Spicy Peanut Stir Fry

Have you heard of Miracle Noodles? My Dad mentioned these to me and I knew I'd have to buy them. They have 0 calories and consist of water and glucomannan, a soluble plant fiber which comes from the konjac plant. They're mainly used to lose weight, however, I bought them not necessarily to lose weight but to put in meals where I'd have something starchy -- rice, pasta, potatoes, etc. 

I tried them out by making a spicy peanut stir fry sauce using this recipe (but of course changing it just a bit).

Ingredients:

1 c. natural peanut butter

1 c. hot water

3 tbsp. low sodium soy sauce

splash lemon juice

1 tsp. crushed red pepper

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1 block firm tofu, pressed for at least 20 minutes and chopped to your liking

stir fry vegetables -- I used a bag of frozen string beans, broccoli, and mushrooms

1 pack of Miracle Noodles, prepared

Instructions:

- Stir hot water into the peanut butter making sure to break up the peanut butter. It'll take a few minutes so be patient!

- Add the rest of the sauce ingredients to your peanut butter mixture.

- Pour 1 cup of the spicy peanut sauce over tofu in a shallow dish and let sit for a few hours. Make sure to keep the remaining sauce refrigerated until use.

- When it's time to cook your tofu, heat a wok or skillet on medium-high heat. Cook tofu until browned, about 10 minutes. I just dumped the tofu and marinade into the wok and cooked together.

- When your tofu is browned, add in your veggies. Cook this until your vegetables are just barely cooked through but still nice and crisp.

- Stir in your Miracle Noodles and the remaining sauce when the vegetables and tofu are perfectly cooked. You just want to cook this until the sauce is heated through.

I was amazed at how this tasted. I figured the Miracle Noodles would taste gross and I'd need a lot of sauce to mask it. I was wrong! They were definitely a different texture than what I am used to but it wasn't bad. I'm glad I bought a few bags of these because I will definitely use them again.

As for the sauce -- YUM! I wish I had some cayenne to throw in it but unfortunately ran out. It had a very nice but subtle spiciness to it. This stir fry would have been great with some peanuts sprinkled on top! Overall, though, I think this was a hit. Both Michael and I loved it and were pretty happy with how the Miracle Noodles turned out. I was also able to use my new wok so that was exciting in and of itself!

In non-food related news, we were out surfing last night and saw a SEA LION! In the ocean! About 25 feet from us! It was a little scary but super cool. I sure love San Diego.

Sweet and Sour Stir Fry

I get these weird ethnic food cravings that I absolutely have to satisfy or I turn into one grumpy girl. The other night I wanted something Asian inspired so I threw together this sauce. I would say this is a sweet and sour stir fry, except it doesn't taste like your average sweet and sour sauce. It definitely has some sweetness and some tartness to it, though. I also used some random vegetables because I didn't have time or energy to run to the store for some delicious Asian vegetables. In any case, this satisfied my craving well enough!

Ingredients:

1 c. water

juice from 1 orange

2 tbsp. lemon juice

2 tbsp. soy sauce

1/4 c. white vinegar

1 tbsp. brown sugar

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

1/8 tsp. cayenne

2 tbsp. corn starch

Instructions:

- Mix in all ingredients except for the corn starch in a small pot.

- Heat on medium heat until just hot and then slowly stir in the corn starch. Make sure to keep whisking.

- Continue whisking until the mixture thickens up. Be patient -- it'll take a few minutes.

- Once the mixture is thick, take it off the heat and set aside.

- Saute some veggies and tofu. I just cooked up green peppers, white onion, corn, and peas. Instead of rice for this stir fry, I made red quinoa.

- Once your vegetables are done cooking, plate and then drizzle with your sauce!

I absolutely loved this sauce. It had the perfect amount of spiciness to it. This really would've been good with some better vegetables (and a better camera)! I am glad that it turned out so well. I love cooking this way -- just throw ingredients in a pot, taste, add some more, etc. This only problem is that this makes it hard to tell you how much I used! I think tonight I will be making stuffed peppers. YUM!

Garlic Tofu w/ Roasted Vegetables

If you've been reading my blog you will know that sometimes I guess on measurements. This is one of those times.

Ingredients:

1 block of extra-firm tofu, pressed for 20 minutes

3 - 4 tbsp. soy sauce

1 - 2 tbsp. oil

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. dried parsley

1 tsp. dried basil

pinch of salt

pinch of black pepper

Instructions:

- Mix all ingredients except for the tofu in a medium-sized bowl. Feel free to modify this marinade to your liking.

