I love roasted Cauliflower.

Cauliflower is a vegetable that is (or was) largely overlooked in my diet. My memory of cauliflower is from relish trays at family gatherings where I dip it into ranch alongside carrots, radishes and broccoli florets. It never occurred to me to use it in any other way until recently. Maybe that is because the all-white coloring of this veggie betrays its nutritional value. Cauliflower, in fact, is not devoid of nutrients! It is a nice source of protein as well as a champion of Vitamin C and other daily essentials. Who knew?

Because I am an aspiring Fancy Person, I tried to slice the cauliflower in a cross-section to show its nice "branches". I got about two good pieces in and the rest became popcorn-sized bites. Oh well. My favorite seasoning to date is olive oil, salt and pepper, and lots of nutritional yeast. (un)Fortunately for you, I am not including the one ugly photo of this meal that I took right before my camera ran out of batteries.

Roasting cauliflower takes 10-15 minutes and it is a great addition to a meal. Continuing with my cheating theme for busy days, I added cauliflower to sauteed kale, long grain brown rice and a prepackaged chana masala.

Chili con... seitan!

It's no secret that I'm a copycat. So, when a friend of mine mentioned that she was going to use her crock pot to cook something delicious I was like, "Ooh, yeah! I want that too."

I love chili from a crock pot. But I thought after making a couple of chilis with just beans and veggies it's time to step it up. So, I stepped it up with a seitan sausage experiment.

Cooking in Advance

It feels really good to eat homemade food. For me, this extends all the way to bringing a lunch to work instead of buying one (In fact, right now it is really exciting for me to even get to say the words "bring a lunch to work"!). Homemade lunches are harder to pull off with a busy schedule and I can easily to fall into a routine of PB&J sandwiches.

I try to plan ahead so that I can provide myself with delicious, healthful meals that don't take my whole morning to prepare. This week I decided to roast some bell peppers with onion. I love them in my sandwiches and had a great time eating them in pasta, too.

Mini Bagels!

Here is a quick look at some mini everything bagels I made. Really adorable. They are more laborious than bread to make, but the end result is so pleasing. And I love anything in miniature.

 For anyone thinking about getting into the homemade bagel scene, what are you waiting for?! You can have something this cute in your kitchen too!