Microwave Mishaps

I had such a great dinner planned for tonight, but as I well know now, my plans don’t often work the way I expect them to…But I guess I’m getting a little ahead of myself now…

I had a pretty delicious (and simple!) lunch today. I started by making some Near East Roasted Garlic and Olive Oil Couscous.

I love these Near East products – they’re so simple to prepare (all I had to do was boil water and olive oil and add the couscous, and let it sit…), and so delicious.

I also prepared some Garlicky Green Beans on the side. I’ve never blanched beans before, so I tried it today. I simply boiled water, submersed the beans for about 3 minutes, and then put them into cold water to stop the cooking. For the beans, I sautéed some garlic and shallots. I mixed it all together, and it was good to go.

I snacked on an unpictured Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar (oh man I love these) before venturing out to the Farmers Market. And I cleaned up!

The big bag of peppers, beans and broccoli I got for $5! And all of this cost less than $10 – I love the Farmers Market!

I was pretty hungry when I got back, so I fixed myself a little snack.

But that’s not all!

I stuffed a few slices with pizza cheese – I’m trying my best to clean out my fridge a little bit, both because it’s getting a little ridiculous, and because I’m running a little low on cash (hence the life stress), and would like to hold off buying groceries I don’t need.

I had a nice leisurely afternoon (read: I sat around reading Veganomicon), and started to craft my dinner. I love the recipes in Veganomicon – I don’t think I could ever be vegan, but every time I page through the book, I’m a little tempted.

I decided to make the Diner Home Fries recipe out of the book – I love potatoes! They turned out quite delicious; I followed the recipe almost exactly, except I added dried rosemary for a little kick.

I wanted to make a sort of “breakfast for dinner” dinner tonight – I had some leftover Maple Grilled Tempeh that I made awhile ago, but alas, it was not to be. See, the microwave that I have at home has a very nice “reheat” button – you put something in, and it’ll reheat until nicely heated, and then shut off. Well, my microwave here has a “reheat” button, too, but it doesn’t quite shut off when the food is done. I probably shouldn’t have used the plastic container to reheat in…Let’s just say that I *still* have all the windows open in order to allow the wonderful smell of burned plastic and maple syrup. Ick.

After consulting my fridge as to what I could throw together easily and also get rid of, I made an "”Italian Quesadilla”. To a Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat Tortilla I added some homemade pesto, a little pizza sauce and some Mozzarella. Put in a pan until gooey, and I had my entree.

And altogether now:

Not quite as disastrous as it could have been…

And now, I’m debating dessert, while watching my Phillies on ESPN! ‘Night all :)