Monday, February 21, 2011

Vegan amazement

Crazy tax madness! To which I have sought sanity by obsessively leveling up my undead shadow priest, Beris, in WoW. I'm having a lovely time, made even better by all of John's friends that play with us, too. Beris is level 72, and even though John keeps telling me to take my time and enjoy the process, I'm anxious to get to 85 so I can raid with them, and also so I can create a death knight, which will be my reward.

But my current obsession lies with a recent discovery of the cookbook Appetite for Reduction, thanks to my friend Molly. She's been commenting on FB as she works her way through the cookbook, and while I've thought wow, that sounds amazing, I hadn't been too sold on the idea of vegan eating. It seems so extreme, not to mention how much I adore cheese (although lately, I've been uncomfortable with where my cheese and milk comes from....I just don't trust the way products are sold to us, now with what I'm learning). But we went to Borders the other night, and I picked up a copy and immediately fell in love as we waited in line. I adore the way Moskowitz writes the recipes like she's talking out loud to you, (and you are, of course, her good friend), and it certainly wins big points with me that she has both PCOS and hypothyroidism, too, just like me. And, the recipes aren't jammed full of gluten - also helpful, since I have approximately zero ability to say no thank you to it.

The taste is what ultimately rules. Last night I made the chickpea piccata sans capers, as I had none, although I can imagine they'd add SO much. The piccata is supposed to be served on a bed of arugula, but since I didn't feel like going to the store, we had it on an herbed lettuce mix, although I'm sure arugula would have held up better under the heat. I also added a lot of flax seeds for fun.


And then the polenta stuffing, which was like crack, even without thyme (I keep forgetting I'm out of it.) I just added more sage and cracked pepper.


It was unreal - I want to write that I had no idea food could taste this amazing, but that just sounds silly. Yet...still. No butter, no cheese, no dairy at all, and so unreal. Best of all, very affordable, easy ingredients, thirty minutes or so to cook, at most. And unbelievably healthy (she also includes the nutritional stats, although I don't usually pay attention to that...although I probably should...)

And then banana chocolate chip bread (not from that book, of course...) for dessert - 1.5 cups flour, 1 egg, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 mushed super ripe bananas, lots of chocolate chips, and 1 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup splenda, I know, I know, and lots of agave nectar - no idea on measurements). Bake 60 minutes at 350, and that was that.


Tonight we're going to try 2 more things from Appetite for Reduction: the gingered sweet potato/apple hash, and the hottie black-eyed greens. I can't remember the last time I was this excited to make a meal. Well, except for last night.

And then the rest of the night, we drank wine and played WoW and watched Deadwood. What an amazing show - I can't believe it's taken me this long to see it. I'm so unbelievably fascinated by the stories introduced, the characters, especially Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane (which we proceeded to look up and educate ourselves about, since I've forgotten everything I may have learned in grade school about them). And the other characters! Some of the best writing I've ever seen/heard (?), and far better than Battlestar Galactica - I feel like a traitor for saying that, but it's true. And of course being set in the Black Hills just makes my heart sing. Also tacky-sounding, but I miss home. SD will always be home, until...it's not anymore, I guess.

Anyway, I probably drove John a bit crazy because I sat there and informed him of every single geographical spot they mentioned and where it factored in with Rapid City and South Dakota as a whole. Yes, I did. And we've only seen 2.5 episodes (yes, we stopped in the middle, but that's WoW's fault...) So more of that tonight, which I'm VERY excited for.

Lots of taxes today, and I'm thinking about a short I started awhile back, one of those that stalled out, and wondering if there needs to be serious alien contact/interference/drama in it - maybe that would bring the story back up to the front burner.

9 comments:

molly said...

Hey! Deadwood and AFR! Two of my favorite things, for real. WoW comes in at a close third!

Glad you enjoyed the piccata--I'm actually making that tonight! I serve it over polenta (and w/spinach because arugula is one of those things I can't learn to like), but not the stuffing. I just slice up one of those polenta tubes you can buy at the store, spray both sides with a little nonstick spray, and bake them at 375 for maybe 20-25 minutes. Then I dump the piccata on top. it's super-yum!

Have fun with the Hottie peas--I use cholula because it's my favorite non-Siracha hot sauce, but I think I usually double or triple the amount!

Yay! <3 <3 <3 And good luck!

Erin Stocks said...

Yay! Thanks! I actually like arugula, with the right toppings, but plain-old polenta sounds fantastic!

Yes, I must get some new hot sauce. I've been a Siracha-only girl for too long, I think...

molly said...

I think arugula and baked beans are two of the only foods I get picky about. And curry powder, I guess?

BUT OMG SIRACHA. It's so good! And I think my favorite thing to do with it is mix it with vegenaise and dip like, tater tots in it. YUM!

I'm so excited you're watching Deadwood! I. . . that show. I love it so, so much. Maybe even more than tater tots dipped in sirachanaise.

Erin Stocks said...

TATERTOTS! Can I make my own without deep-frying? I haven't had tatertots in a MILLION years...yum yum yum yum yum.

Oh, ps, I'm going to order some black curry powder (that's what it is, right?) AND yellow split peas (are they Ethiopian, or is that just the recipe?) since they don't exist here...

Bobbie said...

We're having channa masala tonight, which is a good thing since now that I've seen pictures of your chick pea piccata I'm craving it. I'm not ready to go vegan, but I told my husband (after reading your previous post) that I'm not buying (or eating) red meat anymore. I love bean dishes--and we were really SO good for a while about making them regularly. It's just a matter of getting back in the habit.

By the way, I made a yellow lentil dish for Christmas dinner, and since I couldn't find yellow lentils anywhere, I was told red lentils are close enough to the same thing. And when they cook down, they do turn yellow.

Bobbie said...

Oh. Just realized you were talking about yellow split peas, not lentils. So never mind. :-)

Erin Stocks said...

Bobbie, that sounds amazing! I agree about the vegan thing - I'm on my way there, though, eventually, I'm sure. Except for butter. And ice cream. And whip cream. And blue cheese for my martinis...

Neat! I bought red lentils this weekend - I'm very excited to try them...

molly said...

Ohhhhh black cumin! It's a nice flavor but sort of non-essential for that recipe I posted. Cumin would work just as well, or switching out the whole spice blend for straight-up garam masala. Also, green split peas will work just as well, they just won't have that pleasing golden color! They're much easier to find. I have to go to Whole Foods to get the yellow ones!

Also, I totally buy the Cascadian Farms tater tots and bake them in the oven. I've had handmade ones and they're like, totally the bomb, but I'm far too lazy.

Erin Stocks said...

Hmmm, well, I do have curry, and garam masala, so...yeah. But black curry sounds so much more exotic!

We're getting a Whole Foods in the fall! I am SO EXCITED. Of course I was hoping we would be in California by then, but who knows how long that will take...