Soupasana

I spent a full morning shuffling end-of-semester papers around. I was hungry around 12, but decided to drive to work and drop off the last few things before I ate. I figured hunger would keep me from wasting time… Big mistake. Of course, all kinds of stupid little details came up in terms of “correct” paperwork that needed to be filed along with exams, so I didn’t get home until three hours later, and by that time I was ready to eat an elephant.

It’s amusing how I often have no idea what I will be eating until half way through a recipe… Here are some starting ingredients. I used up the last of my vegetable stock and added a splash of butternut squash soup.

Creamy Mushroom & Corn Soup

• 1 cup of vegetable stock
• 1/4 cup of Pacific Foods creamy butternut squash soup
• 1 cup of canned pumpkin
• 1 cup of mushrooms
• 1 cup of frozen corn
• 1 tsp of canola oil
• hot sauce, salt, pepper

 

Cook mushrooms with a bit of vegetable stock, canola oil and water if necessary. Meanwhile, heat up vegetable stock in a pan, add butternut squash soup, and frozen corn. When mushrooms are ready, stir them into the stock as well. Heat through. Pour into a bowl, add salt, pepper, hot sauce, etc. Serve with toast. Or crackers. Or both….

I finally tried Earth Balance, which is a vegan margarine. Let’s just say that if I decide NOT to stick with eating vegan, lack of butter would not be the reason. I would be perfectly happy eating this instead of butter for the rest of my life. Just look at the melty goodness on the best bread in the world.

 

Finish off with foaming wonders of soy milk and an unpictured apple.

Whew. Another carb heavy meal. I think that’s what happens when I let myself get too hungry. A huge salad is looking good for dinner to balance things out. Any ideas?

I’ve started watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. I think I’m hooked. I gotta admit I was always pretty sceptical of families portrayed on all the different talk and reality shows that were eating nothing but French fries. I mean obviously such families exist, but surely this cannot be the norm? Surely this is an exception, rather than a way an average family eats?

I think part of the reason for this attitude was the fact that we always ate relatively healthy at home. There was never any pop in the house, no chips, no boxes and packages, and most meals were cooked from scratch – healthy or not. Unfortunately, all the latest numbers and statistics are making me believe that cans and boxes are indeed the main food groups for most people in North America. How scary is that?

Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there’s a message in my Alphabits. It says, ‘Oooooo.’
Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.

The beginnings of something good – you start with the best bread in the world, smear it with peanut butter, artfully arrange banana slices on top…

I usually read the ingredients of the foods I buy, but I tend to be especially picky about certain things (as I mentioned in my response to Dasha’s comment). Coconut water is one of them. Nut butter is another. My preference for both of these items to have one ingredient. After trying Maranatha Peanut Butter, I changed my peanut butter standards to occasionally include salt, but as a rule, the peanut butter you see me use would have peanuts, the almond butter would have almonds, etc. Nothing else.

Then thinly slice an apple (eat the leftover apple off camera) and add to the sandwich. Now the apple pretty much has to be yellow or red – this is Gala. I simply cannot imagine one of those green crispy apples in this role.

Voila – breakfast sandwich the size of your head. Here’s to hoping that you have a small head.

Truth be told – this was way too much food. Especially, if you eat the remaining banana and apple, as soon as the camera is turned off. Note for next time – take out the cereal. I run into this issue sometimes, when I already know what I want to have for breakfast, but there is also something new I want to try – today’s case = new cereal. Reminder to self – the cereal will still be there in the morning. Sigh…

Speaking of cereal – I had a bowl with chocolate soy milk, and found it way too sweet. I’m thinking either sweet cereal OR sweet milk, not both. The actual cereal is pretty good, although a little bit of a dry side – but then again all these wheatie square type cereals are. At this point, it’s back to other Kashi cereals for me.

Now Mooha may not be the nicest cat in the neighbourhood, but you can’t deny certain things… Like the fact that this feline has brains. Check out his light night time reading… Apparently, he started this last night and is already half way through. And trust me, this is one dense read…

Lois: Good, I don’t have to cook.
Peter: Oh, no, go ahead and cook anyway, Lois, and we’ll throw it out. I don’t want you to get rusty.

