Since Mother Nature didn't get my memo that winter is over, it's yet another soup evening for me. I opted for split peas and cauliflower, which I often cook up with a little curry powder. This time I decided to be different.

I added .75cups green split peas and one large onion to some boiling water and cooked until the split peas softened up some. Meanwhile, in an effort to dirty every single dish in my kitchen (which I do often), I also cooked up .5cups quinoa and simultaneously blended 2 chipotles (canned in adobo sauce, my favorite...I freeze the leftovers), 2 TB Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, and some of my mint from my freezer. This made a very, very tasty sauce.

When I was done with the sauce I put 3/4 of the split peas/onion in the blender until smooth. I then readded to the pan and put 1/2 large head of cauliflower in the pot with some salt and cumin. I thought about adding turmeric, but got scared and didn't. Now, I had this beautiful vision of a nice, green soup with pretty white cauliflower floating around and a deep red swirl, all on a bed of tasty quinoa. However, I can't seem to ever learn that when you mix red things (peppers, tomatoes, etc) with white things (cream cheese, milk, etc), it turns pink.

And I need to work on my swirling skills...

Overall, I was pleased with the minty taste- not over the top, but you could definitely taste it and it seemed to go well with the spicy chipotle. The cumin also helped town down the heat from the peppers. Next time I'll probably make it with brown basmati rice just for some better texture since the quinoa is a little soft. But I'll be making this one again.

More Mint

I'm a little obsessed with the mint now that I know I didn't exactly ruin it in the freezer. This morning for breakfast I decided to go with something crazy, mostly because I forgot to buy oatmeal last week. So I threw a frozen banana (when they start to get old I just throw them in the freezer, peel and all), frozen fresh but now dried mint, postum, unsweetened cocoa, and a splash of soy milk in the blender. But it came out too watery so I added a few cubes of ice. I poured it into a bowl and topped with a cup of cheerios. I've been dying to use cheerios in something other than cereal. I was too hungry to take the time to crush the cheerios like I wanted.

By now, you should have realized that I essentially made ice cream for breakfast. I love being a grown up.

I'm Quitting My Job

If I didn't love fighting cancer so much, I'd quit. Because I enjoy sitting around my apartment cooking all day just as much. I didn't have to be at work today so I did my favorite thing in the world. And wore my awesome "Vegan Cowgirl" t-shirt while doing it! (Thanks jennilicious!)

For breakfast I cooked 1/4 barley (100 calories) and added 1 TB peanut butter (100 calories), .5TB unsweened cocoa (10 calories) , and a splash of 8th continent light vanilla soy milk (20 calories). It was a tasty breakfast, although I sort of felt like a 5 year old. This might be a new weekend staple, probably with a mushy banana added to it.

Lunch was even more fun. I decided I had to have mashed cauliflower and it had to look just like mashed potatoes. So I steamed a head of cauliflower (I once read that cooking veggies in water destroys a lot of the good stuff in them, but steaming is ok) and simultaneously cooked 2 very tiny onions (40 calories) and 4 cloves of garlic (20 calories) in 1 TB of Earth Balance margarine (100 calories). When the cauliflower was done, I added it and 1/2 the onion/garlic to the blender with a splash of unsweetened soy milk (30 calories) and blended until it was nice and creamy. If you were looking at it (if I would buy new batteries or a new camera), you'd think it was mashed potatoes. I also threw in some salt and pepper. I added the rest of the onion/garlic mixture to them so there's be a few lumps.

I swear I couldn't tell it was cauliflower. And I love cauliflower...I generally roast it in some olive oil and add some red pepper flakes, or lately I've been putting it in my lentils with some curry. Sometimes I just eat it plain steamed. Anyway, this dish was amazing. For people who claim they don't like veggies, they've just never had them cooked the right way, and this is a great way to do it. I cannot wait to have leftovers for dinner. Yum!

Oh, and I also decided I needed a couscous dish to go with my mashed cauliflower. So I put in 1/3 cup whole wheat couscous with .25 cup golden raisins (because they didn't have sultanas when I needed them and these were a last minute replacement for another dish awhile ago), some hazelnuts (I wanted walnuts, but I was too lazy to reach farther into the cupboard to find them), and some now dried mint that was once fresh but I stashed into the freezer in it's regular package without protecting it in a fit of panic because I didn't want it to go bad when I used it in the dish I needed the sultanas for, and 1/3 cup hot water. I covered the bowl and 5 minutes later mixed it up and threw it in the fridge. Then I decided it might be too dry and it needed some liquid. For whatever reason I chose unsweeneted soy milk instead of something like olive oil that might have been a better choice. But it came out delicious- a good breakfast dish. Now I can't wait to keep using the mint...