Still employed

The 10th was Aaron's birthday, so I decided to try making something neat. The picture up top is Butternut Vindaloo served in some kind of squash that i forget the name of. The recipe was from 'Vegan With a Vengeance', I just added cauliflower. I was just eating left overs with couscous and they go together well. We also ate it yesterday with a fried tofu salad. Dark green lettuce mix with halved cherry tomatoes, green onions and tofu cubes fried in olive oil with lemon juice, garlic salt and thyme.

The picture below that is an all-veggie meal that I decided to make. There are lemony-dill carrots, broiled string beans with margarine and sliced almonds, and mashed potatoes.

Below that is a fried rice which was delicious beyond all description. I don't even remember how I made it, so you'll just have to take my word that it was really really really good.

Aaaand finally there's a picture of the Double Fudge Oat Cookies I made from a recipe in "Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar' by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. Its the sequel to 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World' and I can't wait to make more.

Work is hard

Who knew that work was hard and not fun? Why was I not informed?
Usually when I get home from work I flop on the couch and don't think again until the morning. But I still have to eat, so here's a few things I've been shoving in my face hole:

My friends and I went to the Vegetarian Food Fair the other week. It was a lot of fun, as always. I didn't buy as much as I did last year, but I did get Quinoa for cheap, some fake chicken which I haven't cooked yet, and the sequel to Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, titled Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.

Above the text is a picture of the Quinoa Salad I made the other day. I just took mixed greens, chopped avocado, halved grape tomatoes, chopped cucumbers, and cooked quinoa, and mixed it together with some olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Turned out really tasty, and quinoa has a crazy amount of protein and iron. Served with "beef" skewers from Gardein.

The top picture is my dinner from last night. I made some Basmatti Rice (cooked with vegetable broth and margarine), and ate it with peas and fake mutton from The Perfect Vegetarian in Kensington Market.

That's it for now. I'm going to try and stop letting my job eat my life. We'll see how that goes.

Thought you were rid of me

Okay, so I haven't made a post since my job started. Well it's been hard and I've been tired so :-P
This post will be an amalgamation of whatever the hell recipes I remember from the past month. Enjoy.

Lunches
I've been trying to take my lunch to work as often as possible. Partly because the office is in the middle of nowhere Brampton and you literally have to drive to get anywhere that sells food. Some of the things I've brought are:

• Sandwichs: Almond Butter and Raspberry jam; Cucumber, Tomato and Toffuti cheese slices; Toffuti herb and garlic faux cream cheese with vegetables; Tofurky Hickory Smoked sandwich slices with mustard, lettuce and tomato
  
• Amy's brand Frozen meals
• Fruits
• Wheat thin crackers and Mr. Christie's cocoa wafers
• Left overs

I've also gone out to lunch with coworkers or by myself if I laze out and don't make something. I've gotten Thai Express, Terriyaki with Tofu, Giant Salad, Sushi, and a Veggie Burger.

I've been trying to still cook when I can. I've made Creamy Curry Vegetables with Jasmine Rice (picture above) and Chickpea Noodle Soup. One night I made Artichokes, Brown rice (with a little lemon and thyme), and warmed up some Gardein chick'n in dijon mustard sauce.

Peace.

2 Days Until The New Job

Coming soon: Vegan packed lunches. Follow the exciting adventure of me figuring out how to keep myself alive while at work. My mommy bought me a lunch box.

Tonight I've had three slices of Twelve Grain toast with Tofuti herb and chive flavoured imitation cream cheese. These were eaten at separate times, I just kept going back for more 'cause it tastes like sex. Usually I don't like vegan cream cheese by itself 'cause you can kind of taste the soy. I buy the plain kind to make vegan cream cheese icing for carrot cake (note to self, make cream cheese icing and carrot cake). But the herbs in this stuff makes it delicious. I was going to use it to make sandwhiches to bring to work, but I might finish it before then.

The picture at the top is of a dinner I made a few nights ago. The vegetable dish is Rustic Roasted Veggies from 'How it all Vegan'. This is one of the very first recipes I ever cooked. Served it with white rice, which soaked up the flavour well.

Countdown to employment

Howdy.
I've been spending my time alternating between getting ready for my new job and enjoying lazing around while I can.

This evening I made Rustic Tomato Lentil Soup from 'How it all Vegan.' I used flax pasta and added a bit of that 5 Chinese Spice stuff because it seemed a little under-spiced. Turned out delicious and there's tons left.

I stocked up on salad stuff recently, so I've been eating a few of those. The picture above is the salad I had for lunch today: Earthbound Farm Organic mixed greens, organic baby spinach, bean sprouts, tomato and walnuts with Oil and Vinegar dressing.

