Ups and Downs

A lot has changed since I last wrote. I don't have many food pictures to share with you today so I'll just pick out the best of the springtime-y photos I've been taking and break up the monotony of my ramblings with them. Hopefully that makes this a little more interesting.

I honestly was excited to work at my new job, but since I was hired at the beginning of March, I've only worked 3 days and earned a little over 150 dollars. I wasn't able to get a hold of my bosses consistently, and because of family issues they didn't have time to train me, and I'm too slow to be put on a crew without my supervisor. It was a complicated situation and was only made worse by the fact that when I went to finally talk to them about it in person and get my paycheck (which was late) I ended up crying, and they ended up essentially saying that they were sorry I was having a hard time but they couldn't really change the way they were doing things. So now it's back to square one with the job search.

But at least the blossoms are pretty.

For a few days I was honestly, extremely down about this. I had a really hard time. Luckily, Danielle and I had decided to volunteer for Vegfest 2012 in Seattle, and that helped a little. Vegfest is put on by the Vegetarians of Washington, and was just a really awesome place to be. We volunteered with Field Roast, a Seattle-based company that makes amazing vegan sausages and other "meat" products out of grains, vegetables, and spices (no soy). We got to meet some of the people who run the company, and they were really nice--they even gave us about $40 worth of Field Roast products as thanks for volunteering! There were only a few of us volunteers at the booth and I was one of the ones running the grills. We were demonstrating their relatively new product: Frankfurters (aka delicious hot dogs).

Oh look a food picture!

They smell like bacon while they're cooking and taste really good. It's really an amazing product and it was so awesome to see everybody lining up at the table to get free samples and exclaiming over how good they were. I heard people telling their friends, and people came up to the table saying that someone they'd come with had said they had to try the hot dogs. It was really exciting, actually! And to know that all the people we were volunteering with were vegetarian, and to be in that environment where the death of animals is not a central part of the event (in the form of animal-derived foods) was honestly SO COOL.

It's like coming home to your own culture after being in a strange land, I guess. Around everyone who is not vegan there is always a part of me that is guarded because I know that they don't see animals the way I do, and I've come across so many nasty and thoughtless comments and jokes from people whenever they encounter a vegan. Actually just recently I commented on a thread on facebook and was sort of attacked by a fellow commenter. That was pretty frustrating. But at Vegfest I felt that part of me was able to relax--I was in a safe place. It was really nice.

Oh look, it's downtown Bellingham! IN THE SUN!

AND THERE WAS SO MUCH GOOD FOOD. So many tables with vegan yogurts, cheeses, burritos, jerky, frozen desserts, puddings, pies, cakes, mousse, smoothies, and health drinks. And it was packed full of people, too!

and the suuunlight was GLOORIOUSSss...

So that was the highlight of the last weekend. I still struggled with moments where I felt like I was in an unusual amount of emotional pain for some reason. I'm not sure why I felt so terrible about my job problem except that I really want to be able to be self-sufficient and contribute to other people instead of being a burden to them. I had to pray for strength a lot that weekend. But I am being helped by some wonderful, generous people. It's just frightening on the job market today, and even harder when you're vegan. Working at most food-related jobs is out of the question because it goes against my morals to profit from animal exploitation, so I can't just go work at a burger joint if all else fails, and that is not something I'm able to compromise on. The most I could do in food service is work at a grocery store stocking or cashiering, and maybe at a cafe as a dishwasher or something.

 Meanwhile, my best friend Danielle has been accepted to a Master's Program in Germany, meaning I probably won't be seeing her much for two years starting in the fall. Considering this, my future is even more uncertain, but if I can't find a job (and maybe even if I can) I'm considering looking at possible internships or volunteer work, hopefully with an organization that would benefit animals (like Mercy for Animals or the Humane Society or SOMETHING).

Look. It's a duck! Or something....

 I've been coping with the resurgence of emotional  rollercoastering by writing lots of Star Trek fanfiction, and trying to appreciate the few sunny days we've had when I can tear myself away from my computer. I'm also playing with the idea of putting together a small book of poetry, hopefully with some illustrations, that I could possibly sell to earn money--but I would be donating 50% of the profits to animal organizations. I think this would serve two purposes at once, making me feel like I was contributing to the causes I care about and still helping me toward my goal of financial independence. Every little step counts... at least I sure hope that's true.

