Spring Rolls

Spring rolls have become a recurring food in my life. Gone from never to once every month or so. When I discovered I could eat and enjoyed these little treats at home, I would use my Fry Daddy for prepacked ones (so bad for you, but soo good). I then graduated to making my own and giving them a very thin layer of oil and baking them so they were still crispy. Two weeks ago my friend was making spring rolls and did nothing at all to them! Just ate them! I joined in and they were de-lish-ous. Less time, less oil and fat, and more raw veg! I’m in!

I just used up fresh veg pieces I had laying around. Strips of fresh carrot, onion, green pepper, mushroom, and lettuce(for extra crunch!) with a smidge of avocado I was finishing up. I did not have any rice noodles (thus the lettuce to help fill it up). Dip your rice wrapper in watter for about 5 seconds, place ingredients at the bottom, and roll up like a tight burrito! I dipped them in sweet chili sauce, but any soy-sauced based sauce or liquid would be tasty too!

Sammiches, Guac, and Polenta fries

With my new love of working with yeast and a realization that I had a small pouch of rare whole wheat flour I had stored away, it was bread time baby!!


Look at that golden whole wheat mama!!

But moving on…


Fresh warm bread sandwich= onion, tomato, and some sort of lettuce. And guacamole ^_^
Polenta fries. With guacamole ^_^
Fresh carrot slices.

I actually had two sandwiches the bread was so good =#)

Guac
Seriously, the best I’ve ever had and I can’t believe I made it. This makes about 2/3 cup?

1 ripe avocado
1/3 tomato chopped
squirt of lemon juice
couple shakes of garlic powder
salt (opt)
couple dashes of garlic Tabasco sauce (opt)

Mash together!
If you don’t eat it all at once, make sure you keep the avocado pit and put it in with the guac in your airtight container. Keeps it greener longer.

Polenta Fries
Make polenta.
Once set, chop into fry-sized sticks.
Place in the toaster oven. 350F/175F for 10 minutes. Flip. Bake 10 minutes more.
If you want them more crispy, just keep ’em goin’! They will be crispy on the outside and softer/chewier on the inside.

Saucy baked tofu and friends

After waking up late on Sunday, amazingly, I wasn’t craving pancakes. I decided to forgo breakfast and go straight into lunch as it was 12:30. I was feeling a bit saucy.

On a toaster oven tray place:

-3 thin slices of tofu, with a mix of oil and BBQ-ish sauce brushed on it.
-leftover brown rice with saffron, with frozen veggies and garam masala sauce (in an aluminum DIY pocket)
-frozen french fries (whatever will fit)

Your tray will look like an in-flight meal!

Toast (or in a real oven) at 170C/350F for 30 min-ish or untli fries are done.

Coulda been saucier! Next time I will marinade the whole slice, not just the top.

Bread!

Sadly where I live there is no fresh bread. I must make some!

I hop on over to the handy http://www.vegweb.com and look for yeast bread. Easy Big bread pops out immediately. It’s easy, but it takes time! With half the recipe, I made a small plain loaf and a garlic-herb loaf in my tiny toaster oven (which explains the slight blackening on my loaf).


Plain mini-loaf


Spiral garlic and herb loaf


Soup and grilled cheez! Heaven!

Vegetable soup

Sick once again, I was craving comfort home food. So I tried to replicate my mom’s vegetable soup the best I could.

I cannot find tomato soup, so I bought some vegetable juice. But it was sort of sweet so I added some salt and vinegar to try and cut the sweetness, it worked to come extent.

Tomato soup/veg juice
dash of soymilk
frozen veg mix
fresh veg – I added only onion I think
fake shredded pork from the Buddhists in Hong Kong

pasta- I used macaroni

Boiled Dumplings (I do not use herbs or butter. just cut in a little olive oil then add milk)

Bring juice, milk, and fake pork to a slow boil.
(At this point you can add all your veggies if you want to have a slow cooked stew, then add macaroni and dumplings right before you’re ready to eat)
Add fresh veg and pasta.
When pasta is almost done cooking add frozen veg and dumplings.

Eat and feel warm and cozy!

And of course, these things are always best the next day!

Ramen!

Ah ramen, the savior of college students everywhere! It’s cheap and filling. The down fall? It’s fried and has a TON of calories (go ahead, read the pacakge). You don’t have to use everything that comes in your ramen packet (spices, oil, broth packet, and sometimes they have meat in it), so you can cut back on that crap. Put anything you want in it!

