I Win Some, I Lose Some

Lately I've noticed there are some benefits to being the only specimen of one's kind, i.e. a midlife vegan in the deep south. I'm exaggerating, of course. There must be others in similar circumstances, but I've not yet met them.

The other day I was shopping at Kroger for a few items that cannot be found at Walmart, and I got a couple of freebies. I like to check myself out since I have a lovely reusable shopping bag the check out clerks tend to struggle with. I can more expeditiously do it all myself.  With produce, there is a procedure for typing in the name of the item while weighing it. The last time I did this, I found no radicchio (!) and no watercress. The attendant had to come over to assist me in finding the codes.

"Well, I guess we haven't gotten around to coding these yet, so just take 'em," she said.

This didn't feel right, so I suggested she just assign a fair price.

"No, that would mess with the system too much."

Okay. I left with my free leafy veggies. Still, there was an uneasiness in the back of my mind . . .

Do you believe in karma? I find that, whenever I receive something seemingly unfairly, an unsavory result will surely follow. On a couple of occasions in my life I have found $20 bills lying on the ground, unclaimed.  When I have kept them, both times the following days were pretty rough. It could be my imagination, but the result is the same. The photo above is what happened to my free radicchio. Isn't this sad? It's supposed to look like this:

You remember my "Yoda-food" as my son calls it. It has been the stuff I dream about -- so delicious with the mild, wilted radicchio, tofu cream cheese and truffle oil. Eye-rolling good. But the free radicchio was different. I recognize there is an element here of human error. Yes, I burned the pizza. It's the occasional collateral damage of a vegan cooking for herself and also a pack of carnivores. I've sometimes got too much going on in the kitchen. But here, after I trimmed and discarded the charcoal-encrusted portions, the radicchio was bad too. I had worried as I was removing the first few slimy leaves from the little head, and rightly so. I think it was just old. Radicchio is a bitter "green" (really purple) but shouldn't be this bitter. It was thoroughly unpalatable. I am sad it has quelled my craving for Yoda-food for the time being.

Sometimes we really do get what we pay for. But other times:

Here's my free watercress. Yes, you have seen this photo before. It is what became of the other free greens, and it was lovely and delicious. I am grateful for this portion of my free bounty.

To continue to wind down this post in a more positive vein, here are some recent yummy sandwiches:

This is marinated, baked tofu from the Natural Foods Warehouse, on eziekiel toast with vegenaise, avocado and a pile of arugula. Sublime.

And here is more of the aforementioned tofu, this time in a multigrain wrap with hummus, black olives and arugula. Delish.

There, see? There's always plenty for which to be grateful.  Mistakes are bound to happen (or karma) so gather ye watercress while ye may!

Mmmmm . . . Just What I Wanted + Whiplash Warning

Here's a shot of my breakfast this morning. Yum! It was so good I have to resist going back in for another serving. This is a warm bowl of my homemade applesauce topped with a new cereal I found at, of all places, Walmart. Here's the cereal:

I saw the word "Ancient" up there and had to have it. You know what ancient means. That's right . . . QUINOA, the answer to my protein dreams. I do so love the palpable protein boost of a good dose of quinoa. So yes, this cereal has quinoa, and also amaranth and teff. I don't know much about those two, but diversification is never a bad thing.  All together, my warm applesauce and cereal topping tasted like the best apple cobbler ever, vegan or not.

I was glad to see a few vegan-friendly items at Walmart, and find it ironic that the Natural Foods Warehouse no longer carries Field Roast Apple Sage Vegan Sausage. Hmmm. I did ask about it and they said something about maybe the manufacturer was not willing to lower his prices enough for them to pass the savings along to the customer, yada yada. Then they suggested I shop for it online. Ummm, I didn't want it that badly. One step forward, two steps back.

Back to the applesauce:  I've had a hankering for homemade applesauce every time I walk by a big wooden bowl of apples on my side table in the early stages of rot. My plan was to throw the apples into a crock pot and let them cook down on their own schedule, but lately my life has not even afforded me the luxury of enough time to peel and remove the bad parts of those apples, which is the only labor-intensive part of the sauce-making process. So last night, when I was creating a bit of a "hodge-podge" dinner for myself and the kids (my husband had a business dinner out) I began peeling and chopping apples for some future window of crock pot action, in between stirring, boiling and microwaving the dinners.

Here is my part of the hodge-podge dinner. I will call it "Eziekiel Pasta, Part Deux" (an hour earlier I had already eaten a lovely green salad from a tupperware while sitting in my car, waiting during my daughter's guitar lesson):

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may remember how I mentioned I acquired a taste for Eziekiel Bread and now love it, but didn't care for the Eziekiel Pasta. Well, with the kids choosing other random leftovers for their meals, I figured I was cooking last night just for little ole' me, so I would give the Eziekiel Pasta another go, since everything is different now that I've been vegan for a while. On the Eziekiel Fettucini I put Spicy Marinara (I am the only one who likes spicy) with mushroom slices. I topped it off with nootch, of course. The meal was very satisfying, and the flavors were delicious, better than I remember the Eziekiel pasta being, but the texture of the sprouted grain noodles necessitated a paradigm shift. They were very heavy like gritty potatoes or something. Not bad, just different. I did love the meal anyway, and I bet I will love it even more the next time.  Don't serve this to your carnivores -- I think you have to have a healthy portion of hippy in you to love this!

Once I was well into the apple-prep during the dinner prep, I realized I did not want to wait for some future crock pot date. I wanted applesauce for dessert! So, before sitting down to "Eziekiel Part Deux", I put the apples (about 10 of them) into a pot on the stove on medium heat with a couple of tablespoons of earth balance butter. I stirred and stirred, while eating my pasta,  and added ground ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and a drizzle of agave syrup. I am sorry I did not record the amounts. I kept tasting and adding more, in between bites of pasta. At one point the agave syrup seemed too pronounced, so I considered a squeeze of lemon juice, but finally opted to add one more fresh apple instead. Perfection!  Again, I know I am not much help in the recipe department here, but something as warm and homey as applesauce should be an individual indulgence anyway. I encourage you to taste and add whatever you want until it is yours! To be clear, I did have applesauce for dessert after dinner, and again this morning, reheated for breakfast. I am so happy I still have half a potful in the fridge!

I am cognizant of the fact that this post is very A.D.D. Sorry about that. Hope you didn't get whiplash while reading it. It matches my current lifestyle. Now, I'd better gear up to put in another load of laundry, try again to wake the sleepy teenager (still trying to figure out what's wrong there -- bloodwork taken yesterday, MRI soon) take Ellie for her shots, nails and bath, pick up my new glasses, and a few more items for the dinner I am making for my friend who is having surgery today. Hmmm, maybe at some point I should squeeze in a shower -- maybe post-dog, pre-Optometrist? Thank God for quinoa. Off we go!