Tofu Noodle Soup

The roller coster changes in weather has been getting to me lately, giving me terrible congestion. Do you remember my Sinus Clearing Soup way back when? Well this is a little different rendition of it, using the Thai Kitchen brand- but this time I used Green Onion (my new favorite) and BEET GREENS! I fell in love with these when Annna from Dolce Vita introduced me to the fact that you can actually eat them! My roommate had beets, and when I found this out, I instantly attacked on the greens. This recipe is soo simple- it's extraordinarily semi homemade, and you could even make this on a low budget and in a dorm room! With 2 days left until Thanksgiving break, the last thing I wanted to do was buy unnecessary things- so I whipped this up from what I have in my pantry; and it tasted AMAZING :]

Spicy Tofu Noodle Soup

glutenfree~vegan~semihomemade~quick&easy

1 bag of Thai Kitchen Green Onion Instant Rice Noodle Soup

1 cup vegetable broth or water

1/2 block sprouted extra-firm tofu, cubed

1 bunch beet greens (from one bunch of beets)

1/4 jar Miso Horseradish Kimchi (this can be optional- but you can find it at Wegmans in healthy aisle!)

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 teaspoon sriracha (you can make less if you don't want it as spicy)

1. First, saute the tofu in the olive oil until there's slight color. Next, add in your Kimchi and beet greens and saute until the beet greens are wilted.

2. Add in your vegetable broth and water and bring to a boil.

3. Add in the Rice noodles, the packets from the rice noodles, and let it cook for ~ 3 minutes!

DONE! :]

this recipe can be found under "soups and sauces"

Vegetarian Sushi Roll

 Random weekend, INDEED. Jubilee- didn't go there for the first time in a while. It was a strange incident. HOWEVER, my friend Steve and I did find ourselves at the casino...and we found...a club. Yes, Gypsies, we found a club. 

We also found ourselves playing penny slots for approximately 20-25 minutes-it didn't take us too long to lose all 10 dollars worth of free money that we got for going to the casino. One slot I played was "KITTY GLITTER"- like of course I'm going to post this one and take a picture of it! Scariest part? The cat on the kitty glitter slot machine looks exactly like my 17-year old cat JULIE! Can't you see the resemblence? #scary

At work today, my boss wanted something new. So what does he say? He wants sushi. So me and my friend from work decide that this will be easy. Love her to death, I probably wouldn't have said yes without her! Have I ever made sushi before? No, but I've watched my little sushi men make it in front of me. Did we say no to this challenge? Absolutely not. We took the challenge, and here it is, my version of a VEGAN AND GLUTEN FREE SUSHIII ROLLLL. She made some with crab- and she taught me the techniques of assembly...and thank goodness for her!

Only thing here is the portions are going to be a little iffy- I had to make this in bulk at work so I'm guesstimating everything. Therefore, you might have extra of a lot of stuff- so why not use it to make more sushi or something else, ya know?

Vegetarian Sushi Roll with Spicy Veganaise 

glutenfree~vegan

For the sushi

1 package of sushi nori paper

4 cups sticky rice

2 avocados, pitted and sliced

 2 large carrots, julienned

2 cucumbers, peeled and julienned

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon sesame oil

For the Spicy Mayo

2 cups veganaise

1/4 cup sambal oelek (or sriracha works too)

1 teaspoon of lemon juice

if you want to make less- it is 1 tablespoon of mayo for 1 teaspoon of chili sauce

1. Cook the sticky rice according to your method of cooking. Make sure you clean the rice before you cook it! I used a rice cooker, sprayed the sides with oil, filled it with the amount of water specified, and let it cook. 

2. While rice is cooking, julienne your carrots and cucumbers and slice your avocados- they should be very fine any very thin. Once cut up, put in a dry paper towel (you want everything to be very dry, otherwise your nori paper will rip!)

3. For the spicy mayo, add all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir. Put in refrigerator until ready to use!

4. When rice is done, add in the sugar, sesame oil, and vinegar to your rice. Let the rice cool.

5. To assemble to sushi

          - lay out your nori roll

          - when the sticky rice is cool, take 1/2 cup and put it in the middle of your nori paper. Using dry hands, pat the rice on a little over THREE QUARTERS of the paper (so a little over 1/4 of the paper will not have rice on it)

          - take a handful of carrots, a handful of cucumber, and 3 slices of avocado and lay them on top of the rice. don't overlap them- each vegetable gets a portion of the rice!

