Four Plastic-Free #vegetarian cooking Goals! – Dr. Plastic Picker
 

Four Plastic-Free #vegetarian cooking Goals!

| Posted in Vegan Dreams - Less plastic, More plants, More Fiber

October 3, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Didn’t quite turn out like the picture from the website. It was good fresh out of the oven but a bit too dense. I think I’d rather figure out the yeast thing. I don’t mind if some bread takes time.

One of the neighborhood cats was stalking our two bunnies who live on our second story balcony! I had been hearing some commotion out there and figured it was just Peter and Bella hopping around. But it was a cat! Apologies to all the cat lovers out there, but our household is definitely a bunny and dog house. I was so mad! I may not dote on our bunnies but I do love them, and any vet bills would cost hundreds of dollars. Once Peter had some congestion and Mr. Plastic Picker took him into the bunny vet and Peter needed Azithromycin for $150! It looked exactly like the Azithromycin I prescribe to kids. Mr. Plastic Picker wanted to leave them out there, but I insisted on bringing them in the house. So the married bunnies in our house hopped back inside and will just shed like crazy indoors When I spied the neighborhood cat on the rooftop where she had leaped onto our awning, I was so mad. I grabbed one of the bunnies dried poop pellets and threw it at her while it was pitch dark! Go away you killer of songbirds!

I’m a bit burned out from just trying to organize various work projects. Work is frustrating sometimes eventhough I am generally a happy middle manager these days. One of my colleagues reminded me that I have to acknowledge that I am generally able to get more things done than others, and am more driven. I just expect too much of people. What frustrates me is that this is their job, and if I essentially hand them a beautiful project to do and it is done haphazardly? I’ve been testing people at work, giving them enough freedom to either sink or swim. Really to see them declare their initiative and leadership skills. Many have risen to the task, and a few have sunk. Oh well. It doesn’t stress me out in that I could complete those projects pretty quickly since my mind is very clear these days, but the entire point is to inspire and motivate them. I’m happy to just mentally ignore some people’s leadership development. Honestly at work, some people are not worth my managerial time. And it’s never who you think. I realize I have all these biases that I need to check, and folks will do what they want. The minimum work actually does okay in our organization, but I am excited about the majority who are really stepping up and owning things at work.

So this weekend I will do some work projects, but given that we got Environmental Justice Staff hired at the San Diego Air Pollution Board and I finished a blog for Eco-America and AAP that will run later this month – I’m going to do some fun environmental projects at home and head to the beach for some long plogging runs. The two basil plants we started are alive again. They had wilted in the heat a few days ago, and we were a bit worried. But I brought them inside and realize I need to water them a bit more. They perked up and we are hopeful. I planted cherry radishes yesterday in some reused white ceramic pots. I’m trying to create a green roof and using white ceramic things that will reflect the suns heat!

I wasn’t going to blog today but I just looked up some fun less plastic kitchen and vegetarian/pescatarian food projects that I think will be fun to do. So here is my kitchen to do list for this month.

  1. Vegetarian or Pescatarian Pad Thai: Joe at Retireby40 just put up a fun video cooking Pad Thai with his son. He talks about some of the history of Pad Thai which is really interesting. Anyway, he said that to sub in tofu or shrimp instead of chicken “Yes, you can use shrimps or tofu. For shrimps, cook them completely first. Then add to the top of the noodles right before you serve. For tofu, I think most Thai people deep fry it first. You can do that or just cook it first to warm it up a bit. Remove it and add later, similar to chicken. Use firm tofu if not deep-frying.” I’m really excited to try this at some point this month. Here is the link to his blog. I like watching him interact with his son https://retireby40.org/sahd-cooking-pad-thai/#comment-199667
  2. Samual Adams Beer Bread: I am really motivated to make bread sans breadmaker. We had bought a breakmaker back in our Boston days and never used it, and then sold it to an odd German graduate student for $5 on Craigslist. I was thinking about buying another breadmaker, but our daughter said we didn’t need it. Even us, we have too many single-use kitchen appliances and we are trying to use what we have and be creative. I made my first batch of bread without yeast which was decent, but it seemed to be a waste of flour since with the baking powder it only rose a little bit. We have a bottle of Samuel Adams Beer that I’d love to use up. It’s been in the pantry forever. I could use the bottle to store some of my home-made vinegar later? Anyway, here is the recipe I’m going to cite for later. https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/220129/no-knead-beer-bread/ Bread is vegetarian! I’m more just trying to reduce palm oil use and plastic bags that the bread comes in. Plus who doesn’t like bread?
  3. Curry Paste. We used to buy the premade curry from Costco and it always went bad quickly, and came in large plastic soup containers. We started accumulating so many of these containers, and I thought to myself – this does not make sense. I have gotten good enough to cook curry using curry cubes from the Asian market but I wonder if I can make curry from scratch? I have curry powder. So let me look on line. OMG I guess Curry Paste is just spices in a food processesor?

4. Vegetarian Curry. Who knew curry paste was so easy? What about a vegetarian curry recipe. I guess the BBC had a curry competition from years ago. This looks like a good recipe for later. It contains butternut squash and coconut milk and eggplant and peas. Yum! Lots of veggies! https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/slow-cooker-vegetable-curry

This is all over my personal facebook page, but I still can’t get over that Russia claimed Venus while America was distracted. Dr. Plastic Picker wishes you a wonderful and less-plastic weekend! I hope you do some beautiful earth chores today. Whatever is fun for you and your family. Its 440AM and I’m looking forward to beach plogging this morning. Seriously folks, the Russians has claimed a freakin’ planet!!! They are playing the long game. Maybe someone will look back on the internet archives and realized a lone plastic picking pediatrician had called it. A planet.

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2 thoughts on “Four Plastic-Free #vegetarian cooking Goals!”

  1. Joe says:

    Good luck with the pad Thai! I cook vegetarian curry occasionally. It’s really easy. I just substitute chicken with tofu.
    Thai curry paste is a bit more complicated than the one you listed. I think they have cumin, coriander, galangal, lemongrass, and other stuff.
    Oh, instead of onion, you should try shallot. 🙂
    I usually get Mae Sri curry paste. They come in small cans so I can use it up before it goes bad.
    Have fun cooking! And thanks for the mention.

    1. drplasticpicker says:

      Thank you so much for the helpful comments Joe! I’m so honored when your comment on the blog. I’ve been a fan for a long time! Thank you for the tips. Definitely on the list for this week! Crazy world these days and I think cooking is a great creative outlet for everyone.

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