A full day's worth of yum!

Today was a busy day as I had both an audition and a rehearsal. Plus they were nowhere near each other, so I decided it was a good time to try out a new convenience food I picked up: Trader Joe's Vegetable Masala Burgers.








When you take them out, they resemble round frozen hash browns!! The box says "fully cooked, just heat and eat" but then directs you to brush them with ghee or oil prior to cooking them. Well thanks to the excellent influences of the vegans over at Fat Free Vegan, I have been trying to avoid as much unnecessary added fat as possible. Well I am very glad I did because check out how much oil "oozed" out of the burger while it was sitting on the plate:



I decided to fix it in a pita with a avocado sandwich spread that I whipped up the other day. It was basically the flesh of a VERY ripe avocado, garlic and onion powder, almond milk to thin the mixture and lime juice to help prevent browning. It is pretty good on sandwiches as a mayonnaise alternative. Here's the finished sandwich:


After my audition, I whipped out my trusty lunch box and ate my burger. It was lukewarm and very tasty, BUT with 8 grams of fat, only 2 grams of protein and only 1 gram of fiber (wasn't this thing supposed to be ALL vegetables?) it won't be replacing my regular lunches very often.



Dinner was much better. For one thing, it wasn't room temperature! And I didn't eat it in my car! Learning about the benefits of Allium veggies (onions, garlic, leeks etc...) during yesterday's health videos gave me even more reasons to load up on the garlic. So I made my FAVORITE Brussels's sprouts, which are simply broiled with salt, pepper and tons of garlic until they are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I used to hate the sprout until I had it this way, now...Yum!

(Seriously, I was the only one home for dinner and this pan had been full!)

To go with it I made Seitan stew. I had no set recipe, instead I sort of "winged it" as I went along.




I sauteed onion, celery, carrot, red pepper, mushrooms and garlic. Then I added chopped seitan and seasoned liberally with thyme, rosemary, red pepper, black pepper and a pinch of salt and sage.

Next I stirred in about a cup of white wine and boiled for a few minutes to cook out the alcohol. Then I added 2 cups of water and bouillon cubes to match the volume of water (I chose to use a vegan chicken flavor).

After letting this cook for a while, I added about a cup of almond milk, returned everything to a boil and then thickened it with cornstarch.

For a quick, spur of the moment dinner it turned out tasty and filling!


On a separate note, please send me happy, warm thoughts for tomorrow as I am singing on a benefit for Haiti. It would be nice to not only provide a good concert but also to help earn a decent amount of money to send to our charity, Save the Children. We got a write up in the paper if you want more information: www.examiner.com .