Asian Dinner

Somehow I feel a little wrong cooking a vegan or vegetarian recipe with a side of meat, but it happens a couple days a week now that I'm finding so many good recipes in vegetarian and vegan cookbooks like the collards in Vegan Soul Kitchen and the tamarind lentils I made tonight from Veganomicon that it happens more and more. As long as I'm eating healthier on the whole I don't think it's incredibly bad.

So, tonight's dinner was tamarind lentils, mentioned above, and one more Robin Miller pork recipe, hoisin pork chops. One dish was more Indian inspired, the other Chinese inspired. I used a few new ingredients tonight, which was interesting. Tamarind is a nice flavor, garam masala also helped to round out the spicy-sweet lentil dish, and hoisin sauce is a pleasure, at least mixed in with a little orange juice and balsamic vinegar.

So far I have discovered a lot of new foods, healthy foods, as I have experimented. Granted, I have not commented on them as such during the course of this blog yet, but my palate and nutrient base has been expanded. Instead of eating only one kind of green in two dishes (a soup and a salad that used baby spinach) now I also have several recipes for cabbage that I enjoy such as won ton soup and cayenne coleslaw, and citrus collards, as well as experimenting with mustard greens and kale. I enjoy a couple of tempeh recipes so far, with home-made barbecue sauce, and hoppin' john. I've been making my own vegetable stock almost every week to have it on hand, using collard stems and other basic ingredients, which has also been more fulfilling to used than the boxed stuff.

Husband and I are getting a share in a csa this summer, and the first box comes next week. I am even more excited about trying new recipes I wouldn't have thought of without getting some fresh from the farm. In addition, I've started to make a list of recipes I will be trying this summer so that I branch out even more, and don't have to look too far to find one that I've been interested in trying out.

I feel like worlds are opening up before me. For many years, when I would agonize over what to eat for dinner, and settle for Taco Bell, a baked potato, or cereal for dinner if I didn't have money for a frozen pizza or want to spend money on one from a pizzeria. Occasionally I would make meat loaf or spaghetti, or make dinner from a loaf of bread. I've been cooking for years, but it was usually confined to breads and deserts. Now, however, my horizons keep expanding further and further. I like more food than I thought, and I'm eating better, too.