Comfort Food

This week has been all about comfort food. That and easy food. Monday night I got semi-creative and just threw together a dish, something I rarely do since I like the control of using a recipe (must work on that). So I took some tempeh and broccoli that were sitting in the fridge and probably would have gone bad otherwise. I steamed them together then topped it with leftover coconut curry sauce from the manicotti dish (last post). The result was actually a pretty yummy dish, certainly easy to make. Plus it was a good tempeh comeback. We haven't really given tempeh a fair shot, so I'm go to try and mix it in more often.


After a few nights of eating out on the run, I needed something refreshing and filling. So I went with a slightly odd combination, but that's what I felt like. First off is one of my favorite salads, summer fruit with spinach. The fruit includes strawberries, blueberries, and mango (I used a champagne mango, fancy sounding, huh?). Along with the spinach I toss in plenty of toasted almonds and pistachios. The dressing I use is about equal parts oilve oil and flax oil, along with some white wine vinegar and agave nectar with a healthy dose of poppy seeds. The result is a refreshingly sweet salad with a nutty crunch that you will love! I made my own version of this after tasting something similar at a local restaurant here in Houston, Ruggles. Of course, their version comes with bacon. Please explain to me why you would ruin such a lovely salad with bacon?!?



On the side I had one of my favorites, mashed sweet potatoes with cashew butter, maple syrup and cinnamon. I'm sure I've posted these before, but they are like heaven to me....


Last night after meeting some friends out for drinks, we came pretty buzzed (okay, that was mostly just me), always a fun time cooking dinner in that state of mind. The day before at the grocery store, there must have been a mistake, because I got fresh morel mushrooms for $5.99/pound. How crazy is that! So we sauteed them in some Smart Balance. Along with the mushrooms we had Quinoa with Tofu and Asparagus from the recipes at Whole Foods website. This dish has so many wonderful flavors that blend together; lemon, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic. Plus the asparagus was perfectly cooked and tofu and quinoa added the perfect texture.



And finally for the ultimate comfort food, chocolate pudding. Triple chocolate pudding to be exact thanks to Julie Hasson from the Everyday Dish DVD. This was by far the richest, smoothest homemade pudding I've ever had. I topped it with some golden raspberries I saw at the grocery store, which I've never seen before. They are apparently a naturally occurring variant of red raspberries, but their yellow color is inherited through a single recessive gene. They were delicious, very similar to a red raspberry. Try some if you can find them because they have a short season and limited availability! But certainly try the pudding....