Sunday the 5th, NT tried another recipe out of Vegan Dad for lunch: Roasted Garlic White Sauce. He made fresh pasta to put it over and added diced portobello mushroom. It was mild, tasty, but overall not too exciting. We liked it though.
That night he made lemon, mushroom and broad-bean risotto, with garlic bread on the side. I'm not huge into lemony dishes, but this one was just magnificent. The flavor, the texture, everything.
Mondays I usually try to do something casual and homey, since NT doesn't get home from class until late. April 6 I decided on grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup. I put different things in, like sauteed onions and mushrooms. NT had Branson pickle in his, one of those inexplicable British foods that I don't get (but AS loves too). Anyway, I think whitestripe put the idea of grilled cheese in my head a few weeks ago.
Tuesday NT cooked again, this time trying out Mandarin Chickpeas from Vegan Dad. None of us knew what to expect, but it was really yummy! Instead of putting it over rice, NT mixed in some quinoa.
Wednesday our friends cooked for us at their home. We had simmered tofu with a chili-sesame sauce, pickled cucumber-apple salad, and two storebought sides, kimchee and spicy bamboo. It was all great but my faves were the tofu and the kimchee.
Thursday, April 9, I cooked yet another dish from the Vegan Dad cookbook. What can I say? A lot of his recipes sound so good, and they're relatively easy to make. this was Seitan and Mushrooms in Vegan Oyster Sauce. The seitan was yet another variation with a really interesting texture. It was another one that didn't blow us away but was very enjoyable at the same time. I feel very comfortable with his cookbook, because even if his recipes aren't all superstar recipes like his hot wings and BBQ sandwich, they're reliably easy to make and nice to eat.
Friday I made a decadent feast of chimichangas (fried burritos with vegan "beef" and cheese/soy cheeze filling) on a bed of lettuce with ranchero salsa and more guacamole than three people should ever have in one setting. The salsa was only OK, not worth the time and effort I put into it (roasting and peeling peppers and tomatoes, for example), but the burrito and guacamole were big winners. NT made strawberry-lime margaritas to go with it!
Saturday, April 11, we went with some friends to a new restaurant called Roat Osha. It was excellent in its way, slightly Americanized Thai food. Really reasonable wine and cocktail prices, too. None of my pics came out very well, but we had spring rolls, lab esan (spicy tofu salad with cucumber and lettuce), veggie stir fry (forget the name), coconut ice cream, fried bananas, and mango and sticky rice (my favorite Thai dessert!)
Sunday night I cooked another recipe out of Vegan Dad called Tofurkey Tetrazzini (which uses diced vegan turkey slices). It was homely (especially compared to our night of Thai food) but really tasty in a comfort-foody kind of way. That topping you see is bread crumbs and ground-up almonds, which added a really nice texture and flavor to the casserole.
365 days of dinner: April 5-12, 2009
April 14th, 2009 at 02:17 am
April 14th, 2009 at 03:56 am 1239677806
April 14th, 2009 at 03:16 pm 1239718565