Grilled Tofu with Spinach, Grilled Corn, and Mixed Fruit

Dinner tonight was grilled tofu over sauteed spinach with a side of mixed fruit and an ear of grilled corn.

I utilized the George Foreman Grill:


What You Need:
150g tofu
55g of fresh spinach
100g of kiwis
100g of strawberries
60g blueberries
olive oil for spinach
cooking spray for grill

Marinade/Seasoning for tofu:
Bragg's
Lemon Juice
Black Pepper, cracked
Lemon Pepper
.5 clove Garlic, Crushed


What to Do:

1. I froze this tofu. Just put the whole tub in the freezer, when you need to use it either put it in the fridge the day before, or defrost in the microwave on low power. The texture is interesting when it's been frozen. VERY chewy. I think I need to experiment grilling this tofu again with thin slices rather than the usual grilling slabs.

2. Anywho, thaw and drain or just drain your tofu, slice into the appropriate size slabs. Store the extra unused tofu in a large container filled with cold water. Change the water daily and store in the fridge for up to a few days (maybe a week? I'll look into this for a confirmation. I usually use mine up before a week passes.)

3. With your slabs nicely defrosted and drained, season each side evenly with a couple of splashes of Bragg's and lemon juice, a good shake of lemon pepper, and cracked black pepper. Crush some garlic and push the tiny pieces into the tofu on each side, also slather the juices of the garlic all over the tofu. (sounds kind of gross, but it is tasty.)



The thing about freezing the tofu is that once it is thawed and drained, it holds marinades REALLY well. Think about it. All the water freezes and expands inside the tofu, so when it thaws and drains, it becomes very porous and able to soak up liquids much better. I want to try and bake this tofu next time I use it.

4. OK. Tofu set up, plug in the grill and let it warm up. You can slice up the fruit during this time. Place corn in the husk on the grill, cook until grill marks get dark, darker than the photo below:



5. Corn takes a while, 10-20 minutes. Keep husk on to maintain warmth, cover the corn, too. Place tofu on grill, cook 10 minutes. I might cook it even more next time.

6. Right as tofu is almost done, sautée spinach with a little olive oil until desired doneness. I like it when it just starts to wilt.

7. Plate up!

Remove husk and silk from corn, butter and salt, and put in your nifty little corn boat. What? You don't have a corn boat? Then you'll have to just be jealous of mine:



(Ok, so it's a "corn dish" but I've always called them corn boats, so that's that. There is another slightly blurry photo on flickr if you click the pic.)

I put the tofu on top of the spinach, and had the fruit on the same plate. (I eat the kiwi skin, also. Fiber!!!)

Appetizers: Mediterranean Plate

Here is a cute little appetizer layout I did the other day. On the plate: stuffed grape leaves, pita triangles I toasted, sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers. In the mini bowls: olive tapenade and hummus.

The stuffed grape leaves, untoasted pitas, hummus and olive tapenade are from Holy Land Bakery in Minneapolis. Actually, they were from one of the many local grocery stores where Holy Land sells their wares.

EDIT:Actually, the stuffed grape leaves were from a can. I forgot about it, haha. They are really tasty but I forgot what brand. They are also fairly cheap for the anount you get. A couple bucks for at least twelve or more.

Another look:


I altered the hummus a lot because it was rather soupy. Since Holy Land makes fresh hummus, every now and then there will be a not so good batch. I took the tub of hummus, added one can of garbanzo beans, a little garlic, some cumin, some red pepper flakes, and olive oil. I blended it all in the Magic Bullet and wound up with some excellent thick hummus.

I toasted the pitas in the toaster oven, then sliced into triangles.

Last look:

Breakfast: Cereal and Coffee

So I didn't exactly stretch my culinary skills on this one, but it was a satisfying breakfast this morning. Optimum Power Cereal from Nature's Path with some plain soymilk.

I also made some fresh coffee. I used Caribou Coffee whole bean French Roast, grinded in the Magic Bullet, and then in my precious French Press:

The Great Pickle Experiment

I love Claussen Dill Pickle Halves. I ate the last one a couple nights ago and got to thinking...could I make pickles from the remaining pickle juice.

I've made homemade pickles before, but I am experimenting to see if I can get anything tasty from the pickle juice itself without adding anything. I sliced up some cucumbers and put them in the juice. We'll see in a few days if anything comes of it.

Cheesy Chik'n Pasta

This was quite tasty, but the cheese sauce definitely needed some butter rather than just oil and soymilk. Everything clumped together into one giant lump and it was difficult to spoon it out. Perhaps it would have gone better if I made the sauce first, then added it to the pasta. Instead, I made it how I would mac and cheese by adding a packet of powder to the pasta in the pot.

