Pasta Pothole

I'm coming to you hot with food pics. Most days I make myself a breakfast that is super dope and healthy but tasty and keeps me full un...

I'm coming to you hot with food pics. Most days I make myself a breakfast that is super dope and healthy but tasty and keeps me full until lunch. This is not the easiest task, since I am a bottomless pit and I usually start eyeing the time by noon to see if it's time for lunch (it's not), which is at 2pm. So I need to eat something giant at around 8:30-9ish. I know you know I love the smoothie bowls from Protein Ninja, and I do, but lately I've been on oatmeal mode. Here's a pic of a smoothie bowl with matcha and other stuff anyway. 


I haven't made a proper weekend breakfast in a long time. A couple weekends ago I made breakfast tacos thinking it would be easy and fast. Mostly, wrong on both counts, since my lovely husband wanted to help and he's a slow chopper and is particular about how his potatoes get cooked. He's cute. Don't judge him. The tacos have potato, field roast chipotle sausage, peppers, mushrooms and the Vegan Egg. What did I think of the Vegan Egg? I didn't like it. I will use tofu, and wonder why I didn't just use tofu. I bought this Vegan Egg thing while I was on a shopping spree at Haymakers where you're like, "I need this, and this and..." and so I was like ooh I'll try this thing. Good story. Anyway maybe you'll like it, a lot of people like it. I'm just on team tofu. Tattoo that on my knuckles. I'm on team tofu like JT is in this video. That's a link. Remind me of how to make my links get underlined again?


I begin most days when I open my eyes at 6:47am and say to myself, "I'm going to get up in 13 minutes, work out, eat a healthy breakfast and lunch, and not eat pasta again for dinner." 13 minutes later I am snoozing super hard, I add extra almond butter to my oatmeal, eat leftovers for lunch, and definitely eat pasta for dinner. This has been especially true for the past few weeks, so here's a picture of not an exception. This is pasta with pesto sauce and breaded tofu with no vegetables. Sue me.


I know I said I've fallen hard into a pasta rut, and I have. But this picture was taken like 5 weeks ago, and it is an amazing stir-fry with basil and gnocchi. They sell packaged gnocchi at my bodega and I always forget about it, but it takes like 2 seconds to cook and also rulz. New tattoo! Team Gnocchi! Wait, too many letters and too few knuckles!


I know what you're thinking... "this isn't pasta either." But you're WRONG. This is orzo, which IS pasta!! This is the Tempeh Orzilla from Isa Does It, and also from her blog a million years ago, when I first made this and fell super deep in love with it. So deep we text late at night. It is SO good. It's a stellar combination of tempeh, spinach and sundried tomato. I added some cherry tomatoes on top for a nice pop of flavor, and sprinkled vegan parmesan-- fairy dust, if you will, made from almonds, nooch and lemon zest.


Alright, this is straight up not pasta. But it is also from like 4 weeks ago so maybe pre-pasta rut. This is the Lemony Cannellini beans from Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen, over mashed potatoes with some added broccoli. There's some amazing broth made from white wine, nooch and almond milk to soak up with some bread (more carbs!) or with the potatoes. This dish is literally perfect. I know I call every bean my favorite at one point or another but cannellini beans are totally my favorite. Swear.


I left my dark and stuffy apartment one time and bought this breakfast sandwich during lunchtime at Toadstyle. I also got fried broccoli. I wanted fried cauliflower but Alex doesn't like cauliflower. Worst, amirite? So instead of your typical tofu/daiya/tofurkey breakfast sandwich, this one has polenta as the "eggy" part, homemade hollandaise, tomato and avocado. It was nicely unique!


Remember that time I was making #irresponsiblepurchases at Haymakers? I bought all this stuff: Terri ranch dressing, Califia farms Almond creamer, Sriracha Just Mayo, Barry's Adzuki bean fresh tempeh, 2 of my fave So Delicious plain unsweetened yogurts, No Evil Foods Seitan, an espresso chocolate Ponycake (gift for Alex <3), Meow Meow Tweet grapefruit deodorant, daiya alfredo mac and cheese, Earth Balance Mac, Miyoko's winter truffle, and the Vegan Egg.


