Oh My Yum!

Before I started my dinner tonight I already knew it was going to be a winner. Sometimes you just know. I took a bunch of pictures because, I just knew. And sure enough, it was out of this world. I got the recipe from Busy Vegan Mama and since I had some spinach leftover from my CSA I thought it would be the perfect dinner for one of these nights right before Xmas and end of the year when I am so uber busy. Without further ado, I give you:

Spinach Pesto Pasta

Sorry for the super up close picture. I have yet to master taking pictures of certain things. Bowls of food being one of them. But don't let that detract from the beauty of this bowl. I followed Sara's recipe to a T except for adding a few extra vegetables to my pasta so check out her site if you'd like to get yourself over to her site and try it out for yourself.

Spinach

Pine Nuts

Garlic

Salt

Chili Flakes

Olive Oil

Blend

Stir & keep blending

Perfect!

Add pasta to boiling water per package directions. About 3 minutes until the end, add all veggies except tomatoes. I used zucchini, green beans and red pepper. Add tomatoes when there is only one minute left on the pasta. Seriously, they only need a minute.

Toss together gently and try to master the art of taking a picture while simultaneously blowing steam away from the camera.

Go back for seconds.

Seriously, if it hadn't been for trying to take some artistic photos and posing my ingredients, this dinner would have taken me 15 minutes to make and that includes boiling the water and cooking the pasta. It helps that somehow I managed to buy whole wheat pasta that only took 4 minutes to cook. Ok, but really, go make this. Right now. You are only 15 minutes away from a delicious dinner.

Now I'm off to wrap presents!

Portland: Friday

My entire life I have dreamed about moving to Oregon. I think it's the blackberries. Or maybe the creeks. All I know is that every summer my family used to travel from San Diego by car to visit my Aunt and Uncle in Oregon and ever since then, I have dreamed of living there. If you'd asked me what stopped me from going there for college I wouldn't have an exact answer for you. If you asked why I didn't go after college I'd say a number of reasons. I have recently gotten to a point in my life where I feel that the time might be right. And by that of course I mean probably 3 more scouting trips over the next 1-3 years before making any actual plans. Personally, I could probably up and move tomorrow but my boyfriend is not so quick to upend his entire life. That's ok though, I have patience (sometimes). This first scouting trip to my hopefully someday future home town was taken not with said boyfriend but instead with my Mom. My mom is anything but vegan, and in fact made her living as a manager of meat departments all across San Diego Vons stores but she hardly complained at all that in 4 days we went to only one restaurant where she ate meat. She did however want it noted that we did not encounter one vegan restaurant that served Diet Coke. This post is not planned to be super in depth as it is the weekend before Xmas and I still don't even have my decorations up from the garage, I have biscotti to make for a gift and a gift or two to try to track down but I wanted to share with you all the amazing things I saw.

We flew into Portland at 9:40 on Thursday night. We had rented a car and our hotel was the Phoenix Inn in Beaverton. I would have liked to have stayed a little closer to Portland and I would love on my next trip to try and take the public transportation for most of the trip, but this worked well for my mom and I. The main things on my scouting list were:

Grocery Stores
Comic Shops
Restaurants
Farmer's Markets
Saturday Market
24 Hour Fitness
Places to Hike
Resale Stores (Clothes, Furniture, Cookware, etc)
Getting a feel for which part of town I would look on Craigslist for a house

We succeeded on all fronts. Except maybe the comic shop, but I will get to that. The car we rented was a Chevy Aleo, which I had never heard of. Turned out to be a totally cute car that got about 25 miles to the gallon driving all around Portland.

Friday morning we woke up bright and early and headed out to explore. First on my list was the People's Co-Op not to be confused with the OB People's Food which is also a Co-Op.

