[SoulBliss]

I made a quick stew with napa cabbage, red potatoes, yellow onions, young carrots, kidney beans, garlic, parsley, lemon peel, rice vinegar, sesame seeds, red pepper flakes, black pepper, nutritional yeast and water. My family had it with sprouted bread and extra virgin coconut oil. It was really satisfying.

[Spinymouse]

I wasn't sure where to post but I wanted to say that although I haven't eaten meat in __________________??? I don't know for sure because it was a gradual thing, and I didn't eat it that frequently anyway, but it's been maybe almost a year now.
I was feeling kind of like doing something uncharacteristically holiday-like (I usually don't celebrate the holidays) so the day before TG I invited a couple of friends over for dinner. I knew they would want turkey.
I went against my normal habits. I had read The Yoga of Eating and the author's opinion that meat should be eaten rarely, it should be not cheap or easy to come by, it should have had a natural life, and it sould be treated with respect. It should be a special occasion anyway, to eat it.
I bought a fresh, organic, free-range turkey (it was definitely not cheap!).

The day after Thanksgiving, I picked this bird so clean of every little tiny piece of meat. I was determined to use the Whole Bird. It was almost sacramental, if you can think of picking at flesh in any way as being sacramental. It was like having depression-mentality of wanting to use every precious molecule, except it wasn't depression-mentality because that would have involved getting the cheapest turkey possible.
I used the carcass to make broth and picked, I swear, even 2 mm bits of meat off.
One big diet "rule" I broke, and I struggled with it, was what to do with the skin. I did not want to waste any of this precious animal. I used the skin. I pureed the deboned broth, which contained skin, in my Vita-Mix. It wasn't that I really like the skin but if you are going to make a big deal of eating this rare special thing (and I was, obviously, doing that) I didn't want to discard the skin. I was sort of "blessing" it, and its inclusion into the broth.
I don't know if I will ever do this sort of thing again. After the leftovers are gone I will go back to my vegetarian ways. Maybe until next year's TG.

[SoulBliss]

Today I made penne arrabiatta with chickpeas and peas.

Later, I mashed potatoes with a homemade gravy, adding in peas and corn to the mix.

Next, I made an arugula pesto and a white bean "hummus". I made a sandwich using both as a spread on whole grain seeded sourdough. It was really good!

I also made a lovely soup with fresh herbs (oregano, sage and thyme), cayenne, zucchini, carrots, leeks, onions (spring and yellow), garlic, corn and kidney beans. The "stock" was the water from boiling the potatoes (potassium broth). I served it with nutritional yeast and umeboshi vinegar.

The soup and sandwich together made a wonderful meal.

I also had some fresh pineapple and dried mango, but didn't do anything special to them, I just had them as they were.

[oombee]

Ohhh I just made the yummiest pesto I've ever had...I carmelized shallots, added bananas and toasted walnuts, tossed it with whole wheat pasta, and added chopped arugala and toasted walnuts..YYYYYYUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!