Food Diary | Monday, December 7, 2009

Breakfast

Sourdough toast with fresh fruit and almond butter

Lunch

Stuffed peppers with quinoa, cannelini beans and tomato sauce

Stuffed veggies are awesome, especially when you happen to have some cooked beans or grains around. I happened to have both, so I mixed up some quinoa, cannelini beans, frozen corn, diced tomato, salt, pepper and thyme. I baked this for about 30 minutes while I made some tomato sauce to serve on top. Very yummy.

Hefty tip: when stuffing veggies, be careful that your stuffing doesn’t dry out in the oven. You can get around this by topping the stuffing with something “oily” like cheese or buttered bread crumbs. But if you want to avoid oil, instead of cutting the peppers in half, cut a hole in the top and remove the stem and seeds. Then jam your stuffing into the whole and bake the peppers on their side.

Dinner

Hot sauce glazed tempeh with roasted brussels sprouts and pumpkin and parsnip mash

Something about this mash didn’t sit well with me. It didn’t really go with anything else on the plate, and I don’t think I cared much for the pumpkin prepared this way. Parsnip and carrot mash would be tastier I reckon. Or maybe something else altogether, especially with hot sauce glazed tempeh, which is best with regular mash, roasted potatoes, or quinoa.

Recipe: Hot Sauce Glazed Tempeh [theppk.com]

Food Diary | Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Breakfast

Oatmeal with pears and toasted pecans

Lunch

Quinoa with Avocado, Greens and Black Beans

Avocado is so incredibly awesome with quinoa – you have to try it. They someone compliment each other: the quinoa coats itself to the avocado, which brings out the avo’s creaminess while the avo brings out the quinoa’s beautiful texture.

So in light of my desire to avocado and quinoa, I made this quick quinoa dish with a mexican flare. First I fried some mustard seeds and cumin seeds in a little oil. When the mustard seeds began to pop, I added some diced chipotle pepper and crumbled tempeh and sauteed that until it browned. Then I added a diced shallot, one minced clove of garlic, diced bell pepper, corn, a couple squeezes of fresh lime juice, tomato, cilantro, salt and pepper.

I then took this mixture out of the pan and tossed it with a bowl of pre-cooked quinoa.

While the pan was still hot I tossed in some chopped and washed kale and cooked that until tender (the water on the kale was enough to steam it in the pan).

I had the quinoa with the kale, a side of black beans, and of course, the avocado. It was really nice and only took about 15 minutes to prepare!

Dinner

Tempeh burger with cabbage and roasted brussels sprouts

Brassica fantastica. That’s right, I had cabbage AND brussels sprouts in this meal. And quite a lot too. I’m a fiend for the Brassica oleracea family of veggies: cabbage, brussels, cauliflower, broccoli, kale. I’m also a fiend for burgers and sandwiches filled with sauteed cabbage, onion and caraway seeds. This burger was a variation on a tofu burger I’ve been enjoying lately. I must say, it’s way better with tofu.