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Meal Planning for May 29-June 1

29 May

I thought I would ease back into posting with some meal planning, which, frankly, is probably more interesting for me than you. Baby steps!

Here’s what I intend to consume and feed my diabetic this work week:

Breakfasts

  • For me: Tofu scramble; banana
  • For him: Multi-Grain Cheerios with almond milk

Lunches

  • For me: Vegan cornbread casserole
  • For him #1: Asian Noodle Salad with Shirataki instead of pasta
  • For him #2: Hummus with carrots and celery; strawberries

Dinners

  • Tuesday: Free vegan sausages from a nearby bar (but really)
  • Wednesday: Vegan white chili; pineapple
  • Thursday: Vegan white chili; pineapple
  • Friday: Mushroom-barley risotto

I will share the cornbread casserole recipe later this week — it’s a winner!

What’s on your menu this week?

 

Vegan on the go

15 Mar

I promise to write more about the wine country honeymoon soon, but I’m pressed for time at the moment and wanted to get a post up so as not to abandon you!

Anyway, we got home late on Monday and, therefore, did not do a big grocery shop this week. Poor little me was forced to grab my lunch on Tuesday. The winner: Whole Foods in Santa Monica. Holy freakin’ crap is that place HUGE. I’ve never seen such a thing! I wish I had known in advance that it would be a photo-worthy event. I opted for the “hot bar” ala the hungriest of hippies, though I realized after that everyone I got was actually cold. Behold:

That’s about a pound and a half of vegan deliciousness. At the bottom is a kale salad and a Swiss chard salad, a little macaroni salad, then lemon pasta, artichoke hearts, marinated mushrooms on black quinoa, tempeh salad, and grilled summer squash and asparagus. Overall I liked my lunch, but I definitely went overboard on all the flavors, which frankly didn’t combine well. I will be wiser next time, and possibly will just opt for the vegan pepperoni pizza and a salad. I can’t wait to come back, though!

I was exhausted that night, so dinner was more takeout, this time from my vegan love Doomie’s Home Cookin’. I rolled with the Country Fried Steak, which came with mashed potatoes, a roll, and an unpictured side salad:

It was really, really good! The texture of the “steak” was very chewy but also incredibly reminiscent of the Village Inn variety I used to consume on a regular basis (God help me). The vegan ranch dressing for my salad was creamy and loaded with dill, which I loved. I ate half the steak and potatoes and saved the rest for Wednesday’s lunch.

Mr. X ordered the Southern Fried Chicken, which also included a roll, mashed potatoes, corn, and unpictured beef curry soup:

The “drumstick” was decent, but the faux white meat was delicious! The curry soup was also quite good, though it was a strange choice to accompany our Southern meal. That’s the man I married, though.

The best news about this meal is that it was seitan/vital wheat gluten-heavy and I didn’t get a stomach ache! Typically I feel ill within a few hours of consuming the stuff, but not this time. Hurray! That means some more fun experiments will be coming to my kitchen soon.

Have you had any odd or interesting restaurants lately? What is the one omnivorous food you miss (or would miss most) as a vegetarian/vegan? My mister made a request for vegan ribs, so I intend to tackle this recipe very soon.

Recent eats

7 Mar

I’ve definitely gotten behind on food posting, darn it, so prepare for a brain dump.

Restaurants

The day before my wedding, Mom and I went to the downtown flower market (you must do this if you live in LA!) to, well, get flowers for my wedding. I did a ton of reading on Yelp about the best way to approach it, and several different commenters said you must go to Urth Caffe after. So we did:

They are famous for the above-pictured Spanish lattes (cringe at Anglicized pluralizing of an Italian word), so I ordered one dolce-style (less strong, since at the time I was trying to cut back on caffeine). It was incredibly delicious! It’s made with milk and sugar, so it’s decadent, but if you’re a coffee lover looking for a treat, order one!

I was in the mood for something light (e.g. not a massive omelette), so I ordered the Urth Breakfast:

It is “A butter croissant with the choice of Brie, Jarlsberg, Feta or Gouda, butter & jam.” I chose gouda and blackberry jam, and didn’t use any of the butter. My mom apparently panicked and ordered the same thing, plus a “side” of fruit:

Massive and glorious! This breakfast was absolutely perfect on a temperate morning after wheeling and dealing over flowers. (Did I mention that I got enough fiori for my bouquet and another huge arrangement for $20? Pictures to come in another post.) The croissant was flaky and decadent, and the cheese and jam were just perfect together. I will definitely be back!

Another recent restaurant meal was at my fave, Native Foods. I decided to try something new and went with the Rockin’ Moroccan Bowl:

“Your choice of tofu or Native Chicken marinated in our homemade Moroccan sauce with grilled veggies and quinoa. Topped with currants and toasted almonds.” I chose the faux chicken. It came with an accidentally free side of schweet pertater fries plus the watermelon agua fresca I ordered. This dish was delicious, and the mister even declared it his new fave. It’s pretty massive, which is what he demands in food.

