TVP sloppy joes

So backtracking:
During thanksgiving clyde had a infected tooth, and couldn't really chew. So I delayed the holiday in order to prepare only soft foods for clyde. This was soft and good, we like this recipe:

TVP sloppy joes
Ingredients
1 cup TVP
3/4 cup boiling water
1 diced onion
1 minced carrot (This is what I usually use, but I thought carrot would be hard for clyde, so instead I used about 6 mushrooms)
1/2 zucchini
1/3 cup water
28 oz of tomato sauce
1 and 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar
1 table of molasses
2 tables of chili powder
1 and 1/2 tea garlic powder
1 and 1/2 tea Tabasco

SO you...
Combine TVP and boiling water= set aside
Saute vegetables in the 1/3 cup of water in a deep skillet for 5-7 minutes (or until very soft if you have an infected wisdom tooth)
add tvp and rest of ingredients and cook for 5-10 minutes

I like to buy round hamburger buns from the bakery. this is pretty good substitute.

I made it with the mashed potatoes with rojo sauce.
Rojo sauce:
6 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of oil
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/2 cup of basil (if you have fresh, adjust for dry-I just shake it in when i use dry)
1/2 tsp. thyme (dried)
1 and 1/2 tsp. Paprika
pinch cayanne
1/4 tsp. pepper

Heat together and mix to mashed potatoes, I also poured a little heavy cream in the sauce to add too

Thanksgiving

I can't wait.
What is everyone cooking?

so far:
french onion dip (requested by clyde)
cookies (chocolate chip, coconut, oatmeal)
stuffed mushrooms (haven't found recipe yet)
Macaroni and 4 cheese from ellie kreiger
potatoes rojo
eggrolls in filo dough we had last year (requested by rubbo)
mashed potatoes and cauliflower-maybe garlic and parmeasean
bring on the bread: regular loaf, a pumpkin loaf
last year I made a braided bread, I don't know about this year, maybe yeast rolls or something
pumpkin pie
broccoli and cheese casserole
whole cranberries (requested by clyde)
some kind of tofu clyde wants-but how to cook. tofurky is out of the question.

IDEAS???

baked pasta, better than normal

both boys liked it a lot
so you know its good

Baked pasta (yes, there are a lot of steps)
make sauce and tofu at same time with noodles while cutting up vegetables to steam. good luck.

Sauce
same sauce thats on here a hundred times. but this time I mixed it with a white sauce. here are both:
red:
2 cans chopped tomatoes magic bulletted
1/2 onion
3 cloves garlic
a bunch of basil from back yard, or just shake some in
salt and pepper
a sprig of rosemary from the back yard
1 teaspoon of sugar
a few shakes of parsley
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

saute onion
add tomatoes and everything else
simmer until tasty

white sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
4 teaspoons all purpose flour
1 and 1/4 cup milk (I used rice milk, which takes longer to thicken and tastes sweeter in the end, your milk is up to you)
salt, pepper, 1 clover of garlic
melt butter (Med low heat)
put in flour and stir whole time, about 3 min
pour in milk, turn heat up to med high and stir
it will start to boil
keep stirring
add garlic and salt and pepper
keep stirring (seems like it should be getting thick by now...I get impatient, clyde comes and stirs for me, because I cannot wait. It takes a while)
should be getting thicker
Keep stirring
thick. taste it occasionally. I quit when its good

Tofu:
Clyde thinks the tofu in this dish wasn't suited. So its a work in progress. Its the same tofu I always make. Suggestions?

Then I cut up a pretty good amount of mushrooms, a lot of broccoli and cauliflower.
you want a lot
you can add squash, or eggplant. you know, whatever.
I put it in the strainer and put it over my boiling pasta water (I used penne for this dish) while boiling my pasta until its kind of soft.
giada puts her vegetables in a 450 degree oven with olive oil and roasts 15 minutes. I have done this and its good, but you know, time consuming.

Combine sauce, noodles (I used a whole box), vegetables, and about 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, and the not-fitting tofu. mix and put into a casserole dish. I put small chunks of butter spaced out on top and a layer of parmeasean on top.
bake in a 450 degree oven for 25 minutes.

french onion dip

I found this recipe and tried it. and it really tastes like French onion dip. But better than store bought. and its easy, too.

French onion dip:
1 med onion-cut into slices, not too big, not too skinny
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon vinegar, I used red wine
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon thyme
12 oz sour cream- I don't know about this, I just put about 3 spoon fulls in and stirred it around until it looked right

So preheat the oven to 450 degrees
put onions in small casserole dish with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper, cook about 20 minutes
let onions cool and cut them into pieces.
add rest of ingredients.

chowder

tonight was chowder. I haven't been making anything but repeats this last week. It was like a best of.
Veg. chowder

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
bulk of veggies- I like carrots, potatoes, squash, corn, white beans, broccoli, cauliflower
2 cloves of garlic
1 and 1/2 cup milk
1 and 1/2 cup water or broth
1 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon dill
1/4 teaspoon thyme
salt and pepper

Melt butter in sauce pan
Stir in flour
stir in garlic-30 seconds
Add veggies (not beans yet), milk, and water/broth
add spices
simmer until potatoes are done
add beans before its almost done

Potatoes Rojo

mmmmm
This is really one of our favorites. Tonight I discovered a trick too.

Potatoes Rojo
Ingrediants:

A mixture of 2 pounds of potatoes and carrots ( I use sweet and regular, but I use the purple sweet kind that is grown here, I don't know about yam kind) cut into 8ths (meaning I cut the potatoes in half. The halves in half. and then those halves in half.
cut carrots in to half too lenghtways and midways.
The veggies should be the same size

For sauce:
6 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of oil
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 and 1/2 teaspoon paprika
dash cayenne
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Melt butter and oil. Add spices. Cook briefly. Pour over potatoes in a casserole dish.

Cook on 375 until done (takes about 40 minutes, sometimes less, depending on size of potatoes) open every 15 minutes to baste potatoes in sauce.

Breadsticks

Well I tried Minestrone and breadsticks.
Only the breadsticks are worth commenting on.
I guess I wasn't trying them. We eat these all of the time.

Breadstick Ingredients:

1 and 1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons of sugar
1 and 1/2 cup baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2/3 cup milk (rice works fine)

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.
Stir in milk.
This dough is very wet at this point, so put it on a surface and kneed in a lot more flour, until you can work with it.
Roll it out (might still need to add flour) I find a little thick is better. Skinny ones get really crisp quick
cut into breadstick shapes and put on baking sheet.

Topping:
I like to mix 2 tablespoons of softened butter with
2 cloves of garlic chopped and
1 or so tablespoons of Parmesan cheese (fine, I just pour it in)
I mix this inside my magic bullet and make a spread that I put on top of the sticks.

They go into a 450 degrees oven for about 10-15 minutes depending on thickness, check the bottoms

Lasagna rolls

First the sauce
Ingrediants:
2 cans pureed chopped tomatoes
2 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 onion
1 teaspoon sugar
salt and pepper
about 10 leaves of basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Saute onion until clear. Add tomatoes and spices and let sit with top on for at least 1/2 hour.

Next the tofu:
Take firm/ extra firm tofu, drain in sink.
I find that cutting into strips helps when pressing, and the less water in the tofu in this dish the better.
To Press: take baking pan, put big clyde shirt in it, lay strips of tofu down, lay bottom half of clyde shirt over it, put another baking pan on top, and add weight.
About 1/2 hour later take tofu out, and mash with hands until tofu is consistency of ricotta cheese.
Add 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, salt, pepper, and about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce.
Set aside until its time to put it together.

Its up to you for filling. This time I steamed Broccoli and Mushrooms over my pasta water. but all veggies are good in this. The more the better.

Cook 8 lasagna noodles until done, they will not cook longer in the over.

