Shishito pepper and onion stir fry

Made a yummy stir fry last night with an ingredient I've never cooked before: shishito peppers! They can apparently be substituted with Padrón peppers. This made 4-5 servings. Served this over white rice.

Directions:

Press 2 lbs tofu (2x 15oz. packages), cut into one to two inch cubes
Chop 1 white or yellow onion into thick petals
Mince 4 cloves garlic
Prepare a sauce of: 4 tsp hoisin sauce, 2 tsp sesame oil, 1-3 tsp brown sugar (depending on your taste), 4 Tbsp soy sauce

Bake tofu at 400 degrees for 25-35 minutes on parchment paper, turning once. Set aside.
Heat wok, large cast iron, or other pan to medium high with a high-heat oil. Cook onions, stirring frequently, until just starting to wilt. Set aside.
Add more oil to pan as needed, cook the peppers until they blister. Add garlic for the last minute. Set aside.
Add tofu and the sauce in the pan. Cook for a minute or two, add all veggies, and cook for another minute or so.

Peanut-tofu and quinoa lunch

In my youth (and still now), I loved the cold tofu in a curry-peanut sauce served by a local food co-op. So, I decided to try to remake it. It turned out pretty well!

For a weeks worth of meals, I pressed two blocks of tofu and cooked 1.5 cups of dry quinoa. I cooked it according to the package and added a bit of salt and red pepper flakes.

I used roughly this recipe for the peanut sauce:

• 1/3 cup salted creamy peanut butter
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce 
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar or honey
• 1 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1/2 tsp chili garlic sauce
• Water to thin

My sauce was pretty thick. I added some sliced green onions, chopped cashews, and served on top of the quinoa, cold or at room temp.

Mason jar lunches

After a really lousy but expensive lunch at my work cafeteria, I rededicated myself to bringing in my own lunch. I made two versions of a "mason jar salad" that both worked pretty well! On days that I bike in, however, I always need extra snacks.

Marinated chickpea salad 
[ingredients, from bottom to top: canned chickpeas, balsamic/dijon homemade dressing, shredded veggies/greens, feta, cherry tomatoes]
No cooking required! Make so that chickpeas marinate overnight, shake, and eat!

Black bean salad 
[ingredients, from bottom to top: canned black beans, cilantro/lime dressing, roasted sweet potato, roasted red pepper, cooked white rice]
This one was best poured into a bowl and heated with a spoonful of sambal oelek/chili sauce. The dressing wasn't quite tangy or salty enough: next time I would use fresh (not concentrated) lime juice, more salt, and some cilantro in the salad.

Vegan pizza

I just found this recipe on my old blog. I never revisited it, so posting it here with hopes that I'll make it again!

I made a wonderful pizza last night so if you're interested in trying something new, here's the recipe (written in biochemistry lab style prose... sorry... out of habit)

1) Obtain pre-cooked pizza crust- the brand we bought was actually vegan- or make your own.
2) Roast a red pepper in an oven set to broil. When done, remove the skin and cut half into small slices (just save the other half.
3) Cook half an onion (we used yellow onions) in a pan with olive oil until soft and brown (caramelized), add sliced garlic, capers, and red pepper flakes, cook a few minutes until the garlic starts to brown.
4) This is up to you, but I added balsamic vinegar and orange juice (as a deglazer) to the onion mixture. Since I used very little sauce, this also helped the flavor.
5) Spread olive oil onto the crust, then top with sauce of your choice. I used Annie's organic Roasted Red Pepper salad dressing (just a thin layer) and it was amazing.
6) Spread toppings over crust, bake until pizza crust becomes slightly brown.

For non-vegans, you could add feta cheese. Other vegetables like mushrooms, olives, and artichokes would be a good addition. To give credit where it's due, I based this pizza off of Amy's Kitchen's Roasted Vegetable Pizza and also a veggie pizza from Matador Pizza in Sutton's Bay.

Meyer lemon stir fry

Someone from my office brought in some Meyer lemons, so I decided to add them to my already-planned meal. I made basically this recipe from Martha Stewart, substituting 1.5 lbs tofu for chicken and baking it instead of frying. I also used red pepper and onions instead of broccoli (thus omitted the water), because that's what I had on-hand. And finally, I baked about 3 leaves of kale, chopped and coated in olive oil and garlic, until crispy. I deglazed the pan with more soy sauce and sherry (since I didn't have any marinade left, whoops).

Here's the recipe for the marinade:

3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons honey (I used about 1/2 Tbsp)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Bonus picture of Frank Meyer (the plant explorer who the Meyer lemon is named after) sporting a sweet hat: