Tofu Scramble & Randomness

Today was my first experiment in cooking with tofu and actually it turned out very delicious, even though I made something super-simple. For my main course, I had tofu scramble. Mmm... I honestly thought it was scrambled eggs for a split second. :) Now, feel free to throw in any ingredients you have on-hand. I didn't have any peppers or mushrooms so I was kinda suck with onion. :)

Scrambled Tofu

INGREDIENTS:
- 1 16 oz. block of firm tofu
- 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced thin
- 1/2 small onion
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup sliced scallions
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce

DIRECTIONS:
1) Drain the tofu and press it, using paper towels. Then crumble it using your clean hands.

2) Sautee the garlic and onion in olive oil on medium heat for 3-5 minutes.
3) Stir in the crumbled tofu then add turmeric, salt, pepper, scallions, and soy sauce.

Looks like eggs! Whoah!

4) Cook with tofu for 5 more minutes, stirring often.
5) Serve as an egg dish or with salsa and burrito wrappers.


Mmm... delicious!

To add to my meal, I also made some stir-fried asparagus, which is as simple as olive oil, salt, and pepper.


The final product:


And...last but not least, I made curried zucchini chips as an appetizer, which is something I kinda made up and throw all kinds of spices on.

INGREDIENTS
- 2 (or more) zucchini
- olive oil (for brushing)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Curry
- Paprika
- Garlic Powder

DIRECTIONS
1) Preheat the oven to 400
2) Take a large, flat oven tray and lightly brush it with olive oil
3 ) Cut the zucchini into thin slices and place them onto the tray
4) After all the chips are placed, take a small brush and cover the the tops of the chips, lightly, with olive oil.


5) After the zucchini is covered, take the spices (or make alterations, to taste) and sprinkle them loosely over the slices.


6) Bake for 15 minutes, then check and flip. Bake for another 15 minutes or until the chips are slightly browned at the edges.


Voila!

Bear in mind that the zucchini shrinks a lot in baking so I would recommend using at least 2 thin zucchini per person.

Bento 002

1) Little salad with flower-shaped cucumbers, tomato, mixed greens, peppers, and parmesan
2) Dessert - blackberries and apple slices (with a little pink koala pick :D)
2) Asian box - Inari sushi (fried tofu filled with brown rice, which I had the pleasure of making earlier), a cucumber slice divider, and some kimchee
3) Leftovers! Whole-wheat rigatoni with basil/tarragon pesto, asparagus and shredded parmesan.

So far, I am digging this whole bento thing, at least while I have cool stuff in my fridge. :P

Bento 001

I finally got my cute bento set from Japan and I experienced making my very first. It's nothing too creative but I just didn't have the time tonight. I did try and cut the cucumbers into hearts and attached some cute animal picks.

Lo and behold:


Mixed greens salad with sun-dried tomato, regular tomato, and cucumber (a little parmesan sprinkled on), Eggplant parmesan and whole-wheat riagtoni with asparagus and zucchini as my main course, and banana on top of blackberries as my dessert!


All packed up...


And placed in this cute bag!

Lunch is gonna be good tomorrow. :D

Easy Guacamole

I love guacamole, it's absolutely delicious and I always try to have it in the house. The best part about it is that it's super easy to make and you can use it for sandwiches, tacos, as a dip, etc. Here is a recipe for some quick guacamole I whipped up with some basic ingredients.

1 ripe (softened) avodaco
1/2 small onion
1/2 small tomato
2 cloves of garlic
1 small jalapeno (optional)
salt, pepper, and paprika, to taste

Directions:
Cut the avocado in 1/2 and remove the seed. Using a spoon, remove the avocado from the shell and toss it into a food processor.



Dice up the onion, tomato, garlic, and jalapeno, and toss it into the processor. Season mixture with salt, pepper, and paprika.



Mix the ingredients until most of the tomato and onion have been mixed well in. I like my guacamole a bit thicker than completely mashed so I process it enough just to get a "lump" sort of texture from the onion and tomato.



That's it! Place in a dish and serve.



It takes about 5 minutes to make and stores well in the fridge when covered by plastic wrap.

Three Vegetable Penne With Tarragon-Basil Pesto

Courtesy of Rachel Ray and (as usual) modified a bit.

Recipe:

1 pound whole-wheat penne pasta
Salt
1/2 pound asparagus, trimmed of tough ends
1 small zucchini
1/4 pound, green beans trimmed of stem ends
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 cup basil, 20 leaves
1/2 cup tarragon leaves from 10 to 12 stems
Handful flat-leaf parsley
1 lemon, zested
2 clove garlic
1/2 cup shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano
Coarsely ground black pepper
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil


Some of my ingredients

Heat a large pot of water to boil for pasta. Salt the water and add pasta to cook to al dente or, with a bite to it. Cut asparagus spears into 2-inch pieces on an angle. Cut zucchini into matchstick shapes. Cut green beans into 2-inch pieces on an angle. Add vegetables to pasta after penne has been cooking about 5 minutes. Cook veggies and pasta together 2 minutes.

While pasta cooks, toast pine nuts in a small pan until golden, then cool.


Place nuts, basil, tarragon, parsley, lemon zest, garlic, cheese and a little salt and pepper in a food processor.


Turn the processor on and stream in the extra-virgin olive oil until thick sauce forms. Scrape pesto into large, shallow serving dish.


