Sunday7: This Week’s Meals

I usually do a Sunday7 post by uploading photos from my phone, and selecting my week’s highlights. I wanted to start out the post with a couple of photos of the meals I’ve prepared this week, but as I scroll down my pics, I keep finding more food shots to include! Proof of domestication! I’m having fun preparing vegetarian food in interesting (and slightly familiar) ways so that my non-veg husband can appreciate it as well (though he’ll eat anything, haha). Anyway, I will try my best to not make this solely a food post. If only to prove to myself that I have a life and don’t spend all day in the kitchen. Haha 😛

Kale Chips. Just drizzle some olive oil, a pinch of sea salt and nutritional yeast on kale and bake for 8 minutes! Kale is amazing because it has nutrients that are mostly found in meat, such as protein, calcium, iron and omega3. Yung kai-lan (na hindi mo pinapansin sa grocery noon), is a variety of kale, which grows here in SouthEast Asia. The curlier types of kale grow in cooler climates, some even withstanding winter chill.

I will race you to the Sidcor Sunday Market (at Eton Centris, EDSA cor Quezon Ave, northbound side) to buy kale and other organic veggies. You need to look around for produce that is organic, because not everything they sell there is. I also like buying from stalls that are bare, and not as full, to support the smaller farmers 😉 I was able to get yummy thai coriander from there, which I added to pho!

This is a panCAKE! Haha. I can never make perfect pancakes. Maybe it’s because I always alter the recipe (4 tbls of chia seed gel = 1 egg; chia seed gel = 1 tbls chia + 6 tbls water + 15mins). Anyway, this panCAKE is the perfect way to disguise imperfection. I layered these whole wheat and vegan pancakes with toasted almonds, veg cheese, and chocolate chips.

Aside from Sidcor, I also get stuff from Healthy Options. It’s a pricey investment, but you can get by with just shopping for the staples (which can last long) such as whole wheat flour, quinoa, chia seeds, liquid aminos, etc. Some groceries carry these items as well. Santi’s also has a produce section, and sometimes I buy organic eggs there because there’s one near our home.

Quinoa, Sugarbeets & Spinach Burger patties. I’m sure this would have turned more red if I had a food processor. I’m so proud of this recipe, though, because it’s so yummy! In a rice cooker, I cooked a cup of quinoa + 2 cups water, and placed the steamer on top filled with a cup of spinach and 2 beets. While cooking, mix in a bow: 1 red onion, and 4 cloves of garlic (chopped), 1/3 cup nutritional yeast, 1/2 tsp sea salt. You can mix in some breadcrumbs, or opt to leave it out if you’re gluten-free. Once cooked, chop the spinach and beets, and add everything into the bowl. Form into patties, and grill. Organic sugarbeets and spinach are from BeOPA (Benguet Organic Producers Association / Contact: 09154763910).

Using the same ingredients in #4 above (spinach, quinoa, kale), I made a Quinoa Salad. Same procedure of cooking quinoa while steaming the beets and spinach on top, this time, together with the broccoli and french beans. When cooked, chop up the beets, and spinach, and dice 1 red onion and 1 tomato. Mix it with the couscous in a bowl, and squeeze half of a lemon over it (save the other half for your water ;P). Add salt and pepper to season. Sooo easy.

Pako Salad. Pako is an edible fern, popular in the province where they just pick it off the roadside, but not so popular in meat-centric Manila. I just chopped up half a red onion, 2 tomatoes (because PJ loves tomatoes), and mixed some apple cider vinegar with extra virgin olive oil, garlic and pepper.

I was craving for Shabu-shabu, so I tried to make some. TRIED. Haha. Instead of squid balls, I used VEAT, which is soy-based mock chicken, and can be found in Shopwise, and some Rustan’s groceries. Cooked it in vegetable stock with broccoli, eggplant, and malunggay (from our backyard). Served with looooootssss of garlic + liquid aminos (soy sauce replacer).