As you’ve probably seen, California is on fire again and it’s horrible. I can’t even imagine what the victims of these fires are going through. It’s hard to consider that a fire can move so fast and take out entire cities today, but that’s the reality of climate change and my heart and support goes out to all of the victims of these tragic and terrible fires. The Paradise fire is about 100 miles north of us and the Sacramento area took all of the smoke from it this weekend, I have never seen air quality this bad. It’s dry and smoky, yet cold and so strange. We should be getting wind and rain now, but there’s not a drop in the forecast. Cold enough to get the fireplace going again for the pups and we had to because I felt so guilty about not being about to get them out for walks.
By Saturday afternoon, the air quality was so bad that everyone was being warned to stay indoors. The view from our backyard was awful and kept getting worse as the sun set.
It continued to be a smoky nightmare today, we had to run errands in it for a car appointment and shopping and got unhappy sinuses, itchy eyes, and headaches for it.
Okay, enough of the depressing state here. Send happy thoughts, please! And to the food that included simple tofu stir fries.
Loaded salads with hummus dressing.
Fantastic vegan garden burger from with naked fries from Broderick Roadhouse Friday night
And I’ve been going through a lot of jackfruit from The Jackfruit Company here thanks to a Grocery Outlet score and having a fun time playing with Twin Dragon vegan wrappers. I sauteed the BBQ Jackfruit with grated cabbage and carrots to make a filling to use with the Gyoza Wrappers to make pot stickers. I pan fried them in veggie broth instead of oil and served with BBQ and sweet chili sauce for a fun, comfort meal since we were avoiding the smoke at home.
The came out very tasty! A little sticky sauteed in veggie broth, but it worked fine and the wrappers held together really well considering I’m not very experienced assembling them.
I stuffed more wrappers with sauteed Tex-Mex Jackfruit, beans, and tomatoes for more fusion pot stickers for dinner tonight and they were delicious too.
Other than that, it has not been an exciting weekend, trying to do as much as possible indoors. I went to the gym again this morning for a treadmill run instead of my usual Sunday run outside and there were a lot of distance runners there with the same idea. We’ve also been binge watching The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix, great show. Okay, to the list.
How to be vegan with a non-vegan SO.
One day we’ll get to the SEED Food & Wine Festival.
I love the growing zero-waste trend.
12 vegan Thanksgiving finds at Trader Joe’s.
Christine, I feel so bad for the people dealing with the fires! I can’t imagine what that is like. Saying a little prayer for them. You dog by the fireplace is way too cute, mine is doing the exact same thing! He’s so not a go-getter. I made some vegan ice cream (okay, it was for dinner) and everybody raved over it! Yay!!!!!
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
Thanks and me too, I feel bad even complaining about the smoke and wish I could do more. That is awesome on the vegan ice cream and that sounds like a perfect dinner to me! :-)
The air quality is killing me out here, but I’m trying not to complain knowing how bad it is in the actual site of the fire. It truly is heartbreaking to hear the stories coming out of the blaze…
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
Yes, me too! It’s been consistently in the triple digits for the AQI air quality ratings here the last few days which is unhealthy for anyone to go outside. But even more heart breaking is the stories and seeing the destruction on the news.