Beef FAIL

"Eight years ago, federal officials were struggling to remove potentially deadly E. coli from hamburgers when an entrepreneurial company from South Dakota came up with a novel idea: injecting beef with ammonia."

(Um.... how is that entrepreneurial exactly???) The NY Times published a very interesting article about the quality and processing of leftover beef bits. The "entrepreneurial" company, plainly named Beef Products Inc, actually gained exemption from the USDA in 2007 for having supposedly undetectable levels of E.Coli. (Yummy right?) Beef Products became a mainstay meat for fast food restaurants like McDonalds and was widely served in lunch rooms.

"Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated."

As the number of cases of E.Coli and Salmonella tainted meat grows every year, one can't help but think of the children. I noticed the pressure on the quality of school lunches started to accelerate in '09. Hopefully more Americans are shifting their focus more towards better health standards in public institutions.

"School lunch officials said that in some years Beef Products testing results were worse than many of the program’s two dozen other suppliers, which use traditional meat processing methods."

And yet, despite obvious problems, this meat is still being used. You needn't ask why, this answer is plain: BECAUSE IT'S CHEAP. Behold the power of the almighty dollar.
Nuts to the FDA for approving this process, which uses ammonia as a processing agent but doesn't require it to be listed on the label. Ammonia is naturally present in meat, it's true, but injecting fatty and discarded hunks with extra amounts seems obviously wrong. "She can't take much more ammonia sir! She's already loaded as she is!" Besides sometimes smelling like ammonia (enough reason to keep walking) and tasting not-quite-right, I'm not sure how any logically-minded worker or Beef exec didn't have the mind to pause and reflect on what exactly they were doing to FOOD.

I find it absurd that there's so much excess meat, enough to cause a significant loss in profit, that it needs to be chemically treated and sold. I won't rant on how we should, at the very least, shrink the industry and focus on quality meats. I'll save that for another time.

I suggest you go read the article and think for yourself. If you feel so inclined, write to the USDA and/or FDA about this issue. And before you order that drive-thru hamburger, consider this...

"At 6:36 a.m. on Aug. 10, the Beef Products plant in South Sioux City, Neb., started up its production line for the school lunch program. In 60 minutes, the plant produced a batch of 26,880 pounds of processed beef that tested positive for E. coli.
Six days later at the same plant, another 26,880-pound lot was found to have salmonella, government records and interviews show."

That's a quality assurance FAIL if ever I saw one.
Eat healthy and responsibly!

Citation: Quotes and Image
Moss, Michael. "Safety of Beef Processing Method is Questioned". New York Times. 2009: 1-4. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html 12-30-09.

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Date-Night In

Somewhere along the way, I got the idea for Evan and I to do a "date-night" in. Plans were hastily made at lunch and I got really excited! I randomly started looking for recipes, I wanted something a little more special than just a regular nightly cooked meal.

Breakfast began late as usual (I have a really hard time waking up, but once I am up I am up), so I opted for cold cereal having no time for stovetop oats. Peanut Butter Puffins with plain soymilk to the rescue, in a car-drink-holder-friendly glass, for breakfast on the run. Needless to say I was starving and ran home to lunch to eat frozen numblies because I was too hungry to cook. (Numblies not pictured)

When I got back to work I began to research an intruiging recipe I found: Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes. I had all of the ingredients on hand, except for the mustard and capers. Evan brought those two items after work and we set to making dinner!
First of all these cakes, or caeks as you know I like to call them, were extremely simple and quite fast to make considering the length of instructions. Evan did most of it by himself while I prepped the remoulade. We fried he caeks in canola oil, and kept them warm in the oven @ low till they were all cooked. Normally I don't fry, but this was a rare occasion. No smoke points were reached luckily, and I believe we made it through without a single burn! (Big deal for us!) Behold their numblie goodness, besides the obligatory restaurant knock-off vegan ceasar salad.

