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Well I break my long silence here with a sad story. Yesterday I was the one who discovered that a neighbor a few streets away had decided to take her own life. I’m still trying to process it all, and relying on my great family and friends for support. Many thoughts continue to stream through my head…I don’t know her name or her situation. I have wondered about many scenarios that may have led her to this decision based on the small amount of information I have. I will find out more, likely, in time, and I’m sure it will make me more sad, but I will at least get some closure.

I now think about friends I don’t check up on regularly enough…could any of them have even a fraction of the sadness that led her to do this? Please don’t wait for such a situation to happen to you to ask the same question. Reach out to people, today. Do you know your neighbors? Loneliness is pervasive and all the time we spend on facebook, etc. doesn’t mean anything to a big group of people, especially those who are older. Say hi, call, or visit someone today.

Space Invaders made by Neave Games

I stumbled across a bunch of faux vegetarian meats at the local Asian grocery store–who knew? I bought a roll of something called ‘Shamwell Vegetarian Ham’ from a company called vegeUSA. This stuff’s pretty good, made ’sham salad’ and tried a hash that was very satisfying, here goes.

1 medium sized potato, quartered
1/3 medium onion (I used Vidalia), chopped
2 ’slices’ Sham, cubed
Nutritional Yeast Flakes
Thyme

Cook the potatoes in a covered skillet with 1/2-1 inch of water, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, allow to cool a bit and cut into hash sized pieces. Add some oil to the skillet and cook the onions, adding the potatoes and sham after a minute or so. Cook until it looks like hash, and add thyme and nutritional yeast to taste. Go easy on added salt as the sham is salty. Mix and eat, serves one. I meant to add some tofu but forgot–feel free to try (& post). Welcome to posterous cooking!
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via thekitchn.com

I can’t say enough good about this stuff…still think it should rebranded as ‘tasty healthy stuff.’

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This recipe isn’t rocket science. I am a BIG carbohydrate fan and recently had all the makin’s for burritos with no tortillas in the house. The trick to a burrito bowl is to make sure it is tasty enough to satisfy you without the tortilla. Here’s what I did, feel free to substitute, we’ve all had plenty burritos to know what goes in ‘em!

Black beans, cooked or canned
Nutritional yeast flakes
Rice, cooked
Tomatoes or salsa
Onions, grilled
A lil kick–sriracha sauce, hot peppers, if needed
Chopped cilantro or lettuce

Mash the beans (I use a potato masher) and add about a quarter of the amount of nutritional yeast flakes and stir to mix (e.g. 0.5 c. for 2 c. beans–or to taste). This will lend a cheesy taste to the beans and add amino acids (protein) and vitamin B12. If you like, you can also add more flavor to the beans with a lil garlic or cumin. To assemble the bowl, add approx 0.5 c. each rice and beans (warm if needed), and add the other ingredients on top. Enjoy with a beer as I did
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Sesame Street started when I was at the ‘prime viewing age’ of 1. Fantastic show for kids and adults. What do I remember most? The urban, racially diverse scenes of every day life. I still think about it sometimes around 10 a.m. if I’m out walking. Of course it’s always been very educational. Congrats Sesame Street! You’ve made an impact on us, and we should all continue to support our local PBS station.

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You can still enjoy comfort foods as a vegan! It won’t taste exactly the same, but I think the comfort level is at 11.

Ingredients
1 lg or 2 sm carrots
1/2 lg or whole small onion
1-2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp Oil
Few stalks celery or bok choy
1/3 block firm tofu
1 Zucchini
Vegetarian ‘chicken’ stock, vegetable stock, or nutritional yeast flakes, to taste
Thyme, to taste
1-2 Bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut carrots and onions into soup sized pieces–smaller always cooks faster. Mince garlic and add all to soup pan with oil–saute until onion translucent. Add water (or stock)–you’ll have to eyeball it–just don’t add too much. Add celery/bok choy, tofu, and seasonings. Cook for 20 mins or until it starts to look like soup. To make the Noodls, either cut the zucchini lengthwise into noodly size pieces, or use a spiral noodle cutter thingy. Add the Noodls, adjust water/seasonings as needed, cook for 5 more mins, and enjoy! Just a note that you can definitely find/use vegan noodles (most except egg noodles are vegan), I am just trying to be clever here

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