Dinner Plate #19

 

I took some time off work. I haven't been doing well these past few weeks, and I'm preparing to fulfill my civic obligation to serve on a jury. So I hid from the world by spending too much time cooking.

I thought colors would help me feel better, so this is colorful: Corn and tomato salad with avocado (base recipe from Eat Simple Food), steamed green beans, a main dish I veganized from Creative in My Kitchen's recipe for Vegetarian Loaf with Mushrooms, Fonio, and Parmigiano, and roasted purple potatoes.

I've been shopping! I was a bit panicked when I was there because it was one of those "tariffs are coming" days and I kept seeing "a product of Mexico" and "a product of Canada" on so many things, it freaked me out. But I did mostly stick to a reasonable list, even if I was stressed beyond my ability to cope, and just went home and went to bed for an afternoon afterward.

Obviously, I know how to live it up on vacation. But anyway, back to the post-shopping food.

This was actually pretty great. I liked the vegetables best of all, but that's nothing new, especially in this mood. In this mood, I want veggies, and basically nothing else. The potatoes were great (I know I just made some like this, but I definitely wanted them again!), the green beans were amazing (so fresh and finally the store had them--I had to buy a huge bag to get them because they didn't have smaller bags but I didn't care this time), and the salad was delightful even though they didn't have the tomatoes I wanted and I compromised with something else. Veggies, veggies, everywhere, to calm me down... Fortunately, the loaf also had lots of veggies, which encouraged me to eat it!

I've actually been wanting to make this fonio loaf for a while now, and I'm glad I finally did! It's how I finished off my fonio. I have loved fonio, so I will probably buy it again, but for now, I'm just content to have had something delicious in my long pantry-utilization quest. I used JUST Egg and some vegan Parmesan to veganize the recipe. I only had 1/4 cup of dry fonio left, so I had to cut the recipe down to 1/3, but fortunately I have a little pan that is about the dimensions of 1/3 of a loaf pan (it's square), so it still made these lovely slices. Had I made a whole recipe, I would have likely been overwhelmed by how much it made--this made what I consider three generous servings as it was. I think more "egg" would have helped it be more solid, but I was still able to get it sliced without trouble after letting it firm up for a while. Fonio, mushrooms, and cheese--what's not to love?

Please tell me how you're coping with things. Maybe I'll get ideas from you. I mean, potatoes help, but it's always nice to have more options.

Meanwhile, simply because I haven't done it in a while and this is absolutely jam-packed with plants, here's a plant counter for the plate:

1. Avocado

2. Corn

3. Tomatoes

4. Red onion

6. Lime (juice)

7. Jalapeno

8. Cilantro

9. Green beans

10. Purple potatoes

11. Fonio

12. Cremini mushrooms

13. Carrot

14. Parsley

15. Dill

16. Scallions

17. Chives

18. Olives (in the oil)

19. Mung beans (in the JUST Egg)

20. Turmeric (in the JUST Egg)

21. Black pepper

Genuinely, that's not bad for one meal!