- Slice tofu however you choose. I decided on tofu "sticks" (even though some of them broke in the process).

- Gently toss tofu into the marinade until well incorporated.

- Place into a sandwich bag, making sure to squeeze out as much air as you can. Marinate the tofu in the refrigerator for however long you want. I typically let it sit for 24 hours but I only let this sit for probably 10.

- Sometime while the tofu is marinating, prepare your mixture to coat them in. I just used a little bit of almond meal, yellow corn meal, garlic powder, and a dash of salt and pepper.

- When tofu is done marinating (or until you can't wait any longer!), shake tofu sticks in your almond meal mixture in a sandwich baggie.

- Heat up a skillet on medium-high with just a tablespoon or two of oil. Brown tofu sticks on each side to give it a little crunch. This should only take a few minutes on each side.

- While tofu is browning, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Pop these into the oven to cook them through, maybe about 10 minutes.

I served these tofu sticks with some roasted onions, garlic, green peppers, and zucchini. It was all so good!! I wish I would've let the tofu cook in the oven for longer or that I would've cut them smaller. I like really crunchy tofu but I am trying not to fry things as much. All in all, I am quite pleased with how this meal turned out! I'm also glad I mainly used almond meal for the coating -- it gave it a very nice taste!

I am about to start on an awesome dinner for tonight. Don't worry, I'll be posting it in a few days :)

Breakfast for Dinner

When I was growing up, my mom used to make breakfast for dinner for my 3 siblings and I all the time. It usually consisted of chocolate chip pancakes, although from time to time we'd have an addition like scrambled eggs. I hated scrambled eggs, though, so I just ate the pancakes. This was never an issue for me because I LOVE chocolate chip pancakes. I still like to make myself breakfast for dinner occasionally. Last night I made Michael and I chocolate chip waffles and scrambled tofu.

Chocolate-Chip Waffles

makes a lot

Ingredients:

1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour

1 c. whole wheat flour

1 tbsp. + 1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 c. natural unsweetened applesauce

2 flax eggs ( 2 tbsp. flaxseed meal + 6 tbsp. water)

2 c. + 2 tbsp. milk alternative or water (I used soy milk)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

chocolate chips

Instructions:

- Grease and turn on waffle maker

- In a medium sized bowl, mix the dry ingredients except for the chocolate chips. In a larger bowl, mix the wet ingredients (you may use more or less water or milk alternative, depending on how thick you want your batter). Incorporate the dry into the wet until it is just mixed together. Fold in however many chocolate chips you want.

- Spoon batter into waffle maker, making sure to leave a bit of space around the edges so the batter doesn't come seeping out the sides. Place waffles on cooling racks when done cooking.

Scrambled Tofu

Ingredients:

1 block extra firm tofu, drained and squeezed

2 tbsp. tahini

2 tbsp. soy sauce

2 tbsp. water

2 tbsp. oil

3 tsp. garlic powder

2 tsp. mustard powder

2 tsp. black pepper

2 tsp. oregano

2 tsp. basil

1 tsp. curry powder

1 tbsp. nutritional yeast

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

1/2 green pepper, chopped

1/4 c. peas

3 handfuls spinach

Instructions:

- Combine tahini, soy sauce, and spices in a medium sized bowl. Add the water and oil to make a pasty consistency -- it could be more or less then 2 tbsp. each depending on your tastes and whatnot (I only added water so I wouldn't have so much oil in it).

- Crumble tofu into bowl and fold it into the mix, making sure not to break up the tofu too much.

- On medium-high heat, saute vegetables (minus spinach) for just a couple minutes.

- Add tofu mixture and cook until tofu is browned. When everything is just about done, add in the spinach. Make sure to keep folding the mixture to get all of the spinach cooked.

- If you made your waffles ahead of time, pop into toaster and serve with 100% maple syrup and fresh scrambled tofu!

I sure do love chocolate chip waffles! Anytime I make waffles I try to make a lot so I can freeze them and save for later use (just make sure to individually wrap each one in plastic wrap or else they'll freeze together). I also love scrambled tofu. This is probably my favorite recipe for it -- I would've used more soy sauce except Michael isn't a huge fan of it. I think it turned out quite nice the way it was! It seems like a lot of ingredients so don't feel overwhelmed... most of them are spices! I love recipes like these because you can change them up. I sometimes add in blueberries to my waffles and change up the vegetables in my scrambled tofu depending on what I have on hand (I will say, though, that the spinach totally tops the cake here). Either way, you can't go wrong with breakfast for dinner, especially when it consists of fresh, local ingredients and a little sugar to brighten your day.

