Citrus spare ribs

This time, I followed directions. The second product I picked up with the coupons VegeUSA sent me was the Citrus Sparerib Cutlets. And I just followed the easy microwave directions. Combine with rice and steamed broccoli and Boom! dinner! Oh, and I sprinkled mine with gomashio because I do that.

The sweet, chewy nuggets are mostly soy based which is nice if you have issues with eating a ton of wheat gluten. The texture was fine microwaved, but I’ve also had these pan fried in the past and you can get a little crispy edge to them when you do that, but you also sacrifice some of the sauce.

The package ambitiously says there are 2.5 servings inside, but not in this house. It was a solid two servings for us though. The main downside to these is the price. At around $7, it’s more than I would normally pay for a fake meat for 2, but it’s still cheaper than ordering out. And I know there are a ton of people out there that don’t cook like I do and rely on prepared foods or eating out. So you might find this handy. In Atlanta, I found these and the pepper steak at Whole Foods on Ponce.

Broccoli Pesto Pasta

In May, we picked up a few herbs and planted them outside the kitchen door: cinnamon basil, regular basil, lavender and stevia. And we already had mint plants going. The basil has really taken off and they were little bushes when we got back from vacation. They have already paid for themselves and are still going strong. Gee, it’s so much easier to take care of plants when it actually rains every once in a while.

So, time to use up some basil. How about Broccoli Pesto Pasta from The Happy Herbivore? I used whole wheat pasta and a mix between the regular and cinnamon basil. I might’ve added a little bit of olive oil because pesto doesn’t seem quite right without it. But only like a tablespoon for the whole batch. So it’s not like I totally fatted it up. The silken tofu seemed to make it really filling. This is easy and pretty quick to make. Would be a great recipe to recommend to new cooks and new veg*ns.

Korean broccoli fried rice

Last time I made a batch of brown rice, I froze the extra to use for quick meals. When making out my grocery list for the week, I ran across Korean Broccoli Fried Rice in World Vegan Feast.

The recipe calls for leftover tofu scramble. I was just going to skillet fry tofu, but the tofu I had went bad. So I used some May Wah chicken nuggets I had hanging out in the freezer instead, baked them, then chopped them up. We don’t eat a ton of fake meat products at home, but they are kind of nice every once in a while.

It doesn’t sound like there’s much by way of seasoning in the recipe, but it turns out great. Of course, sesame oil in anything usually pops it into the delicious category for me. Mine is also sprinkled with the gomashio that I keep on hand to sprinkle on whatever I can and a pretty squirt of sriracha. And at about 2 o’clock you’ll see a little pile of “seasoned parched seaweed” I found at Your Dekalb Farmers Market. It’s a little oily so I use it sparingly but it adds a great flavor punch. Oh, and it’s pretty good for you, or something.

Game of Thrones potluck

For the season opener of Game of Thrones, the Gunns kindly hosted a watching party. And Jeff made his famous lasagna. Delicious! So we didn’t have to feel too bad about it, I brought roasted broccoli. Why haven’t I roasted broccoli before? It’s amazing. Oh, and chocolate chip cookies. Because, cookies. Look, we had salad too and nommy garlic bread. There may have been adult beverages too.