food round-up

Ok, LOTS of food photos this week! I'm catching up for 2 food round-ups, but luckily for us all, there are not too many photos from this past week because I spent more time recovering from having my wisdom teeth taken out than cooking or eating. (Thank you for your well wishes, by the way! I am better now, although I still can not open my mouth too wide.)

As per usual with too many pictures, I'm going to do my best to keep the words to a minimum.

P.S. I know I promised you all recipes from the last food round-up, and I will bring you those in a separate post within a few days- I have not forgotten!

Here we go...

Salad with: home-grown mung bean sprouts, apples, raisins, celery, red and garbanzo beans, sunflower seeds, and a flax oil vinaigrette

Daiku's French-style lentils, with raisins and molasses added in for a sweet twist

This week's bread baking experiment: whole spelt bread. Very nice! And softer than the whole wheat bread from the previous week.

Pretty much becoming my favorite vegetable: fennel braised with tomatoes and garlic, served with kalamata olives.

That was a side with this whole wheat fettucini with cannelini beans and kale. Pasta with beans and greens- does it get much better than that?

Taco night would be incomplete without homemade pico de gallo (front) and guacamole (back)

Throw in some baked plantains too, while you are at it!

And don't forget fire-roasted poblano peppers! So sweet and smoky at the same time.

Typical detox breakfast: cream of buckwheat topped with walnuts and pecans, raisins and cinnamon, and tahini. I find that the tahini makes me feel very full and satisfied, probably because it's such an energy-dense food. On the side, a smoothie made with frozen cranberries, soymilk, and bananas. Ever since learning on Jackie's blog that you can use frozen cranberries in smoothies, I've been hooked. It's so delicious and healthy, and the bananas mask the tartness well. Try it!

Diann's white chili with baked tofu (I baked the tofu with nutritional yeast and veggie broth powder). This chili was SO good, and such a fun change of pace from normal red chili- thank you, Diann!

Served with whole wheat biscuits. (Modified from a recipe from the Vegan Family Favorites cookbook)

Greetings from Virginia! Here I am with pomelos the size of my head at a local Korean grocery with an insane selection of produce. (Living in Syracuse and trying to eat seasonally most of the time, I occasionally go crazy in the winter wishing for fresh produce!)

Some chinese broccoli from above-mentioned market, cooked with garlic and sesame seeds.

Which went with these falafels.

More cooking at my mom's house: fresh pesto (I made it with basil and walnuts), whole wheat penne pasta, and mushrooms sauteed with caramelized onions.

What this potato salad lacked in color, it more than made up for in flavor- I made the dressing with a mixture of vegannaise, horseradish, and Trader Joe's "21 seasoning salute". Tossed with potatoes, onions, and a touch of olive oil, red pepper flakes, and salt. I absolutely love potato salad.

My mom raved over this focaccia. I made it using a recipe I'd used before: the Vegan Chef's olive, onion, and rosemary focaccia. I made it using- gasp!- white flour! So not quite detox-friendly, but oh so good.

I brought back some goodies from Trader Joe's when I came home from Virginia, since I know Daiku misses it as much as I do. Here is some gnocchi I brought home, for which Daiku made one of my all-time favorite sauces: kind of a puttanesca without the anchovies. Tomatoes with capers, black olives, and lots of red pepper flakes. Ultra tangy and spicy, it balanced the soft soothing gnocchi perfectly. Yum!

We had the gnocchi with frozen spinach sauteed with garlic and olive oil, served with sea salt.

Then came... the wisdom teeth. These mango gels made up a large part of my diet this past week! They are made with agar instead of gelatin, and come in lots of intriguing fruit flavors (e.g. lychee, watermelon, etc.) They didn't take a lot of chewing and they cooled and soothed my mouth. Look for them in Asian grocery stores.

When I saw this on Carrie's blog, I just had to have it. Tomato lentil dill soup- all my favorite things! Too bad this was a test recipe for Dreena's next book. Oh well, I couldn't have the actual recipe, but I could approximate something like it! I went heavy on the dill, and the flavors of lentils and tomatoes went so well with it. Soothing, and didn't take much chewing.

More soft food. (I sound like a nursing home resident, don't I?!) An avocado salad with marinated red onions, modified from a recipe from Martha Stewart's "Everyday Food" magazine. My mother-in-law gave me a huge stash of these magazines over Christmas, and you can find some fun veggie recipes after wading through a lot of beef and pork. Martha! Eat more vegetables, for god's sake! Without bacon!

A classic meal at our house: black-eyed peas, turnip greens, whipped sweet potatoes. This is Daiku's plate, since it has crunchy things: pecans and crackers. Oh how I miss crunchy food!

Fun Friday-night dinner: seven-layer dip with corn chips. The layer you can see: tofu sour cream with leftover marinated onions, olives, jalapeno, and cilantro. The layers you can't see: refried beans, pinto and black beans, salsa, and guacamole. Lovely.

Finally, I was excited to at last see these raspberry oranges at the supermarket last night. I tried these for the first time last year, and got hooked. They are this beautiful ruby color on the inside, their skins have a red blush on the outside, and if you concentrate very carefully, they actually have a faint raspberry aftertaste. Magical!

Have a great weekend, everyone.

food round-up