Vegetarian dining at Andiamo Italia

This week I was fortunate enough to have dinner with a friend visiting from out-of-state. We chose to dine at the more upscale Andiamo Italia restaurant.

I had not visited this restaurant since going vegetarian, so the online dinner menu was a big help in determining ahead of time what I might or might not be able to eat. As lacto-ovo vegetarians know, Italian restaurants usually are not a problem for dining. However, lately I've been trying to eat as vegan as possible for several reasons, which I won't get into at the moment so I don't detract from this review. ;)

The service at more upscale restaurants is often top notch, and this location was no exception. Our waitress was very attentive and helpful, with one flaw -- she thought vegetarians ate seafood. :( After I informed her that I did not, she quickly indicated that the chef often will prepare a non-menu pasta primavera, which sounded absolutely delicious by her description. However, the downside was that I ate pasta for lunch, so I really didn't want to have pasta again. I'm getting married in 378 days so I've decided I need to start watching my portions more carefully in an effort to get in better shape. Since the restaurant seemed so eager to accommodate me by whipping up a non-menu item, I felt it was safe to ask for the Insalata d' Autonno (mixed greens tossed with balsamic vinaigrette, topped with apples, walnuts, dried cherries, turkey and fried chevre cheese) without the turkey and cheese, and maybe some extra walnuts and dried cherries. :) Our server was happy to oblige, but when my salad came out, it did have the fried cheese. Thankfully, it was in the shape of a ball so I just left it there and ate around it.

The salad was good, but I usually prefer my dressing on the side and I totally forgot to ask them if I could order it that way. So, the mixed greens were drenched in the balsamic vinaigrette, which was just a bit too much for me. I'm not sure if I would order this salad again. In terms of more upscale salads, I'd rather have something like the gorgeous salad I had at the Henry Ford Estate this summer. It was cheaper too! Andiamo's Insalata d' Autonno will put you back $11. In the future, I'll make sure to plan better so I can order the spaghetti with marinara sauce.

Overall, it was a great dining experience. The service is outstanding and efforts were made to accommodate my veg*n eating preference.

In a situation like this, though, it's not really about the food. The night was about catching up with a friend, and boy did we do that! Our reservation was for 6:15 p.m. and we didn't leave until after 11 p.m. What can I say, we like to talk! :) And, my friend was gracious enough to pick up the tab. Thanks, Sue, for a wonderful dinner. It was so great to see you again. Let's hope our next talk fest will be sooner than later!

Lazy Yet Fancy Cream of Tomato Soup

I'm continuing my "lazy cooking" theme this week by jazzing up one of my favorite foods: cream of tomato soup. This particular dish is so easy yet it impressed an omnivore, too!

I began by making elbow macaroni. I know I could've done without the pasta carbs, but to me, cream of tomato soup just isn't cream of tomato soup unless it has elbow macaroni in it! LOL While the water was boiling for the pasta, I opened a standard can of condensed tomato soup. Instead of using water, I mixed in one can of plain soy milk with the soup. I mentioned yesterday that I was saving leftover diced canned tomatoes and its juice from the tempeh dish I had prepared. I dumped those diced tomatoes and juice into the soup and stirred well. Then I added in some dried basil, oregano and a bit of rosemary to taste and heated the soup on low while the pasta cooked. I added my preferred amount of pasta to the soup and voila! A super easy yet fancier cream of tomato soup. :)

My sister currently lives upstairs from me (we live in a multifamily home) and I joined her for dinner because her hubby wasn't going to be home till later that evening. She had prepared a chicken breast and side of veggies for herself. When I appeared with my bowl of yummy soup, she said "Wow, that looks gooooood. Can I taste it?" She said my soup looked more appetizing than her meal. :) Score another one for the veg*ns!

Tempeh Tuesday #1

I'm back from vacation. As promised, I'll post about my trip but I'll need an extra day or two to ready the photos and write it up.

In the meantime, I'm going to post my lazy cooking habits since coming back home. LOL. Sometimes it's difficult enough coming back from a trip and getting back into the groove of the reality we call everyday life, without having to worry about cooking elaborate meals. So, my theme this week is EASY. I'm trying to use ingredients I already have in the cupboard and just keep things simple.

