Today Mom and LP had toast and peanut butter for breakfast.  Simple pleasures and all that.

Money Matters:

Today we hung out at the park and at home.  Nothing spent!

Monday Munchies: Recipe of the Week

One of my favorite foods growing up was tuna melts. Needless to say I have no desire to eat tuna again, but I do enjoy yummy salty filling for a grilled sandwich. Bring on the tempeh! This weekend I had a hankering for one of these great sandwiches, so I veganized it with some already-steamed tempeh cubes. While it certainly wouldn’t fool anyone sandwich tasted great, and it certainly quelled my grilled, salty craving. A sprinkle of kelp powder in the filling would add a “fishy” taste – you know, if you go for that sort of thing.

Tempeh Melt
Ingredients:
4 oz of tempeh, cubed and steamed
2 TB of vegan mayonnaise (Nayonaise is great!)
2 tsp of dijon mustard
1 TB of pickle relish
a bit of Earth Balance (vegan butter) for spreading
4 slices of bread
2 TB of nutritional yeast

Directions:
1. Using a fork, mash up the tempeh
2. Add the mayo, mustard and relish to the tempeh and mix it thoroughly with a fork, continuing to smash the tempeh.
3. Butter a slice of bread and put it down on a warmed pan (or on a lean mean grilling machine!)
4. Spread on half of the tempeh mix and sprinkle 1 TB of nutritional yeast
5. Cover with another buttered slice of bread and grill!
6. Repeat for your second sandwich (or save the filling for another time)

Ingredients:
- Miso paste
- Firm tofu, cubed
- Dashi

Optional:
- Green onion
- Egg
- Spinach or other greens, rinsed thoroughly
- Wakame (seaweed – you can buy this dried)
- Cooked rice

Directions:

1. Get a small pot and add water. Heat on high so it will start to boil by the time you add your ingredients.

2. In a small dish, whisk together the miso paste (maybe about 2 tbsp to start and then adjust the flavor as you taste the soup) and some water. Once this is well incorporated, add it to your almost-boiling water.

3. Prepare whatever ingredients you want to add to your miso soup. My favorites are: chopped tofu, lots and lots of spinach, green onion, and an egg.

4. Add your tofu first to the miso soup on the stove. Add about one spoonful of dashi. Continue to add miso paste, dashi, and even shoyu, as necessary to get the flavor right. Once the water starts to boil, turn off the heat. Words from my Obaachan: “don’t let your water boil more than once or you will ruin the flavor. As she says that to me, she always hits my arm to really reinforce the fact!

5. Once you turn off the heat, add the whisked egg and stir in the broth so it cooks. Add the spinach until it welts.

6. Serve in a bowl (I wish I had Japanese miso soup bowls! but I don’t. I have these Martha Stewart cereal bowls that I use instead) and top with chopped green onion.

Delicious!

I wish I wasn’t out of miso paste, otherwise I would make this right now!

The Boyfriend Rates It: 4

This is another one of those dishes I didn’t grow up eating, but when I did have it it was of the restaurant variety, so it was usually bland. This, on the other hand, has tons of flavor and is extremely savory. The spinach and green onions give it good texture and a little bite and the egg and tofu give it a good amount of protein.

I arrived at the station after dark, 16 kilometers from my home. I was so impatient that I walked five hours, slowly, to get to my destination. Giving up on the idea of making it home, I found a small inn.

I settled in to sleep, but, then, I heard my brother’s voice. I opened my eyes wide but could not see anything in the dark. Still, I heard my brother whispering in the dark. I stood up and shouted, “Brother. I am here! It’s Hong-Hi!”

“What? Hong-Hi? Is it true?” he cried.

He told me that our family had despaired that, after a week of liberation, there was still no word of me. Only one old man, a fortune-teller and infamous blowhard, ran around, shouting, “Hong-Hi is coming! Hong-Hi is coming!”

My brother and I drove an ox-cart home. I watched the morning star, as it grew brighter over the skyline. We arrived home at the break of dawn.

My mother was elated. As soon as I formally bowed, prostate in front of her, she fetched a piece of tofu for me to eat. She told me that tofu would cure the “bean poison” that had afflicted me in prison.

Though I returned home covered with wounds and no notable successes, I was overjoyed with the sincerity and warmth that greeted me.

But even so, it sits a little heavy in the stomach, and I much prefer this dairy-less alternative! After having vegan cheesecake in a few restaurants, I decided to try my hand at making it myself, and found that it is super easy and absolutely worth the effort!

I adopted this recipe from Hungry Hungry Hippie and have already made it three times! In addition to being vegan, it is also gluten-free for those of you with allergies. Every time I’ve made it, it comes out a little bit differently – but I think it’s improving! Try varying the recipe a little bit to suit your preferences.

