Experimenting with Tofu

I squeezed the water out of 85g of tofu and put it in tupperware with fake chicken stock. Then I sauteed a minced clove of garlic and half a yellow onion in a 1/2 tsp of oil, threw in chopped white mushrooms and half a zucchini, and finally dumped in the tofu and the broth. I added 44g. of quinoa, and let the whole thing cook together until the water was mostly absorbed. At one point I sprinkled in some thyme and pepper, and towards the end I added some baby bok choy. 

It was a little on the mushy side - the zucchini had definitely way overcooked. I would add it later next time, and maybe measure the water and aim for a little less. Aside from that, it tasted really good. 

Beany Vegetabley Thing

Here's what I did...

1 tsp canola oil in a pan
1 clove of minced garlic
2 green onions
Some cauliflower
Half each yellow and orange peppers
3/4 c. black beans
... sizzle...
Dried basil, oregano.. salt, pepper
1/4 water
1/5 pkg frozen spinach, microwaved
... Lid...
2 tbsp tomato sauce
... Cook...

It was really good!

Calories: 294

Soupy lentils and stuff

Here's what it is:

1/4 c. quinoa
50 g. green lentils
half a fake chicken bouillon cube
One big green onion stalk, chopped
about a cup of chopped cauliflower
1/4 package frozen chopped spinach
Enough water to cover it all

Pretty good, but I'd throw the lentils in first next time, about 5-10 mins, and it needed more flavour. Does that mean the whole bouillon cube or salt or herbs? I suppose we'll see.

Calories: 377

Peppers on Quinoa

We got a working toaster oven today - I don't know why that made it suddenly feel easy to cook peppers when I could have been doing them in the regular oven all this time, but it did.

I tossed half each of an orange, red, and yellow pepper in 2 tsp of oil, sprinkled with salt, and put them in at 450 degrees.

The quinoa was done like pasta, with a half cube of fake chicken broth, spinach, and green onions.

I don't know what to call these. Things in a pan?

Is it a stir-fry? It doesn't feel like it... It look like 'salads' I see elsewhere, but it's hot... I don't know.

Something kind of Mexican?

I'm trying to get at something, but this isn't quite it.

I had this craving for something spicy - I'm not a spicy food person at all, but I think I'm going to start pushing that a little. I'm not ready for jalapeños, but that's the goal.

Having these liking-things goals really works for me... I find if I just eat something often enough, I'll eventually become okay with it. I did it with mustard, pickles, sugarless coffee, and I think I can do it with heat.

So for lunch today, I threw this together. I kind of went with my gut about what to put it, and it told me cauliflower, spinach, black beans, and salsa, on top of quinoa. I didn't embellish with garlic or onions or spices because I thought the salsa would have all that covered and I was a little nervous about overdoing it.

It actually turned out almost on the bland side. I think I could have added more salsa, but I think next time I'll do some more experimentation with individual ingredients and the same amount of out-of-the-jar salsa.

For the next iteration, I'm thinking more pepper, chopped onion, and possibly stirring some chili powder or something like that into the quinoa. We'll see.

Quinoa, Chickpeas, and Veggies

After a long, McDonald's-filled hiatus, I'm back to cooking meals from scratch on a regular basis. I cleaned out the cupboards, which had been collecting an assortment of "maybe I'll use this someday..." products, shoved to the back, lentils and popcorn kernels loose on the shelves, and a surprising amount of dog hair. Now it's all orderly, and I'm trying to work my way through all stored food in there before I buy more. 

Because it was there, since I always passed it over, I finally started using my quinoa and found a way to like it. Quinoa always seemed like a huge hassle to me because every single time I cooked it, it stuck like glue to the pot and I'd end up with half of what I put in and a difficult mess to clean. 

Then I realized I could make it like pasta,  with tons of extra water, and just drain it at the end. It's been revolutionary. 

I don't really know what I'm doing in the kitchen, so I usually just throw some things in a pan. I think I've developed a very.. accepting palette because of this. Stuff tastes good to me, but I'm rarely confident that I could serve it to anyone else. But this particular variation worked, and not just on a good-enough-for-me level - I'm pretty pleased.

I used:

1/3 c. quinoa

1/2  fake-chicken bouillon cube

1 tsp. olive oil

1  garlic clove

1/4  of a big tomato

1/3c. chick peas

a handful of green beans

a stalk of broccoli

pepper

The quinoa went into a pot of water and boiled for just under 15 minutes. Around 10 minutes in, I threw in the chopped up bouillon cube - I found that when I let it soak in too much, it was overwhelming. 

In the meantime, I put the garlic in oil on the pan, let it get brown, then threw in the chopped tomato. It hung out there for a while during the bean/broccoli chopping. I threw in some chickpeas, then steamed the vegetables in the microwave before adding them to the pan.

I spooned the quinoa from the pot to the pan, not draining it very thoroughly. Mixed it all up, ground some pepper over it, and that was it. 

It tasted like Chinese fried rice, a little. The garlic and the moderate broth were an awesome combination. 

It'll be hard not to just do this every time and eat the same thing every day. 

Split Pea Soup

A few days ago I was in need of some parental comfort so I took the bus home. When I got there, my mum had a pot of split pea soup on the stove and it was the exact perfect thing to make me feel ten times better. I've never made soup before but my mom's was so great I thought maybe I could do it too. 

And I came pretty close!

I sauteed half an onion, minced, and a clove of garlic, also minced, in some oil. Then I added 6 cups of water, 1 cup of split peas, a potato and a few stalks of celery, both roughly chopped. I also threw in a bunch of salt and pepper. It cooked for just under an hour and a half and then I used a little hand blender thing to get a smooth consistency. 

It was good. Super peppery, but I love pepper so that was great. I think I'll add a little more water when I reheat it.