Black Rice Jollof

Ingredients:

• 1 cup black rice

• 1 can diced tomatoes

• 1 red bell pepper, diced

• 1 onion, finely chopped

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 tbsp tomato paste

• 1 tsp smoked paprika

• 1 tsp thyme

• 1 tsp curry powder

• 1 vegetable bouillon cube

• Salt and pepper to taste

• 2 cups vegetable broth

• 2 tbsp olive oil

Instructions:

1. Rinse the black rice and set aside.

2. Heat olive oil in a pot, then add chopped onions and garlic. Sauté until onions are translucent.

3. Add diced bell pepper and cook for a few minutes.

4. Stir in tomato paste, smoked paprika, thyme, curry powder, salt, and pepper. Cook for another minute.

5. Add the diced tomatoes and vegetable bouillon cube. Cook for about 5 minutes.

6. Add the black rice and stir well. Pour in the vegetable broth, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the rice is cooked and the liquid is absorbed (about 45-50 minutes).

I make batches of seitan to throw into meals, sometimes I’ll make ‘steak style’ that goes with stirfry and noodles, or sausage styles that’s for spaghetti or other red sauce based dishes. It’s easy to make and stores well in the fridge too.

Also tofu, of course. Easy to make white sauces using the silken kind and can just mix up in a basic blender.

Variety of rices. I prefer black rice and wild rice. I used to think I didn’t like rice becuz all I was exposed to was basic long grain white, but then I found wild rice and recently black rice, and what a game changer. If I’m making sushi or a ‘red beans & rice’ I’ll use jasmine, which is the only good white rice to me lol

Beans. Black beans for tacos & bowls, pintos for soups, kidney for chilis and kidney bean salad, and chickpeas for falafel and what-have-you. I don’t like white beans or lima.

Canned/frozen fruit. Fresh doesn’t last and attracts pests. Can toss frozen into a smoothie, pancakes, oatmeal, or mix some frozen raspberries with plain vegan yogurt for a nice little ‘wet snack’. Canned fruit I buy the most is pineapple and mango. I like tossing some pineapple into certain stirfry or red sauce things like lasagna for a tropical twist. Fresh lemons always tho, I’m obsessed with lemons and use them in my tea and water, grated for certain dishes.

Lemon juice becuz I love it lol

Frozen vegetables—spinach chopped & okra, primarily. I don’t really like broccoli but it goes well with some stirfry I make so I’ll use it every now and then. Frozen peas for soups and stews.

Flours—basic white flour for dumplings, the old style drop dumplings using oat milk, or for making pizza dough, or flouring things like eggplant, and occasionally I’ll have a small bag of specialty flours like tapioca or chickpea. Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer is handy too.

Cheapass margarine that doesn’t have any animal milk, a big tub of that and if I find it on sale or crave it muchly, then miyokos oat milk butter.

Oils & vinegars. Olive oils for flavour and sunflower/olive mix in a big jug for frying. Apple cider vinegar with the mother for lots of things like dressings and adding tangy to sauces and things, balsamic for red sauces and dressings, white for multi-purpose uses.

Lapsang souchong loose leaf tea, becuz smokey is also one of my top flavour profiles that I love.

Canned tomato sauce, cheaper than using full tomatoes for a sauce base and easily customisable, especially for bbq sauces.

These are my basic restocks aside from things like tofurkey slices and plant cheese slices, spring mix and romain lettuce, and spices.

The assisted living facilities around here still suck pretty hardcore, I picked up at a couple when doing agency as a CNA2. I made agency $ doing that but talking to the girls working there as staff, they made dogshit $ and were from other countries who didn’t have the certs to get the better paying jobs yet and were obviously being exploited due to their ignorance (of which I happily provided the information they were being denied by the employers).

CNAs working skilled/LTC facilities are almost all unionised with SEIU which comes with its political bs but pays considerably well for those jobs—on an experience scale, but I was making just under $29 as staff with decent enough heath insurance through the Essential Worker Trust Fund, paid for through union dues primarily. But you still have to deal with all the crap that comes from working in those shitholes with stupidass ratios and patients presenting with even more extreme behavioural issues.

Now I work for Providence which is miles ahead for employees regarding safe working conditions and ratios vs nursing homes, and pay is comparable with a wider range of benefits without excessive restrictions (i.e., don’t have to wait a year before qualifying for education benefits, 100% employer paid education, health insurance, etc).

Most employers have strict no tolerance policies against bullying and discrimination, focus on DEI has been expanding at break-neck speed for better or worse, lots of focus on union organising, and (at least in my industry of healthcare) lax policies around self-expression and encouragement to be one’s authentic self. I don’t know all the details at the moment but there’s been plenty of legislation on anti-discriminatory measures on the state level.

So I guess it has gotten better overall in the last decade or so on those topics, but the cost of living is still pretty high so healthcare especially has to pay out higher wages or else lose us all and then have the weight of the healthcare authority come down on them.

Been rewatching ReGenesis

“ReGenesis is a Canadian science-fiction television series that explores the world of biotechnology and the ethical dilemmas associated with scientific advancements. Set in a near-future, the show follows a fictional group of scientists working at the NorBAC (North American Biotechnology Advisory Commission) as they investigate biological threats like pandemics, genetic mutations, and bioterrorism.”

On Tubi