Tofu lettuce wraps a la me

I know, I know, not a whole lot of updates. I need to step up my blogging game. Luckily, I have moved and have a beautiful new kitchen, so I'm hoping that will inspire me.

So, as usual, I've fallen a cooking rut recently, but I did make a recipe recently that turned out pretty well. For those of you who have been to PF Changs, you have probably tried the lettuce wraps, available in tofu or chicken. They are sooooo yummy, I crave the tofu wraps constantly. Well, being as cost conscious as I am (read: stingy and cheap) I wanted to be able to have them in the comfort of my own home. I know that they use oyster sauce in the tofu and a bunch of other stuff I can't put my finger on, so I just kind of put together my own variation. Super easy, super yummy, definitely not the same, but still good.

Of course I didn't measure anything so everything should be added according to taste. Sautee the following items together.

1 block of extra firm tofu, drained and diced
Few splashes of soy sauce. Don't add too much at the beginning.
Olive oil
Pepper
Red Pepper Chili flakes
Powdered ginger (I'm sure fresh ginger would be awesome)
Onion Powder
Shredded carrots, diced into small pieces
1 can of water chestnuts, drained and diced
Minced/chopped garlic

Sautee over a medium heat until the tofu is nice and brown. During this process, your pan may dry up and make the tofu stick to the pan, so you will need to add some splashes of soy sauce and olive oil as you go on (which is why I advise to be conservative with the soy at first, to avoid overly salty tofu). PF Changs serves their wraps with some full leaves of lettuce and wedges of lime. Simply spoon some of the tofu mix into a leaf of lettuce, squeeze some lime juice, and enjoy. We had ours with rice, as you can see in the pictures below.

The mix


The wrap

Freezing tofu, and making orange peel (style) tofu

Tofu.

Did you cringe? If you did, I am not surprised. I love it though. I hear people say it's flavorless and spongy, and that's true, that is part of the charm. You can use it I all kinds of stuff, and it just takes on the flavors whatever you cook it in.

One of my favorite dishes is Orange Peel Tofu from Pick Up Stix, a takeout chinese place. I was craving some the other day but I no longer live superclose to one and didn't feel like driving out of my way to get it, so I figured I could just make it.

Well you can't make Orange (style) tofu without tofu. Duh. Lucky for me, I keep tofu in the freezer for just such an occasion.



Oh yeah, I should tell you, tofu changes color when you freeze it It magically changes back when you thaw it. Appetizing, right? Yeah, I know. You can let it thaw in the fridge or do what I do and run it under hot water in the sink until it comes out of the packaging. Put your partially frozen tofu in a pot of simmering water or broth. I just chuck a boullion cube in the water. The nice thing about frozen tofu is that it absorbs more as it cooks than unfrozen.

After it's thawed and simmering away, you can cut it into cubes.


See? It's normal colored again.

While that's going on, you should make some rice. Because you are super busy (or lazy), use a rice cooker.


After some simmering in broth a while, your tofu can stop swimming. Heat up a skillet with some olive oil and sautee the suckers.


Yummy right? Now you can add some sauce. I used this recipe for Orange Style Tofu, mostly because I'm lazy and it was the easiest looking one I could find. It was pretty tasty though. I also threw in some water chestnuts because that's what they do at Pick Up Stix.

Wanna see?




I gotta say, I like it.

The amazing burrito story, or a boring day with me. With lots of pictures.

In this case, amazing = boring. Amazing also means picture heavy.

My lovely friend Jess recently posted a blog about an average day in her life in West Virginia. I find things like this interesting. Perhaps that is why I watch so much TLC. I like to see how others live, even if they are crazy stage moms or little people or whatever. Anyway, I decided last Saturday would be picture blog day. If you have been paying attention to my other blogs, you know what Saturday is: grocery day. My favorite day of the week, believe it or not. I like shopping, even if it is for food. I like knowing the house is stocked. It makes me feel spoiled. Maybe that's why I also like paying bills. I do not like HAVING bills, but I like paying them, knowing that I don't have to worry about it for a whole other month. I'd pay all my bills in one day if I could.

Anyway, for everyone in Southern California, please bear with me. I have friends in WV and Canada and stuff, so I took lots of pictures of things we've seen 1000x for their benefit :) Yes, I love them THAT much.

Saturday starts off like any other Saturday. I wake up around 9 ish. I look at my phone. I try my damndest to stay awake.



It never works. Bonus points if you can name everything on my husbands nightstand. And by nightstand, I mean the crate Sophie sleeps in.

Time to get out of bed. Rupert does not approve.


Sophie is enthusiastic about the day.