Homemade meals

Not too long ago, I made a quick loaf of bread based on a recipe from Vegan on the Cheap:

It was tasty and bready and super easy. I then ate it for breakfast topped with flavorful Dijon mustard and half of a small avocado:

LOVE THIS. Could eat it every day, no lie. In fact, I probably will eat it every day next week. Holla!

I also made a bean/grain loaf:

I kept meaning to share the recipe, but so much time has passed that I can’t remember the proportions. Isn’t that sad? Truth be told, while it was tasty, it is also lacking in the cohesive department, so I should really do another trial run first anyway. It contains chickpeas, lentils, and quinoa, and I liked it best topped with barbecue sauce.

Training food

I went to another training last week that had an incredible lunch spread:

This Mexican-inspired meal was catered by Homegirl Cafe (read about them — they’re pretty amazing) and was totally vegan! There was also a chicken option, but otherwise, there was nary a dairy nor meat in sight. What you see is their House Salad (“Spring mix, jicama, apple, roasted pumpkin seeds.  Citrus vinaigrette.”), black beans, green rice, and Potato & Grilled Tofu taco innards (three little corn tortillas are in the foil up top) with pico de gallo. SO FREAKING GOOD. I am now dying to visit the actual cafe.

Packaged food

I have been having a love affair with Pop Chips lately. I could eat them every day, though I don’t. They are not a health food, since no chip is, but as things go, they are certainly less bad.

And they’re cute. I usually jam to the jalapeno ones, but I recently tried (because I only recently found) the salt and vinegar variety:

I love these! I would be hard pressed to pick a fave between the two, so it’s great to have a variety.

And lastly, Trader Joe’s recently brought back Cookie Butter, so I had to jump on the blogger bandwagon and get in on the action:

Atop some TJ’s crackers. Speaking of crackers, this stuff is like crack. I keep it at work for snacking, tucked in a drawer so I only remember it’s there occasionally.

So that’s a smattering of my recent eats. I am leaving for my honeymoon tomorrow in wine country and hope to do at least a quick photo post over the weekend. If not, I certainly hope you’ll understand that I’m otherwise occupied. ;)

Reception menu

1 Mar

Sorry for the radio silence, but I’ve been up to no something really good:

Yep, I got married! It was the happiest day of my life, folks. Seriously.

The view didn’t hurt, either.

I will do a more thorough wedding post when I have professional pictures, but I did want to acknowledge the big day.

On that note, I am finalizing my menu for this weekend’s local reception (live in LA and want to come? Leave me a comment!) and wanted some advice. I am guessing we’ll have 20 people in attendance, and while I don’t want to serve a full dinner, I do want enough nibbles for everyone. Here are my thoughts so far:

  • Nacho Bites (modified slightly)
  • Chips and salsa
  • Fruit salad with orange-mint dressing
  • Seasonal roasted veggie salad with pesto dressing
  • Either hummus or bean dip
  • Cookies and/or cupcakes and/or brownies

Who has an opinion to share? I would love to hear from you! I want to keep it easy, healthy, and delicious!

Mendocino and Babycakes

15 Feb

I have been obsessed with Mendocino Farms lately, and I must blame Lynn for it. And thank her heartily.

Here’s the menu. So far, I have tried the: Tempeh Bacon Melt (excellent), Vegan Spicy Soyrizo & Black Bean Wrap (very good), Traditional Vegan Club (my fave, below)

Vegan Picnic Sandwich (my second fave), and the Caprese (with veggies added, below).

There are only two meat-free options left that I haven’t tried, and the only one that doesn’t appeal to me is the Drunk’n Goat on Highway 128. I’m not really into chutneys on a sandwich, but I’m sure my perfectionist nature will win out eventually. I recommend anything from Mendocino that involves their tempeh bacon. I’m borderline obsessed with it. It is smoky and delicious without trying to hard to taste like dead pig.

I really need to do a full Mendocino review, but I will have to wait until I manage to photograph their delicious side dishes. Somehow they almost always disappear before I remember to whip out my picture-taking device . . .

Also on the menu this weekend were some vegan treats from Babycakes.

That’s a maple doughnut and a Wonder Bun (gluten-free and like a denser cinnamon roll). Both were incredible! We polished them off for breakfast Saturday morning.

All hail the “Eat Me” plate.

What is your favorite breakfast pastry? I’m a cinnamon fiend, so a big, doughy roll is my fave.

Lunches (and more) of late

14 Feb

Hello again! I am blogging today from my new iPhone because I can. Yahoo! So let’s talk random eats of late, shall we?

