Day 157- Old Photos and New Creamer

First up is some tasty dinner from last year.

Almost Totally Packaged Wraps!

It's packaged seitan (from White wave), chopped onion, oil, half a jar of Patak's Rogan Josh Curry Cooking Sauce, store bought tortillas, a bunch of avocado, tomatoes from our garden, and (I think) organic spring mix salad from our CSA. I'm pretty sure the only things in here that are on the menu now are the homegrown tomatoes, oil, and onions. Oh well.

Then, as I was digging through the camera, I found the photo of what went into the tomato sauce I made with the tomatoes I swiped from Mom's-

The yellow Tom's are supposed to be that color. One or two of them were moving into the too-ripe stage, getting a little pink in the middle. But so yummy.

Finally, Creamer!

I like my tea with milk and sugar. 'Cept I don't drink milk anymore, and most soy creamers are *huge* containers and taste funny. So, while I was sitting here thinking of caffeine last night, I decided to use the sweetened coconut milk in the fridge and see how that worked.

Now, I've used coconut milk as creamer before and it was way too thick. The clingy fattiness of it just sort of coated the whole of my GI system, and I felt like I'd been drinking glue. Not good, right?

But this actually turned out ok. It looks a bit scummy, and I'm not sure if that's fat glubules that didn't melt in the hot water, or from the tea bags. I don't care, though, because it tastes sooo yummy. The coconut flavor doesn't overpower the tea, it actually goes really well with the vanilla chai I've been working my way through (which, it turns out, isn't yogi brand, but rather Good Earth ), and it'd probably be good with coffee, too.

Wait, let me qualify that- I hate coffee with a passion, and my guts aren't too fond of it, either, so pretty much nothing is going to make coffee taste *worse* to me. The coconut flavor isn't very strong, though, so it shouldn't overpower the coffee flavors some people actually *like* (choke, gag).

Coconut Creamer

• 1 Can coconut milk
• 1 Cup sugar (or less, based on personal taste)

Dump the can of coconut milk into a pot and "melt" it, over medium heat. Add the sugar and mix or whisk until it's totally incorporated. Basically, it's a light simple syrup with coconut milk instead of water as the liquid. Cool and store tightly closed in the fridge. Good for at least a week. Shake or stir well before use.

So it costs about a dollar, makes a bit more than 2 cups (I think), and takes very little to cool/ flavor a beverage. I used 2 teaspoons for very light tea, and 4 (almost too much) for dark tea. Also, I read somewhere (but I can't remember where now) that it travels well, so the 1 week limit is pretty conservative. Mine's been in the fridge for longer than that, and it's fine. Being very sweet and very fatty it's either the perfect medium for growing new life, or the worst ever. Guess I'll find out, huh?

Other stuff I ate yesterday-

• Couple batches of noodles with soy sauce
• Last 2 black bean burgers+ mustard
• more water