another creative veggie burger

So like I mentioned in a previous blog, Mark asked that I spice up my veggie burgers and I have been enjoying doing that. I sauteed some spinach and mushrooms in a small amount of olive oil for this one, cooked the burgers, the layered on the veggies and a layer of cheese, baked in the oven for 5 minutes to melt the cheese first.

another vegan (Mexican) pizza

This vegan pizza was also delicious...another thin layer of sauce, and then I topped it with black beans, chopped up avocadoes, chopped tomatoes, and fake chicken. Then the fake cheese on top of that.

steps to a vegan pizza

I have been having lots of fun lately with vegan pizzas, and this is one of my new favorite throw it together pizzas: First I put a thin layer of pizza sauce over the pizza dough. Then I chopped up lots of fresh spinach and put a layer of that. Then I had some sun dried tomatoes as well as vegan bacon that I chopped up and sprinkled over the pizza. Then I put on the cheese. The one on the right is with real cheese for Mark, one on the left is mine with Daiya fake cheese.

summer setain

Also found this recipe from Post Punk Kitchen: http://www.theppk.com/2012/06/summer-seitan-saute-with-cilantro-lime/ Made it with some replacements- I used one package shitake and one package protobello mushrooms. I didn't use any jalapeno and served it over rice.

pine nut and chicken pasta

I had some pine nuts around the house so decided to make a pasta dish with them, found this easy recipe and threw it together in 20 minutes! http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/04/hasty-tasty-pasta-with-broccoli-olives.html

When I'm done....

Getting closer and closer to finishing the residency (one more year!!!) and fantasizing about what I will do when I am done. Pretty certain I will be moving, not likely to get a job in Boston which is sad since Boston is such a nice area, but it will be fun to move. I will probably have to work swing shifts or weekends, or both, but here are some things I would like to do when I have more time off and a more set schedule (and hopefully reasonable, since i am scheduled a minimum of 60 hours a week now and frequently am there late working longer hours than that). 1. Run 40+ miles a week and train for one marathon a year (more if I can handle it). 2. Have every other weekend off- Mark has put up with my shit schedule for over 4 years by the time I finish, I can work some weekends, but hope to have 50% off with him a year. 3. Pay off my 200K in student loans within 10 years. 4. Go on at least one international vacation a year. 5. Join a volleyball league. 6. Join a gym and actually interval and cross train (i always say I want to and never do it, and I know it will make me a better runner). 7. Publish at least one research paper every other year. (If I land a job in academia my goal will be 1-2 a year). 8. Be able to afford buying xmas and bday presents for all my family. 9. Get a second dog (ideally a basset hound from basset rescue). 10. Cook at least one new recipe a week (I already do this most weeks so should be easy to continue).

thai packet of spices

Last dish, this was a simple one...My co-worker had bought me some pre-packaged spice concoctions...this was a thai one. I had some leftover tofu I chopped up and some broccoli, basically fried those together with the spice packet, then added a peanut sauce to it that was based in coconut milk. Served over rice with TJs thai dumplings on the side, it was a little spicier then expected but the coconut milk based peanut sauce helped even it out.

Thank you meettheshannons.com

I have been trying a lot of recipes from meettheshannons recently and LOVE them. Here are some of my experiments... 1. I have some Tofurky Italian Sausage and used their pasta recipe to make this DELICIOUS dish. http://www.meettheshannons.net/2011/08/pasta-in-fresh-basil-green-sauce.html The main thing that I changed was I did not have avocados, so used 1 cup peas instead of 1/4 and scratched the avocados. I was also very liberal with kale and spinach.

THen I used their cherry cola BBQ recipe to make this summer dish: with some May Wah Veggie fake drumsticks, corn, and a quinoa pre-made salad from whole foods it was very summery. I will have to find more things to use the leftover BBQ sauce for... http://www.meettheshannons.net/2011/06/betty-crocker-project-cherry-cola-bbq.html

Lastly, they use a lot of tater tots in their recipes, so this was my own recipe but modified from theirs. It was a tater tot salad since i had leftover tater tots. Basically there was a layer of spinach and romaine, then then tater tots, then some shredded fake beef fried up with some taco seasoning, some olives, tomatoes, avocados, and fake cheese. The dressy made this tasty but unhealthy dish even more fatty, I used this vegan ranch dressing recipe with some BBQ sauce added: http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/04/vegan-ranch-dressing-and-dip.html

lots of meals to catch up with...starting with pad thai

One of my co-workers had pad thai the other day, which looked so good...so I searched for a vegan substitute online and found this tasty pad thai dish without the eggs! I used tofu this time around, but will probably use fake shrimp from may wah vegetarian if I try it again. http://​livinginthekitchenwithpuppi​es.blogspot.com/2010/12/​vegan-pad-thai.html And when it came time to make the sauce I realized I didn't have the ingredients, so I improvised and I used 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 TBsp red curry paste, 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup lemon juice, 1 TBsp ground ginger, and 1 tsp basil whisked together. I also did not add thai chili to the main dish, otherwise this was the recipe!