Lately, we've been somewhat lazy in the kitchen. Last week, I made a batch of my favorite lentil soup and really, that was it for my kitchen time. Kurt wasn't much better. I've noticed that my attitude towards food comes and goes in waves. The one constant is that I always feel as though I need to be eating more vegetables. Last year, lacking in creative ideas for what to do with vegetables once I've obtained them, I stocked up on some really awesome vegan and vegetarian cookbooks, figuring that they must be doing something right if they are really that happy without meat. And guess what? They're freakin' geniuses. I love vegan recipes. They are so creative and, most importantly, delicious. At least, all of the ones I've tried so far have been delicious...that certainly does not mean that there aren't some recipe duds in my books. I just haven't gotten to that page yet.

Tonight I was feeling a bit inspired (or bored with the current situation in the fridge) and so we got to work. On the menu: Samosa-stuffed Baked Potatoes (from Veganomicon...everyone should own this cookbook), Garlicky Kale with Tahini Dressing (fom Vegan with a Venegeance...same author as Veganomicon) and two types of muffins for our weekday breakfasts. Ambitious, right? Well perhaps...for a Sunday. But it was worth it.

Observe:

First batch of muffins - pineapple/orange/carrot (from Vegan with a Venegeance). I added in some hemp seeds and some extra ground flax seed to give them a bit more oomph.

The second batch of muffins, lemon cranberry cornmeal.

Kurt made this AWESOME tahini dressing for the kale. The recipe was in VWAV and it was the closest match yet to the tahini dressing served at Pluto's in Victoria, which is by far the best salad dressing on the planet.

While Kurt was making the tahini, I got to work with the baked potatoes. The potatoes were baked and then cooled and hollowed out and then we made this mixture of mustard and coriander seeds, onion and diced carrots.

After the potato was added back in, we threw in some frozen green peas, re-stuffed the potato jackets and put them back in the oven. The kitchen was smelling pretty good by this point.

Once the potatoes were back in the oven, I got to work washing and chopping up a beautiful bunch of local kale. I've never cooked with fresh kale before (though I've thrown a lot of frozen kale into soups). We cooked it in some olive oil with lots of sliced garlic (again, a recipe from VWAV).

And voila...the finished meal. All in all, it took about 1.5 hours, start to finish, but that included the time necessary to make and bake the muffins. Without those, the meal itself was easy and relatively quick. And did I mention that it was delicious? The vegans strike again.