Yakisoba with Brussels Sprouts

Go ahead, congratulate me on today's Vegan Vednesday victory! Marvel at my dedication to the likes of oatmeal, orange slices, crispy sautéed potatoes, and "Umi Organic Yakisoba with Brussels Sprouts" (EatWinterVegetables.com)!

I get bored of photos of a person holding a plate of food. So I try to be creative. But I think we can all agree that this pose is just weird.

But first, take an entirely unrelated trip down memory lane with me. I have a thing for old-school musicals, passed on to me by my mother, and I like to play them in the car over and over and over until my backup dancers and I are humming them at all hours and we know all the lyrics and we're totally sick of them. The latest musical to receive this treatment is "Fiddler on the Roof," checked out from the library.

I half-remembered most of the songs from when I was in a 4-H production of this musical at the County Fair, and I was unexpectedly flooded with memories when I listened to the CD. I did not have a role with a name. I was a just a village girl lunging around the stage, having a ball with the other villagers. During "If I Were A Rich Man," the choreography involved some of us village girls getting down on our stomachs to form the floor of the "house," and we would throw ourselves down with all our teenage energy and skid across the stage. If you're going to play the part of a floor, well by gosh, you owe it to yourself and your fairgoer audience to PLAY THE PART OF A FLOOR. There's a life metaphor in there somewhere.

Back in the day, I kept a scrapbook, and this was in it. My sister Amy got quoted in this article, and how can I argue with her hilarious claim: "A lot of people won't believe how good it is until they see it. What we've been able to put together is amazing." You can see from my pose that I was all in.

Back to the modern-day era, I wholeheartedly enjoyed my vegan yakisoba noodle dish for dinner. And yes, I faked the sauce, as suggested in the recipe, with soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and ketchup. Who knew? My one complaint about the recipe is I'm not sure why I have to cook the veggies, then remove them from the pan to throw the noodles in, then re-add them to the pan. My tip: just throw the noodles in with the veggies about a minute before you're done cooking the veggies.

Shredded sprouts, sliced onions, salt and pepper before they went in the skillet.

This was the fresh ramen I used.