Wow! I love fresh food!

I had a great run this morning. Now it's raining, but pre-rain it was cool and breezy, so I took the opportunity to do my "long" run outside. For my ramblings about my running, see my fitness blog! Otherwise, I will get onto the food.

After my run, I donned my rainboots and raincoat (just in case) and walked over to Philly's best farmers market, which is fortunately only 3 blocks from me in Headhouse Square. I got a pretty awesome haul, though a little expensive at $19-- but the quality is worth it.


My favorite stand is Heirloom Farm, and is where I got the tomatoes, leeks, and that green thing which is a green apple eggplant. The tomatoes were the best deal-- all of those beautiful heirlooms for $5! Also in my findins are chemical-free oyster mushrooms, yellow nectarines, young Swiss chard, and an amazingly tasty baguette. I guess that's actually a lot of really fresh local goodies for $19. Check out how long these leeks are: (!)


I trimmed them and stuck the ends in a bag I keep in my freezer for veg scraps to make broth from.

While we're on the subject of fresh produce, here's a canteloupe Phil and I picked up from a smaller market by us on Tuesday. It was amazing, but part was rotten and it intimidated us out of eating the rest. You never know what you'll get buying local and organic, but it's just part of the fun (cause when it's good, it's so good!)


And dinner that night included local heirloom tomatoes, wax beans and a mixture of oyster and shiitake mushrooms. The green bean recipe is a dish I love from VWAV.


Last but not least, here's the lunch I made today with my market findings:


The nectarine was amazing (my favorite fruit!). I sauteed leeks, Swiss chard and oyster 'shrooms and made a sandwich with them and teriyaki marinated tofu (Fresh Tofu, Inc., a local tofu company. This tofu is amazing and so easy to work with!) The salad is local romaine from yesterdays market (also at Headhouse) and one of those small heirloom toms I got today, with a light olive oil and red wine vinaigrette.

Whew! If you're still here, kudos to you. The moral of the story is that I effin' love local produce. I've been toying with getting a CSA share next year, but I sort of like having more of a selection at Headhouse, so we'll just have to see!

No Egg Salad Sandwich and Grilled Cheese

Last night, when I saw Tofu Mom's post and recipe for her egg-less tofu salad, I knew I wanted to make it within the next couple of days. Well, I made it today, and I highly recommend it. I didn't have celery or pickle or relish, and next time (oh, there will be many next times) I will try it with. But it had so much flavor even without! Perfect cool lunch. I ate it with kale chips and an orange for lunch, and I threw some on some romaine with julienned carrots and Moroccan olives to take with me to work for dinner.



Yesterday for lunch I tried the recipe for Grilled Cheese from Vegan Vittles. The "cheese" is a "melty American cheese", but honestly, it's better than any American cheese I ever had in my pregan days. It uses oat flour, tahini and lemon juice and is delicious. There was some left over so I had cheese toast for breakfast, too. Phil doesn't like most real cheese or fake cheese, so more for me!

Phil bought me a present!

It's a melodica.

I think it's 'our' present, but I've wanted one for a while! I'm so excited to start recording with it.

Pre-run breakfast with a tofu scramble, with tofu, onions, broccoli, spinach and corn, accompanied by half a whole wheat pita and a white nectarine. This was not an e-diets meal, but I think it fit all the parameters.

Lunch was a vegetarian sloppy joe, which was an e-diets recipe. It was really good! A little big for my favorite sandwich roll, but I was fine eating the extra with a fork. The original recipe called for green bell pepper and Splenda, but I'm out of bell pepper and I don't believe in Splenda, so I used some carrot, instead. I think everyone but me knew that carrot is an awesome sweetener in sauces, but I just used it today.

Since I liked this recipe so much, here's the basic idea:

• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 1/2 medium carrot, diced
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1/4 c. TVP
• 1/4 c. tomato sauce
• 1/4 tsp. chili powder
• 1/4 - 1/2 c. water as needed

Saute the onion and carrot in olive oil until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the TVP, tomato sauce, and chili powder. Stir and cook for another 5 - 10 minutes, adding water if needed to keep it moist.

Serve on a whole wheat roll. Good without hot sauce, but better with!

Speaking of splenda, at Whole Foods customers complain all the time about us not having Splenda at the coffee station. Usually they accept the explanation that we don't carry anything artificial, including sweeteners. Once, though, this lady got really snappy and said, "Splenda's not artificial!" I didn't know much about it at the time, so I sort of shrugged and said, "I'm not so sure about that." And she walked away, pissed off (I'd love to know why it really matters, anyway, our coffee sucks and there's a Starbucks across the street.)

