Fresh Herbs are Wonderful!

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Have You Tried a Catering Service?

Ok...Plating not good, but food delicious. 

Vegan Week with Conveniently Natural 

Most people know that I’m not fond of melted cheese or dairy so eating a vegan diet is just as good as any. But the last couple of weeks our main kitchen has been under construction and unusable. We do have  a kitchen in the 3rd floor Mother-in-law suite, but it is difficult to maintain two refrigerators, plus the space is small. So there’s very few full meals being produced at the Brandt home these days. There are two issues with this: 1) I love to be in the kitchen cooking and playing 2)We don't like eating out much. Home cooked fresh meals are more our style.

But, we were in luck. I discovered Conveniently Natural, a vegan catering service in Kansas City. The food is delicious, and there’s plenty of variety.  They change their menu every week with a seven week rotation. For our first meal, we decided to have a Sampler Plate giving us a chance to rate the food.  I have to admit I tweaked the meals to our liking, but it saved a lot of time and made using the “little” kitchen bearable. Here’s what was on our first week’s menu. 

• Rich Lentil Loaf with Tomato Basil Sauce
• Asian Pad Thai with Chickpea Miso Sauce (added more thai peppers and oil)
• Sage Portobello Mushroom Steaks
• Oriental Cashew Vegetable Stir-Fry (added Orange Sauce)  
• Nourishing Vegetable Couscous
• Cauliflower Curry and Cinnamon Spice Sweet Potatoes
• Masala Dhal with Caramelized Onions and Carrots (used my Coconut Curry sauce)
• Toasted Sesame Emerald Greens
• Creole Style Quinoa

 I added fresh salads, and of course for our soup night I made Veggie Pho soup.  With our staples of  homemade veggie chili and Baba Ganoush in the refrigerator, we were able to “snatch and grab” all week.  

The other advantage of using a Vegan catering service is that I am gaining a lot of new ideas for our home menus.  

I’m looking forward to this upcoming week’s menu. We pick up on Monday. And I think, I'll keep the tradition of first meal of the week being a Sampler plate!

Kathleen Brandt

http://twitter.com/SpicyBrandt

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