Natal Day Brunch + Miso Soup + Poor for Three Weeks

So I'm going on a little trip in three weeks (to Ottawa and Montreal) and have decided that I really need to save money, so I'm going to try to spend as little money on groceries as possible until then. So my meals will probably get increasingly more boring. We'll see, anyway.

I made this yesterday using mostly local & balcony-garden-grown veggies. I thought it was pretty successful.


Simple Summer Miso Soup

6-8 cups water (depends how you like your soup, I like mine hearty)
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1/2 cup green beans, stemmed and cut in inch-long pieces
1 3-inch piece wakame
2 tbsp dulse
3 tbsp nori (not the flat sushi type - if this isn't available, just add more wakame or dulse)
1/2 cup chinese cabbage, sliced thinly
1/2 block tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/3 cup chives, chopped
approx. 1/4 cup miso, to taste (I use rice miso)*

Bring the water to a boil. Add carrots, green beans and seaweed, then simmer 15 minutes. Add the tofu and chinese cabbage and simmer 5 minutes more. Add chives, turn off heat, and add miso, making sure it dissolves properly.

*I don't usually eat all the soup at once, and since heating miso kills valuable nutrients, I leave the miso out until I have my soup heated and in a bowl, and then I dissolve it in approx. 1 tsp per bowl.

On Natal day (Halifax's birthday), I decided to make a nice, satisfying brunch for Josh and I.

(Sorry about the bad photo): Herb-Roasted Potatoes from Vegan with a Vengeance, Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy (from the same book) over Kitty's Drop Biscuits, and some steamed broccoli. Yummy.

We ate it on the balcony, and it was a beautiful day. A very nice meal. Next time I make the potatoes I think I'll half the amount of salt, but other than that, the meal was great.

From last week: Fauxstess Cupcakes from Vegan with a Vengeance. I love that book! These were fun to make and very tasty, but I ate too much! My problem (one of them) is that I like to bake (I find it really relaxing) but then I get stuck with all this unhealthy food. I wish I loved sauteing, roasting, and other cooking methods as much as I love baking. I wish I came home after a really busy day and thought to myself, "Hmm, I think I'll make up a batch of dolmas tonight."

Breakfast food, comfort food

Pancakes from Vegan with a Vengeance, served Canadian style (or, at least, people tell me it's Canadian style, when you cut up all the pancake before eating it)

And now, just the pancakes

I love breakfast, it is without a doubt my favourite meal. Anyway, yesterday I was all excited to get up early and pick up ingredients to make tempeh bacon (from Vegan with a Vengeance), some sort of potato dish, and roasted vegetables for breakfast. However, this plan kind of fell apart after my alarm failed to go off (or, at least, I don't remember hitting snooze repeatedly) so I didn't have time to go to the grocery store and stuff before work. So I settled with pancakes, using the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. It promised 'straight-up pancakes, just like at the diner at 2am' and that sounded appealing at the time. They were pretty good, better than the classic pancakes recipe from How it all Vegan (previously my standard pancake recipe). They made a slightly smaller amount than the other recipe, which was a good thing because I could whip 'em up in 25 minutes (start to finish) and wasn't too full afterwards (Josh wished there were more, but he likes to stuff himself).

Saturday was a long day for me, and after working and then spending almost 6 hours painting, scrubbing floors and inhaling paint fumes (taking down an exhibition I was part of that did quite a number on the gallery that we had to put back to its initial state) all I wanted was some beer and potatoes. I don't like beer most of the time (actually, the thought of it usually makes me feel sick), but sometimes it has its place, especially blueberry ale. So we picked up some Pumphouse blueberry ale and I made Baked Cajun French Fries from Vegan with a Vengeance and roasted some zucchini and carrots to munch on and drink while settling down to watch an Art 21 DVD (yes, I am a nerd).

Baked Cajun French Fries from Vegan with a Vengeance with roasted veggies (blueberry ale in back)

Sunday morning's breakfast was slightly more nutritious than Saturday's:

Breakfast Veggie Chorizo from Vegan with a Vengeance, Cinnamon Cornmeal Muffin from The Everyday Vegan, steamed broccoli with Mi-So Good Gravy (also from The Everyday Vegan), and iced green tea (although not the best image of it)

For the tea, I just brewed some green tea, refrigerated it, and added a squirt of lemon juice and some agave nectar (I bought agave for the first time a couple of weeks ago and I think it's the only vegan non-sugar sweetener that tastes good with tea - it's very nice). The muffins were alright, but I wasn't too fond of the chorizo. It had a nice, meaty texture (although I don't know what normal chorizo is), but the flavour was just too strong for a side dish on its own. I think it would probably taste better mixed with rice or in a burrito or something. Josh agreed that the flavour was really strong, but it didn't bother him as much.

More of the muffins