I step into my messy living room and already want to dive into bed again.

One of these days, I will have matching couches. And an entertainment center.

I can't jump back into bed though. It's grocery day. I have a list and everything!


That's my menu up there at the top. The TJ's are the stuff I get at Trader Joes.

So off husbinator and I go into the real world. It's a cool Autumn day in Southern California.


And my chariot awaits.

Yes, that is my toaster. Every reputable nerd has one. It hasn't been washed in about a year.

First stop: Big Lots!



I buy my coffee here because the brand I like is only $5 here. It's like $8 in the grocery store. Screw that, yo. I live cheap stuff. While browsing the shelves, I did see a box of 100 calorie dog treats. I regret not taking a picture. WHY? I did not realize so many dogs were on Jenny Craig. What's next, low carb wet food?

We do have a detour on our trip. Husbinator is brewing beer with my awesome cousin, and today was bottling day. So off we go to Oshea's for some bottles.


Neat little place. Lots of equipment and kits and stuff. Too bad beer brewing takes up so much space.


Mission accomplished.

At this point, we are hungry. Husbinator, being the awesome man he is, obliges my whim for some yummy vegan food. So we head for the Irvine Spectrum.



And head for Veggie Grill for some amazing vegan noms.


I cannot express how much I love their food. Carnivores even like it (well, ok, they tolerate it, but much better than other veggie stuff). I chose a Southwestern Chick'n Sandwich with Sweet Potato fries and a root beer. Heaven on a plate.

That little cup? Vegan chipotle ranch dip. I could drink it by the gallon.

Properly stuffed, we continued on our way to grocery shop. It was a light grocery day, only 2 stores.

First was Albertsons. Albertsons is boring. I forgot to take pictures, it was so boring. You didn't miss much though.


Next was Trader Joes.

Can I point out the stupid BMW that parked crooked? I swear, people with money do not know how to park. It's like when I go to South Coast Plaza and the parking lot is pure chaos. Why bother painting lines?

Anyway, if you don't live near a Trader Joes, I feel sad for you. Where do you get your veggie chicken, your soycutash, your kettle corn, your awesome salsa, your potstickers, your curry, or your beer bread mix? And no tiki themes and cartoon characters? That's just sad.


Note to Adam Culver: I don't know if you can tell, but there's Superman sign in the back corner that says "Not even kryptonite can foil our plans to bring you the tastiest produce." I thought it was silly.

At this point I feel like a weirdo for taking a picture in a Trader Joes. Time to go home.

I get home and remember "oh yeah, my kitchen is a mess too."

Told you I am a disaster in domestication.

So what's a girl to do? I start beans for dinner. Burritos tonight, with avocado cucumber lime salad.

Say hello, beans.

Like my big pot? It was my mom's I wonder if we will all get lead poisoning one day.

And while the beans are cooking, I clean my kitchen.

Yay! Btw, underneath that white towel on the counter, there is half a loaf of beer bread that's supposed to be croutons by now. I think it's too far gone now, so it shall reside in my trash bag soon :( Point is, that's not a random white towel, it was there for a purpose damn it.

Rupert and London celebrate the clean kitchen with a kiss.


Did I mention London has a mohawk?


Clean kitchen. Beans simmering. Dinner is a few hours away. What to do now?

Easy choice.

Make a soy iced latte with the coffee I bought at Big Lots.


Settle down with the kids.


And play a video game.


Time goes by. OK, a couple hours go by. The moment we have all been waiting for is here: dinner time!

My beans are ready! Rejoice. Way better than canned.


Time to make my cucumber lime avocado salad. It's exactly what it sounds like. Lettuce, avocado chunks and cucumber with lime squeezed on it. At this moment, I have a big sad. Out of THREE avocados, only 1 is good :( The others have big black gross stuff in them.

This is my only avocado. Out of THREE stupid avocados.


Not very fabulous at ALL.

So, plan B. Use avocados for burritos. Make salad a boring salad with vegan dressing. Not as amazing, but whatever. Shred some carrots, slice some cukes, and we are back on.

FINALLY! Dinner! Wanna see?



Yay! A lovely beans, rice, (daiya) cheddar, avocado, and sour cream burrito with a side salad.

And that my friends is my amazing aka boring burrito story. Or another boring day in my life. In my opinion, boring is very very good most of the time.

A tribute to mac and cheese

Oh mac and cheese,
I love you so,
although with ease
you make my belly grow.

My poetry skills are a bit rusty.

