Fuck yea that's vegan!

Does that oven look different than usual? That's because last night I was invited to cook a vegan meal at a friends place.  I decided to go with one of my tried and true favorites, Japanese curry.  A lot of people are familiar with Thai curry and Indian curry but aren't even aware that Japanese curry exists and has its own unique taste.  I usually use the "Golden Curry" box curry that you can buy at most grocery stores but I'm working on making my own recipe because the box curry has MSG in it.  Last night for time and ease purposes I used the mild Golden curry.  I started by draining, pressing, slicing and frying the tofu then setting it aside while I browned the onion carrots and mushrooms in a bit of oil.  I added 1 cup water and then broke the curry cubes into the pan and stirred to dissolve.  Once dissolved I added another 2 cups of water and let that goodness simmer on medium heat for about 15 minutes stirring occasionally.  I sliced up the fried tofu, added it to the pan and let it simmer 5 more minutes. 

The curry was served with rice and sriracha to two of my meat loving friends who had never heard of Japanese curry before and are mildly skeptical about "the whole vegan thing."  It was also my husbands first home cooked meal after being away on a job for over a month.  I don't remember the exact comments because I had a glass of wine while cooking and when you're vegan it doesn't take a lot of wine to get the job done but it was something along the lines of ..."This is vegan?!"  To which I replied "Fuck yea that's vegan!"  The thing I like about Japanese curry is that unlike Thai curry there is no shrimp paste or fish sauce, it is truly vegan and truly delicious.

On Monday I decided to do another one of my favorite vegan meals, roasted veggies. There are a ton of vegetables that one can use to roast but I used cauliflower and onion.  I started by mixing a dry packet of Lipton's onion soup with about 3 Tbsp. of olive oil. I tossed the cauliflower florets and onion pieces in the bowl trying to cover each piece with the mix and let it sit while the oven preheated to 400 degrees.  I used a glass pyrex dish because it sticks less and spread the veggies out so they are in a single layer.  I put them in the oven for 15 min, use a spatula to turn and rotate a bit, then put 'em in for another 15.  Each oven is different but basically they're done when you can pierce the veggies with a fork. While the veggies were roasting I pan fried the Italian eggplant flavor of my field roast sausages and served the whole deal with brown rice. 

The Italian eggplant flavor sausage was good but I liked the smoked apple sage better and the roasted veggies were the star for sure but unfortunately the Lipton's packets are made with MSG so I'm trying to find an MSG-free version of that as well. As we all know MSG is Ew!

Breakfast this morning was an almond butter and fig jam sandwich and for lunch I'm going to have a hummus sandwich with sliced cucumber and mixed greens.