Evan's first remark was "Well, they taste nothing like crab caeks. But they're quite delicious anyway!" and I realized I hadn't even had a real crabcake EVAR in my life so I didn't really have anything to compare it too! I definitely count that as a good thing, but taste-alikes alone, these were AMAZING!!! Go make them, now, NOW I BEG OF YOU! Trust me, these caeks are NOT a lie. :)

Crispy, warm, exquisitely seasoned, complimented perfectly by the spicy smooth remoulade. This is going in "My Favorites" for ever and ever. I see these as the perfect elegant brunch or light dinner to be served at parties (yes, I dream of dinner parties, I do), especially to omnis. It's hard not to love these when they're nutritious, tasty, and filling. <3 ISA FOREVER!!! After dinner, Evan made me a souffle. Not just any souffle (and unfortunately not vegan either), but THE souffle. THE souffle he's been promising me and bragging about ever since we first started dating. THE one he has claimed for 4.5 years that he'll make for me. FINALLY he made it! (Love you Evan!)I'm not sure exactly how he did it. All I know is that when it came time to beat the egg whites he asked where was my electric mixer, one of which I do not, nor ever have, owned. It involved me in as much as I drove to 2 stores in a flurry, buying a single hand mixer at 9:30pm. The proud chef produced a small souffle in an actual souffle dish, and one in a mug of mine. Note the whipped cream bottle on sofa chair.I got the one in the actual souffle dish and pretty much ate it like this:
But then Evan did this:
And he forced me at gunpoint to join in. Gunpoint I said!
After all was said and done, I realized I don't much care for the texture of souffles. The flavor was wonderful caramel-y chocolate, but the texture threw me off, it was like eating a dish sponge. I think I've definitely lost my taste for eggs, yay for veganism and saying no-no to battery cages. Anyway, the wonderful thought and love behind it was sweet enough for me. (And corny too!)

Overall it was a successful way to end 2009 I think! I hope you get everything done before 2010 that you need to. Stay safe and warm!

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Review: Imagine Creamy Portobello Soup

I was really excited to grab this from Henry's Market for just a few bucks. I LOVE muskrooms (that was not a typo) and will devour just about anything containing them. I also like my soups creamy, so I thought this would be a perfect match.

Sadly, I wasn't to thrilled with it. It seemed rather watery instead of creamy, and the mushroom flavor tasted more like canned button mushrooms (tinny) instead of robust portobellos. As you can see in the picture, the warm brown undertones of the cover were lost and I basically had a bowl of gray. I appreciate the low salt content, but it tasted like there was NO salt at all. If this is their "new improved flavor", I'm a bit worried as to what their old flavor was.

After adding some leftover risotto to give it more heft, body, and flavor I was still unimpressed. I ended up eating a cup more and getting rid of the rest. At just a few bucks per carton, I'll give this brand another try before I make a final judgement. Let me know your experiences with this brand if you have any!

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A loss and a win

Doesn't that just look SO yummy!!!???

Well I hate to say this, it wasn't. It seems I botched my first attempt at pumpkin oats. I'm not sure if it was the two heaping tbsp of organic unsweetened canned pumpkin I put in, the stingy amount of agave nectar (I'm skeptical of sugar in the mornings), or the fact that I was late and it had to sit in tupperware for 15 mins till I got to work... BUT I hated it. It tasted raw squash-y and just plain bleh. Yes, that is a technical term.

I may save the pumpkin oat recipe for this weekend (after consulting a few more blogs as to ingredients), when I can try it again at my leisure. I must admit, I'm not the biggest fan of pumpkin, I only have 1/2 of a tiny slice of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. However, I'm not scared off yet. Thankfully, last night I pressed and chilled some fresh coffee so I got held over *almost* to lunch on just iced coffee with soymilk and agave. I know, I was a bad girl today! I did polish off ALL the rest of the chili at lunch though, so some good came of it. Yes, there was sour cream, and yes there were chocolate chips. :)



Got in a little run tonight, LOVE my new toy. Says I ran for 56.43 minutes and took 4,329 steps! What fun technology and pedometers are. Oh lordy, 11 pm and I still need dinner, to feed all the cats, dishes, shower, and time for my book. Better get my butt in gear!

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Really Raw!

Oh man, after discovering the amazing world of raw desserts, when I saw these Raw Gingerbread Men on Chocolate Covered Katie's blog, I knew what I had to do.

Luckily I now have a food processor since the demise of my Magic Bullet left me blender/processor/grinder-less. Using her recipe, Evan and I whipped up a 1/2 batch. I LOVE the texture of these guys:

All hail to the Mother Dates!
Evan definitely approved. (P.S. It's impossible to get a "normal" picture of him, he's just that outrageous!)
Thanks to Katie for the recipe, I see so many possibilities for ingredients and toppings!

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Chile, Chilly, CHILI

Lookie what Santa brought me!!! And by Santa I of course mean Evan's parents. THANKS BARBARA AND DUSTY!!!

