Presto

Pasta: Brown rice pasta with roasted tomatoes & garlic, broccolette, squash & lacinato kale.

P(r)esto: 1 bunch of parsley, 2 cloves of garlic, pumpkin seeds, avocado, salt & olive oil

While watching: Comedians in cars getting coffee

Kale the hype

There's been hype around kale for a few years now & although it isn't necessarily the nutrient powerhouse everyone thinks it is it's still one of my favorite foods to cook with because its so sturdy & it always pairs with delicate quinoa & yams and I eat quinoa and or yams every day so my fridge is always packed with kale.

Made this with a pot of cooled quinoa, can do it woth leftovers, tastes best chilled. 

I cubed 1 yam & 2 golden beets

Tossed them in oil, salt, pepper, garlic, paprika, tumeric and baked it. (we are a tumeric home, the health benefits are unbelievable. Make yourself some Golden Milk.) 

Baked for 30-40 minutes then turned the oven off, covered them with kale and closed the oven. This makes the kale nice & crispy a la kale chips minus the fear of burning

Skinned and fried some almonds in olive oil

Folded it all in together and made a spicy tahini dressing

Vegan lasagna rolls

Cooking is my therapy. I come home from work, put on my apron, get some French music going and just slip into the zone. Problem with that is I usually forget within the next few days what I cooked. I'm hoping I can actively make notes on here of my creations because its rare that I can cook the same thing twice. I make dinner based on what I have on hand. I go grocery shopping once a week and I buy what I like, not based on what meals I want to make. So every night I pretend I'm on Chopped and open up the basket (my fridge) and get going with my secret ingredients. For whatever reason in the last 9 months that I've been married we have managed to make Thursday our pasta night, it just sorta happened because Thursday is my longest work day and pasta is quick. So anyway, we had: (be warned I do not measure anything, cooking is a heart science)
1/2 pkg of lasagna noodles
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
1/2 pkg of Baby Bella mushrooms
1 bag of fresh spinach
1 pkg of soft tofu
1 onion
Minced garlic
Spices:
Himalayan sea salt
Black truffle sea salt
Coarse & fine black pepper
Crushed red pepper
Basil
Oregano
Roasted garlic powder

1. Boil and drain the noodles. For best pasta results put the water in the pot and cover it, it'll reach it's boiling point much faster, do not salt the water until its boiling rapidly otherwise it will take longer to boil. Add your oil and noodles and stir frequently, lasagna noodles stick quick
2. Sauté spinach with salt and garlic, drain completely
3. Slice and sauté mushrooms with garlic, salt, pepper and onion, place in a separate bowl, you'll need the pot later
4. Drain tofu and place it in a bowl, using a fork you can smash it into the consistency of ricotta cheese. Add garlic powder, oregano, basil and salt, I used black truffle salt for that extra depth
5. Using the mushroom pot, heat up up your pasta sauce and season to your own liking. I always add extra garlic, basil and crushed peppers to my sauces.

Once all the components are done it's time to assemble.

-Put a layer of sauce in the bottom of the the baking dish
-On a separate plate lay out the noodle, spread some tofu-cotta on it, then sauce, then spinach, then mushrooms. Very carefully roll from one end and place into the dish seam-side down so it doesn't unroll. We made about 6 hefty rolls
-Pour sauce over the top of the rolls assembled in the dish and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. You could sprinkle some cheese or soy cheese on the top but we've become more sauce people.

The picture didn't come out too great but I get the idea