Weekly Eats Two (1/18 - 1/24)

Lunch/Dinner: Crowd Pleasing Vegan Caesar Salad

I was craving something hearty and healthy, so I settled on this amazing vegan Caesar salad. I have made a few different vegan variations of this salad - but this one might by my favorite yet! All it takes is prepping some chickpea croutons, cashew Caesar dressing, and vegan nut parm. Then all it takes is tearing up some up lettuce and kale for individual salads! To streamline the prep even more, I made the parm in my mini food processor and then made the dressing in the same one to reduce clean up and make things easier. If you want to bulk up/stretch these salads even more, add some cooked vegan chick'n scallopini (which happens to be gluten free and vegan) to your salads. They cook up quickly and make a delightfully protein rich addition to this dish!

Dinner: One-Pot Pasta Diavolo

This one-pot pasta not only required little equipment, but the ingredient list was short as well, making it ideal for any weeknight. I was slightly skeptical about the coconut milk-tomato sauce, but it was perfect with a ton of garlic, Italian herbs, and red pepper. My only forewarning about this dish is watch it closely! It can go from good to burnt very quickly. I would honestly just stand over the pot with tongs, turning it every couple of minutes, to ensure even cooking and no burning. I am definitely planning on doing this next time :) Overall, a very flavorful, easy pantry meal that goes great with garlic bread!

Dessert: Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprint Cookies with Potato Chips

You must know by now - I will use any occasion to bake something for anybody. To celebrate the birthday of one of my best friend's, he requested these exquisite, but easy to make cookies. I know they sound ridiculous, but trust me - they are the perfect combination of sweet and salty. To make gluten/dairy free, I used; vegan butter in place of the butter & a mixture of (1/2 C sorghum flour, 1/2 C tapioca starch, 1/2 C millet flour, 3/4 tsp xanthan gum) for the flour. I dare say these turned out much better than the first time I made them, and everyone was raving over them the first time around! 

Breakfast: GF Buckwheat Waffles

Since last year's five day snow and ice storm, I've declared it a tradition to make waffles the first morning of the storm. Last year I made chocolate chip buckwheat waffles, so naturally this year I went with straight up buckwheat waffles. These come together in a flash and hold up to any toppings you'd like! I love the gorgeous dark color that buckwheat flour gives baked goods. We topped ours with vegan butter, agave (forgot the maple syrup before the storm!), and maple sugar. Do you have a dish that you make during snow days? I'd love to know!

Dinner: Vegan Queso Blanco Bowls with Pintos, Crispy Kale + Brown Rice

This recipe comes from Isa Does It, or what I will forever refer to as my Vegan Bible. I am trying not to eat out as much lately, so I decided to make our Mexican food this week instead of going out for some; this also had to do with us being snowed in for 4 days. The bowls consist of brown rice, pinto beans (made from scratch), diced tomato, crispy kale, and the most outrageous vegan queso blanco made from cashews. I've made this queso once before as an appetizer and it's nothing short of perfect. These bowls come together quickly and will gladly satisfy any Mexican/Chipotle cravings that you might be having! 

Overview: I stuck to my meal plan (yay!) and cooked every meal this week, except for one outing the night before the snow storm. I spent a minimal amount on groceries at the store, using all of my tips from work plus a very small amount of cash. This is in part due to cooking my beans from scratch instead of buying organic canned at the store. Tip: I cooked these overnight in my mini slow-cooker while I slept (takes between 8-10 hours), so it was hands-free to make these basically! The only thing I would like to improve upon this week is making more snacks to take to work.

Ideas for this week: apple pie granola bars & Cajun hummus for snacks; crunchy black bean tacos; tortilla soup; spicy tofu stew over polenta; miso-curry roasted delicata squash with kale and tofu over jasmine rice

(663) too little time

if it isn't already obvious, I have been quite busy and a little under stress lately. I am having a bit of a problem with managing my time properly between three extremely challenging, fast-paced, and work-loaded courses. I'm just thankful that I only go to class four days out of the week. I am just always tired for whatever reason. I try to drink black tea, take naps, even go to bed early but it doesn't help much. I'm sure it will get better soon! I also will be trying to exercise again soon.

organic refried black bean tostadas with homemade pico de gaillo on sprouted corn tortillas (Cookie + Kate)

caramelized onion soup with fresh thyme and vegan jack cheese toasts (Tamar Adler via Everyday Food)

curried spinach and tofu (instead of paneer) over jasmine rice (Martha Stewart)

gnocchi/new favorite sorbet/organic local zebra tomato

Bubo 2010 Zinfandel

Bohemian Highway 2009 Merlot

Big House Red/Tracker's Crossing Shiraz/Bubo Cabernet Sauvignon

baked strawberry oatmeal (A Cozy Kitchen)

 I found out that I don't like gnocchi. sweet potato gnocchi with a lemon-thyme butter sauce

vegan chocolate sorbet

I also found out that I don't like dandelion greens because they are far too bitter. chickpeas with dandelion greens (Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Everyday)