Oh hi there. My hair's getting kind of long.

Meanwhile, my 23rd birthday is fast approaching and all I want is a new blender/food-processor.... My old one died while making that batch of Sunflower Mac. Cooking just isn't the same without it.

OH I JUST REMEMBERED. I finally planted some seeds in my pots from last year. I went to go buy some fertilizer at the local nursery and even though all the dry fertilizers had bone meal or some other animal product in it, I found a liquid fertilizer called Daniels Plant Food which is apparently soybean based and has no animal ingredients. So, a couple days ago I planted two pots of spinach, two pots of kale, a tiny bit of carrots, a pot of rainbow chard, a pot of peas, some dill, and some coriander. I hope they grow! I'll let you guys know how they do on the liquid fertilizer. I was really delighted to see that when I started loosening up the soil in the pots, all kinds of little creepy-crawlies were squirming around in the soil, including two nice fat earthworms. So hopefully that means the soil in the pots is nice and healthy, and will be good for the plants!

I just hope my seeds haven't drowned--right after I watered them, it rained and poured for a day and a half.

Food Picture Time!

I haven't been doing a lot of interesting cooking lately because I'm still waiting for my first paycheck and the grocery budget has temporarily shrunk (at least I hope it's temporary). Also I've been being a lazy bum doing a Star Trek marathon for the last few weeks.

But here are some of the few things we have made recently!

Eggplant and Black Eyed Pea Curry

From The PPK of course. It was a pretty simple recipe even if it did seem to take a long time (we were starting with dried beans). I liked it but Danielle didn't... something about the eggplant being bitter I guess. We left out the fennel seed. It made what felt like a ton of food for two people... We were eating it for the next 2 days.

Sunflower Mac

This was a pretty simple recipe too actually! I liked the way it tasted, even if it turned out a little gritty because our blender decided to DIE halfway through the process of making the sauce (RIP BLENDER. Thanks for dying when I have no money to replace you!) but I'll just say, despite what people may claim, it still doesn't taste like Mac n' Cheese. It's good, and I do like the flavor, but if you're going for authentic this isn't really it. I'd still recommend it to vegans though since a lot of people really love it.

Peanut Butter Blondies 

omg this recipe was so simple, and so rich it was ridiculous! Overwhelming peanut butter flavor. It was almost too much for me, and I'm a peanut butter addict o_o

Sweet Potato and White Bean Soup

I halfway made up this recipe myself by looking at recipes for soups involving white beans. This is a picture of my first try which didn't include kale... I like it better with kale in it though. I think this is basically how the recipe went, but you can always experiment with more herbs if it's too bland.

2 TBSP olive oil
4 cups veggie broth
1 onion, chopped
3-5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2-1 bunch chopped kale (depends on the size of the bunch)
1 can white beans
1 cup crushed italian style canned tomatoes
1 sweet potato or yam, chopped into smallish chunks
1-2 tsp of dried thyme

Fry up the onion until translucent, add garlic for a minute or two, then put in the broth, kale, tomatoes, and yam, along with thyme. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 10-15 minutes or until yam is tender  (may take longer) Add white beans and warm through... add more salt, thyme, or fresh rosemary to taste (dried takes too long to soften).

Sushi

One day when we needed creative ways to use veggies, I made the zesty black bean and corn salad, and then whipped up these! It took ages but I had a lot of fun. They're very simple ingredients-wise... but time-consuming. I used the sushi rice recipe out of an excellent book called Kansha, and the recipe for the sushi itself came from a little book full of cute vegan sushi called Vegetarian Sushi Made Easy.

Nava's Hearty Lentil and Mushroom Shepherd's Pie


From the Fat Free Vegan blog. This recipe went way beyond my expectations. We used kale instead of spinach. Delicious comfort food, right here. I can't wait to make it again!


Raspberry Truffle Brownies

These are probably the best vegan brownies I've ever had. My first bite was so overwhelming it was hard to go on, but then I had to, and then I couldn't stop. Ugh... really rich and fudgy, I love it. Recipe includes applesauce.

