Baked Tofu

I buy baked tofu from Open Harvest all the time. I LOVE IT. I made baked tofu for the first time in my life and I ROCKED IT! Jesse and I had some last night at "Hippie Dinner" and Jesse couldn't get over how much he liked it. I looked at several recipes online and didn't love a particular one, so I started experimenting. I mean, you can't really screw up a soy marinade. Then I had the brilliant idea of WRITING DOWN what I used as I was doing it instead of trying to remember. Play with all the ingredients until you get a balance you like. I went a little overboard with the chili paste and I'm not the biggest fan of spicy food, but Jesse and Maximus digged it.
Before you marinate it for 20 or so minutes, press it.

I baked it at 400 degrees for um...maybe 45 minutes? Maybe less? I turned the pieces a few times too.

Then I made Jesse a sandwich and Maximus ate 2 whole pieces of baked tofu heaven alone. I'm telling you, don't be all, "eww, it's tofu and I've made up my mind tofu is gross because I've never tasted it" because you suck. Just shut up and try it.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

We went to "Tuesday Night Hippie Dinner" a while ago and Evan made roasted red pepper hummus. This afternoon I made the my version:

• heaping 1/3 cup tahini
• 5 garlic cloves
• can of chickpeas
• juice of 2 lemons
• sea salt
• 1/2 jar roasted red peppers
• handful of pine nuts

Pulse garlic then add the remaining ingredients. Refrigerate for a few hours. Top with flatleaf Italian parsley. I'm serving it with whole wheat baguette and strips of cucumber and yellow bell pepper. It won't make your breath smell like heaven.

Dark Chocolate Banana Agave Bread

I didn't take a pretty plated picture of this bread because this is how it's eaten in our house. Take a slice straight out of the dish and shove it in your mouth before dropping crumbs all over the place.

Hey, I just realized something...if Jesse buys another bike, maybe we can get a new camera too? I really like taking pictures of bikes and food and ours isn't cutting it anymore...

This is a recipe I have "mastered" after years of messing around...

• 1-1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1-1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• dash of salt
• 2 slightly beaten egg whites
• 1-1/2 (or 2) mashed bananas
• less than 1/4 cup sugar (Sometimes I use molasses; this time it was brown sugar)
• 3 or 4 second pour of honey
• 3 or 4 second pour of agave nectar
• 1/4 cup coconut or soy bean oil
  
• 1/4 (maybe even 1/3) cup unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa
• 1/2 bag dark chocolate chips or carob
  

In a medium bowl sift then stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, dark cocoa and salt.

In a large bowl stir together egg whites, banana, sugar, agave, honey and oil. Stir flour mixture into banana mixture just until moistened. Add dark chocolate chips.

Prepare a loaf pan. Spread batter and bake at 350 for 50 minutes to over an hour.

I View This as SUCCESS

I know, I know...Jesse and I won't be able to brainwash our child with healthy food forever. Maximus will have friends who will always be munching on processed crap and drinking soda. Yeah, we get it. BUT Jesse and I are doing our very best in building an excellent nutritional foundation for the child we're raising. We can teach him all that we can so he can make his own decisions in life.

Maximus and I were reading yesterday afternoon. We were all sprawled out on his bedroom floor with 200+ books scattered everywhere. He picked up one of those books that make parents dizzy, sort of like "Where's Waldo?". We turned to this page and I asked him what he saw. He pointed and named each piece of fruit "apple". He looked at the rest silently. I pointed at the ribbon candy and asked him what it was and after a few seconds he asked, "nana?" (banana). I pointed at the other pieces of candy and he called the round pieces "balls". He doesn't know the word "candy". AND WE SEE NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT.

Tuna Salad

I wanted a cold pasta salad to go with dinner last night. Jesse and I thought this tuna salad was the bees knees:

• 2 cans albacore tuna
• a jar of sundried tomatoes
• cucumber
• half a red onion
• reduced fat feta
• black olives
• half package whole wheat elbows
• half package spinach leaves- chiffonade
• pancetta
• lemon juice
• extra virgin olive oil
• oregano
• artichoke hearts

Dump, mix, let it sit. Eat.
And look at Jesse's beautiful grill marks on the pork chop!

Apple Coffee Cake

I wanted to make Jesse apple coffee cake for after his Time Trial bike race today. Coffee cakes are usually total junk for your body, so I took a horrible recipe from the Country Living website and started with the substitutions...


Mix the following and set aside:
1 cup millet flour
3/4 cup brown rice flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Mix the wets:
1/4 cold Earth Balance
1/4 cup mixed agave nectar and brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 unsweetened soy milk

Combine the dry and wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. Spread the super thick batter into a sprayed 9 inch round cake pan. Arrange apple slices (peeled) on surface and sprinkle with a mixture of agave nectar, honey and cinnamon. Bake at 375 for a bit longer than 30 minutes.