To start, set two cups of raw cashews to soak for six hours (I follow the recommendations on this website, but without adding salt). Once those are ready, you’re all set to whip up your cheesecake!

Start off by making the crust:

• 1 cup mixed nuts (I use raw pecans and brazil nuts, and add a little hemp seed and flax seed too)
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 8 medjool dates, soaked and pitted

First, pit your dates and put them in a bowl of water to soak for a few minutes. Blend the nuts, coconut, and cinnamon together until they are an even consistency.

By the time you’re done with this, your dates should be plenty soaked. Add them to the blender and your crust should form a sticky mass.

Each time I’ve made this, the crust has been a little bit different consistency, but it’s tasted great and worked just fine every time. As long as it is sticking together, it should work. If it’s too crumbly, try adding another date or a little bit of water to get it to stick. When your crust is all blended up, press it into your pie tin and it’s ready to go – no pre-cooking for this crust!

This is a really flexible crust recipe. Try using different nuts, or a different type of date if you’d like (or if you can’t find medjool dates in your grocery store). As long as you get a cohesive texture, I don’t think there’s much going wrong here!

Now, it’s time to move onto the filling. Rinse out your blender and add the following:

• 2 cups of soaked cashews (measured before soaking, so you’ll actually end up with over 2 cups)
• 1/2 block (8 oz.) tofu
• 1/2 cup of maple syrup
• 2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

Here you can take some liberties with the recipe again. I added apple cider vinegar and increased the lemon juice a bit for flavor, and reduced the amount of syrup as it was a little sweeter than I prefer the first time around. Give the blended mixture a taste before you go ahead with cooking your cheesecake to make sure you like it.

Here it is ready to be blended up!

And then, pour into the crust…

Smooth out the top with a spatula, and you are ready to bake it!

Bake 20 minutes at 350ºF and then 20 minutes at 250ºF (so that the crust doesn’t burn). If you’re baking in something smaller than a standard pie tin, decrease cooking time accordingly.

Here it is hot out of the oven:

Refrigerate until cold (I usually wait at least overnight), cut, serve, and enjoy!

Next time you get a craving for cheesecake – give this a try instead of the dairy version. It’s super easy to make and packed with protein and good fats. Nevertheless, enjoy in moderation! You can have too much of a good thing!

Since my son has some food allergies, I needed to get creative to find a cookie recipe so he could eat them too. I also wanted to make sure it was really tasty and not obviously a “substitute” recipe, especially as some of the friends coming had had some previous experiences with food allergy-friendly products and didn’t think they were very good (and thus suspicious of such items). Yes – I wanted to help show there are tasty recipes out there that make awesome stuff that is food allergy-friendly too!

I did some research, trialled a few cookie batches, and ended with the following recipe. The cookies were a huge hit, and those particular friends were astonished when they found out what was in the recipe. Success!

Double chocolate cookies
Recipe makes about 2 dozen cookies
Total prep and cook time: 40 minutes
Adapted from food.com

White sugar: 1/2 C
Brown sugar: 1/2 C
Coconut oil: 2/3 C (could substitute 1/3 C vegan margarine and 1/3 C shortening or 1/3 C butter and 1/3 C shortening (probably would work fine using all butter too, though haven’t tried this))
Extra-firm or firm tofu: 1/4 C
Vanilla: 2 t
Baking soda: 1/2 t
Salt: 1/2 t
White vinegar: 2 t
Cocoa powder: 1/2 C
Flour: 1 1/4 C
Vegan chocolate chips: ~1 C (1/2 bag)*

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two baking sheets and set aside.

2. Mix sugars and coconut oil well.

3. In a separate bowl, mash tofu and vanilla until well combined; add to sugar mixture.

4. Mix in baking soda, salt, and vinegar.

5. Add in cocoa powder and mix until combined.

6. Add in flour and mix until just incorporated.

7.  Add in chocolate chips and mix until just incorporated.

8. Roll dough into small balls (~1 inch) and place on baking sheets. Press down top with fork or spoon to flatten slightly.

9. Bake for 10-12 minutes (don’t overbake – better when chewy and will continue to harden while cooling).

10. Remove to a cooling rack; enjoy when cool (or hot, if you’re like me and don’t want to wait).

*I’ve made this recipe with dried cranberries instead of chocolate chips and that was fabulous too. If going that route, add in 2/3 C dried cranberries instead of the chocolate chips.

**If you don’t have the time to roll the dough into balls or just don’t feel like doing that, you could put all of the dough onto a baking sheet and press out flat to make cookie bars. Cooking time will increase a little if you do this – about 14-18 minutes total.

