Sunday Suppers

Dinner at Mom's last night. I made an eggplant red curry, based somewhat on a recipe I found on the Vegetarian Times website.

You need:
1 can of coconut milk (I used light)
red curry paste (check the label for fish ingredients)
soy sauce
vinegar (rice is best, but I used apple cider)
brown sugar
1 eggplant, cut into large cubes
1/2 large onion, cut into crescents
1 medium red pepper, cut into strips
about 1/2 lb green peas
1 zucchini, cut lengthwise in half and then sliced
cumin, coriander, salt, cayenne (optional, if needed)

Bring half a can of coconut milk to a simmer over medium heat. Add a good scoop of red curry paste (2-3 T.) Whisk it together. Add the eggplant, onion, and pepper. Put in a 1-2 teaspoons each of soy sauce and vinegar. Add 2 T. of brown sugar. Add the remaining coconut milk and half a can of water. Stir well, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer while you make the rest of dinner. (Quinoa and oven-baked sweet potato fries for us.)

After about 20 minutes, add the zucchini and peas. Taste the curry sauce and adjust the seasoning if needs be. Turn the heat up a bit if necessary to keep it at a simmer, and cover. It should be done after five minutes or so, whenever the zucchini has started to get soft.

FML: Mediterranean Taco Salad

So, yesterday was kind of crappy. A guy sent me a really rude message on OKCupid because I told him I wasn't interested in meeting him. He was actually angry at me for responding to his initial message because I didn't give him my phone number when he sent me his second message. Ugh. I don't know why this upset me so much, but it did.

I really don't think I can win sometimes. I've had a guy send me a nasty message for not responding to his message (when I wasn't interested) and now I've had a nasty message for responding to someone. I don't think I was flirtatious or anything; I simply responded to his message because it was interesting. Then I looked at his profile and realized I was not interested. This guy was way too forward, anyway. He basically invited me over to his place in his first message and asked for my number in the second. The underlying message: you have no business being on a dating website or responding to messages if you

The occasion called for Willpower and Grace (barefoot cardio involving a couple hundred squats/lunges... totally great) and something yummy. I can't force you to take a cardio class, but I can give you the recipe for my Mediterannean-inspired Taco Salad. It features yumminess from the general region. It's not 100% healthy, but it's pretty good. I've been undergoing the whole exercising thing and overdoing the whole eating thing lately (see Thank God I'm Fluffy), so I stuck to direct portion control.

Start with:
A bet of lettuce or other delicious greens. Pick something fairly mild.

Top with:
1 serving of Pita Chips
1 serving of hummus (I used a half-teaspoon and dropped blobs all over)
1 serving of prepared tabouli salad (made with tomatoes and cucumbers)
1/2 serving of feta (I used the whole serving of low-fat and it was way too much salt)
a drizzle of tzatziki (I made my own with granulated garlic, Sour Supreme!, Veganaise, cider vinegar, dill, salt, pepper, and a sprinkle of sugar... it was very loosely based on the Skinny Bitch in the Kitch recipe)

I forgot to add the olives and hot sauce that I intended to use. :-( Nonetheless, it was very yummy.

Wino Wednesday: Suicide Cupcakes

This is not a recipe, but a misadventure. I haven't had one in awhile. Today, I tried to veganize an absinthe cupcake recipe, with somewhat disasterous results. Have you ever seen a cupcake explode before? Well, now I have. Yes, one of my cupcakes actually exploded. I'm not overreacting. I mean there was a loud *poof!* and a bang as the oven door was forced open a few inches. Then the oven temporarily filled with flames. It was frightening. Look. The darned thing looks HAPPY that it tried to kill me.

Thus, I have removed the recipe from my blog until I figure out what in the heck happened. I'm guessing that I had an air bubble in the cupcake, as none of the other ones exploded, and that my oven temperature runs high. If I can make the recipe without causing another conflagration, I'll post it. Until then, I'm still alive!

(If you're interested, the original recipe is on Coconut and Lime. I've followed it before and not had any ignition. The cupcakes were a huge hit. I suspect that my oven is running a bit high and that I probably had a little chunk of baking powder in there. The flames were undoubtedly due to a direct hit on an element.)