It is, after all, the ONLY thing I asked for this year. :) I am completely amazed how I managed to live for so long without one. I remember food processors being this scary contraption that my parents used to haul out on special occasions. My mom used to explain to me how complicated they were to put together, how awful they were to clean, and how DANGEROUS they were. Basically, she made me believe that if I so much as looked at the blade the wrong way, I would DIE. She was definitely just trying to keep my safe, as I've already nicked my finger on the S blade.

I LOVE this thing though. It's about 7 cups, a great size for just me and sometimes Evan, easy to clean, easy to put together, and comes with a dual sided grating/slicing blade (and of course, an S blade too). I've been dreaming up ways to use it, and got to on Xmas morning, grating Fontina cheese for Evan's mom. Yeah I know, not exactly a grand vegan christening.

I had chili on the brain today. I don't know what it is about that rich, thick, beany, wholesome goodness that chili evokes. Oh wait, it's because it's rich, thick, beany, and wholesome! I've never really cared for meat in my chili anyway, so it's very easy to veganize with great results. I HAD to use Sally (Yes, I name ALL my kitchen appliances) and was delighted to discover that I didn't even use a cutting board for this whole meal. I only used a single medium sized knife.

First the garlic and onion, then carrots:

Followed by celery and green bell pepper. Isn't it beautiful!?

After that the camera decided to act up, so no "in the process" pictures. But, here's the recipe. BEWARE: IT HAS A FLAVOR! So, if you want your chili less spicy I'd omit (or just use less) cayenne. On occasion this recipe has turned out watery, in which case I add either some TVP to soak up the goodness, or some arrowroot to thicken it up.

Vegan Chili
1/2 large onion, or 1 whole small one, sliced or chopped
4 large cloves of garlic, sliced or minced
2~3 carrots, sliced or chopped
2 celery stalks, sliced or chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and sliced or chopped
1 12oz can of diced fire roasted tomatoes (I used the no salt added)
1 12oz can kidney beans (I used the no salt added)
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 cup broth of your choice
dash of ground ginger
olive oil
sea salt
black pepper

1. In a heavy pot, sweat onions and garlic over medium heat with olive oil and a pinch of sea salt for 3 minutes.
2. Add the carrots, celery, bell pepper and all your spices. Stir thoroughly to incorporate spices, cook till celery is tender 3~4 minutes.
3. Drain and rinse beans, add to pot with a few grinds of pepper. Cook till there's no bean liquid at the bottom of the pot.
4. Strain diced tomatoes (reserving liquid for another time if you want) and add to pot along with the broth.
5. Add a dash of ground ginger and simmer for 10 minutes. Taste, and adjust salt if needed.
6. Top with your favs, and devour.

My ALL TIME FAVORITE chili toppings are sour cream (tofutti), chocolate chips (IT'S AMAZING I SWEAR!!!), and cilantro. Here's my chili all dressed up, waiting for me to take it out for a night on the town. I missed the cilantro! But recovered some before I hit the dining table. Delicious with a glass of sparkling berry water.

Alrighties, time for some dessert now! I've been waiting for Evan to come over so we can try the numbly-sounding Raw Gingerbread Men from Chocolate-Covered Katie. Now he's here, WOO!!!

What are some of your favorite chili toppings?

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"Whole Foods is returning to its health-food roots..."

Thank (random celestial being) for Mr.Mackey! The CEO and co-founder is going to reunite Whole Foods with its healthy "whole food" ideals in 2010.

You can read the full article here.

I loved Whole Foods about a year ago. I would say that half of my shopping happened there, a very SMALL half, but I always made a point to go there.

It happens to be a place where you can find niche vegan foods that no one else has the customer base to keep in stock. As a new veggie, I could find just about any vegan meat substitute on the market in Whole Foods. Now that I eat less processed foods, and rarely eat soy processed fake vegan meats at all, I've found myself going there less and less.

Good food costs good money. Hands down, that is something I have come to learn and accept. However, the emphasis of WF in the past few years has definitely been on the never ending rows of high-priced indulgent and gourmet products. I definitely agree with Mackey's stance and believe that the "health food" and "gourmet" sides of WF have always been at conflict.

While I have discovered amazing things there, like dark chocolate balsamic vinegar spread and smooze popsicles, they don't stock my shelves regularly because they're not whole foods. As the Vegan Freaks would say, those are "sometimes" foods, treats to be enjoyed once in a while, but shouldn't make up a consistent part of my diet.

