Tofu Saturday

Jennilicious inspired me to buy tofu a few weeks ago and I was so pleased with the quiches that I decided to branch out. This morning I made scrambled silken tofu (1/2 the box) with green onions, cilantro, chilli powder, and turmeric. After a small mishap with 1/2 the bottle of chilli powder ending up in the pan, I plopped the mixture atop a nice warm piece of toast with Trader Jose's (Trader Joe's) habenero and lime salsa. Yum and only about 250 calories.

Since I still had a half a block of tofu and 2 tomatoes I needed to use today, I thought a creamy tomato basil soup would hit the spot on this freezing (well, below freezing) day. I blended the tomatoes and tofu, put it in a pot, and added salt, pepper, and dried basil. When I have soups, I like to dip bread into it, but today I decided to be a little different and use whole grain couscous. Instead of making the couscous first and then adding the soup, I put 1/3cup couscous in the bowl and topped with the soup and covered. Five long minutes later, I returned to the bowl slightly disappointed. I was hoping for a soupy mixture with couscous sitting on the bottom of the bowl. But, it all sort of mixed together. And the water from the tomato separated a little bit from the rest of the soup so I had to stir it all together again. Which is fine, it all tastes the same!

The soup came out a beautiful pink, and when topped with raw green onions, it looked amazing (if only my camera worked). It tastes even better than it looks. Next time I make it, I might thin it out some with unsweetened soy milk. And I meant to add some roasted garlic (6 cloves) to the blender, but I was famished and couldn't wait for the garlic to roast so I left it out. Only about 400 calories for a giant bowl.

Unrelated to tofu, I decided to make some pear chips. So I used my fancy slicer (otherwise known as a knife) to create somewhat even slices. But since I'm dumb, some of them ended up quite a bit thicker than the others. Oh well. I popped them in a 275ish degree oven and let them cook for an hour, maybe a little longer. I flipped them twice and moved the pan around when I put them back in. The last time I flipped them, I sprinkled cinnamon over them and added a total of .5TB of dark brown sugar to the tops. I let them cook until the brown sugar looked bubbley, then I put them on the rack to cool.

Amazingly I haven't scarfed them down yet, but that's because they were cooling while I was making my soup. I sampled one, though, and they are delightful.