Living with a Picky Omni

My boyfriend leans mostly vegetarian and has no problem with most vegan meals. He likes cheese and he likes pizza and if we go out to eat at a restaurant he will sometimes get fish or chicken but he was also a fan of tofu before I even knew what it was. He has no problem with meatless meatballs in spaghetti, bean and rice burritos (with cheese), tvp chili, chickenless nuggets and veggie burgers. He just has one request; that there be no onions, greens or chunks of tomatoes or peppers in anything he has to eat. This seemingly simple request, coupled with the fact that those happen to be some of my favorite parts of cooking, creates quite a situation. In the beginning I tried to cater to him so that he would eat more healthily. This worked well but after a while I felt bummed I had to miss out on some of my favorite foods just to get him to eat my cooking. This led to a completely opposite approach wherein I cooked what I wanted to eat, the way I wanted to cook it, and if he didn't like it then he could have a boca burger or make some spaghetti (did I mention he hates cooking?). This worked well for a while except that it had us eating different meals almost every night for dinner and I never wanted to make anything complicated because is it really worth it to spend 2 hours in the kitchen making every last thing from scratch just to be the only one to enjoy it? The answer is no. So I ate a lot of roasted vegetables, salads and sandwiches and grew to miss creating masterpieces of dinner in the kitchen. I have finally come to a middle ground and I have to say that while it is mostly satisfying, it also sometimes means 1.5 to 2 times the work. Let me give you an example.

Sunday morning I was going to make a big breakfast when I got home from the markets and my boyfriend woke up. I ended up getting home at almost noon and he had already eaten and I was so hungry I almost gnawed my own arm off in the car on the way home (not vegan). The whole day I was craving some breakfast so I decided to do breakfast for dinner. I made tofu scramble and breakfast potatoes and here is how I compromised. (I forgot to take pictures of his food so you'll have to use your imagination).

I used to make tofu scramble by first sauteing onions, garlic and greens in oil and then adding in the tofu. Now I just heat up some oil and add in the tofu and some spices. This time I added in a little chopped seitan sausage that I had made last weekend to give it an extra breakfast feel. Once the tofu is cooked to my liking, I dump half (ok, more like 2/3s. He definitely eats more tofu than I do) onto a plate and put it aside. I then add to the pan some chopped chard and cook until it is soft. 

I love my breakfast potatoes with tons of onions and bell peppers. Yum. I experimented with leaving the peppers and onions in and just having my boyfriend pick them out, but that lead to a good deal of wasted food. The solution I have come to is cooking up a pan of potatoes in oil with a sprinkling of salt until they are done, and then onto a plate they go. I then cook up my own potatoes, with as many onions and bell peppers as I please. 

The only problem I can find with this solution (apart from it taking extra time and effort) is that his food is always done before mine. Luckily there is a simple solution, he doesn't mind microwaving his food back to temperature.

The result of this compromise is that I get to eat exactly what I want:

He gets to eat exactly what he wants, I get praised as a great cook and it only takes minimal extra effort. Now if only I could get him to help in the kitchen...

Tonight's Dinner

I have a number of pictures that I need to write up posts to go with but I had to share my dinner from tonight. I spent a good chunk of yesterday and today going to three of the 4 grocery stores I frequent and tomorrow I will hit up the fourth along with the farmer's market. I have (possibly unrealistic) intentions of not having to stop at a store to get more than one or two things for the next couple of months. One of the stores I shop at is the People's Co-Op in Ocean Beach. I love going to this store and wish it was closer to my house because, if it was, it would be the only store I needed in addition to the farmer's market. Se la vie I guess. So once every couple of months I make the trek out to OB with my tupperware, glass jars and canvas bags and go to town in their bulk section and their wide selection of vegan friendly items.

Last time I went to People's (at least I think it was the last time) I ate lunch there in their deli. See this post for more detail. This time I thought I might pop up to the deli and see if I couldn't get some of that mock tuna salad to take home and try to recreate a tuna melt. Sadly they did not have the mock tuna but I did take home some mock chicken salad. I settled on a chicken salad melt and I'm so glad I did.

I started by grilling two pieces of bread spread with Earth Balance. I then topped one piece of bread with slices of an heirloom tomato I bought today while I left the other piece of bread in the pan with a Tofutti cheese slice on it to melt.

I then topped this with some lettuce.

Then topped that with the mock chicken salad.

Finally I stuck the two together and cut in half.

Can you tell me that doesn't look delicious? While I definitely don't think it is something to be enjoyed every day, it was a nice to eat something that reminded me of my pre vegan days but in at least a slightly healthier manner.
In addition, I was going to eat this with some spicy thai kettle chips but I had so much tomato left over and it was so delicious I left it at that.

Yum!

Don't You Hate It When....