Assembly and Ingredients of Lasagna rolls

8 cooked lasagna noodles cut in half
Tofu filling Mixed with cooked (or raw) veggies, and 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese (or more if your like rubbo)
The rest of your sauce.
1/2 cup of mozzarella and 1/2 cup of Parmesan for top
Take casserole dish and pour about 1/2 cup of sauce on the bottom, so sauce is covering the bottom.
Take half noodle, put filling on one side, wrap the other side around so you have a tube. Finish filling up the noodles and line up the pan as tightly as possible. I just put extra filling right on top.
Put the rest of the sauce on the top
put the Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses on top
bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes until that parm is golden

fake meatball calzone

I decided to do another page because there is getting to be a lot of recipes on one page. Now there is going to be a lot of linking.
Tonights dinner (and order I made it in)
First I took out the tofu and started pressing it.
Next I made the Pizza dough. (click link for recipe) and let that rise.
I realize that the recipe calls for all reg. flour and I put in the 1/2 whole wheat, and that is probably why my pizza dough never rises that much. So its your choice.
Next I got the tomatoes from outback. We have Juliet tomatoes.
I read last night about taking the skin off before making a sauce, so I made an X on the top of each tomato, put it into boiling water for about 2 minutes (until I saw the skin break), and then into an ice bath. I peeled the skin off, which included chopping the tops off and wondered why didn't I just chop the tops off in the first place instead of making the X since I have to do it anyway. My hypothesis is this: they were pretty watery inside, so maybe chopping the tops off makes them more watery. hmmm. Then I magic bulletted them and made the sauce like normal. (click sauce for sauce link)
As the sauce cooked I took out the tofu and made the fake meatballs (click fake meatballs for link).
I only used half to tofu for the fake meatballs, I crumbled the other half, and seasoned it with garlic salt and tomato sauce to use as my fake ricotta.
Last, I decided on zucchini, portabello mushrooms, and broccoli for the inside filling. I sauteed them up together.
Time to assemble. This has taken me awhile to prefect. I cut the dough into thirds, and roll out a rectangle of dough. Before I fill the dough up I put it on an oiled baking sheet. Then I layer mozzarella cheese, 3 meatballs (half the reciple made 9), tofu ricotta, the vegetable mix, and topped it all with sauce, maybe another layer of cheese would be good here. Then I do the short top and bottom turn over, and then the sides. I should take a picture next time. It gets ripped a lot.
Cook at 375 for 20 minutes. yummmmmmm

talk about lazy/ bread/

I won't even go through last week. It was pretty much repeats with the exception of teryaki tofu that sucked sucked sucked. I am not a baked tofu fan. I like it chewy, not soft.
So today I got up and had some oatmeal with yogurt and apple slices. yummy. clyde and I were going bodyboarding on the other side of the island (sandy side) so I made our take out lunch of hummus, bread that I made the other day (recipe at bottom of page), feta, boiled eggs, cut carrots and mushrooms, and apple slices.
We got almost there and found out a fire was going crazy on that side and it was mandatory evacuation and the roads were closed. So we turned around and had French fries at Macdonald's and went home. Its been raining here on this side like crazy, I hope everyone over there is all right.
Tonight I decided on calzone with fake meatballs inside, as suggested by clyde. It needed more cheese (as also suggested by clyde), or salt or SOMETHING, I am not sure what. We had an excess of tomatoes in the backyard so I made the sauce using them. It was kind of sweet tasting.
here is a days worth of recipes:

bread:
Ingredient List for 2 loaves:
2 and 1/4 teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast
2 and 1/4 cup hot water
1 tablespoon maple syrup (or sugar if you don't have maple)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon of salt
4 and 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup 6 grain cereal from health food store bins mixed with flaxseeds and magic bulletted until not hard and chunky
1 cup whole grain flour
I got about 10 leaves of basil and a sprig of rosemary from the backyard

In a large bowl combine yeast, 1/4 cup of the water, and the maple sugar. Leave for about 10 minutes while the yeast does its magic and turns bubbly.
In a separate bowl combine flours and the six grain cereal. mix to blend.
After the yeast is ready add to the LIQUID (I forget this and add it to the dry all the time so its no big deal) the salt, olive oil, and the rest of the water
Add half of the dry into the wet and mix. then add the rest of the dry.
Put onto a floured board, and add herbs. I do this simply by kneading the bread on top of them.
Knead for about 10 minutes. Here is a good link on how to knead and all of that stuff:
http://cookingchrissy.blogspot.com/2007/08/i-was-making-bread-all-wrong.html
After Kneading put into an oiled bowl for about an hour while the bread doubles in size.
After it rises put it into your baking apparatus. I use an oiled loaf pan sometimes, sometimes I shape it into an Italian loaf and cook it on a baking sheet (oiled), Clyde puts it into a boiling pot and cooks it in them. Its pretty loose.
Let the bread rise in the cooking apparatus for an hour.
Preheat oven to 450
cook the bread at 450 for 10 minutes
lower heat (with bread still inside ) to 350 and cook for 25 more minutes. mmmmmmmmmm.

I have decided to put dinner on the next page to avoid overcrowding

fake meatball subs

Tonight I made fake meatball subs. Here is the link for fake meatballs and the tomato sauce.
The fun part of this is calling the boys in and we all take our sub bread (I tried french bread a few times but its more bread then balls, sub bread does the trick) that I had toasted some and we all assemble our sandwiches. I cut up green onions, mushrooms, and red peppers to put on them. I had some zucchini in the sauce too, since the lady at the farmers market gave me an extra one today. SO on mine I put on mayo and mustard (sounds gross but it makes the sandwich really really good), then the fake balls, then the tomato sauce, then pickles, mushrooms, and g.onions, and then mozzerella cheese, and a little parm sprinkled on top of that. they all went back in the oven until the cheesey cheese was melted. yummy.
Yesterday I had my job interview, and I was a wreck all day. We had to drive across the island so I put together my favorite travel lunch: hummus,
goat cheese, toasted bread I made (the 6 grain), apple slices, and usually I have carrots but I was out. yummy. But I couldn't have dinner, the days stress collapsed my insides.
The day before was meganachos. We used to get this at taco stand, and I try to make it but its never as good. Here is my tofu recipe for it:

Extra firm tofu, shake out water. Cut pieces fairly thin, about 1/2 inch from the end. In my cast iron skillet I heat up olive oil. The tofu really does benefit from some marination in soy sauce, but I procrastinate. So when the oil is hot put in the tofu. The first round of seasonings are:
soy sauce, enough to cover the top of each piece. Its easy to over soy, but I think that playing around with it is necessary because every one likes soy different. Then I coat the top with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. When I say coat I mean I just shake it over until I see some on all the pieces.
When I flip them (when they start getting brown) I move the pieces around so they will cook evenly and add: cumin across each piece, fennel seeds (this is the secret ingredient that makes them taste like sausage, I use about 1/2 tablespoon), and cinnamon across each piece
When I flip again I put on each piece basil, thyme, and coriander.
When they start getting pretty cooked I cut them into smaller pieces and turn down the heat from med. to a little lower.

mega nachos:
1 can refried beans
I spread this across the bottom of the pan and bake on 350 degrees while the tofu cooks.
Next I cut up veggies to go on it. The ones I suggest are black olives, I like zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, red peppers, and green onions. When the beans are hot and the tofu is done I combine the veggies (raw), tofu, and beans in a casserole dish and top it with moz. cheese. yummmy.

carbohydrates

Tonight I cooked vegetable dinner. I haven't made this in a while. It was a favorite when clyde and I lived in georgia before I got really into cooking. I should call it carbohydrate dinner instead though. Here is the combo:
1. Mashed potatoes and gravy (I mixed half potatoes and half cauliflower to reduce the carbs. I saw a guy do only cauliflower boiled and mashed on a no carb cooking show and tried it once and its pretty much the same. so I mixed.
2. macaroni. from the box. mmmmmm.
3. black eyed peas. mmmmmmm. seasoned with salt and pepper.mmmmmm.
4. apple/raisin stuffing. This is a dish I work on occasionally. I cooked 1/2 onion and 1 apple on stovetop for about 10 minutes. Then I added a handful of raisins and 1/8 white wine and cooked 5 more minutes. Then I cooked the stuffing. combined them and topped with Parmesan cheese and baked briefly. mmmmm.
I love this meal. Then I fed everyone B vitamins to absorb the carbs our body did not burn. I wonder if that is true.

I'm so full right now

OK last nights meal was all right, but it took so long to make with so little return that I am afraid to put it in here in fear someone will make it. So lets pretend like yesterday never happened and move onto today.
basic, good baked pasta
But I didn't make that, I made a version of it. Here is the original recipe, then I will give what I did:

Baked pasta with roasted veg.

1 red pepper
1 zucchini
2 mushrooms
1/2 onion
1/8 cup oil
1/8 cup parm cheese
1/2 pound penne
1 and 1/2 cups sauce
1/4 cup moz. cheese
3/4 cup white beans
1 table butter

On baking sheet toss veggies in oil oil, salt and pepper, and Italian herbs
roast on 450 for 15 minutes.
Boil penne until aldente (want it still hard).
toss with veg, cheese, maranara, and beans and pour into casserole dish.
top with parmeasean cheese and butter and bake for 25 minutes.