And last but not least... I'm sad to say that I ate the last of our
Bob's Red Mill 10-Grain Cereal

Which is delicious with almond milk, brown sugar, nuts, sunflower seeds, and dried fruit on it.
Did you know that if you eat 2.5 cups of this stuff, that's 60 grams of protein? That's less than 10 grams shy of my daily recommended intake, and probably goes even further over the edge with the 6 or so grams from the sunflower seeds, and another 6 or so from a slice of peanut butter toast. Plus it's warm and comforting and super filling. I need to get me some more of this stuff.

So there you have it... a sampling of the best stuff I've been eating lately (we don't need to go over the endless amounts of cold cereal, oranges, pasta with marinara, toast, applesauce, and triscuits spread with various nut butters and jams, do we?)

A couple of recipes - soup and pasta

Well the first one isn't really a recipe. I just took some spaghetti noodles, boiled them, and then sauteed up some onions in Earth Balance and stirred in the noodles with some Organic Basil & Dried Tomato pesto from Rising Sun Farms. Then I tossed in some fresh cut tomato. It was a nice way for me to be able to imagine for a couple of minutes that it was summer.

When it got cloudy and miserable again I tried out making this Mushroom Barley Soup with Fresh Herbs, since I had that thyme and dill left over from making the rosemary dumpling soup. It turned out pretty good I think. But it reminded me of how far I've come in cooking.

The last time I used barley in my cooking was back when I was newly vegan in Hawaii and still had no clue how to cook. For some reason, back then, I didn't seem to realize that I could easily look up amazing recipes on the internet and buy whatever ingredients listed that I didn't have... and also that this was much less risky than trying to make stuff up myself with what I had. I remember boiling barley and then putting almond milk and random herbs in it, trying to make it into a passable soup. It was terrible. Kind of like a really bland but chewy porridge. Also I made a pasta salad where the dressing was mostly ketchup and some kind of oil. This is why you make sure you only try recipes on vegweb as a noobie if there's like a TON of good reviews on that recipe. It actually didn't taste horrible but it was kind of weird....

In any case most of what I cooked back then was just spaghetti with canned sauce, and burritos with canned vegetarian chili and tomatoes in them, sometimes corn too. That was about the extent of my knowledge and it stayed that way for a really unacceptably long time. At some point I finally broke out of it and started experimenting with recipes. I got discouraged a lot of the time when stuff didn't turn out at first. It's really hard when you try for hours to make something delicious and at best it's just kind of "meh". But I didn't give up for long. I'm really grateful to live with a best friend who puts up with my mistakes and encourages me to keep trying. Now I can make stuff that makes people go "wow!" Although that's mostly due to the wonderful recipes at The Post Punk Kitchen, I think I had to hit a learning curve first and start developing a sense of what works and what doesn't in cooking, because up until about half a year ago, I really didn't get it.

So the moral of that story is just keep trying, and it helps if you're getting your recipes from a good source!

Chocolate? VEGAN CHOCOLATE.

Ah, I haven't written in a while. I've been busy jobsearching. I have gotten an interview for a position in the print center at Office Max, which would be nice because it would utilize my experience with Photoshop and other such things.
Actually I will have to admit that I have also been very distracted by two things. One is that I started watching BBC's Sherlock last week and didn't stop until I was done with the Reichenbach Fall (Season 2 Finale). The second is that I got sucked into Tumblr. I have a site there now, where I post a lot of pictures of animals and vegan stuff amongst other random things. It is a major time-vacuum and I really need to get some self-discipline back soon x_x

ANYWAY. Speaking of self-discipline. This post is about chocolate.

This, my friends, is a Justin's dark chocolate peanut butter cup, and it is just as good if not better than a Reese's. And it's Vegan. Danielle got it for me for Christmas, along with a few other vegan chocolate delicacies.

Justin's has some amazing vegan nut butter products. We were first introduced to them when we found a jar of Chocolate Hazelnut Butter at Deals Only. It was so good, not too sweet, but rich and chocolatey and hazelnutty. A bit harder to spread than Nutella but I think, for someone who truly loves hazelnut and chocolate, it's probably better than Nutella. And Nutella isn't vegan, so...

They also have some other nut butters, peanut and almond. Not all of those flavors are Vegan so you have to check the ingredients. They're a bit much if you buy it full price in the store, so I'm glad I have a discount grocery place that gets it from time to time, but it's a real quality product. If you can't find it in a store near you, Justin's has an Amazon Store where you can buy the nut butters in packs of three.

