tofu fo' you

You know, growing up I never really got the deal about tofu. I found it kinda bland, mushy at times, texturally ambiguous at other times. Not that I really had a strong opinion about it either way, it was just a common component of a lot of the dishes my mom made and so I never really thought about it. I didn't like it or dislike it; it was just kinda there.

As I got older and started perusing the world of culinary creativity, I ran into articles and recipes and blogposts featuring this legendary vegetarian/vegan staple in a variety of interesting ways. Since then, tofu has come into a whole new light for me! Don't get me wrong, ma po tofu and tofu pudding and fried tofu with garlic soysauce and all those other traditional dish will always hold a special place in my heart. But here are some more ways I've spruced up the normal tofu scene.

First up...

Baked tofu!

Okay, so sticking things in the oven does not take a stroke of culinary genius but I've never done this before! It's QUITE popular around the blogosphere and it seems like everyone has some sort of wonder marinade that just makes their hunk of 'fu into the best tofu of all time.

I've experimented a little.

My first marinade/rub consisted of:

• Spoonful of sesame oil
• Spoonful of soy sauce
• Spoonful of rice vinegar
• Little bit of dijon mustard
• Tons of ginger powder
• Sprinkle of garlic powder
• Spoonful(s) of honey

I've also played with adding five spice rub, cumin, and brown sugar. The best combos are those with a heavy dosing of something sweet or spice-y. I was sad that the sesame flavor gets lost in the oven, and the soy sauce becomes the most overpowering ingredient. I'm thinking that fewer ingredients would actually be better! I tend to go a little overboard.

Top half of pan: dijon mustard + honey glaze + some things listed above; bottom half of pan: soy sauce, sesame oil, and a lot of the things listed above

Use firm or extra firm tofu, drain and rinse and let it dry for a bit. I blotted mine with a paper towel - it depends on the texture of tofu you're going for. If you want something akin to chewy tofu jerky, then try to remove more moisture and slice it thinner. If you're going for the crispy on the outside, soft on the inside thing, go for fatter pieces.

Then coat with your marinade of choice, spread out on a baking pan and bake at 400 degrees for about half an hour. I never bake things at a consistent thickness or a set amount of time. I'm like the OCD cook's worst nightmare so...do like I do and experiment!

So the next tofu concoction is a bit more interesting.

TOFU ALFREDO SAUCE!

I've heard rumors that tofu can be made into creamy things and you can forego all the heavy cream and butter. Chocolate mousse, cheesecake, smoothies....

This cream sauce actually turned out pretty well. It gets a little clumpy as it cools but hey, then it's kinda like ricotta cheese. Still good.

Ingredients:

• 1 block silken tofu
• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 heaping tablespoons of nutritional yeast
• dried oregano + other italian herbs
• 1/2 cup of some sort of milk

Blend tofu with soymilk. You can use more or less soymilk depending on whether you want your sauce thicker or thinner. Pour into large bowl. Mix in nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and herbs to taste. You could just throw it all in the blender, but I didn't want to risk having my blender smell of yeast and herbs forever so I separated the processes.

Sautee garlic + onions with a little olive oil, salt, and herbs in a medium saucepan. Pour tofu mixture into sauce pan and heat on medium heat until starts bubbling slightly. Stir constantly to keep it from clumping! Pour over pasta and serve ASAP!

Once it cools/if you refrigerate it, the sauce congeals into a more crumbly tofu mixture, somewhat like ricotta or cottage cheese. It still tastes great and goes well with pasta despite losing the alfredo creaminess.

Simple, healthy, and delicious!

I took the bit of leftover liquid tofu + milk in the blender and added a frozen banana, some frozen strawberries + black berries. Blended tofu makes smoothies thick and creamy and proteinlicious! Yum.

You're pretty cool, tofu. I guess you and I can be friends now.

when life gives you zucchinis...

...stare at them in confusion.

So, growing up, zucchini was a vegetable that pretty much never made an appearance in the house. It's not really found in Asian cooking and I just never really been acquainted with this green summer squashy entity.

If you may recall, on our recent peach picking excursion, we picked up two hulking zucchini specimens and then also received a couple more from a family friend. Apparently, once you start growing zucchini, you'll have enough in one season to last you a lifetime. That's why we're never growing zucchini.

