Kale & Pineapple Pairing

Fancy Feast!* 

There's not much to this dish, which, by no mere coincidence, makes it amazingly simple to throw together. I found myself with an abundance of kale chilling in the crisper, a fresh pack of Dr. Praeger's veggie burgers, and some frozen pineapple chunks all begging to be combined in some such fanciful way today. I felt the true gentlemanly thing to do was to oblige them.

Using a covered frying pan, I heated a splash of water (about a 1/4 cup, or so) until it was near boiling, all the while chopping the greens (kale, broccoli, & okra) in preparation for their sauna. The kale shrinks rapidly when it's steamed, so don't worry if it looks like a lot when you first toss it in. Once the greens go all in, drop the heat to a low temperature, and squeeze a bit of lemon juice to add a touch of tanginess. I like to balance the lid across the halfway point of the pan, so the steam isn't completely trapped inside; this way, there's some air flow. Once the kale wilts, toss in the pineapple and add in the spices & Bragg**. Waiting until this point makes it a lot easier to mix everything together, as opposed to doing it immediately, when things are crisp & bouncy. Since this is a simple steaming process of fresh vegetables, it really doesn't take long for things to be ready & edible. The veggie burger is microwaved for under 3 minutes, diced, and stirred in after the veggies are done steaming.

The bellow recipe ratios represent my individual appetite on this particular day, at that particular moment. So if you're feeding more than yourself, or you're just ravenous from running around, it's probably best to up the ante on the portions I've laid out. Also, this is a meal that, if you desire slightly more sustenance, could be accompanied by a base layer of any grain (or pseudo-grain) or pasta, from brown rice, amaranth, quinoa, to couscous (the usual suspects***). I opted for eating it as is, without any additional accouterment, and was fine with it. This recipe lets the natural flavors of all the ingredients sing a subtle song of sweetness, and I'm happy with the harmony in their tune. When all is said and done, this is a nice quick meal—though there are plenty of directions to go in with this all-terain vehicle, if you're feeling adventurous in the kitchen—that adds up to less than 200 calories. The kale & the pineapple combo is what really sells this dish (the okra isn't half bad either), beyond that, go nuts kids.

Recipe:

Sweet Potato & Broccoli Rabe Orzo

I've been doing pretty well with clinging to the raw vegan diet, like ivy writhing its way around the paint chipped lattice work of a gazebo with a lakeside view adorning the lawn of an old victorian home, I proclaimed at the onset of these summery days. I've found glee in an endless variety of green & fruit smoothies that make the perfect start to facing another hot & humid summer day. I've also started experimenting with fruit infused water this week, and have been pleasantly surprised by how well that's working out. 

As I said before, this raw adventure was going to be approached with a certain amount of leniency, which would fluctuate around the 70% mark, and it has, pretty much, faithfully remained around that percentage without all that much effort. Sure, I still snag an iced coffee from time to time, I partake in my fair share of falafel sandwiches, and I'm sometimes struck right on the crest of my cranium with an oversized cartoonish anvil of an urge to really cook something special. I love cooking vegan foods, so I'd probably be pretty miserable if I went all summer without whipping up a nice batch of vegan cherry almond cookies, or maybe, when the mood strikes (like said anvil), what you see in the photo below:

Sweet potato, broccoli rabe, onion, & tomato

 on whole wheat orzo

Other than the orzo, none of the other ingredients required more than a slight sizzle to get the job done. All in all, it probably took less then 20 minutes to go from opening the vegetable crisper to setting the plate down and taking this photo. I used a splash of olive oil with some minced garlic in the pan and treated the veggies much like a stir fry, without really frying them all that much. There's also a bit of ginger in the mix to add a slight kick. I made up the recipe on the fly, and just kept in mind the flavors I wanted to have naturally compliment one another. It was a great success. The overall taste was light & breezy; perfect for a summertime meal. The sweet potatoes offset the airy bitterness of the broccoli rabe, and the whole wheat orzo grounded everything with a earthy touch. 

Since I didn't really go into this meal with a plan—I just sprang into action when I saw the bat signal that I confuse the refrigerator light for from time to time—I don't have a specific recipe to give you fine people. I will list what I used, with approximate measurements, and just note that the portions were plenty enough for 2 people, or maybe, if you're really hungry, just one. 

Onto the recipe...

Vegan Banana Bread with Extra Awesome Bananas

My last attempt at introducing vegan baked goods to my ever gracious host family here in Japan was a bit of a miss. Not so much a fail, as the cookies were still tasty enough, but from a personal standpoint I felt the finished product just didn't knock it out of the park with that Sadaharu Oh pizzaz.

This time around I set out for some banana bread action with a little bit of prep work before commencing; I did all the metric cooking conversions before hand, so I wouldn't find myself standing over my mac eying the keyboard with battered hands wondering if I could use my nose to peck out my conversion question close enough for Google to figure out what I really wanted to know. Avoiding that awkwardness was a G.I. Joe "now you know, and knowing is half the battle" win!

Vegan Banana Bread 

(freshly sung to for added awesomeness)

Recipe + Banana shenanigans await...

A White Thanksgiving

The first snow fall of the season and it happened on Thanksgiving morning during my 3 mile run. Today was an easy pace, but the cold winds and big coarse flakes, that I was breathing in, made it slightly more challenging than it should have been. I love the feeling of pure solitude when running in the fresh falling snow, listening to the snap crackle pop! of it landing upon itself and accumulating on the sprawl of suburban lawns as I breeze by wrapped in my own world. The snow didn't last long, and later in the day it just turned into bitter cold rain, so it feels like, in a way, I lucked out with just the flurries.

Later in the day I sat down with a tofurkey and a vegan pumpkin pie I had picked up the night before from Whole Foods. Normally, for the holidays I bake my own vegan apple pie, but I just didn't have the time for it this Thanksgiving, but maybe for Christmas I'll treat myself! Gobble Gobble folks!

And of course by the time I got around to taking a photo of the vegan pumpkin pie it was already half gone, so forgiveness please.