          - take a tablespoon of spicy mayo and dollop it across the vegetables

          - now comes the wrapping part- take the end with the rice and start rolling it towards the end with no rice- be careful, this is where it gets tricky!

          -when you wrap it all the way, take your finger and carefully moisten it and dab the ends of the nori paper so it sticks.

           - cut it in half with a serrated knife, then cut the halves again. This will give you four big sushi rolls! Cut them again and you'll get 8..however you like them!

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites and Vegan Bleu Cheeeze!

So, I'm trying this new thing this week that includes making a new recipe everyday that also consists of cross-utilizing my "inventory" (sorry, I work too much in foodservice), and someone was saying it while we were doing a case study today in class! WELL ANYWAYS, part of my menu for the week consisted of the infamous Cauliflower. For today? Vegan Buffalo Bites Inspired by 86 Lemons. I saw this recipe on Veg News Pinterest board and I HAD to try it. Going veghead, I knew the one thing that I was going to miss would be buffalo chicken- it was my ultimate favorite. After seeing this recipe, I didn't even wait a week to try this out: it had to be done. The results? Ultimate awesomeness.

Buffalo Cauliflower Bites with Bleu Cheeze

For the Cauliflower Bites

1/2 head Cauliflower, crumbled into nugget-sized pieces

1/2 Cup Flour

3/4 Cup Almond or Soy Milk

2 teaspoons Garlic Powder

Salt and Pepper, to taste 

1 Cup Sriracha (The Only thing Different, Really)

2 Tablespoons EVOO

For the Bleu Cheeze

1/4 cup X-tra Firm Tofu, Crumbled

1 Cup Vegan Mayonnaise ( I used the one for dressing)

2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)

Juice from 1 Lemon (Use half, then taste to see if you need the other half)

Salt and Pepper, to taste

2 teaspoons Garlic Powder

1) Preheat oven to 450 F

2) Whisk together the flour, milk, garlic powder, 1/2 cup sriracha salt and pepper until it is smooth (You might need to add more milk if it is too lumpy). Dunk in your cauliflower bites.

3) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or drizzle oil over it. Use a slotted spoot to pick up your cauliflower nuggets and place it on baking sheet. Drizzle the remaining dressing from mixing bowl on top. Bake for 20 minutes.

4) While it is baking, make the bleu cheeze- combine all the ingredients except your crumbled Tofu and mix with a fork. Taste to see if you need more lemon juice- it should be a sour yet blue cheeeezy taste. Once you have the right taste, add in your crumbled tofu and mix only to combine.

5) When Cauliflower bites are done, take out and add the 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons EVOO to the top and bake for another five minutes.

6) Serve with side of bleu cheese, celery and enjoy!!!!

Wisdom Teeth Remedies

#noshame

I got my wisdom teeth out, and goodness graciousness has eating been TORTURE! Obviously this post is going to be extraordinarily short since I have basically no exciting recipes except..

Moroccan Lentil Chickpea Soup, immersion blended to a pukey mess

Tofu Scramble with oh hay! Semi-Homemade Chipotle Lime Mayonnaise. I was inspired by our prized, chipotle lime chicken wrap at work that is ... quite a killer. As good as it sounds, we cringe when we hear we have to make one. But everyone raves about this mayo. Unfortunately for me, the mayo doesn't sit well in my stomach (what else is new!?), so I decided that I MUST figure out how to make my own! I put the mayo on top of some tofu scramble with minced spinach, tomatoes and onions I picked from my garden (aren't they CUTE!?) Even though my doctor told me to avoid spiciness, he obviously doesn't know me, since I can't go a day without putting sriracha on something. So I made mine less spicier than normal, but it is still.truly.amazing

Chipotle Lime Mayonnaise

vegan~glutenfree

1 1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise

1-7oz can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

1 teaspoon of adobo sauce (from can)

1 teaspoon sriracha

2/3 juiced lime

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon cilantro, minced

Add all ingredients to a food processor and mix until smooth.