I feel like lately I've been getting stuck in a rut in a lot of different ways - work gets tedious, I never seem to make progress on anything, and I end up eating the same things a lot. I did finally get around to making a new recipe the other day - Gobi Manchurian.

It's an Indo-Chinese recipe featuring battered and fried cauliflower in a tomatoey sauce. I got the recipe from an old issue of VegNews. It came out pretty well - considering I'm a novice at battering-and-frying. And *gasp!* my mother ate it, too!

I also found some vegan zucchini tamales at Whole Foods last week. They're delicious with green chile sauce. Why? Because EVERYTHING is delicious with green chile sauce.

You can sorta almost see my super cute houndstooth skull plates from Target! What would I do without Halloween sales?

We've been growing a basil plant and some tomatoes since June. As a result I've been looking for every possible excuse to eat fresh basil. Pasta with tomato and basil has become one of my default lunches when I can't decide what to eat.

Somewhere in all my still-packed stuff is a book on backyard gardening. Now... as it happens we don't have a back yard, just a porch. (Well, technically there's a pit of rocks that you can walk out into downstairs, but there's not much sunlight.) But I've been checking out a lot of urban gardening blogs and it seems like you can grow almost any vegetable you want in containers. Do I smell a new hobby?

Recipe: New Mexico Green Chile Sauce

So I realized I actually do have a few recipes to share that I've neglected to post here. I keep some of this around AT ALL TIMES and I put it on virtually everything I eat. Everything. To be honest, I have no idea how much oregano and cumin I put in this because I've never actually measured it. This recipe is just my best approximation. I believe I've mentioned before that green chile will cure pretty much any illness (well... maybe not an upset stomach. But it's great for colds, flu, etc.)

My father has the Pasquale's restaurant cookbook, and it turns out their green chile recipe is remarkably similar to mine. (But mine is better than the one in their cookbook, imho.)

Ingredients

3 Tbsp. olive oil (add more if needed)
1/2 a large white or yellow onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
4 tsp. flour
28-32 oz. chopped New Mexico green chiles*
2 cups vegetable stock
2 1/2 tsp. salt
2-3 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
dash crushed red pepper flakes

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until almost translucent. Add garlic and continue to sauté until golden brown. Add flour and stir for 30 seconds. Add green chile, vegetable stock, salt, oregano, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.

*Yes, I DO mean New Mexico green chiles. New Mexico green chiles are a unique variety that aren't grown anywhere else. If you live in the vicinity of New Mexico there's a good chance you can find frozen green chile in your local grocery stores - check Whole Foods if you can't find it elsewhere. The farther you get from New Mexico the harder it is to find, but you CAN get canned green chiles in unexpected places.

Recipe: Not-So-Green Berry Smoothie

This has spinach in it. I swear.

So I don't know about where you guys live, but it's been freaking hot here. It was over 100 every day for about a week. Long story short, I've been making smoothies a lot - especially for a burst of energy before kung fu.

The way I see it, the key to making a really awesome smoothie in the summer is to use frozen fruit. In general, I use room temperature bananas and frozen everything else. This recipe is good for people who want to try making a green smoothie but are squicked out by the color. The key to the deep red color is blackberries. The color is intense enough to overwhelm the green spinach without turning brown.


Ingredients


2-3 huge handfuls of spinach
1 ripe banana
several frozen peach slices
loads and loads of frozen mixed berries (my mix has blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries)
a little bit of your favorite plant milk (vanilla or original flavor, I use coconut milk)
1 or 2 ice cubes

In a blender, add spinach, banana, and peaches. Fill the rest of the blender up with berries. I'm not joking. Add just enough plant milk to get it going. Blend thoroughly, stir if necessary. If it's just too thick and not blending properly, add ice cubes and a little more plant milk.

My smoothie matches my hair!