Of course, being rather dessert oriented, the first idea was to make zucchini bread! And make zucchini bread I did, for the most part following this AMAZING recipe. I used whole wheat flour instead, halved and used brown sugar.

The first batch resulted in one plain loaf and one loaf loaded with chopped up pieces of a 70% dark chocolate bar. UM HEAVEN.

The second batch was, shall we say...naughtier. It may or may not have involved this. Lots of this.

Oooh yes I did. First, I took half a cup of raisins and soaked it in warmed rum for a couple of hours until the raisins plumped up with alcohol infused goodness.

But wait, that's not all. After baking and cooling off for a bit, the entire loaf was then doused in a ridiculous RUM GLAZE:

• -1/2 cup butter
• -1/4 cup water
• -1 cup sugar
• -1/2 cup rum
• 
  
• Heat butter, water, and sugar in saucepan until boiling, stirring frequently. Simmer for 5-10 minutes and then remove from heat before adding rum. Let cool for a few minutes. Poke some holes in your loaf and brush glaze over entire loaf, letting more dribble into the cracks.

I die.

Maybe combine them both for a dark chocolate rum raisin loaf next time? Hehehe...

If zucchini bread doesn't do it for you, you can always chop up the darn thing and sautee it with a little EVOO and garlic.

Or slice it up, rub with a little salt, pepper, oil, and Italian herbs and roast it.

Or use a spiralizer or peeler to make long pasta-like strands and top with your favorite tomato or cream sauce. Raw zucchini strips make an excellent and healthy pasta substitute!

Pasta with chopsticks? Sure, why not.

And with that, I'm off to deal with our one remaining stash. Bring on the zuke!

hummus in the house!

Commence attempt number 193282904 to start/restart the whole blogging thang! This time, I've resolved not to put too much pressure on myself and have already accepted the fact that this will most likely not be a daily blog. And most DEFINITELY not a 'here's everything I eat and do in a day' type of blog. While I loooove the food/health bloggers who document their lives in such fun and interesting ways, and would love to try doing what they do one day, I've decided to commit this blog to random food ramblings, my own culinary creations, and my regular adventures in the kitchen, whenever they happen to occur.

And what better way to jump start a new era in the Hummusphere then a recipe involving...dunununuh...HUMMUS!

You know, I realized that hummus hasn't actually had much facetime on this blog. SHAMEFUL I know. I promise, as a loyal citizen of the Hummusphere, that I will pay more tribute in the future to this fabulous food item.

So we had eggs. A lot of eggs. And so in an effort to render them all edible as efficiently as possible, I decided to hard-boil them. But hard-boiled eggs are so...vanilla, you know? So in a fit of rebellion, I grabbed some not-so-typically-found-in-egg-salad ingredients and lo and behold, made egg salad.

HUMMUSY EGG SALAD

• 2-3 hard-boiled, peeled eggs
• 2 tbsp hummus
• splash of olive oil
• generous sprinkling of black pepper
• heaping spoonful of nutritional yeast

Mash up the eggs and mix everything together and tada!

Serve on a sandwich, on a bed of greens, on a spoon...

Hummus is an excellent substitute for the usual mayo+ mustard combo. And let me say something about nutritional yeast! I've seen it around the foodie intarweb communities for a while now and I've always been mildly intrigued and terrified at the same time. What is this stuff that looks and smells kinda like fish food but have all these health aficionados leaping in fungus induced joy? So finally, I picked up some and tentatively started sprinkling it on my salads, sandwiches and what not. Verdict? I like it! It gives a nice savory flavor to anything you add it to. I wouldn't call it cheesy, as many others do, but it's definitely not bad. Props for the insta-umami!

Now, let's look at this picture.

Ummmmmmm yeah. There's also an unpictured bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the pantry. And another couple of bars in my room. Er. I may or may not have a slight problem.

If anyone knows any fab uses for dark chocolate, hollah at me! Right now, I'm just eating it straight, which is already divine; melting it and drizzling it on things, which is possibly more divine; or forgetting the damn spoon altogether and just drinking it out of a bowl, which is, duh, the best idea I've ever had.

