Weeknight dinner #3.
I’m gearing up for warmer weather, picking out a CSA, researching new diets, trying out new Pilates studios, going outside and gorging myself on Italian ice. In the midst of all that there’s taxes, writing projects, new ideas and wanderlust creeping in and distracting me from things like cooking. Right now I’m trying to eat through all my groceries so I can start fresh next week. This is one of those “everything in my fridge” type meals that somewhat mimics baked ziti.
Ingredients:
- 1 package tofu shirataki noodles
- 2 cups of sauce (I had leftover sauce in the freezer)
- 4 ounces of low-fat cheese, shredded
- cooking spray
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly mist a pie plate with cooking spray. Combine half the sauce and cheese in the bottom of the pie plate and set aside.
- Rinse and drain the noodles. Parboil for 2-3 minutes and drain. Mix the noodles into the pie plate and top with the remaining sauce and cheese.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until the cheese begins to brown.
Serve immediately. Makes 2-3 servings and will keep for a night in the fridge.
Before scarfing down a serving of this last night, yesterday’s food intake included:
- Arnold’s Whole Wheat Sandwich Thins with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter
- Kashi Truly Vanilla Oatmeal with 2 teaspoons of peanut butter (I have a lot of PB on hand)
- Just Salad’s Thai-Tastic Salad with sriracha dressing
- Leftover saag paneer
- Copious amounts of green tea and water
I made this Tuesday night when I didn’t quite make it to the gym. Lack of sleep + lack of quality life time = cranky Katie. I did, however, make it Wednesday night and managed to run a few miles on the treadmill in addition to some time on the arc trainer.
Happy spring.
Be back soon.
Happy birthday, best girl.
This is Sara. She’s my best friend. Today is her birthday. She’s going to absolutely hate that I’m doing this. In fact, she might even tell me to take it down. Sorry, Sara but you’re just way too wonderful.
For nearly six years, this lovely lady has seen me through the best of times and the worst of ‘em and always with a smile and a kind word. She’s one of the most compassionate people I’ve ever met in my entire life and will hopefully be starting to tear up right about…now. She also knows I’m getting great joy out of the possibility of making her cry (at work to boot). Sara is warm, funny and friends with absolutely everyone. Well, cheer up beautiful girl and celebrate with the rest of us!
P.S. Things that need to change: despite years and years of friendship and countless (and I do mean, countless) good times, we have very few pictures that are just the two of us. Let’s work on that in our 20-somethingth year.
Tofu and spinach soup.
Soup season is coming to a close but this week’s illness gave me plenty of excuse to whip up a big pot of broth with veggies and protein. I made sure to add plenty of sriracha and chili garlic sauce to give this a little kick (and help clear my sinuses). This recipe is inspired by one of my favorite lunch orders from some random place in Midtown.
Ingredients:
- 3 cubes no-salt veggie bullion
- 6 cups water
- 1 bag baby spinach, washed
- 1 package of extra firm tofu, pressed and cubed
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 3 tablespoons Bragg’s liquid aminos
- 1/3 cup chili garlic sauce
- 3 tablespoons sriracha
- sea salt
- olive oil
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spread tofu cubes out on a greased cookie sheet and douse with liquid aminos. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the tofu begins to firm and brown.
- In a large saucepan, heat olive oil before tossing in the garlic to brown. Add in the water and bullion and bring the mixture up to a boil. Stir in the sriracha, chili garlic sauce, and sea salt.
- Take the tofu out of the oven and slide it into the boiling broth. Let this all cook together for about 10 minutes before adding in the spinach. Remove from heat and serve immediately.
Makes 4-6 servings. Keeps for a few days.
Sick as a dog.
That’s right. I am one sick pup. It’s been four or five days of coughing, congestion and fevers. So delightful.
I am currently working from home, writing lots and making lots of site updates. Things I haven’t been doing include working out, cooking and other general life maintenance.
Once I’m back to 100% I’ll be back with some new recipes, workouts and a surprise or two.