On a fairly related note, we recently tried out some chocolate chip cookie mix that had been sitting in our cupboard for ages. It was another Deals Only find, this time from Cherrybrook Kitchen. Apparently, Cherrybrook Kitchen specializes in hypo-allergenic dessert mixes, so they have gluten-free stuff, vegan stuff, peanut-free stuff, etc. This one wasn't gluten-free, but it WAS Vegan!

Danielle couldn't seem to stop eating these; apparently they're the best chocolate chip cookies she's ever had. Something about them just really hit the spot with her, and I liked them a lot too. They were actually better than the ones we made from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar... o_o I know, blasphemy, but it's true. We'll be on the lookout for more of this stuff.

Questions about where to find Vegan Chocolate Chips? I have seen some at SOME regular grocery stores, and I've heard that Safeway sells them. If you can't find them at a mainstream grocery store, I would suggest looking at your local health food store, or natural grocer, OR looking to buy it on the internet. There are a few different brands...

Speaking of chocolate is reminding me 1) that I need to do a post about these delicious fudgy no-bake cookies that we made, and 2) that for the past week or so I've been really wanting some Tempt Chocolate Fudge hemp-milk ice cream. That stuff is so good, it's like a fudgesicle. Especially good with peanut butter. I also like mixing it with warm berries or berry jam...

Dinner With Friends!

So I'm two days away from heading back up to Washington... actually less since I'm flying out Tuesday morning.

Yesterday we had some good friends over for dinner and I made the ENTIRE THING!! I was so proud of myself. Even though it basically meant spending all day in the kitchen and my feet hurt by the end of it, everyone enjoyed everything and so it felt really good. It's nice to just hang out with friends and family, and even better when everything is vegan.

Making such a big meal is a real milestone for me. It really boosted my cooking confidence.

The aftermath

Rustic Winter Stew (the pic on PPK is better >_>)

The Menu:
-Rustic Winter Stew with Mashed Potatoes or Rice (I didn't feel like making Polenta)
-Cornbread
-Zesty Bean and Corn Salad (a double batch)
Drinks: Water and non-alcoholic Sparkling Burghundy
Dessert: Chocolate Pudding Pie with whipped MimicCreme on top

So basically, I am really grateful for the internet because without it I could not cook awesome meals like this.

Cornbread (of course)

Bean and Corn salad

It's beautiful....!!

 Rich (our main guest)'s wife also brought an amazing cucumber salad that tasted kind of Vietnamese. It was awesome.

This dinner served about 12 people if you count the two little kids. I was glad that we fed everyone well and still had some rice and mashed potatoes left over (and cornbread and bean salad too!). Actually there was some pie left over too.

My little sister talking to Rich

One of the best moments of the night was when Rich was teasingly trying to guilt me for creating such tasty food that it caused him to overeat. My response? "I regret nothing!!"
He burst out laughing.


On the one hand I'm glad I'm going back to only having to cook for two people since cooking for so many has been a little difficult and sometimes exhausting. But on the other hand it's really nice to be able to share delicious vegan food with other people and get compliments on it... it also is a nice way of surprising people, showing them that you don't have to really give up tasty food when you're vegan. You just have to make it a little differently and sometimes it tastes even better. My sister just told me "vegan food is the only way I like eating vegetables!" Hahaha.

I guess I'll have to start going to potlucks and stuff xP

In general I'm fairly satisfied with how things have gone food-wise on this trip. I feel humbled that my family has bought me what I wanted to cook with while I've been here, and my parents have both been very supportive... the kids for the most part have tried everything I've made even if they thought they wouldn't like it. It's been good.

I will miss them...

Looking to the future: the next vegan potluck in Bellingham is scheduled for February 18th! I will have to start thinking of what to bring... xD

Christmas Summary and Happy New Year!

Hi all, it's been a while since I've posted. Holidays make it hard to keep up with this kind of thing.

Well, I've had several food adventures, one being that I tried making Creamy Red Pepper Lentil Lasagna. It turned out fine, except that the only nondairy milk we had in the house was vanilla soy milk, and I made the ghastly mistake of using that to make the cheesy sauce for the top. The sauce tasted like vanilla frosting or something... it was really ... odd. But everybody seemed to like it anyway, so no worries I guess. Just don't try that at home; your family might not be as chill with it as mine.