As-you-please ramen
One packet of noodles
Water and a splash of soy sauce for the soup
Veggies (bok choy, onion, mushrooms, cabbage)
Occasionally I throw in fake meat

Boil the broth, onion, cabbage, boy choy stalks, and fake meat. Add noodles and mushrooms (3 minutes). Stir in bok choy leaves and enjoy!

Filling and warm and yum!

Down home cookin’!

A sick day at home, you want comfort food with no effort.
So the sick day menu included:
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Brown Onion Gravy
Sauteed Garlic Mushrooms
Toast

Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Boil some chopped potatoes until they easily break when pierced with a fork (about 8-10 min). I keep the skin on.
Drain, put in a large bowl with freshly minced garlic (garlic powder for minimal work), a couple shakes of mixed dry herbs, pinch of thyme, and splash of soy milk. Mash!! You do not need to add salt because the gravy will take care of that!

Brown Onion Gravy
Very loosely based on this wonderful recipe. I was only cooking for myself so I just “eyed” the ingredients. If you do the same, make sure you have enough “milk” on hand, it thickens amazingly!

Sauteed Garlic Mushrooms
A staple at our “down-home dinners” growing up.
Get some mushrooms, any type (slice “button”-type mushrooms though), throw them in a pan with preheated olive oil and garlic powder (or if you have left over fresh garlic, put it in with the mushrooms! putting it in hot oil for too long gives it a bitter flavor). Sautee until desired consistancy.

Toast
I don’t know why, but I wanted toast. With the garlic oil and mushrooms and gravy and potatoes… it was a great idea on my stomach’s part. I just used some fresh baguette slices.

With a cup of OJ! Hey.. I was sick…
Not much to look at, but sooo satisfying. The garlic oil of the mushrooms soaked into the toast for some yummy garlic bread! I went back for seconds!!

I would do nothing different. It was perfect.

Baked Tomatoes

A co-worker generously gave me a bunch of tomatoes. I knew I couldn’t finish them off before they went bad so I decided to try my hand a baked ‘maters. I have no idea what they are supposed to taste like, but in a way that let’s me play with it more.

First thing:
Cut the top off the tomatoes and hollow them out. sprinkle salt on the inside and turn upside down to drain. After an hour, pat the inside of the tomato with a paper towel. Now they are ready for stuffin’!

I sauteed some finely chopped veggies (onion, pepper, mushroom, carrot) and split them into 3 different piles.

Mix 1/3 with precooked rice (I use brown).
Mix 1/3 with cornmeal mixed with hot water (corn mush)
Mix 1/3 with panko (Japanese bread crumbs)

Stuff!

I covered them with foil and put in the toaster oven about 350F/175C for 15 minutes-ish. I took the foil off and continued cooking for about 5-10 min to get a crunchy top.

Left: Cornmeal
Right: Rice
Back: Panko

Verdict: I didn’t like the rice one, very plain. The Cornmeal one was the best, very flavorful.. the panko followed with a very close second.

Veggie Pizza

MMMM PIZZA!!!

Veg (fresh & chunky!):
onion
mushroom
spinach
green pepper
avocado (oh yes!!)

HERE’S THE KEY:
Marinade those veggies with some dressing. I used an Onion dressing. Give it a light toss and let it sit for 5 minutes while you assemble the crust and sauce.

Pre-made pizza crust

DIY Sauce: I used ketchup, oregano, garlic and a little basil.

Cook according to premade crust instructions.

This is probably the best non-homemade crust pizza I’ve ever thrown together. I will be giving my veggies a light marinade from now on! Wow! Try it for yourself!

Light Tofu in Broth

This soup is super quick and easy! It’s also nice and light, but the broth keeps you from being hungry afterwards!

Broth:
Boil water and wakame (or other sea veggies),cubed firm tofu and finely chopped onion.
(Maybe add some garlic powder and a hint of soy sauce if you want more flavor)

Once boiling, add dumpling dough (see previous post: Split Pea Soup) and mushrooms.
Boil until dumplings are cooked through.

I used wakame in this soup because I have a large ration of it once I found out it helps you lose weight. I had no idea how great of a flavorer it would be! I have made this quite a few times, definitely a keeper!!