Until next time!

the return?

Dare I say it??? THE HUMMUSPHERE IS BACK! For now, at least.

It's been way too long, my fellow food enthusiasts, but due to popular demand (a.k.a. my own boredom and guilt at having let this thing fall through the cracks), I will once again be detailing my foodie healthie life-ie adventures for your viewing pleasure.

This summer, I am staying at le university to do research and am currently renting, along with a couple wonderful compadres (who will no doubt be making many a guest appearance on these pages) a cute little house just on the border of campus. The best thing about having our own abode is the kitchen!!!!!! and I've made myself very much at home indeed.

Backtrack a little though- for the past two weeks I've actually been at home and have been flexing my budding culinary muscles (ha!). Alas, any skill or experience I had in this department had sadly atrophied over the last semester, as I was studying abroad in Panama. That is in itself a whole 'nother story...but moving on.

I didn't take a lot of pictures at home, but the things I did manage to grab a few pics of a few concoctions:

Cran-goji-nut oatmeal cookies!




These super chunky babies contained:

• 1.25 cups whole wheat flour
• 2.75 cups old fashioned oats
• 0.5 stick of butter
• 0.5 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1.5 tsp cinnamon
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup goji berries
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Combine wet and then dry ingredients, bake at 375 for 10 minutes and voila!

(Gasp, butter??? I got over my fear of butter and sugar - a little butta goes a loooong way especially in making crisp, delicious cookies.)

Caribbean Island Lime Shrimp


Modified from this recipe.

I didn't have orange juice, any of the alcohol, or turmeric but it still turned out awesome! The fam enjoyed it as well :).

Other things I experimented with but unfortunately didn't get to photograph include:

• Kale chips
• Roasted veggies (cauliflower + cabbage)
• Pad thai!!! <=This is the most amazingly comprehensive tutorial for making pad thai EVER. If you are a pad thai fan, you MUST check this out!
• Various simple household Chinese dishes

And since moving into our little house on campus, the food adventures have continued! Behold, the spread for our first housemate dinner together. Dawwwww.

Whole wheat spaghetti + fusilli with Muir Glen Italian Herb pasta sauce, sauteed spinach, sauteed marinated Crimini mushrooms, and Chardonnay. Classy ;).

I picked up the pasta sauce on sale at the local organic grocery store and it was awesome!! Full of flavor and tomato chunks, definitely recommend it! The spinach and mushrooms were bought at the local farmer's market last week (be still my heart!) and were amazingly fresh. I love good wholesome food!

Lunches and breakfasts have been more casual - the standard oatmeal/toast concoctions and salads/hummus for lunch. For example:

EPIC salad with arugula, herb salad mix, a carrot, red bell pepper, drizzled with Annie's Goddess Dressing.

I've been meaning to try this salad dressing that everyone raves about and was happy to see it on sale. It's good, but a little too salty for my tastes? I think I prefer my salad dressings slightly sweeter but the strong temari flavor wasn't bad at all.

Tonight, I've got something SPECTAAACULAR planned (well, at least I hope it turns out that way) and I'm really excited to see how it turns out! (HINT: it involves cabbage and eggs and is vaguely pancake-like. haha, sounds great, right???) I'll be sure to take lots of photos and hopefully return to the Hummusphere with news of gastronomic glory. Until then, have a nice day and happy eating!

birthday swank and (more) bananas

Yesterday, 090909, happened to be Lil's birthday so of course we went to celebrate in style! Despite being more than a little sick, the birthday girl suggested we go to the gorgeous Redwood Restaurant in downtown Bethesda. This restaurant is visually STUNNING. Nothing I write or post here can really capture what it was like to see it in person. It's huuuuuge with these gigantic windows (that were totally open since it was a gorgeous day) so it was like a huge posh open air lounge. It was beeyootiful.

Redwood also uses primarily local, organic, and sustainable ingredients for all its dishes. Yay!

Long restaurant is looong. Check out those enormous open windows!

The interior and outside view from our table.

Birthday girl <3

We started the evening with a lovely cheeseboard with soft cow, goat, and semi-hard sheep cheeses. It was served with raisin bread crackers, figs, honey, and raisins.

