lapis_lazuli022

vegetarian/vegan dairy-free wheat-free dinner: spinach salad and spelt penne with vegetable-tomato sauce.

Julienne mushrooms, zucchini, and baby carrots. Reserve a few mushrooms to cut into quarters.

Reserve 1/3 of chopped vegetables. Toss with spinach leaves, crumbled red walnuts, and dried cranberries. Serve in salad bowl with strawberry vinaigrette to taste. (If non-vegan, I would have added goat cheese.)

Saute half an onion with crushed garlic and as little oil as necessary. When onion is browned, add rest of vegetables and about a handful of water. When well-cooked, take off heat and remove quartered mushrooms, then squish rest of vegetables with immersion hand-blender (or in food processor) until they form a chunky paste. Add quartered mushrooms, tomato sauce and tomato paste, and return to heat, stirring well. Add a few of the spinach leaves to wilt. Add herbs and seasoning to taste (basil, rosemary, pepper, salt, oregano, crushed red pepper) and allow to simmer on low for as long as you desire.

When ready to serve, cook pasta in boiling water.

Verdict: yummy.

The front page of yahoo.ca this morning has a story about which fast food breakfasts are the worst for you. It's followed instantly by a link to "make your own bacon donuts".

o.O

Are they trying to help us avoid the unhealthy food, or find it?

1 egg
1 storebought flour tortilla wrap thingy
1 handful shredded cheese
2 small tomatoes from the garden, diced

scramble egg in nonstick skillet. set aside.

in another hot nonstick skillet, heat tortilla about 10-20 seconds on each side, or until it starts to poof up. Pre-toasting the tortilla makes it nice and crispy.

Place scrambled egg, cheese, and diced tomatoes, or whatever filling you have on hand and are inspired by, on one half of tortilla. a few ribbons of basil or chopped cilantro or parsley, maybe, or a tablespoon or so of diced ham if that's your thing. fold over.

Cook for up to 30 seconds on each side, or until cheese is melty.

Serve.

Time expended: 5 minutes, tops.

There is nothing like being awakened at 5:10am by a cat licking your eyebrow.

And it's a good thing there isn't! Yuck!

I went back to sleep and had a very strange dream. I think it's a recurring dream, or at least a recurring series, because I remember having a very frustrating dream in that old castle before, and this one seemed to build on the events of that one. I had to find a certain room number, but not all of the room numbers were on the corresponding floors where you'd think they might be. Some of the rooms starting with 10 were on the 10th floor, but some might be on the 3rd or 5th. I could only complete the puzzle once I figured that out. I also had a brief stint as a fictional character. Unfortunately, I looked the same to me, and only different to the people around me, so I didn't get to enjoy the change. And then my alarm rang, and I woke up and debated calling in apathetic, but my sense of duty brought me to work anyway. And here I am.

Our book club managers are cruel to us. One of them has submitted her book list with a sudoku puzzle on the front. We can't do the puzzle. If we come to a meeting with the puzzle filled in, our supervisors will tell us we have too much free time, and assign more work. This happened once, when I colored in one of their cover pictures with highlighters while waiting for a meeting to start. So we get to stare at the puzzle and not work it. I think I may photocopy it and work it through on the copy at lunch.

Life continues to go on. Matt is in California this week, but he'll be home after that. Possibly for a while. I made spelt angel hair with veggie alfredo sauce on Sunday - ambitious cooking, for me - and had the leftovers last night. This cooking thing isn't so bad.

I've been thinking about doing something formal like a delayed seder when Matt gets home, but I'm not sure about it. Maybe I'll do some grocery store browsing tonight and see if I get inspired. You'd think Passover would be the holiday tailor-made for the person who can't eat wheat, but I find myself not looking forward to listening to people complain about giving up something for one week that I can't have at all. I remember when a week without bread or pasta or pizza felt like forever, and when I couldn't even conceive of how to plan a whole week's worth of grain-free meals. I remember sneaking off to Pizza Hut for a passover hiatus one year, because we couldn't hold out, and jokingly using a Talmudic excuse to pretend to rationalize it away. So it's not that I don't understand. It's that I don't want to hear it. Welcome to my world. You only have to vacation here.

I made it through steamed chicken and rice for lunch today, so I decided I was ready to come off the jello diet. Dinner tonight was roast beef, rice, and vegetables. Matt made delicious gravy from the roast, and when he offered a bit of the leftover gravy to Truffles (for whom the gravy is the best and only part of the wet cat food worth eating), she turned her nose up at it. "Not enough byproducts?" I suggested. I didn't know what other cause there could be.

But food substitutions aren't only unwelcome in kitty land...

Newman's Own Spelt Pretzels = good. Amazingly good. Just like the real thing, or maybe better.

Newman's Own Wheat free, dairy free Oreos = just the thing to put you off eating, for good.

I said this to Matt, so of course, he had to go and try his own Newman Oreo. I followed him to the kitchen and refilled my glass of milk. "A chaser," I said. "You're gonna need it. Oh, and by the way, you might not want to put it all in your--" He popped one in and started chewing. "--mouth.. at.. once. Um," I murmured, wincing.

Less than a moment later, it hit him. The look on his face started me laughing, and soon he was laughing while trying to swallow the gritty, foul thing. I held out the milk and he took it.

"Need something stronger?" I asked, and he turned to see me holding up the jug of bleach. He laughed harder, but kept himself together and managed to swallow. Damn. ;)

"That is the worst thing I've tasted in a long time..." he started.

"That you didn't make, yourself?" I teased, at the same time that he said, "...that I didn't make, myself." Laughter anew, both of us nearly doubled over in the kitchen, holding onto the counters, him trying to swallow liquid at the same time.

The fact that we still have uncontrollable giggle-fits together after ten years of marriage makes me happier than I can describe.

Be warned, though... For someone who's willingly tried the Bertie Botts' Sardine and Black Pepper flavored jelly beans to make a pronouncement like that, it's serious business.

Kids, don't try these at home.

Take one chicken breast, dip in skim milk, coat in mixture of crushed peanuts, brown sugar and hot spice powder. Throw in hot oiled pan until cooked through. Toss frozen peas and carrots into pan, cover, let vegetables cook in the oil and spices. Serve. Eat, while fighting off hungry kittens.

It was not quite savory enough for me. I think next time I'll go heavier on the spice and lighter on the sugar, and it needed a stiff dose of ginger. Still, not bad for someone who can rarely be bothered to cook. It was relatively quick and a lot nicer than those frozen meals in a box.