Ever since I heard about this place at Bonzai Aprodite I couldn't wait to check it out. As a result of this being the first place we visited, it became my main point of reference. We used my mom's GPS and had plotted out a list of places to check out before we left. Let me tell you, a printed map with everything roughly plotted goes a long way towards understanding the roads you are driving. I loved the GPS but it was difficult to get a feel for the streets. We drove all over the city that first day, back and forth. I think we crossed the Willamette about 6 times, each time across a different bridge.



At the Co-Op we got lunch (we had eaten breakfast at the hotel. Not so great but not the worst.). I went a little crazy and bought some Gingerbread beer that sounded delicious and festive along with some Theo chocolate bars that I had just seen Hungry Hungry Hippie talking about and my favorite eat of the entire trip:

Vanilla Creme with Karmal & Chocolate. Oh my god. Coconut, cashews, cocoa, maple, maca, mesquite, lucuma, vanilla, salt, soy lecithin. Vegan, raw, local and oh so decadent. We went back right before we went to the airport so I could get one for the plane, but they were out. And I was sad. In case you have delusions that this is all I would eat for lunch you are oh so wrong. I had a raw mock tuna salad wrapped in chard. It was decent but not the best thing ever.



Friday we also went to:

Excalibur Books & Comis (ok)
Gilded Closet (ok)
Seams to Fit (really expensive and not my style but very nice)
Village Merchants (freakin awesome shop!)
Vintage Pink (not on my list but I am soooo in love with this shop)

In fact, I found this coffee table there that I really want to find someone to recreate for me. It had the perfect size display coves for comics.

In our search for one place (and due to our GPS's lack of knowledge that Burnside St and Sandy Blvd become one way at one point) we got turned around and ended up at Voodoo Donuts. I had written their downtown location on my list and then crossed it off. I had heard that they had vegan donuts but that the lines were long. I figured we would be going to enough vegan restaurants and bakeries that I wouldn't need an extra donut. Who am I to argue with fate when we stumbled upon a second location so easily? Besides, who doesn't love a maple bar?

This is not a maple bar but is instead, a voodoo donut. It is shaped like a person (sort of) and then it has a pretzel stick stuck in it like a pin. The kicker?

It's filled with "blood". Mmm vegan blood. That makes me smile. We may or may not have hit this place up before the airport to take home some vegan donuts.

The other comic shop we visited on Friday (please note, this is all still the first day there) was Bridge City Comics. I liked this store quite a lot. It was well stocked and well set up. It was a little more north than I would have loved, but travel for good comics is not the end of the world. Oddly, I happened upon one other comic shop on our way to the airport that had not been on my list. It is called Future Dreams and it was in the basement of a building that looked to be making furniture. I only got a chance to glance inside but we will definitely be checking out these two locations when we come back. One of the reasons that we feel Portland is the right sort of city for us is that my boyfriend is working towards being a comic book writer and Portland seems to be the west coast comic creator central. Comics are quite an integral part of our lives.

So day one, as it started to get dark, we were debating what else to do. I didn't want to go back to the hotel but we weren't quite hungry enough for dinner. We ended up at one of the resale clothes shops (I can't remember if it was even on my list or which one it was) and decided to go across the street to this little bar and get a drink. I got this oh so yummy cocktail of vodka infused with strawberries (made by the bar) mixed with soda water and lemonade. It was delish! 

Afterward, we went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. I ordered a mostly mediocre stir fry with tofu and my mom got a curry bowl. We took the leftovers home in the tupperware that I had brought my plane food in. (Just a note, tupperware is great for saving the throw away to go containers, but make a note to get a hotel with a real sink rather than just a bathroom sink. It was a pain washing them and I think I may have clogged the sink a bit). Finally we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

And with that, I think I may have to extend this trip into more than one post if I hope to get everything done today that I need to. Please join me again next time for Portland: Saturday.

