I'm Addicted to Greens

I love leafy greens. Kale, chard, spinach, they're all fantastic. And today has been full of them. I had chard for breakfast and now I'm having quinoa and spinach for lunch.

I listened to Episode 101 of the Vegan Freak Podcast today and they highly recommended eating a varied diet. Now, this is what I usually do anyway, but it can never hurt to get a little reminder. Varying the vegetables I eat and not always relying on tofu for protein are great tips to keep in mind, not just to make sure I'm getting a healthy variety of nutrients, but to keep from getting bored as well. Lucky for me I never find veggies, grains, and legumes boring. How could I when there are such infinite combinations?

A Special Treat

I never buy food. Or, I guess what I mean is that I never get takeout. It's so much more economical and (usually) relaxing to buy plenty of dry staples, vegetables, and spices and create something new at the end of each day. But today was especially draining. I had two midterms in one day and the last one finished at 8 PM. Thus, I was not really in the mood to make dinner.

Instead I splurged on a three-course sushi dinner. My three roll combination (cucumber and shiitake, cucumber and avocado, and avocado and peanut) came with a salad with the most delicious dressing. I'm not entirely sure what it was, but I'm fairly sure it featured carrot, ginger, and sesame, along with probably some vinegar. I paired them with miso soup I already had at home and was perfectly set with my indulgent three-course meal. There's nothing like relaxing at home with sushi in your sweatpants after a long and stressful day.

Further Delaying My Homework:

Curry.

I went to a meeting for work tonight that was to include dinner, and while my boss is usually really good about making sure there's vegan food, tonight was an exception. Therefore, when I finally got home at eleven it was not time to do more homework, but rather time to finally have something to eat.

And this is what came out. A Thai-style red curry with tofu, orange peppers, green beans, and broccoli. I must say that I don't eat tofu as often as my blog might make it seem, but when I get a package, it needs to get eaten up within a few days. That and the fact that my tofu dishes always seem to be the ones that are most worth photographing.

Never Go In With A Plan

The selection of vegetables at my local grocery store is a total crapshoot. One day they may have baby bok choy and shiitake mushrooms, and the next they may not even have red bell peppers. That's why trying to plan a recipe you're going to have for dinner that night is next to impossible. For example, this afternoon I thought that I would have a shiitake, tofu, and bok choy stir fry with a spicy black bean sauce, based on the availability of all of those ingredients in the past. When I got there, of course, they had neither the mushrooms, nor the bok choy. It was time for Plan B.

Plan B, which is how I do 99% of my cooking, is just looking around to see what they have or what catches my eye and throwing something together based on that. I was in a mustard-y mood, so I decided to turn the tofu into a vehicle for mustard and serve it over some spinach. Hence, tofu encrusted in a mixture of semi-grainy dijon mustard and mustard seeds that I toasted myself and mixed in. It seems my motto is "For best results: improvise, improvise, improvise."

Viva TVP!

I don't usually buy meat substitutes, but yesterday I was craving gumbo with some faux-meat crumbles. Tonight I passed by a farmer's market on my way home. Because it was late in the day, the only thing left that really caught my eye were some banana peppers. I decided to stuff them with the TVP, onion, garlic, and serrano chiles for a deliciously spicy and semi-meaty tasting Mexican-inspired meal.

It looked so good coming out of the oven, that I actually cut into it before realizing that I hadn't taken a picture. Hence the destroyed corner of pepper number two. It was totally worth it.

Vegetables, My Not-So-Secret Love

Most people worry about how to cook so as to hide the fact that they're eating vegetables. Nonsense, I say. Let the vegetables take center stage. Allow that bok choy to come out in a viking hat and sing the aria to end all arias. Hell, you can barely even see that there are soba noodles under there and to be honest, I don't even think it needed them. Sometimes when I'm thinking about what I'm going to have for dinner, I imagine the vegetables in my refrigerator and ask myself "But what am I going to have with them?" And really, the answer could just as easily be "nothing."

Indulgence

So this cannot remotely be construed as healthy, but sometimes life just calls for a baked mac and "cheese." I made the "cheese" sauce from silken tofu, garlic, habanero, lemon juice, mustard, and turmeric and then baked it to bubbly deliciousness.

Studying for midterms is one time I don't feel the least regret about comfort foods.