Last week, I attended a training in Pasadena where they served us lunch and snacks. That’s my kind of place. Breakfast:

Multiply the black coffee by two. This bar was borderline wretched, I hate to say. I mean, I ate it, but I only barely choked it down.

Lunch, luckily, was a lot better:

Salad with some kind of feta-based dressing and apples, dried cranberries, avocado, and other surprises; a veggie sandwich with sun-dried tomato spread and the usual suspects; and fresh fruit. I was very impressed by the options. I could have skipped the salad and had a vegan feast.

Later (as in 10 minutes), I enjoyed this slice of banana (?) bread with more coffee:

Pretty tasty, though I’m not 100% that it was banana. The spices dominated any fruit flavors.

Last week, I also had the world’s most random lunch:

Chips, salsa, and leftover curried orzo salad from Mendocino Farms (more on that tomorrow). Tt was surprisingly good but, yeah, weird.

Another lunch from last week, thanks to my favorite natural foods store:

Oh Rainbow, how right you usually are and how very, very wrong you were that day. The accoutrements flanking the burrito were delicious. I’m a little obsessed with both this Pop Chips flavor and the Hansen’s root beer. The burrito, however . . .

Was putrid. The tortilla was weirdly sticky, and everything inside tasted off…or just plain awful, really. Blech. How do you screw up black beans, Cheddar, cabbage, and carrot? I have no idea, but this thing was inedible. A coworker asked me if I was eating apple pie because it smelled so strange. I wish that I had been.

Have you eaten anything recently that didn’t taste as good as you hoped?

Super Bowl Snacks

1 Feb

2012 will be my second year watching the Super Bowl ever. My first was last year. Mr. X and I were fresh into our relationship, and the idea of being away from him for 10 minutes at a time was heartbreaking, so I did my best to get interested. Over the past year — after asking a lot of pretty stupid questions — I have come to understand the game play a whole lot better than I ever did as a high-school cheerleader. Sometimes I make astute observations, and I’m always instrumental in changing the sexist/homophobic slurs used against the teams and players into something sillier and more appropriate.

We haven’t yet decided what to do for the game — shall we stay home and watch a pirated stream, go to a sports bar, invade a friend’s house . . . ? Unless we’re at a sports bar, I plan to whip up some goodies. Here’s a few ideas from the blogosphere that whet my appetite (and anything I don’t use might be recycled for my locals-only wedding reception/open house):

Peas and Thank You’s Black Bean and Roasted Corn Nacho Bites with Avocado Crema. These look incredible! All I need is a mini muffin tin.

Spabettie’s Quick Buffalo Dip looks perfect for a sports-themed party.

I am terribly intrigued by this Spicy Nori Popcorn Seasoning from Herbivoracious. We’re some popcorn-eating fiends over here.

And of course, something patriotic:

Lemon Berry Cake from Fragrant Vanilla Cake. So pretty, so fresh, so vegan, and so appropriate since it’s the red-white-and-blue Patriots taking on the red-white-and-blue Giants. As for my house, we worship the Giants. Amen.

What’s on your menu?

Pea-ing

31 Jan Close-up

Sorry, I couldn’t resist a pun (on a pun, actually).

It took months before it was my turn in the library queue, but I finally got my hands on a copy of Mama Pea‘s Peas and Thank You! I decided to tackle two of the recipes this week as a test drive. Behold breakfast:

Tea and a muffin. Before I get into the Pea biz, let’s talk about the tea. I made a quick Whole Foods run Sunday — my first since I moved to LA, believe it or not — and discovered that they had this delicious delight:

Celestial Seasonings‘ Nutcracker Sweet: “an irresistibly simple blend of fine black teas made more festive with creamy, nutty vanilla and just a pinch of cinnamon.” I was so excited to find this stuff!

Anyway, back to the food:

This little guy is a Blueberry Muffin with Streusel Topping from the aforementioned cookbook. It’s so cute and delicious!

As you can see, I didn’t go quite heavy enough on the streusel in an attempt to reduce the sugar and fat. If you do the same thing, I definitely recommend adding cinnamon to the batter. You can view the original recipe here, and below are the tweaks I made:

  • I used white whole wheat flour instead of whole wheat pastry. I don’t really know what the difference is, to be honest.
  • I subbed frozen bloobs for the fresh, and as a result followed the book’s instruction to add them to the muffin tin itself.
  • As I mentioned, I made about 1/3 less of the streusel topping than the recipe called for. Don’t do that. I also used turbinado for all the sugar in the recipe and canola oil instead of Earth Balance. These choices were totally fine.

I absolutely love these muffins! They are filling, considering how small they are, and have the perfect level of sweetness. I’m excited to work my way through the batch this week.

