Sunday, October 30, 2011

Vegan MoFo: Baba ganoush, flat breads & friends (Laziness #4)

First things first, people: tomorrow is Halloween. And people with kids in (pre)school know what this means: sending in a treat to your kid's class. I wanted to make cake pops like the awesome ones on Hot Vegan Chickpeas that were at a recent bake sale in SC. But I wasn't sure if most other parents let their 2 year olds eat chocolate (even at Halloween) and also I couldn't find sticks, so instead I went with my backup idea instead:

Rice krispie pumpkins

Little rice krispie treat pumpkins made with Dandies. Mmm, Dandies. It's hard to tell the scale from the picture, but these are very small... between a marble and a golf ball. I figure they're about the right size for little people to eat them, and I made enough for each kid (and the teachers) to have 2. I'm not 100% in love with how they turned out but the Emperor flipped when he saw them and was like PUMPKINS PUMPKINS I WANT TO EAT THOSE PUMPKINS so they seem to be age appropriate.

Now on to actual food: so what is the laziest possible thing a person can eat? A meal someone else cooked. I consider the ultimate in lazy food to be food that Josh makes me. It really ought to be equivalent to takeout but... somehow it's better if it's him, and if I don't even have to go so far as to pick out what I want to eat off of a menu, ha ha. We got some lovely eggplants at the farmer's market on Wednesday, and Josh proposed making baba ganoush with them. Then he went one step further and made his own flatbreads.

Josh's flatbreads

Mmm, flat breads. These are a combo of mostly whole wheat flour with some bread flour mixed in, and a combo of herbs including rosemary, cumin, and fennel. Sounds weird, but it works, it really works.

Baba g & friends

And here's the rest of our dinner spread. Baba ganoush, some za'atar, carrot sticks and chopped cauliflower (cut off in the picture), and some locally made dolmas.

The Emperor ate some carrots while we were making the rest of dinner and then gorged himself silly on flat bread. He tried cauliflower ("dis is white broccoli?") but gave it back to me. Wouldn't try anything else on the table but oh well. He had carrots and bread, that's not so bad.

He painted a pumpkin this morning, by the way. (He's not quite at the carving level yet. He can't even use scissors yet.) Here is a picture of him when he got past the painting on the pumpkin part and well into the painting on himself part.

Pumpkin painting pumpkin

10 comments:

VeganLinda said...

Too cute and love the meal!

Anonymous said...

Those pumpkins are too cute for words! A great improvisation. Love. And I love the Emperor's modeling look. So mischievous yet sweet and innocent. The dangerous blend...

Anonymous said...

P.S. Are you still blogging after MoFo??? If you say I don't know what I would do with myself...

Anonymous said...

I meant, if you say *NO*, I don't know what I would do...

coldandsleepy said...

I'm not sure! Most years I blog for like 36 hours afterwards and then see a shiny thing and get distracted until next year.

But... I have been having an *exceptional* amount of fun MoFo blogging this year so I'm hoping to continue a little longer at least...

Amey said...

I am going to have to divorce musty and marry josh if he keeps making you baba ghanoush and flat breads. WHAT THE HECK! So jealous. Those breads look absolutely perfect, and the whole dinner looks amazing. Lastly, but not leastly, I am in total love with your rice krispy pumpkins. LOVE!

Amey said...

and yes, keep blogging!!!

Richa said...

Happy halloween.. those pumpkins look real cute.. and the breads look fab.. i love herbs in my bread and fennel anyday!
and the baba ganoush yumm. that is one super fun meal..
yes do keep blogging.. maybe with some break days.. but please do!:)
hugs to the emperor!

Richa @ Hobby And More

solipsistnation said...

Aw YEAH. I knew flatbreads would get me the vegan ladies.

solipsistnation said...

This was actually the first time I've cooked flatbreads with oil. Usually I just roll them out and throw them on a little griddle sort of thing I got at the Indian market. I spin them with my fingers and sort of slide and flip in order to turn them over. If I do it fast enough I don't get even close to burned. This time I brushed them with olive oil before throwing them on the griddle, and oil seems to hold heat a bit more than just dough and flour. My fingertips were a little stingy by the time I'd made the usual 8 breads, but I still did it all by hand without utensils because it would be weird to do otherwise. It's faster anyway.

Bread brushed with oil was DELICIOUS. Next time I'll use a little less, but it was a good idea and worked really well.