One of my lactose intolerance casualties is macaroni and cheese. I love this stuff. It used to be in my regular dinner rotation (which wasn't much a year ago, and still isn't huge now), so having to give it up was a bit of a blow. I mean, I wasn't fancy with it, it was normal kraft shells and cheese, usually mixed with broccoli or some potatoes to make it a bit heartier. It's a total comfort food though, and even better, a cheap one. I mean, sure you can do the whole mac and cheese with real cheese and melted butter and all that and bake it in the oven, but I don't have that much time after work, and sometimes I'd rather have the processed stuff.

Vegan mac and cheese does exist, but it can be kind of hit and miss. I've tried 3 different mac and cheese recipes from 3 different locations and they've all varied.

Mother's Market has a mac and cheese in their food bar. I think their main "cheese replacement" ingredient is almonds and maybe nutritional yeast flakes. For the record, nutritional yeast flakes are pretty common in fancy vegan recipes, especially as a cheese replacer, but I've never tried it. Heard they're a yummy seasoning though. Anyway, not a big fan of this mac and cheese. Not sure why, but the time I had it, I added some bacon salt to make it better. It just wasn't cheesy. Maybe it was because it was reheated. Dunno.

When I went to San Francisco, I hit up a fabulous vegan cafe called Herbivore. My sister recommended it, and I am so glad I went. I had a deeeelicious mac and cheese plate. It was so yummy, look!

Just beautiful. They even did broccoli, like I used to do, except they weren't lazy like me and didn't do Kraft shells and cheese. If you look behind my plate, you will see husband's portobello mushroom sandwich (and his belly) and my root beer. I've become a root beer fan. This picture makes me sad that Herbivore is 6 1/2 hours away by car.

Lastly, we have homemade mac and cheese. I've made it twice at home using this recipe from vegweb. It's pretty easy and makes for some yummy cheddar-y results. If you try this recipe, make sure you follow the sauce directions: heat soymilk first, then add cheese. Last time, I forgot and dumped everything in the saucepan. It was still pretty good, it just changes the texture a bit. I usually add margarine too, because I'm a fatty like that.

You will notice breadcrumbs on my mac and cheese. I had a french baguette that I was saving to make breadcrumbs and I FINALLY did it for this dish. Why you ask? Store bought breadcrumbs are not vegan. Did it taste better with the crumbs? Eh, about the same. Did it make it look all fancylike? Yup. That would also be a fancy salad on my plate, with the red onion and carrots and vegan creamy garlic dressing. What can I say, I'm easily impressed.

Eating through San Francisco

Husbinator and I just celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary (yay us!) The traditional 1st anniversary gift is paper, but we decided we really wanted to go somewhere, so we cheated and said that our hotel confirmation printout would count as paper. Seeing as how I had never been to San Francisco, and it's within driving distance, we figured that would be our celebration vacation destination for elation. We spent about 3 days there, saw the sights, visited all the little district and Alcatraz and had a really wonderful time.

Seeing as how this blog is centered around food, I thought I would share some photos of the places we ate in San Fran. All delicious and reccomended!

Bread bowls at the Boudin Bakery
http://www.boudinbakery.com/

Our dinner for our first night in. We knew it would be cold in San Fran, but I didn't realize how cold it got, even in the middle of summer. These bread bowls hit the spot. I had tomato basil soup, he got clam chowder. Yummy.


Fresh tomatoes pasta and Garlic BBQ Chicken pizza at the Stinking Rose
http://www.thestinkingrose.com




If you love garlic, you will LOVE this place. There's a location in Beverly hills, but I hadn't tried it. So glad I did though. There's minced garlic on your table for your bread, along with garlic infused extra virgin olive oil. Check out the menu, it is definitely drool worthy.

Frjtz's Fries
http://www.frjtzfries.com/

Oh my goodness. French fries. Seriously, I have an undying love for french fries. This place has them. You can get them plain, or with garlic, or with truffle oil drizzled on top. You can get crepes and eggs and stuff too, but who cares? Fries. They have a huge list of fancy dips, such as creamy wasabi mayo, tamarind cashew ketchup, and chipotle remoulade. We chose orange ginger mayo and smokey honey mustard. I miss the orange ginger mayo. The menu is on the site if you want to check it out.

Miette
http://www.miettecakes.com/

A little candy shop and bakery within walking distance of Frjtz's Fries. Super cute and adorable, but they hold a special place in my heart for carrying a selection of vegan chocolate. A little pricey but everything looks so good, I'm sure it's worth it. I know my Buccaneer chocolate-y nougat-y candy bar was. Mmmmmmm.... so good. They had some adorable little cakes and cupcakes on display,but I refrained.

And of course, no trip would be complete without a little night cap. Cheers!