-Family Guy, “From Method to Madness”

 

Overdosing a bit on Family Guy quotes lately… See Family Guy is my SECOND vice. The first is coffee… I am perfect in every other way… And now we return to food and other edible substances.

Today I attended a workshop on Engaging Students with Online Resources. Since I have started teaching online, this is definitely a relevant topic. The workshop was held by a large textbook publisher at a college I work at, as they were trying to convince faculty to stick with their textbook, rather than switching over to a competing publishing house. I think it’s interesting what a huge industry textbook publishing is… Instructors are constantly bombarded with free copies of various textbooks, because if the instructor chooses to use a particular text, this guarantees hundreds of copies sold for the publisher, as all students will go out to purchase the required materials.

Lunch was provided. Normally the last sentence carries a lot of excitement for me, however, a vegan diet dampens it a little, as you never know whether you can expect anything apart from tuna salad and chocolate chip cookies. This was a pleasant exception however…

Plate #1: veggies (sans dip) and 2 mini grilled veggie sandwiches

Someone asked me how I can be really sure that something I order at a restaurant or eat outside of my house does not have any animal products… Well, I can’t. So I don’t lose any sleep over it. I am not deathly allergic to animal products, so it’s not like I am going to have an adverse reaction to a random smear of butter on my bread. I do my best to ask questions, and use common sense, but after that I have to let go…

 

Plate #2: more veggie sandwiches, fruit, and black tea. Oh, and if you think that I didn’t go back for more fruit – you are crazy….

 

Although the lunch was fantastic, I had a feeling it would not last… Maybe not enough carbs?

The grocery trip on my way back home turned out to be a pricey one… but I got tonnes of fun stuff as usual that I cannot wait to consume.

Highlights included:

• whole wheat pizza crust
• Kashi cereal
• chocolate soy milk
• spelt raisin bread
• Pita Break crackers
• light coconut milk (for soups?)
• the best rye bread ever made

 

I definitely restocked my nut pantry – pecans/walnuts/filberts/pepitas/raisins –> this was a good chunk of change… Last night mom mentioned that vegan diet is probably really expensive with all these nuts that you buy. What’s interesting is that I already had all these nuts in my pantry before I started the 30-day trial. However, I guess you would be eating more of them, if you cut out animal products from your diet, so from that standpoint, it would be more expensive.

I found that buying nuts and seeds from bulk bins works much better than buying them in prepackaged tins, and baggies, because they tend to be fresher. Nothing is as disappointing as a stale bag of walnuts. Well, I guess many things are even more disappointing (most blind dates, personal failure, 3rd season of Prison Break), but you know what I mean…

 

As I predicted, I was hungry soon after I got home… With hot yoga looming, I needed something on the light side. Inspired by mom’s vegetables yesterday, this came to fruition:

• frozen peas
• frozen corn
• green peas
• bean sprouts
• remaining coleslaw

 

Everything was thrown into the pan along with a bit of vegetable stock and soy sauce.

I topped it with salsa.

The flavour was surprisingly sophisticated for such an easy dish. I loved it. The spiciness of the  medium salsa killed the taste a bit though – it was simply too much. I will go for tomato sauce next time.

Dessert/snackage:

Pita Break crackers + pecans

 

The traffic on my way to yoga was absolutely disgusting. In fact, I arrived to the studio five minutes late, completely flustered. Four out of six lanes on a major road were closed for construction, resulting in a painfully slow death crawl. In fact, I felt so trapped for a few seconds, that my mild claustrophobia started acting up. It was similar to the moshpit experience. Something about wanting to get out of the situation, and not being able to… In any case, I sneaked into the class, and felt immeasurably better after. Love how yoga always has that effect on me.

After yoga, dinner was quick, but super tasty:

Grain of the day. I think this is essentially ground barley…

Ground barley with black beans, tomato sauce and fresh tomato slices.

Drum roll, please…This is it… The best rye bread I have tried so far – Bavarian Multigrain Bread (I got this one at Metro). Remember, I am a foodie at heart… When I first tried Maranatha peanut butter, I think I teared up a little. This was pretty close – this bread actually tastes like bread. Chewy, doughy goodness. I just want to crawl inside the loaf and live there.

Any particular foods that you have discovered that are so good they bring tears to your eyes?