Seattle 2011, part 3

On Tuesday after breakfast we drove to Tacoma (why not?) and went to a motorcycle parts shop. Fun for Kirk, tolerable for me. We drove around downtown Tacoma, which is actually quite pretty and has nice looking museums. The only thing I knew of Tacoma previously was the Neko Case song:

We drove back just after noon and parked the car at the hotel, had a little nap (another big part of our vacation ritual), and went for a walk. We walked all the way through downtown, around Pioneer Square, and back. It's about a 5 mile walk (I checked on Google Maps).

On the way back we were pretty tired and hungry, so we stopped at Petra Mediterranean Bistro in Belltown.

The decor was beautiful and it was full of nice looking, well-dressed people in their fifties, so we figured it must be pretty good. I had a glass of French white wine, and the red lentil soup to start.

Now, the red lentil soup at Nuba is my favourite and a lot to live up to. It's the kind of soup I dream about at night. This soup was really good, but not quite Nuba-worthy. Still, I enjoyed it all the same.

As an entree I had the Veggie Combo, which was piled high with Spanish rice, falafels, dolmathes, hummus and baba ganouje. Other than the rice, which was pretty dry, it was fantastic! I pretty well licked every morsel of the baba ganouje off the plate it was so good. Kirk had the spanakopita plate, which was disappointing. It had three small spanakopitas and he said it tasted like they had been previously frozen and they were dry. I felt a little bad eating mine with such gusto, and I did offer to share.

One of my favourite past times in the U.S. is to look at the selection of alcoholic beverages they sell in grocery stores (gasp!). After dinner we went browsing and I found this single bottle of organic ale at the Metropolitan Market near our hotel. The beer lived up to it's gorgeously irresistible label.

Tomorrow: Another burger bar post. Seriously, wasn't one enough? Apparently not...

Vegan MoFo Day 18: Workday Lunch

I try to bring my lunch to work every day, for health and financial reasons. Here's my typical workday lunch:

I always have breakfast on my first coffee break - I have a protein shake made with 1 cup of almond milk, 1 scoop of Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer and 1 cup of water. Sometimes I add a bit of coconut milk for some variety.
At lunch time I have 1 cup each of organic apple sauce, baby carrots and grape tomatoes, and 1.5 cups of home made hummus with whole grain crackers or thin rice cakes. I also keep a package of granola bars in my locker (right now it's Kashi Dark Chocolate Coconut Bars) for days when I just need a bit more to keep me going.
On my afternoon coffee break I'll have an apple or some dried fruit & nuts.
I also drink at least a litre and a half of water during my workday, which helps me stay awake and stay focused, and it forces me to get up and take bathroom breaks!

This Week in My Kitchen: Falafels with Hummus & Greek Salad, Tom Yum Soup, Vegan Thumbprint Cookies

Falafels with Hummus & Greek Salad
Kirk wanted spanakopita for dinner on Wednesday, but I didn't have any phyllo and it takes 24 hours to thaw, so instead I whipped up my own version of the Mediterranean Combo Plate from John's Place, one of my favourite restaurants in Victoria. I made hummus with lots of garlic and lemon (yum!), falafels (from a mix, I'm afraid - but one without chemicals or preservatives), and a fantastic Greek salad with homemade dressing (red wine vinegar, olive oil, oregano, mustard seeds, salt). Kirk's salad had some crumbled feta and mine had cherry tomatoes. I even found some multigrain pitas, which I brushed with a bit of oil and warmed under the broiler. We were satisfied, and next week I'll make spanakopita.

Tom Yum Soup

I finally made my tom yum soup, and it was yummy. I used veggies I had on hand - quartered baby carrots, canned straw mushrooms and really skinny asparagus. I warmed the broth I made earlier with the veggies (carrots par cooked in the microwave) and added some red curry sauce. I served it over rice noodles and coconut milk with spring onions and chopped cilantro as garnish. It was yummy, but not quite as good as the soup I make with jarred tom yum soup paste. Maybe I need to figure out how to make my own version of the paste, which is all natural, but kinda pricey. The Tom Yum Soup Adventure continues...

 

the ingredients

 

Vegan Thumbprint Cookies
Today is Saturday and Kirk is working late. I'm home alone watching an Irish documentary on surfing (yup!), and I decided to make some thumbprint cookies. As someone who has an inexplicable inability to follow recipes, baking is not my strong suit, but cookies are pretty forgiving. I used a recipe from ExtraVeganZa by Laura Matthias, my favourite cookie-baking reference, and they are fantastic. Honestly, anyone who thinks vegan baking has to be bland and heavy should try these cookies! They are so light and crumbly and wonderful. I topped them with LifeSource Strawberry Spread, which I keep on hand expressly for thumbprint cookies.

the ingredients

I use the pestle from my small mortar & pestle to make "thumbprints" in warm cookies

I've eaten so many of them tonight!

Here's a bonus shot of my pantry. I recently invested quite a bit of money into Starfrit Lock n' Lock containers and I love how neat they make the shelves look! I buy a lot of things from the bulk department, since it's less expensive, uses less packaging and I can control exactly how much I'm buying. The airtight containers keep everything fresh and safe from pests like weevils.

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