Side salad

The other day I was visiting with a coworker and mentioned that I forgot to bring my lunch. She quickly and very kindly offered up her crackers, cheese and salami. I said no thanks but she pushed a little saying that she had a ton of it and didn't want it so I told her that I don't really eat that stuff too often anymore. She asked "What part of it do you not eat? The salami?" I said yeah the salami and the cheese and probably not the crackers either. "Are you some kind of vegan or something?" she asked. I told her that I am sort of a vegan. I just don't eat much dairy, meat or eggs. "So what, you just eat salads all the time then?" she asked.

Of course this is a common misconception about vegans and it is totally untrue. Not eating meat, dairy and eggs opens up a whole world of good stuff that you might miss just eating the staples of an American diet. So I thought that I would try to go all week taking photographs and talking about what I ate for dinner. Of course, it is Tuesday so I have already missed Monday but I actually wrote a post a while back about what we ate on Monday, so I guess I am still on track.

Tonight we had Hot Tamale Burgers, Spanish rice, broccoli and a salad. And tonight confirmed for me what I already suspected, I love cookbooks but I hate following recipes. I'm no good at it. The recipe uses brown rice as the glue for the patty. I had already planned on making Spanish rice and had left over quinoa from yesterday so I thought I would just substitute one for the other....eh, didn't work...tasted great but fell apart and in the end we had something more like a stir fry then a patty. I made a chipotle garlic alioi to go on top the burgers, it is one of Wade's favorite sauces (he loves sauces) so we drizzled that on top of the quinoa and it was super spicy and tasty. Henry had one bite and said "No more for Henry. Too picey!" But Wade thought is was the best vegan dinner he has ever had. I think I am going to try it again but make it into a bake instead of a burger. The recipe is too long for me to type out but if you are intrested let me know and I will make a photocopy and send it to you. Good stuff I tell you...way more than just salad :)