Thursday, January 26, 2006

I'm all cooked out!

OK, I have lots of stuff to post about, so bare with me. Not all of it is food, either.
First of all, to the person who stole my extension cord that I use to plug my car heater in, you suck. You better not let me catch you using it in the same parking lot, and shame on you!
Secondly, after you guys ever noticed how ugly the meat section is in the grocery store? The produce area is full of different colours, as are most of the aisles. Then you walk past the meat section and its like bloody red stuff shining under fluorescent light. Yuck!

My herbs are a-growin'! Let's do a flash back, shall we?









This last one is from today...I'll have useable herbs in no time! The garlic chive sprouts already taste like garlic/onion. Keep growing little babies :D



I've been in the kitchen all afternoon. I made butternut squash soup from CalciYum! and also the Greens and Grains mushroom casserole from the same book. The casserole took longer than expected, as my dad highjacked the oven to cook his pork, ick. So I have to violate my "don't eat after 8 pm" law for the day. It better be worth it! I only had a bite of the soup, I'll be having that for dinner tomorrow before work.
This is the soup:














From the bite I had, it was good. I'll have to write more about it once I've had a hot bowl of it. It has soymilk in it, but it would be equally as good without the milk. It's a good way to use up that squash sitting in your fridge. The green stuff is collard greens and kale (great sources of calcium).
The casserole, which I'm eating right now, is good! I was worried it would suck, just because it doesn't look all that exciting at first, but it browns nicely in the oven. Its not as flavourful as I would've liked, but I'm sure that could be fixed with some gravy or something. It sure does make a lot, leftovers galore! It has organic quinoa, brown rice, collards, kale, tofu, a veggie mixture and spices.
Just a nice, simple dinner. :) The cookbook says this recipe has about 350 mg of calcium per serving! Nice! With a glass of soymilk, that's about two thirds of the RDA. The book also points out that those of us who don't eat animal protein and limit our sodium intake, need less calcium. Dang, those green beans were good!

Today, in my tea (mint/green) I added some chopped up ginger (thanks to Dreena for the recommendation and advice!) and it was awesome. It actually, in my opinion, improved the taste. And hopefully if I do it regularly, it'll help ward off the flu/cold.

Oh yes, the rice crackers I had are these ones:


Mmmm, I really love them!

I've been going through Sinfully Vegan (which has nutritional information) to see if there are any desserts/snacks I can make that won't pack on the pounds. There's only a few things (cookies if I have 1, puddings) that would be ok. I'm starting to think its better not to know how fattening food is. One slice of cake=600 Calories???Eeeeek. That'll make me think next time I go to eat it!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

yes! i really like that calciyum book from what I've read about it.. it's definitely on my wishlist.
and yeah it's pretty hard to make uncooked dead animal flesh look appealing! i have to always go in that area if i'm looking at the fake meat products, yuck.
anyway i've been reading your blog for a long time, it's very addicting to read and see all the food pictures and stuff! partly because a lot of them are from the La Dolce Vegan book which I hope to get soon (i have how it all vegan and garden of vegan). i'm totally a govegan.net forum lurker :P

Melissa said...

Laine, thanks for reading! :)
If you buy one cookbook, make it La Dolce Vegan! The others can wait ;)
How come you're a lurker? Jump right in!

Michelle said...

how did your soup turn out? it looks yummy

sarchan said...

That dinner looks delicious. I love green beans. I've never heard of the CalciYum cookbook before, but I will definitely have to check it out. My parents are always nagging me about protein and calcium. (And the calcium bit I am actually a little concerned about). Oh, and I still think vegan desserts can't be as bad as non-vegan ones. I mean they are still desserts, but at least they are usually free from the transfats found in butter, the cholesterol in eggs, and refined sugar . . . :)

Melissa said...

The soup is good! I really like squash soups! It gives it a great texture.
Sarchan, that's why I bought the book, to learn how to get more calcium. I drink at least one or two glasses of soymilk a day too, so that helps. The cookbook has calcium "quotes" and tips, like the fact that people who don't eat animal protein need less calcium, and things like that.

I also think vegan desserts are healthier. I also make all of them with whole wheat flour. But a lot of the recipes in Sinfully Vegan call for vegetable shortening. And the only brand I can find here is Crisco, which has hydrogenated oils and trans fats, so I want to avoid that.