Weeknight dinner #2.
This is a prime example of what to do with some odds and ends left in the cabinet between trips to the grocery store. A bit heavy on processed foods, this ended up pretty tasty and nutritionally packed a heavy punch of protein and fiber. I suppose I’d call this something like Pan Fried Tofu Noodle Stir Fry.
Ingredients:
- 1 package tofu shirataki noodles, drained and par boiled
- 1 package Smart Strips Chick’n
- 1 package frozen chopped broccoli, cooked
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup honey garlic marinade
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons sriracha
- garlic powder
- olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
Steps:
- In a large saute pan, heat the oil and melt the butter together over medium heat. Add in the onion and cook for 2-3 minutes or until translucent.
- Add in the cooked broccoli and Chick’n strips and mix together. Stir in half of the marinade, garlic powder and sriracha. Let the veggies and Chick’n sizzle for a few minutes until the sauce starts to thicken.
- Toss in the prepared tofu noodles and the other half of the marinade, garlic powder and sriracha. Cook until the noodles start to stick to the pan a bit or until done to your liking.
Makes 2-3 servings. Will keep for 2-3 days. Will require 2-3 glasses of water to wash down.
Roundup #12.
Stuffed mushrooms.
In honor of the presidents, my roommate and I pulled together a feast yesterday complete with appetizer, entree, salad and dessert. For the appetizer I decided to concoct some stuffed mushrooms based on a vegan recipe I found somewhere along my internet travels. My version were definitely not vegan but incredibly delicious.
Ingredients:
- 1 container of baby portabella mushrooms
- 1 cups bread crumbs (I used Italian seasoned ones)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, diced
- 1/2 cup pecorino romano cheese
- 1 teaspoon fresh basil
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a pie plate with cooking spray and set aside.
- Remove the stems from the mushrooms and discard.
- Heat the oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add in the onions and garlic and cook for 5-7 minutes.
- Add in the butter and allow it to melt fully. Remove from heat.
- Mix in the bread crumbs, basil and cheese until coated.
- Distribute the bread crumb mixture evenly across the caps (I used a rounded teaspoon packed the filling in a little).
Bake for about 30 minutes before serving. Portion size varies based on the number of caps in your container. Eat these right away.
My funny valentine.
Last night I had the chance to see Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Annual Dog Show, and while I’m not a big fan of the Pekingese I did get a chance to go to the benching area and meet a number of the doggies who competed.
Super bowl snacks #2.
A bit of an update on a topic I mentioned a few weeks back, back to running a few miles a few days a week. So far nothing lost, but nothing gain though I’m feeling good and the looking good is sure to follow. That is once this my strained tibialis posterior heals up and I can run longer distances again (curse you, flat feet and shin splints).
All of the Super Bowl snacks I scarfed down may be impeding my progress but that’s ok. Can’t live and die by the scale.
Above you will see my attempt at Smitten Kitchen’s Cheddar, Beer and Mustard Pull-Apart Bread. Next time around, I think I’d avoid following the instruction to jam any remaining pieces into the pan, I think this was a little too compact and took a lot longer to bake than the recipe said. I’m thinking about recreating this recipe with buffalo wings in mind (probably cause I’ve been scarfing down Becca’s wing dip all week). Hopefully I’ll get a chance to do this in the next few weeks. Feel like I haven’t had much time to experiment in my own kitchen lately!
That said, here are a few recipes I’m itching to try out:
- Oh She Glows’ “Battered” Fried Chickpeas
- Spoon Fork Bacon’s Baked Asparagus Fries (with the sun-dried tomato jam in particular!)
- The Treats Truck’s Caramel Creme Sandwich Cookies (once upon a time I used to haunt the truck for these on a weekly basis)
- The Pioneer Woman’s Cauliflower Soup (my boss mentioned cauliflower chowder, must merge ideas and create)
- Some Bran Muffins (sans banana) and these little individual Baked Oatmeals.
