11.04.2009

Tofu Done Two Ways

With every pack of tofu, there is about 4 dinner meals, so I will normally make two different recipes. With this container of tofu I made two Vegan Dad recipes.

The first was Malaysian Sweet and Sour Tofu. This recipe wasn't even what was on my list, I originally had a different Vegan Dad recipe, but for some reason did not feel like making it and instead felt like a saucy tofu-y meal. So I decided on the Malaysian style. The photo is really crappy, as this is a recipe I made when I still thought my camera charger was lost. I battered my tofu with corn starch and a little flour and the sauce was mainly made up of soy sauce, vinegar, ketchup, and sugar. I was a bit hesitant to the amount of vinegar that he used, so I instead used more soy sauce and added a bit of hoison. My sauce wasn't as deep and rich colored as his picture implied, but damn it was delicious. Really nice tofu dish that prepped and cooked fast.


The second tofu dish was his Thai Tamarind Chili Tofu with Cashews. With such a stellar picture, I was well excited to make the dish. The grocery store that I went to has absolutely no good produce, ever (as why I never go there). But this grocery trip, I was offered a ride, so I took my chance. So where the recipe called for both shallots and green onion, they had neither. I made due and used sweet onion instead. Vegan Dad instead of the normal battered tofu called for golden baked tofu and have to say, as with the sesame-crusted tofu, I am so impressed with the texture of tofu that is baked. The tofu has time to evaporate water while baking, so it is a lot chewier than if it was fried. It is my new method of tofu prep and Im sticking to it. So good.
As always, I never have all the ingredients of the sauces, so I used brown sugar, sriracha, vegetable stock, and soy sauce for my sauce. Added to the already mentioned tofu and onions was red pepper and cashews. So simple and yet it packed a punch in the taste department. The sweetness from my onions and the brown sugar played delectably off the nutty cashew taste and the little bite of heat from the sriracha sauce. mhmm.

Whoever says tofu is a one trick pony or gave up after their first experience with it really needs to get back on the train. Tofu is so delicious!

11.03.2009

best salad ever...

So a few years ago I took a picture of seriously the best salad I had ever made at the time. The salad, pictured here was laden in cheese, egg, cream and milk based dressing, and processed croutons. And actually had no vegetables, hrm.



However delicious it does look, it is so no good. Instead, I have updated my view of the best salad ever (well that I have made) to this...

delicious in all of its enormity. Chikn strips, radishes, black beans, pieces of apple, carrot, and more.

I dont know if this shows how becoming vegan has made my view on eating much healthier and much more varied. The amount of color on the salad, the addition of spinach and beans adding such nutrition. It just reminded me that even though I still drink my diet pepsi like a mad woman, becoming vegan has made me be so much better to my body.

that's all. have a great day :)

11.02.2009

White Bean Pasta & Quinoa Veggie Soup

Well it is November, and I umm did not make the Vegan Mofo goal of 20 posts. I knew I wouldnt, October is midterms and such, but it is still fun participating and getting to know new bloggers and see new faces on the blog.

The end of the month turned out to be great. I made sure not to participate in Halloween this year. Until I am away from the college environment, I do not want to take part in the holiday. I hate the overly sexy, drunk mindset that most college students see as Halloween. I was telling friends on twitter that my idea of Halloween is the trick-or-treaters running up to my door, the crisp air, the warmth of my house from my mom making chili all day, and the voices of the black and white horror shows and movies that my dad would be watching. It was such a great experience. Memories that obviously will carry with me my entire life. So instead of dressing up and getting drunk I went apple picking with a friend. It had rained pretty hard the days before, so the farm was really muddy and of course a greedy goat somehow skidded mud all over my pants The farm was going to charge us 40 dollars for the apples and wouldnt let us get smaller sized bags, so we just walked around the farm. But being with a good friend and laughing a storm was enough of an adventure. We ended up going to the outlet stores and even going to the neighboring state for dinner. So much fun.

I am kind of in shock of where the year went. We have two more months left until 2010. The year that I have been waiting for since my high school graduation in 06. I will be graduating from university. It is pretty insane, but it looks like I will most likely still be in school and my applications for grad school are still a work in progress.

For the past 3 weeks I have pretty much had 5 fresh things on my shelves. Was out of bread, bagels, juice, all fruit, and almost every frozen meal I could possibly make. In other words, my meals came from Subway, Qdoba, and mixture of horrible junk food. I am so excited to have gone shopping this past weekend and finally have some fresh produce and more of my beloved Amy's frozen goods.

The first thing I made after I got my stash was actually a meal that I already had all the ingredients for. I figured I still had a little bunch of kale left, so I would make the recipe that had called for kale. And it was Joshua Katcher's White Bean Pasta with Garlicky White Wine Sauce. Simple pasta dish that consisted of red onions, garlic, white beans, kale, white wine (i used veg broth), a little nooch, and a little spice. Just had to brown the onions and garlic, add the beans, nooch, and spices, pour in the broth and kale and allow to simmer. Not much work at all, and the sauce was ready by the time the pasta was perfectly al dente. It was so effing delicious, I even licked my work spoon off before putting it in the sink. It was a perfect meal after a great relaxing day and again today when I had such a long day, plus still extras for lunch tomorrow (and I swear I made a half recipe). I will definitely be making this again, and think I might even make it for my family next time I go home.

Another meal that I ate for days and days without thinking of it as leftovers was Jenn Blumberg's Quinoa Veggie Soup. I made the full recipe of this soup, since I can easily have soup for lunch and dinner for days and days on end. How many times do I even have to tell you guys that I am madly in love with soup? All of Jenn's recipes are brilliantly organized and with amazing instructions for new cooks or cooks experimenting with new vegetables. This recipe had detailed instructions how to prepare a leek (which was really helpful to me) and showed how to cut kale correctly. The soup consisted of the leek, kale, carrots, celery, onion, okra, corn, and quinoa all in a delicious 'chikn' broth. I actually had the fake chikn broth from my whole foods adventure, and it really made it taste like a soup my mom would make for me when I was sick. So many flavors and textures, with just the right amount of starch from the quinoa. I fell in love with this soup every single time I ate it. And I of course added mounds of sriarcha sauce to my broth to make it nice and spicy. Was highly satisfied and this recipe as well has been added to my soup rounds.