Sweet Moroccan Glazed Tofu

I was in the mood to try a new recipe this afternoon and this one met my 3 requirements: I must have all the ingredients on hand, it should be easy to make, and sound tasty. This recipe comes from Big Vegan by Robin Asbell. It's a hefty book and is one of my favorites because of its good instructions and color pictures. Below are my simplified (fewer words) directions for this recipe.

Ingredients:

12 oz. extra-firm tofu, drained and pressed
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. allspice
1 cup vegetable broth
1 medium carrot, chopped
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 tsp. olive oil
3/4 cup couscous
2 tbsp. canola oil
1/4 cup agave syrup

Directions:

1. Slice the tofu into 1/2 inch strips and place them on a large plate. In a small bowl, mix together the pepper, paprika, salt, cumin, and allspice. Cover the tofu with this mixture and pat to evenly distribute the spices.

2. In a sauce pan, bring vegetable broth, carrots, peas, olive oil and 1/2 tsp. salt to a boil. Add couscous, stir, cover, and remove from heat to steam for 5 minutes. The couscous will absorb all the moisture.

3. In a frying pan, mix the canola oil and agave and heat until it begins to bubble. Place tofu strips spiced-side down and cook over medium-high heat for about 3 minutes. Flip and cook the other side for an additional 3 minutes. The canola oil and agave should reduce and thicken

4. Fluff couscous and top with the tofu. Enjoy.

How to Make Kombucha

I began making kombucha again after my 4 to 5 bottle a week habit starting getting a little too expensive. I figured with a little effort I could make it at home for a fraction of the price. A gallon sized jar gives me about 6-7 bottles, which is enough to supply me with a week’s worth of kombucha. I've also reused the bottles from GT's Kombucha as they are the perfect size and have a nice plastic screw top lid. I keep about 10 on hand and run them through the dishwasher to disinfect them before using them again.

I can't stress how important cleanliness is when making kombucha. Make sure to have a clean working surface and sterilized utensils before beginning. The last thing you want to do is throw out an entire batch because of mold. It's also probably best to avoid metal and plastic; I only use glass containers when making and brewing the tea. Below are the steps I use to make a batch of kombucha:

Ingredients: 

SCOBY and starter

10 tea bags. I use both green and black.

1 cup sugar

purified water

Supplies:

gallon jar

rubber band

cloth or towel

measuring cup

wooden spoon

Step 1: Acquire a SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast) with starter liquid. Either buy one or get an extra from a friend already brewing. I've read that people have used unflavored store bought kombucha to produce a SCOBY but I've never tried this method.The starter is just reserved tea that brings the PH down to prevent mold growth. If no starter is available then vinegar could be used in its place.

Step 2: I buy purified water from the store in a gallon jug. Pour a few cups into a microwaveable glass container and bring it to a boil. Add the cup of sugar and dissolve it completely in the water. Let the 10 tea bags seep for 15 minutes. I typically use red rose black or green tea. The green tea makes a brew that is lighter in color and more mellow tasting.

Step 3: As the sugar and tea mixer starts to cool, I squeeze any extra liquid out of the bags and discard them. It doesn't have to be completely cool since it will be mixed with the remainder of the purified water in the gallon glass jar. Fill the jar about 3/4 full, but make sure to leave room for the SCOBY and starter. With clean hands lift the mother into the brew and pour the starter in with it.The starter should be approximately 10% of the liquid but I typically just eyeball this measurement. My SCOBY is so thick now that it always floats at the surface, but in the past it has sank to the bottom - either is fine.

Step 4: At this point I make sure to wipe any extra liquid off the jar to keep bugs away. Use a rubber band to secure a cloth or towel to the top of the jar. This allows the kombucha to breath but keeps everything else out.Temperature is extremely important; I typically ferment my tea for 7-10 days at 75 degrees. This is nearly impossible in the Pacific Northwest, so I use a reptile heater and a towel wrapped around the glass jar to maintain a constant temperature.

Step 5: If I have a batch to bottle, I'll pull out the SCOBY and enough liquid to start the next batch. I line up my sterilized bottles and fill each with 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup juice. My favorite is a mix of cranberry and raspberry. A funnel can be used to fill each bottle nearly to the top with kombucha. It works like an assembly line for me. For more carbonation, the bottles can be left out for 3-5 days before going into the refrigerator. 

Freezer Burritos
 

Right now I'm really into large recipes that freeze well. Healthy eating is easier when food is prepared a head of time. I often work late and the last thing I want to do at the end of a long day is cook. Unfortunately, the evening is where I usually do a lot of my binge eating - right before bed.

 This recipe has been modified from one posted at Natural Chef NYC.
  The great thing about it is that you can put whatever you like in it; it's highly modifiable. I've made this recipe several times over the past couple of weeks and have experimented with couscous, quinoa, and various other ingredients. I can honestly say that after consuming nearly 40 burritos in the span of a month that this recipe is a winner.

 

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 red and 1/2 green bell pepper, diced

1/2 container of button mushrooms, diced

1/2 block of extra firm tofu, drained and cut into small cubes

1 15 oz. can of black beans, rinsed and drained

3/4 cup corn

1 cup quinoa or couscous, cooked

1 7.5 oz. can of chipotle pepper in adobo sauce

1 tbsp cumin

2 tsp chili powder

2 tsp dried oregano

Splash of soy sauce or liquid aminos (optional)

Splash of rice wine vinegar (optional)

1 pkg vegan cheese

2 (about 16 total) packages of medium whole wheat tortillas. 

