Thankful and Comfort Eats

It has been raining hard and windy all day today, Miko is not happy and refuses to even go into the backyard. He just wants to park it by the fireplace.

Or bring me his toy for indoor playtime.

That doesn’t sound too bad, wish I could have stayed indoors all day today! After this week, I am ready for the weekend. I just bombed our kitchen making a double batch of this Vegan Curried Pasta Salad recipe for a work potluck tomorrow which was a bit much preparing and cleaning after a long day. I decided to bring a more solid dish this year that we can enjoy the leftovers from if needed and can be a hearty main dish for me since the signup sheet was already too full of very non-vegan friendly dishes.

And yesterday was an emotional roller coaster taking our senior cat Smokey to the vet and she is back home on medication twice a day currently. After x-rays, we found she has a largish tumor in her abdomen that isn’t causing any serious issues now, but did cause some intestinal inflammation over the weekend. There is not much we can do at her age but make sure she’s not in pain and having a good quality of life and she will go back for a follow up in a couple of weeks. Not great news, but not horrible at her age I guess and I’m thankful we can keep her at home. Also I’m feeling better after a great run at the gym, much needed after Tuesday’s disappointing run.

I had a hurried lunch at my desk yesterday since I took the morning off work, thank goodness for tofu rice leftovers.

Other simple one pot meals this week include a tempeh and kale oil free saute seasoned with Trader Joe’s citrus marinade sauce.

I also discovered Trader Joe’s Vegam Mozzarella Style Shreds are great for thickening and adding a delicious gooey texture to soups and stews.

I melted some into this tomato and black bean veggie stew and it made a satisfying winter meal.

Hubby made a fun dinner with Trader Joe’s Organic Spaghetti Sauce and Beyond Meat Beefy Crumble.

They made the cute red and green Christmas tree pasta I picked up from William Sonoma into a fun and festive meal.