First summer supper at the cabin

We've spent a month in SE Asia. This week and next, it's a treat to spend time at our cabin in Montana.

There's usually not a big variety of food when we first arrive at the cabin. However, after a general Costco run, I found these ingredients in the fridge and on the counter. It took less than 10 minutes to prepare and begin this easy supper. What was in it?

Fresh rolls

Yummy cheese

• Ciabatta herb rolls
• Organic lettuce mix
• Chinese barbecue pork with hot mustard and sesame seeds
• Brie

 We slice the rolls and pork and cut open the sesame seed and mustard packets.

BBQ Chinese pork from the
St. Regis supermarket

Sharp hot mustard and
sesame seeds

We spread Brie on the rolls, topping them with pork, seasonings, and greens. It's a quick feast - and a delicious one!

Fresh greens

Fruit that's sweet and sour

Instead of tea, we sip Florida orange juice. We feel blessed by the simple fresh abundance.

Our finished supper sandwiches

Rating: 4/5; would have given it a 4.5 if I'd melted the cheese into the bread
Taste: both sharp (brie, mustard, and dark greens) and sweet-savory (meat and bread)
Calories: Up to 600, depending on amount of pork and cheese
Time to prepare: 10 min. finding and prepping ingredients. The actual assembly takes 1-2 minutes.
Tea: OJ this time around
Beauty: Pretty colors of red, yellow, beige and greens
Improvements: Melt the cheese and heat the rolls (an extra 5 minutes in a covered frying pan or 1 minutes in the microwave.)

Oat milk

I'm making oat milk today:

I originally wanted to feature a recipe but the blogger refused to be reposted here and asked me to take the repost down. Find another great recipe for Oat milk here.


Smiles, everyone. Not everyone is willing to share :-) so it's great that there are many alternatives out there.

German pho

Pho is Vietnamese soup. I used German vegan bouillon cubes for the broth. Hence the title.

Fresh in the plate

I chopped, diced, sauteed, and simmered my way through the kitchen for Sunday lunch and have enough for leftovers today.

Field mushrooms

Ingredients list:

• noodles - rice vermicelli (or thin noodles you like)
• meat - we had leftover turkey stuffing (frozen, then thawed and heated); my vegan option was Veggie Roast, diced and lightly fried in Asian Taste Oil
• greens - pea shoots, cilantro, Thai basil, chopped
• mushrooms - chopped oyster and field mushrooms, lightly fried with minced garlic and a splash of soy sauce
• broth - meat or vegetable broth plus a slice of ginger, a tbsp. minced garlic, any mix of Asian sauces (Hoisin, sweet soy sauce, brown braising sauce, mushroom sauce), and 1 tbsp of fish sauce
• sesame oil - 1 tsp-1 tbsp when you finish simmering the broth
• Have hot pepper seasoning and Asian sauces at the table: hoisin, black bean, sweet chili, sweet soy, etc.  Let guests help themselves to taste.
• Optional: up to 1 tsp Szechuan pepper oil per serving (numbs the tongue. For some reason my husband and sons like this. I skipped it.)

Purple-stemmed Thai basil

How-to:

• Prepare the noodles according to package instructions. Rinse in cold water, drain, and set aside. (When time to serve, heat them up by immersing them in boiling water for 20 seconds and draining.)
• Begin to simmer the broth down from a boil to about 2/3 worth of stock. Put in sesame oil at the very end, along with chopped cilantro.
• Meanwhile, prep your meat, herbs, and vegetables and store them nearby in separate bowls.
• Either assemble the soup in individual bowls or bring everything to the table so guests can assemble their own.
• Order of assembly is usually noodles in the bottom of the soup bowl, then meat, then vegetables and herbs, then broth on top. Taste, and season to personal preference with sauces on the table.
• Give everyone a soup spoon and a set of chopsticks (or fork) to make eating easier.

 

Almost done: good to the last spoonful

Rating: 4.5
Taste: nice combination of salty and savory
Calories: 4-800, depending on how much oil you use in preparation and how much food you assemble
Time to prepare: 30 min. or so - again, it depends on how quickly you assemble, chop, and fry separate ingredients. The actual assembly takes 2-3 minutes.
Tea: Some awful Tetley Green Tea brewed 1/2 hour before the meal. Bitter, like a bad Chinese restaurant serves ... and just the thing.
Beauty: Pretty colors of browns, beiges and greens
Improvements: Mix up the sauces to try a variety of blends. This one tasted just right. Leftovers the next day were even tastier as the flavors had blended beautifully. But that's par for most stock-based soups.

