Roasted Beets and Tofu Atop a Garlic Millet

What an adventurous day. First rye pasta, now millet. I decided to pass up the couscous for this new (to me) grain since it was the only one in the bins I haven't tried. I wasn't so sure what to do with it, but did some Googling and found that it has a 1:3 millet to water ratio and cooked like other grains. I knew I needed to use up the beets in my fridge, but I couldn't decide what the protein should be. Split peas and lentils didn't seem right, and tofu popped into my head. Luckily I was stopping by Whole Foods for something else (which they didn't have) and soy milk and grabbed some tofu as well. I've never seen "Super Firm" tofu before, but it was cheaper than the tofu I buy at other groceries so I couldn't pass it up.

Roasted Beets and Tofu Atop a Garlic Millet

• .5c millet (uncooked)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 6 small beets
• 1 package Cubed Super Firm Tofu, drained
• Olive oil spray

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Wash beats and pierce with fork. Place on baking sheet and roast for an hour or until done. Spray olive oil on and add salt to the tofu, toss to coat evenly. Add to baking sheet and cook 30 minutes or until browned.

Toast millet in dry pan for 2-3 minutes until it gives off a nutty aroma. Remove from heat and let sit a few minutes. Add 1.5c hot water, bring to a boil, and let simmer 25-30 minutes or until all of the water is absorbed. Add garlic to millet at some point during cooking- the earlier you add, the milder it will be and the later you add, the stronger it will be. I added mine with about 10 minutes left.

When beets are cooked, cut off top and bottom and slice in half. Let cool 10-15 minutes and then remove the skin. Cube and toss in with the tofu and salt and pepper to taste. Spoon mixture on top of millet.

So Dr. Andrew Weil tells me that if you simmer millet, it gets fluffy just like rice. That was a lie. While it came out delicious, it was the consistency of polenta/grits- not what I was expecting. Otherwise, the dish was fun. Each ingredient had a completely different texture and all three flavors seemed to mingle well. I don't think anyone would be wowed by it, but it wasn't a flop.

Sauteed Beets with Greens, Baked Curried Tofu, and Brown Basmati Rice

This is a meal. All of my Omnivore's Dilemma reading over the holiday weekend contributed to me thinking I'm eating the best way possible. Really, though, the fresh beets I bought at the farmers market are the only local thing on the plate. But wow are they amazing. Thanks to the book, I assaulted the woman at the stand with a million questions about their farm- which she was excited to answer. No pesticides (no)? How far is the farm from here (2hrs)? Why are these beet greens different than the others (different variety)? $5 later I had a fresh bunch of pesticide-free beets with their greens attached. I may have skipped home a little.

Sauteed Beets with Their Greens
1 bunch beets with greens
olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Cut off the beet ends, peel, and chop into small pieces. Add to the pan and sautee until soft. As they cook, remove thick stems from greens and run the knife through the greens a few times so the pieces are more manageable. When the beets are soft, add the greens and cook 1-2 minutes until they wilt and turn a vibrant green.

Baked Curried Tofu and Brown Basmati Rice
Meanwhile, I had some firm tofu in my fridge that I wanted to do something quasi-new with, so yesterday morning I drained it, sliced it into 15 fingers, and slathered it with some of my random Mexican curry powder and olive oil. So it sat in the fridge soaking up all the curry goodness for almost 2 days. I put the fingers on a baking sheet and popped them in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes, flipped, and cooked maybe 15-20 minutes more until nice and brown.

Basmati rice is pretty easy- 2 parts water to 1 part rice, add a pinch of salt, and cook for 45 minutes. It can take awhile, so I recommend starting with this one.

The beet is perfection. The sweet beet and the bitter greens create something amazing. And amazingly beautiful. I might take the long route back from the kitchen at the office tomorrow so I can make everyone admire my dish. The whole thing was delicious, easy, and perfect for a lazy summer evening.

Tomato Basil Tofu atop Barley

Thinking I'd mastered pan frying tofu, I thought it would be a great dinner. I finely chopped up 1/2 red onion since I was out of garlic, added a few leaves of fresh basil, salt, and 2 TB olive oil all to the frying pan. I tilted it and let the flavors mingle for a couple of hours.

