One-Track Mind

I’m so hungry right now and I can’t figure what to eat, because all I can think about is this:

I miss you.

Enter Day 7 of Passover 2013.  Because really, if I have to look at another potato, I might vom.

In exactly 25 hours and 57 minutes, I will be stuffing my face with Bertucci’s rolls, or perhaps some cheeseless pizza from Boston Beer Works:

With olives, mushrooms, garlic, and red onions. I die.

[Speaking of Beer Works, I followed some co-workers in there last Thursday and was forced to be the person drinking wine at a place called Boston Beer Works.  The sacrilege! ]

OOH! Maybe I will get this tomorrow:

Veggie Fra Diavolo from Sabatino’s in Brighton, complete with a big fat hunk of warm ciabatta (this is one of my favorite things in the entire world to eat, btw)

25 hours and 38 minutes…

Challah Back

With the second week of BarBri classes under my belt, I feel like a new woman.  That is to say, I have stepped into the shoes of someone whose emotional state is constantly in flux, threatening to go from buoyant jubilation to unbridled rage in the blink of an eye.  A new woman, indeed.  Check yourself before you wreck yourself.

Right now, however, I am feeling quite calm and content.  I attribute this to two things: 1) I left today’s bar review class feeling for the first time like I actually know something that could potentially help me pass the exam, and 2) I just had lunch.  Weird, yes, but I’m finding that food preparation is a big comfort to me of late, because it is one of the few things over which I have total control, and that I can do confidently and free of judgment.

Plus, it gives me joy!  I mean, look at what I got today:

This, my friends, is a vegan za’atar challah from Blacker’s Bakery in Newton.  Blacker’s is a kosher, pareve bakery.  According to kashrut, “pareve” refers to a category of foods that are neither dairy nor meat.  Sounds like vegan food, except that in Judaism “pareve” also extends to eggs and fish.  So unfortunately, though pareve baked goods may be dairy-free, they are usually loaded up with eggs.  However, Blacker’s is kind enough to produce egg-free challahs alongside their traditional egg-washed counterparts, and when I found out they had an egg-free za’atar variety, I could think of little else until I procured one for myself.  Today was the day.  I bought this baby while it was still warm from the oven.  There are few things better in life than warm freshly-baked bread, says I.

Look at that gorgeous texture!  They do not skimp on the spices.

Inside, there are swirls of za’atar goodness.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with za’atar, it is a spice mixture, commonly used in the Middle East. I am personally a huge fan.  I know it contains thyme and sumac and sesame seeds, but that’s about it.  My brain is too full of garbage law to try to recall the other ingredients, and I am far too lazy my computer is too slow to look it up right now.  You are welcome to rock a Googs if you’re curious.  But do take my word that it is delicious.

My lunch was a couple of slices of this magical challah topped with Tribe Forty Spices hummus and some chopped manzanilla olives:

Salty, spicy, and satisfying.  And enough to make me not feel completely homicidal about the fact that I have to do a property problem set now.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Spring Things

The weather in Boston has been less than delightful the past week or two, despite that it’s now late April.  Last week it was pretty frigid, extremely windy and in the 40’s.  However, yesterday we got a glimpse of the sunny days to come with morning sunshine and temperatures in the 70’s!  Even though it got cloudy later in the day and threatened rain, the temperature stayed comfortable, which was a big relief to me (I hate being cold!).  Today is much the same; cloudy but mild.

Anyway, enough small talk.  Whether or not the weather cooperates, it’s spring, people!  And that means it’s time for fresh produce and love.  It also means that it’s almost summer, the time of year when for all intents and purposes I follow a raw diet because there is just that much fabulous produce available!  But I digress.

Lately I’ve been loving me some zucchini and summer squash.  I made a couple of random yet tasty dishes with these recently.

One night I was “using up” so I tossed some cut-up zukes and squash into a sautee with onions, garlic, chickpeas, and olive oil.

Then I mixed it all into a pot of whole wheat couscous that I’d cooked in vegetable broth that needed using.

Sorry for the dark picture…the evening lighting in my apartment sucks

This was so friggin’ easy and versatile.  I ate it as pictured above the first night, but when eating as leftovers, I topped it with mushroom spaghetti sauce.  True to form.  I love sauce.  Like whoa.

And so, a few days later I made my own sauce that was comprised of spring vegetables: zucchini, squash, and red bell pepper.

It’s a stop light!

Then, I browned them in a stock pot with garlic and olive oil:

Once the veggies had a nice caramelized look to them, I added jarred mushroom spaghetti sauce and a bunch of spices (chili powder, cayenne pepper, black pepper, garlic salt, oregano…I am not very specific about these things) and let it simmer.  While it cooked, I had a very typical A. Cook appetizer…

Garlic dill pickles and kalamata olives…salty heaven!

Finally I cooked up some elbow macaroni and vegan meatballs and tossed it all together in a bowl.  The result: veggie-filled, warm, spicy goodness.

Dinner!!

In case anyone is curious, these are the meatballs I used:

I always keep a bag of these in the freezer. You can get them at Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s makes a version of them now as well.  I prefer the ones pictured, personally.  The price is pretty comparable and I find that the Nate’s brand are softer when heated, whereas the TJ ones sometimes have hard bits around the edges.

In other news (and H can testify to this), over the last week I have been consuming obscene amounts of green vegetables, namely spinach, kale, and broccoli.  (Lucky for Mr. Asparagus, though unlucky for me, he is never on sale for under $4/lb. anywhere in Boston and that is the only reason he has been spared from my insatiable green appetite.)  But seriously, I can’t get enough.  And that, my friends, is how I know it’s springtime!