So this is what I do usually but with more sauce, different vegetables, and tofu instead of cheese. but i had leftover spinach and fake ricotta (tofu that has been pressed and crumbled to resemble the texture of ricotta) from last nights meal so I included that. I was late coming home tonight so instead I just heated up last weeks sauce and added one more can of magic bulletted tomatoes, basil, salt, and garlic and heated it up. Then I sauteed (not roasted) 1 portabello mushroom, 1/2 zucchini, I can't remember what else... and combined the sauce, the spin tofu mix, a handful of cheese, and vegetables together and cooked. it was still a little bland. feta picked it up somewhat nicely though. if you like spice I can imagine red pepper flakes working in there.

cookies and hummus

yesterday was a cooking day. I spent most of the day in the kitchen having a gay old time. this is what I made:



cookies:

chocolate chip oatmeal cookies

1 and 1/2 sticks of butter softened

1 and 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar packed

ditto amount for granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

(I also added 2 tablespoons flax meal to help with the butter situation)

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 and 1/2 cups quick rolled oats

1 cup chocolate chips

(optional 3/4 cup raisins)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I used sunflour seeds that I toasted, it worked fine)

I also threw in about 1/8 cup of shredded coconut



Put butter and sugars in a big bowl and bean until smooth, 2-3 minutes

add eggs and vanilla, beat one more minute, until combined



Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt

add into wet mix and beat until smooth



Use rubber spatula to mix in oats, chocolate, coconut, seeds, and raisins



cover and refridgerate for at least 6 hours but up to 5 days. can freeze for 2 months.

if frozen thaw in fridge first.



cook on 350 for 10-15 minutes on baking sheets on wax paper (or just oil the pan like I did) and make sure they are at least 2 inches apart.

yummmmmy



Hummus



I can or 1 and 1/2 cups chickpeas. Even if your using the can make sure you still cook them some so they will be super soft. This way you don't have to use a blender.

I garlic clove, minced

1/4 cup tahini

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon parsley leaves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cayanne



cut up garlic and put into a bowl. put the very soft chickpeas on top (IF not soft you have to use magic bullet, or worse, the blender). mash them up with a fork until they are...mashed.

add everything else and mix. mmmmm.



Then for dinner I made falafel and roti. recipe if you click on falafel.

pizza night

Yesterdays breakfast was pretty fun. I mixed half of one of those sugary packages of oatmeal with real oats from the canister. I mixed this with hot rice milk and fruit from my trees. that was the fun part, the fruit is ripe. well, not just from my trees. The orange was from me, and the star fruit was from mr. kato. Then I threw in some yogurt. very good. Lunch I kept on going with making guac. from the avocado Rubbos friend Kristine brought over. we had chili tacos. meaning we scooped chili into the taco shells, covered it with guac, cabbage, and cheese, and ate it. it was yummy. Dinner was shot though, cause I had a meeting with a committee I am on at school. They fed us sushi. I peeled off the seaweed of one and ate the rice, cabbage, and tuna inside, but it tasted too funny.
Today: pizza night. earlier meals were nondescript.
This is the order I do pizza in, for convenience sake.
Pizza dough first because it takes an hour to rise

Pizza dough:
1 and 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
2 and 1/4 cup all purpose flour (I use half wheat and it works)
1 teaspoon salt
pinch of sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
Put yeast in a small bowl and cover it with 1/4 cup of the hot water. Let it sit until its all yeasty, about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile mix dry ingredients.
When ready add yeast mix, oil, and rest of the water.
mix and kneed on floured surface about 3-5 minutes.
put into an oiled bowl, make sure its covered with oil, and let it sit for an hour.

So while thats rising I make my tomato sauce, its the same as always but...
Tomato sauce:
I sautéed one onion
then I added 2 cans of chopped tomatoes that I magic bulleted until they were creamy and no lumps.
To this I added:
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 bay leaf
about 10 leaves of basil
1 sprig of rosemary
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon of salt
some pepper
Then i put the lid on it on low and let it cook away.

Meanwhile the oven is on for when the dough is ready and its set for 450.
I cut up mushrooms, green onions, carrots, cauliflower, garlic, and zucchini for topping.
I had half a pack of the flax tempeh in the fridge that I cut into small pieces and sauteed on med. with olive oil with chili powder and garlic powder sprinkled on top. It really needed to be cooked with fennel seeds. clyde put some fennel seeds on his and it tasted like sausage like the tofu does when we add them.

I rolled out the dough into 2 longated pieces and put them on oiled baking sheets. they went into the 450 oven for 8 minutes. I called the boys and we all put our toppings on our pizza. This was the fun part. and mozzarella and parm. cheese. I baked it for 10 minutes more and couldn't wait for mine. clyde let his cook about 5 minutes longer. It was really good.

chili

Tonight I wanted to make a mexican style soup with no recipe.
guess what mexican style soup is? Chili.
when you put in the beans, corn, tomatoes, and vegetables, and orzo pasta that pretty much makes chili.
so I tossed in some chili powder, cumin, basil, and oregano. It wasn't good or bad, just chili.
I cut up some green onions to go on top with my cheese and sour cream. and I made biscuits.
things to do with chili?
Chili cheese nachos. Have had these and its a good idea.
chili on fake hotdogs. well, I only eat fake hotdogs when clyde and self have fire. that would be hard to bring chili out there. unless it was a real campfire and then maybe I could cook chili on the side in one of those cast iron dishes you can cook on open fire.
OH chili cheese macaroni. OK tried that once and it wasn't that bad
chili cheese fries...
burrito with greens added, thats pretty good when I don't want stew two days in a row, somehow the tortilla transforms the chili

The week in food

I have been on blog-cation. But this week was pretty good in food, some of which I will not bother to recount because I know I will make again. Lets take this starting todays lunch. very good. I cooked a scrambled egg with mushrooms and green onions and topped with mozzarella cheese. I put that on an onion bun with shredded cabbage and dill pickles. It was so good. Last night for dinner clyde made black bean tacos, and I mention it because he did something I have never done. He smushed up the black beans while cooking them, they were kind of like refried bean consistency. He flavored them with salt, cumin, and chili powder. (not much cumin at all). with sour cream, sauce, cabbage, and cheese they were really good. This was sunday. Lunch was leftovers from Saturday night. That was eggplant Parmesan with bread sticks. Since I make this all of the time I will delay on writing the recipe, since I have so many to put in that I will not be remaking although I liked. Lunch Saturday was a beach picnic. Like Friday. but slightly variated. I had apple slices, carrot slices, and friday I had toasted bread and hummus. saturday I had crackers and tofu dip. Both days I also had slices of cheddar cheese. So good at the beach.
Friday night we had something I had been craving: BBQ. only it wasn't. I should have looked closer at the recipe, but I saw molasses on the list and assumed.... it was still good, but not bbq. This is what went down

(psudo)BBQ tempeh spread (for 3 people)
8 oz of tempeh finely chopped. I used flax kind, and it was really good cut up into pieces, I didn't have that texture issue I have a lot with tempeh.
1 and 1/2 teaspoon chili powder.
cook the tempeh in the chili powder and about a tablespoon of oil for about 7 minutes. They suggest that after you cook it you stir in:
1 rib celery chopped
1/4 cup minced red onions
But rubbo doesn't like celery and I don't like raw onions, so I omitted, and it was fine.
In a bowl combine fake BBQ sauce (which is good, but not bbq, so lets call it a new name...like special sauce cause I think the special sauce is a similar mixture)
sauce ingrediants:
1/4 cup mayo
2 tablespoons ketchum
1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon molasses
1 small minced garlic clove
salt and pepper.
Mix the tempeh with the sauce. They say let it sit for 30 minutes refrigerated, but I didn't and it worked. it was good. but clyde didn't like it.
Lets see, the day before was...
Vegetable hot pot with cheese triangles
This is like a pot pie, but more stew with scones on top

for six people

2 garlic cloves crushed
1 onion chopped
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 pound pototoes
3 cups chopped mushrooms
1 chopped carrot
then a combo of 2 pounds of other vegetables. I think I used zucchini, and extra beans. I think I am missing a vegetable.
4 teaspoons flour
2and 1/2 cups stock (I used mushroom)
14 oz can of chopped tomaotes
1 table tomato puree (I did more puree and less tomatoes because I don't like whole tomatoes and it worked fine)
1 teaspoon thyme
14 oz can of beans
salt and pepper
Shoot I can't go back to a normal color
preheat oven to 350. heat oil in a pan you can put into the oven but also use on the stove. add onion and fry to how you like. add garlic and chili powder. cook another minute
add vegetables (not bean and tomato) and fry 4 minutes.
add flour and cook 1 minute
add stock, tomatoes (puree too), thyme, salt and pepper. I added white wine too, about 2 tablespoons, but if I had red I would have used it instead. bring to a boil.
cover and cook in oven for thirty minutes.

