Sunday, January 17, 2010

Comfort Food!

As the birth of our daughter looms closer on the horizon (yes, it's a girl! two ultrasounds confirmed it), Mr. PLV and I are having lots of talks about our eating habits. He is still pretty much an omni, although he eats so much veg stuff by now, he's almost half and half. Of course, he eats all vegan when I cook and rarely complains :) except when it comes to meal choices, during which we haggle over the recipes we'll make. Fruit or no fruit? Ginger or potatoes? We like a lot of the same things, but he still prefers more comfort food - familiar dishes - while I like to jump in to things a little more "exotic."

So, in anticipation of future compromises in front of a watchful child, I made some true comfort food this week, starting off with these amazing Soft Tacos with Potatoes and Sausage from The Complete Vegan Cookbook. This may be the first recipe I've made from this book, and for once, we were both blown away! I didn't make the sausage myself as directed, but used our new favorite brand, "Field Roast" (chipotle flavor). This made it super easy to whip together on a weeknight. The rest was simply diced onion and potato, cooked up with chili powder and salt. A little salsa and lettuce, and we were in heaven! We both gave this four stars **** and it was super easy.

We made this next dish together, also on a weeknight. I think it was something like Sausage, Spinach and BBQ Beans but anyway it was definitely from Vegan Express and it was definitely express! Mr. PLV has made this at least once before and loves it. It's a souped up version of franks and beans, although it calls for sausage, and we actually used veggie dogs this time with good results. A good way to sneak some greens onto picky plates! Three solid stars for me ***.

Probably my favorite dish this week, though, were the Baked Chimichangas from 500 Vegan Recipes a new cookbook that I checked out from my library. I might end up buying this one, based on this single recipe! Cubed, pressed tofu is browned and then cooked up with salt and nutritional yeast. A cheesy salsa (made with nutritional yeast as well) is added to the tofu along with some black beans. Results? Another amazing dish, with very little work! We did bake the filling in tortillas, but I could have eaten them as burritos. Wow! What great flavors and a nicely rounded dish. We had some green beans on the side, too. Four stars for sure ****!

Here's the chimi before I attacked it.... :)
Tonight, Mr. PLV is going to make a chili with the Field Roast sausage and the rest of the week looks like it'll involve some lentil kibbe for lunch and hemp burgers during the week. Here's to comfort food and to realizing that maybe your husband's food preferences are pretty good after all :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awww...congrats on the daughter! How exciting :-)

Comfort food certainly has its place, and all of yours looks amazingly delish!

Courtney

mysticxian said...

Looks wonderful. I might try that chimichanga. I haven't had one of those since the days of eating meat.
Hope you guys get the food thing straightened out with your daughter. It will be rough seeing two parents eating different things. I know its rough in my house.

Anonymous said...

Love to hear about compromising with an omni spouse. That's always the situation here at our house. I have a 6 year old son, and for the most part we all eat vegan style. However, at family parties, etc. my son usually crosses over to his dad's style and has some of the meat and maybe cheese. I figure at least he still eats a lot less of it than everyone else, and is more aware of the many reasons not to do so.