A little of this ‘n that
Hooray! It's February and that means spring is coming closer every day! Today it was sunny and almost 40 degrees; definitely something to be happy about.
Today was pancake day so J. made some Banana Bliss pancakes from the Vive Le Vegan cookbook by Dreena Burton. But instead of using chopped bananas, he put them in the blender along with the other wet ingredients of soy milk & almond oil before mixing with the flours, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, & sea salt. Divine.
This afternoon I made a tomato chickpea soup with herbs to enjoy for dinner (& later during the week). I am out of garlic cloves (how the heck did that happen?!) so I just cooked some orzo pasta in 4 cups of water, then added a can of chickpeas (drained & rinsed), a can of diced tomatoes, some garlic powder, 2 tsp paprika, 1 tbsp parsley, 1 tbsp basil, 1 tsp dill, 1/2 of a bouillon cube, & salt & pepper to taste. It looks delicious.
And to have some dessert for the week, I made the vanilla cake recipe from How It All Vegan, but I made 12 cupcakes instead. I will make some icing for them later on. I plan to make this recipe to take to work to share with my co-workers the week of my birthday in May. I like to celebrate so this will be fun. It’s also a chance to see if this is a good recipe or not.
For dinner last night after my recital (so glad that’s over!), we ate leftover refried beans, brown rice, & sautéed spinach with tortillas. I’m so happy that we almost never waste food.
I recently got the monthly e-newsletter from Jill Ovnik’s site (the Vegan-Gal of DVD fame) and it brought to mind a question she posed once. What are some of the strongest & largest animals in the animal kingdom? Elephants come to my mind but also gorillas & horses. These amazingly strong animals do not eat meat; they are herbivores & eat a plant-based diet. Pretty cool.