Chili Dogs, Chips & Guacamole, and Berry Tartlettes

I can’t believe I made a chili dog dinner! It’s okay that chili dogs were requested, but I felt so guilty that I wasn’t really cooking. In fact, I took a picture of “stuff I didn’t make” and should have included the smart dogs, soyrizo, and canned beans.




And I felt so guilty that I bought a package of tortillas so I could make chips for the guacamole. I’ve made these chips many times before. They are so good, lightly oiled, then sprinkled with a mixture of chili powder and sucanat.

We love Alton Brown’s guacamole recipe. I haven’t made it since February, so you have to look at it again.

For the chili, I sauted the soyrizo with some chopped onion and garlic, then added in a can of black beans and lots of chili powder and cumin, oregano, cayenne, and salt and pepper. I had never had soyrizo before. I had a taste of the chili and it was really good. Not pretty, but spicy good.

Here’s Chase’s dog, with lots of chili and some nutritional yeast. The green stuff on the top bun is wasabi mustard (yum!).

I also boiled some fresh corn on the cob and steamed some broccoli. I made a “butter sauce” for the corn by adding the leftover chili/sucanat to some melted margarine (yum again!).

I didn’t eat a chili dog. Not because it’s beneath me to do so, but my stomach has decided to rebel against tofu, which really sucks since being gluten intolerant keeps me from having seitan too. I switched to rice milk awhile back because I suspected soymilk was bothering me. I’ll keep making tofu and seitan dishes for Chase, and I’ll keep admiring all of your wonderful creations, but I’ll only be having a taste of stuff I make for others. Thank goodness I love my veggies!

We can’t get enough fresh strawberries! I “made” vanilla pudding and filled some graham cracker shells, and added in fresh strawberries, blackberries, and grapes. Are you impressed by the grape flower in the center?

It’s been SOOOO rainy here lately. But this past Saturday was sorta nice, so after I took Chase grocery shopping at the asian market, and saw the apartment he’ll be moving into at the end of the month (close to me – yay!), we went to the bookstore. I got 2 new cookbooks and I also got Chase “Students Go Vegan.”

I can’t wait to try making sushi! I was also very excited to buy this book as a birthday present for a friend of mine who needs to lose 100 pounds. She asked to borrow my copy, but I thought a copy of her own but would be a great gift. It inspired me to become vegan. I hope it inspires her to really think about her health.

After shopping, we needed an Indian food fix. We hadn’t eaten at Sarovar before, and we were not disappointed. We had Chase’s gf with us, and she snapped a cell phone shot. It’s blurry, but you can see we had a huge amount of food, all for about $10 apiece. We told the waiter we wanted vegan entrees, and he instantly pointed out about 10 choices. We had a masala entrée with basmati rice, lentil soup, dahl curry, tomato curry, sambar, and a huge basket of delicious naan. They also serve a lunch buffet which Chase can’t wait to go back and attack!

We’ll be going out for Mother’s Day dinner at the Driskill, a five star restaurant. You may remember that the chef was on Iron Chef and narrowly lost to Bobby Flay. Well, he has since moved on, and his right hand man has taken over. He posted his buffet menu, which is $48 per person, and I think Chase and I will have to eat $48 dollars of hummus and fruit! It's a beautiful spread, and all the moms get a gift bag from Saks or some such place, but my gosh, that chef puts butter and cream and cheese in everything! I was thinking for my next Sunday dinner, I’d like to fix some Mom’s Day food my style. One thing I would love to make is broccoli crepes – you know, with the whole stalks inside and the little trees sticking out. I guess that would be crepes divan? Does anyone have a savory crepe recipe? Thanks!