I'm excited to see how 2010 will pan out for Whole Foods Market. Perhaps I'll have to take another look and here's hoping that instead of being buried in garlic-parm-sourdough-croutons-with-carmelized-medditeranean-fig-spread, I can grab some local organic produce and enjoy a fresh juice at the juice bar.

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It's raining!

Wahoo! I love Los Angeles in the rain (aside from the crazy ass drivers). And since i'm privileged to live by the equestrian area, my neighborhood is full of lovely dripping trees, the smell of sweet grass, and the occasional massive equus caballus wandering around like something out of Shadow of the Colossus. Great game BTW.

I don't know how or why, but i was craving tempeh like a madwoman. Specifically bbq. So after work i hit up Henry's to see if they even had tempeh (they did) and scored a bottle of vegan bbq sauce for 99cents!!!

I whipped this up, just cubed the tempeh and fried till golden, smothered in bbq sauce with some spinach sauteed in a bit of olive oil, salt, and a dash of fresh organic CSA lemon juice.

You can see the wonderful lemon juice combining sexily with the bbq sauce at the bottom of the plate. Clearly they were made for one another. And yes, that is my desk, complete with keyboard in the way. I eat most of my dinners here, maybe it's because I'm also gaming. Maybe not. You'll never know.

My pastels have been calling to me so i think i'm going to get some hot tea and paint to jamie cullum like i used to do in college. Yay for kitties, space heaters, rain, tempeh, and art!

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More important.

I had a post for you tonight, but it can wait.

Unfortunately for so many factory farmed animals, THIS cannot wait. Please petition for the pigs. They DESERVE it.

Farm Sanctuary's Petition

Do it NOW. Please.

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Rice is nice, but it's just a grain...

Anyone? Anyone? *sigh* You people need to watch more of THIS.
Quick post before bed. I made this last night and had it again for lunch today:

Pineapple Fried Rice
3 cups cooked rice (I used brown cooked with veggie broth)
3 tbsp minced garlic
olive oil
~1 cup frozen peas
1 can pineapple chunks in pineapple juice
~3 tbsp hoisin
~1-2 tbsp your favorite hot sauce, I used siracha
~2 tbsp tamari or shoyu

- Saute the garlic in olive oil till softened.
- Add rice and stir to warm through.
- Add peas, hoisin, hot sauce, and tamari. Stir to combine and heat peas.
- Drain and add pineapple chunks. Heat through.

Sorry for the ~ (approximations), I'm great at rough estimates, but sometimes I tend to just drizzle things in here and there.

There's certainly a LOT of variations on this and a wide variety of things you can add. That's all I had on hand and the bf exclaimed it was some of the best rice he ever had.

It's cold and rainy here in Los Angeles! Time for snuggles with the kitty.

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The great BLORP! And lemon curd.

Yes, there are indeed changes going on with the blog, one day it'll be kickass. Till then it (like some of my food recently) is a mess.

Speaking of messes, remember that gratin I wanted to make? The one with fennel and potatoes and courgette? Clearly, I have NO IDEA how to make a gratin. You'da thought I would have looked up a recipe first, but I didn't. Most of the time when I "wing it", my creations are at least edible. This one, well let's just say that I kind of choked those last few bites down.

I present to you the great, the unthinkable, the (un)edible Blorp!!!!! *insert wet sloppy noise here*

Ah well, live and learn. I also tried baking (gasp, I know) some lemon poppy scones which ended up coming out like pancakes. I used this recipe. Sadly no picture (because I was laughing too hard). Suffice it to say that my poor 1/2 sheet pan looked like it had massive lemon poppy tumors all over it.

However, success was made on the curd so here's the recipe!

Luscious Lemon Curd:
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
zest of 2 lemons
1/2 cups h2o
1 1/2 cups turbinado cane sugar
pinch sea salt
4 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer
1/4 cup soymilk
2 tbsp Earth Balance Buttery Spread (not the sticks!!!)

1. In saucepan whisk together the juice, water, sugar, salt, and egg replacer.
2. Bring to a boil, boil and whisk steadily for one minute. Mixture will thicken and should coat the back of a spoon.
3. After a minute, remove pan from heat and stir in milk, zest, and Earth Balance.
4. Resist the urge to burn your mouth snarfing it, cool, and transfer to storage in the fridge. It will thicken more over time.

