I'm loving tacos these days. They can be an event with homemade salsa and other fillings, or a super-quick lunch thrown together with packaged ingredients, such as this tasty one: Light fish sticks, kale, shaved brussels sprouts, cabbage, corn & black bean salsa, garlic salsa, avocado, a touch of cheese.
Tuesday night scramble
I love eggs, and I love eggs for dinner. It's quick, it's easy, and you can use whatever you have available to change it up. I make this one a lot. It starts with fresh eggs from my chickens. I use one large (from Hedy, Zelda or Pickles), one small (from Hazel or Ezmarelda) and some packaged egg whites to keep the calories down. Beat them together well with a fork or whisk in a bowl and set aside. Sauté a small handful of red onions in olive oil spray on high until softened, then add sliced shiitake mushrooms, thin-sliced zucchini, and slivered collard greens in that order. This time I also added a slice of seitan bacon from Upton's Naturals. When everything is browned, lower the heat, pour in the beaten eggs and scramble it all together. For fun, I added a serving of Trader Joe's frozen Garlic Potatoes in Parmesan Sauce, which I cooked in the same skillet. So good.
Scrambled fresh eggs with collard greens, seitan bacon and shiitake mushrooms and a side of garlic parmesan potatoes.
A blue egg from one of my Cream Legbars, Hedy.
Here are Hedy, Pickles, Zelda, and Horatio bringing up the rear.
What I did this week
This week I finished a painting...
Clothes make the cat. Gouache on wood. 12"x 18"
... Wandered around my garden staring at everything in bloom due to the warm spell we'd been having. These are lime blossoms.
Bouganvilla.
... Experimented with tofu again. Spicy Tofu with grilled asparagus and onions.
Treated myself to a vegan fast food meal from our local vegan restaurant and juicer: Juicy Ladies. Quinoa Burger with "Nuts for Cacao" smoothie.
... And painted in my journal on a day that brought some very welcome rain, at last.
Spicy vegan "chicken" sandwich
When I was still eating some meat and some fast food, I have to confess I was addicted to Wendy's Spicy Chicken Fillet. It's still hard to resist, but having this sandwich in my lunchtime lineup helps. Here's how to make an easy and delicious vegan "fried" chicken sandwich using Gardein Chipotle Lime Crispy Fingers that's satisfying and nutritious. I do it all the time, even when I'm in a hurry, which I guess is all the time.
Spicy vegan "chicken" fillet sandwich
THE INGREDIENTS
2 pieces Gardein Chipotle Lime Crispy Fingers
1/2 cup fresh watercress or arugula
1 Oroweat Double Fiber English Muffin
1 tablespoon eggless light canola mayonnaise
1 healthy squirt of sriracha sauce
Several slices of persian cucumber sliced thin on the diagonal
2 slices of tomato and two slices of avocado
Prepare the chicken fingers as per the instructions, or do it my way by microwaving it 45 seconds, then pan frying in hot lightly sprayed pan until crisp on both sides. Toast the english muffin. Assemble all the ingredients, laying the two "chicken" fingers side by side on the muffin & mixing the sriracha into the mayo with a knife as you spread it. Simple. The hardest part is grabbing all the ingredients out of the fridge. Enjoy.
Vegetarian bbq "chicken" panini with collards & brussels sprouts
Where I used to work in Los Angeles, on Wilshire blvd, we had a great little cafe downstairs, called "The Garden Cafe". We all used to trundle off to get a sandwich or a salad for lunch. They had a fantastic arugula and pear salad that I'd get on most days, but so many more temptations if I wanted to eat meat. They had this amazing Barbecue Chicken Panini that had bbq sauce, cilantro, and red onion which they served on a grilled ciabbatta with melted cheese. It was so good, I wished they had a vegetarian version. So now, I'm here working at home, and I finally have it. It's pretty simple, really. I just substituted tofu chicken strips (I like the ones from "Beyond Meat" and I ramped up the veggies by adding some sautéed collard greens & shaved brussels sprouts.
After this, I'm cutting out the cheese in my life. Umm, somewhat...
THE FILLING
"Beyond Meat" Southwest Flavor Chick'n Strips (Available at Whole Foods)
1/4 red onion
Small handful of chopped cilantro
1/4 cup Barbecue Sauce
1 cup leafy greens such as slivered collard greens, kale or shaved brussels sprouts
THE PANINI
2 small ciabatta rolls
1 oz Gruyere cheese
1 oz light mozzarella
Mix together in small bowl Chick'n strips, sliced onion, cilantro and bbq sauce. Sauté the leafy greens with part of the red onion and set aside. Spray olive oil on outside of roll. On the bottom half of roll, layer on the gruyere, chick'n mix, greens, and then mozzarella before covering with other half. In lightly oiled grill pan, or panini press, heat until cheese melts, flipping halfway through. There you go. I use the light mozzarella to hold the calories down. MAKES 2 PANINIS.
