Friday for lunch I made a taco sandwich from random ingredients left in the fridge: seasoned ground "beef", nacho teese, green bell pepper, onion, and vegan sour cream. It was pretty reminiscent of a sloppy joe ... and definitely just as sloppy. I wouldn't call this recipe a winner. It's probably not a sandwich I would look to make again, but it wasn't bad. Maybe if I just happen to have those leftovers again someday.
Later in the afternoon I snacked on some sesame sticks from Whole Foods. These are a great salty snack ... and they help keep me away from the Biscoff cookie on a spoon! 
For dinner I decided to try my hand at a somewhat complicated recipe for vegan paella. I don't think I've ever had "real" paella before, so I don't have much to compare this against, but everything that went into it looked good so I had high hopes for this recipe. I've also heard good things about Candle 79 in New York, so I thought I'd give this a shot.
The recipe called for a ton of ingredients, but it wasn't too difficult to put together. Into the mix went: corn, tomatoes, cauliflower, red bell pepper, mushrooms, onion, garlic, saffron, paprika, rice, and vegetarian sausage. The recipe originally called for a green bell pepper as well, but I subbed in green chilies for a little extra spice. 
The most important ingredients for this are really the saffron and smoked paprika, which are the most important flavors in the dish. The saffron is soaked in water and poured into the rice to get absorbed and flavor the rice throughout.
Then it's just a matter of cooking everything for a long time until you end up with a tasty mashup.
Everything gets mixed together at the end and you remove it from the heat and let it rest under a towel for a bit to let the flavors meld together. In all, it probably took about an hour to prepare. Not something I would have time for every night, but it wasn't too much if you have the time to devote.
Plus, though the recipe said "6 servings" I think we ended up with more like 10! We're going to be eating paella all week! Good thing it's tasty.
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