Fizzy business

I lurve seltzer water. Or rather, sparkling water with a hint of flavor. Not that over the top sweetness that comes via an artificial sweetener, but rather something like Poland Springs sparkling water with lime essence. That's my go-to drink at home. I like it because I feel like it is refreshing and not as bad for me as soda/diet soda and I know that water is important to drink. Do I feel bad about the amount of plastic bottles that pile up in my house? Yup. But at least I recycle them, right? There was an article in the NYTimes yesterday about this very phenomenon which presents a variety of ways you can make you own seltzer water at home. It's a bit pricey for me, but it's an interesting article nevertheless. Check it out here

Hi.

I didn't mean to be so absent. But, alas, it happened.

Here's my update: I'm moving in 2 weeks! I'll be living in Durham, North Carolina. My husband and I closed on a house a couple weeks ago and we are anxious to settle in and start exploring the area more. I expect to be frequenting the local farmers' markets and finding lots of new watering holes.....And I expect to be posting more.

See you soon!

New things

Here are a couple recipes I made recently, but forgot to post about. The first looks nasty. I'll admit it, it does. It's from last month's Vegetarian Times and it's called Black Bean Chilaquiles with Arugula Salad. Essentially you take some black beans, mix them in a blender with salsa, oregano and garlic and then heat it all up in a pan with some veg broth until it reduces a bit. Then you fold in tortilla chips until they are slightly soft. Serve with sprinkled cheese if you want. On the side is a yummy arugula salad with green onions, avocado, lime juice and tomatoes. Looks really gross, tasted pretty good.
The second is from the same week because I wanted to use up the arugula. It's another Spring recipe from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. This was super simple- chickpea patties with arugula salad. This time the salad was dressed with lemon juice and olive oil and it was the perfect complement to the slightly spicy patties. They were kind of like falafels, but slightly different and obviously not fried.

My obsession with all things salad continues. Right now the best salad in the world consists of:
baby greens, yellow pepper, red pepper, grape tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, pepitas (aka pumpkin seeds), Sunergia's More Than Tofu pesto flavored tofu and last but not least, light italian dressing from Newman's Own.

Salad

It may seem boring, but lately I've been obsessed with salad! I've found a good process that makes me way more willing to eat it daily. I buy a bag of baby greens at the beginning of the week, wash it and store it in the salad spinner in the fridge. I also buy a couple peppers of varying colors and a cucumber. I chop these up at the beginning of the week as well and store them in a container in the fridge. Then I might feel inspired to toast some pumpkin seeds or make croutons with leftover bread. Today I remembered I had a can of chickpeas and popped some of those in. I even cubed up some tasty pesto baked tofu I bought last week. Morning prep is simple when everything's ready to go.

Here's a picture of one of these salads.


I also made a yummy dinner of coconut rice with leeks and edamame last week. It was the first Spring recipe from A Year In a Vegetarian Kitchen (Jack Bishop) that I've tried and it was so yummy. But then, I'm a sucker for coconut rice!

I'm not going anywhere yet....

I've just been overwhelmingly busy with thinking/planning for the move and working a new (temp) job that's 8:30-5:30. By the time I get home I'm beat! Of course I put looking for a new job on hold months ago when I knew this NC thing was in the works, but it's nice to have a pretty steady job for now. It's hard though working that extra hour a day. By the time I get home it's all I can do to boil water for pasta and throw on some Newman's Own marinara sauce.

I did do a little cooking this weekend though. I made the garlic and potato soup from the latest Cook's Illustrated. We had another vegetarian friend over and chowed down on it (I obviously substituted veg broth) and homemade whole wheat rolls. I didn't get around to taking a picture of the soup, but here's a shot of the rolls that we had leftover this morning:

They come from the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking cookbook that my friend Molly gave me for my birthday. Very delish!

I interrupt this food blog for a special announcement

I'm moving to North Carolina! My husband's employer offered to relocate him and the offer is just too good to pass up. And with me still temping.....it's hard to say no. It's not happening until late Spring/Summer but I'm probably going to be busy over the next few months.

Rice bowls

I made a couple meals on top of rice this week. It's probably more rice than I've had in a while, but carbs are good for you, right? Probably would have been better with brown rice, but I've got a big bag of basmati so what ya gonna do?

The first meal looks fabulous, but it was hella salty and I didn't love it. It came from the Modern Vegetarian Kitchen by Peter Berley which I got for Christmas. This was the first recipe I made and I'm not giving up easily since there seems to be a lot of interesting stuff in it. This is Sweet and Sour Tempeh with Spicy Peanut Sauce. There was just so much tamari in this that it had no chance of not being overly salty.

Then I made another recipe from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. This is Caribbean Black Beans with Sauteed Plantains. The beans are cooked with lime and orange juice and garlic. I was supposed to add a jalapeno pepper, but I didn't because I am lame. Still good though!