Roasted Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese

Tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich has been one of my favorite things to eat since I can remember having favorite things to eat. At the beginning of January I had a pretty bad cold so I started putting ginger into everything, and this soup was born! It freezes and reheats really well, which is handy because when you're just trying to make soup for one every recipe seems to make enough to feed a village. If you don't like ginger feel free not to add it, but if you've got a cold it does an amazing job of clearing out your nose. Prepare your kleenex.

I've burned many a grilled cheese sandwich in my life, but I've found that using the heaviest pan you can (cast iron frying pans are awesome for this) work best and is the most even. On lower heat than you would expect, especially if the bread you're using is a bit thicker. Putting a lid over the pan while you're grilling it also helps the cheese to melt faster.

I don't know why it took me this long to add hummus to grilled cheese, but smearing both sides of the insides of the bread makes things extra amazing. So does adding tomatoes, if you're into that.

Roasted Tomato Soup
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon minced ginger
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 14 oz can roasted tomatoes
2 carrots, chopped
salt and pepper
a bay leaf
4 cups vegetable stock
1/2-1 cup almond milk

Heat the oil in a soup pot and add the garlic and onion, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir fry until soft, then add the tomatoes, ginger, chopped carrots, and bay leaf. Pour in the vegetable stock and bring to a boil and let simmer for 10 minutes. Take out the bay leaf and blend in batches in a blender until smooth, adding the almond milk. If you'd like it a little thinner add more veggie stock.

Vegan Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
2 slices bread(I used sprouted whole grain bread)
Hummus
Vegan Butter
1/4 cup Daiya cheese
1 thin tomato slice

Butter one side of each slice of bread, and the insides of both slices with hummus. Butter side out fill the sandwich with Daiya cheese and the tomato slice. Grill in a preheated pan on low, flipping over halfway through.

Roasted Portobello Sandwiches

I've found that like seasons, I go through food phases. Right now I'm in a sandwich phase. A big one. A breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I'd-marry-a-sandwich if I could phase. I think I like them because you can make them as complicated or as simple as you like and they still taste good. There's enough variables to keep things interesting, and they go really good with soup(my other current winter food obsession).

Anything with the word portobello involved is probably something I want to eat, and when I saw portobellos at the grocery store as big as my face I knew what I had to do. Huge portobello mushrooms remind me of last summer when we'd have BBQs at midnight on Mondays just because we could. We'd go to Loblaws and find the biggest shrooms there, then coat them in olive oil and steak seasoning and BBQ them into deliciousness. Then I'd usually douse them in hot sauce which sounds strange but is weirdly delicious. Anything that reminds me of summer right now is okay with me!

I threw some roasted zucchini on there as well, cause the more roasted veg the happier I am. Avocado is super tasty in this as well, and maybe onions if you like those sort of things.

Roasted Portobello Sandwiches

1 ciabatta bun
1 Portobello(the biggest you can find)
Half a zucchini, sliced thinly lengthwise
1 tsp and 2 tsps olive oil
salt and pepper
dried parsley
hummus
1/4 avocado sliced
handful of greens

Preheat oven to 400, destem the portobello and lay it gill side up in a pan. Drizzle with 1 tsp olive oil, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and dried parsley. Roast for 15 mins, or until soft(depending on the size of your mushroom).

Place zucchini in a pan, drizzle with 2 tsps olive oil, salt, pepper, and parsley. Toss to coat and roast for 15, or until soft. Top with greens, mushroom, zucchini, and avocado and serve!

Slice bun in half and place under broiler for a minute, then cover one slice with hummus.

Eating in NYC

Whenever I find myself in NYC I'm torn between the option of revisiting all my favorite old restaurants, and trying something new. This trip I decided that I was going to attempt to eat somewhere new everyday, and try to find some new favorites.

By accident while wandering around the East Village(favorite neighbourhood, hands down!), I stumbled across Stogo. Their mantra is 'We are passionate about offering the healthies, most delectable frozen dessert on the planet using only the finest premium organic dairy-free ingredients, with no refined sugars, animal products, gluten, or artificial flavorings.' Totally up my ally!! It was pretty grey and cloudy that day, but I think any day is a good ice cream day. I tried their Vanilla Chocolate Chip(they make all of their flavors from scratch!), and it did not disappoint! Mildy sweet with a hint of coconut, and an amazing melt in your mouth texture. The texture of dairy ice cream is one that I usually find hard to replicate, but this one could have fooled anyone. You can also get them to sandwich a scoop between two cookies, it's pretty much heaven.

An old favorite that I had to visit was Pure Food and Wine. I first visited One Lucky Duck for some Thai Salad Wraps, then finished up at Pure Food and Wine for Sangria and a Blueberry Crumble with Maple Ice Cream. I adore raw food for the way you can feel like you're indulging, but everything is good for you. The feeling of lightness and energy after a meal isn't in your head, I've realized. I just don't experience that ever from eating cooked food! The Salad Wraps were wonderful, mildly spicy and tangy and creamy goodness. I could have drank a vat of the sangria. The Blueberry Crumble was that perfect mix of gooey warm fruit and melting ice cream, it was truly a perfect meal. I followed it up with a walk home through Times Square, I always think the best way to see NYC is on foot.

I've heard the praises sung of Candle 79 over and over, so I decided to pay a visit to their sister restaurant, Candle Cafe on the Upper West Side. It was a lovely balmy evening so I decided to take my order to go, and have a picnic in Central Park. I ordered the Tofu Club Sandwich, it was probably the best sandwich I've ever had ever. Crispy toasted bread, a huge hunk of perfectly seasoned tofu, avocado, tomato, and watercress, with vegan mayo. Sitting on a bench watching the sun set over the reservoir  and it kind of hit me how happy I am that I can eat food like a normal person and enjoy it. Central Park is one of my favorite haunts, so it was a perfect place to recreate that memory. I know that peacefulness is not the first word that comes to most people's minds when they think of NYC, but it's how I felt for most of the trip. This weird, innate sense of peace that all was right in the universe.