So on Christmas Eve I stayed up baking so I'd have some nummies for the next day that I could eat. I tried Marbled Banana Bread which has mild chocolateyness in it, and also made an Old Fashioned Chocolate Pudding Pie, but the only problem was I scalded the chocolate pudding stuff and so I thought it turned out kind of gross. However, my sister, who is not LDS, says that it just tasted like a mocha pie and she liked it a lot. So apparently mocha = scalded chocolate?? I found that a little amusing. But my mom also liked it once she had put crumbled mint Oreos on top (Oreos are generally vegan btw). The banana bread turned out awesome.

Also the graham cracker crust I made was pretty crumbly...

My family always has a big Christmas Breakfast. At my house, normal breakfast is fruit and toast, and always has been, maybe with a little bit of cereal. But on Christmas day we have waffles or pancakes, hash browns, eggs, bacon and/or ham, etc. The works. It's also a tradition that we drink eggnog with ginger ale in it. So Dad was wondering what I could eat and drink for Christmas breakfast. Bisquick actually seems to be vegan if you just mix it with water and no eggs or milk, so the waffles were no problem. Hash browns were no problem once fried in olive oil or Earth Balance. I also got some Tofurkey Italian Sausage and cut them up and fried them too. I didn't have any vegan eggnog (the stuff I've tried isn't very good... anybody have recommendations?) but I had some cranberry and black cherry juice with ginger ale instead. All in all I was stuffed by the end of it, especially since I had some banana bread too.

I like my hash browns crispy.

Then recently, my mom and I made some impromptu pizza, using bisquick to make the crust. We baked the crust before putting the stuff on it. So we had three rectangular pizzas, and she made the smallest one with real cheese on it for the picky young'uns, and I made the middle one an alfredo-y pizza and the largest one had tomato sauce with globs of leftover alfredo-y sauce. Both the middle and largest also had crumbled tofu, and all the pizzas had sauteed red onion, yellow squash, and red bell peppers on them. I used one red onion, one small yellow squash, and four red bell peppers. Oh and a can of olives.

For the tomato sauce we just used some canned Hunts sauce, one of the ones without meat or cheese in it. I think it was garlic and herb? And for the alfredo, we bought a carton of MimicCreme which is vegan and made from cashews and almonds etc. I put 3 tablespoons of earth balance in a deep pan and melted it on medium-low heat, then put in two tablespoons of flour and whisked until it made a paste, then poured in a cup of MimicCreme and put in a ton of chopped garlic, probably around 6 big cloves... then whisked it until it was thick (the creme was already pretty thick!) and then added another cup and stirred again on low heat. Just kinda let it sit there on low heat for a little while, stirring occasionally, and added garlic salt until it tasted right. Also a little bit of No Chicken Better than Bouillon, which gave it more flavor.

Pretty awesome. We baked them each at about 400 or 450 F, just until they looked and felt done... kind of a vague recipe, I'm sorry. But maybe I can perfect it later.

In general, it's been a pretty good Christmas, food-wise. The kids still don't like the stuff I make half the time, and there were still a lot of uncomfortable moments of going caroling to someone's house and getting smacked in the face with the bleghy smell of a roasting turkey, and watching my family eat meat, especially my dad's family up in northern Utah at their annual get-together, and listening to my uncles joke about hunting. There will always be hard moments like that. But it has meant a lot to me that my parents are supportive of my choices and willing to try the food I make or even help me make it.

And it has been a good Christmas in other ways too. I have been completely spoiled this year. I asked people not to get me presents, because I was too poor to get presents other than cards for anyone but my mom and one of my brothers (and I wasn't even spending my own money) but by various twists of fate I have ended up with almost an entire wardrobe of clothes both new and used, an e-reader, a fantasy book, a used graphics tablet, a cute winnie-the-pooh mug, and a beautiful necklace. I'm sure I'm forgetting some things....

We always watch a movie on Christmas Eve and this year it was Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Aslan is an important symbol for me, and I went to bed hoping I could learn to see God more like how I see and adore Aslan. Lo and behold, the necklace I got the next day.

