blank canvas

Tofu is great because you can do anything with it. It just soaks up the flavors of whatever it’s prepared with. Like this crazy thing!

I love the IDEA of egg salad, but it’s just too… eggy?

I know that sounds insane, but there’s just something about the yolks and the gloppy mayonnaise and the sliminess that is just… ick. But I love the idea of a cool, crisp, slightly creamy, protein-rich, salad with dill and paprika and onion, so I set about making it with TOFU!

  

And it was awesome. Tofu, minced green onion, minced celery, capers and their juices, mustard, yogurt as my binder (regular readers know how I feel about mayonnaise blecccch), salt and pepper, paprika, and dill. SO YUMMY!

Another component of this lunch I kinda just ad libbed and it was so great. Chopped apple+ chopped pecan+ cinnamon+ glob of plain yogurt on top for garnish.

I thought about heating up the fruit but since this was right after a workout I, as usual, only wanted cold food. And I liked both angles so you get two pictures!

Pecans are so naturally sweet. How do they do it?!

Along with snow peas (yum! I eat ‘em raw!) my delicious lunch.

SO well rounded, too! Got allllll my food groups! This is how I like to eat- well rounded nutritious meals with lots of flavors and textures that take a nice long time to eat. The thing with the insane amounts of noshing that has been going on since I got home is ENDING!

On another tofu note, baked tofu always appeals to me in other peoples’ blog but since I always wing it when I make it, it’s never been totally satisfactory. So, wild and crazy, this time I actually followed a recipe! I consulted those experts in vegetarianism at Moosewood, specifically my copy of Sundays at Moosewood and made myself a tofu topper consisting of miso, green onion, and tahini (!) thinned with a bit of water.

Into the oven:

 

And out:

Okay I know this will sound crazy, but the topping when it gets all crisp and brown tastes like CHEESE! It’s like the edgy bits of a lasagna, mmm.

The first time I had it (all aloney, while my mom was still on her trip) I had it with a salad of greens, shrooms, celery, and the salad dressing with which I’m currently having a love affair, Annie’s Gingerly:

 

Mm, crispy goodness!

Since I had this following the injera-fest at the Ethiopian restaurant, I wasn’t feeling a grain-y side dish, so I just had it with a delicious orange and ginger tea.

Someone asked how I made tea with fresh ginger:

I keep a knob of fresh ginger in my freezer (it NEVER goes bad!). When I want ginger tea, I peel back just enough of the skin to cut off 2 or 3 nickel-sized slices of ginger. Then I pour boiling water over them and let them steep 5 minutes or so. (Confidential to the ladies- ginger is a natural anti inflammatory and I drink oodles of this stuff that time of the month!)

When my mama returned, I used the copious amounts of leftover topping (despite the fact that I had made 1/4 the recipe!) to make it again, this time accompanied by some bok choy. My bestest friend, Noodles (well, some weird people call her “Lydia”) makes really really great bok choy and I asked her to send me her technique and she TOOK HER SWEET TIME but I was distracted with other veggies.

Anyway, copied word for word:

chop up tons of ginger and cook it in spray oil for a couple of minutes (real oil would get it too crispy.. though that's really good with carrots..), then add the chopped bok choi with soy sauce and let that steam. then the sesame seeds.

The result:

   

It’s GOOD.

This time I sliced the tofu thinner and also put it in triangles to maximize crispening possibilities.

 

For dessert, we dug into a fun souvenier that my stepmother got whilst on her layover in Japan: MOCHI!

Due to my unfortunate lack of knowledge of Japanese, I have no clue what the flavors are. I tried the pink one (the only one I can fairly confidently state is probably strawberry), the one I’ll call “green”

And the “darker green with powdery stuff”, which had red bean in it.

Love love love Asia’s fondness of bean desserts. I did not eat a savory bean dish the whole time I was in Taiwan or Bangkok, but I ate so many fun bean sweets!