Add a ladle of hot, starchy pasta water to the pesto. Drain penne and veggies and add immediately to pesto. Toss to coat pasta and vegetables evenly. Adjust salt and pepper, to taste.


Serve with extra grated cheese to pass at table.


* This was so absolutely delicious. I was a little scared making the pesto but it came out beautifully. I have some leftovers. I think tomorrow I will make another batch of pesto, just to freeze and have on-hand for any sort of pasta occasion. Yum!!!

Pine Nuts

Wow!

I am making basil tarragon pesto tonight and I stopped by the local Turkish store to get some pine nuts. I loaded up about a pound and went to the cashier. $18.35!!! I had NO IDEA that pine nuts were so freaking expensive!!

I researched this a bit and found that since so much work is required into getting the nuts, they're pretty rare and thus, very expensive. Well, now I know better. I'll store my precious supply and use it sparingly. :)

Recipe/picture post will follow with my crazy pesto adventure.

Emeril's Hummus di Tahina

Oh Mr. Emeril, you have failed me on this one.

I tried making the hummus recipe I found here. Let me just say that it didn't turn out anything at all like what I had expected.

Here are my ingredients, ready to be used.

Now, it probably wasn't the brightest idea since my "food processor" is actually one of those choppers that utilizes a hand-crank. Trying to mush chickpeas with a hand-crank isn't too much fun and it came out with the consistency of tuna salad. Also, the recommended amount of tahini was waay to much. The recipe is very strongly tahini flavored, and thick.

Here's the final product:

I definitely am not trying this one again.

Just for fun, here are pictures of the injuries I sustained while attempting to make this "hummus."

I am definitely going to have to invest in an electric food processor before I try making hummus again. :)

Breakfast This Morning

Mmm...Kashi GoLean cereal, fresh strawberries, soy milk, and a banana.

Wild Mushroom Quesdaillas

Yesterday for dinner, I made wild mushroom quesadillas with a black-bean salsa. I kinda stole the recipe from Rachel Ray and modified it a bit.

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan, plus some for drizzling
16 crimini mushroom caps, baby portobellos, with stems, trimmed and thinly sliced
12 shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced, stems discarded
Coarse black pepper and salt
4 large flour tortillas, 12 inches in diameter
2 cups shredded sharp white cheddar

Salsa:
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
1 can black beans, drained
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the oil and the sliced mushrooms to the hot skillet. Season mushrooms with black pepper and salt. Saute the mushrooms 10 minutes or, until dark and tender, then remove from heat. Transfer the mushrooms to a dish and return the skillet to the stove over medium heat.

(Heh, looks kinda gross from far)

Add another turn of extra-virgin olive oil to the skillet and add the onions, garlic and jalapeno pepper; saute for 2 or 3 minutes, then add beans and corn to the pan. Stir in chopped tomatoes then season salsa with salt and pepper. Transfer warm salsa to a serving dish.

Heat a griddle pan or large nonstick skillet over medium to medium high heat. Add a drizzle of oil to the pan and 1 flour tortilla. Cook tortilla 1 minute, then turn it over. Sprinkle 1/2 cup sharp cheddar over 1/2 of the flour tortilla. Cover the cheese with 1/4 of the cooked sliced mushrooms. Fold the plain 1/2 of the tortilla over top of the filling and gently press down with a spatula. Cook the filled quesadilla 30 seconds to a minute longer on each side to lightly brown and crisp the quesadilla and melt the cheese. Remove the quesadilla to a large cutting board or transfer to a warm oven to hold, then repeat with remaining quesadilla ingredients.

Cut each quesadilla into wedges and serve with warm salsa for topping.

Salsa:

I made my salsa happy by garnishing with avocado (yum), also I wanted to make my meat-eating boyfriend happy even though there was none being served. :P

The final product:

Oh no! Mr. Salsa! What did they do to you?!?

Introduction

About one week ago, I decided to make a drastic change in my eating habits and, essentially become a vegetarian. I say "essentially" because some of my habits are more pescaterian and some are downright vegan. I have cut out all meat from my diet with the exception of fish or seafood, but I try to severely limit my intake of those to my must-have foods such as sushi and fried calamari (drool...). Meanwhile, I have stopped consuming milk, but still eat cheese, and I do not eat eggs or egg-based products. I also do not drink any diet-sodas and basically stick to tea, coffee, water, beer, and wine.

I must say that the change has been easier than I had imagined. The first day or two, I felt kinda strange and I actually got a headache (which I read is most likely my body "detoxing"). But after that, I have felt great. My energy levels have increased, and I feel like my taste buds are more sensitive. Best of all, this has allowed me to try so many different foods that I probably would not have had otherwise, and it has inspired me to cook more and experiment more with food choices.

My primary reason for switching to a veggie diet has been a book called The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell. In it, a renowned cancer researcher posts his finding of a 20-year nutritional study that compares diseases with nutrition - primarily focusing on China where the rates of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer are so much lower than in the U.S. His research, along with the research of many other reputable schools - such as Cornell and Oxford - points to the overwhelming benefits of a diet rich in plant foods and whole grains.

I suppose the reason behind this blog is to document my food, struggles, and observations, and I start to fit myself into this particular way of living. I'm sure there will be recipes, meal substitution ideas, and much more. So bear with me as I explore the wonderful world of natural foods. :)