pesticide companies to drug pushers!

Our next speaker was Dr. Alan Greene.  I think this man could convince Monsanto executives themselves to eat organic.  I've got a whole list of research articles I need to look up since his talk!

Other highlights:  Checking out People's Food Co-op (and eating their portobello burger!), browsing through hundreds of organic agriculture/gardening, sustainable living, and food books, and surviving a treacherous drive through a snowstorm.

My kitten plays the guitar

Since Trouble was a tiny kitten, she's had a naughty streak.  Lately she's taken to stealing my jewelry, digging in the compost bowl and playing the guitar early in the morning.  

Adorable, right?  Billie Cat likes to watch this strange performance.  The odd background noise you hear is the sound he makes while rubbing his gums on me and purring.