In general Christmas was very spiritually filling and emotionally draining. This whole trip has required me to reevaluate a lot of things.There have been miniature crises and long talks and crying spells. It's always hard going out of your comfort zone, but I'm grateful for the chance I've had to spend time with my family and my friends, especially to get to know one of my sisters better and her two precious kids.

Life is so precious....

And this world is so beautiful....

From the drive up north (I drove part of the way!)

And all the beautiful music from/with my family and the choirs they've been in, it really helped me to think again about what Christ's life really meant and what kind of person he really was and is. Something I'd like to share is parts of the 2nd and 3rd verses of O Holy Night, because most people don't sing those, but they are really beautiful especially when sung by a choir.

 The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

So... I would always get emotional listening to these lyrics, especially "He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger" and "in his name all oppression shall cease". I would really like for that to be true. As much as we sing peace on earth and good will to men, it is easy to see that the world is not at peace. But God still loves us anyway and would like for us to get there someday. I guess all we can do is trust that Jesus will be there with us to lead us toward that better world, that little child who was born among the animals of the field and grew up to heal all people and give up his life out of love. And we can try to be that kind of person to those around us who are not at peace, and who are suffering either emotionally or physically.
This post has been pretty long and rambly and I probably should have divided it into two, but whatever. To round it all off, here's a tentative list of new year's resolutions.

-Draw more (one finished picture a month)
-Pray more, and with greater sincerity
-GET A JOB.
-Do some kind of garden again
-Publish at least one article (I already submitted one to Sunstone Magazine just yesterday!)
-Stay in touch with my family and friends
-Write to Alma (my brother on a mission in Korea) weekly
-Do better at my blog

I hope 2012 is an awesome year for everyone! And don't believe those silly people who totally misinterpreted the Mayan calendar. If you ask the Mayans they'll tell you it's a load of bullhonky (not sure if that's a real word).

I Stand Corrected!

Today me and my youngest sister walked to the nearest grocery store, called Farmer's Market. A year and a half ago, when I first came home after turning Vegan in Hawaii, I had a sad incident involving having to buy someone yogurt  that was almost certainly made from factory farm milk because there was nothing else. So, I was bracing myself to be disappointed again, but I needed garlic today and I knew they had to at least have garlic.

Boy, was I surprised! Things are getting better. The produce section was actually quite impressive... they had a big long thing full of what I suppose you would call specialty items, and the prices of everything were pretty comparable to what I paid in Bellingham, except the organic stuff was slightly more expensive than at the Co-Op.

Brace yourself for an onslaught of Rae-fanning-over-vegetables!

Kale, Chard, Leek, Beets, Celery/Celery Root!

Note the tiny amount of Yukon Gold potatoes. But at least they're there! xD ALSO... if you click on this photo to enlarge it, there ARE Kaffir lime leaves! There was also a sign for lemongrass but I didn't see any lemongrass anywhere. Hmmm.

LOOK AT THAT BEAUTIFUL PURPLE KALE. OMG.

This is mainly because of the (2) Daikon.

My sister was making fun of me for taking pictures of everything xP Oh well... it wasn't in a mean way, we just teased each other.

Our cart. Note the lovely SMALL/cheap bottle of cooking sherry.

I was also very very pleased to see the large array of nondairy milks and also a section of the freezers devoted to Amy's products.

We bought about $40 worth of stuff and I went home determined to cook 3 different things for dinner that night. So, I made a double batch of this Leek and Potato Soup, some Black Bean Salad with Corn from vegweb, and a bunch of baked asparagus with garlic salt and rosemary (I didn't use any other herbs or normal salt).

It was exhausting. But, everybody seemed to like everything, so I was happy. I made the asparagus especially because it's one of the only vegetables my youngest sister ADORES... and thus she ate about half the tray before I could take a picture.

Stupid yellow tint...

 Somehow the soup didn't turn out as green as it usually does... I wonder if it's because I didn't use the actual blender but instead used the handheld/immersion blender my mom has. The consistency wasn't as nice that way.

This was the smallest pot I could find that wouldn't be full to the brim with a double-batch.

I forgot to add cilantro.

My 2-year-old nephew LOVED the salad... he ate a lot of it. So did my sister / his mom.

Two people in my family are having digestive issues since the stew last night. I'm not sure why, since nobody else who ate it is having problems... but now my brother is leery of curry and lentils, so I figure I'll take a break from both for the next few days if possible.