What You Need



One Package of Morningstar Chik'n Strips
Angel Hair Pasta, broken at least in half (I used probably 4 ounces or enough for 2-3 servings. Sorry for no measurement.)
Broccoli I used frozen, fresh would be great but different cooking time.
A cheesy sauce. I used a packet of 123'z and Chreese, which is nutritional yeast based and has garlic, onion, etc. flavors in it as well. I'd recommend finding a good "cheese" sauce online, or whenever I get around to actually experimenting with a good recipe here. I need more Nutritional Yeast first.

Olive Oil
Soymilk
Butter of some kind. I was out, and it turned out ok.
Salt & Pepper
Optional: I added some dry basil leaves, dry dill, and red pepper flakes at the end, you can add whatever you like.

1. Start boiling water for pasta.
2. Heat up pan on med-low heat, spray a little oil in pan. Once hot, dump the chik'n strips in pan. Sautée for several minutes.
3. Add broccoli to chik'n.
4. Add pasta, broken in half or smaller, to water.
5. Cook Chik'n and broccoli until chik'n gets browned a bit. Broccoli may be browned as well (bright green but brown in spots because of cooking)
6. Drain and rinse pasta. Put back in pot. Add soymilk, chreese, and olive oil. Stir until desired consistancy.
7. Put chik'n and broccoli into the cheesy pasta, mix thoroughly. EAT.

Mac and Chreese

Dinner was lazy. I made a box of123z and Chreese, a boxed vegan mac and cheese by Road's End Organics. I personally think this stuff is great. Add a little soymilk and a LOT of either vegan butter or olive oil and you have a creamy, tasty mac and cheese. I season it up with cracked pepper, dried dill or basil, red pepper flakes. Sometimes broccoli or peas or other stuff.

It's a nutritional yeast based sauce, so if you don't like that, you won't like this stuff. I am in love with the nooch and therefore love this Mac and Chreese stuff.

Pancakes #2: The Perfect Pancake

I didn't think it could be done. The Perfect Vegan Pancake: light, fluffy, golden brown and no different than any other pancake out there. Today, I did it. I was able to conquer all with one non-stick pan and a spatula.

What You Need:

software:

Our friends, Aunt Jemima and Ener-G are back. 1c Aunt J and 1 egg equivalent of Ener-G.
3/4c Soymilk, or other non-dairy milk
1T oil, canola

Hardware:
One Non-Stick pan
(Preferably One Awesome Electric Griddle)
One Spatula/Turner thing
One ladle

1. Mix up egg and add oil to it, mixing thoroughly.
2. Combine the egg/oil mixture and the soymilk with the pancake mix. Stir until it just comes together (lumps ok.)
3. Let the batter REST. Very important. Wait 10 mins or so, it helps for fluffy pancakes later.
4. Heat pan on med-low. Flick droplets of water into pan to test for how hot it is. The droplets should skate across surface, if they disappear instantly, too hot. Nothing happens? Too cold.
5. Ladle batter into the pan in a circular motion to evenly distribute the batter. My pan is small so I was only able to do one at a time. Takes forever but it's worth it.
6. Once lots of little bubbles come up to surface of exposed pancake side, flip it over. The pancake should be able to peel from pan easily. If it doesn't, either it needs to cook another minute or your nonstick surface sucks so get a new pan.
7. Less time on this side, check for an even brown coating. Most of mine aren't perfect on the 2nd side, splotchy brown is ok.
8. That's it. Repeat until batter is gone. Make a lot of these and freeze them to have awesome pancakes ready at any time.

Serves 2 People. I got about 7 3-4 inch pancakes, with 3 or so per person. Because, c'mon, who stops at one or two pancakes?

Here's another pic, this one is of my monster pancake I made:


Probably don't want to know this, but here is the Nutritional Info. NOTE: Nutritional Info does not include syrup. One serving equals one half of the total recipe above.

Misc foods eaten over the past few days

No pictures, just a documenting my food type of post.

Other stuff I've eaten on 7/30:

Pesto Chik'n Sandwich:
two pieces of bread, toasted if desired
spread pesto on both pieces
add one Boca Chik'n patty
Enjoy
Tomato slices and fresh spinach or basil would be great, too

Hot Chocolate with PB Toast:
Simple, satisfying and comforting snack to make on a cold day. Or a hot day where you feel like you need a hug. Or during "that time of the month", when everything chocolate is satisfying.