Insane Goal for the Morning

Update:

Ultimate Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

1/2 dozen baked, 1.5 dozen frozen

Salt Kissed Chunky Peanut Butter Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies



1/2 dozen baked, 1/2 dozen frozen



Pumpkin Pie Banana Chunk Oatmeal Cookies

1 dozen baked, 1.5 dozen frozen

Vegan Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cookies x 3

6 dozen baked, 1/2 dozen frozen

Ultimate Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 dozen baked, 1 dozen frozen

Added bonus:


Pumpkin Ginger Snaps (cause I didn't have enough on my plate)

Chilling in the fridge to be rolled out and frozen. 2 dozen.

Morning success!

Going to a cookie party tomorrow at noon. Bringing 6 dozen of the peppermint cookies but I also wanted to make chocolate chip for my boyfriend. I couldn't decide between the two so I am making both. I have an over ripe banana on hand and some pumpkin thus the pumpkin pie banana chunk and the oatmeal raisin sounded so healthy and yummy to take on my upcoming trip. Thus, 5 types of cookies; 7 batches in total, before noon tomorrow so I still have time to go pick up my CSA. Can I do it? I think so. Luckily I will be freezing a good portion of them without baking so that cuts down on my time. Now if I could just find a sous chef. Or at least a dish washer.


Oh, and my upcoming trip? To the vegan mecca? That's right! Portland, Oregon! I am so excited. I leave on Thursday night and am there through Monday afternoon. Anyone have any tips or suggestions for while I am there?

Thanks!

So Much Time, So Little To Do!

Wait, strike that, reverse it. While being sick gives me a whole lot of time to spend not doing the things I would normally do if I was feeling better, there are always books to read, movies to watch and blogs to read. It is the later that leads me to the conundrum I am in today. Whilst scouring the internet looking at delicious food and recipes, I collect links to try at a future date. I copy the link from my desktop computer and then put it into an email which I send to myself so that I can pull up the recipe on my phone in the kitchen and not have to waste paper. This results in the majority of my inbox being from myself. Not to mention how full it's getting up in there. So I thought today I would post all those links that I have yet to try in one place so I can clean out my email. And if anyone has a better way of organizing recipe links online I would love to hear about it!

Sweet

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Pumpkin Pancakes

Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Ginger Cookies

Pumpkin Ginger Snaps

Chocolate Banana Brownies

Pumpkin Butter

Almond Milk

Almond Pulp Oatmeal Cookies

Oh She Glows Energy Truffles

Chocolate Chipotle Sweet Potato Pie

Coconut Whipped Cream

Black Gingerbread Bars

Coconut Banana Flax Waffles

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Home Made Powdered Sugar

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Baked, Yeasted Doughnuts

Caramel Bon Bons

Hot Fudge Cake: Two Ways

Almond Biscotti

Cranberry Almond Biscotti

Gingerbread Biscotti

Beet Chocolate Cake

Reduced Fat Brownies

Fried Doughnuts

Orange Scones

Savory

Sausage Patties

Process for Fried Tofu Cubes for Stir Fry

Seitan Christmas "Turkey"

No Knead Bread

Black Bean Burgers

Vegan Dad's Tofu Stack

Moroccan Carrot Salad

Moroccan Harira

Green Onion-Garlic Flatbread with Creamy Spinach-Chickpea Filling

Russian Black Bread 

Thanksgiving Meatless Loaf

Gooey Grilled Cheez

Tzatziki

Spanakopita

Mock Tuna Salad

Whole Wheat Chapati

Crispy Seitan for Stir Fry

Vegan Deli Slices

Need to Veganize

Doughnut Muffins

Cauliflower Tots

Already Made But Want To Keep Handy

White Fluffy Dinner Rolls

Flourless Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies

Zucchini Pancakes!

Fruit Nut & Energy Bites

Banana Loaf

Refrigerator Pickles

Eezeee Cheeze I haven't made this one in about a year...

Veggeroni

Maple Chocolate Chip Cookies OMG I had it the whole time! This is my go to choc chip cookie recipe.

