dinner party

We had our friends Alan and Ashley over for dinner the other night. They too are expecting a baby 2 weeks before ours is due so we hang out once in awhile to be pregnant together. I was nervous about what to make and my sister suggested my "meat pies". I took her advice and made em and they were delicous as usual but even more delicous this time with the addition of the magical spice know as Paprika. I don't know what it is about paprika but I now add it to almost everything and it just makes everything taste just a bit better.

The seitan pies are filled with mashed potatoes, very simply mashed with extra virgin olive oil, some potato cooking liquid and a few pats of earth balance, salt and pepper. The "meat" part is finely chopped seitan, shallots, carrots, garlic, red wine, sage, thyme, salt and pepper. I could eat these all the time they are so good. They are even great the next day cold out of the fridge. Along side the pies I made my Chickpea, Asparagus and Balsamic Salad that i'm obsessed with. As well as garlicky stringbeans (not pictured for some reason.)



Dessert was ind. Crisp's filled with fresh blueberries, raspberries and peaches. Topped with a walnut-oat crisp filling. ( I forgot to take a picture of the crisps with the topping on them.) I love making everyone there own individual desserts. These were great. All the filling had in it besides the fruit was some maple syrup so it is super easy to make. I love crisp. I have extra topping in the fridge that I just keep eating out of the bowl.



For us girls that can't have any liquor. I made us a pregnant friendly Sangria made with o.j., grape juice, seltzer, a bit of suger, sliced lemon, sliced orange and a cut up peach. I figured it wasn't fair that the boys would be drinking all there beer or whatever they were going to drink. I had such a sugar high from all the fruit that I consumed with this meal that I felt hung over the next day.

Mexico meets Italy and they like each other.

I've been ignoring all the food in my fridge this past week. After work and a nice nap today I emptied all the 1/2 dead veggies I had and decided to make a veggie pasta sauce. After I added all the ingredients plus basil I went to the pantry to find some chickpeas or another italian friendly bean. To my horror all I had were black beans. My brain was telling me NOOOOOOOO! DO NOT ADD BLACK BEANS TO ITALIAN PASTA SAUCE!!! My brain was also telling me YOU NEED PROTEIN!! So I sat on it for a few and contemplated leaving out the beans/protein and just stick a few spoonfuls of peanut butter in my mouth. I eventually added the beans. It was delicious. Not that the black beans would taste wrong or bad but I just didn't want black beans in my tomato sauce. So to keep with the new mexican-italian theme I added mexican oregano to the sauce as well just to tie it all together. I still might stick a few spoonfuls of PB in my mouth though.



Pomegranate Chip Ice Cream by purely decadent. Very Good! Very floral tasting..almost yogurt like.

lots of food

I've been cooking and photographing our food but have not been posting it for some reason..so here's the lot of it....plus an extra non food photo.




Part one of two dishes to tonights meal. Potato and spinach pakoras with papaya and orange chutney. The chutney was store bought. The pakoras are my own recipe.



Part two of two dishes to tonights meal. Red Bean and Broccoli Curry. Served as is without rice or anything else. The sauce is coconut milk based.



One of the best salads i've made in awhile. Just your average mesclun greens topped with a mix of: chickpeas, red and yellow cherry tomatoes, grilled asparagus and fresh basil marinaded in extra virgin olive oil, fig-balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Peter and I each ate 2 huge bowlfuls of this stuff.



Simple Rice and Beans with Simple Guacamole. It's simple because I only added cumin to the beans instead of all the other crazy spices I usually add. The same with the Guac...not alot of ingredients in it this time. It was food shopping night so I had to keep it quick and easy.



Linguini w. Sundried Tomatoes, Kalamata Olives and Pine Nuts in oil.



Indian Biryani Stirfry. Basically it's the same as the last Veggie Fried Rice but with Indian spices instead of tamari.



We purchased a crib and finally set it up today. CB thinks it's for her.

good chinese

Why can't chinese restaurants make there veggie fried rice like this. More veggies less rice? After a not so delicious chinese restaurant dinner the other night i've been craving that good chinese taste. Then after a day (today) of having an alien that is growing in my uterus dance and ram her baby ass against my insides all day I needed a comforting and healthy meal. Veggie Fried Rice MY Way was that meal. I feel a whole lot better even though that alien baby ass is still assaulting my insides.

clean out

The last two nights have been clean out the fridge meals. Above is "the people's pizza" crust topped with a super delicious ripe tomato, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, kalamata olives and pine nuts. Served with some garlic and red chili flake sauteed broccoli. I picked up "the people's pizza" crust the other night at whole foods because on the ingredient list they wrote: really good extra virgin olive oil and I couldn't resist. It's a very very thin crust pizza which I didn't care for after the first bite. After the second bite I devoured my 1/2 of the pizza I loved it so much. I will probably alway's have a peoples pizza crust in my fridge now for an easy dinner night.



This isn't your average tomato sauce with fake meatballs. It's Moroccan Tomato Sauce w. Falafel!! I was trying to figure out a way to use up the rest of the falafel and I didnt really want to make a sandwich out them because that's my least favorite way to eat falafel. So I created this super good Moroccan spiced tomato sauce filled with fennel seeds, orange zest, onions, cilantro and a bunch of other ingredients. We loved this meal. I would make falafel just to make this dinner again.



Here is the sauce just bubbling away until the falafel is warmed through.