What’s this? A new recipe??! Wow!

I actually cooked something last night… from scratch! I know, shocking! Ever since I started baking a ton, I haven’t been cooking too often. Yesterday was my munchkin’s 4th birthday and for her special birthday dinner, she requested tofu (plain), rice and artichokes. She got her wish, but I felt I needed to jazz it up a bit for my husband and I. We also had steamed artichokes and rice, but I decided to glaze our tofu with teriyaki sauce. It turned out really good… and because I didn’t have any bottled teriyaki sauce, I had to make my own. It’s so easy too! I don’t think I’ll ever buy a bottle of it ever again.

Teriyaki Glazed Tofu and Green Beans

1 lb. tofu (or other plant protein of your choice), cubed

2 cups green beans, either fresh or frozen

1 recipe teriyaki sauce (you will have some leftover)

Toasted sesame seeds for garnish, optional

In a large skillet, preheat a few tablespoons of canola, vegetable or peanut oil over medium-high heat.  When the oil is hot, add the tofu making sure it is completely dry before adding to the hot oil.  Cook on one or two sides until golden brown then remove from pan.  If there is a lot of oil leftover from cooking the tofu, wash out your pan.  Add the green beans and a few tablespoons of water.  Cover and let them steam for a few minutes.  When cooked, drain any remaining water and add the tofu back to the pan.  Glaze with the teriyaki and cook a minute or so longer.  Garnish with sesame seeds and serve over rice or noodles.

Yellow curry is my absolute favorite Thai dish.  I was in the middle of making some the other night when I discovered that I was out of turmeric.  Of all the things to be out of…  So, without the turmeric to make my curry yellow, my dish turned into a red curry instead.

This time, I used some super firm tofu, sweet potato, carrots, broccoli, onion and frozen peas.  The basic curry recipe is here, but only use 1 cup of stock, 1 cup of coconut milk and don’t add the turmeric to keep it red.  It was really quite good and came together really fast.  You could even precook your jasmine rice and pre-chop all of your veggies to make it even easier on yourself after a day at work.  I really, really liked the addition of the sweet potato– it gave it a really interesting flavor.

The only picture we mananged to get of her smiling. Thanks, Kendal.

Yesterday was Emma’s birthday party and man, was it hot!  Perfect weather, actually, since there was a bit of a breeze.  She seemed to enjoy herself; although, every time I ask her if she had fun, she tells me that it was too tiring.  I agree.  Next year, she seems down for a trip somewhere in lieu of a big party.  The theme was garden/spring/bugs.

I bet you’re all wondering what was on the menu so without further delay, here you go:

Fruit:  pineapple, watermelon, grapes, strawberries, cantaloupe and blueberries (and a special thanks to Nana Sally for contributing the best tasting blueberries I’ve had all year– blueberries are one of Emma’s favorite foods).  I used the top half of a pineapple as the centerpiece of the fruit tray.  Then I cut some melon flowers and put them on skewers into the pineapple.  I used green leaf lettuce around the edge for a little something extra.  Turned out cute.

Snack Tray #1:  cherry tomatoes, edamame, spring rolls with Quick Peanut Sauce from Vegan Lunch Box.

Snack Tray #2:  mini pitas, crackers, baby carrots, bell pepper slices, cucumber slices and falafel.

For the kiddos:  PB&J flowers.  Centers are strawberry and grape halves secured with a toothpick.

Cake:

A cupcake tower of strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, chocolate mint, lemon and coconut.  The cupcakes were topped with fondant ladybugs, butterflies, caterpillars, and flowers.  On top of the tower was a “cake” with a candle for Emma to blow out.  I didn’t have time to make an actual cake, so I used styrofoam and covered it with homemade chocolate fondant.  The decor at the top is all made from gum paste and fondant.  Extra embellishments– i.e. the ladybug spots, etc.– are all done with a vegan royal icing (sub Ener-G Egg Replacer for egg white).

I know all of this looks like it took a long time to prepare, and it did, but the great thing about it is that a lot of it can be done ahead of time.  The faux “cake” I made about two weeks ahead of time.  The fondant decorations for the cupcakes were done about a month ago, as with the decorations for the faux “cake.”  All of the cupcakes have been leftovers from the various batches I’ve made over the last month, except for the chocolate and vanilla ones.  I cut up and arranged all the fruit the day before.  The falafel was cooked the day before and reheated the day of.  Yes, it was a lot of work, but breaking it up into more manageable parts made it much easier.

