Kale with Tempeh, Eggplant Sticks

We had a friend who came over to discuss something with us, and we suggested that she join us for dinner, which she did. I prepared a simple kale and tempeh saute, as well as a new product I found in a convention grocery store clearly marked "vegan", Macabee Kosher Foods' eggplant sticks.

The eggplant sticks were easy - they just needed to be heated for about ten minutes in the toaster oven. The kale I've sometimes prepared blanched and sometime sauteed; today I went with the latter.

I sauteed most of an organic red onion that I had sliced into thin half moons, as well as about a third of a package of tempeh, cut maybe 1/2" x 1/4" x 1/4". As the tempeh started browning, I added some chopped ginger and lime juice and slices of orange and yellow bell pepper, as well as leaves of kale that I had hand-torn into maybe 2" squares from the stems (I tossed the stems into the compost bucket). A few minutes later, I added maybe two teaspoons of tamari sauce (soy sauce would be fine) and about 1/4 teaspoon each of tarragon and fresh oregano leaves, as well as a teaspoon or so of fresh rosemary needles.

I think dinner came out well. I'm glad to see this new eggplant product, even clearly marked vegan!

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Yesterday, we were out and about and my wife started feeling quite hungry. We stopped at Maggiano's Little Italy, a nice chain restaurant that has a good variety of vegan options (though not marked on the menu). The chef came out and indicated that all of their dry pastas were pure semolina wheat (and water and salt, probably) with no egg or dairy products. He said that their marinara sauce was finished with I think some dairy, but he could make up a custom sauce for us based with fresh tomatoes or oil.

We shared a very nice salad with a tasty dressing. I forgot how huge their servings were (the "half" salad was plenty), and our full serving of pasta was too much for us to eat, even sharing that one order. We ordered fettucine pasta with the chef's choice of a tomato-based sauce (he included broccoli and [too many!] olives). It was tasty and certainly filling!