Food is Good

One thing I'm really enjoying about following the weekly meals from Vegan Cooking for One is that the meals are so easy to make. Its nice to not have to worry about what's for dinner, and the meals pack in a lot of veggies. They may not be the most flavourful or original meals, but they are good and the point is that you can get your dinner ready in little time. I would really recommend this book to new vegans or vegetarians who don't know what to make and are a little apprehensive. Its a good way to break in new habits. Plus the recipes don't make more than two servings at the most, so if you don't like it, there isn't much waste. For the most part, the meals have provided me with the perfect amount of leftovers for the next day's lunch. I think I'll use this book a lot during the school year. That way I can get in a healthy meal without too much time or planning.

Yesterday's dinner (and today's lunch) was vegetable fried rice. Remember eating Chinese fried rice with the little bits of egg in it? Well this recipe mimics that with mashed tofu, without the grossness/unhealthiness of eggs. It is quite yummy. This meal can be made even faster if you've got leftover rice sitting around (which I did, I prepared twice the amount of brown rice needed for Monday's meal to use last night). Its a simple recipe, with sauteed onion, carrot, collards, peas, bean sprouts and tofu with soy sauce, pepper and topped with roasted almonds and sesame seeds. This recipe made too much for me to eat in one serving, so I saved some for lunch today. I served the dinner with brussels sprouts (one of my favourite veggies).














Today's dinner was a welcome change from the stirfries; Chickpea burgers! Mmm mmm these were good. A little mushy on the inside, but that wasn't a big deal. The burgers were made by mixing mashed chickpeas with soy yogurt, tomato paste, soy sauce, and marjoram; a spice I don't get to use very often. Oh yes, and breadcrumbs. These were made into three smallish patties and coated in flour. They were then refrigerated for half an hour. They can easily be made ahead of time and kept in the fridge as long as you need. Then they were fried in some olive oil until browned. I ate one in a whole wheat hamburger bun and one on its own. I was too stuffed to eat the third, so that's lunch tomorrow! For veggies, I had cauliflower and baby corn. I believe this was my first time making "burgers", and it was really easy with a great turnout.














I work a split shift tomorrow (at lunch and then at dinner) so I made tomorrow's dinner tonite, so I can bring it with me to work and eat between shifts. Spaghetti stir fry. The week's meals are all very similar, but the point of that is being able to use up all the groceries you buy for the week...and they all have a slight variation, so its not like you eat the same thing every day. This meal is whole wheat spaghetti mixed with sauteed tofu (I mashed the tofu instead of dicing), green onions, garlic, fresh ginger, green pepper, mushrooms, beansprouts, soy sauce and topped with diced cucumber. I tried a bite to make sure I'd like it, and it tasted awesome.














I went to the library last night and picked up some cookbooks. Vegan with a Vengeance and The Big Book of Quick and Healthy Recipes. I've heard rave reviews of VwaV and wanted to try out a few recipes before buying it to add to my lovely collection of vegan cookbooks. For all you fans out there, what one recipe would you recommend to really sell me? I was all set to make the oatmeal pb cookies and chocolate thumbprints, but decided against it, because I don't think I could stop at one cookie!
The Big Book really intrigued me. Its not a vegan book but the author gives vegan options for every recipe! So instead of lamb chops, it'll say to use seitan. Hopefully I can find some time to try a few recipes from that one too.

I'm still waiting for most of my marks back from school...so far I've got a 95 and an 87...hurry up LU!