Breakfast breakout

"May I eat this for breakfast?"

Oh wait. I'm the adult around here.

Chocolate covered coffee beans. Check.
Earl Grey tea. Check.
An avocado. Check.
On a silver tray with a Lotus candle from Tokyo Milk. Pretty.
Forget food. Forget calories. Forget food groups!

Anyone else feel like indulging taste and color when the rain pelts Seattle? Have a great one. Let's just say this was ...

Well worth it!

Just the thing to warm a cold vegan

Today we're featuring a cool-weather food: curried pea soup, to be exact.

Don't think of it as your mother's traditional soup. Here's what's in it today, though it looks similar to the goopy, glue-ey green-ish stuff your mama probably served in the winter:

1 tbsp curry paste (I look for the jar with the lady on it from Thailand - green, yellow, or red is fine.)
1 chopped onion
1 tbsp chopped garlic

*Browned in:
1-2 tbsp oil (I use Asian-taste corn oil)

*Add to the pot:
 2-3 c split peas, rinsed and sorted
2 bouillon cubes (I use a vegan brand)
2 bay leaves
Pinch of nutmeg
Trader Joes Smoke Seasoning (imagine smoked meat)
8-9 c water (Like thinner soup? Use more water. Prefer it thick? Use 7-8c.)

(optional: 1 c hulled barley or other grain)

Taste it when it's simmered for an hour, uncovered. If it needs salt or soy sauce, add some. Same for pepper.

For fun: garnish with popcorn, peanuts, red peppers, chopped tomatoes, or leafy veggies.

Servings: 4-6, depending on the bowl size
Taste: 4/5 Rich, nourishing, warming, savory
Time to prepare: 10 minutes. Cook for an hour-ish
Calories: 300-500 calories per bowl, (or more, depending if you cheat and use more oil)
Beauty: looks better with red pepper garnish or tomato. Pea-soup green is ugly.
Improvements: Pea soup tastes best with ham hock broth. Sadly, that's out of the question for a vegan.

Front porch pleasures: Lia's treat

Guess what showed up on my front step yesterday? A fall basket, lined with a white napkin and beautifully arranged. Lia, the artistic friend who dropped it off, beat a hasty retreat, but I was thrilled to show it to three women who were over for tea and study.

I pulled out the parchment-wrapped homemade bread first.

Then I found two bags of tea.

There was a jar of homemade paprika spread. (We LOVE this, having met it in England, imported from Eastern Europe. )

Lia included in a jar of her homemade pickled vegetables. Along with a brick of cheese
and an exotic sausage.

Last but hardly least, home-baked pumpkin bread.

I felt like jumping in the car and picnicking in the park. Thank you, friend. What a delightful feast which will take us a few days to consume! Won't last long though. I'm enjoying the bread and paprika spread as I write...

Weather change and my food response

When the weather changes to Seattle fall, we get grey skies and rain. My mood shifts within a few days to depression and fatigue. Unless...

Indian food - oh yum

I'm eating vegan again. Ingesting only eating plant-based foods. It works for me, though my leaving the traditional American diet is purely based on my body's health not on vegan philosophies of care for the planet or animal rights extremists' preferential treatment of animals over humans.

Mexican lunch - can't wait!

Many websites provide info on what vegans DO eat. Some of the best and easiest recipes are at the websites below. If you deal with seasonal depression or ill health, consider giving your food a change in nutrition for a chance to heal. Remember that it takes 2 weeks to remove dairy toxins from your system, about 3 weeks for beef, and up to 4 weeks to shed pork residues - so you might want to put yourself on a 4-week challenge to see if your body benefits from a pure plant diet. I'd love to hear from you if you do!

Enjoy. And if you eat out, you can usually find vegan options at ethnic restaurants - Mexican, Chinese, or Indian meals anyone?

Dr. McDougall Medicine
Forks Over Knives
Vegan 101
101 Cookbooks blog - more gourmet recipes