In a small pot I added 1 cup of water and .5 cup barley, brought to a simmer, and let cook for 30 minutes until all the water was gone. As that cooked, I put the frying pan on medium heat and when the oil was hot, I added some strips of extra firm tofu (I cut 1 block into 12 strips). I let it fry for 10 or so minutes and was getting worried. So I tried to flip it, but most pieces stuck. It was not a good moment.

It looked like some of the bits in the pan were starting to burn, so I added 2 large tomatoes, 2 plum tomatoes, more chopped fresh basil, and .5-1 cup water. I let it simmer for 15 minutes or so. When the barley was done, I made two servings and topped with the tomato basil tofu mixture.

It was a little oily but yummy. It made two 500 calories servings and was filling. It could use a little more flavor- maybe veggie boullion or the rest of the onion. Now I'll go back to cowering in fear of the beast that is tofu...

(No camera batteries yet, my apologies!)

I've Been Waiting All Day to Make This Pizza

Because I haven't been feeling well (jetlag from my ridiculous LA overnighter), I decided to cheer myself up with food. I need to overdose on veggies since I am not feeling well, and I wanted to sneak in a little protein that is not peanut butter. What's better than pizza?

I used my onion-herbed beer bread recipe (3c flour, onion, herbs, 1 bottle beer) as the basis for crust. I flattened it out into 4 mini-crusts on a greased cookie sheet. I put it in a 375 degree oven for a few minutes while I assembled the sauce, which is strangely similar to my creamy tomato soup- 3 regular tomatos, 2TB tomato paste, 1 package of firm silken tofu, 4 cloves garlic, and salt/pepper- using my handy dandy immersion blender. I slapped the sauce on the pizza and put it back in while I made the other toppings- spinach (2pkg frozen), mushrooms (10 white), and thinly sliced red onion (.25c). I added those to the pizza and put it back in while I chopped up 2 roma tomatoes and 10 black olives. Last time out, I added the tomato slices, olives, and capers (the greatest ingredient ever). I let it cook a few more minutes then turned the broiler on for a few more so the tomatoes would roast a little.

I had to write the blog while it cooled, otherwise I'd have burned my mouth. It's pretty good- though the sauce could have been stronger (more salt/tomato paste maybe?. And I used frozen spinach, which made the crust a little soggy in the middle because I didn't strain it very well.

Still hit the spot.

Easy Meals for the Lazy Chef

Coming back from a long Thanksgiving and then preparing for another one-night stand with a celebrity in LA (relax, it's just an overnight dash from the East coast over to the West coast to play with someone famous), I hoped to minimize my time in the kitchen. So lunch the next 2 days is a strange concoction that somehow tastes fabulous:



Creamy Tomato Green Bean Soup

Boil .5 cup brown rice in 1 can veggie broth for about 10 or 15 minutes. Add 3 cups fresh green beans (and more water/broth if necessary) and cook until green beans are done. Meanwhile, using your handy dandy immersion blender attachment (or a blender), blend .5 block of silken tofu (firm), 2 TB tomato paste, and some canned chipotle in adobo sauce. When the green beans are done or almost done, add the creamy mixture to the pot and add salt to season. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Enjoy the strangest but most delightful concotion you've had in awhile.



Chipotle Polenta with Lime Infused Spinach/Artichoke/Roasted Garlic

I'm fairly certain you can guess from the title what's in it. I boiled some polenta, salt, and chipotle powder (which I will use for chipotle brownies soon!) until creamy. At the same time I boiled one package of frozen spinach and one package of frozen artichokes, which I didn't know existed. I added some salt and roasted garlic and cooked until piping hot. I added the lime juice, stirred, then piled atop the chipotle polenta and added jennilicious' favorite plant- cilantro. Some of the bites were amazing...and some were just ok. I'm not sure how that can happen. Yes, that's my unsweetened homemade cranberry ginger ale.

Tofu, I'm Not Scared of You!

My camera has no batteries because it evidently takes a LOT of power to take 30 pictures.

