Well, here it is, almost my birthday. Tomorrow we head north with some friends for wine tasting, fine dining, and some spectacular Pacific Ocean viewing. But today is just the two of us at our go-to Thai restaurant.
We order our favorite, #12, Spicy Thai Basil Tofu with Eggplant. It does not disappoint. I need to learn to make this at home!
Spicy Thai basil tofu with eggplant.
Here’s a little Santa humor to start your read with a smile brought to you by my obsession with collecting Santas.
“Dr. Santa can we save him!?”
“Hand me my glue gun, stat!”
Tonight on my birthday eve eve, John made fried scallops. They were delicious! This picture was taken during a prior night’s dinner due to the fact that they were so wonderful that I forgot to take their picture!
Fried scallops, broccoli salad and tater tots
In honor of my birthday our daughter made her wonderful Swedish tea ring which is very reminiscent of the coffee cakes that the Dugan Bakery man used to bring to our door when I was growing up. My father always ate the lion’s share of the coffee cake. This one was all for me although I shared with John and daughter.
Dugan coffeecake (Swedish tea ring)
I have some of my many, many Santas up for Christmas and they always bring a smile to my face as I walk around the house. Here is a picture of a few of my kitchen Santas that sit behind my sink. I have quite a few pictures that I’ve attached humorous captions to and if I can find them, I’ll brighten my posts for the holiday season.
Kitchen Santas
On to the food – I had a Mediterrean lunch salad today. The chickpea salad was accompanied by some lettuce, tomatoes, and olives.
Chickpea salad
For dinner we started off with some heavily roasted cauliflower as an hors d’oeuvre. The main course was penne with asparagus and mushrooms. As you can see library Santa is looking up the recipes for me.
Roasted cauliflower
Penne with asparagus and mushrooms
It is almost my birthday! During birthday week I get to dine on whatever I wish. It includes all sorts of fare. No doubt I will be eating pizza and Chinese food. There is a particular dish of a Thai basil and eggplant that I especially love. Over the weekend John and I are going with my shared birthday buddy and his wife for a 2 night wine tasting, Pacific Ocean gazing, and gourmet dining extravaganza.
Needless to say this is not a week that I am going to dine lightly or part-time vegan too successfully. I will post when I have something reasonable to post and otherwise, see you next week!
On Monday even though it is birthday week I followed the vegan until 6 plan by having my morning gruel and a TJ’s quinoa cowboy burger on whole wheat English muffin with lettuce and tomato plus the remnants of the tabbouleh that I made a few days ago.
Quinoa burger and tabbouleh
I revolted from my gruel breakfast and ate an egg instead. It isn’t so much the ugly appearance and slimy texture of my oatmeal regimen that bothers me, it is the everyday sameness. I wish there were something else savory to do with oatmeal. So far John has only suggested haggis!
Lunch was a combo salad – green salad, tabbouleh, and chickpea salad.
Salad, salad, salad
Remember way back to Sunday when I made a new dish? We liked it so much (plus we still had leftover garlic bread crumbs) that we made whole wheat spaghetti with olives, capers, and tomatoes again. I added a little V8 to give the sauce more volume but it kind of diluted the tomato flavor. I need to find a way to increase the volume and amp up the tomato flavor.
Whole wheat spaghetti with olives, capers, tomatoes topped with garlicky bread crumbs and parsley
Does everyone cook as much as I do? Are you taking the easier route of dining out or ordering in? It seems like I cook an awfully lot. I did have lunch out once last week but that’s it. Daughter treats herself to lunch almost every day. I would like to find some nearby places where I could get a good vegan lunch. Maybe I will make that a New Year’s Resolution!
Ho-hum oatmeal glop for breakfast followed by the all-American lunch, soup and sandwich. Probably not too many Americans are eating my soup and sandwich lunch though. I prepared smashed chickpeas with olive oil and lettuce for my pita pocket and had the remainder of the cauliflower soup with tofu croutons.