Anyway, I had to find out what Splenda was in case I ever saw this woman again, because my gut told me it spent considerable time in a lab. Which is true, as it's table sugar that has had things removed and replaced by chlorine atoms. That means it's artificial.

I hope she went home and looked it up, too, and felt as stupid as I felt triumphant.

Bratwurst Sandwich and Potato Crisps with Garlic Mayo

I'm already posting again? You can tell that today's my day off from work and that Phil isn't home, can't you? Well, after this I swear I will record and possibly even redo my webpage, something that really needs to be done. But I had such a yummy lunch that I just to share.

While perusing my normal collections of vegan food blogs, I realized to had almost all the ingredients to make Vegan Dad's bratwurst recipe that he just posted. I've been wanting to try one of his steamed sausage recipes, so I thought, why not! At first I considered going and getting some sauerkraut. In fact, I put on my coat and scarf and walked all the way downstairs, and even started to open the front gate-- then I thought I'd rather saute onions and bell peppers.

I also realized that I really wanted chips or fries to complement the sandwich. See, I'm a fried-potato-addict. One of the hardest steps in my "get healthy project" is walking past a bag of chips. Once Phil and I bought fries at 1 am and ate them in bed (gross, but great), then passed out immediately afterwards. So it's been a challenge to leave my best friend Fried-Potato behind.

So instead I made use of the 5 lbs of russet potatoes I had and made baked fries with virtually no oil (just some Pam on the pan) and a yummy mayo dip.


Bratwurst Sandwich For One!

Ingredients:

• one bratwurst from Vegan Dad's recipe (freeze or refrigerate the other five)
• half a small onion, sliced thinly into rings
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• half a red bed pepper, sliced into strips

Potato Crisps
Ingredients:

• 1-2 potatoes depending on size, sliced into fries-sized strips
• cooking spray such as Pam
• salt and pepper

Garlic Mayo (this makes a good amount, so feel free to cut it in half if you don't want to store it)
Ingredients:

• 4-5 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp. soy sauce
• 4 tbsp. vegan mayo
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. rice vinegar (not seasoned) or lemon juice
• 1 -2 tbsp. all natural ketchup

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Prepare bratwurst and get them steaming (35 minutes).
3. Evenly coat a baking sheet with cooking spray, and lay the potato slices out so that they are all flat and touching the pan bottom. Wrap the garlic cloves in tin foil and place on the baking sheet with the potatoes. Bake for about 30 min, turning them halfway.
4. While the brats are steaming and the crisps are crisping, whisk all of the dip ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside and get your onions and bell peppers sliced.
5. When the brats are done, heat the oil in a skillet. Add the onion and bell peppers and cook for 2-3 minutes on medium heat. Add a bratwurst, covering it in the onions, and cook until the brat is browned and the onions and peppers are soft.
6. Lower the oven temp to 200 degrees. Leave the potatoes in to keep warm, but take out the tin foil packet of garlic, unwrap, and squeeze the roasted garlic directly into your dip. Give it a quick stir, and set aside.
7. Assemble your sandwich either by slicing the brat long-ways and putting it between two slices of whole grain bread with the onions and peppers, or use a hoagie roll. The dip is good on the sandwich, too! Remove the potatoes from the oven when you're ready for them, and drizzle some of the mayo on them.

Now it's time to be productive!

Tempeh Burgers and Music

I woke up for work this morning at 5:30, did my thing, got to work at 6:15, even dropped by Starbucks for a small one. All along, however, I had a sinking feeling I was scheduled for the PM shift.

And I was.

So I drove home, arriving just before 7am, and flitted about until Phil woke up. Drove him to work cause its rainy. Sat on my butt. Wondered if I should go back to sleep.

Well, I didn't. I recorded the whole day, and it felt great. When I went back to work I was in such a good mood as a result of being so musically productive (even though recording is frustrating for me while it's happening). I wish I could be like that every day! The down side is that recording is incredibly time consuming, and I never really get anywhere if I don't have at least 2 hours to dedicate to it. But it was to have that opportunity today and actually use it.

I took a lunch break and made Vegan Dad's Perfect Tempeh Burgers, which are so tasty. I've made variations on it before but this was the first time I had all of the ingredients (namely the steak sauce. I subbed BBQ sauce before and now I know the difference) and it was really great. I squished it down flat, then stuffed it into a pita and smeared my leftover tofu-olive spread on it, too. Mind you, I actually prepared to make this recipe when planning my meals for this week-- that's how bad I wanted to try this recipe for real. If you've never been to Vegan Dad's blog, I highly recommend you do. It's quite inspiring. Plus he's Canadian! (that's directed to my brother-in-law, should he ever read this). And, if I might add, the recipe is much simpler than it seems and keeps well when wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in the fridge.