Adventures of a healthy-ish pseudo-foodie

Cilantro not optional! It's so good on this. One semester in college, I had a Vietnamese roommate who was willing to cook all sorts of delicious things for us while I washed dishes and peeled shrimp as her sous chef. This was one of my favorite meals that she taught me to make, and I can't believe I haven't blogged it yet. I like to make it with fried tofu, but it's also great with shrimp and chicken and probably other proteins as well. I imagine the vegetables could be changed out, but I'm partial to broccoli in this. And white onions. And did I mention the cilantro? I really like cilantro on top. This "recipe" is more a reminder of what ingredients to use than a guide to quantities, because I've learned how it should taste and I adjust the proportions accordingly. If you are reading this blog and you are not me, you might want to do some googling to get some more foolproof instructions. The Recipe: 1 block tofu (or another ...

My Thanksgiving turkey. I was searching for a tempeh recipe that would work as a turkey substitute in Thanksgiving dinner, and I came across  this recipe  for tempeh sandwiches with Thanksgiving condiments on top. It sounded delicious, so I took a chance and made this tempeh as the main protein in our meal. I thought if everyone revolted, I could do something with meat next year, but everyone claimed to like it! It has now joined my mushroom gravy on the list of things to make every year. It's way less work than a turkey. It took a few minutes to mix up the ingredients, 10 minutes to cook, and 30 seconds to slice. I let it marinate in the fridge for 4 hours, but the original recipe says that that part is optional. The Recipe: 8 oz tempeh 1/2 c vegetable broth 1 tb soy sauce 1/2 tb maple syrup 1 tsp paprika 1/2 tsp liquid smoke Mix all ingredients besides tempeh. Place tempeh in shallow dish, pour marinade on top, and marinate in the refrigera...

These disappeared quickly. Every time I want to make pumpkin cookies, I look back to this blog to find a recipe I've enjoyed before. And then I remember that I always partially improvise my cookies, so there's no bloggable recipe, and also the cookies don't come out so well. Time to change that. I did a quick search for "healthy pumpkin oat cookies" and the first hit was from  Amy's Healthy Baking , which kind of seemed like fate. I read the recipe and it sounded great, so onward I went. I did follow the recipe without improvising (a step up for me), but I still couldn't be bothered with actually measuring the ingredients, so I bet these would be even better if someone wanted to go to ALL THAT EFFORT. But even with eyeballing the quantity of flour, these came out great and I will be excited to use this recipe again in the future. They are quite healthy - lots of oats, lots of pumpkin, and not too much butter/flour/sugar. The "sugar...

These are DEFINITELY not layered to hide a missing bite from the bottom pancake. Ever since my 7th grade hobby of baking fat-free cakes (with green food coloring), I've had a habit of over-healthifying my baked goods. This habit has led to many years of eating hockey-puck-like pancakes, laden with oats and flax meal and applesauce, and sometimes no flour. But now that mornings are occupied with baby, and it seems we might have pumpkin pancakes a total of one time this season, it seemed like a better idea to just make them taste good. Within reason, of course, so I worked from this EatingWell recipe . It uses whole wheat flour, minimal sugar, and includes a note suggesting that one might add oats or flax seed. But no additions for me this time. And whaddaya know? Actual fluffy pancakes. Finally. I like the large amount of pumpkin in these. Sometimes pumpkin pancakes don't have enough pumpkin for my liking. These had a ton, and the texture is really smooth and rich...

Simple delicious food. Now that I'm making  miso ramen  regularly, I often have some silken tofu left over. I searched Pinterest for ways to use silken tofu that don't involve chocolate (because as much as I love silken tofu chocolate mousse, that's not a habit I want to get into), and I was reminded of this great dish that we had in Japan. It's now one of my staple lunches. It is ridiculously easy. It's barely a recipe, even. There are some recipes for hiyayakko that are slightly more involved (like, they might take 3 minutes instead of 2), but this version takes no effort or special ingredients and it's delicious. The Recipe: silken tofu (however much you want to eat) a splash of soy sauce a drop of sesame oil optional toppings: sesame seeds, green onions, other? Put tofu in bowl. Put other ingredients on top. The Verdict: Overall grade: B Overall reason: So so easy and so so healthy. Flavor could probably be better balanced by addi...

I'm pretty proud of myself. I no longer have to crave  Toshi's Ramen  every time I drive by it. I can now make delicious miso ramen at home, and I intend to do so often. This may become a weekly dinner. I hadn't tried this sooner because I thought I needed dashi to make good miso soup, and I didn't want to buy another specialty ingredient and then feel compelled to use it up. But I found  this recipe , the reviews were good, and I had all of the ingredients, so I went for it. The topping choices are endless, and Jess would like them to include meat, but my favorites are what I did this time: silken tofu, green onions, roasted corn, and egg. I need to find good ramen noodles. I used the ones from a package of ramen this time (organic ramen from Market of Choice, but still). I'll explore the asian store and see what I can find. Don't leave out the little splash of sesame oil. That's what makes it taste like restaurant soup. And if you limit it to ...

With toasted sesame seeds. The tub of miso in my fridge has given me reason to try more miso recipes, and it is becoming apparent that I will from now on always keep a tub of miso in my fridge. I could not decide whether I wanted to try miso-glazed eggplant, salmon, or mushrooms. So I made the first two for dinner and made the mushrooms for lunch the next day. Upon reading many recipes via Pinterest, I decided to take the easiest possible route: a 2-ingredient glaze and a cooking method that creates the fewest dirty pans and dishes. I imagine some of the other methods create better texture, but we enjoyed this. The Recipe: 1/4 c white miso 3 tb mirin salmon, eggplant, mushrooms, and/or other things white rice, for serving toasted sesame seeds, for serving cucumber salad (marinated in rice vinegar with a touch of salt and sugar), for serving Mix miso and mirin. Score the top of whatever you will be glazing, if it's sturdy enough to handle scorin...