All three cheeses were delish! I also pretty much slurped up that little bowl of honey...

Next came the entrees! I was stuck between getting their salmon and seared ahi tuna dishes. Dilemma! In the end, I reasoned to myself that I had had more than enough salmon the other day, so I should move on to a different fish. Ahi tuna, come to me!

Seared ahi tuna steak with baby eggplant, olive, and 3 grain salad topped with greek salad garnish. Beautiful and sooo yummy.

Lil got the pasta of the day, a three cheese ravioli.

Mmmm, my tummy was humming with happiness afterwards. The steak was deceptively filling and left me with no room for anything else, even though I had planned on a little dessert...

Anyway, it was a quiet, pleasant, and altogether lovely little evening with my girl. Happy birthday, Lil!!! Welcome to the land of the old :p

----

Other eats of the day included quartered red pepper topped with taboule salad. Simple but the flavors went together surprisingly well! Light, refreshing, and poifect :)

I also made banana craisin almond oatmeal cookies.


Again, super healthy and devoid of fattening ingredients. The original recipe is here but again, the ones I made don't really resemble the originals anymore. I made rounded ones and also a few flatter ones. The rounded ones are cakey and dense while the flat ones came out very chewy and slightly firmer. If you like soft, muffintoppy cookies, bananas are a good ingredient to use.

Ingredients I used:

3 mashed ripe bananas
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 egg whites
3 cups old fashioned oats
1 tsp vanilla extract
a lot of cinnamon (just shook the dispenser up and down a few times...)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup chopped almonds
1 cup craisins

Combined wet ingredients and then mixed in the dry ones. Baked at 350F for about 10 minutes.

Not gonna lie, I am a little sick of bananas...gonna lay off the little yellow guys for a while haha.

In other news, I got a haircut today. I am sporting a serious bob now hahaha. It feels a little foreign but it's nice to have my hair nice and short again. I think I've pretty much given up on the long hair thing for good...

mo' muffins

Yesterday, I made really scrumptious and really ridiculously healthy banana nut muffins. I was experimenting with cutting ingredients out and subsituting more guilt-free things and I was afraid they'd turn out disastrous but that wasn't the case at all! They're moist, dense, lightly sweet, flavorful, and deeelicious!

Fresh out of the oven :)

Happily cooling; you can see a few chocolate chip ones too.

I've been experimenting with this recipe for a while, making a few modifications each time. Originally, they came from this recipe but they've come such a long way that they're kinda like a whole different species of muffin now hahaha. Anyway, they're really easy to make and I had no qualms about eating like 3 of them yesterday because they're so healthy!!!

Ingredients:
4 ripe bananas
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
2 egg whites
1/3 cup yogurt (I used nonfat vanilla Greek yogurt)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Preheat oven to 375F. Beat together bananas, egg whites, yogurt, and vanilla until creamy. Add in flour, baking soda, powder, salt, cinnamon and stir until smooth. Add in nuts and stir until even.

Grease or line with paper 12 cupcake slots. Fill about 3/4 with batter. Pop into the oven for 18-19 minutes and ENJOY!!!

Yes, I realized recently that ripe bananas are usually sweet enough that sugar isn't necessary for these kinds of recipes. I like these because they have a lot of banana nutty flavor but are just lightly sweet. If you like your stuff a little sweeter, I guess you could add sugar or other sweetener. Omnomnom.

I also made a spectacular smoothie afterwards.

1 banana with a generous helping of frozen berries

Resulted in a yummy and beautifully colored smoothie. Matches my bloggy background.

And then I did a take two of the garden burger wrap I made a few days ago. So simple and delish :D.

Strips of sun-dried tomato and basil Gardenburger topped with salsa on half a wheat tortilla.

All wrapped up and ready for nomming.

I think I'm only going to post more interesting meals from now on. A lot of times I just munch on a piece of toast or fruit or something and I just get too lazy to take a picture of something so ordinary. Yes, I'm cutting corners hahaha. Typical lazybum me.

Tonight is Labor Day dinner partay 2009! We're having friends over and there will be food. A lot of food. Mmmmm, my tummy is really excited. We're cleaning the house to get ready now; hope everyone has a great weekend!