Topping
2 cups self rising flour (the net says that you can get self rising from all purpose by adding 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt for every cup of flour.
1/2 cup butter
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
chives
5 table spoons of milk
Mix butter in with flour with your fingers until mixed. add half the grated cheese and chives, and mix. stir in milk, and make a dough. pat dough into a circle, they suggest making 12 triangles about 1 inch thick, but I made them skinner.

Before putting them on the casserole add in your beans, then put the scones on top. cook uncovered for 25 minutes.

The week in food

I have been on blog-cation. But this week was pretty good in food, some of which I will not bother to recount because I know I will make again. Lets take this starting todays lunch. very good. I cooked a scrambled egg with mushrooms and green onions and topped with mozzarella cheese. I put that on an onion bun with shredded cabbage and dill pickles. It was so good. Last night for dinner clyde made black bean tacos, and I mention it because he did something I have never done. He smushed up the black beans while cooking them, they were kind of like refried bean consistency. He flavored them with salt, cumin, and chili powder. (not much cumin at all). with sour cream, sauce, cabbage, and cheese they were really good. This was sunday. Lunch was leftovers from Saturday night. That was eggplant Parmesan with bread sticks. Since I make this all of the time I will delay on writing the recipe, since I have so many to put in that I will not be remaking although I liked. Lunch Saturday was a beach picnic. Like Friday. but slightly variated. I had apple slices, carrot slices, and friday I had toasted bread and hummus. saturday I had crackers and tofu dip. Both days I also had slices of cheddar cheese. So good at the beach.
Friday night we had something I had been craving: BBQ. only it wasn't. I should have looked closer at the recipe, but I saw molasses on the list and assumed.... it was still good, but not bbq. This is what went down

(psudo)BBQ tempeh spread (for 3 people)
8 oz of tempeh finely chopped. I used flax kind, and it was really good cut up into pieces, I didn't have that texture issue I have a lot with tempeh.
1 and 1/2 teaspoon chili powder.
cook the tempeh in the chili powder and about a tablespoon of oil for about 7 minutes. They suggest that after you cook it you stir in:
1 rib celery chopped
1/4 cup minced red onions
But rubbo doesn't like celery and I don't like raw onions, so I omitted, and it was fine.
In a bowl combine fake BBQ sauce (which is good, but not bbq, so lets call it a new name...like special sauce cause I think the special sauce is a similar mixture)
sauce ingrediants:
1/4 cup mayo
2 tablespoons ketchum
1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon molasses
1 small minced garlic clove
salt and pepper.
Mix the tempeh with the sauce. They say let it sit for 30 minutes refrigerated, but I didn't and it worked. it was good. but clyde didn't like it.
Lets see, the day before was...
Vegetable hot pot with cheese triangles
This is like a pot pie, but more stew with scones on top

for six people

2 garlic cloves crushed
1 onion chopped
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 pound pototoes
3 cups chopped mushrooms
1 chopped carrot
then a combo of 2 pounds of other vegetables. I think I used zucchini, and extra beans. I think I am missing a vegetable.
4 teaspoons flour
2and 1/2 cups stock (I used mushroom)
14 oz can of chopped tomaotes
1 table tomato puree (I did more puree and less tomatoes because I don't like whole tomatoes and it worked fine)
1 teaspoon thyme
14 oz can of beans
salt and pepper
Shoot I can't go back to a normal color
preheat oven to 350. heat oil in a pan you can put into the oven but also use on the stove. add onion and fry to how you like. add garlic and chili powder. cook another minute
add vegetables (not bean and tomato) and fry 4 minutes.
add flour and cook 1 minute
add stock, tomatoes (puree too), thyme, salt and pepper. I added white wine too, about 2 tablespoons, but if I had red I would have used it instead. bring to a boil.
cover and cook in oven for thirty minutes.

Topping
2 cups self rising flour (the net says that you can get self rising from all purpose by adding 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt for every cup of flour.
1/2 cup butter
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
chives
5 table spoons of milk
Mix butter in with flour with your fingers until mixed. add half the grated cheese and chives, and mix. stir in milk, and make a dough. pat dough into a circle, they suggest making 12 triangles about 1 inch thick, but I made them skinner.

Before putting them on the casserole add in your beans, then put the scones on top. cook uncovered for 25 minutes.

the burrito

Burritos at home. I bet everyone has a recipe for it. but, before I got this recipe I made burritos as a don't know what to make dish. Now they are part of my favorites list.
here is what I do:

If only there were purple sweet potatoes on the mainland. Are there? If you can get purple sweet potatoes they are the best for this dish. But if not....

Ingredients list:

1 potato cut into cubes, kind of small
1 can of black beans or 1 and 1/2 cup black beans
vegatables. Tonight I used a combo of a carrot, some broccoli (about 6 small head bunches), cauliflower (about 2 small head bunches), onion (1/4 of one), and zucchini (about 1/4 of a stalk). Sometimes I use corn. Just a mix.
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon oregano
salt and pepper

heat oven to 450 and put potato on a baking sheet with oil, salt, and pepper. bake 10 minutes on both sides. reduce heat to 350.
on oven cook onion until you like it. (I like mine clear). then add carrot and harder veggies. cook a few more minutes, about 3. add soft veggies and beans and spices and then potatoes. heat it all up.
in a casserole dish layer the bottom with salsa. fill up tortillas with mix and optional cheese. I like the mozzarella in this. pour salsa on top with leftover mix that didn't fit into tortillas. tonight instead of topping with with salsa (although I did put salsa on the bottom) I put a taco powder mix mixed with (about a cup of) water- add water until it doesn't taste too strong to you, and heated a little- and I poured that over the top. The boys like that better than the normal burritos with salsa on top. I also put cheese over the top, just a little, and foil
bake in 350 oven for 20 minutes. yum. sour cream. yummier.
I couldn't be a vegan. I mean, I could buy fake all that stuff I guess, but I am sure addicted to the dairy.
who else has a good burrito recipe?

stroganoff

ah, this week was not the best for food. tests, papers, sick, clyde working = eating like crap.
but tonight I feel normal again. new recipe.
I saw in the vegetarian times magazine this stroganoff recipe, and it had tempeh in it so I decided to make it. Here is what went down:

Ingredient list:
8 oz. mushrooms
8 oz tempeh
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup potato starch
(OR 1 cup reg. flour)
1 tea dried mustard
1/4 tea nutmeg
1 and 1/2 cup onion
1/2 cup apple juice (but you can use vinegar)
1 cup chard
2 cup sour cream
4 cups veg broth
(but I suggest cutting the liquids in half, it was really soupy. I also would put corn starch in to thicken it, it was runny)
salt and pepper
noodles

(this is cooked over fettuccine or egg noodles, your choice, so keep noodle cooking time in mind when making this)
8 oz mushrooms (I used portabello)
8 oz tempeh (I used the smoked kind, I can't compare it to the others cause I don't know what it tastes like


1/4 cup soy sauce
Let the mushrooms and tempeh sit in the soy for 10 minutes
heres where the choices are: this was in a glucose free section of veg. times so they suggested
1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 cup brown rice flour
(but that was all too expensive for me to buy so I just used a cup of all purpose unbleached)
1 teaspoon dried mustard
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
mix the starch, flour, and spices in a resealable bag. shake the tempeh and mushrooms in it and saute them for 8 minutes. take off heat and put into a bowl
In that pan put in:
1 and 1/2 cup onion
saute until you like
take out onions and put with tempeh mix
turn heat up to med. high and add:
1/2 cup apple juice
use to deglaze the pan for three minutes
then add
1 cup chard
(chard is hard to come by in Hawaii, its like 5 dollars a bunch, so I used spinach. I would not suggest this. Chard is probably good though)
Cook 2 minutes, then add the onion, tempeh, mushrooms mix back in and turn down heat about mid and add:
4 cups veg broth
2 cups sour cream
Heat and put on noodles

