Go man, go!

Why did I buy two mangoes?

Last week I decided that I would cook my way through Peas and Thank You, my latest cookbook purchase that happens to feature all vegan recipes. I would dedicate 28 days in September to this challenge, trying on vegetarianism for a short spell. I don't expect it to be too hard, as already I eat a pretty meat-lite diet, simply because 1) meat is expensive and inconvenient for a single gal to purchase and cook in single serving quantities and 2) I am lazy and would rather pull a can of beans/package of tofu/jar of peanut butter off the shelf than plan ahead and remember to take out a piece of animal protein from the freezer the night before.

I sat down on Saturday morning and Post-It Note-d all the recipes that caught my vegetarian eye. Then I made a list of the ingredients I did not have and went out shopping to acquire them.

I ended up with a case load of chickpeas, some tofu, a jar of almond butter, something called nutritional yeast, some lettuce greens and a ton of fruit, including two mangoes.

On Sunday I decided I couldn't wait for September so I tested the Skinny Elvis Sandwich--an almond butter and strawberry sandwich grilled in the frying pan. Normally, almond butter on its own is rather blah, but the recipe tells you to douse the filling with cinnamon before closing the sandwich up and placing in the pan. With the first bite I discovered that cinnamon takes almond butter from gag me to gimme more. This sandwich is a new favourite I will be coming back to for breakfast, lunch or supper. I tried it today with just toast and it was equally yummy.

Because I have my third and final Dragon Boat practice on Thursday, Lisa and I had to reschedule our weekly dinner date to Tuesday. Had we been able to get together on Thursday (September 1) I would have served her something from the Peas and Thank You book. Instead I am letting my tongue have a final tango with meat: barbecued bison burgers. I'm still not sure what I had planned to do with the second mango (one was for a strawberry, mango, spinach and roasted chickpea salad) but I did have a recent bookmark on a mango caprese salad (change out the tomatoes for mango slices and garnish with fresh mint) so I will make that for the side.