Guests

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We’ve had a major weekend here at the Peaceful Reader house. My in-laws arrived on Friday night for Groovy Girl’s dance recital on Saturday. Her recital is pretty much an all-day event and you have to really be prepared. We had a delicious breakfast to start our day and by 11 am were waiting at the event venue so we could get good seats.  In between the 1:00 pm show and the 6 pm show we met at one of our favorite healthy joints in the Cedar Valley, Greenhouse Kitchen, so we could make it through the second show.  Unfortunately she hurt her leg during one of the dances, danced two more dances and then gracefully exited the stage after it became unbearable. She’s wearing a brace and hobbling around with a borrowed pair of crutches.  Hopefully it heals fast for her. 

Beyond the injury I love having guests to cook for and my in-laws enjoy good food. Here’s a smattering of recipes I’m using this week. Tristan and his girlfriend joined us overnight so I needed a few vegan options as well.

Basil Chicken Coconut Curry: delicious and I made a second version with scrambled tofu for our vegan/vegetarians.  The flavor was amazing and I would make this recipe again.

Curried Chickpeas with mint and cilantro chutney:  I made this early in the week for everyone to have for dinner during the busy week. I already had a jar of chutney from an Indian grocery store so I didn’t make that part of the recipe. This was so yummy Groovy Girl happily ate it and she is not a fan of chickpeas!  I used two cans of organic coconut instead of the one the recipe called for-it just looked like it needed more.

Cheesy Grits Casserole: I made this easy yet delicious (you can never go wrong with cheesiness) breakfast recipe on Saturday morning. We also had Icon donuts and Milkbox bagels for everyone.  You need to calorie load even when you are just going to watch the day of dance.

Tomorrow night we host book club at our house for Their Eyes were watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. I’m going to make this Best Black Bean Soup from the New York Times for our gathering.

Bombay Frittata: I have yet to make this but I plan to one day this week for breakfast.

I hope you are cooking some amazing food at your house as well.

Cooking keeps me sane

Recently I’ve made some amazing recipes that I should share. It’s been a wild last couple of days. My brother visited last week. Inauguration. My husband’s performance of Rocky Horror opened on Friday night. And our son came back from school for the weekend to see last night’s show.

I’m much like my grandmother in that I cook for people when they come to my home although I was caught a little unprepared when my brother and his family hung out with us last Sunday morning. I didn’t let the same thing happen for this morning’s brunch. The show was very late last night so Tristan and Heather slept in which was perfect. It gave me the time to do some morning yoga and then prepare food without a rush. Heather’s vegan and my son follows suit when they are together. I found several new recipes that I was happy to try.

My initial inspiration came from this post, 30 Vegan Breakfast Recipes, by Sam at It doesn’t taste like chicken.  Breakfast is one of our favorite meals and it was great to have so many wonderful choices all in one spot. There are several more on this list that I plan to try like the breakfast sandwich but for today’s breakfast I picked the biscuits and gravy and potato hash. I served those two with grits, grapes, sliced oranges, and fresh orange juice. I’m terrible about snapping pictures of my plated food; trust me that the food looked delicious.

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Simple Vegan Breakfast Hash-This recipe was very filled with flavor. Peeling the potatoes and cutting them into bite-sized chunks took some time but they roasted to such hot perfection that I was pulling the crusty parts right off the pan. Mine had a more prominent mixture of sweet potato!

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Best Damn Vegan Biscuits- I thought I’d get ahead of the game by preparing these last night before I went to bed.  I must have been overtired as I mixed up the measurements for baking soda and baking powder.  They baked up beautifully and it was lucky that I tried one hot out of the oven. They were H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E!  Really heavy flavor of soda. So I redid the recipe this morning and they turned out just right. This is a very easy recipe to follow with minimal ingredients.

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If you’re going to have biscuits then you should probably whip up some vegan gravy. I’ve made vegetarian gravy many times but had no clue how to make a vegan recipe that would taste good. Again I turned to Dana’s recipe at the Minimalist Baker.  Her gravy is packed full of mushrooms giving it a hearty quality. I even wonder if I could pass this recipe off on my husband instead of that jarred gravy he sometimes uses in a pinch. Give it a try: Vegan Breakfast Gravy

I didn’t get to march yesterday but was there in spirit. I did manage to slip in some reading; My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante and Pax by Sara Pennypacker, both interesting stories of friendship.

I host book club on Monday night and I’ve made another great recipe for that: Sweet Potato Coconut Curry Soup, a very easy and flavorful recipe. I love soups and this one has a nice kick to it. 
Happy Week! February is truly just around the corner. We are at the halfway mark for winter. One step closer to spring is what I think.