A few weeks ago, we went out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant that we had never tried before.  The food was super good, especially the salad dressing.  It was a mayo based dressing and, even though I knew it wasn’t vegan, I ate it anyway because (1) it was THAT good and (2) I figured if I kept eating it, I could find a way to veganize it (and probably lighten it up a bit) at home.  So voila!  Here is my veganized and lightened up version of Kobe’s salad dressing:

Creamy Japanesey Salad Dressing

(click here for a printer friendly version)

1 green onion, chopped

3 TB rice vinegar

1 1/2 TB soy sauce

2 TB vegenaise

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1/4 tsp toasted sesame seeds (or up to 1 tsp toasted sesame oil)

1/4 tsp agave nectar

1 clove garlic, grated or minced

S&P to taste

Combine and pour over salad.

This is another easy dish, but it was so flavorful that you wouldn’t guess how quickly it came together.  To make this even easier on yourself, you could chop all your veggies on the weekend (or on a day when you have extra time) so that they’re all ready for you.  For this stir fry, I used tofu, broccoli, frozen peas, carrots, green onions, and cabbage.  Start by boiling your soba noodles according to the directions on the package.  While that is going, heat a big skillet (or wok) and add just a small drizzle of oil.  Throw in the tofu and let it brown up on all sides.  Add your veggies, putting the ones that take the longest to cook in first.  After the noodles have boiled, add them to the pan too.  Then add some minced garlic and ginger (to taste), some soy sauce and a little drizzle of sesame oil.  Voila!  Lunch or dinner is served!

I’ve blogged about how much I LOVE miso soup before, but when you throw in some other fixin’s you’ve got yourself a yummy meal in less than 10 minutes.  Seriously, this stuff is good and it’s my go-to when I don’t know what else to make.  Emma loves it too.  In fact, she had the leftovers from this meal for breakfast yesterday.

If using packaged noodles:

To make this, start by boiling your udon noodles per the directions on the package.  Once cooked, drain them and set aside.  In the same pot, fill with water (the amount depends on how many servings you intend to make, but just eyeball it).  When the water has boiled, turn off the heat and add your miso.  I prefer red miso, but you can use whatever one you like best.  I usually start with 2 good spoonfuls.  Work it in to dissolve it in the water and either add more miso if it’s not to your liking or add more water if the miso flavor is too strong.  Add a few dashes of soy sauce and you’re done!  Add your noodles back into your soup, then throw in some cubed tofu and chopped green onion.  Couldn’t be easier!

If using fresh noodles:

Prepare your soup as directed above, but don’t turn off the heat once the water has boiled.  With the soup bubbling, add the noodles and cook one to two minutes (whatever the package directs).  When cooked, turn off the heat and add the tofu and green onion.

Tempeh:

is made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process that binds soybeans into a cake form. It is especially popular on the island of Java, where it is a staple source of protein. Like tofu, tempeh is made from soybeans, but tempeh is a whole soybean product with different nutritional characteristics and textural qualities. Tempeh’s fermentation process and its retention of the whole bean give it a higher content of protein, dietary fiber and vitamins compared to tofu, as well as firmer texture and stronger flavor. Tofu, by contrast, is said to be more versatile in dishes. Because of its nutritional value, tempeh is used worldwide in vegetarian cuisine; some consider it to be a meat analogue.

Until last Friday, I’m not sure that I had ever eaten it before.  I had picked up a package of it about a month ago and figured I should use it before it expired.  There’s a recipe for teriyaki marinated tempeh in Vegan Planet that sounded good. I whipped up some chow mein to go with it, following my fried rice recipe and subbing cooked chow mein noodles for the rice.

I bet you’re wondering what I thought of it, aren’t you?  Well, I have to say that I prefer the taste and texure of tofu to tempeh.  Tempeh is not at all meaty and chewy like I’d expected it to be.  It’s sort of soft and really has no taste at all.  It wasn’t disgusting and if I were out some place where tempeh was the only vegetarian option, I’d eat it.  But I don’t know that I would ever make it at home again.  No one was really wild about it.  My chow mein was awesome, though.

I really like sushi– like vegetable sushi, not fishy sushi.  My husband, though, could live his whole life without ever eating it again and wouldn’t miss it.  Because of that, I don’t get to eat it often and I certainly don’t take the time to make it if I know he won’t eat it.

