Fall Saturday - Farmer's Market and Banana Bread

Incredibly beautiful Fall day here in NC - blueblue skies, yellow leaves blowing, and it's about 70 degrees!  Finally wrestled my DH from bed this morning when I mentioned the Farmer's Market. :) We got, of all things: raspberries, field peas, beets, turnips, mums and a pumpkin!  The mums and pumpkin are for decoration out front - already in place! I love quick and compostable decorations!

I think I'll boil up the field peas for lunch and add some of our summer frozen corn to them - we love the two mixed together with salt and pepper. Maybe a small dab of margarine.

We are planning to roast the beets and turnips.

Best part of this morning is that I wanted to clean out some of the freezer and found three individually wrapped bananas that had gotten soft and I had been saving up for ?? months just for this moment!  Found this awesome banana bread recipe from my favoritest cookbook author, Ms. Isa Moskowitz.  It's baking now. Smells lovely!

Hope you all are enjoying the day as much as we are!

Happy Vegan Month of Food!

Hi folks,

That's right, it's the Vegan Month of Food! And this is the first time this month I have posted! :P

Tonight's quick Mexican meal warrants no space on the page.

I didn't post for a bit because we traveled two weekends in a row. The first weekend in October was our wedding anniversary! We stayed in Winston-Salem (NC) where we ate at Mary's Of Course, with a couple of nice vegan options.  We also hit Foothills Brewing Co. and Mellow Mushroom.  Overall, very lovely anniversary.

The second weekend in October, we visited family in the DC/Maryland area. I rode the Amtrak train from Cary, NC to Washington, DC and found that my dining car had TWO vegan options! One nice salad with a couscous side, and a vegan veggie burger (labelled as vegan on the menu.) Go Amtrak!

This morning I made the Wheat-Meat Stroganoff from Vegan Planet... Nom!  My husband doesn't like mushrooms, so I have to saute them on the side and add them to my half. We made the seitan last night at home using a small box of wheat gluten.

This vegan month of food for us will most likely include an apple pie, several winter squash recipes, chili, soups, sweet potato and black bean enchiladas, roasted fall vegetables, and more!

Cheers to you all and many a delish fall meal we wish you! Don't forget to buy local and seasonal when possible!

Ethiopian Food!

A couple of nights ago I finally had most of the ingredients to make some Ethiopian food. We had to get red lentils at Whole Foods, couldn't find them at our usual grocery store. We also bought a bag of frozen chopped collards, thanks to a tip from a friend. This definitely makes a weeknight dinner more doable!

For the red lentil stew recipe, we turned to vegweb.com, and it's entitled Mesir W'et. Amazing amount of spices!  For our greens, I found a recipe here (http://www.ourlifeupstate.com/) that was entitled Ethiopian greens. Very easy with the frozen greens.

We didn't have time to make injera (the bread), so we had the stew over brown rice and split a piece of pita. It rocked! I really loved the flavors, and it just felt healthy! My body was very happy afterwards. I enjoyed using the pieces of pita to pick up the stew, too. It reminded me of time in Honduras, using tortillas to smush the beans and then pick them up.

The stew recipe called for berbere, an Ethiopian spice mix.  I couldn't think of where to get this.... an African market? I imagine there are some around here, but I hadn't ever noticed one. I used the alternate (one *teaspoon* of cayenne. Can't imagine a tablespoon!).  But then yesterday hit up Whole Foods for something else and found it!  So - for next time we will have the real thing!

I'll have to see if there are any other veganizable Ethiopian dishes to add to our repertoire.

Just as a note, last night we had the spicy tempeh sushi from Veganomicon! Yum! And tonight we are making broccoli and spinach fajitas, and having my FIL over again. :)  This weekend is our 1 year wedding anniversary and we'll be eating out a lot (staying out of town), so this week we had to cook!

Buen provecho everyone!

Eating Out!

Last night my husband and I met some friends out for dinner before a concert. We don't get to Remedy Diner in downtown Raleigh more often than every couple of months, so it was a real treat!  As usual, it was hard for me to pick a dish because there are so many vegan options! I settled on the Under the Volcano buffalo mock chicken sandwich. OMG.  I try not to eat processed soy foods too frequently, but that was a yummy sandwich. Their three side options are all vegan and I had slaw. The sandwich was huge but I ate it all! :) Good thing, it powered me through the concert and a trip back to Remedy for drinks with our friend the singer!

The upcoming week's menu includes sushi (Veganomicon recipe with spicy tempeh), broccoli-cashew stir fry, and something with acorn squash to take advantage of some Fall foods.

Have a great weekend!

Visit from an Omnivore

Well last night I sat down with my husband and his father to a lovely vegan dinner. I made the African Peanut Stew from Vegan Planet, and served it over quinoa. I always add just a little extra cayenne. It was awesome!  My FIL had two servings and we sent him home with leftovers since he works too much and doesn't often get a chance to eat well.

I love so much about the stew - its bit of fat comes from one tablespoon of olive oil, and from the peanut butter. The rest is pure vitamins and fiber from sweet potatoes, bell peppers*, tomatoes*, kidney beans, ginger, onion and garlic.

*= these came from the summer garden that is now wrapping up.

Bestest part? Use the hand blender to creamify about half of it... Dreamy! And very filling.

Well dear readers, another short post, but I hope I've inspired you to open your cookbooks or search online for a healthy recipe to share with your loved ones!

Until next time....

First post!

Testing.... testing....
Is this thing on?

Well, didn't really plan to start a blog until the Vegan MoFo contest  popped up and I thought, "That would be fun!" Hope that doesn't backfire!

No real recipe to post since this week is mostly an eat-down-the-fridge kind of week. We finished up some fajitas tonight that were pretty yummy. I made homemade seitan (from a box of wheat gluten), and marinated the slices in adobo sauce (from a can of chipotles). Fantastic!  I had finally started thinking of branching out from my go-to seitan simmering broth, especially for Mexican meals. I'll have to look into that.

Well, I hope to post much more interesting chronicles of our quest to balance yummy and healthy in our vegan meals.

All for now.

t