One mug of soymilk, plain (8oz) (or favorite non-dairy milk. However, I'd stick to plain as the cocoa I use is plenty sweet.)
Hot Chocolate Mix, 2T (I like Ah!Laska Organic Cocoa, Non-Dairy Style)
Two pieces of Toast
2-4T (or more) of Nut Butter of your choosing


Heat milk in micro or on stovetop until warmed to your liking. Mix in cocoa. Experiment with sweetness, sometimes a little is enough, sometimes there can never be enough.

Toast your bread, slather on Nut Butter.
Fold each piece in half, and --wait for it-- dip it in the hot chocolate. Yes. Seriously. It's good. The chocolate and peanut butter or whatever nut butter you use, is awesome. Then again, I used to eat bread slathered in honey, folded in half, and dipped in plain milk. I also still eat peanut butter sandwiches and tomato soup. I'm crazy.

I also had pickles today.

Green Stir Fry: Bok Choy, Broccoli, and Mushrooms with Noodles

I had a bunch of bok choy which needed to be processed soon, so I decided to do it today. A simple, veggie-tastic stir fry of sorts.

What You Need:



330g bok choy, cleaned and rough chop to bite size pieces
65g onion
1.5c frozen broccoli (not pictured)
1-2 cloves garlic
100g mushrooms
1-2t ginger paste or finely minced ginger root
cooked bean thread noodles

little to no oil for pan

1. slice up the onion, sauté until just browning (I like the carmelized flavor, you can cook until transluscent if desired) 3 mins
2. add mushrooms, garlic & ginger 2 more mins
3. add broccoli. I just add it frozen and cook until no longer frozen, 5 mins.
4. add chopped bok choy. I like some snap in the bok choy so I don't cook it that long, just enough to get barely tender.
5. I had precooked noodles in the fridge, so I just put some in a bowl and piled the veggies on top of it and added soy sauce/hot sauce as needed.

This could serve 2. I only used a tiny amount of noodles, about 100 calories worth or 1oz dry. I wound up eating everything myself. Here is a Nutritional profile. Note: Nutrition info is whole recipe for one person. Nutrition info DOES NOT include noodles or oil used as those items are optional and/or could vary by type of noodles you want to use or how much oil/what type of oil.

Another look, showing off the noodles:

Breakfast: Banana Muffins

Ugly, yes. Tasty? Yes.

These are tasty and easy, and I believe from a cookbook somewhere so I'll have to figure out where it was from before I write out the whole recipe.

I've made these a few times, and this is definitely the ugliest they've been. Not the best turn out, but I didn't have all the necessary ingredients. I use 100% whole wheat flour and played around with the sweetener, maybe too much. Next time, I'm going to add another banana, less oil, less sweetener, and put the flax seesds in again.

The Chik'n Patty Experiment

While perusing VegWeb, I found a recipe for homemade "fried chicken" using TVP granules as the primary ingredient.

Here's the Original Recipe

I altered it a little. I didn't have any bouillon cubes (yet another thing I need to stock up on. Curses! Why can't I get paid 4 times a month?) so I seasoned some boiling water with a TON of stuff, no measurements. Lots of salt, poultry seasoning, Spike Seasoning, dash of cayenne, paprika, pepper. I just dumped it all in the water until it tasted somewhat close to a "chicken" broth.

I hydrated the TVP with this seasoned water, let it sit for a little while, then added some pancake mix until it became thick enough to form patties. I coated the first batch with really old rice krispies crushed up, pan fried them, and dried them out on a plate and paper towels.

Not too bad.

Next, I tried no coating. This was the best result. More "meat" like. The texture for almost all the variations was right on. The flavor was a bit off. Too much starchy flavor from the pancake mix.

Last, I coated the patties in crushed saltines. Not too shabby. Great with agave nectar.

Overall, I would say this recipe is worth expanding on. I'd like to find something that is less starchy to hold the patties together, and get some panko breadcrumbs for a coating. I'd also like to play with different flavors to see what comes of it.

Brunch: Pancakes and Strawberry Soymilk

This was a banner weekend. You can tell this blog is influencing me and motivating me, because I never cook this much, especially big project style brunch foods.

I really wanted pancakes Sunday morning. I wanted to make them from sratch. However, a quick once over of my pantry revealed that I am out of sugar. How can I be out of sugar? I have brown sugar, but as I was considering using that, I realized that I had a box of pancake mix:


With pancake mix, oil, soymilk, AND:

I went to work.

It should be noted that I also had The Perfect Pancake Maker. Yeah, the infomercial that says: "If you can turn a doorknob, you can make a pancake." Hmm...my doorknob doesn't make my pancake stick to the nonstick surface, effing up my pancake flip.