Sweet & Sour "Chicken"

Blueberry Banana Bread 

Banana Bread

Peas and Thank You Brownies 

Can you see why I don't do much other than bake, cook and work out? I think, after compiling this list that I will probably never get to even half of, I really should look into a career in the kitchen. Too bad I already have a degree and a career. Never too late to switch, but would it really be worth it?

Breakfast of Sick-o's (and a Thanksgiving Recap)

I have been feeling really sick with a sore throat for about 24 hours now. This may or may not have something to do with running myself too thin on Thanksgiving day and being a little dumb. We'll get to that in a few. Meanwhile, here is the breakfast I am currently enjoying to combat the illness in my throat.

Thank goodness I had some chamomile tea in my cabinet. I had 2 cups last night and I am on my first today. It is the only thing making my throat feel better. Next up is some iced tea to combat the stupid caffeine headaches I have been getting on days I don't work and thus do not drink coffee. I am in the process of weaning myself off coffee because I do not like being a slave to caffeine and having it ruin my weekend if I don't get it. And finally, Naked juice in the flavor of Power-C Machine for a dosage of Vitamin C. 8 oz doses of these three things should get me feeling right as rain immediately, right? Here's to wishful thinking. I'm not sure if I have any soup in the house so I may drag my butt to the kitchen long enough to make a small pot. I'm thinking some lentil soup might be yummy. But onto why I may have gotten sick.

For Thanksgiving at my Aunt and Uncle's house, I had offered to bring rolls and pumpkin pie. They were going to make me a Tofurkey roast along with some roasted vegetables. I had attempted to make Oh She Glow's Fluffy White Dinner Rolls when she first posted the recipe but had a major flop on my hands. I tried using all whole wheat pastry flour and for some reason the dough just didn't come together right. I had to keep adding flour and by the time they made it into the oven they were almost like biscuits. Delicious, but definitely not fluffy. Just to be safe I bought some rolls from the store and set out Wednesday night to attempt them again. I decided to try half whole wheat pastry four and half high gluten bread flour and this seems to have worked wonderfully. Let me tell you, most times I try to make anything with yeast I end up practically never wanting to touch the stuff again, but these turned out very yummy.

When they came out of the oven I didn't know what to do because I wanted to try one to make sure they turned out but I didn't want to mess up the presentation. In the end, a reassurance from my boyfriend after feeling their fluffy tops led us to the conclusion that they would be delicious and I left them as is.

Thursday morning I woke up bright and early to get a start on my pie. I also had lofty intentions of climbing a nearby mountain while the crust chilled, but I quickly ran out of time. The only other time I have made pie crust is last Thanksgiving and it turned out incredibly well for my first attempt but for some reason I was terrified I was going to mess it up this year. The crust and the pie recipes both come from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I love this book for baking for people who eat the S.A.D (Standard American Diet) and who are not as adventurous in the food they eat because the recipes are not exactly healthy and just try to recreate foods that taste good.

I gathered my crust ingredients:

And my 2 page long recipe:

And got to work. Using a food processor, I have found that this recipe is really not very difficult but both times I have made it I have had to add extra water. I think it is because I use whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose.

Once the dough came together, I divided it and wrapped each half in plastic wrap as a thin disk and refrigerated for at least 30 minutes. Here's where my day may have taken a turn for the worse. Actually, let me take you back about 45 minutes before the disks came together. The recipe calls for everything to be chilled for 30 minutes before beginning; the flour, the water, the sugar, the shortening. This was good since I started the day with a sink full of dishes from the night before. After putting everything in the freezer I set to work on the dishes. I finished in about 20 minutes and debated what to do with my remaining 10 minutes. I had been listening to the radio and someone had mentioned bloody mary's while cooking and I thought, hmmm, I have some champagne in my fridge and a bunch of citrus that is getting rather old, maybe I'll make a mimosa. And so I did. I squeezed some oranges, limes, lemons and grapefruits and made myself a little mimosa.

