Turning Convenience Food into Comfort Food

So I didn't really intend to go all Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade on you tonight, but that is what I ended up doing for dinner, so here we go.  Truth be told, although I don't have a lot of respect for someone who uses that amount of processed food on her television show, I can see that this is something that a lot of folks probably do need to do in their everyday lives.  I am kid-free (by choice, maybe not permanently), pet-free (because of allergies), and I only have a 40-hour a week office job that I generally leave at the office, and there are still a lot of days when I end up depending on something from a can or a jar, so those of you who have additional challenges have a lot of sympathy from me.  We had a bit of a busy day today, ate a late breakfast, went back to the record store (someone in this house has a problem, and it's obviously catching because I'm getting infected too), went to three different grocery stores plus one liquor store, and once we got home, I had a pile of dishes to do before I could even cook.  So by the time I got started on dinner, it wasn't going to be something super-gourmet.  That's what Sundays are for!  But we did have something delicious and mostly home-cooked that really hit the spot on this snowy night: pasta & salad, dressed up just a little.

For the salad, I just used romaine, shredded carrots, and what passes for a tomato in New England in January.  John likes his salad dry and dressing is expensive, so I tried making my own tahini-lemon dressing.  It didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, so I'll post another time after it's been tweaked.  It worked well enough for me tonight though.  Cracked a bottle of Red Truck red wine (they aren't paying me, I just really like their wine, both the taste and the $7 price tag), I cooked a pound of rotini according to package directions, and tossed it with the following sauce.

Georgia's Semi-Homemade Marinara


1/2 large or 1 medium onion, diced
1 small green bell pepper, diced
3/4 cup sliced mushrooms (cremini or white button)
10 meatless meatballs (I used Trader Joe's)
1 jar pre-made pasta sauce of your choice (I used Muir Glen Cabernet Marinara)
1 pound pasta, cooked
Nutritional yeast (optional)

Spray skillet with small amount of oil or use water to saute onion and pepper over medium heat.  In the meantime, place meatballs in large saucepan.  Cover with pasta sauce, then fill empty jar halfway with water.  Place lid on and shake to get remaining sauce off lid and jar.  Pour sauce-water into saucepan, and stir.  Turn heat to medium to bring sauce to a simmer.  Back in the skillet, add mushrooms and saute until onions are translucent and mushrooms have browned and begun to shrink.  Add onion, mushroom, and pepper mixture to sauce and turn heat to low.  Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes.  Toss with prepared pasta, and serve with a sprinkling of nutritional yeast, if desired.  Makes 6 servings.

Once again, a ton of leftovers, which we will probably eat for lunch tomorrow, or I will take to lunch early next week, since we still have chili from the other night, yay!  All in all, a great day.  I scored a Crowded House 45 single at the record store today.

Those of you who know me well are laughing.  I've been a mega Crowded House fan since I heard "Don't Dream It's Over" in the miniseries of Stephen King's The Stand when it was on TV back in the mid-nineties.  And I probably have 42 copies of "Something So Strong" already on different formats, but this one is a 45 single and it has "I Walk Away" as a B-side!  So it was worth a buck. (Told you I was catching the vinyl bug!)  If you haven't had dessert yet, go make a peanut butter banana smoothie in honor of Elvis's birthday today.

Elvis Smoothie


1 medium banana, frozen
1 tbsp natural peanut butter
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk (or other non-dairy milk of your choice)


Combine all ingredients and blend in high-speed blender until completely mixed. Depending on the sweetness of your banana, peanut butter, and non-dairy milk, you may need to sweeten to taste and re-blend.  I recommend stevia or agave nectar.

A Simple Food Day

Last night we decided we would go to an early show of "True Grit" today.  Yesterday I had made tofu scramble and home fries for breakfast, so today, I went the other direction and made Maple Pecan Waffles out of the book 1000 Vegan Recipes.  It was only my second time using the waffle iron I got on black Friday, and they turned out great.  I undercooked a couple to freeze and then toast later.  Hopefully that will work out.

We went to the movie around 1.  It was pretty good.  Not our favorite Coen brothers thing ever, but I think most of the time, their movies have to grow on me.  The only exceptions were "Blood Simple" and "Raising Arizona," both of which I loved immediately.  There was some good acting, especially Matt Damon, who I am liking more as he gets older.  I can't say I have been much of a fan up until this year.  

When we got home, we were both starving and I had a headache, so it was very important to make something quick and easy.  I bought some gigantic tortillas the other day, thinking of making big ol' burritos a la Moe's or Chipotle, and I noticed I also had some cheddar-style Daiya (for you non-vegans, Daiya is the new vegan wonder-cheeze; I'll post more about it another time).  So quesadillas seemed like a good idea.  I sauteed up some mushrooms & onions and included them so I could say I had some veggies today.

I served these up with some salsa and Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream.  They were great!  I think next time I probably would add a bell pepper and some extra heat from red pepper flakes or cayenne, but this was a great meal to eat in a pinch.

Hooray for finger food!

We spent the rest of the afternoon listening to some records we scored at Newbury Comics Norwood yesterday, using John's Christmas gift card.  We got 9 records for $9, most of which were in decent shape!  Some other stuff that was more expensive too, but it was worth it.  It's supposed to be a bit snowy tonight, so I am going to go make barbecue tofu and mashed potatoes, maybe with some spinach or broccoli so I will have eaten something green today, and then try to go to bed so I am rested for tomorrow.  Tomorrow at 10:06 AM CST, I will turn 33!  So we have some birthday plans in store, including a trip to New Hampshire to try a vegan restaurant we haven't been to yet.  Excited!

Welcome to my kitchen!

To me, the most important room of anyone's home is the kitchen.  I love kitchens.  I have moved into places just because of how the kitchen looks.  I will like any song that has the word kitchen in it.  This is the depth of my obsession with kitchens!  When I was a little girl and we would go to visit my grandmother, even though she had a perfectly wonderful living room, with plenty of seating even when the whole family was there, we would all crowd into the kitchen.  We would sit around the big table, or in one of the extra chairs in the corners, or crowd into a corner if we had to, but we all wanted to be in that room, where it was warm and something delicious was always cooking.  I spent quite a few years as a grown up cooking out of boxes, but becoming vegan changed that for me.  When I decided to change my diet, my own kitchen became the comforting and wonderful place to be in my own house, and now, after much urging from friends and my husband, I am starting this blog to share my interests, primarily in cooking, but also in the million other things that I love to talk about while sitting around in the kitchen.  So pull up a virtual chair.  Have a cookie and some tea.  And let's talk about what's for dinner!