update

The following was my post- Thanksgiving update that I was supposed to post on 11-30-11...

The kitchen has been very, very busy coming up with menus for Thanksgiving and the work week.

For Thanksgiving, I was moderately pumpkin-ed out and completely exhausted, so I opted for an easy dish as I had two desserts I wanted to make for my aunt's holiday feast.

I made beansprout noodles (from a package) with artichokes and sundried tomatoes and a dry vermouth sauce.  The beansprouts wanted more liquid than I was prepared to give them, so the taste came out a little mellow.

Next time I'll be more conscientious of prepping the noodles better before hand.

The desserts were:

roasted almond and oat cookies

pumpkin bread

and for a bake sale done by the church of one of my co-workers (to whom I will be forever indebted for her fabulous thank you's when I made my cakes last year), I made chocolate cookies with chocolate and cherry chunks.

I really really do miss baking every week, but with not sleeping much any more, I don't think adding another "to do" to the list is a very good idea.  We'll see though... I'm thinking of a re-birth of cake30 for the New Year if I can get everything else under control and let go of a few of my obligations.

Here's what's going on in the kitchen now:

I'm full-fledged vegan as well as gluten and soy free.
It's making life interesting, especially since I've been doing a lot of traveling lately for both vacations and conferences. At the latest conference, I had three separate members of the wait and kitchen staff come up to me at different junctures to ask for recommendations as to what they should feed me. I feel badly for making people worry about what they're going to feed me, but it's empowering knowing how simple it all is- give me some rice and veggies. Give me fruit for dessert.
I'm not finicky. I'm just not going to eat things that don't make me feel good.
I'm going to try to come back with some more blogs and recipes for good and healthy food... I'm not anticipating another four month hiatus... and we'll be delving into some raw recipes as well.

See you soon!

tummy ache

holy poo!

My stomach kills and I spent far too much time in the kitchen last night.

I'm tired... but lots of good veggies... lots of decent ethnic food...
lots of... time for bed.

night.

11.14.11

For today:

Breakfast
Lots of coffee!
a couple coop energy squares

Lunch
Lentil soup
Egyptian potatoes

Dinner
Pineapple Rice
Some more egyptian potatoes
Water

Snack
Popcorn with oil and nutritional yeast.

I'm dying for a pumpernickel bagel with some sprouts and hummus... going to have to hunt some down soon-- or maybe a recipe... That could be good to bring into the fac next week... hmmm.

11.5-11.13

I miss my cake baking blog.

It felt like amid everything that was crazy and uncontrollable in this world, I had something that moored me... I had something good to offer the people I cared about.

I'm groundless now. The Veganism isn't the problem and running to baking and meat eating again won't be the solution.

The fact is that I bit off so much more than I can chew and my coping mechanisms haven't caught up yet. The cake baking was a coping mechanism- it was a touchstone to normalcy when the rest of the world spun out of control.

I'm picking up gratefulness as a substitution for baking and starting up something small and interesting at work to try and fill the baked goods void.

 I'm grateful for my thanksgiving cactus. I received this as a gift two years ago with a note not to kill it. Now it has nearly a dozen blossoms. Exciting!

I'm grateful for rosemary and other indoor herbs... for their resiliency... I think this guy has a comeback in him.

I'm grateful for good produce and good recipes....

Here's what's been on the plate lately and what I just finished cooking up today:

French Lentils with aromatics- from How to Cook Everything (Bittman).

Vegetables in curry sauce (veggies not pictured) from: http://www.ethnicvegan.com/easy_weeknight_vegetables_in_curry_sauce.html

 

Vegan Pad Thai- could have used more peanut sauce

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/thaifoodrecipes/r/veganpadthai.htm

Sunflower Butter Rice Crispies

http://www.singerskitchen.com/2011/10/sunflower-butter-rice-crispies-with.html

 

Pumpkin tart

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/dining/harvest-tart-with-pumpkin-roasted-red-peppers-and-olives-recipe.html

Veg galumpkis- super lazy (left over boiled cabbage and rice, jar sauce)

Roast potatoes and pumpkin with rosemary

Apple goodness- braised apples with raisins and pumpkin pie spice

Heavenly Pineapple Thai Rice

http://thaifood.about.com/od/thairecipesstepbystep/ss/pineapplerice.htm

Egyptian potato salad

http://www.singerskitchen.com/2011/08/egyptian-potato-salad-and-31-weeks.html

Vegan Spring rolls... modified from the following:

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/maindishentreerecipes/r/ThaiSpringRolls.htm

I'll be making more of these this week and take some pics, along with ratatouille from another Bittman book.

Two websites I'm relying on for a lot of recipes and I really appreciate: An Opera Singer in the Kitchen and Ethnic Vegan.

In addition to the above, I've been enjoying sprouted bread sprout and hummus sandwiches and toast with earth balance and homemade macaroons (dates, coconut and lemon juice) Yum!

10.29-11.4

So much deliciousness, so little time.

I did a lot of cooking last Sunday and into the beginning of the week. The only thing missing was protein and galumpkies... the cabbage is still chilling in the fridge waiting for me to stick it into some spring rolls.

The pumpkin tart that I did at the beginning of the week was super tasty/ pseudo addictive. Smushy pumpkin met roasted peppers and onions and salty olives and a flaky crust. Loved it... making it again to share with my vegan kids at work if I can find another pumpkin.

Did a second round of the tomato farro soup with basil. Not as amazing, but still salty, creamy and just enough garlic and basil to satisfy the savory. One of my work veggies tried it and loved it.
She also brought me in a vegan twix which was heaven. We figured that the caramel recipe was a little off- way too much liquid, left it runny and took her forever, so caramel is on the docket for this weekend.

The squash risotto wasn't a smash hit. Here's why: recipe called for 1/2 cup of white wine, but by then, I was sick of reading recipes and just free poured in some carmenere. Far too much, so it overwhelmed everything.


Did some cranberry sauce- could have used more sweet to balance it.

Roasted the left over pumpkin with potatoes... could live on it.


We started with the trainer again the week before last, meaning if I'm spending coin trying to get in shape, I need to get better about food. More protein, more veggies, less nonsense.
Before I make any more promises I don't wind up keeping, I'm going back to tracking what goes into my mouth more closely and modifying little by little.

Here's what's on the burners for this weekend:
spring rolls
Thai pineapple fried rice
Pad Thai
Sunflower butter crispies
Pumpkin Tart take two
Caramel sauce

And maybe clearing off the coffee table- you don't even want to see the office...