Neat-Loafing It Up

I've been tagged to list out my top 5 favorite foods that a person should, nay MUST, try before they die, and I have to say--I really need to give this thing some damn thought! I feel like I shouldn't just whip out my top 5 on my first day back to work after a holiday weekend--I suspect it would be delusional and unpleasant at best. And the quality of people's remaining lives depends on it! *Sobbing at all the pressure!* So I promise to post ye ol' top 5 foods tomorrow--word!

This weekend I baked cookies. But alas, pics came out like crap. So they shan't be posted here. But just in case you wanted to know--they were the peanut butter cookies from Sinfully Vegan, and I was not all that impressed by them. They were not sweet enough for my sweet tooth (though E said they were just right for his), and they boasted being "healthier" as PB cookies go--they were only 85 calories a cookie. But once you saw how fricking tiny each cookie was, it made a lot more sense why they were being considered "healthier"--anything's lower in calories and fat when it's 1/3 of the size of a normal cookie. I honestly would probably not make them again--Vegan with a Vengeance does up PB cookies WAY better, trust me.

E made up for my lack of cooking this weekend by regaling me with his instead, and I was very pleased. He made (for a second time) the "neat loaf" recipe from Cooking with PETA which is a damn fricking tasty recipe, especially for being so ridiculously simple to make (just think tofu, wheat germ, nutritional yeast, onions, and seasonings--E'ed up with a bit of fresh rosemary on top). I love this stuff--it tastes like a cross between meatloaf and stuffing. Num num.

On the side, he whipped up some potatoes of his own imagination (that needs to be a name for a recipe: "Potatoes of His Own Imagination"--hee hee), out of potatoes, onions, mushrooms, vegan butter, and fresh rosemary. This stuff was also really stinking flavorful for being very simple--just thrown in a casserole and baked until the taters were soft.

And finally, he wanted to try out this Tomato Basil Quinoa that they've started selling at Wild Oats, so he whipped some of that up as well (it's the blurry stuff on the back left of the picture). This was also really yummy for already-seasoned quinoa, and uber-simple to whip up. It'd be well worthwhile stocking some boxes of this in your cupboard for when you're pressed for time...

All in all, although I didn't cook much this weekend (despite plans to--we were gonna make split pea burgers for a cookout that fell through and I was gonna whip up a batch of VwV's black bean and corn stew, but that's on the backburner until this weekend), I did eat well. And I thank E (and good ol' Johnny Mango) for that.

Stay tuned tomorrow for my top 5!