Here I drizzled some hot curd (I know, I just told you NOT to do this, and I burned my mouth for my own stupidity) over my aforementioned lemon poppy scones pancakes.
I have to admit it was quite delicious! I can definitely see this curd slathered on toast!

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Farm Fishing Fail!

I technically can't call myself a vegan. Though I don't partake in meats, honey, eggs, butter, or dairy, I do eat fish on occasion with a nip of seafood here and there. I've got my own resons for this, and am open for discussion of course :).

However, I do realize the negative impact farm fishing has on the environment and try not to consume seafood from these sources. This is a repost from Vegan.com's blog. I love that the solution is very similar to what happens in many aspects of our existence. Killing all to get some of the bad is a tying theme in movies, politics (think Hiroshima), and even medicine (think chemotherapy). While it's not the SAME thing, this attitude of "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." attitude is frightening!

Invasive Asian carp have escaped southern fish farms and are making their way up the Mississippi to the Great Lakes. They eat 40% of their body weight in plankton, which is the same stuff native species of fish eat. So, in theory, the fish native to the Great Lakes could potentially be starved out.

Man-made problem with no practical solution. Environmentalists are concerned with ecological disaster that will result, fisherman are worried about their $7 billion dollar a year industry, and businesses and government are worried about disrupting commerce if the Mississippi/Great Lakes shipping channel is closed to keep the carp out.

I’m a vegan, so I couldn’t care less about the loss of “fishing industry,” which, besides killing animals, is killing the rest of the planet as well. But yet another ecological disaster is not something we need. And transportation issues are a bear to resolve- especially in the U.S. where public transportation is stigmatized and severely underfunded- even though the public and the government know it’s the only solution to the crises of emissions, overcrowding of roadways, and wild habitat destruction. The most practical solution is to close the locks that connect the two waterways. Transportation would be disrupted. Goods would have to be re-routed over land. This requires more trucks on the road and/or trains (and the accompanying tracks if none exist). That’s more roadway crowding, more emissions, and more wild animals killed.

You see where this is going. Somebody is going to think up something drastic. Probably something insane.

The Army Corps of Engineers refuses to close the locks. They “would not close the locks without first studying the possible effects.” Wonder how long that study will take? Let’s hope nothing catastrophic happens while they’re studying.

In response to the Corps’s refusal, this is what “the authorities” have chosen to do:

In the continuing struggle to keep the fish out, Illinois environmental officials planned to dump poison Wednesday night in a nearly six-mile stretch of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal near Lockport to kill off the carp while the electrical barrier is turned off for maintenance. Crews planned to use large cranes with nets to scoop up an estimated 200,000 pounds of dead fish, which will be taken to a landfill.

Man made problem, man made solution. They plan to dump poison in the water. Besides being absolutely heinous, the solution will cause more problems to be solved, yet again, by man. And invariably, ultimately, it’s the animals who do the suffering, are displaced, and are killed. The poison they dump in the waterway will kill every fish in the water, not just the carps, and any other animal in the water. And that includes human animals. The Great Lakes are a source of drinking water for nearly 40 million people. Tonight, the government of Illinois will dump poison in the drinking water of 40 million people to “avert an ecological disaster” and “protect a fishing industry” because the government of the U.S. won’t close shipping locks.

Just another fine example of the genius of civilization.

via yahoo.com

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FFTY!!!

(Busted out ye olde kodak, don't mind the gratuitous use of flash...)

Look at what was waiting for me when I was running out the door this morning from FARM FRESH TO YOU, my first CSA box EVAR!!!:

Unfortunately I was LATE, so I only had time to pop the top and grab the first small fruit I could see... a loverly persimmon! When I got home it was time to unpack.

Nice reusable cardboard, pretty sturdy!


The lovely bounty within:



Fantastic with fennel, napa cabbage, curly kale, mustard greens(?), satsuma mandarins, meyer lemons, eureka lemons, butter lettuce, persimmons, limes, garlic, and leeks. YUM!!!

I had the rest of the galette for dinner, so no pics, but I had to research fennel as I've never cooked it before. I'm not too into the anise flavor, blame it on many years of chinese cooking and later years of absinthe. However, I thought a gratin would be nice with some potatoes.

I'm going to be busy for the rest of the week so I thought I'd prepare a bit ahead. Sorry mr. fennel, you're first on the chopping block!


When I chopped the fronds off I was SCARED. Very pungent anise, so I tasted a bit of frond... BLEH! TOO MUCH! I was sad, but I kept hacking away...


