Today I thought I would share a couple of quick and easy meals I have enjoyed this week but first, an update on I Eat Plants!
Last week in my column I “confessed” that I am not a perfect vegan. The response was overwhelming. Overwhelmingly wonderful. There were some folks who took exception to how I defined veganism in the piece. I didn’t take it personally because I realized that if they read my blog they would have a far better notion of my own vegan experience.
I stand by how I described veganism. When I claimed the label “vegan” over two years ago, I still wore wool and leather. On my vegan journey I learned more and more about veganism – once you know something, you can’t not know it – and I moved beyond wearing animal products. I have a ten-year old car and the seats are leather – am I less vegan? I don’t think so. Will my next car have leather seats? No. I’ll be as vegan then as I am right now.
My Small Bites editor was really impressed by the volume of comments and went so far as to highlight it in the print edition of The Journal News yesterday!
She also wrote a story on the variety of blogs in the food section on LoHud.com. Check out Thursday:
It brings me so much joy to see the word “vegan” in my local paper!
It also brings me joy when I give my I Eat Plants column readers vegan options to making foods they know and love. Today I shared my Coconut-Gingered Infused Black Bean Brownies recipe. Just last night a reader let me know how the brownies turned out for her:
Yay!
You know what else brings me joy? Quick and easy vegan meals!
We were out of town over the weekend so Sunday night it was all about meal delivery.
Our local Turkish restaurant delivers – thank goodness! – so I ordered the Mediterranean salad (hold the feta) and the cold chickpea salad appetizer, which I promptly spooned over the salad. A side of whole grain pita rounded out this lovely, made-by-someone-else meal.
The next day Dave went to the grocery store for us; I just asked for vegetables and a few multigrain bread products (because I have tons of grains and beans in the cupboard). He wisely picked up tofu pups because he noticed that I had not moved from my office in hours. When I finally got around to making dinner I opted for a very simple open face “hotdog” salad wrap.
This thing was loaded! I spread a thin layer of vegan mayo over a whole grain tortilla and topped it with chopped lettuce, tomato, onion, and cooked tofu pups. Then, for good measure, I added sauerkraut and yellow mustard.
Yesterday I got it together. I literally scheduled cooking into my work day.
11:00 a.m. Quinoa in the rice cooker + soak beans
6:00 p.m. Pressure cook the pinto beans
6:30 p.m. Eat an easily prepared, delicious, home-cooked meal
Oh, did I ever love this vegan dinner bowl!
I prepared the red quinoa in my rice cooker with vegetable broth (homemade), peppers, onion and pinch of iodized sea salt. I set the rice cooker on the brown rice setting, jumped onto a conference call, and, just about the time the call was ending, I heard the beep on the cooker, indicating my quinoa was perfectly done. I fluffed it and let it cool on the counter before refrigerating it later. After letting my pinto beans soak for about seven hours I rinsed and drained them. In the pressure cooker I heated up avocado oil, onion and garlic. I added the beans, a bay leaf, and about half a teaspoon of chipotle powder. I covered the beans with half water – half vegetable broth. I cooked at pressure for about 13 minutes, allowed the pressure to release naturally, then simmered the beans, uncovered, for a few minutes after adding a few pinches of salt.
Here’s how it came to be a dinner bowl: I started with baby spinach and chopped romaine, added cooked quinoa, and heated it up for a minute in the microwave. I added the freshly cooked pinto beans and topped it off with raw, chopped yellow pepper and a dollop of vegan mayo mixed with Sriracha. A dash of chipotle later, I was eating a fantastic meal!
Back tomorrow with a new recipe for a tasty one-pot vegan meal!
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