Try This Tuesday, Or: To Thine Own Self Be True

I habitually hit a kitchen rut every January, this year being no exception. Once Sam went back to work after the holidays, the only kitchen motivation I had was buttering toast, but I soldiered through! I tried five new recipes in the last two weeks, and there were a lot of busts, actually. Here is a weird truth, no matter how much I try (and try!), I just can't get on board with butternut squash. It's related to the whole not-liking-cooked-fruit thing. I suppose I don't like sweet things to be warm, and butternut squash is too sweet. This also goes for sweet potatoes. So the new recipes included a vegan mac 'n' cheese (butternut squash based), and a sweet potato chili. Entire dinners in the trash (wah wah). So the lesson learned is that if you don't like something, don't make it for dinner. Know yourself, know your tastes, and to thine own self be true. Amidst the gross stuff I also found some goodies! Here's a list of things to try.

Quinoa "meat"balls. My dear friend's sister-in-law runs this vegan and allergy-friendly blog, and I thought this dinner was amazing. I often crave spaghetti and meatballs, but just cannot stomach red meat anymore. Problem solved! I ate these meatballs for days on end. Perfect texture (crisp on the outside!) and a great depth of flavor. (Though Sam wasn't as wild about them as I was and kept telling me I shouldn't call them meatballs, because it was deceiving.) The kale featured in this post was pretty cool. I think I just don't like kale though (too bitter), but the coconut/maple/orange flavor was awesome.

Apparently I'm on a quinoa kick, but I fell head over heels for this Thai Fried Quinoa. I tried both of these recipes because it seems all the popular quinoa recipes are for mexican style dishes (tossed with onion, bell peppers, cilantro, and lime), which gets boring. But this Thai fried quinoa was so good, I could have eaten the entire pan in one sitting, no joke. All that coconut milk probably means it isn't the world's healthiest recipe, but it's so good you won't even care. Seriously, make this today.

Of course winter means I want to eat soup every day, and this carrot ginger miso soup really hit the spot. Unfortunately not even Bria liked this soup, which is suspicious, but I loved it. Miso makes my heart sing. (And, just so you don't have to make multiple trips to Whole Foods like I did, I'll tell you that miso is located in the refrigerated section, near all the other vegan stuff.)

And lastly, we met up with Hannah and Rob on Saturday night for sandwiches at Brabo's the butcher block. Not a great place to stay and eat (we brought the sandwiches back to our place), but the sandwiches were fantastic. Right near the king street metro, I definitely recommend it for a quality, gourmet sandwich (and I really want to go back for a cheese plate). (also note they stop making sandwiches at 7pm.)