The Brown Derby
Though pricey, TheBrown Derby had an excellent vegan option in a noodle bowl that was topped with a piece of coconut incrusted tofu. I could have used a bigger piece of tofu (the tofu was really excellent, and I wouldn’t call myself a guy who loves tofu), but the noodles and the sauce that accompanied them were great, so I had no trouble eating that. Our waiter was knowledgeable and understood what we meant by ‘vegan’ to the point that he even brought us oil and balsamic vinegar rather than butter when the bread showed up. Again, two entrees and two beers cost us a small fortune, but the food was great.

Miscellaneous Veggie Burger
Although we did not try it, several locations apparently offer a veggie burger (although it looked like the ABC Commissary did not, but the outdoor spots by The Tower of Terror do as does one of the other sit down restaurants… the one with the cars, I think… Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant?), and the veggie burger comes with cheese, so you’ll have to ask them to leave that off. Again, we’ve never tried this, so we don’t know all the ins and outs – for example, if you get a veggie burger at the magic kingdom, you have to ask for a vegan bun or forgo the bun all together.

Outside of Popcorn and Pretzels…
That’s about it. You can get also get a pickle as well as fresh fruit in several spots, and there are some all fruit frozen options (or so the sign says), but that’s about it. Ultimately, you don’t go to MGM to eat, but instead, for the few attractions they offer that are worth checking out: Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Toy Story Midway Mania, Star Tours (new version) and maybe The Muppets 3D, but they’ve been running that same movie since the park opened, and I’ve seen it a zillion times, so we skipped it on our last trip. The rest of the park is a dud – just get there in the morning, get a Fast Pass for Toy Story, hit the other aforementioned attractions, maybe have lunch in between if you have to (or just want to spend the crazy fortune that the Brown Derby costs), but don’t waste your time on anything else. And if you’re really hungry for vegan food, have a meal at one of the other parks!

Once in a while you need to spice it up. Why not do it Thai style with a delicious red curry?

When the day’s been busy (and it usually is), I use a ready made Thai curry paste. Fry up chopped shallots, ginger and garlic, curry paste, add tofu or meat of preferred kind and then lots of delicious coconut milk. And not to forget: Lots of nice veggies! I usually go for green beans, baby corn, peppers, eggplant of various kinds and bamboo shoots. Sprinkle a little fresh cilantro on top and serve with some steaming hot yasmine rice!

Feeling more ambitious? A nice red curry recipe from scratch can be found here.

Breakfast this morning. 
I had doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) and uhmook bokeum (fish cake). 
I will upload the recipes very soon!

The tofu recipe is adapted from Living Beyond the Box’s Oven-Baked Coconut Tofu Bites
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Spiced Coconut Rice

Ingredients

2 cups brown rice

1 ½ c coconut milk

1 ½ c water

pinch salt

2 bay leaves

3 cardamom pods, lightly crushed

1 cinnamon stick

Technique

Combine all ingredients in the pot of a rice cooker and cook according to the rice cooker’s instructions.  You can also make this on the stove by bringing all ingredients to a boil and then simmering, covered, until all the liquid is absorbed.  Remove spices before serving.

Baked Coconut Tofu

Ingredients

1 lb organic tofu

1 ½ Tbsp Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp maple syrup

1 Tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp garlic powder

½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

4 Tbsp shredded coconut

Technique

1.  Drain tofu and press dry with paper towels.

2.  Cut tofu into 1” cubes.

3.  Combine soy sauce, maple syrup, sesame oil, garlic powder and ground pepper in a Ziploc bag.

4.  Gently place tofu cubes in the Ziploc bag, seal and shake to coat; marinate for at least 15 minutes,.

5.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

6. Spread coconut on a plate and dredge tofu cubes until evenly coated with coconut.  Place tofu cubes on a foil-lined baking sheet.  Sprinkle remaining coconut on top.  (Note: the leftover marinade makes an excellent dressing for salad greens, shredded kale or sliced cucumbers to serve as a side.)

7.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown .  Serve with spiced coconut rice and sliced cucumbers or a side salad.

Caution: This recipe involves loads of blending.

Ingredients: 

• Baby spinach leaves – 250 gms pack
• Green chilli-1
• Onion-1 cubed
• Tomato-1.5 cubed
• Ginger-1/2″ piece
• Garlic- 3 pods
• Raw Cashews soaked in water- 15gms (This is the best cream substitute)
• Clove-2, Cinnamon-1″piece, Cumin seeds-1 tsp, Bay leaf -1
• Oil-2 tbsp
• Organic tofu- 250 gms- water drained and cubed- fork pierced (Chilli powder -a tsp to fry the tofu)/ a cup of cooked chickpea for palak channa
• Chilli powder, coriander powder,garam masala-1 tsp each

Method:

• First Step is to process the spinach. In a pan,add washed spinach and sprinkle water and fry for a couple of mins until it is about to be cooked completely. Take it out and wash it under cold water (it is to retain the awesome green color of the spinach-bit of bragging but have a look at my pics-That’s the green you need ). Add bit of salt and blend into a smooth paste
• Second Step is to make the cashew cream- Blend cashews into a smooth paste
• Third step is to make the curry base. In a pan, add oil, add clove, cinnamon, cumin seeds, once it splutters add onion, green chilli, ginger and garlic and fry until onions are transparent (not brown). Add in tomatoes and the spice powders and fry until tomatoes are soft. Take it off heat and allow it to cool and blend into smooth paste.
• Fourth Step is to fry the tofu. In a pan, add a tsp of oil, add chilli powder and add tofu cubes and fry them until hrown on all sides. This is to be done in parallel with adding cream in the next step otherwise tofu will get really tough
• Time to put them all together. In a pan, add the curry base, let it boil for like 2 mins and add the spinach in. Mix them well. Add more salt and add the cashew cream.Close the pan and let all the flavors infuse together for 5 mins.
• You could add cooked chickpea or Tofu, close and cook for few more mins and serve hot

Tofu Scramble with Peppers

Ingredients

• 1 small red pepper, finely diced
• 1 small green pepper, finely diced
• 1 small squash, finely diced
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 block tofu, drained and diced in large chunks
• 1 tablespoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder (optional)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Texas Pete Hot Sauce (optional)

Steps

1. Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add all remaining ingredients, except hot sauce, to the pan and mix well.
2. Simmer until vegetables are tender, or about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Serve warm with hot sauce.

To make breakfast burritos, follow the same steps and add vegan cheese and roll up in a whole wheat tortilla shell. Bake in the oven on 350 degrees until warm.

Breakfast started my day off right with a delicious batch of Kodiak Cakes topped with a little butter, a drizzle of maple syrup and almond butter, and a handful of fresh strawberries. Is it funny that I like my pancakes very thin? They taste better that way. I always have one pancake I prefer in my batch and it’s always the thinnest one. Most likely due to being less doughy and thus less bread like to my mouth. No wonder I love crepes!

After working on my newest Experimental Foods lab report for a bit, I hit the gym for a 60 minute hill stationary bike ride. Have I mentioned I’m reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn? It is soo intriguing the hour is up before I know it and I’m drenched in sweat! Anyone else read it?

For lunch I threw away the last few portions of the savory bean and spinach soup. After it making me sick yesterday I was just utterly repulsed by the smell. Instead, I had a snack plate of cherries, roasted beets, Social Snacker Crackers and Dubliner cheddar cheese.

Followed by a banana with White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter to really satisfy me and fill me up. Then I put my nose in a book and went over and over biochemistry until I at least had more of a clue about what in the world my professor was talking about. I’m rarely completely lost during a lecture, but last week was a killer.

Eventually I ended up having a snack of trail mix because I felt like it. This whole no appetite thing is killing my intuitive eating. =/ I probably didn’t need this, but studying tends to drive me to finding a snack for a break.

For dinner I got my butt in the kitchen and cooked up a teriyaki stir fry of sugar snap peas, broccoli, onion, and tofu and enjoyed some on a bed of brown rice. Mmm the vegetables tasted amazing. Haven’t been getting enough green lately.

While Chase and I watched Dexter season 7 we had some dessert of cherries with a few squares of dark chocolate and sea salt. Mmm perfection.

I feel ready for the coming week. I’ve made a big batch of oatmeal for a few breakfasts, packed up some snacks for school, have my books together and, most importantly, am ready to get my learn on! Only four more weeks of classes!

What’s a girl to do? It was pretty easy to give up yogurt (and all other dairy), so I just ate granola plain or with almond milk. But then we found this banana cream parfait with fruit and granola in the Forks Over Knives Cookbook. It is delicious! I’m not normally a fan of banana anything, but this was wonderful.

Finally last night I looked at the recipe again and decided it was time to try it. We’ve been in a food rut lately and need to change things up. So I made the banana cream last night and let it chill overnight in the fridge. I also thawed some blueberries and strawberries overnight as well. Since FOK has not shared this recipe on their webpage, I will just share the ingredients.
- Block of firm or extra firm tofu
- Banana
- Brown rice syrup
- Fresh lemon juice
- Vanilla extract
- Granola
- Fruit

Fresh banana cream.

Thawed fruit.

Fresh cut apple- Gala I think.

Homemade granola!

Pure deliciousness! This is the breakfast/dessert I have been missing. The banana cream was reminiscent of a mild flavored yogurt, sweetness of the fresh fruit, and the soft crunch of the granola made a perfect combination. So good! I bet this would be good with peaches instead of bananas, like peach yogurt. When fresh peaches start arriving at the farmers market I will definitely test it out. But right now I am going to put more berries in the fridge for tomorrow …