More Time Cooking = Less Time Shit Disturbing

The school year is winding down. Classes are done. Just exams left.

Thank you God.

Idiots rioting in Vancouver last night. People need to be slapped.

Hard.

Time for some Kind Diet recipe catching up (which I've totally neglected in the last couple of weeks of classes because school has been SOOOO STOOOOPID BUSY...but now it's almost over and life is good again).

Tuesday 18.0: Christopher's Cauliflower Steaks (p. 271) / Hot Rice with Cold Lemon, Basil and Tomato (p. 151)

These cauliflower steaks (Christopher, incidentally, is Alicia's husband) were one of the first recipes to catch my eye when I first started looking through The Kind Diet. I never really felt motivated to make them, though, because they seemed pretty simple and boring. As it turned out they were indeed simple, but definitely not boring.

I wasn't in a rush to try this recipe because the cauliflower is only seasoned with some olive oil, salt and pepper. It really didn't seem like it would be that interesting. Here's the thing about cauliflower though...it is so incredibly flavourful when it is cooked, you really don't need any elaborate seasoning. Roasted cauliflower compared to raw doesn't even taste like the same vegetable. The recipe also includes fennel, which is also ridiculously flavourful when cooked. The fennel turned out to have a pretty bold, sweet flavour that I wasn't really a fan of, but Rob the Husband loved it.

This recipe, therefore, works out perfectly for me...I'll eat the cauliflower and Rob will eat the fennel and we'll live happily ever after.

It's like when I used to eat fruit juice berry gummy bears with my bff (before realizing they were made of horse hooves, of course)...she liked the citrus flavoured ones and I liked the berry flavoured ones, so it always worked out perfectly.

Because you can't just eat cauliflower and fennel for dinner (or can you?) I made the Hot Rice with Cold Lemon, Basil and Tomato to go with this meal. I absolutely loved this rice dish the first time I made it, but I think I screwed something up this time around, because it was way too lemony for me and definitely did not impress me like it did before. This just means I have to make it a third time now to see which version (the delicious one or the not delicious one) was the anomaly.

Monday 19.0: Azuki Beans with Kabocha Squash (p. 241). 

This was the first meal I made for my sister after she saw Forks Over Knives and decided to go Plant Strong. This is by far the "healthiest" tasting quintessential macrobiotic Kind Diet recipe I've tried thus far. That's not a good thing.

I'll be honest...this dish was a bit hard core healthy for me. And by hard core healthy I mean boring as shit. I actually found myself unintentionally making faces while I was eating it. It's not gross or anything. Just...boring. Sooo sooo boring. I know it's crazy healthy and stuff, and therefore perfect for my tube-fed sister who doesn't have to taste how oh so very boring it is, but this was really not one to brag about.

I will be making it again though. Why? Because both my mom and Rob actually liked it.

I was alone in my face scrunching. Go figure. Their palettes must be a lot more grown up than mine.


Thursday 19.0: Ginger Pasta with Zucchini (p. 238)

This was my second attempt making this pasta, as the first time I tried it I had to use asparagus since I didn't have zucchini. I liked it a lot the first time and I liked it a lot this time. This is a great dish. The tofu provides more layers to the texture (and throws in a punch of protein) and the zucchini adds a nice firmness. I just love love love ginger, so of course flavour-wise this one is a winner with me...it gives off this great zing that just tastes really fresh.

The salad was pretty kickass too...at the suggestion of my veggie buddy Heather I tried Little Creek dressing, and it is just delicious on salads. I love busy salads (the more stuff you put in it the better), and I find they are a great way to use up a lot of the veggies you may have sitting around in the fridge. Needless to say, the salad complimented the pasta perfectly.


And that brings us to this week, and Tuesday 21.0 (don't even ask about what I had been eating during week 20.0...it was the last week of school and I was desperately trying to finish marking a whole crapload of assignments and input marks before classes were over...there wasn't much sleeping going on, let alone cooking).

I wanted something totally superhero but NOT totally boring, so I made Nabeyaki Udon (p. 231). This looked like it had a lot of leafy green goodness going on, and lately I have been noticing myself craving leafy greens, of all things (bok choy, collards, you name it). It's really weird, actually. It's like my body knows when it has been deprived of Green. Better craving that than fruit juice berries, I guess.

This is a really mellow dish...it has subtle flavours and is super healthy tasting (but not boring like the azuki beans & kabocha squash dish).

It kinda reminded me of Alicia's Magical Healing Soup, which is totally subtle in seasoning and lets the flavours of the veggies shine through. I loved it. As per Alicia's suggestion, I added tofu cubes to the broth, and was just really satisfied with how nicely everything went together. Rob commented that it was a little bland, but the dipping sauce that goes with it (in the little bowl) took care of that and added the burst of flavour that he found lacking (the sauce is just shoyu, ginger juice, lemon juice, and mushroom broth).

Rob's rating: 
Nabeyaki Udon - 4 Happy Tongues

***the previous dishes didn't get a Happy Tongue rating because it had been so long since we had them that Rob couldn't remember them well enough to give an accurate rating. I guess I just have to make them again...including the azuki beans. Frack.***

Well, considering what went down in Vancouver last night, and considering that everything that could possibly be said about rioting idiots has already been said, I guess I'll just end off with a brief thought.

I think if people spent more time cooking and figuring out how to live Kind they would have less time and less inclination to be anarchists and shit disturbers.

And if I was Supreme Ruler of Vancouver I would definitely institute punishment by cheese grater for all rioting shit disturbing assholes.

Just sayin'.