Happy Thanksgiving!

Like most holidays, I have mixed feelings on Thanksgiving. Ignoring the abhorrent historical roots, I like the concept of sharing the bounty of the harvest and recognizing everything you have to be thankful for. Unfortunately, that doesn't often happen in practice. I imagine Thanksgiving in my family is pretty typical: frayed nerves from worrying that the turkey won't be done in time + exhaustion from waking up at 4am to bake pies + alcohol = intense passive-aggressive tension. Maybe I'd be more willing to deal with it as an omnivore, but to sit at a meal where I will eat cranberry relish and frozen rolls? Nope. Not going to happen. After the above described scenario unfolded in 2006, I started planning trips to avoid being home for Thanksgiving. I was successful until this year. I went to Iceland a few weeks ago, so going out of town again wasn't really an option. Despite a ton of stress and anxiety, I decided to go to my parents' house for the ominous dinner feast.

This time I was prepared. Fortunately, my mother and sister were more willing to accomodate me this year than in the past as well. I bought a Gardein Holiday Roast, complete with stuffing and gravy and a pre-made pumpkin pie for myself. I also brought the fantastic green bean casserole from Fat Free Vegan. My sister made candied sweet potatoes with Earth Balance instead of butter and Dandies marshmallows on top, made sure the rolls were vegan, and made a delicious cranberry relish. I grabbed some potatoes before they were mashed and made my own with EB and soy milk. I had been anxious about this meal for weeks, but guess what? All my anxiety was for naught. I had a plate full of delicious food and a great evening with the people I care about. And that's what I'm thankful for.

V'con Extra Vegan Tamarind Lentils

As I've mentioned before, cooking all the recipes in Veganomicon was on my list of things to do before I turned 30. That item has since been usurped by less time consuming things like going to China and walking across the Grand Canyon. Occasionally, though, I pull out the book and decide that I'm going to get through it (not necessarily by May 16, 2015, though).

 

Today was one of those days. I decided to try the Tamarind Lentils. Lentils and rice seems extra-vegan, but I'd read rave reviews of this dish on the PPK Forums, so I figured I'd give it a try. To make the dish a little more photogenic, I added some color with Sauteed Spinach and Tomatoes. (Recipes are available on Google Books).

This was really easy to make. It was a bit time consuming, but that's because I only have one medium pot and needed it to cook both the rice and the lentils. If I had a second pot, or a rice cooker, the whole dish could have been done in 40 minutes. As you can see from the ingredients picture, I started making it at 10pm, so it was all getting packed up for future meals anyway.

Update: As with every V'con recipe I've ever made, this turned out great. It reheated well and had the added benefit of not being liquid, i.e., it didn't spill all over my purse when I threw one in there in the morning to take to work.

MoCOO Day 25: Almond Cookies

Whenever my sister and I went to the grocery store with my mom as kids, she'd always let us pick out a candy bar at the check-out counter. I think a lot of parents do that as an incentive for their kids to behave. I'll save my musings on food-as-a-reward-leads-to-dysfunctional-eating for another day and just say that I still haven't gotten over the instinct to buy a bag of peanut butter M&M's every time I'm at the grocery store. Now that Kroger has Justin's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, that instinct is often actualized. BUT since it's Month of Cupboard Clean Out and I'm not buying groceries OR prepared food, I had to indulge my sugar cravings in a more creative way. While flipping through Veganomicon, I noticed that I had all the ingredients to make Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies. Except walnuts (an arguably key ingredient), but I figured almonds would make a decent substitution.

These are your basic vegan cookies. You mix (a ton of) sugar with oil, add flax seeds and non-dairy milk for a binder, and dry ingredients. The dough was a little sticky to work with, but my cookies came out looking less deformed than usual, so that's a win.

These were really, really good. They had the perfect combination of chewy and crispy textures and the almonds were a great flavor against the chocolate. I ate a few and froze the rest. Then ate the frozen cookies over the next two days. Oh well, at least I tried!

MoCCO Day 24: Ch-ch-ch-chia

You can tell a lot about someone by his or her reaction to the mention of chia pudding. If you hear "I love that stuff", you know that person eats like a hippie. A reaction of "yeah, I keep hearing about that", means that person reads a lot of blogs. If you get a blank stare followed with "you mean like a Chia Pet?", you know you're talking to a normal person. If you're not familiar with chia pudding (because you're a normal person), when soaked, the chia seeds absorb the liquid and get a texture similar to tapioca pudding. They're supposedly a super-food and provide a caffeine-like buzz. I can't confirm the latter because any "buzz" was masked by the four cups of coffee I drank this morning.

Excluding the [not so] occasional binge on Nutter Butters or Cocoa Krisipies, I eat a fair amount of hippie food. My jar of chia seeds has been sitting in the refrigerator for over a year, though, largely because the pudding needs to sit for a few hours and I never plan that far ahead for breakfast. But in the spirit of Cupboard Clean-out, I forced myself to spend two minutes prepping last night. I did buy a few groceries for this: a pint of raspberries for $1.25 and bananas for $1.46, bringing my monthly grocery spending to $17.76.

I mixed 3T of chia seeds into one cup of unsweetened almond milk before bed last night. In the morning, I mashed in a banana then added a handful of raspberries.

