when i paint...

We had Morningstar Veggie Dogs on toasted fancy white bread with Organic Ketchup and Organic Annie's Macaroni and Cheese for dinner tonight.

It was the most processed meal we have eaten in months.

To tell the truth I thought Lauren was kidding when she told me that's what we'd be having for dinner.

Lauren has been our chef. Lauren has been our domestic queen. Lauren has been our housewife.

What I mean to say is that Lauren has been in charge of what the two of us eat for many many months now. She meticulously plans out our weekly meals. Hot dogs and macaroni and cheese are definitely never on the menu. Even if they are veggie dogs and organic Annies served with organic ketchup.


When I first meet Lauren, and I will always remember this, one of her favorite meals was rare cooked filet mignon, wrapped in bacon, and dipped in butter. Our culinary habits were miles apart. I remember our first date we opted for sushi. We talked alot, or I talked alot, about how I was not really a vegetarian. I just didn't eat meat. Girls were vegetarians. I did not care for all the fuss.

Today we have had a near reversal of roles. No, I am not eat the tender parts of a cow, wrapped in strips of a pigs back, dipped in bovine milk fats. But I do eat fish on occasion. Mostly sushi. And I don't like the 'vegetarian' label. Even more so than when we first started dating. I try to avoid it all costs.

Lauren, on the other hand, is a full fledged veggie. She's in the army. She has the weapons, the propaganda and armor.

Lauren has read a multitude of books of late on food, farming and all the related issues that go along. She has read books on local and organic foods. She has read your 'Omnivore's Dilemma and 'In Defense of Food' that dominate the New York Times best seller list. She has read books on the history of cultivation of every edible plant and animal you can think of. She has read books on farmers markets. She has read books on corn. You would not believe how much crap there is to know about corn. She has read books on animal liberation and animal cruelty in the meat industry.

She has read it all. And somewhere along the line she decided to give up meat altogether.


Growing up along side of this whole new thought process for Lauren was a new passion that she has been able to throw all of her efforts into. That passion is dinner. Lauren does not merely cook the majority of our dinners. She does much much more than that. She spends weekday evenings with her cookbooks (thank you Mark Bittman) notepads and pens planning out various meals. She generates grocery shopping lists. She keeps our household budget in mind.

Her main goal, or at least her main theme as I am not truly qualified to speak on her behalf as far as a 'main goal' is concerned, is to provide the two of us with a delicious home cooked meal that is fresh and as free from anything processed as possible.

Some common dinners of ours include:


*Chick Pea and Sweet Potato Casserole (we always use dried beans; never canned)
*vegetable pancakes on top of a bed of mixed greens with veggies, roasted red peppers (homemade) and hard boiled eggs.
*Homemade Potato and Cheese Perogies (all from scratch) served with onion slow cooked in butter.
*Deep fried tofu battered and baked in a traditional buffalo sauce with beets slow cooked over 8 hours in an apple cider vinegar and sugar mixture serve with a sour cream and horse radish sauce and some braised carrots.
*A wide variety of homemade veggie burgers served with homemade french fries, sweet potato fries or chickpea fries (made from chick pea flour). These homemade veggie burgers contain various beans (again, always dried not canned) nuts, veggies and greens. Gives a whole new meaning to the term 'veggie burger'.
*Beans slow cooked with potatos in a mixture of vegetable stock, butter and seasonings.
*Homemade seitan with cauliflower and pureed lima beans with cream and seasonings.

There is so much more. She makes vegetable stock and tomato sauces from scratch. She has made pastas from scratch. We have had lasagna from scratch (she does want a pasta maker terribly). We have a homemade soup with homemade bread or biscuits once a week. We have homemade chili and cornbread.

So on and so forth.


She even makes enough dinner every night so that we can eat our leftovers for lunch. We are always price conscious. We do not make much money and hope to buy a house one day.

She also does all of our shopping. She leaves week a good 4 hours before me on Friday. This is plenty of time to get the majority of our shopping done. She tries to buy as much local and organic food as possible. She hits up three main grocery stores. We have our big grocer, Fred Meyer. Think 'Price Chopper'. This place is a last resort. She often gets flour, oil, etc from there. Then she hits up Trader Joe's. She gets what she can from there. Finally, she hits up a local vegetable and wholesale shop that specializes in local and organic foods. They deal vegetables on the cheap. I'm not really sure how. On occasion they need to be eaten within the next few days. Avocados go for as cheap as 3 for $1 there.

We get raw milk. We get local organic eggs from small farms with happy little chickens. We get local veggies whenever possible. We go to at least one Farmers Market a week (there is one Saturday downtown and one Sunday just 6 blocks from our house) to pick up a few veggies, some berries (Oregon is well known for their delicious berries) and some homemade breads.

She does all of this and spends approximately $50-$60 a week on food. For two people. We eat local organic delicious food every day. And we rarely, if ever, eat out. That is extremely impressive. I readily admit that I have no idea how she does it.

Things have changed since we got out here. That is for sure. I benefit. I really benefit. I benefit immensely. And I do appreciate. And I let that be known. But I am not the only one that benefits. Lauren benefits too. From this passion. From this calling. Perhaps even more than i do.

And that is truth.