Something about that acidy, tart, savory and yet sweet tomato sauce cries out for a burst of something fresh. Basil to the rescue! Either cut into tiny ribbons, or torn into little bits, it provides a beautiful fresh bite to the super-savory sauce. I think I actually have pictured here a combo of parsley and tomato, but more fresh and green stuff, more better, right?


I've never been one to turn away a lovely pile of green spinach when paired with a dreamy red tomato sauce either.


Maybe the champion dish for the tomato & basil combo is a marinara pizza. Nothing beats a freshly tossed dough with beautifully blistered basil. You can smell this pie from a mile away! It's hard to argue with a pizza that looks like this. What is your favorite color-combo when you're eating??

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.



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

I like that this was a two-pot operation. Lately I have been dealing with a pile-up of dishes. Wash, dry, put away, wash, dry, put away, washdryputaway... I can only work with so many dishes at once in my shoebox kitchen. No really, do you remember what my kitchen looks like?? Yes, the toaster oven dangles off the top of my pantry. I can deal with what I have, but just not every day of the week. Two pots good, Four pots bad.


Your basic sea of onions and veggies accompanied by several cloves of chopped garlic..

 One night we went out for Mexican food and got several margaritas. They are a once-in-a-while thing, but damn, frozen margaritas sure are one of the best pleasures in life. These are both for me, of course, followed by at least two more...

 Sigh..