This is the second full vegan meal I've pulled out of pretty much nowhere and in a foreign kitchen. Some golf claps or poetry snaps are in order.
So Anthony, the boyfriend, wanted to make tacos. He was near panic-stricken that I would surely starve. I thought this would be easy. Beef ~> beans = happy me.
He admits his novice status with beans and vegetarian/vegan cooking in general. Even still I trusted him at the store.
With the burners fired I assured him even more while cooking my non - buttered rice. This was going to be easy - peasy. Bring on the beans!
He bought me baked beans with bacon... It's small on the label but an arrow in the vegan heart none-the-less.
While he's beside himself for buying forbidden beans I put the gears in the works. Think of the positive and not the negative. Being vegan is not about what you CAN'T have, but what you CAN. From Day 1 of my culinary quest I look at HAVE and not FORBIDDEN.
Still, reality sets in... I have a pot of brown rice and a whole lot of nothing in an empty kitchen with only what I dragged along from my house for inspiration.
My bag included: cereal, rice (I had cooked already), date bars, curry powder (my savior so many times), clementines, almonds, and some dried fruit... Now this is a challenge...
What do I end up with, you ask?
A bowl of brown rice with toasted almonds and (first time and don't knock it til you try it) toasted clementine with curry powder.
I put about a glug and a half of olive oil in a pan and threw the almonds in over medium-high heat. You don't even have to wait for the oil to bubble, just roll the almonds around until they start to darken. It took maybe 3 minutes tops. Then I broke the clementine into its sections and lined them around the pan. Only about 30 seconds on each side and they browned up. A few shakes of curry powder to taste - didn't even have almond milk to stew it a bit - and VOOM!, you have yourself a belly-filling meal. And a boyfriend-impressing meal. He looked down at my plate and said "How did you do that?!?!"
Because I'm fabulous and kept an open mind! Haha.
To keep with the original taco theme of the night and to indulge in some salsa I crumbled up taco shell and BOOM -------> chips and salsa.
Then I was brain-dead and went to bed. I'm tired just re-telling it! THAT was a mind work-out and I'm definitely going to start keeping more stuff at his place or carry more with me for an "In Case of Emergency" meal.
Deuces, Vegan MacGyver
《Drops mic》
And what do I get >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> A sweet-segment-sucess AKA A clementine reward!
PS - For the top pic does anyone else get their feet in their food pictures? Mine always get in my pictures!