Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Weekly Round Up 1 of 2: Sandwich Crush

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  Last week was split between life as usual and family vacation, so guess what we need two posts to recap it.  Today I'm going to rave about my latest food crush and in a day or so I'll be back to tell you about family vacation antics.

Eats

One of my side hobbies is watching vegan cooking channels on Youtube.  Not vegan?  Hey, neither am I, I'm just someone who likes good food and these channels are the place to get it.  Just about any "not vegan" meal can be made vegan, and the reverse is even more true==>every vegan meal has a "not vegan" version.

One of my favorite channels is Sarah's Vegan Kitchen, but she stopped posting a while back.  So imagine my delight when out of nowhere she posted a new video last week, and then imagine my further delight when she said the reason that she took a break was because she got a new camera and wanted to take her time to learn the technology.  I can't wait to see what she comes out with next.

The last recipe that she talked about in the video was a grinder style sandwich that had me drooling.  I was determined to make it ASAP.  Well...determined to make it without getting super organized or putting a lot of effort into it.  I ran by the store to get chopped iceberg lettuce, a tomato, onion, and a jar of pepperoncini, and then ad libbed the rest with what I had in the house.

She had nice sandwich rolls and I had my choice of white bread or burrito sized tortillas.  I went with the tortilla and air fried it for 2 minutes to give it a little crisp.  I then set down a base of a (not vegan) cheese slice and some (vegan) lunch slices and gave it 30 more seconds in the air fryer to melt a little.

For the veggie base, I grabbed a few handfuls of the iceberg, a little onion, olives, and pepperoncini and then imitated what I saw in the video for the dressing.  A healthy squirt of vegan mayo (PS if you are not aware vegan mayo>>>>regular mayo), some juice from the pepperoncini jar (a substitute for the red wine vinegar that she used that I was out of), a little oil, a little dijon, and a healthy sprinkle of garlic powder.  I topped the deli slices with some very thin tomato slices and topped it all with the salad.

It was soooo good that I can't imagine eating anything else for lunch for a good long while.  Nom nom.

Workouts

I'm still running!  Well, doing my version of running which is 2 miles of run-walk, though at this point there isn't much walking left in the equation.

Watching

Nothing to report.

Reading

All is right with the world.  As planned, I started 11/22/63 and as expected it's a long one so I'll be reading it for a while.  Also as expected, all signs point to the hype being justified.  This book grabbed my interest starting with the first sentence.

Also as planned week 1 of the Cool Blogger's Book Club is under way and I Capture the Castle is a winner so far.  I'm reading a chapter a day up each week's reading so each time that I read I come away wanting more.

Bye for now!  See you in a day or so to talk family vacay.  Topics of discussion will include an insane (in a good way) dinner and (shocker) FLW.


16 comments:

  1. I made 2 Nora Cooks recipes last weekend which are vegan but I used non-vegan products. I hadn't ever tried vegan mayo so I used regular mayo to make the chickpea salad for Kyria and then I made her marry me chickpeas but used regular cream, not vegan cream. I guess I am all about chickpeas these days! I am kind of burned out on salads so am pivoting to chickpea-based meals for lunches until I feel more desire to eat a salad again... whenever that may be. That wrap does look very good! I would eat more sandwiches is GF bread/wraps were better. But they are kind of terrible. The bread it ok if it's toasted.

    I forgot to request I Capture the Castle from the library and was shocked to find there is a wait list! But my copy is now in transit but it could take weeks to get to my library. Hopefully that is not the case. I was able to read a sample on libby but only the first 3 chapters. So I will be behind but will catch up. I read it years ago as part of a book club and only gave it 3 stars (which typically means "meh" for me) but I know my views on books can change so I am going in with an open mind!

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    1. Ugh no bueno on the GF bread. Even with gluten we don't have great bread options here, so that's why I went with the tortilla.

      I could have gotten ICTC from Libby but I was in a rare spendy mood and just bought it. I mean, I bought my copy of ATGIB for 50 cents back in the 90s and I got MBF from the library so my average for all three books is low.

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  2. I am excited that people seem to be liking ICTC. At least they're liking it more than MBF!

    I have had my green bean salad as part of my lunch for two weeks straight now. Eventually it's going to stop being green bean season and we'll see if this salad trend continues.

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    1. It's a great book! It was so funny how divisive MBF was - everyone either loved it or hated it.

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  3. YUM, that sandwich looks good. I'm glad you're liking the book! I also thought it was engaging right from the start.
    I'm looking forward to the vacation post!

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    1. The sammie is good! I had it again today and just want to keep going.

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  4. You are SO creative at using what you have on hand to make your recipe inspirations. Hats off to you!

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  5. Yay for still running! I'm glad that you're still liking it.
    A family vacation combined with a FLW sounds great! Looking forward to the recap!

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  6. I am glad you are liking the Stephen King book! I actually have enjoyed most of his books, although the horror genre is not really my bag these days. However, he actually does well on other genres too. One of my favorites of his was The Eye of the Dragon, which I read a long time ago. I should probably reread that one, as I remember liking it a lot back in the day.

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  7. Ooooh, that's a good-looking sandwich! I just finished reading a book and I'm ready to start ICTC.

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  8. That looks so good!

    Something must be wrong on me cause I gave up on 11/22/63. Such an interesting concept, but King can be so long winded. And it didn't help that the guy has to keep going back over and over LOL.

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  9. I did NOT know vegan mayo is better than regular - will be checking that out ASAP. Sandwiches are a very worthy fixation.
    I loved 11/22/63 (although I always have to recheck the numbers). I have a weakness for time-travel/ if-then stories. It's also a miniseries but for some reason I've been reluctant to watch it.

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  10. Oh, I heard that people like vegan mayo more than regular mayo... I should give it a try. That sandwich looks amazing.

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  11. I had no idea that vegan mayo was better than regular?!? I will have to check it out.

    I love that you used pepperoncini juice as a sub for red wine vinegar. That is a genius move.

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  12. The sandwich looks good-ish but... ugh, mayo. Not a fan, even of the vegan kind. Back when I didn't mind it as much (it's something about the texture...), I liked the Ojai Cook Lemonaise for something different. Maybe not this but just an option to keep in mind if you find it. Can't wait to hear more about the family trip! You dragged them to FLW - go, you! :)

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