I'm a day early on this week's "Market to Table" post, but tomorrow is Thanksgiving so I'll be taking a few days off from blogging. In the meantime, I'm pretty thankful about all the good food I've been eating since last week's post. I mean, check out these local goodies...
Grilled sandwich with steamed broccoli - Ever since I decided to try a vegan diet, I'll admit I've been struggling when it comes to sandwiches - no cheese, no mayo? Hmm. Then it hit me... I lightly brushed olive oil on one side of two slices of my homemade bread and browned them in a frying pan. In the meantime, I washed and sliced a tomato, rinsed some leaf lettuce, and took a jar of bread and butter pickles from the fridge. Once the bread was nice and toasty-brown, I removed them from the pan and stacked them with the lettuce, tomato and pickles (all local). VERY tasty! Who needs cheese and mayo? Not me! I had quite a few of these over the past week, as I try to enjoy the last tomatoes of the season. Each time the side was a little different. This day was obviously a steamed broccoli day.
Rice and veggies - Of course, there's no way I can let a week go by without a rice and veggie dish. I try not to have bread at every meal, I'm not much of a pasta eater, but rice for me is just perfect. I love it and it can compliment just about anything. This week's rice dish used up some of those leftover veggies in the fridge. I started out with 1/2 a chopped onion and a chopped tomato. I sauteed them in olive oil, then added 1/2 cup of rice, 1-1/2 pints of water, and a little salt and pepper. After about 45 minutes, when the rice was completely cooked, I added some leftover sauteed kohlrabi and cooked black beans from the fridge. Just about everything was local - only the salt, pepper, olive oil, and black beans were not (and the olive oil is up for debate since the lady who owns the olive grove in Tuscany lives here in town and sells her oil at our farmers market). Anyway, this lunch was fabulous as usual. I do love my veggies!
Sweet potatoes - The Market to Table post wouldn't be complete with out mentioning my sweet potato cravings. Ever since my Dad brought some by more than a month ago, I crave them constantly. I usually save this meal for dinner time. It makes for a warm and comforting meal, perfect for wrapping up the day.
These potatoes were from our local farmers market. As usual, all I do is cut the potatoes up into bite sized pieces and toss them in the frying pan with a little olive oil. I keep it covered so that they cook more quickly, opening it up every few minutes to toss so that nothing burns. I'm so glad these things are good for you, 'cause I LOVE 'em! I usually make enough at a time for two meals because... we'll because I'm lazy.
Well, I hope everyone has fun plans in store for tomorrow. Dave and I have managed to catch another cold (blah) so we're going to hide at home, rest, and get over this thing once and for all. We may not be eating turkey (I like the side dishes better anyway), but we have plans. I have some homemade pasta sauce (all local ingredients) in the fridge and plans to make one of Jennifer @ Veg*n Cooking's spelt pizza crusts. We'll start our own tradition, gosh darn it! - Well, just the eating pizza part, let's not do the annual cold virus thing - it sucks...
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, and as always, happy (and mindful) eating!
4 comments:
I love veggie sandwiches. I can get a nice browning on the bread without oil with the deeper baking pan in my George Formean grill with interchangeable plates. I also put my burritos in there to make them into fatfree "chimichangas", except they only fit if folded over in half like a quesadilla. Grilling them this way makes the mashed beans tasty creamier...almost like they have cheese on them!
Chile - Mmmm. I used to have a GF grill. I made paninis in there all the time. They were fabulous!
I love my grill. I do lots of veggies in it as well as the bean burritos and vegan quesadillas. It even works for reheating French fries and getting them crispy again. (Favorite bad indulgence: burger, fries, and a chocolate shake at the vegan restaurant!)
Chile - That sounds soooo good. No vegan restaurants here in good ole Bryan, Texas. If it's not beef, it's not edible, right? It's hard to be picky sometimes.
I have plans to go back to the Village Cafe tomorrow though for a meeting (that's the place that just opened that a lot of local and organic foods). I'm looking forward to that roasted veggie sammy. Mmm! They have lots of veggie foods and some with meat, but when I told her I was vegan, she was understanding and helped me pick out my meal. Most places look at me like I'm a freak. I guess that may be true, but it has nothing to do with my diet :)
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