my kitchen stylings

The past few days I have been a cooking machine. Last night I made eggplant parmesan with roasted asparagus, mushroom meatballs, and French bread. The night before that, lemon "chicken" and mashed butternut squash. Before that, "beef" and broccoli stir-fry. Monday night we had big, fresh salads with rotini and sauce (because Jason won't eat just salad as a meal, no matter how I make it). This was all vegetarian, of course.

Now, don't think I'm getting all fancy--a lot of this stuff is store-bought so I can cut corners. The squash was precubed; I just boiled and mashed it with Smart Balance. The eggplant was frozen and pre-breaded. The mushroom meatballs were from a package. The French bread was from the grocery store bakery; I sliced it, slathered on some Smart Balance, and popped it in the oven to get crusty.

Despite the shortcuts, it was all still delicious. Jason even came home for lunch today, and had two servings of leftover lemon chicken and eggplant with a side of squash and asparagus. Of course, now that he's already had leftovers today I have no idea what to make for dinner. I have another big bunch of asparagus in the fridge so I suppose I'll pop that in the oven and pray for something else inspiring to appear.

Even though I work from home, my job often keeps me busy well into the evening. That's the thing about telecommuting--you can never really leave for the night. It does afford other benefits, like working in sweatpants and not getting yelled at for looking at LOLcats first thing in the morning, so I'll take the occasional extra hour of work. If I didn't work, though, I would cook. I would get out my pasta maker that I have sadly never used and make some noodles. I would make Jason breakfast in the morning. I would start making dinner at 4 PM. But most importantly, I would bake.

Everyone in the blogosphere has been posting the most delicious-sounding pumpkin recipes, and I need to get in on that action. I have been wanting to bake all week, and I picked up some canned pumpkin and spices yesterday, so now all I have to do is pick a recipe and veganize it.

Decisions, decisions.