And it was delicious. I sipped on it while I made the crusts and felt all kinds of jolly holiday spirit. After the crusts were in disk form and chilling in the fridge, it was about 10 o'clock and I decided I'd really like to get a workout in. So I changed my close and jogged to 24 hour fitness. That's about a 20 minute slow jog. Then I did resistance training and weight lifting for 35 minutes and headed home, another 20 minute jog. It was on this final 20 minute jog that I realized the silliness of my ways. Have you figured out what I did wrong? In my business in the kitchen and wanting to get in a workout, I had been up for 4 hours, worked out for 1 hour 15 minutes and fueled my body with only....a mimosa. Yeah, I hadn't eaten anything. I was going to eat when I got home and I had just been so intent on getting the pie crust done that I had neglected food to fuel my workout. When I got home I was in a weird sort of place. I was super in need of food but I was so worked up that I didn't want anything. I had a tiny bite of an energy bar but found it was way too sweet. I tried a slice of bread and that was ok. I smeared some peanut butter on it and that did the trick enough to let me get in the shower and cool down. I am the sort of person who gets really rosy cheeks just running for a minute, so 20 minutes of jogging really gets me worked up. The shower cooled me down and then I proceeded to make a real breakfast. I made a wrap out of a tortilla, tofu scramble, tofurkey slices and salsa with a Trader Joe's hash brown on the side. And I felt much better. Mind you, this was now 12:15 on Thanksgiving when we were having dinner at 3, but it had to be done. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. Do you ever work out and over do it and then feel the effects the rest of the day? I get this a lot. If I work out too hard I feel a bit of a headache and just a little off the rest of the day. I tried to fix myself by drinking tons of water but to no avail. This coupled with the aforementioned caffeine withdrawals led to a headache the entire day. Fortunately it did not ruin my mood and I was able to finish the pie with only 15 minutes to spare before I left the house.

If you managed to read all of the above, you are my new best friend. To reward you, here is the finished pie and my Thanksgiving dinner.

Tofurkey roast, cranberry sauce made by my mom, roasted yams, shallots, brussel sprouts and carrots, roll with earth balance, roasted potatoes and tofurkey gravy. Yummy! Just about everyone tried the tofurkey roast and was quite impressed, even though they are all omni's!

Pumpkin pie with Soyatoo whipped cream.

And finally, I leave you with a poster in my Aunt and Uncle's kitchen that I am madly in love with. It is from World War II I believe. I wish more people lived like this.

Not to mention how great it would be if the FDA could still say things like this. Can you imagine the FDA putting out posters saying to eat less meat? They would be crucified!

Thanks for joining me on my Thanksgiving and I hope yours was fabulous!

Just Checking In

Hey Guys! I know I totally spoiled you with 4 days of posting in a row and then totally disappeared on you! What can I say? I've been busy. In fact, this little vegan who is normally in bed around 9:30 or 10 most nights has been up past 11 o'clock four consecutive nights this week. Anybody out there watching the Walking Dead? Do I have any comic book fans as readers? Do I have any readers? My boyfriend and I spend a great deal of thought and time on comics (he is trying to break into the comic writing business) and I highly recommend The Walking Dead as well as Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. But that's not why you come here, is it? No, I know you. You want food! And I've got it for you!

 

Ok, so I am aware that that is a radio and not food. But I wanted to share with you my day in the kitchen from Saturday before last and no day in the kitchen is complete without my trusty radio. Sometimes I listen to CDs (my favorite are musicals!) but most of the time you'll find me listening to my local public radio station KPBS and the great news and programs they play. Anyone listen to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me? A Way With Words? This American Life? Wow, I sound like a commercial. Well, now that we are set with something to listen to, here's how my Saturday started.

