Yet more cheap and easy stuff

First off, a shout-out for Happy Herbivore's new cookbook Pudge Free
Holidays. If you haven't gotten it, or the last Sneak Peak book, go
right now! They're both full of awesome, healthy recipes (several of
which I've happily tested). I really need to make that pumpkin bread again...

Another blog shout-out for the Chocolate Covered Vegan. Her recipes
are so clever, I ended up eating two of them yesterday! I've been
blending up my oatmeal all the time since this post, and I adore it in all
kinds of ways. I've always liked oatmeal as-is, but now that I can make
it into a rich creamy pudding I've become a full-on oatmeal addict. A
couple weeks ago I was making dessert oatmeal with cocoa powder and
MimicCreme. Yesterday for breakfast I cooked the oats in unsweetend
almond milk and blended them up with a big dollop of pumpkin, half a
banana, and some pumpkin pie spice. Wowza. For dessert, I tried my
hand at apple pie pudding. I've never used agar before, and was a bit
skeptical that this would work, but it really does! Another yummy,
creamy (and super healthy) treat. I made two servings and had one for
breakfast this morning. CCV gets my undying admiration for coming up
with two dishes that reach that elusive goal of being both healthy
enough and tasty enough to qualify as both breakfast and dessert.
Since I've told you so much about what I ate yesterday, I might as well
tell you about lunch. I've had a can of small white beans sitting on my
shelf for too long, so I made a salad out of them. I mashed up the
beans with 2 tsp of flax oil and added dried basil, salt, rosemary,
garlic and onion powder to taste. Plus a handful of dried cranberries,
this actually makes a really good sandwich on whole wheat bread with
lettuce. Economical, too!I brought my sandwich and cup o' raw veggies (organic celery, tomatoes
and carrots this week) to work, and ended up taking it with me to a
restaurant with my co-workers. It made me realize how far I've come
since going vegan back in January. I didn't feel self conscious at all,
and certainly not deprived - watching them eat their super-greasy pizza
(with pepperoni, blech) just made me feel a little queasy. Not too long
ago the situation would have raised some anxieties for me, but I'm much
more comfortable now. Yay! I like that I've been vegan for long enough
now that people accept that it's not just some phase I'm going through.

Let's go Phillies!

This past weekend my dad took me to game three of the World Series. I'm originally from Philly and my family still lives there, so I've been a Phillies fan all my life. The last time they made it to the big show I was in 6th grade, we are so due! Despite a two hour rain delay and generally miserable weather, we had a great time. There's nothing quite like being part of a happy mob of 45,000+.

Adding to the fun - vegan cheesesteak! As this article notes, the Phillie's ballpark has lots of vegan food offerings, so many that it was named North America's Most Vegetarian-Friendly Ballpark. Sweeet. While I think it's great that they have vegan burgers and hotdogs (the sign at the concessions stand even says that they're vegan!) a vegan cheesesteak sounded like more fun. The Rick's steaks stand offers vegan chickensteak and regular steak (sadly no soy cheese, so it's really a steak sandwhich, not a cheesesteak). My dad was awesome enough to wait in line with me, in the rain, for the better part of an hour so I could get mine. Not like there's anything better to do during a rain delay, right?
The last time I went to a game I got the regular steak, so this time I tried the chicken. They're both yummy, but I think the chicken has the edge. You can customize your sandwhich and I piled it all on - onions, mushrooms, peppers and pizza sauce (aka The Works). All on the classic Philly steak sandwhich roll.
The perfect food to get me through to 2 am, cheering my lungs out!

Curried Chickpea Salad Sandwich

Since the cobbler came out so well, I was feeling adventurous and put this salad together. It's yet another spin on a very old theme, but I like the added dimension the curry and raisins bring to it.
Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
3 stalks celery, minced
1/2 of a vidalia onion, minced
3 small radishes, minced (grated carrot would be good, too)
handful of raisins
Vegenaise
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp curry powder (more or less to taste)
juice of half a lemon

1. Mash the chickpeas with a tablespoon or two of Vegenaise in a medium bowl with a potato masher or fork. Mash until creamy, but not a paste (leave some big pieces of chickpea).
   
2. Stir in the minced onion, celery, radish and raisins
   
3. Stir in the few pinches of salt and pepper to taste
4. Stir in the curry powder
   
5. Stir in the lemon juice (thanks to Omnivorous Boyfriend for suggesting this)
   

To make the sandwiches, put some salad between lightly toasted whole wheat bread and top with sliced tomatoes and lettuce. Makes enough for four or five sandwiches. Quick and easy lunches for the week!