Lazy Food

Plant and animal biology is so boring, I have to do it in spurts. Basically if I study hard for 10 minutes then I get a break :)

We've been staying at Dan's parents place while they're away because it's so close to my university and close to where Dan is working right now. So, I don't have all the usual stuff that I would cook with (nutritional yeast, flax, seeds, nuts, beans, etc.) and I resorted to buying vegan faux meat. I can't really complain about that because I love it, but I do try to limit it in my diet. 

On one of my many study breaks I made a delicious Cucumber Salad. I honestly thought I wasn't going to like it because I thought it was going to be soggy. To my pleasant surprise it was really tasty! I even took some to work with my the next day and it wasn't soggy!

Cucumber Salad

1 english cucumber - cut into ~1/2 cm thick circles

1/2 T apple cider vinegar

1/2 t lemon juice

1.5 t dijon

1 t extra virgin olive oil

1/4 t dried dill (more if you're using fresh)

Pinch of sugar

S&P to taste

Cut up cucumber. Put all ingredient (except cucumber) into a mason jar & shake to mix. Put everything into a bowl and let sit for about half an hour (I put mine in the fridge). Devour. 

While the cucumber salad was marinating, I cooked up some quinoa, fried up some tofurky beer brats and steamed some broccoli. I combined them all together with a little bit of soy sauce and some sriracha and called it dinner. So quick & easy yet so delicious. I could probably eat this meal every single day. Tofurky sausages are so yummy, even my omnivore boyfriend likes them! I'm in love with the Italian kind, but Superstore was all out so I got the beer brats instead and they were equally delicious. They'd be perfect in place of hotdogs. I read this article about what's really in hot dogs - GROSS!

Cooking as Procrastination

It's coming down to crunch time at school, I have a big Biology lab evaluation this week and my lab final. I'm doing my best not to procrastinate but it's in my blood. During exam time and when I have monster papers to write, I can find a million things to do - cooking, cleaning my house, writing emails, Pinterest, etc. Dan and I booked a trip to Vegas for September long weekend so obviously researching things to do while we're there is more important than making my Biology memory cards, right?

So instead of studying today I decided to make a delicious sauce for dinner instead of grabbing some homemade soup from the freezer.

Creamy Cashew Sauce (vegan)

Adapted from this recipe

1/3 C cashews (mine soaked for 6 hours)
1/4 C + 1 T water
2 t dijon
1 t apple cider vinegar
1/2 t sriracha (optional - I really like spicy food)
1.5 t lemon juice
1 t soy sauce
2 T nutritional yeast
1 t garlic powder (I would have used 2-3 cloves but I was all out)
1/4 t onion powder
S & P to taste

Rinse and soak cashews for an hour or so (the longer, the better). Throw all ingredients into Vitamix/blender/magic bullet. Blend until you get a creamy sauce! Put on anything and everything. I like mine on rice with broccoli or peas! MMmmMMmmm! 

This was so yummy but my poor boyfriend can't eat nuts so I'll try it with pumpkin seeds next time!

Send me your links for you favorite vegan creamy sauces, I love trying new recipes!