Monday, May 22, 2006

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?

28 comments:

Eat Peace Please said...

Whoa! Great to see you back. I'll comment later once I read through everything. I have been admiring your abundance of photos. Those cupcakes and cakes... mmm... And I like what your work meals show. I love how the Koala Krisp turns the milk chocolatey.

Kuntal Joisher said...

Mind blowing stuff..!!! I'm coming to your place to eaaaaaaaaatttttttt!!!!!!!!!! yummmm!!! the corn chowder looks delish.. the bbq ribs are punk rock!! Hummus looks FAB!! the cakes look dashing!!! I'm running out of words now.. u rawk girl :-D

Amy O'Neill Houck said...

Omigosh! This all look so delicious--chowder, and tofu, and cupcakes oh my!

KleoPatra said...

HELLO!!! Have you ever been busy! Wow, what a bunch of great foodstuffs there. I don't know where to begin to even comment on all the great eatin's there.

They say the way to a man's heart is through the stomach, but I must be in touch with my masculine side because my heart leaps when I see great vegan food. And my heart danced seeing your post!

Corny? OK maybe, but i can always blame it on the chowder...

Great to see your post, Jess.

Barbara said...

I loved the storm yesterday too! Your food looks so good!

I've been doing cornbread and polenta a lot lately. Took a trip to Bob's Red Mill in Milwaukie. I love the prices! Got 48 ou of med grind cornmeal for 2.49. I love their quality.

Thanks for all the food ideas!

Barbara

Anonymous said...

oo, i've been meaning to go to bob's red mill for breakfast sometime. have you eaten at their cafe/restaurant?
jess, if you ever need to get rid of some of that food, just let me know....

primaryconsumer said...

This post was AMAZING! It's good to see you back blogging. :)

Harmonia said...

That sure didn't help my hungar pains! LOL

I'm going to try and make that hummus! Thanks!

I have a few mini posts so far today with a few more on the way.

Have a great one!

Dreena said...

You certainly make up for a few days of not posting, don't you??!!! Pic after pic after pic of fantastic food!!

The cupcakes are beautiful, and I imagine they were oh so delicous...
I love pad thai - that one looks just perfect, yummm!

sorry you're not enjoying your heat - I am such a spring/summer gal, and getting frustrated that our weather keeps tipping back to cool after a day or two 'teaser' of warm - swap climates...?

Freedom said...

Yay, glad to see you back (I've never commented before, but I visit regularly!) I was absolutely shocked to see your Koala Crisp cereal - I thought it was just an Aussie thing! I can't believe it's made it out of the country! By the way, all this food looks yummy as, especially the sandwich!

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

holy toledo! this will require more than 1 visit --- so many amazing food pics! i'm dazzled. you had me reaching for the dessert tray for a cupcake dipped strawberry. wow, jess.

Barbara said...

Karla

I've had breakfast and lunch at Bob's Red Mill. All very tasty and lots of whole grains.

Barbara

Harmonia said...

Well, get your hiney over to the east coast and play some softball with me! LOL.

I just posted a new tea!

Thanks for stopping by as always!

Merce said...

I am so NOT a summer person either, at ALL. I despise being hot. Fall/winter are tooootally my seaons. Though, I kind of have a new appreciation for summer with my raw foods stuff. Maybe this summer will be better than ones past. Anyway, glad you are back! Missed reading posts from you. Pics all look FAB.

sarchan said...

Such delicious-looking food!!! And I love those Koala Cocoa Crisps, but haven't bought them in forever, because I generally try to deny myself "sugar" cereal. But you've tempted me :); I think I'll be going to the grocery store soon.

Flo @ Yielded Heart said...

Wowwie! You are definitely back. I'm not too crazy about MN's cold winters, but I couldn't stand the heat either. I think 60s-70s are fine.

I like your idea of snapping photos of food at work. I have a feeling yours look much better than your non-veg co-workers.

Too many goodness to comment on, be back for more. And Jess, stay cool and cozy!

Amanda said...

Okay, seriously, this is too much awesome for one post. The cupcakes are especially adorable. And you guys with these wings... I want to make them now and I don't even really like seitan that much. I'm so jealous of your awesome lunch carts. I'm not sure I would be able to stop myself from eating Indian every day. :)

karen said...

Everything looks so good! I've been reading your posts since you started last year, but I don't post that often. I love spring and fall and am loving the cool, crisp weather we are having in NY! Everyone else is whining, but my hair looks great! I hate the humidity and heat that will soon attack us!

purplecupcake said...

After I wipe my mouth from all those wonderful photos, I'm gonna actually read them...lol lol
You have a great blog! Seriously, I'm gonna be back here because I love cupcakes and I see you got some here! Yummy.

Elizabeth said...

Oh, my, all that looks good.

Hey, Jess, I've been meaning to tell you since last week--thanks for telling me about the big farmer's markets in downtown! I went last Wednesday, and LOVED it. I'm going back tomorrow. Maybe I'll make it to the Saturday one this week, too. Much better than the bitty one at People's!

To Karla: we ate once at Bob's Red Mill for lunch. It was tasty. I can't remember now what we had, but I think my daughter had vegan chili (without cheese)---she's the only one of us who is a vegan, the rest of us are vegetarians, though. It was an interesting exprerience.....it seemed to us the place was a cross between hippy, all-natural kind of place and "wholesome", right-wing Christian "family values" kind of place.

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

You have a Bob's Red Mill restaurant in Portland? I have some of his flaxseed meal in the fridge, & I'll look that up next time I'm in town. I hope that you blog some more of your work lunches. I'm simply amazed at all these vegan food photos -- this could very well be a world record food post. For me, the best season is Fall - Keep Cool & Keep Cooking!

Harmonia said...

Jess! OMG! I forgot to tell you! I made the Tuscan Hummus last night! YUM! I used Great Northern Beans! WOW!
Also, Bagel Bread is a bagel but shaped like bread. I responded to the comment you left but haven't found a pic of it yet. I just posted 2 more entries!

Grace said...

How do you always get your cupcakes looking so pretty? I'm jealous. The salad with strawberries looks delicous too.

Jody from VegChic said...

Thanks for your post back. I may give the Ribz another try this weekend on the grill!

I responded back at my blog, but don't get how you would know that, so I'm leaving another comment for you here!

Grasshopper sounds like the right place. I'm a fan of the wantons and happy family, though I think no name was my first dish I tried there.

How does someone in Oregon know about Grasshopper?

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

Awesome comments, everyone! I'm really touched to hear from a couple new commenters as well, seriously~

Grace - It's all about frosting bags & tips! One of my next project is learning to roll my own frosting bags from parchment sheets so I can use any tip, and not just the one that fits my good bag.

J$ - Why Grasshopper is famous! And I went Emerson in Boston..

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

Harmonia - I'm glad you made the hummus! I had leftovers and totally forgot about them : (

Elizabeth said...

Vicki--Bob's Red Mill is located in Milwalkie, OR, which is just south of Portland, and they have a big old store and a cafe where they serve stuff made from their products for breakfast and lunch. To my knowledge they don't have another restaurant besides this one.

Dr. Melissa West said...

Wow Jess all your photos are amazing! Looks like you have been eating well. I have been wanting to get into faux meats for a while and your gluten ribs look amazing. I love ribs, in fact pork is the only meat I miss if you can believe it... but those poor little piggies, I just couldn't do it. Anyway, I was wondering, where do you by gluten? or seiten for that matter?

Also your cupcakes look fantastic. The raspberry icing looks divine. Did you get that recipe from Vive? It seems like a lot of work straining out the tiny pits. Is it? It definitely looks worth it.