edamame hummus

After work on Friday Isaac and I walked to Ellwood Thompson’s to grab some dinner. We ended going for the sushi counter. I got a Summer Roll which was crab, shrimp, avocado, carrots, cucumbers and lettuce all wrapped in a rice paper wrap with a sweet spicy chili sauce. Isaac got a salmon roll and we shared. 

I’ve had other Southern Tsunami Sushi products before including the avocado rolls and I think I like those better- the seafood version was just okay. Next time I’ll just stick with the avocado rolls or sushi. 

I went to a run this morning, before the temperature got too out of control – it’s suppose to get up to 95 today!! I ran about 5.5 miles and even thought it was 9 AM it was still HOT! I ended up super sweaty and all I wanted was something fresh and cool for lunch. I had a raw veggie plate with TJ’s edamame hummus.

While eating I looked through a new cookbook I recently received:  Vegan College Cookbook courtesy of Peta.

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Turns out that I’m not in college  nor am I Vegan, however I’m not one to turn down a free cookbook so I gladly accepted this one. I just got the book in the mail today so I haven’t had a chance to try anything, but I have looked through the pages and read many of the 275 recipes. Overall, the thought of a Vegan cookbook for college students is great, the descriptions are witty, and the recipes are v. easy.

As I skimmed through the book, I was particularly intrigued by the 20 page section titled Spotlight On: Peanut Butter which features sandwiches, salads, sauces, and desserts- all including the beloved peanut butter. There’s also another Spotlight On section which highlights recipes with ramen including “Pimp my Ramen” Noddles. Even in college I didn’t really eat ramen so I wasn’t too impressed with this section, however I did make me a giggle a little because I did have some friends who lived on ramen in college. 

One thing that I don’t love about this cookbook is that all of cooked recipes use only a microwave. I realize that if you are living on campus and don’t have a stove it’s probably perfect, but I try to limit my use of the microwave, so this method of cooking isn’t really for me. Of course I can always use the recipes as a guide and use the stovetop or oven instead of the microwave so I might be doing a little improvising. One cool thing is that there are a ton of recipes for foods that I never thought you could make without a stove including cinnamon rolls, blueberry pancakes, BBQ Pizza, and a ton more. 

This cookbook also loses some points with me because it’s lacking both pictures and nutritional information. I don’t know about you, but even if my version of the recipe never looks like the one in the cookbook I still LIKE to have a picture to look at. I’m about 75% more likely to make a recipe that had a photo over one that doesn’t. And nutritional information per serving is nice to have as a guide. Also, I like glossy pages, but I think that’s just a fetish of mine so I won’t subtract any points for it being a paperback. 

I will definitely be trying some of the sandwiches, salads, sauces and desserts in this book because they look pretty delicious. One of my favorite recipes featured is “Ants on a Blog: A quick and healthy snack for all you die-hard bloggers too busy, typing away to make a meal.” It’s just the old ants on a log – celery, PB, and raisins combo, but I thought some other bloggers might get a kick of this. 

I’ll be sure to point out the recipes I try from this cookbook and let you know what I think! 

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. I’ve been having a great one because one of my best friends is in town- we hung out last night and it was awesome to see her!! Isaac and I are headed to Charlottesville this afternoon to crash a wedding party- hopefully all goes well

For any Virginia readers out there interested in local foods, you may be interested in checking out Fall Line Farms. It’s a farm to family co-op that offers beef, lamb, pork and poultry, artisan goats cheeses and a listing of heirloom local produce from farms in the Richmond and Virginia Beach areas. I like the idea of this organization because unlike a lot of other Community Supported Agriculture groups you get to choose what products you want each week rather than just getting a standard lot.

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