Fats: flaxseed and oat bran

You can't see the flaxseed in this picture, but it's there, and it's full of fat.

Here's the important thing about flaxseed:











Its calories come mostly from fats. Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, which you can also get from nuts, coconuts, and vegetable oils, among other things.




Flaxseed is always in my refrigerator. I add it to stew, oat bran, cereal, sprinkle it on squash, salads, sandwiches, toast. You can put it on anything. If it has a taste, it's a slightly nutty taste, but it doesn't really have a taste.

What you see above is a bowl of hot oat bran, with two tablespoons (or thereabout) of flaxseed mixed in, and granola sprinkled on top. This is an incredibly filling breakfast. The oat bran (1 cup of it) has 33% of your "recommended" daily protein, along with 28% of your iron, 58% of your fiber, and 10% of your fat.

The granola is just fucking delicious and has maple syrup and vanilla, so there you have that. The granola contains: rolled oats, walnuts (again, look at the fats and protein), sunflower seeds, maple syrup, raisins, cranberries (look at the color!), coconut, canola oil, and vanilla extract.

This breakfast (or -- if you're studying for a test or you have a deadline and/or you're sleepy and lazy -- dinner) is a powerhouse of fats, protein, and iron. Also, you can have it with toast and blueberry preserves, and then it's just game over. Look at this. Shut up.

The best dollar-fifty I ever spent: A pint of tomatillos

Imagine the taste of a raw green pepper mixed with a strawberry. That's how a raw tomatillo tastes.

I removed the skins of these three (save the skins for your soup stock), cut them in quarters and threw them into the skillet for the last two minutes to heat with my curried blue and white potatoes. Start by cooking the potatoes thoroughly with olive oil, onion, and salt. At the end, add the curry powder (don't be shy about it), and I added a little rosemary as well.

Then add the tomatillos. They taste so good raw, it nearly breaks your heart to cook them, so only add them at the end, give them a little heat and toss them around to coat them with the other flavors, but they've got plenty of flavor inside, so don't lose that.

We're going to have these with a breakfast sandwich. Most of the time, we don't have things like soy sausage (or any fake "meats") or tofu in the house. We do eat tofu hoagies from Fu-Wah probably at least once a week, but as a general rule, the kitchen is stocked with vegetables, grains, beans, and fruit, not manufactured nonsense. However. I've been craving these soy sausage on English muffin sandwiches like crazy lately.

We bought fennel seeds at the market today, so I embedded some of those into the Gimme Lean soy sausage patty. I also cooked some thin, thin slivers of portabella mushroom. This is all cooked in the olive oil with the leftover tastes from the curry potatoes and tomatillos.

We're going to slice a tomato to top this with and put it on a toasted white-wheat English muffin. As these are cooking, you've got the potatoes setting aside. When you take the soy sausage and mushrooms off the heat, throw the potatoes back on for a minute or two to reheat while you put the sandwich together.


I have to be someplace tomorrow at 9 am and I have to be there all day. So I'm going to bring some raw tomatillos for snacks (remember, they're high in Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, so they're nice and filling), along with some raw carrots, maroon, orange, and white.

Right now, I've got a butternut squash and three apples baking in the oven with olive oil, cinnamon, and brown sugar. They're not for tonight. I'm going to make fried apples pies in the morning to take with me, and wrap the squash (stuffed with apple) in foil and bring that as well. I'm moving up in the world, I now have big, re-usable aluminum pans to bake in, rather than folded aluminum foil. One day, I'll own a casserole dish. I will.

Saturday market: tomatillos, spices, red beans, and mud

It's like summer outside. Another rainy day at the farmer's market, but instead of last weekend's Nor'easter, today we have 70 degree weather, low clouds, and balmy air.

Last night, I decided to buy something today that I've never bought before, but I didn't know what. At the market, I decided to buy tomatillos. I used to order something at a Mexican restaurant that had tomatillo sauce. Where was that? I remember, it was the place at 40th and Sansom, where I used to eat when I worked at the salon. I would get the black bean burrito with tomatillo sauce. It seemed hot and cool at the same time. Like if you had a spicy cucumber. I hadn't even gone vegan yet then, but I always ordered vegan things from there. I was such a closet case. It's always so obvious in hindsight.

Saturday shopping list

1 lb small red beans (dry)
3 leeks
1 pint tomatillos
2 portabella caps
1/2 dozen tomatoes
2 butternut squash
2 large yellow onions
1 bunch curly kale
big bag of multi-color carrots
1 oz curry powder
1 oz fennel seeds
1 oz southern seasoning mix
1 oz lemon pepper
1 loaf multi-grain bread
1 loaf sourdough bread
1/2 dozen brownies

total at farmer's market: $52.21

We did great on money at the market today, especially considering that we bought all those spices and a half-dozen brownies, and it still was under $55. However, to the total grocery bill, we have to add about another $10. We had to go downtown for cat food and a vacuum cleaner anyway (apparently, they don't sell vacuum cleaners for under $80 anywhere in West Philly), so we used the opportunity to go to Trader Joe's.

@ TJ's

two 14-oz packages of Gimme Lean soy sausage
1 lb of firm tofu
1 dozen English muffins

total: I didn't save the receipt, but $10 and change

So, about $60, and we are stocked with what I feel is deluxe food. I feel completely spoiled right now. Mark is frying up a couple of soy sausage patties while I blog this up. Nothing like breakfast for dinner. When he's done, I'm going to make a side of curried potatoes before I fix a soy sausage sandwich for myself.

Featured on today's shopping list: Tomatillos. Tomatillos are a good source of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids. Those are good for anybody, but they're really great things for vegans, and especially vegans with a high metabolism, because fatty acids burn slow on your metabolism fire. (Remember, carbs are like paper on the fire, and fats are like logs on the fire.)