Vegan Day 5 1/2

That's right, folks. I only made it 5 1/2 days. Lame.

The day started out with good intentions.

Breakfast:

• Scrambled tofu with Daiya cheeze
• Toast with strawberry jelly
• Banana

And lunch was vegan, too! I made vegan corndogs a la Happy Herbivore. Real life: I think corndogs are delicious. This recipe had all the right flavors, but the texture was totally wrong. Maybe if it called for fine ground corn meal and had more flour, it would be right. I gauge all corndogs against the bar set by Hot Dog on a Stick. I  haven't had one of these since I was a wee child, but I can still imagine the texture. The batter is closer to the texture of pancakes, but still tastes like cornbread. Either way, the recipe was excellent as a vessel for yellow mustard.

But then there was dinner. 

The fam bam went to Sicily by Gino in Ventura. I had a special - rigatoni with marinara and eggplant... with ricotta salata. Yeah, I could have ordered sans cheese. But the pasta already was a noodle made with eggs, and I love eating out and trying new restaurants wayyy to much to abstain. 

googimages

While vegan was a good experiment, and I tried many new foods and recipes that I would have never considered before, I am going back to my omnivorous ways. I do see the value in eating vegan and I plan on making more vegan meals, but not restricting my diet so religiously. I just love cheese SO much. 

I am incredibly disappointed that I couldn't stick with it for a measly week, though. 

The next night I ate 1/4 of a roasted chicken. Sorry, animals.

Three Little Words

Best Dressing Ever. What did you think I meant?

When I say "best dressing ever", what comes to mind? If it is not the balsamic dressing at Upper Crust in San Luis Obispo, then I don't think we can be friends.

I've wasted many minutes of my life pondering how and why that dressing got so good. What I really should do is dedicate more time to research, and by research I mean drive my butt up to SLO for a salad bathing in that ridiculously good dressing. I swear it must have bacon in it. And shallots. And rainbows. Those are the only reasons it could be that good. I could spend hours trying to recreate the dressing, but the truth is that some things should be left to the experts. In an attempt to satisfy my craving for the best dressing ever, I whipped up a roasted garlic balsamic. It's not Upper Crust, but it's damn good.

First you need some roasted garlic, which, ps, could not be easier. It's as easy as 1, 2 ,3...

Lob off about 1/4" of the head of the garlic to expose the cloves. Drizzle 1 tsp EVOO over each head, wrap with foil, place on a baking sheet and roast at 400F for 40 minutes. When time is up, remove from oven and let cool inside the foil for about 20 minutes. When you unwrap, you will be greeted with a sweet, savory, garlicky treasure. Spread on toast, toss with pasta, mix into salad dressing, or whatever else your heart desires.

Now you're ready to make a tasty dressing.

Roasted Garlic Honey Balsamic Dressing


Ingredients

• One head of roasted garlic
• 1 tbsp smooth dijon mustard (like grey poupon)
• 1/3 c. balsamic vinegar
• 3 tbsp EVOO
• 1 tbsp honey
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• In a food processor, blender, or other magic bullet type device, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth
• The food processor also aerates the dressing, making it nice and thick

mmmmmmmmmm 

This dressing is perfect with baby greens, red onion, and cherry tomatoes. And it doesn't leave you with garlic breath, like the upper crust dressing does. However, I would have upper crust garlic breath every day for the rest of my life if I could. Best. Dressing. Ever. The three sweetest words you could ever hear.