Sample - June 21, 2009

I had ventured to what turned out to be a great Farmers' Market in Hyde Park earlier in the day and had some new foods to try. I just wanted to get a taste of these independently before I started using them in recipes. I just considered this a little appetizer before my meal.


What we had were two types of oyster mushrooms and some garlic scapes.

I like all three. What I learned on the oyster mushrooms is to just use the soft leafy part. I loved the yellow oyster mushrooms which I believe I was told were a tropical mushroom.

Dinner - June 21, 2009

The recipe I used here was Stir-Fried Cauliflower and Spinach with Red Curry Sauce from Bishop's Vegetables Every Day. I actually used beet greens. The vegetables here all came from vendors at the Hyde Park Farmers' Market.

I used basil and 1.5 tsp of Thai red curry paste. I served each of the 4 serving over 1.5 servings of brown jasmine rice. The directions said that this would be spicy hot but it was not so I probably did not need all the rice. I thought it tasted good anyway.

This recipe was easy and came together in the time it took to cook the rice. I think I would serve this to company. The beet greens did have a little more bight than spinach would have and while I liked that Matt found it a little challenging. Beets are one of my favorite vegetables and one of Matt's least favorite.

Dinner - June 20, 2009

This meal was created as I approached the end of the food in the refrigerator. The next day I was going to a well reviewed farmer's market so I didn't want to restock from the grocery.

This meal was made up of Spicy Baked Beans served with Quinoa-Grits Polenta and a side of leeks and carrot salad. The beans and polenta recipes are from Kornfeld's Healthy Hedonist. The Sauteed Leeks and Boiled Carrots with North African Spices are from Bishop's Vegetables Every Day.

This might not look like a great meal but it mostly was. I did not like the carrots at all. Matt was okay with them but not excited. The beans and polenta were great and even better together. I really enjoyed the leeks although Matt found the outsides a little tough.

The beans and polenta held up well as leftovers. This would be considered comfort food for me and I would love to have this again soon but I will try and hold off until fall.

The leeks are steamed before they are sauteed. I allowed the carrot salad to cool to room temperature.

Lunch - June 20, 2009

This is Red Lentil Patties with Cilantro Sauce from Kornfeld's Healthy Hedonist. I served this along side a green salad for a nice lunch. We both thought these patties were pretty tasty. I think these could make into our rotation and I could serve these to my vegetarian friends.

I made these with Red Bhutanese rice as is mentioned as an alternate in the recipe text. The cakes did not hold together very well when I was making and dredging them but I stuck with it and they held together well enough in the end. I used sesame oil through out the recipe.

This made 8 patties with 2 patties used for each serving. I calculated 416 calories for each serving for the patties plus 35 calories per serving for the Cilantro Sauce for a total of 451 per serving.

This took me 90 minutes to make from starting the rice to plates on the table.

Several of Myra Kornfeld's recipes take the mono-textured mixtures of grains and beans that make up much of vegan cooking and take them through an extra step of making them into patties and frying them to give them some texture and definition. I think this will be a good tool to add to my kit of tricks.

Dinner - June 18, 2009

A simple dinner of soup and salad. As you may have noticed from the previous post we had a pretty big lunch.

This soup does not fit the regular posts on this blog. It is from an old Eating Well cookbook and it contains both chicken broth and milk. It is called Creamy Fennel Soup and it also contains some Pernod. Betty, Matt's mom, had made this and thought we would enjoy it as well. She sent some Pernod home with us a few months ago and I finally got around to giving it a try.

It was quite good. We ate it hot for dinner and then I had the leftovers cold with my parents for lunch which was also quite good.

Lunch - June 18, 2009

I rarely have lunch posts because we just eat dinner leftovers for lunch. I was not going to have any lunch to send with Matt the next day so I decided to make up this extra meal a day ahead. It ended up that Matt came home from work early and we both had this for lunch on the day that I made it. I later took the left overs up to my parents and the three of us had it for lunch.

This is from the Healthy Hedonist and is served over 50% whole wheat pasta. This is the Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry with Glazed Tofu. The recipe says you can make this in half an hour but I found that is just the cooking time. It took me an hour to get this together. The tofu recipe is separate and is located just one page ahead in the cookbook.

Matt and I liked this and my dad really liked it to. It is probably a little bit sweeter than I am used to making things but it made it taste like it came from a restaurant. I will definitely make this again. It could become a weeknight regular that would work for unexpected company.

I have the Glazed Tofu at 184 calories per serving for 4 servings. I have the Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry (including the Glazed Tofu) at 364 calories per serving for 4 servings plus the pasta. I said the pasta was about 200 calories per serving.

I made a note to try cutting the sesame oil back in the Glazed Tofu next time but I doubt it would be as good.

Breakfast - June 18, 2009

I tried the leftover cornbread with some fresh fruit for breakfast and really enjoyed it. The little bits of green onion might have been a bit odd but the the hot pepper was surprisingly satisfying. The cornbread was a vegan recipe from Berley's Modern Vegetarian Kitchen.

A week later I decided to try it again. This time I made the cornbread without the onion and pepper. I enjoyed this for breakfast and dessert with some coffee.

You could probably serve this to dairy eaters as long as you gave them a big dollop of something creamy on top. I really don't think they would miss the eggs at all. Really a very good recipe.