Day 21: The adventures of Cauliflower and Eggplant

Spiritual Menu:  AM: Psalm 119: 97-120; PM: 81, 82; Jeremiah 8:19 - 9:6; Romans 5:1-11; John 8: 21-32

I finally found an eggplant to try a recipe on! I'm soooo excited!

Here's the deal - since I'm allergic tomatoes, I've had to find some alternatives. The spinach pesto sauce is still a personal favorite of mine, but I wanted something else I could come up with something that looks a little more like pasta white sauce.  I almost succeeded in this cauliflower sauce.  It has the taste, but the consistency is still a lot like very creamy potatoes.  Tastes yummy on the cauliflower and with the kale.  Here's my picture.

Eggplant with White Cauliflower Sauce

1 eggplant
1/2 cup flower
1/2 cup Jamaican water crackers, crumbled
1/2 cup rice milk
1/4 cup olive oil

1 head of cauliflower, cut
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoon Basil leaves
2 teaspoons Italian Seasonings
1 teaspoon salt

Cut the eggplant into slices.  Set up a dredging station with flour, rice milk, and crumbled water crackers.  Dredge each eggplant slice.  In a pan, heat up the olive oil.  Cook eggplant on each side for about 3 minutes. Drain excess oil with paper towels.

Steam the cauliflower with salt and water.  When soft, strain water.  Place in a blender and liquify.  Heat olive oil in a pan.  Sautee onion, bell pepper, garlic, basil leaves, and Italian seasoning.  Add cauliflower.  Heat and serve as sauce.

Backtracking Day 20: More Greenery

Spiritual Menu: AM/PM Psalm 78; Jeremiah 7:21-34; Romans 5:1-11; John 7:37-52

So I'm loving kale. It just makes me feel good inside when I eat it.  Today, I just made it as a side dish, kind of like spinach. I had it with a mushroom patty (yes, I love them!) and brown rice.  Here's the recipe for the kale:

1 bunch kale
1/2 small onion
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper

Cut up the kale and onion.  In a sauce pan on medium heat, heat olive oil, then add onion.  After sauteeing a bit, add the kale, and salt and pepper to taste.  Cook until green all over.

Day 19: Kale!

Spiritual Menu: AM: Psalm 80; PM: Psalm 77, 79; Jeremiah 7:1-5; Romans 4:1-12; John 7: 14 -36

It's funny how people are starting to notice my veganism - and ask questions. Yesterday I was in Subway ordering a veggie sub (on Italian which is a vegan made bread) and the cashier asked me about it.  Today, I was in Applebee's (wonton tacos w/o chicken, and oriental chicken salad w/o chicken), and my server asked me about going vegan.  Pretty cool stuff actually.

The highlight of the day though, Kale salad. I decided to get the Kale cooked so that I can have it done finally, and it was amazing! It's a relatively easy vegetable to cook, and withstand waay more heat than even spinach.  Still maintains the crunch.  Here's the pic:

The recipe:

1 bunch of Kale, shreaded
1/4 cup pecans, chopped
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tbsp Agave Mustard

Sautee your kale in the olive oil until green and covered.  Add pecans and dried cranberries.   Add agave mustard sauce to the mix.  Take off the heat and allow to cool. 

Enjoy!

Backtracking Day 17: Down day (Mar 25)

Spiritual Menu: AM Psalm 69; PM Psalm 73; Jeremiah 5:1-9; Romans 2:25-3:18; John 5:30 - 47

Friday in our house is down day, meaning no one cooks.  So it was off to Taste of the Island again for me since I've been ripping up carpet all day.  This project should be done next week and I can get back to cooking and save a few dollars.

I have Curry Tofu today, which is always good.  I was so hungry after doing all the work that I just forgot to take a picture of it.  Tomorrow I'm traveling so I may combine Day 18-19.

Backtracking Day 16: Greens, please! (March 24)

Spiritual Menu: Psalm 70-71; PM Psalm 74; Jeremiah 4:9-10, 19-28; Romans 2:12-24; John 5:19-29

By the way, this backtracking really is bothersome.  The reading?  And I thought it was hard to keep up with before!   I think I'm going to presave some of these blogs with the readings on them.

I have been wanting the green!  All day, the craving for cabbage was so overwhelming that I high tailed it down to Taste of the Island and got a Veggie patty w/ Coco bread and cabbage.  Found out later that I'm not supposed to have the Coco Bread, but it was all soooooo good!  Well, back to work.

Backtracking Day 15: Quick Lunch (for March 23)

Spiritual Menu: AM Psalm 72; PM: Psalm 119:73-96; Jeremiah 3:6-18; Romans 1:28-2:11; John 5:1-18

What to do, what to do, what to do for lunch?  That's the question of the day.  I was out scouring the many Home Depot's and Lowe's looking for paint (very long story) and in the midst of trying to get the color exactly right, realized that I didn't have time to cook!  Oh no.  Then I saw Panera Bread, which I love!  But bread is made with milk -- shoot.

All was not lost.  I took out my trusty iphone (technology does have it uses) and did a quick search on google to find vegan Panera items and found this amazing website called www.veganeatingout.com, which had as many restaurants as you can think of with their vegan options.  I ended up having the Fuji Apple Salad with no chicken or goat cheese.  Surprisingly, I didn't miss the chicken.

Backtracking Day 14: The Week of Fast Food

Spiritual Menu: Psalm 61-62; PM: Psalm 68; Jeremiah 2:1-13; Romans 1:16-25; John 4: 43-54

I had Amy's Gluten-free, non dairy Pizza.  It's good, but pricey, which is sad because it's so small already. 

This week, I've been working on a project that literally had to out at the weirdest hours and sleeping sporadically.  Needless to say, it was hard to plan out my meals and even take time to write on the blog (or write anything else).  I did take a few pictures though!

What I found is that eating out is NOT easy for vegans, especially if you don't live near a place that caters to it.  You're pretty much reduced to a modified salad (since many come with cheese) and apple juice.  Oh, and french fries if it doesn't share the same oil as the meat.  Then when you order something, even if you specify, people don't necessarily understand the point. 

Who'd a thought this would be teaching me quite a bit of patience too?