Some quick news and notes before getting into today’s main topic.
1) Weigh-in. I forgot to weigh myself yesterday. I do that on Tuesdays, but yesterday I completely forgot! I think the main reason for my forgetfulness is that after last week’s weigh-in, I moved my scale from the bathroom floor to the top shelf of my closet so I would stop weighing myself every day, as I was becoming fixated on numbers, and it was starting to drive me cuckoo crazy. I think I might skip my weigh-in altogether this week. I’ve had a good week with diet and exercise, and I’m not scared of what the scale may say, but I feel like I’m on a roll with not letting numbers run my life, and I wanna see how long this roll continues. There will be a point, I’m sure, where I’ll feel the need to step on a scale, but maybe that need won’t come for another week. I’ll keep you posted.
2) Oreos. I haven’t thought about Oreos in a long time, but yesterday, I felt bombarded by the damn things. First, a friend posted on Facebook a picture of the Triple-Double Oreos he bought. I blogged about these artery-cloggers last spring, and apparently they’re now on store shelves. Then, 20 minutes later, I saw a Google+ link to Judith G. Klausner’s website – she’s an artist who carves amazing cameos into Oreo creme. How amazing is this?
Despite all the Oreo madness, the one thing I didn’t feel was the desire to go buy Oreos. That’s pretty sweet, because I love Oreos.
3) Social Media. Since I just mentioned Facebook and Google+, I wanted to quickly plug my pages. As I type this, I’m eleven people away from having 5,000 Facebook fans (!) so help me reach that milestone by “Liking” me on Facebook! Tell your friends! You can also add me to your circles on Google+ and follow me on Twitter.
OKEY DOKE! Are you ready for some Dijon Green Beans?
Like I mentioned in yesterday’s post, on Saturday night we made an all-vegan meal in Palm Springs. As a quick catch-me-up, I was in Palm Springs with my friends Robyn and Jake, staying at Tim’s house, who is Robyn’s dad. It was Tim’s birthday, so Robyn, Jake and I made a birthday dinner for him. Robyn is the vegan in the group, and Jake’s vegetarian. I love eating vegan (and going to Vegan restaurants), although I’m not vegan myself, and I was happy to be responsible for one of the dishes in the meal, and making it vegan was a fun little challenge.
Robyn made a Tofurky roast, which is a meat-free soy-based product and looks and tastes like turkey. Jake made mashed potatoes, replacing milk and cream with almond milk. I made the vegetable side dish: Dijon Green Beans. I’ve been on a little green bean kick lately – they popped up in my most recent RediSetGo post – and this recipe is based on one from the Taste of Home Comfort Food Diet Cookbook, but I modified it.
It starts with 1.5 pounds of green beans, cleaned, with the ends cut off:

They got boiled in a big saucepot for 8-10 minutes, until tender. You could also steam them if you have a big steamer. Then I made a quick and easy sauce: 1 teaspoon olive oil, 2 heaping tablespoons dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, and pinches of salt, pepper, and garlic powder, all whisked together:

While the green beans were boiling away, I got out a big bowl and sliced 1/2 of a red onion into thin strips, and halved about 2/3 of a container of cherry tomatoes:

When the green beans were done, they got drained, added to the bowl with the tomatoes and onion, and all of it was tossed with the dijon sauce:

That’s it! Easy-peasy. Here’s my plate with everything on it:

It was all delicious. Everyone loved the green beans, and the mashed potatoes, Tofurky and gravy (did I mention there was vegan gravy?) were great, too.
The best part about the green bean dish is that the dijon sauce would probably taste really good on any vegetable. I’d love to try this dish with steamed cauliflower or asparagus. I’ll be bringing something to a dinner party this weekend, and it might be a version of this dish with brussel sprouts. We shall see…
Keep it up, David!