I do not love making risotto.
I guess I'll have to give risotto up because most restaurant risotto is made with either cheese or chicken stock.
Boo hoo.
Let's go back in time and find out why I'm so blue.
On Sunday, I blogged about what we ate through lunchtime (creamy asparagus soup). I went grocery shopping after lunch and got some yummy stuff. Fresh asparagus. I used to hate asparagus until I tried it properly cooked and really liked it! Anyway, I have decided to really buckle down on my little cheats here and there. No more vegetarian but not vegan chik'n. No more pizza with real cheese :( I just shed a few tears.
So I only bought vegan Bocca burgers. And lots of beans and vegetables. And pita bread for said beans and vegetables.
I got home and we didn't have time to cook and eat before going back to church. (We play on the music team and had to go back for the night service.) When we got home, I had planned to make some mushroom spinach risotto from this recipe.
I had a bunch of mushrooms and a little fresh spinach leftover from last weeks shopping that needed to be used. So I followed the recipe, but guess what? It took like twice as long to prepare. And it's not one of those recipes where you just let it sit. If you look at the recipe, it stresses: you need to be constantly stirring the rice. This is not a good recipe for a mom of a 7 month old baby. Anyway, the risotto was finally done and we ate it, but it wasn't my favorite. We had some yummy herb focaccia bread dipped in oil and vinegar, and to be honest, I could have just eaten that but I knew I needed the nutrients from the veggies so I ate about half of my plate. Hubby ate the leftovers for breakfast (yuck) on Monday.
So that's why I will not be cooking risotto again.
On a sidenote, I took pictures of Monday's dinner to post but have been having technical difficulties so I'll just tell you about it.
I had toast with Earth Balance and raspberry jam for breakfast with coffee. For lunch, we took a friend out to a favorite place that we hadn't eaten at since veganism. An Irish pub. Hubby had fish and chips (not vegan but we do eat fish, but he kinda takes that liberally) I had the only close to vegan option that I saw besides a side salad. It was a portobello mushroom sandwich on sourdough, with cranberry sauce (the jelly kind and I didn't think of this until now, but it probably has gelatin in it! Not vegan), red onion, tomato, and jalapeno cream cheese. I did break my own rule, though, because of the cream cheese. Anyway, it was a weird combination but I thought it might work. Ehhhhhh...not really. I ate my side salad and a few of hubby's fries and about half of the sandwich. Needless to say, I was hungryish when we left. We went to the hospital to visit a family member and I totally blew my own mind in a bad way by eating every possible junk food option from the vending machine. **Deep Breath** (I'm embarrassed to admit this.) Mr. Pibb, Rollos, and BBQ potato chips. I'm kinda thinking I should have just gotten the fish and chips for the higher chance that I would have been full. Oh well. You live and learn.
We didn't leave the hospital until about 5:00 and still had to go to Trader Joes for the Tofurkey. Our local grocery stores didn't have it. We got home around 6:00/6:30 and I had purchased some Trader Joes Chicken-less Pulled Chicken in BBQ Sauce (vegan) and I heated that up with some Honey-Wheat hamburger buns and a big baby greens salad. The chicken was a little chewy in texture, but on a sandwich and smothered in sauce, you can't really tell a whole lot of difference. My only wish was that it didn't have BBQ sauce already on it so that we could use our Kinder's BBQ sauce.
We did get our Tofurkey for Thanksgiving so we'll see how that goes! Looking forward to some different but still familiar comfort-food dishes.
These are some websites I've saved for recipes and ideas for the holidays:
Vegan Holiday Faux Turkeys
Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes
More Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes
Mini Honey Almond Cranberry Crostatas (obviously only vegan for those vegans who eat honey)
Dealing with Meat-Eating Friends and Family
Whole Foods offers a prepared Vegan meal if you're near one!
What are your plans for Thanksgiving dishes? Are you offering any vegan options?
I'm sorry you've had a hard time eating out. Pubs and bars are the hardest places to find vegan food worth eating. Unless you just really like a plate full of iceberg lettuce and watery tomatoes ... But you live and learn! I hope you enjoy the tofurkey.
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