Cauliflower soup with tofu croutons and chickpea pita pocket
We found a fabulous-looking piece of cod at Safeway and decided upon roasted cod with chickpea purée, parsley sauce, and haricot vert for dinner. John roasted the fish until just done in the oven at 400F and I whizzed up the sauce and the chickpeas with olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice. I gave the beans a quick steam with some sliced garlic and finished with a pat of butter. This was pretty elegant for a Friday night.
4 oz. of fish camouflaged by chickpea purée plus haricot vert and parsley sauce
I really like ethnic foods. They have such a flavor punch after eating a bunch of American food (see Thanksgiving.) For lunch today I finished daughter’s brown rice. There was about a half of a cup left. To complement the rice I made a Chinese inspired vegetable mix using carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, and onion. I also used up the last of my baked teriyaki flavored tofu. I flavored the vegetables with ginger, garlic, and soy sauce. What a filling and tasty lunch!
Vegetable and tofu stirfry over brown rice
Tonight was a meat night (hamburgers) but I made a really delicious salad on the side, Lebanese Tabbouleh adapted from a recipe by Martha Rose Shulman on the New York Times Cooking site. The salad is more about the parsley and less about the bulgur wheat. Since I erred on the too much salt side, I included a chopped cucumber to balance the flavors out. It seems that no matter how many times I read a recipe I always manage to mess something up!
Lebanese tabbouleh
Today was an all-vegetarian day. For lunch daughter and I visited the delicious Ethiopian restaurant, Zeni, in San Jose. It is a favorite in our family although somewhat of a trek. At our house it is referred to as mmmmm, Zeni.
For the uninitiated Ethiopian food is served on a large platter covered with their bread, injera, and on top of that is piled various delights. You also get a basket of injera which is your utensil. Tear off a piece and scoop up lentils or salad or potatoes/cabbage/carrots.
Injera
We ordered their veggie combo which has piles of lentils, a potato/cabbage/carrot mixture, greens, split peas, tomatoes, and a green salad on top of the injera. We also got a spicy lentil dish which is served with a crumbly cheese.
Veggie combo with additional spicy lentils on injera
I cannot even begin to tell you how delicious this is! They also serve dishes with various meats if you like.
Since lunch was a pretty big offering we had breakfast for dinner consisting of eggs, toast, and soy breakfast patties.
Over easy eggs with toast and soy sausage pattie
Since I am always mentioning my breakfast I thought I would take a picture of it today. Ta da! Steel cut oatmeal with flaxseed and blueberries. I am still missing all the other breakfasts I used to have and feel a little rebellious about having to eat it every day. Plus it looks like my countertop!!!
Oatmeal and flaxseed with blueberries
On to why I had pasta twice today. First, I love pasta. It fits into my part-time vegan eating plan and I have been eating the healthy whole grain type. Second, at lunchtime John and I had not discussed the all important “What do you want for dinner” question. So I blithely took out the leftovers of the pasta with olives, capers, and tomatoes that I made on Sunday and ate them for lunch.
Leftover spaghetti with olives, capers, and tomatoes
So John is concerned that we still have a whole lot of turkey leftovers and he wants to make a gigantic soup. I am not enthused. I suggest cutting off some cutlet type pieces and making turkey parmesan with spaghetti and salad. I win!
Leftover turkey made into turkey parmesan with whole wheat spaghetti (salad not pictured)
I expect we will be having the aforementioned turkey soup sometime later this week.
Chicken is definitely not turkey. I was hoping for fish in my after 6 PM eating but the selection at the store was woeful and, really, chicken on Monday is in my genes.
John sous vide and immersion-circulated a chicken breast that we shared. The rest of the plate was taken up by broccoli and rutabagas. Rutabagas do not count as a starchy vegetable. I made the rutabagas in the pressure cooker which really softens them up. A little packet gravy finished off the dish.
Winner, winner! Chicken dinner!
For the vegan part of my day I had my oatmeal combo for breakfast and a quinoa burger with lettuce and tomato in a pita and some cauliflower soup.
Cauliflower soup and a quinoa burger with lettuce and tomato in a whole wheat pita
Omnivore 