I'm sick

It is true, I got a head cold in the summer in hawaii. I don't know how, but it sucks. or blows (literally).My nose is running like crazy. but whatever, I still gotta eat. Soup? No, I didn't think about it until just now. For breakfast I tried to get some of everything, so I had the usual egg with clyde bread, grapes and bananas and rice milk. Lunch I had leftover from last night. recap on the weekend:
saturday, sick started, clyde talked me into walking to borders for activity, we ate at maui taco in the mall. we got our usual black bean and rice burrito covered in enchalata sauce. yum.
Sunday, sick, and the grocery store was out of food. crazy. not completely out, but out of most of the things on my ingredient list for what I was going to cook (but I will not talk about that until I get to cook it, I am so excited about it). So I made a weekday back up item on this weeks menu: Caribbean beans and rice. I made it about a year ago and both rubbo and clyde liked it. I think I used instant rice last time, and this time I found basmati rice in the freezer and decided to use it. last time it was like curry, cause you cook the beans and rice together in a mix of coconut milk and veggie broth, and the spices are all spice and thyme. This time it absorbed all the liquid and all i had left was beans and rice. I put some curry spices in it, because I just got some more cardamom from the store, but it overpowered it.
digression
today: super sick and busy. very busy. two tests and a literature review are due this week, and I have to serve on a committee for student conduct this week I just found out. So no time to make dinner really. The house has been warned. Tonight I put potatoes in the oven right before class, and when I came home PRESTO they were done. I love potatoes. clyde and I met sharon at jamba juice/starbucks for studying, so I had this beverage called the coldbuster with a shot of immunity. I hope tomorrow I can function again, and make my surprise dinner.

fake meatball night

ahh fake meatballs. always satisfying. I had all of that left over tofu from ravioli the other night, which used a surprisingly small amount of tofu. So I had all of this tofu mashed up with what was once frozen spinach and mushrooms. I weighed it, and it was a pound. This is good, cause thats how much I needed for my fake meatball recipe. Everyone said it was better than normal because the tofu had been sitting in flavor this week from the spinach, mushrooms, and then the salt, pepper, garlic sauce, and small amount of tomato sauce. This is how it went down:

1 pound tofu mixed with spinach and mushrooms *but usually I just do tofu
1/2 cup wheat germ
about 1/8 cup dried parsley
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon redpepper flakes
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
Mix that all together with your hands.
Usually I have to really press the tofu for some times before I make this for it to taste good, cause if there is a little water you will taste it. I don't know why. Maybe you wont, but I do. So press first.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
put 2 tablespoons of oil on a baking sheet
roll these guys into balls, the suggested ball is 1 and 1/2 inch. I keep them small, but not too small. about 3 fit on my subroll. Then I stick them into the oven and flip them every ten minutes. They cook a total of 30 minutes.
This is what I do with them:
I put them into subs. with tomato sauce. Tonight I forgot we ate the left over sauce for lunch and had to make some real quick. I did this:
pureed the can of chopped tomatos.
added 2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
shook in basil and parsley and pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
This tasted like too sweet crap. I called clyde in. He suggested it needed to cook off. So I shut the lid and let it cook for 10 minutes. It tasted fine.
I cut up my sub buns (I used to make french bread for this but there was too much bread involved, go subroll unless you want mostly bread) put my sauce and balls and cheese on there and baked until crusty.
Usually I will put cut up vegetables on it, but were out of everything but carrots and cabbage. This was a generally good food day. I started clyde and I on multi-vitamins today. Since we have been writing down everything we eat AND I got that book that tells me the nutritional content of everything we eat I see we are not getting enough B12. protein yes. Zinc yes. B6 yes. B12 no. So I had no choice. We'll see how it goes.

biscuits

If I do have biscuits in here I cannot find it
Here is the recipe:

biscuits:
1/2 cup of butter ( I use melted, I can't tell the difference when cutting it in with a pastry cutter)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 table spoons flax meal
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 cup milk

mix dry ingrediants
mix in butter and make coarse meal
mix in milk
roll out and cut biscuits
cook on 425 for about 12-15 minutes

Chowder

OK, I have been slack, but you a haven't missed much. Last night I cooked ravioli again, and the recipe is already on here. This one wasn't as good though, because I didn't magic bullet the tomatoes enough for the sauce and it was chunky, which I don't care for. The good news is that I found a frozen spinach that is acceptable. Its the leaf kind, its not all stringy and hard like the other kind. Leaf, birds eye, its not stringy.
Tonight I made the chowder clyde likes. I haven't made it in awhile, so it was exciting. I meant to measure out the spices to put on here, but forgot, so these are an estimate, add more or less to your taste

Chowder
1/4 cup butter
1/4 flour
a bulk of vegetables. I used a potato, a carrot, some broccoli, some of a zucchini, a can of corn, a can of black beans, and some green cabbage.
2 cloves of garlic
1 and 1/2 cup milk (I use rice)
1 and 1/2 cup water or veg broth (tonight I used broth, yum)

melt the butter in a soup pot
add flour and stir together, cook some
add the garlic and stir for about thirty seconds
add the vegetables and broth and milk and stir.
(Tonight I thought the zucchini was too mushy though, so I am going to future add that later. Also wait to add beans until right before its done)
This is where I add spices. salt and pepper, and sweet spices.
I usually use about a 1/2 to a teaspoon of marjoram, basil, parsley, dill (this is important, because a lot of the good flavor of the soup comes from the dill) thyme, and then some spice from red pepper flakes and some coriander.
I cook this until the potatoes are soft. I know your not supposed to boil milk, but I do it anyway and it tastes fine to me.
I make this with my biscuits. mmmm. buttery. (biscuits are in another post)
This is kind of a lot of butter with the biscuits and all, so its up to you. I rationalize it thinking I am putting the omega 3 flax in the biscuits too and that we don't eat meat, but still, its a lot of butter
So...if anyone makes this and can figure out how to use less butter and things to put in it let me know

bad pot luck dish

I really want to make a satisfying beans and rice dish that isn't Mexican. All I know how to make are Mexican and Italian foods. There has to be more the vegetarianism than that. Tonight i tried this recipe from my new cookbook that I kind of knew was going to suck, but I am desperate. It was a Turkish new potato casserole. Yeah. Potatoes are old. Clyde said it tasted like a pot luck dish. That you don't want to eat. He added he wouldn't order it in a restaurant. Like there are even vegetarian options in restaurants besides veggie burgers around here. So the recipe was onions, eggplants, potatoes, broccoli, black and green beans, and red pepper. I cooked the onions, then added the rest to saute for a few minutes. Then the spices. weak. 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon paprika. I put a teaspoon in of all for good measure. Then I put in 3/4 cup of veggie broth and covered it with tomato puree and pieces mixed with garlic. This was baked in an increasingly hotter over (because the potatoes wouldn't cook I kept turning up the heat) until the potatoes cooked.
It was as bland as it sounds. But not bad. Just bland.
I made brown rice with veggie broth and cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, ginger, and garlic. It was tasty.
This morning I tried french toast. I have never made french toast before. It was pretty good. Clyde said it was the best french toast he has ever had because it was savory. I did this:
Put in 2 eggs beat with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon into a big bowl.
Mixed in 1 cup of rice milk
mixed in 1/2 teaspoon of rum (but you can use sugar)
mixed in 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

put this in flat pan and cut bread pieces from clydes fabulous 6 grain bread and let them soak on each side for a few minutes, then I fried those bitches up. with maple syrup, it was good. but filling.

food quiz

I had clyde and self start a food journal. I realize I am bad at writing down things I should not be eating. Figures. When Lydia was here we were talking about formulating a diet based off of what nutrients we might not be getting from habit foods. Habit foods being things I always buy and eat, such as I always get certain vegetables and beans, etc. Clyde and I don't get enough B12. I thought it would be zinc, but its more the 12. So food journal to see what we need to be getting.
Tonight I ordered pizza. It ALWAYS makes my stomach hurt, but I still order it. I am such a chump. Its like Shoneys, or worse, KFC. Man, I want fried chicken in the worst way, I mean I'm from Georgia. But KFC always makes me feel sick, its the grease, but every couple of months I can't take it anymore and I sneak down there and get some chicken and some remorse. As soon as I walked in the house tonight I thought: "pizza" and rubbo said " I was thinking about pizza and I was going to ask you to make it". funny, I wasn't going to suggest I make it. I ordered it. Pizza isn't one of those put together dinners, you have to feel like making pizza to make it. The dough isn't bad, but slightly time consuming. Plus making the sauce since I am not using canned (they all have high fructose corn syrup in them except the pricy ones) etc. nope, I'll pay for someone elses to make me sick. But I think of pizza and calzone as the same thing (clyde says) and calzone doesn't make my stomach hurt. But calzone is always lacking what feels like a main ingredient. I have used all kinds of things right down to fake sausage. I need a filling filler.
So this week I have been thinking of food quiz questions for fun. Answer at will.
1. What is my (your) favorite thing to cook?

