Veggie Sushi!

Sorry for the bad photo, but the sushi is actually quite good. I'm able to get this slightly overpriced but at least freshly made sushi on campus. This is one of two veggie varieties offered: two big "mushroom shitake salad" rolls, and six smaller avocado and carrot rolls. I already spread wasabi on these and poured soy sauce on them, so they look weird. Plus it's hard to focus or get good light in this particular room.

Chik'n Fried Tofu; Sautéed Spinach and Onions

This was an awesome experiment in my ongoing search for the perfect coating for fried/pan-fried/baked tofu. This stuff was really good. The coating came from McCormick Season 'n Fry Seasoned Coating Mix.

One tub (16 oz) of tofu, pressed/drained and cubed. Coat each piece with the seasoning. An easy way to do this is placing the seasoning in a plastic zip-top bag and shake like crazy! I then pan-fried the tofu in some vegetable oil until golden brown, drained the tofu, and re-coated and did the whole process over one more time. It actually stuck to the tofu, but left quite a bit of leftover flour/seasoning in the bottom of the pan. Very tasty, though.

I also enjoyed a bowl of sautéed spinach and onions with garlic on the side:

Apples, Peanut Butter, and Medjool Date Wrap

Whole Wheat wrap spread with Parkers Farm Inc. Natural Peanut Butter, sliced Red Delicious apples, and 2 quartered and pitted medjool dates for texture and sweetness.

Yum yum yum. I've made many peanut butter and apple wraps, but the addition of the madjool dates really makes a difference. I've been adding dates to many things lately, most notably my morning breakfast oatmeal/multigrain hot cereal.

The Peanut Butter is quite good, cheaper than lots of other natural peanut butters, and it's local. So I love it.

I've also tried out and enjoyed both Hempmilk and Oatmilk as something different than just soymilk. My favorite is still chocolate almond milk. I still need to try Hazlenut milk.

--> I must note that I know all the non-dairy alternatives to dairy milk are technically not allowed to be called "milk" and are to be referred to as non-dairy beverages. Meh, I still call them "milk."

Axel's Bombastic Black Bean Dip

The Saucy Coconut Food Blog is Back in Action! I know, I've said that before only to not post for weeks on end. Hopefully this time I'll stay true to my word and post more often. Well, this is a fantastic post to come back on:

Axel's Bombastic Bean Dip!

This is seriously the best bean dip EVER. I've made endless excuses why not to make my own bean dip: laziness, "too much work," and...laziness. There really isn't a good reason why I haven't been making my own bean dip. Yet it took my fiance, Axel, to have a heavy dose of inspiration in the kitchen to get me on the "make my own bean dip from now on" train.

This is a rough estimate of the creation of the best bean dip ever, but it will be recreated soon with more details and tweaking.

What's in it, roughly:
1 can of black beans, drained
1/2 can of refried black beans
1 can of pinto beans
1 can of Rotel^TM Original Tomatoes and Green Chilies
4 cloves of garlic (or less if you aren't a fan of garlic)
good shake of red pepper flakes for spice
good shake of cumin for flavor

Directions (sort of):

1. In a big bowl, mash almost all the beans up with a potato masher

2. Add the Rotel^TM, mix thoroughly.

3. Either mince the garlic into a paste, or blend it with a hand blender, or the Magic Bullet Blender.

4. Blend the bean mixture, and also place into hot pan and cook mixture. Add some of the whole beans that were set aside before you started mashing. Leave these as whole.

5. Add cumin, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste. Fresh chilies like jalapenos, habeneros, etc., would be great.

Serve hot OR cold with chips, fresh veggies, crackers, pitas, or anything else you can think of. This dip gets better and more garlicky/spicy with each passing day, so try and save some for tomorrow!