I have enough food stored away to feed myself for months. I couldn't wait to get into the pumpkin! On the agenda was:

Pumpkin Waffles (from Vegan Without a Vengeance)
Pumpkin Muffins with chocolate chips (also from VwaV)
Chocolate Chip Cookies (I have had this recipe so long I don't remember where I got it)
Pumpkin Granola

Pumpkin waffles were first up since they would be breakfast. I mixed up the batter and started them cooking while I started on the muffins.

I don't know that I will ever get over the fact that I got this thing for $2 at a garage sale!

Another thing I will never get over is how much I love these silicone muffin liners! The muffins/cupcakes just pop right out of them and there is no need for added oil or putting anything into the garbage! Win/Win

While the muffins cooked I ate waffles (plain and eaten with my hand is my favorite way to eat waffles oddly enough). I also mixed up a double batch of chocolate chip cookies. I think I've mentioned it before but my boyfriend is quite the lover of chocolate chip cookies and so I try to always have some in the house baked up and some in the freezer as well.

Here are the muffins and the first batch of cookies. I was going to make a second batch of muffins and try to alter the recipe but I ran out of both oil and sugar! The horror! My intention was going to be to reduce the oil and replace with apple sauce and reduce the sugar slightly and add fresh cranberries and walnuts. Still haven't gotten around to this yet, but I will soon!

Whilst all this was going on, I realized I had just a bit of pumpkin left in the open can and I decided to make my normal granola recipe into pumpkin granola.

Looks delicious, right? Totally is. Mmmm. Granola. Maybe that's what I should have for dessert...Sorry, back to granola.

I think granola is one of the easiest things to make. If you have never tried it you totally should!

While all this was going on, I forgot to mention that I was cooking up a batch of garbanzo beans as well.

Needless, to say, it was a very productive day in the kitchen! Now I'm off to visit my mom where we are going to be purchasing tickets for my first vacation in at least 3.5 years! I am so excited. I haven't been on a plane in about 8 years and it is going to be so nice to do some traveling! Not to mention I am going to the west coast mecha of vegan food! Any guesses as to where?

No Use Crying Over Burnt Caramel

Ever since Mama Pea posted about making vegan caramel apples, it has been practically all I have thought about. Mostly just trying to come up with a place where I could share caramel apples since I really didn't need to be eating an entire one much less 4. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. My obsession actually goes back a bit further. A few months ago someone in my office brought in a chile covered caramel apple and was sharing it with people. I know, sharing a caramel apple? She ingeniously used an apple corer/slicer to cut the thing into 8 wedges that were then sharable. Genius, right? I commented how utterly genius I thought that was and how utterly useless that bit of information was going to be to me as I would likely never eat a caramel apple again. Fast forward to October 12th and Mama Pea posted this. It was like all my dreams had come true. Oh, except for the one where I actually had a reason to make 4 whole caramel apples.

Then the Halloween potluck at my work occurred and I thought it a perfect opportunity to try. I bought my candy thermometer and had all my ingredients. I got to working on making some dinner and my aforementioned hummus platter and before I knew it, it was 8:30 the night before the pot luck. I decided I was setting myself up for disaster if I attempted to make temperamental candy an hour and a half before I should be in bed. So I patiently waited. But not so patiently that I didn't attempt it the next day. I had all my ingredients all laid out.

I wasn't trying to multi task (which is what I almost always do in the kitchen). I was focused, I was prepared. And you know what happened? I overcooked the caramel. I do not know what happened. Everything was going fine until I got to the step that said cook for 9-11 minutes. At about 5 or 6 minutes in I started to think it looked too dark. I stuck my candy thermometer in and it immediately shot up to over 250 degrees when the whole thing was only supposed to get to 235. I knew I was going to have hard caramel but I tried it anyway. I took it off the burner and immediately dipped my apples.

The first one looked ok, but by the third one, the caramel started getting clumpy and I knew I was done. I tried to cut the first apple.

