I used some fake meat and I omitted the Hidden Valley Ranch. I tasted it while it was cooking and it wasn't bad. I'm not sure if I will like the toppings but I'm keeping an open mind.
While that was cooking I made the Tikil Gomen recipe from Rachel's blog. It took forever. Well, I'm not a fan of taking more than 20 minutes to prepare a meal--and that's from start to finish including all prep-- and this took closer to an hour. Forever is 60 minutes of cooking in my world. I was tired by the time it was done--and in all fairness I had just prepared another dinner right before--but it was so worth it! Yum! I popped open an O'Doul's and ate a big bowl. :-) The picture doesn't look that great, but trust me it's delicious! Now I need to figure out what to do with the other head of cabbage I bought. I was thinking I would double the recipe but the one head made this gigantic pot full.
At this rate I will be eating taco soup and Tikil Gomen all month! Julia sent me this recipe for black bean and chocolate chili which I want to try but I can't eat chocolate now cause of the dairy. I am wondering if carob would be a good substitute or if maybe I can somehow use cocoa powder?As challenging as this vegan thing is I have to say that I feel a lot better when I eat this way. When I go hog wild on Sundays and fill my body with meat and dairy products and junk food and other processed crap I pay for it on Monday and Tuesdays. It's really been eye-opening. I am not completely surprised though because once when I was living in California I did a 3-day stint of only eating fruits and vegetables. I didn't even allow myself a grain of salt or a sip of tea. It was all pure, all natural, all organic for three days. Day 1 wasn't bad as I was caught up in the excitement of the whole thing. Day 2 I was hungry and miserable. Day 3 I was really, really hungry but I had never felt better in my whole life. I had so much energy and I felt so freakin' good. I felt like brand new person! Day 4 I went right back to my old habits because it was too rigid but if I could recapture that feeling with
Well, it's almost lunch time and I am home today so I guess it's taco soup and tikil gomen!
**update ~ I was not feeling the vegan version of the taco soup :(
3 comments:
I love to read your blog. Hug. mom
Sorry you're not feeling well! And I should have warned that the tikil gomen recipe would take awhile. I usually do my Ethiopian cooking on the weekend since it can be labor and time-intensive, but the good thing is the leftovers are great for several days so the initial energy investment pays off. And I do a couple of recipes at a time so that I can chop the onions, garlic, ginger, etc. all at once and save time that way.
I whipped up a super-fast vegan dinner last night and thought of you, so here's the "recipe" (if you can even call it that, since it's really just a couple of ingredients that I had in the house...) that definitely takes less than twenty minutes.
3 tbsp. olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 pint grape tomatoes, chopped in half (you could use regular tomatoes, too)
salt, to taste
Heat the olive oil and saute the garlic. Add the beans and stir thoroughly. Continue cooking on medium-high heat until the beans are heated through. Add the tomatoes and cook on medium-low until they are warm, about five minutes. Add salt to taste. We had a spinach salad and some bread to go with it and we felt full (in a healthy, not an ugh-I-need to unbutton-my-pants, type of way) afterward.
Whatever you do, DO NOT substitute carob for chocolate in a recipe unless you are certain that you really, really like carob and that it will match with what you are making. I learned that one the hard way, although my mistake was baking with it, not cooking. Its distinct flavor can really throw off a recipe. I think your idea to use cocoa powder seems reasonable. Or what about using dark (dairy-free) chocolate instead? I'm curious to hear how it turns out!
Definitely don't use carob. I once tried it with cocoa powder and it didn't work too well but I think I used way too much. I usually use semi-sweet baker's chocolate which I didn't think had milk in it (why I sent it to you). Just checked the package and it doesn't list dairy as an ingredient, but it does list "Chocolate" Oh well, I was duped. Dark milk-less chocolate would work well I think but you might need to cut down the amount a little. I would think the flavor would be stronger than the regular stuff.
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