Directions:

I prefer to have all my ingredients ready to go before I start cooking. This stream lines the whole process and makes clean-up a lot easier. Prepare the couscous or quinoa according to the box directions. Heat olive oil in a large pan (this recipe will yield close to 20 burritos, so use the biggest pan you have on hand) and add onions. Saute for about a minute and then add garlic, peppers, corn, and mushrooms. Continue to cook for a few more minutes to soften vegetables. Add tofu and black beans and continue to cook. Stir in the dry seasonings and adobo sauce. The peppers are fairly hot and I usually remove them before constructing the burritos. At this point add a splash of rice wine vinegar and liquid aminos according to your preferences.  I move quickly through these steps as I tend to let everything simmer at the end  for a few minutes to reduce the amount of liquid. This is a perfect time to clean up before moving on to the next step since the kitchen will likely be a disaster. 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Warm the tortillas in a pan set to a low temperature. They'll be more flexible and less likely to break when folding. Place about 1/3 cup in the center of your tortilla, add 1-2 heaping tablespoons of quinoa or couscous, and vegan cheese. Don't fill it too full or there won't be enough room to fold the tortilla. When folding the tortilla (imagine it's a square), bring both sides to the center. Hold them in place and fold the bottom up and over to the top. I usually get the best results when I use pressure and roll them tightly. Repeat until all the tortillas are gone or the filling is used up. 

Place all the burritos on a lightly oiled cooking sheet. I often need to use 2 to fit everything. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove and let cool for an additional 5 minutes. Wrap in aluminum foil or wax paper and freeze.

Trial & Error: jojoba Oil

I recently purchased a bottle of jojoba oil because I wanted to make my own facial moisturizer. I'm going through this phase of making and using more natural products. The benefits hopefully being a moisturizer made with pure ingredients and fewer unnecessary additives as well as the savings and satisfaction of making something on my own.

Jojoba oil is purported to be great for your hair and skin. It can be added to your moisturizer and shampoo, applied to your lips, or rubbed directly onto your skin after a shower. I started out adding a few drops to my shampoo during my morning shower, and it definitely made my hair softer. The next day I decided to try more thinking things could only get better. It didn't - it actually made my hair look greasy and flat. Anyone have any other uses for jojoba oil?

Sweet Potato Chips

Here's a recipe I make quite often. It does require a little prep work and few special gadgets, but it makes enough to last a few days (or a day if you eat like I do). I've seen several sweet potato chip variations, but this recipe incorporates sweet, salty and spicy wonderfully. You can certainly add or subtract ingredients depending on your own taste preferences. 

Make sure you have a mandoline (mandolin is optional). I don't know how I ever lived without one of these in my own kitchen. Use it anytime you need uniformly thin slices of any vegetable or fruit. You'll definitely need one for this recipe. Cutting the sweet potatoes by hand would be a nightmare and waste of time. I have a very inexpensive hand held model that has 3 different thickness settings. 

The other important piece of equipment is a food dehydrator. I've seen recipes that bake the sweet potatoes in the oven at a low temperature but I prefer using a dehydrator. I can make more chips faster in my 10 tray TSM Harvest Food Dehydrator than I can in the oven. There are relatively inexpensive models that might not have features such as temperature setting or timer, but otherwise work just as good as a more expensive one.

Ingredients:

4 large sweet potatoes
Agave nectar

Liquid aminos

Cayenne pepper or chili powder

Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt

Directions:

Peel the sweet potatoes. Cut each potato into rounds using the mandolin's thinnest setting. This is important because a thinner cut will make a crunchier finished product. I usually divide this recipe into 2 batches so that I can ensure the rounds are adequately coated with all ingredients. Using a large container, mix 1-2 tablespoons olive oil with 2 sliced sweet potatoes so that they are evenly coated. The goal is to coat them lightly. Then add 1-2 tablespoons agave and liquid aminos, a few shakes of cayenne and sea salt, and continue to mix. Add more or less of each ingredient depending on your preferences. Once everything is adequently combined, place each round on a dehydrator tray. It's okay for the edges to touch, but make sure they aren't overlapping. You can set your dehydrator to the appropriate setting if it has a temperature control; otherwise, plug it in and dehydrate for 12-18 hours. I usually taste test along the way. As the chips cool they will become crunchier. Enjoy!

Good Morning, Smoothie

The first thing I consume in the morning is the perfect topic for my first post. I often go to bed in anticipation of having one of these each morning. It is the green smoothie.

This recipe came from a co-worker of mine. I was previously making a smoothie that basically had everything in it. It tasted alright but it looked like diarrhea. The flavor wasn't awful if you could get past its appearance, but that wasn't good enough. Appearance is usually why people recoil or pinch their faces when the subject is brought up. The assumption is that if it looks bad it tastes even worse. The green smoothie should look amazing because it's so healthy, and taste even better.

One thing I've learned is that less is often more. The smoothie doesn't have to contain everything. In fact, having a couple ingredients that go well together can be very delicious. Sometimes the combinations can be surprising. It surprised me.

Ingredients:

orange juice, lemon juice, kale, cilantro, ginger, apple, ice, wheat grass or wheat grass powder (optional), Trader Joe's green powder (optional)

Directions:

Just blend everything together. As far as measurements go, just guess - that's what I do. I usually add a cup of orange juice, 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice, hand full of destemmed kale and cilantro leaves, 1 peeled and cored apple, and 1 tablespoon chopped ginger. Blend until it's liquified. Enjoy!