Comfort food and stockpiling for the apocalypse

October 12, 2013 by Margaux 2 Comments

Yesterday Man-thing had an interview to teach part-time at a Cambridge-system high school (hold thumbs!) so I decided we needed to go out and celebrate the fact that someone called! We went to the fish place around the corner (they have some nice cucumber maki and cheese-less salad I can eat, but not much else). Alas, when we got there I got a huge speech about how I need to eat more, and how the whole family is concerned, etc. Earlier this week I had a dizzy spell behind the wheel and went to the doctor, who said my blood pressure at just below 60 was too low, so I got sent home with some lovely perking-up pills. For a former near-diabetic and hodge-podge, I couldn’t tell whether I should have been amused or horrified to be getting the talk. The “problem” is that on the vegan foodstyle that I follow, there’s lots of veg and other stuff, but I do try to limit my carbs and other excesses, simply because it makes me feel groggy and what not. Anyway, I suspect I’m being monitored in a very well-meaning way, so I’m going to have to do my best to reach my daily goal of 1500 cal, but yeesh! The only solution is to sit and eat all day long…bah!

In light of this, and also because we have a ton of marking of history assignments to do, I decided to make some comfort food. Pal Nicole is on the marking team with Man-thing and I, so I was glad to have another guinea pig/”guest” on board. I was also awake at 01h30 this morning, so I spent the whole time baking and making food…not such a great idea here by the early afternoon!

I made these first – a lovely, squishy, and very unsweet pistachio and cranberry cookie from MyInspiration, Nice little nibbly, with some splashes of milk to bind everything together. Next time I might add a TBSP of brown sugar just to satisfy the more general palette, but this is right up my alley! NOM NOM. I also made her Simple Cranberry Vanilla Muffins (not pictured…only because there is only 1 left after being alive barely 12 hours). I ate mine with some slivers of avo and fig jam and HOMG, NOM! I also subbed the corn flour and maple sugar and margarine for one smashed banana, knowing that any more sweetness would be taken care of through spreads and what not. I can’t wait to make this for my pre-diabetic FIL: poor man can barely eat a sweet without getting scolded, so it’s my mission to discover goodies that he can freely munch! I LOVE the rye flour though! So soft and squishy and relatively healthy? Yes pls!

At about 03h00 I started making pita breads from scratch. I had wanted to make a lentil roulade, but there was a discrepancy between the baking time for the pastry dough in the recipe and on the frozen dough package, so I decided not to waste time and resources. I added lots of spices to my pita, as suggested in the comments, but alas not all of them puffed out to form an inner pocket (only the last few), so most were just used like fat wraps. Still, a tasty treat! 😀

To that I added some green bean and spinach pesto  – very basic: 120g green beans (steamed), 2 handfuls of spinach, 4 lemon slices, and 1 TBSP tahini with spices. I left out the nuts since I figured my burger patties would have enough going on!

Super fast and yummy to make! I’ve figured that anything green usually works, though next time I’ll happily use some mint leaves for pep.

Hummus of doooommm! NOM NOM NOM

The burger patty is very delicious! The recipe, By Aine Carlin, says it makes 4-5 patties, but I added 1/4 cup baked beans, since the can of cannellini I used seemed rather thin on cuppage, and at the finish line I ended up with 9-10 very respectable sized patties. Unfortunately I don’t think the flour ratios are quite correct, or else I did something terrible, since I had to add a lot more flour to the mixture to keep it from being too gooey and falling apart, though refrigerating does help immensely! Would make this again with the parsley, since all I had was more spinach. We finally found some hummus in our store so we slathered some of that inside the pitas, along with the pesto and burger, and voila! One can really go all out – next time avo will make an appearance for extra squish!

Lastly I added some pumpkin on the side. I originally steamed it, wanting to do something else with it, but afterwards decided to roast the steamed veggies for a little more bite, splashed with lovely paprika and white pepper. Since I’ve never actually roasted veggies before, this is a near-first! :p

Anyway! Tomorrow I make a pilgrimage to the bigger shops on the other side of town for nutritional yeast and (hopefully!) chia seeds and other vegan essentials, since my side of town has decided to drop the ball in a big way. Then I can use up all this lovely pesto and make cashew cheese for pizza! I suspect I over-organize my food life, but there is just too much to try and so little time to do it all in!