God, I love Daiya!!

Yes, its a little pricey and is defintely a luxury for us, but when we have a package of Daiya cheese in our fridge, I get oh-so excited to use it. Today was another cold, wet day here in San Francisco and I couldn't stop thinking about soup. As soon as I got home from work, I scoured the fridge to see what I had - 2 broccoli crowns, half an onion, a garlic bulb, a few potatoes, and a bag of "cheddar style" Daiya cheese. I knew immediately what I would be making for dinner tonight... Broccoli potato cheese soup... YUUMMMM!!

I started off by sauteeing the onion and garlic with a little Earth Balance in a pot. When soft, I added a little flour to make a rue. To that, I added a couple cups of veg stock and whisked it until it thickened. Then, I added the Daiya - and I was not skimpy here. I boiled the potatoes separately and when they were fork tender, I added them into the soup, along with the chopped broccoli. I generously salted and peppered the pot and let simmer until Stephen got home - probably about 30 to 45 minutes.

I served it up in big bowls with a sliced bagguette...

Late Night Garlic Soba Noodles

After a long day of volunteering at the Green Festival yesterday (including a 45 minute wait to take the bus home.. seriously i have such a love/hate relationship with Muni right now), we were famished!!

So... on the bus, I scanned through Chef Chloe's blog (btw, one of my favs at the moment) on my iphone, and gained some inspiration for our dinner from her post on 'Garlic Sesame Soba Noodles'. I knew i had soba noodles and garlic - the rest I figured out when we got home.

Sure enough, I had about 90% of the rest of the ingredients, so I decided to make it work - it was fast, easy, and ended up being delish!!

Instead of the mushrooms Chef Chloe uses - Stephen hates mushrooms, but I am determined to change his mind about them - I used broccoli. I also added in some cubed tempeh pieces and bean sprouts I had in the fridge. Within 25 minutes of getting home, I had dinner on the table and we scarfed it down in no time!!

Oh, and one last thing - because we volunteered to help set up yesterday, we will be attending the Green Festival tomorrow (free of charge - woo hoo), so stay tuned for a post on that!! It should be pretty awesome!!

Check out a picture below!! p.s. Im hoping to invest in a much better camera in the near future, so bear with me for now.