Simple Meals and Food Gifts

I fell in love last week with a simple tahini sauce I made. I hope I wrote it down and can find it so I can use it for my homemade falafel later this week. Oh - I just made for the first time my own chickpeas, not from a can, for my falafel and they are so incredibly sweet and delicious! Anyway, I first put the tahini sauce on broccoli and japanese yam.

Then I put it on broccoli and cauliflower over soba noodles. This was so good I ate it two nights in a row.



Several of you have asked about the japanese yam, so I took a picture of one. It tastes like a sweet potato, but not quite as sweet, and it has a very creamy texture. I get them at my asian market.



At our office Christmas party we had a fajita buffet. They were kind enough to think of me this year, and I got to have some wonderful grilled veggie fajitas to go with the beans and rice. (Usually I just get beans and rice!) There was plenty of veggies left over, so I brought some home and had them over lentils one night.




Today I took my gifts of Texas Trash to the office and everyone went crazy for it. I made another batch last night for the family to snack on. I also made VWAV pumpkin oatmeal cookies since Dori at the Bakehouse blogged about them. I found them a little bland, maybe it's because I've had this cold. But I ended up adding a powdered sugar cinnamon glaze to them. These also got rave reviews. Chase took most of them. He gave some to my mom and she thought they were some of the best cookies I've ever made. I'm sure she doesn't think they're vegan.



Here's my cookies and trash.



I also made mustard for a few special people.



Today I had lunch at Nu Age, my fave veggie restaurant, and they proudly displayed their "2006 VegNews Best Restaurant" plaques. I had their beautiful salad.

Sunday we had a family dinner at a wonderful restaurant called Green Pastures. It's a restored 1800s home which serves a massive buffet on Sundays with plenty of vegan options and even a tofu dish! Here's Chase and my mom at the front door. I wish I had better pictures of the wonderful architure and beautiful holiday decorations. The grounds are full of peacocks. The males have about an 8 foot span of feathers they proudly display. They are breathtaking. (They were also mostly in hiding on this day.) And yes, we are quite comfortable in our short sleeves. It was 82 degrees Sunday afternoon!

Here's all of my family, except my sister who lives in Alabama with her family, in the foyer before being seated. My parents are retired, and my baby brother is an environmental engineer. I will be visiting my sister between Christmas and New Year's.

Me and my angel.....

And lastly, I was clearing out my cookbook shelves of all the meat books I still have and don't use, and I found this!

Isn't that hysterical!?! I'm sure I worked on this at least 20 years ago. I was glad to see that most of my recipes were for vegetable and low fat dishes, along with some family favorites. I have a few golden oldies I want to prepare and show you later!

The dividers had some interesting tips I wanted to share with you.

"White rice will be fluffier if 1 teaspoon lemon juice is added for each quart of cooking water."

"For lighter muffins, heat greased muffin tins in the oven for a few minutes before pouring in the batter."

"To test that bread dough has double in bulk, insert your fingers 1/2 inch into the dough. If the dents remain, the dough is ready to be punched down." (I think I knew this one already)

And my favorite - "Fresh vegetables make tasty additions to green salads."

Let me know if you try the rice or muffin tips.

Tomorrow is my last day of work until Jan. 4!!! Chase and I are planning on decorating Christmas cookies on Thursday, and making some other cookies and Christmas granola after that.

Stay well, everyone!