Sequestration Meal #432

 

This meal made me think of someone who has stopped blogging, Hillary at My Cat Loves Daiya, because it felt so much like something she would have made. I miss Hillary these days, and I hope she's doing better, wherever she is.

In any case, here we have lemon garlic soy curls from the recipe at It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken, mashed potatoes, and zucchini-bell pepper stir fry from the recipe at Archana's Kitchen. Hillary often made interesting soy curls with mashed potatoes or rice and veggies, and I think she ultimately inspired me to try them. Soy curls changed my vegan life, so I'll always be grateful.

The sauce on the soy curls got extremely thick, but that's fine; it was deliciously lemony and garlicky. Mashed potatoes are mashed potatoes and always glorious. I only used half of the crushed red pepper flakes suggested for the veggie stir fry, and that was a good move--as such, it was spicy, but not overwhelmingly so.

Although there are splurges here--a fresh lemon, red bell pepper rather than green, yellow potatoes rather than the super cheap white ones--this is still a pretty cheap meal. The zucchini was on sale, I buy big bags of lemons so individual lemons aren't that pricey, and life is too short to not enjoy the $1/pound potatoes you love rather than the 75 cents/pound potatoes you don't care for as much. As for the peppers, I've learned how much joy that I get from the pop of color a red or orange bell pepper brings me, and I always incorporate a little bit of "just for the joy" stuff in my shopping. That used to be mostly stuff like chocolate and cookies but you know what? Produce can be a lot of fun, too.

What brings you joy in your groceries?