Tofu Stir Fry Wraps

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 package firm or extra firm tofu, cube
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, ribs and seeds removed, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar (optional)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch, mixed with 1 tablespoon water
• 6 to 8 Butter lettuce leaves, (about 1 head, also called Boston or Bibb lettuce)

Directions:

1. Prep Work: This recipe doesn’t take long to cook, so you need to have things ready to go. Slice the onion and bell pepper, have the garlic ready to “press”, grate the ginger, mix the cornstarch/water in a bowl, and wash the lettuce.
2. Cube the tofu, season with salt and pepper. In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over high heat. Add the tofu; cook, stirring/flipping every few minutes, until almost golden brown, 4 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate, set aside. (If the tofu is still too soft, you can also put it on a cookie sheet and bake/broil it for a bit)
   
3. Add remaining tablespoon olive oil to pan, along with the onion and bell pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until onion is tender and golden, about 2-3 minutes (reduce heat if browning too quickly).
4. Reduce heat to medium; add garlic and ginger; cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 to 60 seconds. Stir in soy sauce, rice vinegar and cornstarch mixture; remove from heat.
5. Add tofu; toss to coat. Serve in lettuce cups.

Do you like tofu?
Based on this recipe from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast
Originally published October 2007

Surprisingly easy to replicate, and so delicious.

Squash Kale Chevre Tacos Recipe

Serves 2
Ingredients

• 6 corn tortillas
• kale
• butternut squash (acorn works too)
• Chèvre or feta cheese (2 oz)
• Pico de gallo
• olive oil
• salt/pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Peel squash and cut into 1″ cubes.
3. Toss squash with oil & salt on a cookie sheet, spreading out in a single layer. Cook for about 30 min.
4. Lightly fry/heat the corn tortillas in a skillet. Set aside.
5. When the squash is almost done, heat olive oil on med in skillet and add several kale leaves. (cover with a lid for a few minutes) Cooking until soft.
6. Top tortillas with a layer of squash, kale, chèvre, and pico de gallo
7. Enjoy!

Shortcut: I was told Trader Joes has cubed squash in the freezer section.

These tacos are best with a side of black beans and rice (which I had at the restaurant, but didn’t plan ahead enough when I tried this recipe for myself). Verdict: I think these are my new favorite tacos!

Do you have any favorite restaurant recipes?

Cherry Tomato & Feta Orzo with Dill – {for 1!}

Ingredients

• 1 TB olive oil
• salt & pepper
• 2 TB fresh dill (or 1 tsp of dried dill)
• 1/4 tsp lemon zest (orange or lime zest works too!)
• 1 cup of golden and/or regular cherry tomatoes
• 1/3 cup orzo
• 1/2 cup feta cheese (2-3 ounces)

Directions:

1. Start boiling water for pasta.
2. Mix together oil, salt, pepper, and chopped dill (dried dill works fine too) in a medium bowl.
3. Cut tomatoes in half and add to the oil mixture.
4. Cook orzo in pasta water as directed, usually about 8 minutes.
5. Drain orzo and mix with the tomato and dill.
6. Crumble feta cheese into the orzo and tomato and mix
7. Eat!

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You can also add random ingredients to this one fairly easily, such as: 1/4 English cucumber, chopped; 1/8 red onion, chopped; substituting 1/2 TB oil for balsamic vinegar etc.

“Now in its third year, Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.”

I wouldn’t consider myself an expert on environmental change, but one thing I’m fairly expert-ish at is being a vegetarian. After reading both Food Matters (Bittman) and In Defense of Food (Pollan) this summer, I was reminded again how utterly insane meat consumption — and in turn its affect on the environment — has gotten. Americans eat about 200 pounds of meat, poultry and fish per capita per year (and this excludes dairy)!  So who’s eating my 190 pounds? (As a recent pescatarian, I probably eat about 10 pounds of fish a year.) And we eat twice the global average. Obviously, some of that statistic is slightly skewed from other Western nations, as developing nations can’t afford to eat as much meat, but their consumption has doubled in the last 20 years.

So I guess we could probably all agree that it would be smart to eat less meat. As Americans, we’re getting double our daily protein requirements.

3 Ways To Eat Less Meat:

1. Eat more beans. Black beans are a staple in many Latin American countries, and are an excellent source of protein to boot.
2. Don’t go cold turkey. Ahhahaha… sorry about that. Anyway, I’m all for balance. Swearing off meat entirely isn’t for everyone, and if you don’t replace it with something you’ll probably just give up. So try being a “Monday, Wednesday, Friday” vegetarian by only eating meat a few times a week.
3. Think Asian. Asian countries have some amazing ways of creating brilliant meatless food, originally out of necessity, but now a huge part of their cultures… think bean curd (China), tofu (Japanese for bean curd), chai pow yu (Vietnam glutony stuff).

See how I cleverly got on my vegetarian soap box for Blog Action Day, and didn’t have to actually make any personal changes? :) I need a challenge… anyone?

As usual, the recipe is available online at Martha Stewart. I haven’t been to Brazil, so I don’t know how authentic the recipe is (anyone?), but it was quite delicious and reminded me of all the rice and beans I ate in Costa Rica! You start with dried black beans and beets and let them cook for about an hour, before taking the beets out and cooking the beans longer. So you end up with beans over rice with diced beets and cheese on top. This recipe is more of a weekend meal, since it takes a few hours for the beans to cook. Delicious!

What have you been cooking lately?

For starters, this recipe is no small task, it took a few hours, because there are so many steps and you’re essentially making two soups and a topping. It was totally worth it, though! I’m not usually a big soup fan during the summer, but with the serano pepper/sour cream topping it had a cooler feel to it. I could seriously  eat this soup everyday. If I was say, Jennifer Aniston, I would totally ask my two chefs to make me this soup every day for lunch. ;)

What’s your favorite soup?

What’s your favorite summer dessert?

I’ve been dying to make Pasta with Roasted Summer Vegetables and Basil — my favorite squash recipe three summers running!  To be honest, I wanted to plant summer squash just for this recipe! You roast summer squash, grape tomatoes, red onion, and garlic in the oven until they’re caramelized. Then you mix it with campanelle pasta, Parmesan cheese, and fresh basil. Yum!

It’s from the Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine, but you can also get the recipe online.

What’s your favorite squash recipe?

Six weeks into container gardening, I’m having a brilliant time! It’s so fun to go outside and pick veggies to add to dinner. And I’ve finally updated my “Watching My Garden Grow” container garden slideshow. Check it out:

I spotted an arugula pasta salad recipe in the June issue of Everyday Food magazine, and I thought it would be a great chance to try arugula a little differently: gemelli pasta, cannellini beans, fresh goat cheese, olive oil, red-wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, arugula, and red onion. Here’s the full recipe at Everyday Food.

What are you cooking with arugula?