Ginger Stir Fry & Vegan Shoes

Happy Meatless Monday! It’s hard to come down from such an eventful, great-tasting weekend, my meals today seem plain compared to what I was spoiled with the last two days. But the challenge is on to recreate my own versions soon! For lunch I threw together a spinach loaded salad with kalamata olives, avocado, cherry tomatoes, and sauerkraut.

I dressed it with lemon juice, a little toasted sesame oil, hemp seeds, nutritional yeast and chipotle seasoning. It was a satisfying combo that packed a lot of flavor.

For dinner I played mad kitchen scientist and decided to create another tempeh stir fry by tossing ingredients into the Vita-Mix for a sauce before pouring into the wok that had:

• 1 chopped carrot
• 1 clove garlic
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 tbsp. nama shoyu
• 1 in. chunk of fresh ginger
• 1/4 cup water, as needed

I stir fried tempeh, green beans, carrot ribbons, red onion and sliced mushrooms, then added the sauce and the end result was very good.

Nutty, strong ginger flavor and very satisfying. I love using veggies to thicken sauces in a blender, carrots are great for marinara and stir-frys, zucchini is also great for some, cabbage and celery work too depending on the sauce. It’s so much better than using cornstarch and a good way to stuff more veggies in. In this case, the carrot added nice color and texture to the ginger sauce without affecting the flavor.

Anyway, I’m in the need of new hiking shoes/boots and want to buy vegan-friendly. Currently I’m looking at Merrel Chameleons, Siren Songs and Waterpros. Do you have any experience with these or have other recommendations?