You make a dinner that turns out to be ridiculously yummy but neglect to take a picture of it? Tonight I baked some fries and browned some sliced tofurkey sausages.  That was going to be dinner until I looked in the fridge and saw avocado and salsa.  Then the thought of breakfast burritos hit me and that was that.  I filled up a tortilla with some of the fries, the sausage and some mashed avocado mixed with a little lemon and garlic salt and ate the thing with some salsa on the side.  Holy hell it was delicious. Now I'm thinking about how I could make some scrambled egg tofu to put in there as well. Perhaps this weekend.

On an unrelated note (but one that comes to my attention as I type this), I have recently learned that when typing you are only supposed to put one space after the period. This is something I had never heard of until about two weeks ago. I was always taught to space twice after a period. Let me tell you, after 15ish years of typing, this is a hard habit to break. How many spaces were you taught to put after a period? Sorry for the tangent but this sort of thing fascinates me.

But onto the food!

I have recently fallen in love with tofurkey slices.  I try not to eat too much fake meat and instead stick to less processed foods, but lately I have had a hankerin for a good sandwich. My office orders sandwiches every Thursday but as my only option would be veggies with mustard, avocado and oil and vinegar for $6, I don't participate.  This lead to the first purchase of the tofurkey slices. Yup, you read that right, first. Of two.  I also bought some veganaise back before Comic Con to make this broccoli salad and had been contemplating in which manner to use the remainder of it.  This was the perfect excuse.  There is something really comforting about a "turkey" sandwich with "mayo" and tons of veggies.

Oh, and did I mention I bought prepackaged onion rings too?  I hate it when I do that.  Oh well, at least my failure tasted good even if it did cost an arm and a leg.

Lately I have been feeling a little iron deficient.  Granted I am self diagnosing with no real nutritional background, but I had been feeling really tired and had a recurring headache.  That coupled with four unexplained bruises made me go on an iron deficiency cure diet.

I started with spinach.  Added some lentils.  And threw in some broccoli for good measure.

There is also carrots, onions and wild rice mixed with dried cranberries and pepitas (didn't turn out as god as I'd hoped).  I call this plate the Iron Deficiency Cure.

After this I tried to take the leftover lentils and rice and make them into a loaf.  Notice the use of the word tried.

I am making it my personal mission to make a vegan loaf that does not fall apart.  You are all my witnesses.  I will have success!  Oh, and that's one of my homemade refrigerator pickles in the back there. 

I also used spinach to make a crazy concoction that worked out unbelievably well.

This beauty consists of:
Spinach
Juice of half a grapefruit
Juice of one lemon
Chopped ginger
A tiny bit of honey
And some water.

I was going to make a strawberry lemonade but ended up deciding to put some spinach in and leaving out the strawberries. Then I just kept adding things and I was really afraid when it came out all foamy, but it was soooooo unbelievably delicious.

And while we are on the subject of beverages...
I talked a couple of weeks ago about the margarita I was drinking while blogging and I wanted to show it to you.

It was all Trader Joe's fault.  I don't even remember what I went in there for, but on a super hot day they had displayed right in front tequila and margarita mix. Sometimes I am a sucker for advertising and the thought of an ice cold margarita on the hot summer day sounded so appetizing.  I did a quick google search on my phone to find out the ingredients in a home made margarita since the mix they had had high fructose corn syrup in it and I found that all I needed was tequila, triple sec and limes.  I believe the recipe was 1 part lime juice, 2 parts triple sec and 3 or 4 parts tequila.  This was a darn yummy margarita.

Until next time, thanks for joining me!

Garden Bounty

Ok, so in actuality, my garden has not provided near the bounty I expected for the amount of work, time and money I put into it but I hardly expected a perfect harvest in my first garden.  Regardless, my garden has provided some bounty and I'd like to share it with you.

Let me begin by introducing you to my new acquaintance.  I say acquaintance as we are far from friends.  This little guy was munching on one of my cherry tomatoes and had gotten huge before I knew to look for him.  He is about 2 inches long and has a scary looking spike that is apparently harmless.  I have since learned to look for evidence of these guys before they get so large. 

You may remember this sunflower that was a beauty of my garden which I didn't even have to plant.  I was so looking forward to some sunflower seeds but after this picture was taken, this baby started wilting and produced no seeds.  :-(  I ended up pulling it.

I had high hopes for this little butternut squash but it has been stunted at this size for weeks now and I don't think it is going to make it.

But onto happier subjects.  This is the second heirloom tomato my plant produced.  It was soooo delicious.  I literally stopped buying tomatoes and thus eating tomatoes because the ones you get in the store and even most of the ones from the farmers market just do not taste like tomatoes.  This is what a tomato should taste like....wow I wish I had one now...