Since I'm sure you want to know my feelings on all of these products, keep reading. The Terri ranch is single-handedly responsible for any salads I ate during my pasta rut. My fave dressing so far! The Califia farms creamer is pretty much a staple for me, still haven't tried the Just Mayo (it doesn't go on pasta..), and the yogurts are long gone, because they are so good. I LOVED the tempeh, so yeah, go Barry! I made a Buffalo tempeh salad (!) with some Terri Ranch and loved it so much. I made an amazing Ropa Vieja from the No Evil Foods Seitan, which is easily shredded. Super good and will definitely buy again. I am a shamefully big fan of all of these mac and cheeses in a box. I grew up in the 90s in the McWorld era, so if you don't understand me you're too young to get me, or you're my mom and you are like, yup, exactly that. You already know about my feelings on the Vegan Egg, and this is my favorite flavor of Miyoko's cheese second only to the Fresh Loire Valley in a Fig Leaf. This deodorant smells good but it just doesn't work. Wish it didn't cost $14, but shame on me for even spending $14 on deodorant. I have been applying it 3 times a day in order to smell good. I recommend it for you if you don't do anything that makes you sweat, sit in air-conditioned places for the whole day, don't walk around or get mad. I sweat when I get mad, so sometimes I put this on more than 3 times a day.


I made this for a brunch party my parents had! It is the "Lazy Morning Frittata" from Thug Kitchen Party Grub and it was delicious the day-of, but the leftovers didn't reheat very well. It is super pretty and kind of perfect for a brunch party. Plus my mom let me use some of her stash of Polish Pottery and it made it look even better.

So I have been so into making oatmeal in the morning lately. I hadn't really ever made it from scratch before, and only ever ate those Quakers instant oatmeal packets, which after reading the ingredients really didn't interest me anymore. So all this time I have been like, RIP oatmeal, when I could have been making amazing homemade oatmeal every day. What I do is: bring 1 cup almond milk and 1 cup water to boil in a saucepan, stir in oats (old fashioned rolled) and reduce to simmer, stir every few. When it looks almost the consistency that I am into, I stir in like 2 tablespoons of almond butter and 2 tablespoons maple syrup. It makes 2 servings so I just pack the other serving in a container for the next morning. Once it's in my bowl I top it with extra almond butter, chocolate covered chia seeds, and some frozen berry that is in my freezer, this one is raspberry. Sometimes I do another swirl of maple syrup too.


Pasta! This is the Pasta Pomodoro from Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen with a dollop of pesto on top, because more pesto. Hard to go wrong here. You don't need help understanding why I am in love with pasta, tomatoes and basil.


This is that buffalo tempeh salad with Terri ranch I was telling you about! Salad: 1. Pasta: 9. You can't say salad didn't win at least one..


Be back soon with hopefully less pasta, more makeup/beautystuffs, and hot with news.
<3,
KZ

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10 comments

  1. I've been doing a similar brekkie lately - usually oats or quinoa with berries and seeds and whatever else is lying around. Omg...Miyoko's TRUFFLE?? We are getting a proper Miyoko's range in Australia in about a month, up until now we've only had three or four of the cheeses and even then we haven't had them for about 5-6 months. Cannot wait!

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    1. They are all pretty good! I've tried most of them and haven't disliked any! I'm def into the softer ones though.

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  2. You're funny, and nothing wrong with pasta. It's goooooooooOOOOOd. Also, I really do want a tofu knuckle tattoo very much.

    xo
    kittee

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    1. Yaaaaas let's get Tofu Knuckle tattoos together when we hang out.

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    2. the only thing holding me back is fear of skin cancer. :(((((
      I'm afraid I might pigment under the tattoo and die.

      :/

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  3. This was such a fun and newsy post! I loved it. First of all, we totally agree on the VeganEgg. I hated it - a lot. I took one bite, thought it was terrible, took a second to be sure, and then threw it away. I still have the remaining powder left, and that's getting tossed today too. I don't want to accidentally ruin more food by using the VeganEgg on it. Second, I wish I had access to Terri ranch! That sounds so good. I've been using the FYH ranch lately, and that's good. However, I still haven't quite hit the perfect vegan ranch - either in recipe or bottled form. Third, I totally agree with the love for the truffle cheese from Miyoko. My three favorites are the fig leaf, black ash, and truffle. Whenever they're next available at the same time online, I'm going to pounce on it.

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    1. Yeah thumbs down for the vegan egg. I've never tried FYH ranch but I'll keep an eye out for it. The black ash was my favorite of the hard cheeses, and especially good when you pair with grapes!

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    2. I hate eggs and personally feel like the vegan egg craze is a scourge on the internet. i can't wait for it to be safe again.

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  4. You could tattoo Gnocchi across your toes, still havent had a chance to try Miyoko's cheese (Canada, small town) but really hope to try the black ash soon, interesting about the vegan egg (and Cadry's comment too) cause it seemed like everyone was loosing their sh*t over it. This post was super adorable. Viva la oatmeal!

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    1. Good idea! I have so many digit tattoos I need to get now! Hope you get to try miyoko's cheese sometime soon, they are super fancy and tasty. The black ash was good! Maybe when you get to try them, get a hard cheese like the black ash and a soft one too so you can get the best of both worlds :))

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