And found a nice center with a much more mild flavor raw. Slivered with a courgette:


Vegan Gourmet shredded, mozzarella flavor.


And lastly, I love to prepare garlic ahead of time, it saves a cutting board or two. A head and a half, minced, and tossed with a wee bit of olive oil and fresh pepper. It's too easy to toss this in a pan with a pinch of sea salt and have a great beginning to any meal.


The gratin will follow tomorrow night, I'm going to do my best to keep the camera working and post as often as I can. Oh yeah, going to bed on time helps A LOT! :)

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Savory Vegan Galette with Mushrooms

I have the worst luck with technology sometimes...

I took some amazing shots of my dinner for you all and for some reason the camera cable isn't working. AND the memory card is this weird fat style and won't fit into my regular camera so i can't dld the pictures that way either!!!

In any case, here's the recipe i made, Savory Vegan Galette With Mushrooms:
6 small cioppolini onions
2 Tbsp olive oil
sea salt
fresh pepper

***The night ahead: Peel, trim, and toss the onions in the olive oil, salt, pepper and roast at 350 degrees for 20 mins. When cool, roughly chop or slice, store in fridge overnight.

For the crust please refer to Sarah's recipe @ In Praise of Leftovers
She got it from Julia Child, and with vegan subs (Earth Balance for butter, Toffuti Sour Supreme for sour cream) it's mine!

Make the crust and let it sit in the fridge for 1 hr. While you're waiting:
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
6-8 mushrooms of your choice, sliced or chopped
8 quarters (2 full) of marinated artichokes, chopped
4 cups spinach (raw)
1/4 to 1/3 block of Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella Flavor cheese, shredded
your favorite tapenade
sea salt

-Sweat the garlic in the oil for 2 minutes.
-Add mushrooms and turn up the heat to saute. Wait till they take on a good color and shrivel up a bit. (Basically to when they look DIVINE!)
-Add the marinated artichokes and fold in the spinach, cook till spinach is just barely wilting.
-Add the aforementioned roasted onions and turn the heat off.

-Roll out dough on floured surface till 1/8" thickness (sometimes i go a bit thicker).
-Spread a nice even layer of tapenade over surface.
-Glop the spinach mass into the middle and try to make a nice even layer with 3-4" dough margin around the mass.
-Sprinkle with shredded vegan cheese.
-Fold in outside dough edges as far as they reach to the middle without squishing your ingredients out. You should see a good amount of bare spinach mixture in the middle of the galette. That's the money shot.
-Brush the top of the dough with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
-Bake at 350 for 30mins.

-Let rest 2 mins before cutting --> Filling is EFFING hot!!!

Was definitely enough to feed me and Evan, with a nice chunk for lunch tomorrow. I can't wait to try some sweet dessert galettes soon.

Hopefully the camera will be working sometime in the next millenia! Happy eating till then!

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9 weeks!

Of running that is! I started Couch to 5k, in prep for the Pasadena Triathlon I'm trying for. When I get new batteries in mah camera I'll be able to post all the yummy eats I'll be whipping up this week.

I started the day off with some TJ's blueberry oatmeal microwaved with some Silk Vanilla Creamer for thickener and some coffee. Lunch was some TJ's Soy Nuggets with tonkotsu sauce for dipping and a mound of fresh spinach with balsamic. I snacked on some dark chocolate covered pretzels this afternoon while picking out new herbs for my potted garden. I love working almost right across the street from an Armstrong Garden Center, there's no better way to spend your work breaks than strolling through luscious plants.

After a nice run, I decided to roast some of the shallots cippolini onions since the package suggested it. I drizzled them with olive oil, sea salt, and fresh pepper and roasted them at 450 for about 15 mins before I saw that they were starting to barely burn. So, I flipped them over and turned the oven off.

WOW! They are honey sweet with the slightest peppery bite at the back of your throat for good measure. I'm thinking some couscous with this maybe?

Leftover green bean casserole for dinner from Thanksgiving (yes, it was still good!). Thanks to C'est la Vegan for her amazing recipe. Campbells be damned!!!

Now finishing up folding laundry, a nice glass of peppermint tea, and a hot shower. I'll be up late tonight and will suffer for it in the morning, but it was worth it starting my running regime and getting all the dishes done... Thank Buddah I have some Silk vanilla creamer for coffee at work tomorrow!

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