Wednesday, September 20, 2006

This, This, and a Little Bit of That


After drooling over a picture that Vegancore took of the Blondies she made from VwaV, I was inspired to try them out myself over the weekend. I hadn't even given them a second thought (for some reason) when flipping through the dessert section of the book on prior occasions, but they just sounded and looked SO... DAMN... GOOD... that I couldn't go on living without giving the recipe a whirl. And they were. Hell yes, they were. I am ashamed to say I ate four (maybe even five--I lost count--*smiling sheepishly*) over the course of the day on Monday, and thankfully, folks at work gobbled down the rest, otherwise I might've had an even worse stomach-ache than the one I ended up with. The only thing I would do differently with them next time is make more raspberry gunk to spread all over them and load them up with more chocolate chips. I'm a woman of excess, what can I say?


Ironically, the same day I consumed 4+ blondies was the day I decided that I really need to start hustling and packing myself better, healthier, less caloric lunches for work (I'd fallen into the habit of laziness, which in my case entails eating french fries from the little cafeteria across the street). This time, I was inspired by FatFree Vegan's Week o' Salads and decided to pack a nice big one for myself. I'd been inexplicably craving lentils all weekend, so I knew that those would have to be in the mix. What resulted was the above salad--not particularly fantastic, I must admit, but with a bit of tweaking, I think it could be a good one. I used some romaine lettuce and some mustard greens (thankfully, I'd found myself without an urge for spinach this week), topped them with a hearty scoop of green lentils, added some toasted walnuts, and drizzled a dressing made of agave nectar, brown mustard, and cider vinegar over the top. The problem was that I drizzled the dressing on the night before which I knew would sog it up a bit, but I sometimes like that. But it sogged it up way too much. That, and the salad was yearning for something sweet in it--no doubt some nice, tart apples. So next time around, I'll let it succumb to temptation, and load it up with some juicy apple chunks.


And finally, I bought these precious little white eggplants this weekend, at the little farmer's market in my neighborhood. They are just so damn pretty and cute. The whole walk home, I kept pulling them out of the bag just to gaze at them. I think I may be in love.

I only hope that they will last until the weekend as I have plans to make stuffed eggplant with them. Unfortunately, I noticed yesterday that they are quickly starting to soften up. Keep your fingers crossed that they last and that I don't have to whip them up into something else before then so that they don't get too bitter.

Anyone happen to know how to tell when an eggplant's just too far gone to use anymore?

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