But the slicer wouldn't go through the caramel. So I used a knife that mostly cut through it ok. But the caramel was way too hard. I had failed. The only thing I can think is that Mama Pea's pot might have been thicker than mine and thus heated more slowly.  Oh well, sometimes you have to live with disappointments, right? But now what to do with the one sliced and 2 caramel covered apples? I pried off the failed caramel and the skins were a little cooked from the heat. So I decided to slice them up and make these.

 Apple Chips! Based on the recipe posted here from Oh She Glows. They took forever to dehydrate and they never really got chipy but they are definitely delicious!

More CSA Yumminess

Two CSA's in a row now (I only get them every other weekend) I have gotten eggplants. I had never really eaten eggplants so I was a little shy on what to do with them. The first time I tried my hand at baba ghanoush but the eggplants were so tiny that I didn't really get much flesh. What I did get was pretty decent but I did not fall in love with it.

Baba ghanoush, the aforementioned red pepper hummus (not Sabra), my attempt at meatless meatballs (kind of a flop), carrots, broccoli and the best freakin pita bread on the face of the planet. Seriously, when I first became contious of what I was eating and started liking pita bread, I had to drive really far to get good pita bread with the right texture but without a list of ingredients 10 miles long. I'm going to have to do a whole post dedicated to this pita bread one day. It has, I think, no more than 5 ingredients and is the most fluffy, pocketed yummy pita bread ever. I'm gushing. Over pita bread. You know you're a foodie when....

Meanwhile, back to the point. So the next time I got eggplants I wanted to go a different route. They ended up sitting in my fridge for days and days until they were some of the last vegetables in there. Then I ended up making pizza using dough I had bought at Trader Joe's (I love this dough!). I was going to make bbq seitan pizza for my boyfriend and was debating what type of pizza to do for myself. I was down to limited options in the veggie department so here is what I went with. I sliced and roasted with a little oil and salt, the two eggplants, a yellow bell pepper and some red onion. This got done roasting well before I was ready to make my pizza and so I decided to just try a bit of the eggplant and it was love! It was the most flavorful, delicious thing ever! Ok, so I say that a lot. But it was good. I snacked on it while my boyfriend's pizza cooked and my dough came to room temperature.

I then topped my dough with some jarred spaghetti sauce (it was a really thick one too, but that made it kind of extra yummy) and piled on the vegetables. When searching for vegan eggplant pizza online I had seen someone make a pine nut cheeze so I decided to add that as well. I blended together some soaked pine nuts, nutritional yeast, lime juice (didn't have any lemons...this is a recurring theme) and I think just some salt...now I can't remember. I should really try to find that recipe again... Let me tell you, I was a little worried. It was really chunky and didn't taste like very much raw, but it was so good on the pizza.

Yum! And even though it's not vegan, here is my boyfriend's pizza. Vegetarian at least with seitan strips from Trader Joe's.

I am so excited that my CSA will have eggplant again this week!

Vegetable Soup

While I'm on the subject of CSA vegetables, I would be saddened not to share with you the delicious soup I made this weekend. Whenever my CSA gives me celery, the first thing I think to make is soup. This week my soup included:

Celery
Chard
Carrots
Green Beans
Butter Beans
Red Onion
Dill
Fire Roasted Tomatoes (Muir Glen, these are the best!)

This soup was so easy it is kind of ridiculous. Chop veggies (or use food processor). Heat onion, celery and carrots in a little oil until flavorful and/or a little soft. Add the green beans, tomatoes and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer until carrots and green beans are almost done. Add in precooked beans, chopped chard and chopped dill and cook until the greens are just wilted. I added a little salt at this point. Some days I ate it and it didn't taste like enough salt, but today when I was starving it tasted just fine!

Soooo good! And so good for you! This pot ended up huge and my boyfriend doesn't like soup. I shared a bit with my mom and froze one portion, but I have been working my way through this for days now.

And I'm not even close to sick of it!