Monday, July 20, 2009

My Latest Obsessions

Well, it's mid summer and completely miserable outside. I can barely muster the strength to take my dogs out. It is that hot right now. My two regrets so far: I haven't made any ice cream yet and I'm still kicking myself for forgetting my grill in San Antonio.

Lately, I've been on these food related obsessions. It's weird because I don't usually like to eat similar things day after day, but times are a-changin'. So I present to you...Mo's Food Obsessions of DOOM.

Fried foods. There was a period of about four days that I ate multiple fried things, usually paired with something fresh to offset the gross-yet-yummy factor. I swear I came up with the crunchiest batter ever for fried seitan/tofu/veggies. The problem? I didn't measure or write anything down. Along these lines, I am officially a fan of deep frying in a wok. It uses less oil and gives an incredibly crispy result.

Watermelon. When is this not an obsession of mine? I'm working on this watermelon punch right now. My first attempt came out okay. It needs more fizz. It involves watermelon, lime and ginger...so good. I also made some watermelon ice cubes and just ate huge bowls of it. Mmm. Must get more soon.

Bowls. I am not the hugest fan of bowls (mostly because I like controlling how my food touches), but we've been eating them a lot lately. It started with a dragon bowl recipe from Garden of Vegan. Now I am basically in love with the simplistic approach. Grain + protein + greens + sauce. Super easy and really delicious.
 

India's 500 Best Recipes. This book is pretty amazing. I love how complex the flavors are with relatively simplistic steps. We had this really great eggplant and sweet potato stew with coconut milk, black rice pudding, and "fish" cakes with cucumber sauce this weekend.

Viva Vegan testers. I am in love with the arroz con seitan, refried beans, and yellow garlic rice. Most of the ingredients are super inexpensive and the recipes are so packed with flavor. I can't wait for the book to be here!

Black Beans. I'm working on this recipe for black beans made with orange juice and zest. They are pretty good. I just need to finalize the recipe.

Summer is going great! If only this heat would subside. If I was rich, I'd summer in LA where it is considerably cooler than here. Also the temperature is lower. Hee hee.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I need to keep my eyes peeled for that 500 Indian Recipes book. I have Indian Vegetarian Cooking, which is supposed to be "the" book, but I must be picking all the recipes I don't like (the other ones seem to have really esoteric ingredients).

Watermelon = yum!

Eddie G said...

I'm diggin' on watermelon and black beans these days, too :)

Duckduck said...

Watermelon and lime and ginger?

I think I need to try that right now or I'll drown in my own drool.

dreaminitvegan said...

hmmmm...that cookbook looks like it would have some wonderful recipes in it.

Sorry I can't do watermelon, maybe I ate too much as a kid.lol

Jen said...

now that i have my food dehydrator, i plan on dehydrating some watermelon for some fun vegan sashimi.

i'm totally jealous that you're a romero tester, just totally jealous.

and i ***love*** your blog profile pic. you are so adorable!

Monique a.k.a. Mo said...

Swellvegan-I bought it about 4 years ago for 5 bucks at Borders. It's not vegan but there are a ton of recipes, most of them easily veganized.

Eddie-Great minds...

Stacy-Yes, ginger! I was thinking of what could cut the spice factor of the ginger beer I was drinking and thought of watermelon.

Dreaminitvegan-My mind cannot compute watermelon hate. Error. Error.

Jen-Let me know how that goes. I was thinking about it, but not entirely sure how to go about it. And thanks for the picture love.

Jen Treehugger said...

I hear ya on the hot thing - it is unbearable here at the moment too.
I'm so so so looking forward to Vegan Latina - I've seen quite a few tester recipe photos and they all looked so so good.