More delicious food

It seems Sunday is my day for going nuts in the kitchen. Today, after grabbing a few things at Whole Foods, I made Chocolate Almond Butter Bars from Vive Le Vegan by Dreena Burton:


I then made Chocolate Chip Cookies, also from Vive:



And then I made the Lemon-Herb Tofu and the Mellow Millet-Quinoa Pilaf with Red Quinoa and toasted pine nuts in place of the hemp seed nuts (I saw hemp seeds--are those the same?), along with glazed carrots and snow peas:



I used the red quinoa for color contrast. I think it looks really pretty, and it was quite tasty with a few sprinkles of Herbamare. The tofu turned out to be really pretty and very tart. I always get worried when I'm baking tofu because until it's done, it just isn't pretty. I am also kicking myself for not following the instructions on the nut butter bars. I cut back on the puffed rice cereal because I didn't think the nut butter mixture was enough, and I was afraid they would fall apart as did another recipe I tried. Still, it's pretty tasty. I will do my best not to eat all the chocolate chip cookies, as deliciously chewy as they are, so as not to send my boyfriend into a major sulk. If I do, maybe the nut butter bars and "cow pies" will do.

I almost certainly won't be going nuts in the kitchen next Sunday because on Tuesday (nine days from now), my boyfriend and I are headed up to New York. We have tickets to see Threepenny Opera with Nellie McKay, Cyndi Lauper, and Alan Cumming. New York has more veg*an restaurants than I can shake a stick at, and even a few raw places, which I will absolutely want to try, as I've never really had a totally raw meal before. The raw lifestyle isn't for me--I like cooked food too much, and comfort food is cooked food--but I'm certainly interested in seeing what it's like. The last time I was in NYC, two years ago, we found a natural foods store a few blocks from our hotel that had products from a raw "bakery." The apple cake was absolutely to die for, and I hope I can find it again at another store.

Washington, DC, has one huge advantage over NYC, though: We have Sticky Fingers Bakery.