Anything I know all of the ingredients to and have made so many times that I can safely improvise

2. What is your favorite non-essential cooking tool (lets skip the ovens and can openers)
The magic bullet of course. I can't believe I ever had to live without one. I can't wait for a kitchen tractor though.

3. What is the fall back easy meal in the house?
Pasta with olive oil and seasonings, tacos, mega-nachos, eggs

4. Who is your favorite cooking show host?
Giada de laurentes

5. Other than meat, what is a good calzone filling?
insert idea.

korma korma korma chameleon

Tonight we had vegetable Korma from my new cookbook. I was going to cook this tofu stir fry dish from this cookbook cause I am horrible at stirfrys, but everyone always says they are so easy etc. etc. but they are hard to put flavor into if you ask me. This recipe had its own seasoning for the tofu, which was really hard for me because it took so many years to prefect the tofu seasoning recipe I have, I just can't believe if I put a tablespoon of paprika and a teaspoon of cumin on some tofu its going to be enough. Clyde looked over the recipe and said he would eat it, but wouldn't order it in a restaurant. Me neither. Tofu in restaurants suck. Rubbos friend lydia that was visiting told me all of her experiences with tofu are restaurant ones, and so her opinion of tofu was bad. She said she didn't know it could be another way. Damn restaurants. so I went to another item on the list for the week: vegetable korma. This is also a chance because ever since I stopped cooking lentils (because I read they inhibit iron uptake ) I make bad curry. This was a good one. My tofu flavors are more mexican than Indian though, so I used beans instead of tofu. I need to adjust the seasonings for it later.

Vegetable Korma:
1/4 cup butter
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon ginger or 1 inch ginger root
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander (they call for a tablespoon, but I ran out and this amount worked well so I would hate to advocate more and it not taste good)
1 teaspoon cardamom (they call for six cardamom pods)
2 inch cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon ground tumeric
1 and 1/2 cup mushrooms
1/2 can chickpeas
about 6 pieces long green beans cut (not from can, farmers market kind)
about 1/2 zucchini cut
1 Japanese eggplant, first cut into length size pieces and covered in salt for about 1/2 hour before cooking, and rinsed before adding.
1 carrot
1/4 cup water
4 tablespoons yogurt
2/3 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper
If you like spicy add a red chili, I didn't try this

Melt butter, cook onion until it gets the clearness you want. I like mine super clear. Then add garlic and ginger and stir fry for 2 minutes. add the rest of the spices and let cook about 30 seconds.
This is where you decide how mushy you want this dish to be. Especially if you are changing the vegetables and adding potato, you want to put that in now. I decided to add my eggplant and mushrooms and 1/4 cup water. Boil this and turn down to low and simmer with top on for 15 minutes. Then add all the crisp vegetables. Thats when I put in my carrot and zucchini and beans, so there would be some crunch. I cooked this without the top for five minutes. Then you scoop out the vegetables with a slotted spoon and put them in a baking dish in a low heated over. On the stovetop in the remaining sauce add the yogurt, milk, salt and pepper and heat up. Pour this over the warm vegetables.
No, its not a complete protein, so we had roti (see falafel recipe) with it for the accompanying whole wheat. It was pretty good, and clyde liked it a lot.

success food day

Man today was the best food and related wise. For breakfast I had oatmeal that is instant banana bread flavor and mixed in oats from a container. it was good. For lunch I wanted protein, so I had scrambled cheesy eggs, black beans, toast from bread I made, and a small salad. Talk about heavy.
Then I got presents from clydes mom (we both got them for getting married) that was a pepper grinder, one that I almost bought the other day. And those spice mixtures the clyde and rubbo loves that you add oil to and heat up. And 2 cookbooks. I looooove getting cookbook presents because I never buy cookbooks for self but love them so. One if them is titled :"500 greatest-ever vegetarian recipes" and it really is. just looking thru I have found so many things to cook. I will update you as I cook them. The other one is comfort vegetarian food, and there is a tempeh section. I can't wait to cook. Its like I want to have already tried them all already, but that would ruin the fun.
So then for dinner I made vegetarian lasagna. It was pretty good, but I tried something new that didn't quite work out. I tried frozen spinach. Its so tempting because everyone on Foodnetwork uses it, and it takes a lot of spinach to cook down to have any amount of substance. but it was a mistake. it was tough and stringy. but the rest of the lasagna was good. clyde and I had fun trying to talk about how the flavor was changing in each bite: "sweet, savory, sweet....spicy" it always ended with spicy. here is the recipe:

First I got my tofu pressing to be my ricotta.

while it was pressing I made the sauce:
1/2 onion
3 cloves garlic
2 cans diced tomatoes pureed in magic bullet
about 10 leaves of basil
1 sprig rosemary
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons of sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

I sauteed the onion with some salt in olive oil until almost translucent.
Added the rest of the ingredients. Cooked until ready to assemble lasagna.

Next I cut up one container of mushrooms, and melted 1 tablespoon of butter in a pan and cooked them until the liquid came out and then got absorbed back in. Then I added in strips of zucchini I cut up for about 2 more minutes, and took it off the heat. The other day I read you can put white wine in sauce, and so I tried deglazing the pan with white wine and then put that into the sauce. it didn't really help. I thawed that nasty spinach.

I took my pressed tofu and crumbled into pieces, and added 2/3 cup of tomato sauce, spinach, and about 2 cups of mozzarella cheese, salt, and fresh ground black pepper (thanks to my new grinder).

I boiled my water and cooked my noodles. they were still hard when I stopped. So oven 375 degrees. I put about 2/3 sauce on bottom of lasagna pan. then then I put half of the tofu mix on it and pressed it down. Then I put all of the vegetables on top of that. Followed by enough sauce to cover the top layer.
3 more noodles. rest of tofu and more sauce.
3 more noodles. rest of sauce. about 1 and 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese and about 1/8 cup Parmesan cheese.
I cooked covered with foil 20 min and uncovered 10 min.
Clyde ate four pieces. he is so cute.

I was making bread all wrong

Oh my, I found this great site online with cooking video demonstrations. The site is:
http://video.epicurious.com/
I was making bread all wrong. Not all. but some. the trick I know to test if its been kneaded enough is opposite. The kneading technique is off. It sure is nice to know that there are so many ways to do things.







Now we all know

lunch as a nemesis

What I really want to write is a lunch cookbook. But its too ambitious. I mean lunches I can bring out into the field, not ones I can heat up in the microwave. Those are dinners reheated. leftovers. I want lunch. I think I have a food OCD, where I get up and have to eat just because I think I have to. I spend a lot of time thinking about lunch, and I have to eat by a certain time every day, even if I am not hungry, and then repeat with dinner. Lately I haven't been cooking dinner, because clyde has been at work which makes me lazy. Lunch at home is only slightly better, because I have to make something simple and quick and not a large quantity. Thats a pretty hard thing to do for me, I think in recipes, which are normally elaborate, or at least the ones I read are. Except for salad. How many days in a row can I eat salad for? So here is what I have been eating for lunch last two days:

Black bean tacos. I had a lot of black beans from the hurricane stock up and clyde suggested this. Tacos at home are such a good idea, cause they are cheap and they taste just as good as bean tacos anywhere you go. especially if you have sour cream. I didn't realize until a few years ago that I could make tacos at home very easily, with more ingredients that are too expensive in restaurants to add on.

