Spicy Corn Chowder, Cupcakes, Work food..

First up we have the makings of Vegan with a Vengeneance's Corn Chowder - made with jalapeno, fresh lime juice & a touch of maple syrup. I subbed onion powder for the onion and red and yellow peppers instead of just red. I doubled the recipe and it's a hit with my boyfriend & I.
Chocolate-Almond flavored cupcakes with chocolate ganache and espresso buttercream.
Almond-chocolate chip cupcakes with espresso buttercream - both dusted with cocoa powder. Chocolate dipped local organic strawberries.
Home Cooking - vegan style. BBQ gluten ribs (already again!), corn with earth balance + a baked russet potato.
These fries look way better here than after being oven baked - I overcooked em..but here they are in their sea salt, freshly ground peppers, smoked paprika glory.Tuscan Hummus - recipe here.

Toasted Grand Central peasant bread (half rye-half whole wheat) sandwich of toasted red pepper, vegenaise, braggs-agave sesame tofu and avocado. A throw what's in the fridge between bread combo that I seemingly had never done before - very good. This was served with sesame asparagus from VWAV, which I had been craving ever since, well, my friend Joanna brought some over the night before:
Extra chocolate almond cupcake batter = one layer cake with extra frosting and chocolate hearts. This was also dusted with cocoa powder. Want some? It's on the kitchen table, it was a little dry so it's all by itself.
Happiness ensues for veg*ns working downtown as the owners Vege Thai opened a new food cart!! This is my $4.50 tofu pad thai from Veggie Express. What a tempting reason to not bring lunch to work! If I wasn't trying to eat healthier lunches and save money for my NY trip, aye yi.
Speaking of work, I thought it would be a grand old time to take photos of what I eat at work - since I typically eat 2 meals a day there. We have a fridge, toaster, toaster oven & microwave ~ plus really nice plates. Work meals for me usually involve a salad at least 3 days a week - leftovers or a quickly thrown together meal. Occasionally I have a peanut butter-fruit sandwich or burger. I try to eat out less than once a week - man the thai cart! I've also spoken before of the Vegetarian Indian cart where a 5 dollar lunch special feeds me for two days..sigh.

Here's my Koala cocoa crisps (great taste, Leslie!) in Vanilla vitasoy, with fresh strawberries, water & hot tea.


Thrown together pasta stir fry late at night for work the next day: veggie spirals, sesame oil, braggs, some balsamic (wtf), asparagus, tofu and spinach.
Fresh salad greens with sliced strawberries and Up Country Organics Raspberry Viniagarette - my bottled dressing at work.

Leftovers for lunch - brown rice, braggs-agave tofu and sesame asparagus - this is from today.BBQ tofu & green leaf lettuce burrito.
Near East brand garlic and herb rice, with tonsof organic baby spinach thrown in just before it's done. This was actually packaged in a container this size ; ) When it comes to boxed grains, Near East makes the greatest - and it's their Wild Mushroom & Herb cous cous. Thomas & I lived 6 months in a slummy partment with one working burner and our 'cooked' food consisted of that cous cous, mac and chreez & pasta. It was before I started to really explore cooking, of course.
By the way - hello! I didn't intend to be absent for so long, life's been stressful and our internet wasn't working for a few days last week. I've had a bunch of work projects and the summer heat hit early last week which knocked me out anyway - indeed I am *not* a summer person, sorry. I'm much more a fall/winter girl who desperately misses snow! We had a thunderstorm in Portland last night and it was lovely. How are you?