Rigby makes everything better

(641) too busy on a break

so my spring semester of classes are over and I'm proud to say that I finished with all A's for the entire year! I'm sure this will be quite impossible once I transfer to UNCG but I am still pleased with myself. but to elaborate more on this title, I had about a week and some change before summer classes start (next Wednesday) and I have been pretty damn busy for being on a break. I have been reading a lot, which is lovely, drinking lots of tea, watching too many films, cooking here and there, and buying too much from Whole Foods (but never enough, really). I am almost done with "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles" by Haruki Murakami, which I've sadly been trying to read since January. I will then start "Salem's Lot" by Stephen King because to me, summer is synonymous with Stephen King and his great horror novels. I am trying to read more and more. I really fell out of reading this semester due to biology taking up so much time and training at work. Really great films I've discovered thus far over my break have been: The Third Man (1949), Cruel Intentions (1999: guilty pleasure #9), Blow-Up (1966: cinematography worthy only), Irreversible (2002), Fish Tank (2009), and Death Becomes Her (1992). Enough prattling on, though, I have recipes to talk about! 

So I finally ventured out and made oven fries. It always seemed like a daunting task to me, or one could only be perfected by some. I used this recipe as my "guide" and made them, and they were great! I really liked them thinly sliced because they got very soft and fluffy inside.

My family celebrated Cinco De Mayo a day late. We adapted these burritos to be gluten free and vegan. They were amazing and I didn't feel bad about eating things like kale, mushrooms, corn, peppers, and squash with brown rice. I used Daiya's pepperjack wedge, which I found to like more than the Daiya shreds. It will also be used on a pizza this weekend!

This week has been a week of me trying new things. I have finally made curry, in the form of coconut red curry noodle soup. This counts for many new things I've never made besides curry: soup, using fresh lemongrass (which is very strange to chop), and it used shirataki noodles, which are made from tofu. I really loved this soup but I found I needed to give it a hefty splash of GF soy sauce. I will use shirataki noodles in more asian-inspired soups from now on, as they are a little thicker but still delicious. Trying new things has been really lovely!

Being a somewhat vegetarian (or as much as possible), sometimes I have to make myself eat things like fish or even the occasional chicken. I am not a HUGE tuna fan, even when it is sustainable caught $1.40 canned tuna, but I still try to eat these things for protein. We probably have about 50 Martha Stewart everyday food magazines lying in our house, where I stumbled upon this tuna + white bean salad.

Two more new things: eating cooked millet and broccolini. I adapated this lovely stir-fry from one of my favorite blogs and used broccolini because I am honestly a little sick of asparagus right now (though I will be eating some later). I think this recipe would easily be adapted to every season and its corresponding vegetables. I topped mine with a little extra soy sauce, sriracha, and a heavy dose of red pepper flakes. As you can see, my mother and I have not mastered the art of cooking millet, and ours turned out a bit mushy. It's still delicious though! I bet short grain brown rice or even quinoa would be a great substitute here as well!


Also, I tag my posts as vegan and vegetarian because there are usually options for both types of eating on my blog. Please do not get offended, like some have, that I do this. I try to make the things I post accessible to everybody. I am quite aware of what constitutes something to be vegan or vegetarian. Just thought I would say this because some apparently think it's not allowed to do so!

(605) whole foods market

some amazing things have been going on this week. I've been in whole foods training here and there. saturday I will be working in winston (how nerve-wracking!!) to train on register etc before we open. I am so excited but a little nervous. I am more happy/grateful to work for such a great company. I have been meeting some really cool new people who share my love for food and excitement for whole foods in general. we open in less than a week...I can hardly believe it or wait!

something strange has also been happening...as time goes on, I find myself eating less and less meat. I'm also cutting down on my sugar drinks/popsicles etc. (save for sweet treats that I make!). I notice that most of my tabbed recipes are either vegetarian or pretty much vegan. this recipe for lemony collard greens pasta. I already love olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes together...but this is so spicy and delicious. it's perfect. I used toasted almond slivers instead of  pine nuts and it was out of this world. I'm still drooling over it. my free collard greens from WF were put to great use!

on that same "vegetarian" note, I find myself buying more and more produce, like this beautiful rainbow chard. the vibrant colors really caught my eye and it was less than $3 (and organic). I would've been crazy to not walk out of the store with it. today, I can proudly say, I bought 80% grocery items instead of processed/frozen/prepared/sushi etc. I'm starting to make more conscious decisions when it comes to food shopping, using the same ingredients in different dishes, etc. it's really important to consider these things. I was just reminded of this recent post from the little red house which I really loved. "The Everlasting Meal" cookbook is also high on my to-buy list.

this week I've had to tell myself to relax. make a smoothie for myself, lay in bed with Rigby, and read a book. don't let things stress me out. smoothies have really helped to clear my head and make me feel better in general. this was another "super spinach" one from Joy the Baker. 
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Sweet
- banana almond smoothie
- chocolate espresso cupcakes
- salty chocolate chip oatmeal cookies
- mini coconut chocolate chip cookies

Savory
- orange cocoa nib/ grilled zucchini /avocado salad
- jalapeno + kale marinated lime tostada
- asparagus frittata
- herbed bread
- black bean + plantain burgers
- watercolor easter eggs + "egg salad" sandwich
- sweet potato veggie burgers
- pasta with olives, tomatoes + raisins
- arugula lemon breadcrumb pasta