Weekly Dinner Plans

Here are my dinner plans for the week. Trying to make things "McDougall Style" wherever possible.

Monday - Whole Wheat Pasta, Marinara, Trader Joe's veggie balls, romaine salad with cucumbers and homemade lowfat ranch dressing.

Tuesday - Vegetable Fried Quinoa from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2008/02/vegetable-fried-quinoa.html

Wednesday - Leftover Quinoa. Going to dentist for a crown, may not feel like eating.

Thursday - Pizza on whole wheat crust with marinara, portabello mushrooms and olives (no cheese).

Friday - White Bean Soup from "Eat, Drink and Be Vegan" by Dreena Burton

Saturday - Veggie Burgers (probably these: http://happyherbivore.com/2009/01/balsamic-portobellos/) with corn and a cooked veggie.

Sunday - Leftover White Bean Soup

We went to a lowfat vegan brunch this Sunday, and had a good time. We didn't know anybody, which always makes me shy and nervous, but everyone was nice and the food was good.

General Personal Junk

I recently had to do some re-evaluating and honest thinking with myself. I had joined the Raw Fu challenge that started in April. This is the second 100 day challenge that I joined, full of intentions of being 100% raw. And failing, over and over, and feeling awful. And eating things that really emotionally hurt me in many personal ways.So I had to decide that instead of trying to be 100%, freaking out, feeling like a failure, and BINGEING over this, I will be 25 - 50% raw, which I can really sustain. I'm at a solid 25% right now. The remainder is vegan low-fat goodness. There are lots of reasons, such as money, my level of obesity, poor teeth, etc. But really, I just wasn't making any headway. So here I am. And I lost some weight this month and I feel good.

Also, speaking of Raw Fu! goodness, the first issue of the amazing Raw Fu magazine recently came out, and it's gorgeous. Check it out!

May Already?

I bought a new cookbook and checked a cookbook out from the library this weekend, so I'm cooking up a storm this weekend. I bought Peta's Vegan College Cookbook, even though I'm not exactly college-aged. It had some good, fast recipes.

Last night I made "Stuffed Dorm Room 'Shrooms".

Here is the recipe, adapted. (I'm hoping PETA wont' mind me sharing, since I'm saying it's a nice cookbook!)

1/2 lb medium-sized mushrooms, washed, with stems removed and saved
2 TBSP vegan margarine (recipe called for FOUR TBSP)
1/4 c. chopped chives
3 TBSP breadcrumbs

Arrange mushroom caps, hollow side up, in a single layer in a baking dish. Set aside. Chop up mushroom stems and combine with margarine and chives in another dish. Nuke, uncovered, 3 - 4 minutes, stirring twice. Add breadcrumbs, stir, set aside. Cover mushroom cpas and nuke 2 - 3 minutes, until nearly cooked, rotating dish 1/2 turn after first minute. Stuff each cap with some of breadcrumb mixture. Cover and nuke 2 minutes, til hot. (Serves four, but I had it as an entree, so we each had half.) It was fast and easy too! I recommend it.

Tonight I have a veggie curry in the crockpot from "Fast From the Vegetarian Slowcooker" by Robin Robertson, and it smells great!

Snowflakes of the Vegetable World

What's for Dinner?

I've had a couple of great raw dinners lately. I had Rawdawg Rory's Cucumber Noodles Aioli on Saturday and Monday. You can see him make it here http://raw100.ning.com/forum/topics/andres-revenge-rawdawg-rory

The "cucumber bread sticks" are great too. I made them with the weirdly tasty raw parmesan chipotle stuff (it's made of almonds not parmesan).

Tonight I made the Creme a la Mushroom Soup from "Alive in 5 - Raw Gourmet Meals in Five Minutes" by Angela Elliott. It makes three servings, so I figured I'd eat half and see if the rest would keep for tomorrow's lunch. Oops, maybe I'll snarf the whole recipe up, making yummy noises. It tastes a lot like the crap in the red and white can I've always loved. And while I think it was a LOT of fat to eat at one time, it made me happy. Her book is here: http://www.therawdivas.com/angela/

What did youhave for dinner?

Issue #1 of New Zine

Hi Friends! Issue #1 of Rawk You Like a Hurricane - The Years of Living Changerously is here! If you were someone or something I wrote about, a copy is on the way to you via snail mail. If you would like to receive a copy, send me $1 in cash or postage, or something in trade, a recipe, a picture of your dog, your zine, a VitaMix blender, anything! My address is: Jenni Smith, 101A Hickey Blvd. Suite 464, South San Francisco, CA 94080. Eventually I will load a pdf to a free zine library if you just want to see one.





Here is my cover, in glorious black and white! Thanks to everyone who has been interested and/or supportive, I appreciate it. I can't wait to make the April issue.

What a Difference a Dog Makes

This weekend, hubby and I went to the Anarchist Book Fair in Golden Gate Park. It's an event we enjoy a lot every year. Lots of interesting folks doing interesting things. One challenge that we have is shyness, we often see people we would talk to, but are not brave enough to start a coversations.

Well, this year, we brought Gomez to the book fair, as it is a very dog-friendly event. He had a great time meeting other dogs and people, and a lot of people chatted with us because he is such a cute and friendly little guy. And he is not shy at all! He even jumped in to the guy's lap at the ALF table with no provocation at all.

I love to pick up people's zines, and the favorite that I came across this year was "Rad Dad". I've heard of this before, but haven't seen it. It is very beautiful and well written.

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring, and the first issue of Rawk You Like a Hurricane will launch. I'm excited for this personal project. I had it all written up and illustrated last weekend but did not get it copies. Also, once I figure it out, I will upload it to http://zinelibrary.info.