Image via WikipediaHappy March...and happy end to Veguary! Heh. Tonight for dinner there was a juicy, crisp, roast chicken with all the drippings to dribble over our baked potatoes. I am not a vegetarian. I don't like legumes enough. I enjoy meat too much and I know too much about how to responsibly obtain good meat. Hard to sell me on the lifestyle. That said, it was an enlightening experiment and I think I'd do it again if I was faced with the choice all over again.
For those who wondered...we didn't really save anything on food bills this past month. Turns out buying meat isn't breaking the bank. We tried beans four million different ways, ate a lot of quinoa, had tofu and seitan and tried not to miss eating bacon with our pancakes on Saturday mornings. And we ate a lot of cheese for fun because we like cheese and cheese has protein and cheese, cheese is not meat. (unless you're doing Veganuary....I totally just made that up)
I thought I'd pass on the two recipes I liked most from this month of meat-free living. These will join our canon because they were so good that they made A stop mid-chew and say, "Um. Wow. This is good." Ironically, they are both soups. Soup used to be my deep nemesis. We're friends now.
Soup #1 is a Tuscan White Bean that one of my painting mentors recommended to me. It's filling and wholesome and cheap and simple and feels so happy satisfying. I will turn to it for cold weather pleasure food in the future for sure. I kinda want a bowl now, just writing about it and remembering its fabulousness.
Soup#2 is a fabulous rendition of Vegetarian Chili. I made this dish with great skepticism. I'm really not big on dishes that are faux versions of something. I like chili. Real, regular chili with meat in it that you can serve to men who have just come in from splitting wood in the bitter cold. (Not that men around here split wood....) Even though I like real chili. I like this chili too. No tofu crumbles to resemble meat, no substitutionary tricks of the eye...just a multi-bean mix with a good broth and a little chocolate for a spoon licking depth of flavor. And anything with chocolate in it is good. Why didn't I think I was going to like this?
So, yes, all you real vegetarians are made of sterner stuff than I am. I confess I am a wimp...but boy, that roast chicken sure made me happy.
For those who wondered...we didn't really save anything on food bills this past month. Turns out buying meat isn't breaking the bank. We tried beans four million different ways, ate a lot of quinoa, had tofu and seitan and tried not to miss eating bacon with our pancakes on Saturday mornings. And we ate a lot of cheese for fun because we like cheese and cheese has protein and cheese, cheese is not meat. (unless you're doing Veganuary....I totally just made that up)
I thought I'd pass on the two recipes I liked most from this month of meat-free living. These will join our canon because they were so good that they made A stop mid-chew and say, "Um. Wow. This is good." Ironically, they are both soups. Soup used to be my deep nemesis. We're friends now.
Soup #1 is a Tuscan White Bean that one of my painting mentors recommended to me. It's filling and wholesome and cheap and simple and feels so happy satisfying. I will turn to it for cold weather pleasure food in the future for sure. I kinda want a bowl now, just writing about it and remembering its fabulousness.
Soup#2 is a fabulous rendition of Vegetarian Chili. I made this dish with great skepticism. I'm really not big on dishes that are faux versions of something. I like chili. Real, regular chili with meat in it that you can serve to men who have just come in from splitting wood in the bitter cold. (Not that men around here split wood....) Even though I like real chili. I like this chili too. No tofu crumbles to resemble meat, no substitutionary tricks of the eye...just a multi-bean mix with a good broth and a little chocolate for a spoon licking depth of flavor. And anything with chocolate in it is good. Why didn't I think I was going to like this?
So, yes, all you real vegetarians are made of sterner stuff than I am. I confess I am a wimp...but boy, that roast chicken sure made me happy.
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