This tasted pretty good. It only took a few minutes to throw together and was a lot healthier than Cocoa Krispies. I still have soooo many chia seeds, so I'll probably be eating similar concoctions over the next few months.

MoCOO Day 23: Garlic Mac

I took a little break from my MoCOO rule of not buying prepared food this weekend. In my defense, I ran a marathon on Sunday, so I figured I was justified in eating anything I wanted. I used all the energy I had to pick up Buddy's Pizza for dinner on Sunday, because, hey, I just burned 2500 calories, so why not consume that in pizza? And Monday, during a painful errand to Radio Shack, I made a stop at Easy Like Sundae and tried the newly added Creme Brulee vegan fro-yo topped with strawberries. It tasted like frozen custard and was worth ever penny of the $2.68 I spent.

Friday was also a marathon of sorts, i.e., an evening at Valentine Vodka Distillery. I love everything about that place. I normally have little interest in talking to strangers at bars, but every time I've been there, I've met amazingly interesting people. Friday was no exception, with Kellee from Wine, Spirit and Soul offering a great perspective on craft cocktails. The downside of enjoying my time there so much is that it's a black hole -- I don't think I've ever spent less than four hours sitting at the bar. It should come as no surprise that I stopped at MiChigo for a Chicago-style vegan pizza on my way home.

So after $45 in fast food and way too many calories, I'm back on track. (Even more so because I just bought in to the work boys' club weight loss challenge, but more on that later.) The only vegetable I have left is garlic (which I don't really consider a vegetable), so I cooked that up with some olive oil and added elbow macaroni.

I topped with a little vegan parmesan and it was ready to go. Fortunately, my sister bought me really good quality olive oil for my birthday. It helped mask the Mueller's pasta and general blandness of the dish. This is a true Cupboard Clean-out dish... it's edible calories and not much more.

Day 23 meals:
Breakfast: raw oatmeal
Lunch/dinner: garlic mac

MoCOO Day 17: Shepherd-ish Pie

Cleaning out my cupboards continues to be delicious, economical, and surprisingly easy. I did, however, run into a dilemma last weekend when I ran out of coffee. I love coffee and drink a lot of it. I don't think the caffeine even affects me that much, I just love the ritual and the taste of strong, black coffee. I only make it at home on weekends (because we have a Keurig at work), so I had a few days to decide whether replenishing my supply should be considered a "grocery" purchase. Ultimately, I decided it's not. My rationale is that coffee is like shampoo or deodorant, i.e., I don't NEED it, but it's best for society if I have it. So excluding coffee, my October grocery spending is still $15.05.

Day 17 meals:

Breakfast: raw oatmeal

Lunch: Clif bar (forgot to bring anything, so I had to break into my emergency stash)

Dinner: shepherd-ish pie (see below)

I had some Yves Ground Round and frozen peas and corn collecting ice crystals in the freezer. While lamenting my lack of mashed potatoes and inability to make shepherd's pie, I had a moment of genius: top it with frozen hash browns!

This was incredibly easy. While the hash browns were cooking, I set out four dishes and put a quarter of the Yves and vegetables in each one. I then topped it with this brown gravy recipe and the hash browns. 

It would be better with mashed potatoes and my favorite gravy, plus carrots and onions, but this was still pretty good. And it emptied three half-used bags in the freezer, so I'm satisfied.

MoCCO Day 16: Raw breakfast surprise

Month of Cupboard Clean-out continues! I did buy some apples for $0.99, so my October grocery spend is up to $15.05. Restaurant and bar spend is in line with normal months, but "fast food" (i.e., food I buy out of boredom or laziness) is still at zero. Meal run down:

Saturday (Day 12)
Breakfast: rice pudding
Lunch: peanut and kale salad at Seva
Snack: Spiced Chai Shortbread cookies at Small Craft
Dinner: veggie burger at J Alexander's (I'm skeptical the bun was vegan, but I wasn't about to second-guess the bartender)

Sunday (Day 13)
[slept through breakfast... oops]
Lunch: tomato soup and too much freshly baked bread (thanks PAB!)
Snack: Act II Butter Lover's microwave popcorn (somehow this flavor is vegan)
Dinner: Awesome muffins and cookies at my sister's Walking Dead premiere party

Monday (Day 14)
Breakfast: rice pudding
Snack: apple
Lunch/Dinner: leftover Rice Bowl

Tuesday (Day 15)
Breakfast: rice pudding
Lunch: Loco's for Taco Tuesday
Dinner: leftover J Alexander's

Wednesday (Day 16)
Breakfast: raw surprise (see below)
Lunch: Mediterranean veg Potbelly's sandwich (at Book Club meeting)
Dinner: homemade apple pie, brought to work by my lunch/hiking/drinking pal

For breakfast today, I decided to throw together some random healthy ingredients and make something akin to raw oatmeal:

I soaked about 1/4 cup of oat groats overnight. I threw them in the mini food processor with some almonds, shredded coconut, raisins and a splash of water. Then I shredded an apple (which is much more difficult than it sounds) and mixed that in with a dash of cinnamon.

I know you can't tell what it is from the picture, but trust me, it was delicious and surprisingly filling. It took about 5 precious minutes to make this morning, so I might try making it ahead. If that doesn't work out, this just might be worth one less round with the snooze button.