
-- Look what I made! Okay, maybe I just planted the seeds and gave them some water. There are a lot of still-green pods on the plants, but I took these black-eyed peas from pods that had dried up. I assume that's the way to do it, as they look exactly like dried beans you'd buy at the co-op. I'm really excited about these; they seem like a staple food that I shouldn't be able to grow myself. What's next, a field of wheat? Unlike my soybeans, which still haven't flowered, the black-eyed peas have been growing really nicely, so I think I'll plant even more next year.
-- You know how I've been bad-mouthing my squash vines, saying that they're all show and no fruit? (No? Well, I have been.) I was really surprised to see a pumpkin on the vine, and right behind it -- another (bigger!) pumpkin. And another further along the fence. Suddenly pumpkins! I kept saying that in my head and laughing, because it makes me think of 'Suddenly Salad', which I see at the supermarket (I'm not actually sure what it is -- something you put on lettuce, I guess*). I always imagine somebody freaking out at the sudden appearance of a salad. 'Oh, shit! Wait, it's just a salad. Whew.'
* Oh, it's for pasta salad. That makes more sense. Those things can really sneak up on a person.

-- I'm starting anew with the chest freezer in my basement. There was a bunch of stuff in there that I shouldn't have frozen (asparagus) that was way past its use-by deadline, so I got rid of it. (I hate wasting food, but when it's stuff I don't want to eat, whatever -- but I discovered two baggies of pumpkin puree that I would have used, had I known they were in there! Sad.) Now I'm on a mission to create meals that I can freeze. Today I made chili, using the Classic Black Bean and Veggie Chili recipe from Appetite for Reduction. Isa is, once again, a genius. Love it. My only change was to use only one Tbsp of lime juice, and I omitted the agave (I don't usually add sweetener to chili; it makes it taste like BBQ or sloppy joes to me). I had one serving for dinner tonight, and I put five jars of it in the freezer.
I also made BBQ veg with notdogs. I usually do veg+tofu, but I didn't like the tofu on offer today. Once upon a time, I used a recipe for this sort of dish, but really it's just vegetables and tofu (or veggie dogs, in this case) with BBQ sauce. Actually, I sauteed the veg and seasoned it (cumin, garlic powder, salt), then put it in a baking dish. I added the chopped-up veggie dogs and half a cup of BBQ sauce and baked it all (covered) for 30 minutes at 425F. I made little dividers with tin foil, so I've got four servings in the freezer (and one in the fridge for tomorrow), and I imagine I'll eat them with brown rice or similar.
My problem with freezing meals is that I always get excited about stocking up, so I cook and freeze whatever it is, but then that's all I want to eat for the next week. But I plan to make (in the next few days) vegan mac 'n' cheese, enchiladas, lasagna, and pilaf with beanballs, so if I've got a bunch of different delicious things, maybe they'll last longer. I'm hoping that the real magic of this plan will be that I won't have to buy fresh veg quite as often. I go to the supermarket a LOT, because so much of what I eat is produce, and when it's fresh, there's only so much you can buy at once. This way, I still get the vegetables, but I don't have to worry about them going bad, AND I know how they were prepared.


































