Improv potential

On Sundays I get to cook vegetarian since it's for the fam. I attempted to adjust a Giada recipe, and the result wasn't half bad. I've actually made the original version several times for Jim, and he likes it. So instead of the original ground turkey, I used imitation ground beef. It comes dry and it's soy-based and super healthy. You soak it and it plumps right up and looks like the real stuff, with a slightly finer texture. Anyway, I was actually missing most of the ingredients, so I had to improvise. I didn't have any parsley, so that got left out. It really could have used it, but I knew that it'd be lacking something, if not in flavor, in color. I swapped out the Pecorino for goat cheese and a touch of mozzarella, which worked pretty nicely. I stuffed a couple of orange bell peppers and zucchini. I want to try portabello mushrooms, so I might pick some up from Costco tomorrow and throw the leftovers in there.

For whatever reason, I'm absolutely starving tonight. Oh yeah, I tried the baked goods Jim and I picked up at the French bakery yesterday in Berkeley. The lemon iced oatmeal cookie was really nice. It had a slightly crunchy texture and the overall flavor was really punched up by the lemon icing because the cookie itself wasn't very sweet. The croissant was pretty amazing. Again, not too sweet, but a really nice texture.