Since I'm going to the beach this weekend and Iowa for the Livestrong Presidential Cancer Forum, I wanted to use up my produce. I purchased some portabellas on a whim this week, and I had some green beans. I needed some protein, though, so I decided to throw in some tofu, too.

I pan-fried the firm tofu I'd cubed in a light layer of olive oil spray. I actually didn't touch it, so it got nice and brown. But I didn't feel like browning all four sides so I browned 2 sides and threw in the green beans with some red wine vinegar. When those were almost done, I added strips of the shroom. Meanwhile, I cooked some couscous and topped it with the veggies. A pretty easy and tasty dish. I had no onions so next time I'll make it like I usually do my caramalizing some onions first. Yum.

Steamed Cauliflower atop a Bed of Tomato-Cumin Cilantro with Spicy Cool Tofu Sauce

A long title, a tasty dish. I'm a huge fan of all in one dishes (not necessarily casseroles...or is that the definition of the word?), and today I needed a little of each food group (except fruit).



So, I cooked some quinoa with tomatoes and cumin, steamed some cauliflower, and made a sauce with 1 package of silken tofu , a bunch of cilantro (that's PARSLEY to you, jennilicious!), chipotle pepper, and salt. When I first made the sauce, it was missing something, so I added more of everything. I retasted and it still wasn't perfect, and then I realized the key: garlic. So I added 3 cloves and it was amazing.




















Not only is it tasty, but it looks pretty. The picture doesn't do it justice- cauliflower seems to be camera-shy lately. But if I actually cared when I "plated" it, it could have looked so much better. What's that atop you ask? Green onion. It was dirt cheap so I've been cooking with it all week.




As far as changes/improvements, it could really, really use some lime. I'd probably put it in the quinoa and possibly the sauce as well. And perhaps the quinoa could have used some chili powder.

Cauliflower with Tomato Basil Tofu Sauce

It's basically what it sounds like. I steamed some cauliflower and, again using my fantabulous attachment to my immersion blender, blended together a plum tomato, 1 clove of garlic, .25 block silken tofu, salt, basil, and randomly some nutritional yeast (though I'm fairly certain it didn't add anything to it).

Tofu sauces are amazing. Thank you jennilicious for introducing me to tofu, once my nemesis, ironically because of jennilicious' failed attempt back in undergrad. This is a quick, tasty dish. And I'd definitely lick the sauce up off the floor. I may have licked the plate clean, too.

I tried taking pictures for about 10 minutes, but I was ultimately unsuccessful for whatever reason.

Lentil Delight

Lentils rock.

I wanted to try something a little different (for me) with lentils so I dreamt up this concotion. I cooked .25 cups lentils for about 10 minutes, added a cup of diced yellow squash, a cup of frozen diced zucchini, and .5cups frozen chopped spinach (trying to get rid of stuff in the freezer to make room for the aforementioned soup). While that was going, I used my badass immersion blender attachment to blend together .25 block silken soft tofu, some dried dill, a little (too much) salt, and a splash of soy milk. I put the "sauce" in the fridge to keep chilled and when the lentils/veggies were done, they went in the freezer to quickly cool. I mixed the two together for a lentil delight. And it makes a big bowl that's around than 200 calories.

I dried draining the lentils/veggies and throught I got most of the water out. Not as much as I'd hoped, so instead of a creamy mixture, it's a little more watery than I envisioned. But at least the oversalting of the "sauce" wasn't noticeable since I didn't flavor the lentils/veggies otherwise. To make it a more complete meal, it might be good with some bulgur or quinoa.

The "sauce" is actually really good and I might start making this often and using it as a dip for my baby carrots. I can imagine it with some sundried tomatoes and basil or maybe rosemary and garlic. Yum.

