Saturday, January 06, 2007

Not so much cooking

Hi all... The past few days have been quite busy, and we have not been home much to cook or to eat. I kind of forgot about a few things that we had planned to do--I wanted to do more cooking than this while I was still on break, but at least I have a few things to share with you.

Tuesday Bob and I went hiking up in Clayton, Georgia at a little area called Warwoman Dell. The trails around the area were fairly light and easy, but there were some neat things to see along the way. We packed the "usual" hiking food--bread and peanut butter, apples and oranges, steamed edamame. I also brought along a huge sack of trail mix that we got for Christmas.


We never got a good, clear view from the mountain peak because the trees had not been cleared. That is actually pretty refreshing. It was a beautiful, clear day, though, and even through the skinny tree trunks the Great Smoky Mountains were an awesome sight.


We saw lots of stone ruins along the trail; this one was preserved and a rustic little picnic area was built around it.


At the bottom of the trail was a beautiful little waterfall rushing in over a rock piling.


There was no one around to take our picture, so I did a blind one-handed shot... and I think it came out well!

Wednesday we had to go to Atlanta: Bob had a Wesley Foundation staff retreat that he had to attend, and I was able to tag along. We stayed in a hotel and the Wesley Foundation provided all the food for the retreat. There were plenty of snack foods that were suitable for Bob and me... and while the rest of the staff had pizza for dinner Wednesday night, they were happy to order veggie burgers from Ruby Tuesday for us. And I never, ever go on a retreat without taking some Better Than Milk powdered soy milk--that way we can eat breakfast!

Thursday after the retreat was over, we met a good friend of ours in Atlanta. He has been in Mexico for several months doing volunteer mission work, and will return tomorrow to Mexico until mid-July. We chilled out with him all day long and half the night. He is a self-proclaimed granola-head and thus the vegan thing is not hard for him to understand; we had homemade vegetable soup and bean burritos and just had a wonderful time walking in the rain and playing Trivial Pursuit and dominoes until about 2:30 AM. It was a 1.5 hour drive back to Athens, so we didn't get to bed until about 4:30. That made Friday a sluggish, stay-at-home kind of day.

I have been meaning to try the Pumpkin Seed-Crusted Tofu from VWaV for a while now, so I made it finally for lunch today. I draw the line at deep-frying my foods, however, and opted to bake it instead, at 350 for about 25 minutes. It got browned pretty well in the oven, but I found it to taste a bit on the bland side without the chance to soak up the frying oil. It tasted good, though, and I do not regret baking it instead of frying. Next time I will probably try to find some way to give the tofu some flavor ahead of time.


To go with the tofu, some more stir-fried kai-lan, and some roasted purple and sweet potatoes.



A light, healthy meal with plenty of iron and calcium, vitamin A, antioxidants, and omega-3s and omega-6s. Add the antioxidant power of a nice glass of red wine...


Don't worry, I didn't eat this much--this is Bob's plate.

Happy weekend, everyone!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your dinner is so colorful! I love it.

You know, it makes me so sad to see all of that beauty along warwoman dell and then have the graffiti all over the stone ruins. Why do people think they have a right to do whatever they want? Ugh!

laura k said...

I know, I was disappointed by it too... I guess people just want to "leave their mark" wherever they go sometimes, disregarding the beauty that is being destroyed.

Kelsey said...

Ive never heard of kai-lan, did you get it at the local supermarket? what does it taste like? also ive also never seen purple potatoes? where do you find all these wonderful looking veggies?

Anonymous said...

that picnic area and waterfall are so pretty. I'd love to stumble upon that during a hike.

Love the potatoes.

Webly said...

I love the colors of that meal! Blue potatoes make me so happy!

Amey said...

Hi Laura,
That kai-lan is great looking! I've never seen that out here. Or maybe I have & I just didn't know what I was looking at.

I'm so glad you reviewed that pumpkin-seed crusted tofu. I've been eyeing that recipe for a long time, but I definitely agree with you about deep frying. I can do a little pan fry, but deep fry?? no way.

:)

MeloMeals said...

Lovely pics... and it is an honor to see the stone ruins... and a shame to see them defaced.. oy...

Dori said...

Glad to see the review for the the crusted tofu also. Thanks for taking us to the ruins with you two.

Nikk said...

I want to steal Bob's plate...I'm that hungry. :)

aTxVegn said...

Such great pictures, Laura! I especially love the orange and purple potatoes!

Candi said...

I love the hiking photos! Nice self-portrait too!! ;)

Your night with your friend sounds like fun. The dinner you all made with the veggie soup sounds great too.

Your colourful dinner with the purple potatoes is beautiful! I'm not into frying with tons of oil either, but I can see why this tofu might be a little bland if baked. I like your idea to spice it up first, then bake it!

Hope you are having a great week!

urban vegan said...

Looks liek you had a nice time. I love seeing the ruins of the hearth. Interesting that the hearth is what survived of the bldg.

Your picture came out cute!