Here is the above tomato along with some cherry tomatoes and some green beans.  I didn't think the green bean bush was ever going to produce but it just lately has started.  I think it is due to the fact that we have had such a mild summer so far.  Hopefully things will explode now that it is finally getting hot around here.

And finally a dinner using my garden bounty.  Garden burger, Trader Joe's soy nuggets, cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomato and green beans.  YUM!

Refigerator Cucumbers

My CSA gave me pickling cucumbers and I have never canned anything before.  I do not have the equipment to properly can so I set about on the interwebs to locate a method for making pickles without actually going through the canning process.  The process I found was relatively simple.  Of course, since this was a couple of weeks ago I have since lost the actual link, but it went something like this.

Take 7 or 8 pickling cucumbers, 3 or 4 sprigs of dill, 2 cloves of garlic, vinegar, salt and water.

Slice cucumbers to about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick and slice garlic.

Add to jar with dill and about a teaspoon (I think) of salt and fill half way with vinegar.

Fill to the top with water.

Place lid on jar and put in refrigerator for at least 8 hours.  I am told these should last at least a month.  I don't think they are as good as if I would have made proper pickles, but they do the job.

Birthdays!

It is this happy vegan's birthday!  What am I doing today?  Since it is Saturday morning I am most likely at the gym but hopefully I have been on a hike and will be getting some dinner at this restaurant I keep meaning to try.  And don't do a double take.  I did indeed title this post birthdays as in plural.  My boyfriend's birthday happens to be the day after mine.  My boyfriend's mom is planning a dinner tomorrow for us.  She also invited my parents for desert and this will be the first time they meet.  I'm so excited!  Pictures to follow at a future date and time!  See you all later!

Some Random Dinners

Since this post is going to be so random I think I will refrain from much commentary save for expliantion of what it is.

Cantaloupe halve filled with blueberries, grapes, strawberries and cherries.

That thing was nothing compared to this cantaloupe.  I cut this thing open last night and I think it is easily the best cantaloupe I have ever eaten.  I have yet to cut open that watermelon.  Those are both from the farmer's market last Sunday.

Chicken Boca Burger mania.  Wrapped in lettuce with Spicy Sabra Hummus.  Yum.

And the full plate.

Chicken Boca Burger on a sandwich thin with Trader Joe's hash brown, tomato form my garden, steamed broccoli and corn and a smidgen of hummus.

Black beans, corn and oven fries.

Fennel potatoes that my boyfriend didn't like and so ate with ketchup.  I thought they were delicious.

Oven fries with a salad of CSA goodness.  Lettuce, cucumber, heirloom tomato and some hummus.

Boca burger with lettuce and avocado, hash brown and tomato sprinkled with pepper.

Lentils cooked with onions and shredded carrots topped with avocado and salsa with a side of rye bread with earth balance.

This was a fantastic dinner!  I learned a new trick to toss my spaghetti with a little olive oil after cooking.  It makes the sauce stick to the pasta so much better and leftovers are a million times better!  I also make toast and spread with earth balance and then run a piece of cut garlic over it to make quick garlic bread.  The salad consisted of lettuce from my CSA, cherry tomatoes from my garden and topped with hummus.  The spaghetti also has Trader Joe's meatless meatballs.  Yum!

This was one of the first meals I ate at home after Comic Con.  Defrosted tofu quiches, hash brown with ketchup and two pieces of toast.  One had jelly and the other earth balance along with a lonely piece of frozen broccoli.

A few nights ago I tried my hand at making home made tortilla chips.  They turned out decent but I didn't have quite enough oil to get them exactly right.  Still delicious.

I paired them with some salsa, steamed corn, broccoli and carrots and some pan fried prebaked tofu.

A few weeks ago I went to an off site meeting with my boss with one of our clients and on the way back to the office he stopped at Denny's for us to get lunch.  I was pleasantly surprised to find  that Denny's offers Boca burgers!  I got this with onion rings, bbq sauce, tomato, onion and lettuce and it was quite good.  I should post this in an ongoing series of "Proof That Vegan's Can Eat Anywhere!".

At one of the other restaurants I sort of work for, Indigo Grill (I am a bookkeeper for multiple restaurants) I got a plate they call Good Things Growing that they made vegan.  This plate is a mash up of a bunch of different vegan options.  One time when I came in they made it with this rice with cranberries and pepitas that was so delicious but I have yet to have that again since.  This plate consisted of butternut squash, an anaheim pepper stuffed with corn and other veggies, a chunk of tofu, a salad with pears, red pepper and a fried beet slice, roasted garlic, roasted potatoes and grilled plantains.  Yummy!

And here is my boyfriend's half chicken with beans, rice, guac and I believe a mole sauce.

And here is my plate of leftovers combined with some toast with earth balance. 

And that is the end of my randomness.  Promise the next post will have more structure.  Assuming I get a next post written....I mean, for sure.  See you tomorrow!