Mustard-Marinated Tofu w/Quinoa

Michael and I recently discovered a store nearby that sells their store-made tofu for $0.98. We, of course, stocked up on this cheap and delicious tofu! I decided to use a block of it to marinate, bread, and bake. It was all very easy to make and super yummy.

Marinade Ingredients:

- 1/2 c. white vinegar

- 3 tbsp. lemon juice

- t tbsp. yellow mustard

- 2 tsp. maple syrup

- 2 cloves garlic, chopped

- 3 tsp. dried basil

- 2 tsp. dried thyme

- 2 tsp. garlic powder

- 2 tsp. paprika

- 1 tsp. black pepper

Instructions:

- Mix together all marinade ingredients, tasting every so often to make sure the flavor is to your liking.

- Pat down your block of tofu until you can get as much excess water out as you can. This is crucial so that the tofu will absorb your marinade.

- Slice tofu however you desire. I like thin tofu slices, so I cut them about 1/4" thick.

- Place tofu in a large baggie and pour the marinade into the bag. Make sure to squeeze air out of bag before you seal. Place bag in refrigerator until it's time to bake (I let mine sit for 24 hours, flipping over half way through).

- When your tofu is all done marinating, get your breadcrumbs ready. I made mine from bread that I made myself, so I just threw everything into a food processor. I used a chunk of homemade bread, garlic powder, nutritional yeast, basil, sage, and pepper. Feel free to use whatever you like!

- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

- Dip tofu slices into your breadcrumbs until fully coated. My breadcrumbs had a hard time sticking to the tofu because I used bread that was still fresh. I just had to pretty much pat the breadcrumbs onto the tofu.

- Place tofu onto a greased cookie sheet and bake until breadcrumbs are golden in color. I think I left mine in for 20 minutes or so.

- While tofu is cooking, prepare a delicious side dish! I just whipped up some quinoa and added to it peas, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper. I didn't want my quinoa having too strong of a flavor since the tofu was the stand-out piece here.

- When the tofu and quinoa are done, serve and enjoy!

Wow! The tofu was nice and crispy and full of mustardy flavor. I think next time I might add more maple syrup to calm down the acidity, though. In any case, the tofu was nicely seasoned and the quinoa was a nice and simple addition to this dish. I love playing with different flavors in marinades and mustard was a new one for me. I'm not a big fan of condiments but we've had a small container leftover from a local vegan restaurant for a while. I'm glad I was able to use it and enjoy it! I can't wait to think of something else to make with our abundance of tofu...

Vegetable Medley w/Tofu

Hello! So sorry for the hiatus -- I moved to San Diego from Ohio, so that took a long time. It also took a while to find an apartment and THEN it took even longer to find where to shop and when/where the farmer's markets are! Whew! I am finally back and cooking again.

I wanted to make a scrambled tofu last night but I ended up just pulling out and cutting up so many veggies that it ended up being more of a vegetable medley with tofu rather than scrambled tofu.

Ingredients:

2 small potatoes

1/2 block of firm tofu, pressed

1 regular sized carrot

1/2 green pepper

1/2 zucchini

1/2 red onion

basil

thyme

rosemary

parsley

salt

olive oil

Instructions:

- Heat up a little bit of olive oil in a skillet on medium high while cutting up the potatoes. I like to cut mine fairly small. Once you're done chopping, toss them into the skillet. Make sure to keep an eye on them and stir occasionally.

- While the potatoes are cooking, chop up the rest of your veggies. Here are mine!

- When your potatoes are almost to your liking (I like mine really dark and fairly crunchy), add in the tofu, veggies, herbs, and salt. For the tofu, it's easiest to break off pieces of the tofu and sort of crumble them into the mix.

-Mix and saute these for a bit until your vegetables are just cooked and your tofu is browned a bit.

- Now you are ready to eat!

This tasted way better than I expected. I'm glad I didn't add any spices like I usually do because this tasted very fresh and delicious (thank you, farmer's markets!). Unfortunately both Michael and I ate this whole thing right up so we weren't able to save any for leftovers.

Now I am off to hunt for even MORE food and also some hangers. Both are unrelated but both are much needed...