Biscuits and curry

I pulled out soba noodles. Those are Japanese buckwheat noodles. Nope. Those won't be the right taste. It's raining outside, and my view through the sopping wet window is the boring Leyland cyprus hedge, planted fifteen years ago as two-foot seedlings by a former neighbor who hated us for cutting down 4 trees to build our house. We live in a forest...

Two years ago, the current neighbor trimmed it to fifteen feet to give us a bit of light on the south side of our house. Thanks! (Away it grows again! Scott's revenge continues, though he moved away ten years ago. Sigh.)

I'm hungry for something lighter. Maybe spaghetti? Nope. I even think about popcorn. That's the sort of light grain I'm craving. Ah well, open the cupboard to pull out TJ's Multigrain Baking Mix. Not hungry for pancakes. Coffee cake has too much sugar. Oh wait! A biscuit recipe on the side label as well...

Turn the oven to 425o as I think about it...

I toss in about 2/3 c. of the TJ powder, mix in a few tbsp. dried currents. Sugar? Not this time. Stir in a bit of water and a tsp. of oil. It's a bit wet: I lightly grease one side of a cookie sheet and spread the dough about 3/4" thick. Pop it in the oven to bake.

In the pantry, there's a box of Golden Curry mix with only one cube left over from a trip to Ranch 99 Market. I put the cube and some water to boil on the stove, then turn down the heat. The can that was sitting next to the curry looks like bamboo mushrooms. Yum. Sure. Good with curry, I think.

I open the can and drain it. Oops: it's some kind of vegetarian chop suey, a mix of mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and gluten "meat" in sauce. "Goodbye sauce!" as it drains from the sink. Toss in a Field Roast Vausage? Sure. The curry mixture bubbles while I choose a plain white bowl.

Ting! There's the timer. It's been 10 minutes... so take out the biscuits. I pop them in the bowl. By now the curry is thickening and reducing. Scoop out a few spoonfuls of gravy and "other stuff" and put over the biscuits, taking it to my office for lunch.

Rating: 4/5 Surprisingly hearty and tasty. Delicious, actually!
Flavor: salty and savory. The crumbly biscuit with its pop of currents goes very well with the salty, med. hot curry. Hits the spot as rain pelts down my office window.
Calories: 450: from 300 biscuits; 150 gravy and veat/mushrooms (per serving. 2 servings of curry. Maybe over noodles next time.)
Tea: Mango Black (TJ's tea bag). C'mon. I was in a hurry.
Time: 13 min including time to heat the oven.

Russian repast

I'm hungry for something heavy. Russian or Eastern European, like my grandma used to make. I have kasha (bulgar wheat) in my cupboard. The back of the package has a recipe. "Boil 1 c. Kasha in 2 c. water and a pinch of salt for 15-20 minutes. Makes 4 servings. "

Eeek. I halve the recipe and cover the pot as the kasha boils merrily.

An optional add-on is browning a diced onion in butter and adding cooked bow-tie pasta. Sounds hearty. Well, butter-ish would be better for this vegan. Add 100 calories, just like that! Oooohhh, I remember that I still have pasta cooked last week. Perfect.

After the onions are translucent from being sauteed in the fat on medium heat, I add the pasta. Shall I include some of the Portuguese olives sitting in the fridge? I flip the stones out of ten before I run out of want-to. Toss those in with the pasta. Stir.

Do I have any Eastern European plates? Nope. Maybe one from Mexico will do; it's painted in a homey style with similar colors (Pier 1).



I peek in the pot. Luckily kasha is not finicky about being peered at, as is rice. I uncover the pot for the last three minutes to steam off the remaining water while I steep some Pumpkin Black tea.

After fifteen minutes, the timer goes off. I stir together the grains and pasta mixtures in the saute pan. While it blends a bit, I have time to chop up a bit of cilantro and lettuce.

I like to line a lunch plate with greens: when they're mixed in they add crunch and vitamins, as well as beautiful color.

When I sit down to eat, it's not salty enough. It tastes too bland... and I don't even like much salt. Oh yeah, I remember now. Grandma used to add a lot of salt when cooking grains. I get the salt shaker and sprinkle some on top of the mix.

Rating: 3/5 Good but nothing special. Needs more inventiveness next time around.
Taste: hearty, somewhat bland (as mentioned earlier). If I weren't a vegan, bacon slivers and browning the whole thing in bacon fat would have "fixed" it (and added another 150 – or more – calories).
Calories: 500 per serving (2 servings)
Tea: Pumpkin Black Tea from leaves, not a tea bag.

Simply lunch

There's not much to say. Fantastic Italian pasta (Costco; 3 c. cooked), vausage (Field Roast Italian eggplant vegan sausage), one al dente carrot and one roma tomato chopped and simmered in one can Amy's Golden Lentil soup. Lunch. One serving all gone.

The rest will be supper. YAY.

Rating: 4/5. Delicious. Plain good food in 15 minutes.
Taste: Savory and robust fall flavors, with a bite of spice from the vegan sausage
Calories: 450 each (makes 2 big servings)
Tea: Second infusion of this morning's Chocolate Chai

Lunch: corn and (vegan) sausage soup

I'm hungry. I head to the kitchen to see what's around.

Open the fridge. There's the Field Roast sausage left after I used the rest of the bundle a few days ago. Turn on the burner to medium. Slice the "meat"-ish into the pan. No fat needed.

What else sounds good? The carrot pulp from this morning's juice? Sure. Wonder if I have a can of creamed corn - could make some soup with that?

Nope, there's just a can of corn kernels. Fine. Open the can partway, drain the water. Open the can all the way and dump it atop the sausage. Don't forget a sprinkle of dehydrated onions.

Add a few spices. I'm smelling the air... mixed salt of course, smoked paprika, ground black pepper, dried thyme.

Out to the conservatory, where I have a bunch of veges cooling. Potato? Great. Dice it and toss it in with the corn. Stir occasionally. No liquid added yet.

Green onion? Sure, tear the tops off a bunch and chop them on the cutting board. Basil leaves? Chop up three stems, and ooooh... I see parsley so I grab a few stems and chop them as well, but let them sit until the last minute.

I add about 1 cup of water from the hot tap to the pot. It boils immediately. Turn down the heat to medium low and leave the room for 10 minutes.

Choose a pretty bowl... the soup must be done by now! Put it in the plate and sprinkle with the fresh herbs. Stir. Oh, YUM. What a great lunch!!!

Made about 3 servings.
Approx calories: 350 each.
Rating: 4/5. 
Taste: spicy, hearty, good blend of crisp, soft, and chewable. I'd make it again.
Tea: Darjeeling, black.