I had three packages of tempeh in my fridge because I'm trying to motivate myself to cook this soy-based food more often. I decided to make the tempeh sausage crumbles from Vegan with a Vengeance. I love this recipe soooooo much. The crumbles are so good. Much much tastier than any similar product that can be purchased pre-made in a store, and they're really not that difficult to make. So, I prepared the tempeh as directed in Isa's book. I also made pasta: Meijer Organics whole-wheat cappenilli, which I coated with a bit of olive oil when it was done. I opened a can of diced tomatoes that was pre-mixed with olive oil and garlic and, with a slotted spoon, scooped out some tomatoes (leaving most of the juice) as a topping to the tempeh and cappenilli. Simple yet tasty. :)

I did save the remaining tomatoes and all the leftover juice... I have plans for those later this week. ;)

I titled this post "Tempeh Tuesday" because I'd like to make Tuesday dinners my tempeh night, in an effort to try more tempeh recipes and learn to cook it better. (Did I ever mention I once tried to steam tempeh in the microwave and it came out as a hard, black block of yuck?) If you have a really great tempeh recipe, I'm all ears. I'd love some ideas from my blog visitors if you have any recipes to share. Please send them to: veggiecookster [at] gmail [dot] com. If I cook up your recipe, I'll give you credit and link back to your blog, so be sure to include the URL in your e-mail. :)

Another vacation!

Hi all,

Just a quick note to say tomorrow morning I'm heading out for another vacation. This time, my mom and I are driving up north a bit for some R&R. There won't be any new posts from me for the next 6 days or so, but I promise to take pics of some things I eat this week and post a report when I return!

Have a great week, everyone! :)

Jenny

Easy creamy pasta sauce

Here's a little something I cooked up in the kitchen last night. I didn't follow a recipe. I just experimented and mixed things together!

I started with whole wheat shell-shaped pasta. While that was cooking, I opened up a pre-made marinara sauce--I chose Corelli's marinara, which is made with Tuscan red wine and extra virgin olive oil. I added in about three spoonfuls of Tofutti's Better Than Cream Cheese to the sauce. I also tossed in 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast. I stirred the sauce, btcc and nutritional yeast together until it was well blended and hot. When the pasta was done, I mixed some of it in with the sauce and topped it with fresh basil, tomato slices and sunflower seeds. 'Twas good! And easy!

I haven't participated in Ruth's Presto Past Night in awhile. The parade of great pasta recipes is held over at her blog each week. But I think this entry qualifies! :)

Homemade hummus

Last night, I made hummus for the first time! After tasting it, I don't know why I waited so long to make a homemade version of this versatile vegetarian food. It was super easy and it tastes fabulous!!! :) I don't think I'll ever purchase hummus from a store again.

Living in a city with one of the largest Arabic populations outside of the Middle East, I've had some pretty good hummus at the local restaurants. But because I do love hummus, I'm happy I found a decent recipe that I can tweak (I'm thinking roasted red pepper hummus in the future!).

I brought a container of the homemade hummus to work today along with some baby pitas ... makes a great lunch!

The recipe is from vegweb.com ... check it out!

Can you spot the vegetarian chili?

Well I did it! :-D

I raised awareness of yummy vegetarian food by placing SECOND in the chili cookoff hosted by my fiance's family Saturday evening. Wooooo! Out of seven entries, I placed second. Not too shabby!

I certainly wasn't expecting to place, especially since all the tasters would be omnis. But, I asked his mom not to announce that the batch I made was vegetarian. I wanted people to try my chili with open minds and tastebuds... not turn their noses up to a veggie chili. I felt if they knew it was veg*n, it would automatically taste 'different' to them. In fact, later that evening after the contest concluded, there were some latercomers who missed out on the top-choice chili because that part of the family had already left. When my fiance's mom indicated that my chili was still there and it was vegetarian, it was met with a less than enthusiastic response.

"Sorry, I need my meat... I'm a carnivore."

Yeah, whatever. Nevermind that my chili won a ribbon that evening, so it must be halfway decent. Go ahead and eat a less-than-stellar chili just because it has meat in it. To each their own, I guess.

And so I continue my quest to educate people that vegetarian food can be yummy and appealing and absolutely wonderful!

P.S.--I'm not sure which chili is mine in the photo. LOL It was made with Italian soy sausage so it pretty much looked like all the meat-based ones.