And a few days ago I made TLTs (Tempeh, Lettuce and Tomato) Sandwiches for dinner, again. This time it had bean sprouts and baby spinach instead of regular lettuce. The tempeh was that smoked maple flavour stuff again.

I guess I took an unannounced hiatus there. Oh well, sue me.
Well, let's jump right in. I haven't done too many fancy meals lately so I'll have some lazy vegan advice at the end of this post.

Today I made a standard Vegetable-Rice-Fake Meat meal. They remind me of some of the food I ate as a kid. Today it was White rice (with onions and garlic), yellow string beans (totally ate these all the time as a kid, the taste was nostalgic), and Yves Veggie Cuisine Souvlaki Veggie Skewers. The fake meat was not my favourite. I bought it 'cause I haven't tried it before, but I don't think I'll get it again. Probably just personal taste, though.

I've been trying to get more non-soy protein in my (and Aaron's) diet, so a few days ago I made Tibetan Lentil Soup. The recipe is from 'Fresh at home' by Ruth Tal Brown and Jennifer Houston, but I made a few changes. The biggest one is that I didn't notice I was out of cumin until I started cooking, so I used a Five Chinese Spices blend (it has fennel, clove, cinnamon, fagara and anise) which I'd bought randomly and wanted to try. I also upped the number of carrots and threw in a diced yellow bell pepper I had in my fridge. Turned out really tasty and it lasted a good while.

About a week ago I made Orange Chocolate Chip Pancakes. That was pretty much the best thing ever. I took the regular pancake recipe from 'Vegan with a Vengeance' by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and added the zest from one orange, most of the juice from the same orange, and about a cup of chocolate chips to the batter.

So other than those I've been surviving off mostly easy eating or take out lately. A nice coffee with soy milk and toast with margarine and jam will do me just fine. I've also been eating a lot of fruit. In the last little while I've had honeydew, bananas, kiwi, peaches, and some apples. It's been super freaking hot, and nothing is better than cold honeydew after a sweaty walk. I bought a box of Multigrain Wheat Thins (which I like way way better than the originals) and wolfed them down in about a day. Also bought a Theobroma organic chocolate bar with banana chunks. Freaking BANANA CHUNKS. These things are beyond amazing and I could easily eat 4 in a row.

Looks like Amy's started selling a new type of vegan burrito; Amy's Breakfast Burrito with organic black beans and tomatoes. I really like it, and it's a good microwavable meal for when you don't want to cook.

So that's it for now. I will try not to be lazy and make no posts for two weeks again.

G20 Weekend

Well this last weekend has been a kind of shitty one for Toronto. The downtown was turned into a police state where people could be searched or arrested without cause. Windows were smashed, a few cars burned, several protesters and bystanders arrested and detained, along with some guilty parties, and idiots threw rocks at cops. Civil rights were violated, and a few people behaved like solid gold douche-bags.
Hosting the G20 meetings in down town Toronto when there are plenty of beautiful, difficult to reach parts of Canada where you don't have to shut down a whole city and hire an army of cops just to get together was psychotic.

Going back to Friday, it was Pride themed Rocky Horror, and I think it was one of the best shows I've ever seen.
Come out to the Rocky Horror Picture Show with a live shadow cast at Bloor Cinema on the last Friday of every month.
Right next door is Ghazale, one of my favourite places in the city of Middle-Eastern food. The last picture above is of the box of take out I got after the show.

Above the picture of the take out is a shot of one of the Tempeh Lettuce and Tomato Sandwiches (or a "TLT")I made for myself and Aaron on Saturday. I used Marinated Tempeh Smoky Maple Meatless Bacon, which is a product I don't think I've used before but it was really really good. Looking at/tasting these strips right out of the package I was doubtful, but after frying they're sweet and savory and delicious.
You can also see some of the chocolate chip cookies with orange zest I made with a friend, in the background.

On Sunday I made Curried Split Pea Soup, but I don't have a picture of that one because I couldn't find my camera on Sunday. The recipe was from 'Vegan with a Vengeance' but I added cauliflower and carrots to the soup to make it more substantial. Very tasty.

Finally, today I had my friend Nick over for lunch, since he's going to China on Wednesday and I will miss him. I made curried vegetables and chickpeas with couscous. It was based on a recipe from 'Vegan with a Vengeance' called Spinach and chickpea curry, but I added carrots, cauliflower and celery, which I think totally worked. It was a delicious tomato-based curry dish and we really liked it.