Today’s learning: use a recipe next time I want to make pasta sauce. Pasta sauce can be time consuming, but when I’ve made it in the past I found a simple recipe was still very satisfying. And I feel better about buying fresh Roma tomatoes than being responsible for another jar to reuse or recycle. However, this time I decided I could wing it, and it really didn’t pan out. Sautéed onions, mushrooms, broccoli, garlic, orange bell pepper, then added diced Roma tomatoes, oregano, basil, salt, fresh ground pepper, and chick peas. Sounds good in theory. In practice, it was edible but not pasta sauce. Will try again with a recipe in hand.

Note: I always reserve squash seeds to toast, season and use on top of anything.

The faux feta was pretty tasty: slice the tofu in four thin slices and press in a clean napkin, then dice into a container. Add a splash of lemon juice, a lot of apple cider vinegar, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Cover, shake to coat, refrigerate to marinate until ready to use. It’s my improvised version of this recipe: https://simpleveganblog.com/vegan-tofu-feta-cheese/

I celebrated finally getting to the store by making a pre-WFPB favorite for dessert: vegan raw brownies. Dates, pecans, coconut & cocoa powder. I use this recipe minus the honey/agave (totally unnecessary for us). The icing is not whole foods plant based (it’s coconut oil-based); I made it anyway because my husband likes it, and I admit it’s awesome. I also made a separate batch with almond butter instead of coconut oil. I think that might have potential; my first attempt was a gooey but delicious mess.

Just a note that medjool dates seemed to work much better in this recipe than the cheaper but drier dates I bought; maybe soaking them a little in advance would do the trick.