Comfort food, festival eats, and bulk cooking.

Last Friday when I went to Food Fight Chad gave me a little treat. Locally we are blessed to have an incredible vegan bread company called Dave's Killer Bread. It is the most wonderful bread you could imagine. There are several different varieties, including wheat-free, and I love them all. Well, I guess Dave tried making some mini baguette style loaves and brought them in to Chad as a treat and he was kind enough to share the wealth with me. I knew exactly what I was going to do with it, so I picked up some chik'n nuggets while I was there.


I finally tracked down the vegan Caesar dressing I'd gotten hooked to in Phoenix! I thought it would be easy to find here, but it was not. So I used this delicious loaf of Good Seed bread to make 2 spectacular chik'n Caesar salads with it. Yes, it's faux meat, but this is a serious comfort food for me. Back in the day I would eat chik'n Caesar day in and day out and this bread! Oh, it was incredible! We had some Mexi-Snacks with them, which are kind of like vegan Doritos. Dave's brother owns the company Nature Bake, which also makes bread (not all varieties are vegan), as well as the kick-ass vegan cookies I reviewed for the latest Herbivore.

Saturday for work I went to a Give Green gift event with about 60 other vendors. It was meant as a way to get out there and buy things that are local and ethical for your holiday shopping. Portland may be a vegan mecca, but it's also full of meat-eating enviromentalists who aren't always receptive to what we're doing, so I was a little worried about how the festival would go. I was relieved, however, when I saw that Blossoming Lotus was going to be there, as well as a vegan bakery and chocolate maker. Yay! So I had plenty to eat all day.

Raw cashew hummus with raw seed crackers. Very, very good.


And this, well, it looks gross, but it was great! Cauliflower enchilada with green sauce on top. I'm not all sure what was going on in it, but it was super good and a new way to have cauliflower, for sure. Jim hates cauliflower, but loves Mexican food, so maybe I can sneak some in that way.

Yesterday Jim spent the day, while I was at work, lovingly cleaning the kitchen so it was spotless when I got home. Today, I lovingly destroyed it while doing another batch of bulk cooking. Last week I made a stew and a chili, so this week I opted for pilaf and soup.


This pilaf is a hodgepodge of an herbed basmati rice mix from Trader Joes, some quinoa, frozen peas, sauteed onion and red lentils. I had some extra firm tofu to use up, so I cut it into strips and marinated it in some toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, crushed garlic, sage and rosemary. I baked it for about 40 minutes, turning it every 10. Jim can't eat things quite as plainly as I can, so I imagine he'll be drenching these containers in teriyaki sauce, but it will be tasty all the same.


And I made some corn chowder at Jim's request and I got to use a fun new item I bought at Trader Joes last night: green garbanzos! Those green blobs that look like peas are actually garbanzo beans! I couldn't resist trying them, even though they weren't organic. They are slightly softer and more moist than a regular garbanzo, but basically taste the same. They're definitely more colorful than the usual beige, though. I wonder how gross green chickpea gravy would look...

Tonight we went on a weekday date, which is something we never do. We went to our absolute favorite restaurant, Ya Hala, for dinner. This isn't the best picture, but it gives you an idea.

Clockwise we have: falafel with tahini sharing a plate with some lightly fried cauliflower, baba ganouj, an bowl of olives, fresh, puffy pita bread, veggie kibbeh (my favorite!!!), tabouli, and hummus. Including a 25% tip this spread costs us a mere $20. The kibbeh is AMAZING! It looks kind of unappealing, in person it looks kind of like raw hamburger, but it's a tomato and bulgur pate that rawks my sawks like none other. Ya Hala is really close to our house and because it's so cheap we eat there a lot.

After dinner we walked down the block to a renovated movie theater from the 40's and saw "The US vs. John Lennon". Even if you don't like or don't care about John Lennon, the cultural and political events surrounding this movie, that time period and those issues so eerily echo what is happening today, I high recommend seeing it. If you like John Lennon, well, that's just a bonus. It's less a movie about John Lennon than it is about him being a high profile supporter of dissent and peace during an adminstration that was not too happy about free speech. Sound familiar?