Today I had pasta without sauce to make it quicker. I wish I had breadcrumbs. Tossing pasta with breadcrumbs, oil, and feta is surprisingly really really good. I know I can make breadcrumbs, but they aren't as good. Today I heated up between 1/8 and 1/4 cup oil and put in about 7 basil leaves from the backyard, 1 sage leaf ditto, 1 rosemary stalk ditto, and 4 chive stalks ditto. also 2 garlic cloves and redpepper flakes. I cut up vegetables and steamed them over the noodle water and tossed with feta and Parmesan cheese. It was a really tasty quick lunch. I need to look at recipes.
Any good lunch suggestions?

blinded by the pad thai

I finished my last post while agitated from sub-par dinner that I forgot to talk about all the successful meals of the day. For breakfast I made these muffins from a recipe I got off the flax meal package. Here they are:
Healthy good muffins

1/2+1/4 all purpose flour
1/4+1/8 flaxseed meal
1/4+1/8 oat bran (but I used oats, no bran)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
(this is not listed but I add similar spices, such as cloves and nutmeg)
1/4 cup shredded carrots
1 shredded apple
(this recipe calls for 1/2 cup chopped nuts, but I put in 1/4 cup chopped sunflower and pumpkin seeds)
1/4+1/8 cup milk
1 beaten egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix dry ingredients
Mix in fruit and veg
Separately mix wet ingredients
add wet to dry
Mix until moist
fill 3/4 full of muffin cups
bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes
Clyde later suggested smartly that this tastes like carrot cake, and can only be benefited by adding cream cheese to the top. I am really looking forward to trying that.

when good dinners go bad

sometimes I cook dinner from a new recipe and it doesn't taste good. This is slightly sad for me because I feel like I just wasted a meal. If I ruin dinner I don't have a chance to have a good one until the next day. But new recipes are like that, sometimes they turn out really well. I have to accept that there is a balance, but I don't have to like it.
So tonight I cooked what was supposed to be pad thai. I was in the bulk store the other day looking at all the sauces on the Asian food aisle. In Hawaii we don't have Asian food sections, we have asian food aisles. There are so many sauces. So I look at them and dream about knowing what to do with them. most of them contain some kind of meat product, so I don't normally get them. One time I bought this black bean sauce that sat in the refrigerator until I was sure it was no longer safe to eat. So I saw this pad thai sauce and picked it up and looked at the back and I saw a recipe where it read to put bean thread noodles in with this sauce and some tofu so I thought I can do that. It didn't even occur to me to read the ingredients list on the container because I confused it with reading the recipe. So last night I was looking on foodnetwork.com for other recipes of pad thai and all of them had fish sauce in it. So I checked, my sauce had anchovies. I was still going to make it though, just not for clyde. so tonight I made it. Here is what went down:
I soaked the noodles in water for an hour and then fried them up until they were clear. they weren't the way I think of glass noodles. Is bean threads glass noodles? I fried the tofu like normal. I put it together and with the sauce and vegetables from todays lunch salad. I was not even really close to the one on the container that read to add just green onions, peanuts, and something else that I didn't add. it was too sweet. The sauce was. I put in cumin, but to no avail. too sweet. So I am not sure about pad thai, if anyone has a good recipe let me know.

what about tempeh?

I am kind of afraid of tempeh. its the texture. I think the first time I tried it was in boone, North carolina, at a small coffee shop on a morning platter. It was very untasteful and the texture was not to my liking. about a year ago I tried to cook it, but I thought it was over from the start and didn't put too much effort into it. But I think I need another meat alternative than just tofu. Here is what i have been reading about tempeh:
(this is pure wikipedia talking)
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, however, has a higher concentration of protein per carbohydrates, and is thought to be more versatile in dishes.
(what is the difference between protein and protein per carbohydrate? I don't know)
and holy crap- this is when I find out wikipedia has a cookbook. who knew.
so I put into google "protein per carbohydrate" and the three hits didn't tell me anything.
mysterous.
I found this tempeh site that sells kits for people to make their own, with recipes.
http://www.tempeh.info

lazyyyyy

Breakfast was usual for the last few weeks:
scrambled eggs with melted cheese, homemade toasted bread, some apple.

bread recipe:

2 and 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast 1/4 cup warm water 1 tablespoon maple syrup (I have this because its cheap at the bulk store, but if you don't just add some sugar).
Mix these ingredients in a big bowl that can hold lots of flour later for about 10 minutes until the yeast looks all bubbly.

Meanwhile mix:
4 and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 2 cuts whole wheat flour (sometimes I substitute a cup of this for blended up six grain cereal from the health food store)
Mix this together

When the yeast has risen add to it:
2 tablespoon Olive oil 1 tablespoon of salt 2 cups warm water.

Add half of the flour to the liquid and mix it. Then add the rest. I kind of get most of it to stick together in the bowl, and then dump it on the floured board and mix the rest of it together. If you are adding any herbs like fresh basil or rosemary or parsley do so now. This is where I call clyde to knead it because I don't have a kitchen tractor (mixer), and he adds flour to it when it sticks and kneads it for about 10 minutes. Usually I can push in the dough and it comes back to me. I put it in a big bowl and coat all sides with oil and cover it for 1 hour.
after an hour put it in the containers it will cook in. I vary between bread pans and just making a Italian bread type shape on a baking sheet. Oil the pans you use. Let it rise on these pans covered for another hour.
heat over to 450 degrees.
it goes in at that temp for 10 minutes.
reduce temp to 350 degrees
the cooking time here varies. Its about 30 minutes, but I start checking on it at 25.
SO good.
I also made a spinach salad because a bad of spinach was on sale at the bulk grocery store for 1.50$, but its your basic salad. No recipe necessary. But I want to get into the recipe of it.

I ate out every meal today

Today me and the clyde got married. That meant one thing important to me, I can unashamedly eat out every meal. I made breakfast for me though.
So me and the clyde left to go to kukio resort to get married. we were nervous mostly. She was cool though, she wanted to get all into the aspects of the relationship. We decided to head to Kona to eat at this place clyde ate with anna and tish, a greek restraunt. Last night I got on the internet to look up vegetarian restraunts on the big island, but there are not any listed Online except for the hot bars at the health food store. nope. So the greek restraunt passed the clyde test, because he had already eaten there and wanted to go back.
Here is some background: I love restraunts and clyde hates them. He hates being served, he thinks the food is not as good as mine, and he doesn't eat any meat so there are very limited choices for him. I love restraunts. I love being served. I usually want restaurants for food I can't cook, like chinese and thai, but there are not that many good types of those kinds of restraunts around here. oddly enough. And its all meat based. I eat chicken, so sometimes I am better off than clyde, but I don't eat it very often when with clyde.
So when clyde has eaten somewhere and would go back thats a good sign. it passed his heavy criteria. We go to this greek restraunt, cassandras, and clyde explains to me we are eating all appatizers, because those are the vegetarian options. He says " it will be fun to order four or five appatizers and share them." I agree after looking at the outdoor menu. We got to sit on the second floor on the veranda.


We got a mixture of things I have always wanted to try, stuff I like but is too excessive to cook, and stuff I had never heard of.
I always wanted to try Dolmades. They are in about every cookbook, but I don't know how to get my hands on any grape leaves. So this looked like my chance. I don't have a specific recipe because I didn't make it, so here is one from online, it looks about to be what I ate.
http://www.mediterrasian.com/cuisine_of_month_dolmades.htm
Mine was cold. I am not a lover of the flavor of vinegar. This will always exclude me from the enjoyment of many foods. I think the leaves just have that flavor. I'm glad I didn't make them at home, or I would have thought I messed them up and would be upset I wasted a dinner on something I don't like.
The thing I got that is too excessive to make is Spanokopita. I have had it in Greek restaurants in the past and it is a filo pastry with spinach and feta. its so rich. and good. I can't make this, its such an excess of cheese and butter and only one vegetable. I have tried over the last two years variations of this recipe with little success. When adding more vegetables and reducing the cheese its more like a dry strudel. and sauce doesn't help it. The most success I had was last thanksgiving, but I don't know what I did different that time. So that was one of our appetizers, it was worth adding it in.
One of the dips we got that i had never tried before is Tzatziki – dip of Greek yogurt, garlic, cucumber, dill, vinegar and olive oil. It was good, even with the vinegar, but a little spicy. It was served with pita that was soft and grilled. the other dip was kafteri. we agreed this was the best item on the table. it was a red pepper dip, and thank goodness I discovered red peppers being good last month. They are a new part of my food repertoire.
For dinner we went to Maui Taco. This is our favorite restaurant in Hilo, and we were tired after todays activity. We got our favorite sandy beach, a burrito filled with black beans and rice, and covered with enchilada sauce. so yummy. we always get that.

clydes food rating system

Theres an ancient culture that based their entire religion off of food. Now no one knows where they went to or what lead to their demise, but whats amazing about them is the extent of happiness which is apparent at each of their archaeological sites. Its only comparable to the food-centric quality of their artifacts. OK.
So they had a very useful calender system that was based off of what to eat and when. everyone had to have their own personal one, in some cases a household could have one. and even more rare cases there might be an entire town which migrated together because they could all be happy based off the same food calender.
So Clyde has experienced a spiritual awakening due to how good my food is that makes him aware of this calender and that he can fit into one basically. But he only has a few pieces of the puzzle and has no idea where to look for the "others".
This is what clyde does know:
falafel has a frequency of around 3 days of the 10 day cycle.
tonights ravioli rated a 1 day out of 10 day cycle.
mega nachos rates a 1 day out of 20 day cycle.
Meatball subs rates a 1 day out of 20 cycle.
Tofu Taco rates a 1 day out of a 15 day cycle.
Fajitas rates a 1 day out of 15 cycle.
Burritos with sweet potatoes rates 1 day out of 20 cycle.
Calzone rates a 1 day out of 20 cycle.
Pizza rates a 1 day out of 25 day cycle.
Chili rates a 1 day out of 30 day cycle.
Eggplant rates a 1 day out of 30 day cycle.
baked pasta with tofu rates a 1 out of 20 day cycle.
Anything new 1 out of 20 days.
snack days 1 out of 10 days (hummus and trail mix junk)
Potatoes rojo rates a 1 out of 20 day cycle (but not cooked near the time of eggplant. on opposite times. such as potatoes rojo is like Taurus and eggplant is like scorpio.)

