beans beans beans beans beans, etc

Small surprise to see corn up there in the first photo again, huh? I have this thing about blogging about food in true chronological order, though. And this week of legume-happy kicked off with the Vcon Creole Stuffed Peppers which were really nice, by the way. We had them with the Messy Rice and some steamed kale with liquid smoke slashed on for fun, and it was nom nom nom.

See, we've been eating like this because P is taking a break from soy and sugar, so it's been a lot of soaking beans from the pretty little jars that line the counter. And about time! It's been bugging me lately that we haven't been eating beans, cause they're pretty much my favourite food ever - like, "what's for dinner?" .... duh duh duh..... "Beans!"

So we made the Vcon Jamaican Yuca Shepherd's Pie. ZOMG. You need to try this! It's so so good, familiar and yet not, really wonderful.

And we had it with a pureed mango-lime dressing, cause I've been experimenting with "pureed-stuff-on-salad" (it's been going well). Note the gimpy radish rosette, as I was apparently channelling some fifties housewife during the 10 free minutes that the casserole needed to cook.

Oh yeah, and I take back everything I said about posting in order, because mentioning pureed dressings reminded me of what I had for *lunch* that day - SusanV's tofu omelette, which was spooky spot-on, and possibly even better than an egg omelette since it had that beautiful savoury-mousse kind of thing going on. And I got to use tabasco and tarragon in an omelette, which takes me back a few years, I can say that. Anyway... it was full of onions, mushrooms, zucchini and tomato and it was the lunchiest lunch I'd lunched on in forever - HIGHLY recommended.

And it came with salad. Weird salad! But weird-good. There were all these carrot tops in the crisper, so I pureed up a carrot with some ginger and soy sauce as per this recipe (minus the mustard), because why not, right? It didn't make a dressing so much as a piquante veggie condiment, but it did the job, I liked it.

Then the next day for dinner I headed to the kitchen with the intention of opening myself a tin of tomato soup - tres gourmet, je sais - mais! Somehow between thawing out peas and shuffling through jars of cumin seeds I skipped right over the soup idea and made a freestyle aloo gobi that was so spot on, I am seriously proud of this one. Especially cos I don't think I've even had aloo gobi before, but I double checked on a few recipes, and mine was virtually identical to the authentic-looking ones. Wee! Also served with that plum chutney I made a while ago, which mellowed and turned pretty wonderful in the fridge. I could get to like this curry + chutney business! It's like an excuse to eat spicy jam with dinner.

Leftover kidney beans? Meet new life as kidney cutlets with oats and worcestershire and a heckuva lot of green peppercorns. I had these on a chapati wrap with mango and lettuce and red pepper and chipotle mayo and it was SO good, reminded me of childhood/meatloaf. Except better.

Drunken baking.................... upside down black sesame plum cake, and oat/banana/chocolate loaf. Both made without refined sugar. And to my tongue...... the less said about them the better, eek. :p

And bean-week ends with the easiest most bestest use for beans ever - load up a humungous salad on top of leftover legumes and munch away on pure goodness. Topping it with fresh mint, dates, toasted almonds and avocado doesn't hurt a salad either. I had this again today for lunch, actually, could be my new favourite food. Anyway...

That's the week! We're making pasta tonight, I have no idea what kind, but that's kind of cool since we don't make it very often. Oh yeah, and I opened the abalone-flavoured wheat gluten - it tastes like cat food and comes dripping in oil - YUCKKKKKK. So yeah, experiment fail, but still interesting. Til next post! (my 100th, actually)

Oh, and I almost forgot! I tried a chinese saucer peach last week, too! I was like "oh, it's a gimmick, it must be - a peach that won't roll off the counter, of course." But you know what? It tastes like honey and flowers and is very very nice and completely different from a regular peach. Experiment success!