Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Breakfast for Dinner

Of all the meals during the day, breakfast is my favorite. I could literally eat breakfast at every meal and be quite happy. I restrain myself most of the time, but tonight I felt like it was a breakfast night, mainly because the ingredients were there and I was feeling pretty lazy.

After an early work day, followed by cleaning the bathroom and kitchen, and messing about with our fussy vacuum cleaner, I was not feeling very inspired or full of zest to create a challenging meal. I examined the fridge, the pantry, the freezer, and found my inspiration in a half package of Soyrizo that I had frozen for a later meal. Well, the later meal is now, it turns out. I had eggs, and baby potatoes and onion, and that meant I had breakfast for dinner.



Soyrizo and eggs are just delicious, and quite easy. Soyrizo also is so much better for you than Chorizo, and tastes very very very (very very) similar. I can't really distinguish the difference except for noticing less grease, but I'm sure my Chicana friends would disagree. :) However, it suits my mostly veggie needs, and tastes darn good. Cooked up with scrambled eggs, it's a great source of protein and packed with flavor.

The roasted oven potato recipe I got from Vegan with a Vengeance, by the same woman who brought us the best cookbook ever, Vegan Cupcakes take over the World. VwaV is a fun little cookbook, with all sorts of great ideas, but it seems like some of the recipes have not been tested or proofed as well as they should have been. I feel the same about her other cookbook, Veganomicon. Just do a sanity check before actually starting any of the recipes to make sure that all the bits are there, is all I'm saying.

Anyway, my new favorite breakfast potato recipe is this one, and it's quite easy and so delicious. Give it a shot next time you're serving brunch, or just want to have delicious potatoes for dinner! My favorite bits are the crispy crispy onions - yum!

Herb-Roasted Potatoes
from Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
serves about 4

3 lbs small red potatoes, halved lengthwise
1 medium onion, quartered and sliced 1/2 in. thick
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp coarse sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper
4 tsp rosemary, fresh, chopped
4 tsp thyme, fresh, chopped

Preheat oven to 450. Place the potatoes and onions on a rimmed baking sheet, sprinkle with oil and salt and pepper, toss to coat. Roast for 35 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle with the herbs, and toss to coat again. Roast about 20 minutes longer, until brown and tender.



For this evening's rendition I used baby red and yellow gold potatoes, and only thyme since I was out of fresh rosemary. In the past I've used just large yellow gold potatoes chopped up into chunks about 1 1/2 in or thereabouts, same with larger red potatoes. It's a very forgiving recipe, and scales very well either up or down (I just make enough for J and I for dinner/breakfast).

And now with a tummy full of breakfast, I wind down for the evening and get ready for bed. Seems a bit backwards, somehow, yet also so very comforting.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

A Pleasant Weekend

There hasn't been near enough blogging going on here, and I apologize for the lack of updates. For some reason January was a pretty blah month for me, and I'm hoping that I've turned the corner to a better mind-set. I've certainly been exercising more this week, and that is helping quite a bit. I also got some sun today, at our local farmer's market.



Flowers from the market

J and I love the market, and it's every Sunday year round here in La Jolla. Today we picked up some baby potatoes, golden beats, apples, dried apricots, fresh pasta, and ate some delicious veggie chili and a cheese tamale. I also picked up some beautiful flowers, from my favorite flower vendor. I feel very lucky that I live someplace where I can buy local fruits and veggies, get some sunlight, and take in the wonderful weather almost every week. I know a lot of the country is under several inches (feet?) of snow right now, and that may very well be me next year (who knows where the winds will take us); but I am very happy with where we are right now, and am trying to live in the moment and appreciate what we've got.


Cali appreciates the flowers from the market...
but not the flash I had to use to capture this before she pulled the greenery right out of the vase.