My second reci-pea is the Spicy African Peanut Stew:

The original recipe is here, and my changes are below:

  • I used freshly cooked chickpeas instead of canned. I swear I’ll never go back.
  • I used 1 rounded teaspoon ground ginger instead of 1 tablespoon of fresh.
  • I minced two massive garlic cloves and did not measure them.
  • I omitted the sweetener because I forgot about it.
  • Instead of 1 can light coconut milk (the store was out), I used half a can of full-fat and made up the difference with almond milk.

This stew is incredibly rich and delicious and full of fiber and protein. Plus, it was a great excuse to use my slow-cooker, which I love. I even used the general spice mix to make curry for Mr. X. Hopefully I can coerce him into sharing a picture this week.

Have you tried anything from this awesome cookbook? If so, what’s your favorite recipe? If not, what’s your go-to cookbook?

Lunching out

30 Jan

I apologize for my brief hiatus, but basking in the glow of my new engagement was something I couldn’t pass up. We’re actually getting married in 26 days, so this period will be very short-lived. I’ll be a married lady before I know it!

Anyway, I do have some foodie pics to share.

I was naughty last week and didn’t cook a single lunch for myself. So much for saving money!

On Monday, it was Rainbow for a juice (apple-cucumber-ginger), lentil vegetable soup, and a small salad (lettuce, mushrooms, carrots, beats, red bell pepper, sunflower seeds, and Follow Your Heart Vegan Lemon Herb dressing.

Wednesday brought me a delicious Yo Amigo Taco Salad from Native Foods Cafe: “A blend of romaine, cabbage, Native Taco Meat, and salsa fresca. Topped with corn, green onion, cilantro, and tortilla chip croutons. Served with our original creamy chipotle dressing on the side.” I added avocado for a buck. This salad was huge and heavenly and took me almost an hour to eat. Normally I consume my meals with the abandon of a ravenous wolf, but this salad was so dense and filling that I had to slow down. I couldn’t even eat all of it!

On Friday, I went back to my friend Rainbow for some hot-bar action. More than half a pound of roasted Brussels sprouts, tofu chili, and a Hansen’s root beer. I brought some fine aromatics into the office, fo’ sho’.

Um, yeah, Fatburger fat fries may have been dinner one migrained night.

There has been plenty of tea, too, with happy messages. So timely. :)

I was back to the kitchen this weekend, however, so I’ll have some homemade yummies and a recipe to share starting tomorrow.

Duchess of Sandwich

19 Jan

I’ve been having food cravings lately. Namely, I want sandwiches pretty much constantly. I honestly find this a little sad. Sandwiches are awesome and all, but there’s a whole world of other kinds of food out there that just don’t particularly appeal to me at the moment. It’s a phase that’ll pass, but in the meantime, I’ve been giving in a lot recently.

Last week, I made a really awesome wrap:

And clearly, I almost ate it entirely before I remembered to snap a pic.

It was a tofu-cilantro spread with broiled zucchini. So good! The tofu recipe was from Student’s Go Vegan Cookbook, but I don’t have a blender yet (tear), so it was modified from a dip to a chunky filling. Essentially you just mash 1/3 of a block of silken tofu with a bunch of cilantro, garlic, lime juice, optional olive oil, salt and pepper. I bet it’s yummy pureed, but I thought it was great this way, too, and I’m not normally a silken tofu enthusiast. The zucchini was very simple: cut into thin spears, toss with a little olive oil and salt and pepper, and broil on a cookie sheet until it browns. I flipped halfway through, and it took about 10 minutes. Delicious!

Yesterday, I bought a sammie from The Curious Palate. I’d show it to you, but my memory card is suddenly not working and I’m too angry to troubleshoot. Here’s someone else’s photo, though:

(from Kristie Manning.)

It was the Florentine minus olives: “goat cheese, baby artichokes, roasted tomatoes, spinach, avocado & Moroccan olives on 5-grain w/ balsamic vinaigrette.” It’s a truly delicious sandwich.

It comes with a quinoa salad that I never eat because it contains either olives or raisins and a housemade pickle. I ate half of it, despite my general pickle dislike, but it was too salty. I also enjoyed OJ that was freshly squeezed and delicious. I haven’t been getting enough fruit in my diet lately.

Today’s lunch is a little sad: Peanut butter on bread. Yep. It’s tasty but not exactly mind-blowing. However, two lunches out during the week is definitely a spending limit for me, so expect something similar tomorrow. On the side I had a “salad” of organic romaine (that I washed in the bathroom sink) and miso dressing (that I stole from a co-worker — sorry!). No pic because my phone’s acting cray cray. Also, it was the lamest lunch ever. I ate each piece of bread separately to slow down my normal eating speed.

Tonight, though, I’m making homemade pizza! Vegan for me; vegetarian for him. I can’t wait!

Are you in a food rut? What’s your poison?

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