Last night was a different story.  After a trip to the Japanese market last week, I had some abura-age “shells” sitting pretty in my fridge.  The process of making the rice to go in them is a little laborious and I wasn’t in the mood to do it until yesterday.  So yesterday afternoon, I pretty much followed this recipe to make my age (but I added some shredded carrots to the sushi rice).  The rice that stuffs these guys is sweeter than regular sushi rice and I had reserved some not-too-sweet rice to make regular sushi rolls with.  My rolls had jicama, carrot and avocado in them and they were yummy!  Totally hit the spot.  Some pan-fried tofu and miso soup rounded out the meal.  To my suprise and delight, my hubby even ate a few pieces of sushi.  It was quite a feast!

I thought fried rice would be really, really good for dinner.  The best part about it is that you can clean out the fridge and throw in whatever veggies you find in there.  The bad part is that “fried” and “rice” are two things that I’m avoiding at the moment in order to shed some poundage.  So, I came up with an alternative that actually worked out pretty well.  In place of no fiber, high calorie white rice, I substituted wheat berries.  Wheat berries are yummy; I love their chewiness– like brown rice but so, so much better.  To cook wheat berries, all you have to do is boil them in a big pot of water for about an hour.  Drain off the excess water after they’re done cooking.  I used 1 1/2 cups dry wheat berries and ended up with about 3 1/2 cups cooked.

My fried “rice” consisted of a red onion, 2 carrots, 2 parsnips, some Napa cabbage, 2 zucchini, 3 cremini mushrooms, some red and green bell pepper remnants, frozen peas and corn, and, of course, garlic and ginger.  I used a gigantic nonstick skillet to cook it all in and only about a teaspoon of canola oil.  Put in the veggies that take the longest to cook first (onion, carrots, parsnips), then add the garlic and ginger and the veggies with the next longest cooking time.  When all of the veggies had been stir fried, I added in 2 cups of cooked wheat berries and drizzled some soy sauce and toasted sesame oil over top.  Yummy!  I served it with some pan fried tofu.

Be forewarned that fried rice is a long prep time.  If I were a working person, I probably wouldn’t make this on a weeknight, unless all of the veggies were already chopped.

With my leftover wheat berries, I made some hot cereal for breakfast tomorrow.  Stay tuned for that…

I love spring rolls and I make them a lot, especially during the summer when fruits and veggies are so abundant.  Last night, I decided to make them again, but with a neat, calorie-reducing twist.

Instead of using the rice wrappers, I went with a leaf of napa cabbage.  Napa cabbage is a little more delicate than red or green cabbage with a texture sort of like a hearty lettuce leaf.  It was the perfect “wrap” for our rolls.  Inside the rolls, I used some lightly blanched broccoli (I don’t care for raw broccoli so I had to cook it a little), some grated carrots, radishes, cilantro and mint, and tofu.  Emma even helped with the dinner preparation by pulling all the mint leaves off of the stem!

On the side, I boiled up some soba noodles and topped them with the extra tofu that I had cut up.  The dressing that I made for the rolls and noodles is a peanut flavored one, instead of being peanut based.  I didn’t measure anything at all.  I threw stuff into a bowl and adjusted it until it tasted right, so sorry for not having a real recipe.  I’ll tell you what I used and you can fiddle around with your own concoction:  soy sauce (probably about 1-2 TB), Thai sweet chili sauce (~2 tsp), garlic powder (~1/4 tsp), fresh ginger, grated (~1/4 tsp), toasted sesame oil (drizzle), peanut butter (~1 tsp).  It was really good, peanut-y without being overly heavy with peanut butter.  And even though I’ve sworn off noddles, bread and rice until I drop a few pounds, at least the soba noodles are wheat and my portion was itty bitty.

While I’m on the subject of peanut butter, I want to tell you all about a new one I just tried.  I’m perfectly happy with natural peanut butter– the stuff you have to stir and then refrigerate.  If you’re going to be eating peanut butter, it’s probably the best stuff (be sure to always buy organic peanut butter).  Anyway, I saw this stuff and thought I’d try it, even though it isn’t organic.  It’s a no stir, natural peanut butter from Earth Balance.  It’s soft like how I remember Skippy or Jif being and is good, but I don’t think it’s any better tasting than the natural kind.  Maybe just more convenient because it spreads more easily.  If my choices were between Skippy and Earth Balance, I would definitely opt for the Earth Balance brand simply because all those hydrogenated oils are like a death sentence.  Did you know that people who eat hydrogenated oils are more likely to have health issues than people who don’t?  Back to the butter:  I don’t know that I’d ever buy this again, only because it’s not organic.  With all the weird things sprayed on foods to prevent naturally occuring processes (like molding and pest infestations), I’m not willing to eat the weird stuff just to have peanut butter that doesn’t separate.