This week's meals

I was on elective this week, meaning I worked 7-5 M-F, and made dinner several nights this week (though was home sick on Wednesday and spent that entire day sleeping). Here are the meals. Crispy gardein chicken burger: I used Gardein's new crispy chicken fillet (which they recommend using with marinara sauce) on a bun with arugala, avocado, green tomatoes, and balsalmic vinagrette: Mark said it was one of the best burgers I have ever made.

THen I made the new Gardein Roast for dinner one night: used their gravy for the roast, and my gravy for the mashed potatoes, plus broccoli but I mixed some sesame seeds, soy sauce, and brown sugar with the broccoli for a different twist to the side.

I had some extra tofu around so used this simple recipe for a tofu burrito: http://happyherbivore.com/recipe/smokey-black-bean-enchiladas/

Lastly, my favorite meal this week was my version of philly cheese steak: I sauteed some mushrooms and peppers in a little oil, then sliced tofurkey's new roast beef slices in to strips and added that to the fry. Placed on a hoagie roll and heated in the over at 450 for 5 minutes with daiya cheese on top. AMAZING and all my creation.

Mexican hot dogs

I had some smart life vegan hot dogs, so I cooked them up and then on top made a mixture of black beans, mild fresh salsa, and chopped mangoes. I loaded the dogs up, put some daiya cheese on top, and put in the over for about 5 minutes at 450. Super tasty. Tater tots and avocado on the side.

And with that blog I think I am all caught up, will have to cook more this week and update as it occurs!

AMAZING sandwich: vegan mac and cheese, BBQ seitan, and carmalized onions

I found this blog with these veganized sandwiches: http://www.namelymarly.com/2011/02/americas-top-10-new-sandwiches-veganized-cheesy-mac-and-rib/ The mac and cheese one was SO amazing, I minaturized it for a wine night and it was a huge hit.

I also used this recipe to make some stuffed mushrooms, with daiya cheddar cheese and vegan smart life bacon on the top: http://theveganmouse.blogspot.com/2012/07/mashed-potato-stuffed-mushrooms.html

corn and pepper pizza

not sure where I found this recipe, but it was quite good: the usual pizza, a layer of pizza sauce, and then corn and peppers in small pizzas sprinkled on top. Then fake cheese. It was really crunchy and sweet, I really liked it.

mushaboom and pasta

when I had some mushrooms around I used this blog recipe to make GREAT bruschetta like dishes, with a simple farafelle pasta on the side: http://www.thehungrybirdie.com/2011/03/mushaboom.html

tofurkey ground beef quesidialla

Now this one I do know was from the tofurky label on the box: it was a new product by tofurky, their ground beef, and I used this recipe on their package to make quesidillas.

best vegan breakfast sandwich ever...

This blog below was one of many listed it's vegan breakfast sandwich as the best ever, but I think they were right. The key: poach (boil) the tofu before frying it. Mark agreed, this sanwich I made based on this recipe tasted like real egg.

http://sinfullynutritious.blogspot.com/2012/03/mcmaria-vegan-breakfast-sandwich.html

vegan sausage lasagna

I had tofurkey italian style sausage in the house, so I decided to make this lasagna. I can't remember where my recipe was, but I think it

was actually a recipe on the back of the Tofurkey box that I used.

Catching up with some vegan meals: BBQ casserolle

most of the vegan meals I have been making lately have been from blogs i have been following, which has been a nice surprise. For this BBQ casserolle I pretty much followed the recipe here: http://www.meettheshannons.net/2011/03/betty-crocker-project-vegan-bbq.html I just didn't have any beer to add to it.

Los Angeles vacation

So even though my last post was about how insanely busy I have been, which is true, I must admit Mark and I took our first vacation in over 1.5 years last week. So I shouldn't complain. I had a great time. We went to LA and stayed at the apartment of our friends Ryan and Witt, and had an amazing time. The first day we were pretty tired from traveling and just relaxed/wandered around. For dinner we had vegan chinese food (I had a great fake duck dish). The first full day out we went to the Hollywood Mountain, saw the observatory and sign there. We then stopped by the Hollywood Blvd stars and Chinese theater, which was ok.The next day we went to the Simon Norton museum in Pasedena, which ended up being my favorite museum in LA. For dinner we went to Hugo's which had amazing vegan options, I got a vegan burger with mushrooms, daiya cheese, and BBQ sauce- AMAZING. Monday we went to Venice Beach and walked around and up to the pier which was beautiful. We also stopped at this Ale House restaurant for lunch where i Had a TATA- tempeh, arugala, tomato and avocado sandwich, super tasty. That night we went to an indian restaurant for dinner which was delish. On Tuesday I drove to Tusten with Mark for a pseudo-interview at a hospital, which was ok. Then we drove further south to Temecula Valley and stopped at two different wineries for wine tasting. We stopped at Mount Palomar, which was not that great, and then Weins, which had SUPERB wine but over my price tag. We then went to an italian restaurant in the valley for dinner before driving back, which was super fun. On Wednesday we went to the Getty, then drove out to Malibu Beach for the afternoon, wandering up and down the beach of a state park (and I saw dolphins!). That evening we came back in to LA and for dinner went to a sushi restaurant with witt and ryan, and they had SUPER cheap happy hour sapporo. Lastly on Thursday we went to the LACMA in the morning, stopping by the Tar Pits next door, and then to the zoo for a power zoo experiences since it was only 1.5 hours til close, with Witt. Then we caught the red eye back to Boston and crashed on Friday since our flight left 930p LA time and arrived friday morning in Boston at 530am.

sorry I have been away....my b-b-busy life

it's been a while since I have posted, sorry!!! Super busy. I am still cooking a decent amount, and running but not as much as I would like. But probably stretching myself a little to thin at work: 1. It is credentials time, which means I have to make up 4 acceptable multiple choice questions to submit to the exam committee, complete a packet, and send in $1500 to take an exam in September, which I pray I will pass but historically the pass rate is about 40%. 2. I am currently working on 3 papers as a primary author, and 2 as a secondary author, so I might have stretched myself to thin there. None of them are requirements, just stuff I wanted to get done since I like research. 3. Oh yeah, that exam I mentioned in number 1, I am studying for it, like mad, and so scared, overwhelmed, etc. There is so much I need to know for it. 4. I have officially started job hunting, which is super stressful. Not to mention, our schedule officially changes on January first since the residency has been shrunk from 9 residents to 6, which means that I work more hours then prior, and have less days off, and on a regular basis am forced to swithc from days to nights to days, or nights to days to nights all right in a row, which is going to be great for my sleep schedule. It also makes it SO tough to schedule traveling and interviews with hospitals I am applying for positions at. The ones I am most looking forward to are one in Philly in January and hopefully visiting 2-3 hospitals in San Fran area in February. 5. It's the holidays, which means friends and family want to visit, which is fine, but stressful when I am trying to manage all of the above. So that is my excuse for being MIA for a little, but I will try to bring the blog up to date today.