Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

Served alongside BBQ tempeh Every time I want to make basic coleslaw, I google a recipe, and sometimes I like it better than other times. This one is good, so I'm finally saving it for the future. I followed  this recipe  from Farmgirl's Dabbles. I haphazardly scaled it down, used freshly shredded cabbage instead of coleslaw mix, omitted the onion, and used fresh whole-grain mustard instead of dry mustard, though I wouldn't be opposed to undoing any of those changes down the line. The Recipe: 1/4 small cabbage, shredded finely 1/3 c mayonnaise 1 tb sour cream 1 tb sugar 1 tb mustard 1 tsp white vinegar salt and pepper, to taste Combine everything except the cabbage in a medium bowl, and season to taste Toss in the cabbage Optionally, let it sit in the fridge to soften for a couple of hours The Verdict: Overall grade: A Overall reason: What coleslaw should be. Simple, tangy, a little bit sweet, a little bit salty. Time to prepare: 5 minutes 9-year-old quote: "More peppe...

  When I get the recipe just right, I'll go to the effort of adding fried shallots on top. I'm back to my on-and-off mission of trying to make a stir-fry as delicious as the shrimp I used to get at  Pho Grand  in St. Louis during college. It was called "cari tom" but it definitely wasn't a coconut milk type of curry, and they ALSO have a separate listing on their menu for "cari tom dac biet" which includes "coconut milk sauce" in their description. So I'm pretty sure it was just a stir-fry that had curry flavors in it? I got myself a big container of Vietnamese curry powder and I'm going to keep experimenting. This is the closest I've come so far. Changes for the future: - More oil and sugar, restaurant style - A blend of fish sauce and soy sauce, instead of just soy sauce - Fried shallots on top The Recipe (adapted from  Veggie Anh ): 3 tb fresh lemongrass, chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 Thai chili, minced 1 pinch salt 2 tb avoc...

Was too excited to eat it, will photograph next time. This dal is perfect. Most of us took seconds, and I'm really excited to eat the last portion that's sitting in the fridge right now. The accompanying salad is really great for adding texture, crunch, and acidity to the meal. I wouldn't skip it. I got it from  Tea for Turmeric  and prepared it pretty much as written, but doubled and with none of the optional ingredients. This recipe doesn't mention any seasoning/dressing on the salad, but adding lemon and salt to it really brightened things up. The Recipe: (from Tea for Turmeric) 2 c red lentils splash of avocado oil 2 tsp cumin seeds 2 small onions, finely chopped 1 inch ginger, grated 4 small tomatoes, chopped 2 thai chilies, minced 2 tsp cumin powder 2 tsp coriander powder 1 tsp cayenne 1 tsp turmeric 2+ tsp kosher salt 2 tsp lemon juice 1/2 c cilantro, chopped For serving: basmati rice and plain yogurt Salad ingredients: 1/2 english cucumber, sliced 10 cherry toma...

The best part of this plate of banchan (even though it's not Korean) Now that Yi Shen is closed, I needed to learn to make lemongrass tofu. I chose to work from  this recipe by the Viet Vegan  because her picture looks exactly like the old Yi Shen tofu that I was craving. Note that my picture does NOT look that way, because I baked the tofu until crispy all around rather than frying the block and slicing it, but maybe I'll try that one day. The only real change I made was that I skipped the onion/shallot, though that would be good next time. I also used coconut aminos because my only other soy sauce option at the moment is a gluten-free tamari that I don't love. It was really good with coconut aminos, so I'll have to see if Kikkoman can stand up to this deliciousness or if the coconut aminos are here to stay. And I worked from a tube of lemongrass paste because the lemongrass in my garden still looks sad, but fresh lemongrass is a goal for next time. The Recipe (adapted...

I don't know how to take a good photo of a muffin. The 4-year-old has been requesting carrot muffins for a while now. I used  Cookie and Kate's recipe  as a guideline, but made several changes:  - I substituted wheat flour for Bob's Red Mill 1:1 gluten-free flour - Instead of 1 3/4 cups of flour, I used 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of quick-cooking oats - I skipped the ginger and nutmeg, and went heavy on the cinnamon instead - I didn't measure the amount of carrots I ended up with, but I'm pretty sure it was more - I skipped the walnuts and went heavy on the raisins - I added a little bit of brown sugar and skipped the turbinado sugar on top - I used vegetable oil instead of coconut oil - I disregarded the instructions about adding things in a certain order, and instead dumped everything into a bowl at once and then mixed. The fact that I didn't use coconut oil helped this (I had nothing that was prone to solidifying), and also the fact that I had no gluten in the ...

I had seconds. I saw  this video on Yeung Man Cooking  for rice and black beans, Chinese style, and I was intrigued because I've never had such a thing. I had most of the ingredients, or at least suitable substitutions for the ingredients, with the exception of the doubanjiang. Now I have a jar of that, so more Szechuan-style recipes may be in my future. My changes to the original recipe: I used jalapenos instead of the fresno pepper, I used regular soy sauce instead of the dark soy sauce, and I used avocado oil plus a but of chili crisp instead of chili oil. I may get some chili oil in the future, because I imagine that that would give it a different flavor. I added a splash of chinese cooking wine because I felt like it needed a tiny bit of sweetness and acidity, which I think was a good move. I also doubled the recipe, more or less. The Recipe: 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 inch ginger, chopped 1 large onion, chopped 2 jalapeno peppers or fresno peppers, seeds removed and mince...