I can't think of anything else I cook all of the time. This list is not based of what is better than something else, its based on the proper frequency for the full enjoyment of each meal. Once clyde finds his calender he may meet others with the same calender.
Clyde is so cute for saying all of this stuff.

Tonights dinner was good. I made ravioli, tomato sauce, noodles, and garlic bread sticks.
Recipes:

Ravioli:
I have been wanting to try this technique for awhile because my ravioli dough never works right and it always breaks open while boiling. This worked great.

package of won ton wrappers (comes with 24- so you get 12 ravioli).
1/2 container of firm or extra firm tofu.
1/2 container of mushrooms
1/4 of a med. size zucchini
1 egg beat with 1 teaspoon of water
cheese, like parm.
2 cloves of garlic
1 Tablespoon dried basil
1/2 tablespoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of tomato sauce

This is pretty simple. If you use firm tofu press it first about 1/2 hour before cooking, if extra firm just squeeze all of the water out. mash tofu in a bowl with your hands until its all in small pieces. It will remind you of ricotta. Add 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic, basil, parsley, and salt. Mix together. Add about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce. Mix.

In skillet on med. heat saute up mushrooms until they release and absorb all of their liquid. Add in Zucchini about half way through that. Take off of heat.

Take out wonton wrapper and put about 1/2-1 tablespoon of tofu mix. Top with about 1 teaspoon of mushroom and zucchini mixture. add a small amount of cheese on top. use brush to spread egg mix around edges of wrapper, and around edges of second wrapper. put the two wrappers together and press out air and make it tight. Put on floured board until ready to boil.

Salt a large pot of boiling water. drop ravioli in about 3 at a time, and let it cook about 2 minutes. They will rise to the top.

I can't put in my sauce recipe yet because I haven't measured out any of the spices for it yet. Or for the garlic breadstick topping yet. that is for later.

hurricane food and falafel recipe

So I went to the grocers store on Monday, yesterday, to get famine food for the oncoming hurricane. It turns out to be very stressful going to the grocery store at the same time as every single other person. At least we were all clumped in the grocery store together instead of the highway trying to evacuate. Where do we evacuate to when on an island? At the grocery store people had their carts in the aisle way in order to check out. so you couldn't peruse the food. Which stressed me out, not being able to think about what should I get for a hurricane. I love this sort of thing usually, disaster planning that is. When given time. So I panicked and got some cans of beans and some candles. and some cereal bars. So I think I want to make a list for the next time this happens, I can get in and go. But I am having a hard time still. Such as: Should I get things that I have to add water to? Shouldn't I be conserving water in this type of situation? I saw people buying ramen and thought about how my survival handbook suggests adding things to getaway pack such as packages of instant mashed potatoes and those dried up soups, where you just add water and you get a very filling meal. It seemed to stress the idea of filling self up with little food. More cans, I guess, but if we have to flee up the mountain then we wont be able to carry them all if on foot. Dried fruit I should have gotten, but it was so expensive I didn't think it would be worth it. seeds, those are light and proteinous.
So trail mix. item one.
some cans of beans are good if we do have to stay home, but what to eat them with that would make a complete protein? I should have made some bread, and I thought about it but was unmotivated because we still have a whole loaf clyde made the other day. bread would also be hard to carry more than one loaf of, but a loaf would have been good and filling.
Loaf of bread and cans of beans. Item two.
real fruit would have been good for home too, because it doesn't have to be refrigerated. Like a bag of apples. and some bananas. some of those would have traveled well, and they provide a lot of water. What kind of vegetables do not have to be refrigerated? potatoes, and we can cook those on an open fire when wrapped in foil. but then we also have to have foil.
Fruit. Item three.
If we have to walk a long distance we are going to need more protein. I think some of those protein bars are a good idea, not just cereal bars, because cereal bars are mostly junk food. I should have optimized my bars for doing the most.
Protein bars. Item four.
and then the filling add water stuff, like the ramen and the dried potatoes and the soup containers.
Of course the hurricane hasn't taken out the power yet. Tonight we had falafel for dinner, which is the house favorite. I videotaped myself making it in short bursts.
Falafel:

1 can or 1 and 1/2 cups of chickpeas
two pieces of bread soaked in water, start soaking at the beginning
1/8 cup dried parsley or 1/4 cup real parsley
1/2 onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste
hot sauce like sarachi or Tabasco, i just pour some in.
flour

So I cut the onion and garlic and put it in the magic bullet. If you don't have a magic bullet and have to use a blender then it really sucks. Magic bullets(M.B.) make it easy cause you can pick them up and shake them when they are blending, instead of having to stop the blender every three seconds cause the onions and garlic are not getting blended.
So then I pour the liquefied (if you have the M.B.) or chunky (blender) onions and garlic into my big mixing bowl. Then I add the parsley and the beans. Now if the beans are really soft you can just put them in and smash them with the bottom of a measuring cup and then a fork until they are mixed. If they are a little harder you may have to magic bullet them or blend them. I used to blend them, and so I hardly ever made falafel. Now I just pour my canned beans into a pan and cook them even longer and mash them. Couldn't be easier. So after mixing add the lemon juice, all the spices, and mix. Then squeeze the bread mixture out and put that in and stir. Maybe a food processor would make this way easier, putting in everything from the onions to the bread. I don't have a food processor, so its hard to say what they do.
so after you stir all of that together I put the oven on 375 degrees.
I get out a baking sheet and pour a good amount, maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons, on it and rub it around. Then I get some whole wheat flour, but it doesn't matter really what kind you use, and put it on a plate. just enough for dipping. then i start pulling balls of falafel out of the bowl and forming patties. we are not talking burger patties, more like meatball size. smaller meatballs, but not too small. I dip each side of the patty into the flour and put it on the baking sheet. half way thru this it all sticks to my hands. washing really helps, even if its inconvenient, it makes it easier in the long run.
Next they go into the over for ten minutes on each side on the center rack. They come out to get fried in olive oil on medium heat until they are crispy on both sides, it doesn't take long.

I make this with roti, which is middle eastern flat bread.
Roti
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (but you can just use 2 cups all purpose if you want )
1 teaspoon of salt
Mix these together
Add 2 tablespoons olive oil
Mix
add 3/4 up hot water.
Mix into ball o' dough.
Its sticky. Then I heat up my pan on about 5-7. Med - med. high heat. I use cast iron with no oil. My Teflon did well for this with no oil, but my aluminum (?) metal pans they just stick to with no oil. But if you use oil they turn out crispy. So I take out small balls of dough. really small. smaller than the falafel. I use a wine bottle for a rolling pin for this because it makes it easy to hold one side of the dough while rolling, because you want it pretty thin. Recently I have made it less thin, like maybe the thickness of a tortilla. and about the size of a small tortilla. So when your done you pretty much have a tortilla, which i have used as replacement when I didn't feel like making this bread, but this bread is better. They cook really quick, just a few seconds on each side, and they get bubbles of air on them while cooking. they are good.

I serve this meal up with some cabbage I cut up. I like using cabbage instead of lettuce, cause it lasts longer in the fridge and doesn't wilt quick and still has good nutrients. I also cut up carrots and mushrooms. we take roti and cover it in sour cream, then the raw veggies, then cheese, mostly mozzarella, and then the falafel. so good.