Pasta with Cauliflower and Tomatoes

I always jump at the chance to make a dish that contains carbs, veggies, and protein all in one package, and "Spaghetti With Cauliflower, Almonds, Tomatoes and Chickpeas" (NYT Cooking; subscription required) fit the bill.

There are still big, deep red, lusciously juicy tomatoes available from the farmers market, so I used two large fresh ones rather than canned, and it turned out perfectly. I used orange cauliflower just for kicks, and I bought my almonds pre-blanched and -skinned, which I highly recommend. The whole dog-and-pony show, including chopping, and heating water, took about 40 minutes - doable on a weeknight for me. With it being Vegan Vednesday, I ate mine with a sprinkling of salt rather than cheese.

Tomatoes and garlic

Finished product. I used tricolor pasta rather than spaghetti.

Vegan Vednesday went well yesterday. I have honed my slow-cooker overnight oatmeal recipe to the point that Emma asked for seconds:

Overnight Steel-Cut Oatmeal

Serves 3ish

1/2 c steel-cut oats

2 c water

2 T brown sugar

1/2 t cinnamon

Pinch of salt

Combine all the rest of the ingredients in the slow cooker and cook on low overnight, no more than 9 hours.

Serve drizzled with maple syrup or honey.

For lunch, I piled fresh tomatoes into a sandwich with a smear of leftover avocado pasta sauce from dinner the night before. What will I do when the tomatoes go away for the year? The prospect depresses me. I refuse to eat the dry, pale, hard tomatoes that are available in stores in winter.

The only sad part of Vegan Vednesday yesterday was not getting to try the apple pie that Emma and I had made the day before, but waited to serve because we baked it late in the day.

I am not going to give you the pie recipe because even though it tasted good, it turned out very runny. But my never-fail pastry didn't fail! Inspired by similar ideas in Emma's "Baking Class" cookbook, she cut the pastry with an acorn-shaped cookie cutter and we piled the "acorns" on top of the pie.

Before going in the oven

After coming out of the oven. I probably should have cooked it a few more minutes to get it a little browner. Also we forgot to crimp the edges of the bottom crust.

Rest assured that with Vegan Vednesday behind me today, I had a slice of the pie with lunch.