Chickpea-Hijiki Salad Sammiches

I admitted earlier that I missed bologna sandwiches from my pregan life. Well, today for lunch, I am having a vegan version of another one of my favorite lunchtime staples, the old tuna salad sandwich. Of course, there is no tuna or mayo in these, but they taste just like tuna salad sandwiches, maybe even better. Chickpea-Hijiki Salad Sammiches are yet another recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. It contains pretty much the same thing as any old tuna salad, but the nasty mayo is replaced with yummy Vegenaise and the dead animal is replaced with Hijiki (a dried seaweed that you can most likely find at your local health food store or Asian market). The end result is a sandwich that is more colorful, healthier, and tastier than a regular old tuna salad sandwich. Plus, it's cruelty-free. You can't beat that.

I wanted some potato chips to go along with my sandwich, but instead of running to the store and buying some, I just made some. Honestly, there's really no reason to spend money on potato chips when you can whip some up at home in the microwave in 5 minutes. Yes, you really can make brown and crispy potato chips in the microwave. Just spray a plate with canola oil, slice a potato (preferably with a mandolin slicer), arrange the slices on the plate, spray them with canola oil again, sprinkle on a little salt (or NO-SALT) or any other spices or flavorings you might like, and then just nuke them in the microwave. Since all microwaves vary in the amount of power they have, you will have to watch them the first few times to see how long it takes to cook them. I use a small, cheap microwave (not much power) and set the timer to 5:55 and it works well. Just cook them until they are brown and crispy. They cost basically NOTHING to make, and they taste better than storebought. The only problem arises when you try to make a large quantity of them to pack in lunches or something. I seem to eat them all as soon as they come out of the oven so it's hard for me to accumulate any amount to actually pack for lunch.

I threw in some more grapes. I had a few the other day, but I filled the container up this time. I need to finish using those little guys up before they go bad in the fridge. It shouldn't be too difficult because they are quite tasty.

I skimped on dessert today and just packed myself an Apple Pie Larabar. These things are so good. Looking at the picture now, it doesn't look like much for dessert, but that little baby has 190 calories, so it's more than enough. If you're not familiar with Larabars, they are bars that contain only 2-5 raw food ingredients. No salt, no sugar, no processing, no nothing... just food. They are quite tasty, but not cheap. It would be quite simple to make your own, and that's on my list of things to do one of these days, along with world peace.

I'm still kinda' planning on going out for lunch tomorrow, but who knows, I might change my mind and pack something. I guess I'll just wait and see what happens. Thanks for peeking in today. See you on Friday!