Dinner & a Movie - Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Film - Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Travel Tie-In - Roy Neary and others travel to an isolated area in the wilderness and the UFOs travel to Earth from outer space.
Food - Mashed Potatoes, Devil's Food Cake, and Coconut Whipped Cream



OK, first things first. This post will have some SPOILERS in it for those who haven't seen the movie. I know, the movie's 35 years old. Well, so am I, and I only just saw it two nights ago for the first time.


At the start of the movie, UFOs are seen all over. After seeing them, Roy Neary and several other people start seeing a shape in their heads, which they then attempt to recreate, through painting or modeling. This shape turns out to be Devil's Tower National Monument, a mountain where the UFOs come and make contact with humans.

Throughout the film, Roy's chosen method of recreating the mountain is modeling, first out of shaving cream, then mashed potatoes, and finally bricks, dirt, and chicken wire.



I couldn't possibly have a Dinner & a Movie post of this movie without mashed potatoes (The mashed potatoes scene was spoofed in UHF, Muppets From Space, That 70s Show, The Simpsons, Bruce Almighty, and Canadian Bacon), and I'm also going to add Devil's Food Cake (since the mountain was Devil's Tower and the mud sculpture the child does in the film looks a bit like chocolate) with whipped cream (like shaving cream, only tastier).

Also, since I'm neck-deep in a sewing project I have to finish tonight, I'm just going to post the recipes for now, and I'll come back and add photos at a later date once I've had time to make the food.

Mashed Potatoes
Devil's Food Cake
Coconut Whipped Cream (or alternate recipe)

Italian Parsley Pesto

What's a gal to do with a giant bunch of leftover Italian parsley that she bought to make unimpressive gall bladder-friendly soup?

After doing an online search for "Italian parsley recipes", I decided that the answer was "pesto".



April's Italian Parsley Pesto

• 3 cups fresh Italian parsley, roughly chopped
•  3 garlic cloves
• 1-2 inches of Serrano pepper
•  2/3 cup nutritional yeast
•  1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons spicy brown mustard (I used yellow because it's what was in the apartment)
• 2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
•  1 tablespoon chopped mint
•  2 tablespoons lemon juice
•  salt and black pepper to taste


Preparation
1. Place garlic in a small saucepan and cover with water. Boil for one minute, rinse with cool water, and add to food processor. 
2. In the food processor, blend together all ingredients. Season with the black pepper and salt at the end.

Emerald Green Dip Of Vegan Nominess

Today's entry is my 100th post on this blog! Woo hoo!

Let's flash back in time a week or so, back to before I was having gall bladder issues and I was still trying to figure out different ways to use the large pot of black beans I'd made and what was left of a large bunch of kale.

*sound of flashback music*



While we're back here, let's remind past me to actually write down how much of what goes into specific things when they're being made. *facepalm*

I know I had at least 5 or 6 large leaves of curly kale, about 1/2 a cup of black beans, 1/3-1/2 cup of pineapple salsa, several good shakes of turmeric and ginger, and about 1/4 cup nutritional yeast. I tossed all of it into my BlendTec blender with just enough water to make it smooth.



I ate it with Wheat Thins Flatbread chips, and it was delicious!

Cucumber Sandwiches & Tea

After having three gall bladder attacks in one week, I decided to stick as closely as possible to the "good foods list" on gallbladderattack.com. I think it's particularly funny that the Vegan MoFo Secret Challenge Ingredient last week was beets, and that beets are pretty much the number one "good food" listed for gall bladders. I didn't read the post about beets being the challenge ingredient until Sunday (too late to actually join in the group challenge), bu at least I can reap the benefits of everyone else's recipes!

Last night for dinner (and again today for lunch), I decided to be all English and have cucumber sandwiches and tea. Cucumbers are one of the good foods, and I figure gluten-free bread is probably ok. As for the vegan cream cheese...well. I didn't have an attack last night, so we're going to say it's ok, too.



Simply toast the bread lightly, spread a thin layer of vegan cream cheese on each slice, and fill with a few thinly sliced cucumbers. If you want to get REALLY fancy, you can cut the crusts off.

For the tea, I had a combination of loose leaf lemongrass & ginger, licorice, detox tea, and mint tea brewed with water and a bit of flax milk. All good digestive things!

Kale, Rice, Bean, & Tomato Wrap

This was something I made last week. Since I had a lot of brown rice and black beans, I decided to put them together with kale and tomato, sauté them in Earth Balance, and season them with a bit of garlic powder, ginger, and salt. Wrap them up in an Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain tortilla, and yum!

(Semi) Good For The Gall Bladder Veggie Wrap

So, what's a gal to do with a bunch of veggies left over from making a very healthy, and great for the gall bladder, but not-so-great-tasting soup?



Sauté them in Earth Balance, add pineapple salsa and garlic, and serve them in an Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain tortilla, of course. SO much tastier.

Vegan MoFo Round Up (So Far!)

I *totally* had another post planned for today. I was also *totally* going to blog it out last night (along with Sunday and Monday's posts, since I'll be spending the majority of all three days performing at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. However, instead of working on my planned post last night, I got completely lost in other people's Vegan MoFo posts.

Since this is what took up most of my time, it only seemed fitting to share with you what caught my eye.


One-Ingredient Banana Ice Cream topped with Chocolate Espresso Sauce by EasyVegan.


Zucchini Fudge Brownies, à la Little Debbie by EasyVegan.


Breaded & Baked Zucchini Chips by EasyVegan.


Seared Tofu by CompassionPassion.


Double Chocolate Chip Cookies by CompassionPassion.


Newfoundland Tea Buns by The Vegan Cookbook Afficianado.


Apple Cranberry Bannock by The Vegan Cookbook Afficianado.


Sticky Toffee Pudding by The Sweet Life.


Peaches & Cream Cheese Tarts by The Sweet Life.


Pear and Ginger Ricotta Cheesecake with Salted Caramel Drizzle by Manifest Vegan.


Fieldstone Orchard & Pear Honey Jam by The Vegan Crew.


Vegan Grilled Cheese with Smoky Tomato Soup by Olives For Dinner.


Vegan Bacon-Wrapped Scallops with Paprika Cream Sauce by Olives For Dinner.


Tamarind & Date Chutney aka Sweet Chutney by Vegan On The Prowl.


I told you I had spent most of my time looking at other people's blogs! I can't wait until I have enough time to make all of these delicious-looking creations!