three meals with thoughts on a glum day

Today was yet another grey day hanging over one's head like a big wet, heavy blanket. Energy and inspiration run low, very low on such days. We've had an unfortunate plethora of them since September here. Makes one wish hibernatition for real was a viable option, because weather like this, days upon days upon days upon... it's not living, it's semi-living. I'm not blue, just pretty darn tired and with the scarce amount of rays for four months now you never really have the opportunity to refuel that sun energy.

However glum weather is definitely easier to kind of cope with if you're able to have good food - and, needless to say, regular fika and cake - so here's three meals we've had recently. I like my food perky (too look at too) if possible, but flavoursome enough I am able to look pass that *detail*.

The plate above consists of a so called "pyttipanna" which is basically a hash Swedish style often made of leftovers you might have in the fridge and often with diced potatoes. I did mine with potato, turnip, carrot, paprika, lots of spices and garlic plus I tried the vegan sausages from Swedish eco company "Astrid och aporna" (Astrid and the monkeys) for the first time. Vegan chorizo named chörizo. Sounds like their shop in Malmö is lovely, but seriously I do so not want my vegetarian food to resemble the meat in texture or flavour and I found this chörizo disgusting. M loved it, because he is a meat-eater (but not in my house) and he made a point of it tasting just like meat.

For me this has always been a real issue, that the vegan world seem slightly obsessed about wanting to copy the look, texture and flavour of meat. It baffles me, to say the least. I don't want my food to be a meat-like substitute, my diet is based on vegetables, the soy, quorn, halloumi, cheese are just a smaller protein part of my food.

The using and abusing of animals in our world is appalling enough, that vegans - who, in my experience, often condescend towards vegetarians - are so in to making mock meat, Christmas hams, ducks, chickens and such, that they in obviously hold on to the view that other animals exist basically only to be food for the human animal, well, I have issues with it. Plus I find that vegan food, if you don't make it from scratch yourself, is often highly processed, far from often organic and hey, is not a stranger to palm oil as an open ingredient. And strangely, I have yet to get a proper answer from a vegan about this...

This was a much nicer vegan meal - even if the texture of the organic pumpkin noodles was not what I expect from noodles, I was seduced by the stylishness of the packaging

 

- stir fried veggies with basil tofu, edamame and pumpkin seeds. Rich in flavours and textures and satisfying for both eyes and tummy. I'm not big on wanting to use recipes for my food - if it's not baking and desserts - so my meals often consists of stirring something together with what I have in the pantry, fridge and freezer. This meal was such concoction of that philosophy (or laziness).

And then we have the least pretty meal of the three, but probably the one most enjoyed actually - lasagnette with creamy herb and garlic sauce with mushrooms, feta cheese (don't tell M, he claims to hate cheese, but happily gobbles it down when he doesn't know...) and cherry tomatoes.

In fact, I made this for myself this evening, having a home alone-evening (even though I'm never ever alone at home, but rather without the company of another living being that spekas the same language). With left over spagetti. It was lovely again.

What did you have for dinner today?

Tomorrow I'll announce the winners of the latest tea giveaway, sorry for the tardiness, but it seems like the bobbaloos - who have naturally slipped into the role as blog giveaway drawers - have decided it's much much nicer to sleep the days away with this weather and all, than to actually do a bit of bobbaloo appropriate work.

And now, do watch this lovely piece about the elephants Shirley and Jenny being reunited after 20 years - yes it is alright to start weeping just at the thought of that...