TT catchup

I'm behind 3. Really, we've been doing Terrifying Tuesdays at home, but I just can't motivate myself to write about it. So here we go in one fell swoop. (I'm not sure I can even remember what we've had!)

I've made Sweet Potato and apple soup when my mother in law was here visiting. She and I liked it (I loved it), but the rest didn't fancy it.

Then I made Vegan Dad's Baked Chimichangas. We've never had chimichangas before, for better or worse. I believe it helped to not have something to compare to. Thumbs up, but there was a bit of a bitter taste. I do believe it was from the refried beans, because we've eaten canned refried beans (either veg. or fat free) and I remember thinking it needed something like cheese or salsa to cut it. The kids didn't like it so much, and I think it's due to the refried beans. So, we need to tweak it. Now, I've got to say, the "meat"mixture (which uses TVP) is good, but again, Vegan Dad likes to put in unusual spices - I halved the cinnamon and left out the anise - could have done altogether without the cinnamon. If you make these, set aside a good bit of time for the assembling of the chimis. It takes a little while. This recipe makes a LOT. I had leftover stuff, so I just threw the leftover "meat", rice, beans, salsa, etc. in a bowl, heated up and it made great leftovers with corn chips.

Last week I made Cajun Tempah over Brown Rice from Tal Ronnin's new cookbook, The Conscious Cook. I won't post the recipe since the book is new. This took a bit of time to cook, and I had to search for ingredients, but it was really good. Frankly, the tempah itself was to die for! This was my first attempt at tempah that was really good. I hate that it's fried, but that crispy exterior is really nice. I may have to see if it can be oven fried to lessen amount of oil that's absorbed.

While I'm on this cookbook, I'll tell you about what I made yesterday. His Whole Wheat Penne with San Marzano Tomatoes. Yumm! It had fennel and swiss chard. I'd never had fennel before, and it smelled awful - so much like black licorice. It also had white wine and green olives in the recipe. I told my husband that this is probably one of those things where you throw together a bunch of horrible things and it turns out brilliantly - and it did. The fennel lost it's licorice.

Let's see, I've also made a Dean Ornish (Art Smith) soup, but I think I posted that already. It's to die for. I'm doing another soup tomorrow and a vegan dad recipe on Tuesday.

Gotta run to get supper!