Meals: Tested, Tasted, and Approved

Hey everyone, sorry for the prolonged absence but work has been serving up Hot, Fresh Hell the past few weeks. Sadly I don't think things are going to ease up any time soon, so the posts will likely be sparse for the next few months. What will the internerds do without me?!?!

Apologies aside, without further ado, here are some:

I bought this book in the thrift store and Mr Stacy was all "you could veganize those recipes" and I was all "why would anyone bother?!" Seriously gross stuff.  But I liked its looks :).

Here are some not-gross things, though.  First up, a coconut curry very loosely based on this recipe.

Served atop a baked potato, which was quite nice.

And this bad boy:

which was a veganized version of this recipe.  Anyone who reads this blog may know that I love kale and Brussels sprouts. So. Much! So putting the two together should have occurred to me a long time ago. I basically followed the recipe but used toasted bread crumbs and nooch in lieu of the cheese. Suck it, Bon Appetit.

Just a few other things we've enjoyed recently.  Have you ever added bulgur to chili? You should. It's nice.

And curried cabbage with black mustard seed is also tasty (not to mention the red dal): 

But this!!!! This!!!! I love Jae Steele so much! This is from her book Get It Ripe. I tried to find a recipe on the internet but couldn't. ANyhow, it's the sesame-soba-kale dish and this picture (like all my pictures, durn it) does not do this dish justice.  Purple kale is not that photogenic. 

I have made this about 3X over the past few weeks when I came home exhausted and ravenous.  It comes together in the time it'll take you to boil the soba. I did add tofu for protein's sake and sriracha for nom's sake, ha. I also just made it with chickpeas instead of tofu and that was great too. 

That's about it.  Inspired by everyone doing cleanses etc in the blogosphere, I bought Crazy Sexy Diet. I am also trying to eat more raw foods, not that you'd know it from this post. I have to strike a balance bt driving my husband nuts and fulfilling my periodic urges to try strange diets, so I've been eating all raw all day until dinner.  Then we have something very heavy on the veggies but not raw.  Anyone else reading this book? I'd say it's about 70% excellent advice, 30%....errr.....less than excellent advice??? Still, anything to get more people eating their veggies, right?

Vegan Props, woot woot! Just don't read the comments (as usual).

The Evidence for a Vegan Diet - The Atlantic

Odds and Ends and DIY

We've been having a lot of roasted butternut squash 'round these parts lately, and one of them was a MONSTER! Size-wise, that is.  I roasted it up with a lot of herbs, olive oil, red pepper, onions, and a little brown sugar and served it atop a salad. All classy-like.  Pizza on the side w/ Tofurky sausage (accept no substitutes).

There was a lot of roasted squash left over, so I pureed it up into some soup.  Tasty!

As far as DIY is concerned, I made kimchi following Renae's recipe. This is maybe the 4th time I've made it, and it never fails to please.  It's definitely as good as store-bought, even better because it's fish-free!! That missing top quarter is missing because I ate it. Straight. Noms. 

Finally, do you guys make your own sprouts in a jar? Probably everyone knew about this but me, but I started doing this a couple of years ago and it's great. Indoor winter gardening + cheap sprouts = hooray!!! They do kind of look like, well something else.  

I love Mark Bittman

Here is a new Mark Bittman article on vegan cooking and its merits in the NY Times, including some recipes  that look easy and tasty. I have a big ol' crush on Bittman and love reading his stuff--just don't read the comments.  Well, some of them are fine, others will make you want to reach through your monitor and throttle someone.

Happy New Year, friends!!!!