Mexican Sweet Potato Tofu Stoup

Mexican Sweet Potato Stoup

2 small onions sauteed with
6 cloves of garlic then added
dry white wine to deglaze and
water with
1 package of extra firm tofu, cubed, with
4TB garlic chipotle salsa and
Chili powder, cumin, salt to simmer 15 minutes, then
2 medium/large sweet potatoes and
1/2 c bulgur until done

I originally envisioned this dish with black beans, but the tofu in my fridge had been in there for way too long. While I'm tempted to give up on tofu, I'm determined to learn out to cook with it (which I didn't do well in this dish). The tofu doesn't taste bad, it just wasn't what I was hoping for. And I oversalted in my zeal to make it taste Mexican since all the spices I used had salt in addition to the heaping amount of salt I threw in. Next time I'll use black beans, lime, and chipotle and pray that it comes out a little better.

More Soup for Me

Since I woke up with a scratchy throat that morphed into a nice little cough by the evening, I decided I need to make some soup for dinner. Yesterday I received a fantastic present of Brussels sprouts and thought I could make a soup with them. One time I steamed them, threw them in the blender with some veggie broth, and added some pan-fried sprouts for a nice, hearty soup. This time, however, I decided to do something slightly different.

I started off by cooking 3 small onions and 4 cloves of garlic in a little olive oil. Then I added some water and .5 cup of barley. After it cooked about 15 minutes, I added 1 cube of vegan vegetable buillion and some whole Brussels sprouts. I let it cook until the sprouts were done. And it really hit the spot.

I also needed to use up the rest of the firm tofu that was in my fridge. I cut it into 2 inch by 1 inch pieces and then dipped it in some concotion I came up with. I added about .75 cup of pinto beans, a giant squirt of mustard, some leftover canned tomatoes from my pizza, Mexican-style chili powder, and a little olive oil together and blended until smooth. I rolled (dreged?) the tofu in the dip (which would make an excellent dip on it's own) and then rolled it in finely crushed Cheerios. I started crushing the little o's by hand, but that was way too much work, so then I put them in a random paper lunch bag I had, but they broke it, so I resorted to using the bottom of the mustard container to finely crush them. I then baked for 30 minutes or so on 400 and when the tops weren't brown like I wanted, I turned on the broiler until they were nice and crispy.

As always, I forgot any salt or pepper. And I think it would have been better if I'd thought about it in advance and soaked the tofu in my bean mixture for awhile. But, they were neat and I plan to try to make them again, next time with extra firm tofu and a nice long soak. Finally, a new use for Cheerios.

California Dreamin'

I recently spent 10 days following the Amgen Tour of California (where I met Patrick Demsey- are you tired of seeing this picture yet?) and worried a lot about what I'd be able to eat along the way. Since I was there for business, I never knew where or when my next meal would come, so I tried to plan ahead as much as possible.



It started on the plane when I pulled out some cooked/cubed sweet potato I'd made the night before in my successful attempt to clean out every single edible thing in the fridge. I thought nothing of opening my container and chowing down until my coworker sitting next to me look in bewilderment at me and asked what I was eating. Then we decided, yeah, it's weird to bring sweet potato on a plane. But that doesn't mean it's not smart. It was quite tasty.



My options on the long plane ride were really limited: a chicken ceasar sandwich, a fruit and cheese plate, or a transfat box that contained popular killers like breadsticks and "cheese," chips and salsa, and candy. I had to choose the lesser of all evils and went with the fruit and cheese plate.

On the actual trip, I was fortunate enough to, in the beginning, be able to run for an hour through each city before stopping to get my new favorite food- a whole wheat bagel with peanut butter. As the trip went on, it got a littler harder to find this little delight, but I got by...Being in California was nice, there were a few good places to get tasty food that won't kill you, though I think I overdosed on fish while I was there, since that's the only animal that I ever really eat anymore, and that's typically once a month or so. Looks like I don't need to eat anymore of that for a long, long time.

When I returned from my trip I had to go grocery shopping almost immediately since I'd done a great job of clearing out all food. Luckily I had something I'd made and frozen that I ate for dinner the night I got back.

Usually after a trip I spend a billion dollars at the grocery store. On a regular trip I spend about $20-25 weekly with a random $60-75 to stock on up stuff every month or 6 weeks. After a trip I easily spend $100. This time, however, I barely spent $50. And I splurged.

I decided to branch out and buy some regular tofu (as opposed to silken), some veggie pepperoni, and Toffuti Better Than Cream Cheese. I'll let you know how that goes...

