Braised Cabbage (Kacie)

Braised cabbage was much better than I expected it to be! Totally different flavor than most everything else in the cookbook, but it was a nice and homey departure. I left lots of time since sparkles said it took forever! 

Tofu Scramble Tacos(Kacie)

So I was on a hiatus for a while.

I did a whole30, which is super clean eating (no dairy, sugar, gluten, soy, grains, and on and on) but also heavy on the meat. For me, that's eggs and fish. It was good, and I'm glad I did it, but I'm also happy I'm done! 30 days without any treat or loose day is hard. However, I am super proud that I did it. I needed to get off of the sugar roller coaster I was on (kind of), and I did. I'm able to enjoy some Christmas treats with more control and pleasure, which is nice.

It also meant I was super limited on ingredients, so I just didn't cook from the book because it was too hard. Sparkles said early on that she wanted more simplicity from her veggies. After 30 days of total simplicity, I was pumped to cook something with a little pizazz.

It could just be the whole 30 talking (did I mention no beans or corn either?), but I loved these. They were easy and flavorful. Yum. I actually ate four (I was super hungry). George ate a bunch too and my mom took the rest. I got la tortilla corn tortillas, and they were really good. I added some guacamole and a little chipotle pepper sauce. Yum.

Mango Curry (Sparkles)

This is mango curry with dry fried tofu. I had to use green curry paste instead of red. My favorite part is the combo of veggies. 

Tangerines dipped in chocolate ruined by Sparkles

Kacie made these already and I made some for December book club. 

As you can see I kinda gave up half way through on my tangerines  because the chocolate wasn't cooperating, I burnt some chocolate and I was more interested in listening to the book club book which was really great.  So here's a Merry Christmas pic starring Kittane and also Happy Hannukah from Slinkerbelle. Dreidel tonight! 

Spicy pickles carrots and lemony red lentil soup (Kacie)

I was super skeptical of these carrots. 

And then it turned out that they were delicious!  Hot and tangy and crunchy! So good! I would never have made this were it not for our challenge!

I also made the lemony red lentil soup. Mine is not as pretty as it should be because I already had organic sprouted lentils on hand, but they were not red!

 Soup was delicious, and it made a lot, which I like in a soup recipe.

I even are these two together for dinner.

I'm doing a whole30 right now. I'm on day 6. (I put that Greek yogurt on those legumes before the challenge). It's no sugar, grains, dairy, soy, legumes etc. the idea is to try getting rid of all possible inflammatory foods for a month). It means that j am very much not vegan right now! Lots of fish and eggs for me. I've always liked experimenting with food, and I needed to do something different for a little bit. 

I think there are some compliant recipes still left for me to make! Plus, I need to write up my pad Thai blog too!

Veggie Pad Thai with dry-fried tofu (Sparkles)

Did you already make this KD? 

Pretty hilarious recipe and very tasty end result. Do not make all of the noodles unless you need more than 5 servings. Add more broccoli and tofu if you really want to use all of the noodles. 

The sauce with the tomato paste is interesting - I wonder if you could use tamarind paste without fish sauce like a lot of Pad Thai recipes use.  

My favorite instructions from the recipe: 

-“get all the rest of your veggies and herbs on lock"

-“Don’t eat this all at once because that is too much salt for one day. F@$&.”

-“You’ll hear the steam escape from under the tofu as you do this. It sounds like screams, but keep the f@$& on.”

Warm the Fuck Up Minestrone (Kacie)

Yum. Pretty straight forward. I used stars, simmered it longer than the recipe, and put in extra kale. We ate it for days and it was delicious.