A week in food

Here are the things that have been going on in this kitchen for the past week or so...


Tofu scramble. I mixed this with some black beans and some leftover potatoes with veggies, and it made a nice and filling breakfast.


Tasty Tofu Tidbits from TEV. This was the first recipe that caught my eye, and it was so simple. I really enjoyed the smoky flavor of the marinade... and I enjoyed the crisp, seared look of the tofu dice. We had this with some lightly steamed veggies--I can't remember what, exactly.


A nice, healthy, filling lunch for the day that we gave blood. I really enjoyed making this, because it meant I got to be inventive and I could give accounting a rest--and I had a good excuse for it. This was one of those meals where you just try to clear out the refrigerator of everything that needs to be used up--this time, that included cabbage, turnips, and a couple of servings of pinto beans and brown rice.


The turnips became Roasted Turnip Purée from TEV. To be honest, this was not my favorite. No fault of the recipe, really. I just don't care for the bitter flavor of turnips, and the flavors that the recipe added were not able to mask it sufficiently for me. Bob enjoyed it, so I let him have my serving.


The cabbage became an Asian-inspired, coleslaw-like salad that I prefer to call confetti cabbage salad.

Confetti Cabbage Salad

2/3 head of cabbage, shredded coarsely
2 shredded carrots
1/2 thinly sliced red onion
Handful toasted sunflower seeds

Dressing:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon tamari
Ground black pepper
1 teaspoon minced ginger root

Let the dressing steep while you prepare the veggies. Pour dressing over the salad and toss.

Yummmm! It made a huge bowl of salad, but it was gone in two days.

I was really excited to see a recipe in TEV for "Lightened-Up" Falafels. I've had falafel on my mind for a couple of weeks now, and this was the perfect opportunity to give it a whirl. Bob helped me cook up these little patties. I love making foods that are particularly hands-on, like this one was with the rolling out of the patties.


I appreciated that these were sautéed instead of deep-fried like falafel often is. However, I did have to keep adding oil as they were cooking because it would all be cooked up so fast, so I don't know how lightened up these really were (although I am confident that I didn't use as much oil as I would have otherwise). The other point that didn't go as smoothly as I hoped was that the patties were very, very fragile. I think what could improve it is 1) perhaps adding a bit more flour to the mixture, 2) refrigerating the mixture AFTER forming the patties instead of before, and 3) making at least twice as many patties as the recipe says to make, since they came out so darn big.


The flavor was right on, though--these were delicious! The night we made these, Bob had his in pita halves with veggies, and I opted to eat mine on top of a bed of veggies (spinach, cabbage, cukes). We made the Tahini-Tamari Sauce that the recipe recommends to serve with the falafel, and it was so good. Perfect flavor. The falafel and the sauce was equally delicious as a salad or as a pita.

And that's all, folks. Beyond these things we have been eating very simply around here lately--leftovers and veggies and smoothies have been my faithful friends. I don't know what the weekend has in store, but probably not much that is more exciting than this. I do have a cupcake-baking date set for Sunday, so thoughts of cupcakes are propelling me on!

We are still enjoying our homemade soy milk. We have not settled on a recipe just yet--I've looked at several people's favorite recipes, and ours is going to end up being a mélange of those. The only trouble I'm having so far is, the homemade soy milk tends to curdle in my homemade cappuccinos--the packaged soy milk we bought didn't do that. I found a blog post from the Vegan Feast Kitchen that sort of addressed this problem, but none of the solutions Bryanna offers have corrected the problem. I still have a couple more tricks up my sleeve, but if all else fails we may have to end up buying soy milk specially for our cappuccinos. :( Have any of you ever happened upon any remedies to this problem?

Have a great weekend. Cheers!