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.

Veggie-Tofu Tacos

I stopped by the store on the way home from running errands and stayed focused enough to just pick out frozen vegetables, salsa, tortillas, toilet paper, and contact solution (aka, the five things I can't live without). This was an amazing feat because my already low blood sugar was encouraging me to buy everything in sight. I was kind of disappointed that they were out of the cheap whole-wheat tortillas, but I really wanted some, so I broke down and got flour.

When I got home, I wanted something quick and good, so tacos sounded like the best option. I chopped up a (surprisingly) small onion and began sauteing it in a little olive oil. I added some frozen green beans and some frozen yellow squash to the onion, along with a little crushed sea salt and a lot of black pepper. I let these cook while I cut up half a block of Mori Nu Silken Firm Tofu into bite-size chunks. I added a little hot water to the pan of vegetables to help them soften and put the other half of the tofu in the fridge to hopefully concoct something good with it tomorrow.

After most of the water steamed off, I tossed in the tofu chunks. To this, I added a palmful of cumin and a few shakes of less-sodium soy sauce, crushed red pepper, chili powder, turmeric, garlic powder, and paprika. I sauteed this for a little less than 10 minutes, until the tofu looked like it was a little browned and the vegetables looked soft and cooked through.

I pulled out two of the taquito-size tortillas and sprinkled the last of my shredded cheese on both. I piled a couple scoops of the cooked mixture on each and topped them both off with a generous amount of El Pinto Medium Salsa, which is one of my faves because it has NO CILANTRO and tastes really fresh.

These were, dare I say, crumbelievable! The only downpoint was that, by the time I had taken some pictures of them, the tortillas had soaked up a lot of the juice and were hard to keep together. They tasted amazing though, and that's all that matters. I still have enough left to add to some quinoa or couscous tomorrow (to make up for the flour tonight) for lunch.

Super Bowl Funday

Cooking for other people terrifies me. For Thanksgiving my parents came to visit me (the way to do it, by the way) and I cooked a bunch of snacky type of foods before they got here. I had stuffing balls, mini-sweetpotato and meat pies in phyllo dough, apple phyllo things, and cranberry bread. I decided to cook a whole bunch of food and do a round of testing before making the real stuff for my parents. And who better to be my taste testers than friends and coworkers. When it came down to it, I literally couldn't be in the room when my coworkers tried it and I couldn't even talk to them about it. My heart started racing, I was sweating, and I fled the room. So, the thought of cooking for other people always sounds fun in the beginning, but when the time comes I get really nervous and wonder why I signed up to do it in the first place.

I chose to make 2 tasty, healthy recipes, especially after the hostess mentioned that she's avoiding processed foods this month. I made Bobby Flay's lentil and split pea dip, pretty much following the dip recipe as written, but without actually measuring things. You can't have dip without something to dip with, so I dug out the package of whole wheat multi-grain tortillas with flax seeds, used a pizza cutter (how do I have one?) to cut them into triangles, sprayed them with olive oil fake Pam, and put them on a cookie sheet in a 400ish degree oven until toasty.

I also made Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches from a recipe on Susan V's FatFree Vegan Kitchen blog. I made these quiches once before but didn't have the majority of the ingredients. But they were so tasty I decided to try again. This time I made them with onions, garlic, green and yellow bell pepper, and spinach. I also added more dried rosemary than the recipe calls for. The first time I made them, I had a tiny bit of trouble getting them out of the pan, but this time I just dumped the muffin pan over and beat the bottoms of the cups- it worked flawlessly. Luckily I was busy messing with the lentil and split pea dip that I didn't hover over them and scarf them all down the minute they came out of the oven. I guess I forgot to mention that when I dumped the quiches out of the pan, one fell on the floor. Yeah, I picked it up and ate around the part that touched the ground. It was 10 times better than the first time I made them.

How'd they work out? No one mentioned much about the dip, but I wasn't feeling it anyway. The quiche reaction was mixed- some people had some texture problems. And I didn't eat that bad, probably because I was stuffed from my Cauliflower Faux Gratin from earlier. However, when I got home I got in a competitive eating contest...with myself.