Doorknob - 1; Perfect Pancake - 0

The mix wasn't bad at all. It actually made the pancakes quite fluffy and tasty. Unfortunately, the Perfect Pancake Maker burned most of the pancakes. I wound up flipping half of the pancakes with a spatula. At that point, it was easier to just cook in a regular non stick pan.

To round out the pancake meal, I decided to make some strawyberry soymilk. I think some brands actually manufacture this flavor, but I drink it so rarely that I would never go through an entire container before it went bad. So I use Store Brand Strawberry Syrup mixed with my soymilk. It's good. Tastes even better in my Awesome Batman Cup. Jealous? I thought so.

Deep Fried Experiment #1: Tempura Green Peppers and Mock Duck

---> They look like sea monsters, don't they?

Deep fried food is oh so tasty, but a big pain to do at home. (I used to have a 3-in-1 machine that had a deep fryer, steamer and crockpot all in one.) Every now and then, though, it's fun to make a night of deep frying. Saturday night was one such night.

I happened upon some tempura batter without eggs a while back and had never gotten around to using it. I decided for the sake of the blog, I should really try it out. So I did. With one green pepper, a can of mock duck, and some onions.

What You Need:

software:
Tempura (check for eggs)
Mock Duck, one can, drained, rinsed, and sliced into smaller pieces for eating (also: packaged or homemade seitan, tofu, or anything else will work, too)
One Green Pepper, sliced into strips (or 5, or broccoli, or whatever)
One onion, sliced into rings
LOTS of oil (canola/vegetable) for frying

hardware:
Deep pan for deep frying (I used a wok)
Splatter Guard
draining rack/area
paper towels


Prep everything you plan on battering and frying. It makes the whole process much easier. Ideally, you should set up an area for the raw stuff, an area for battering, an area for frying and an area for draining. I have an extremely small kitchen, so this isn't really possible. Our draining area sort of crossed paths with the raw area, it was a messy situation, etc. I'm thankful that I was only working with green peppers and mock duck and not raw chicken.

The rest of this process is not very scientific. (as if the beginning half was.) Heat up oil to...really hot. But not too hot. Yep. (I don't have a thermometer. One more thing to add to my list of kitchen essentials.)

Batter the veggies or item you want to fry. We found that a really thin coating worked best. We also found that seasoning the mock duck ahead of time (pan frying with soy sauce, ginger, hot peppers, etc.) was an excellent decision. Place battered items into pan:


When the fried objects are golden brown (5-8 mins?) take them out of the oil and place on a wire rack on top of a cookie pan. (We used the toaster oven accessories for this because it was small and perfect.)

Yep. Use paper towel to soak up more oil after the objects have cooled more. Eat and enjoy. Soy sauce is a nice condiment, as well as cock sauce.

The Verdict:
It wasn't bad. Wasn't that good, either. More of a batter issue than anything. the tempura just didn't work well with deep frying, which is to be expected. The onions were the best. I thought they would not be tasty at all, and I feel foolish for questioning deep fried onions.

I will have to have a true deep frying night soon, testing a couple of batters.

Brunch: Tofu Scramble and Real Lemonade

I decided to make a nice brunch for myself today.

What You Need:



140g extra firm tofu, crumbled by hand and seasoned (seasoning recipe below)
110g tomato, rough chop
120g green pepper, chopped (I like big chunks, but whatever your preference is)
110g sweet potato, medium dice
60g fresh spinach
75g onion, diced
5g garlic (1 clove, minced)
2t oil
seasoning for tofu:
You can mix the following byb hand/with spoon in separate bowl. I just dumped it into the pan while everything was cooking.

1/2t tumeric
1/8-1/4t paprika
1/8t pepper
1/8t garlic powder
salt, to taste
1/4-1/2t lemon juice
splash of soy sauce (Bragg's would be perfect, but I didn't have any.)

Meh, this seasoning wasn't bad. I'd def. add more salt or even some nutritional yeast. (I am out of that, too!)

1. Put sweet potato (diced med-small) and onion (diced) over medium heat in sautée pan; cook until sweet potato is just getting tender: 5-6mins.
2. Add crumbled tofu (crumbled by hand) and seasoning (if you didn't add seasoning to tofu before hand).
3. Add garlic and green peppers, stir/sautée for 3-5 more minutes.
4. Add tomato, cook for 1-3 more minutes.
5. Dump mixture out onto plate. Add spinach to empty pan and sautée until just wilted. You can add garlic/olive oil/lemon juice/whatever if desired.

Real Lemonade Recipe from a few days ago...Y'know. 3 whole apples, one whole lemon. Seeds, skin, stems, everything. Put through juicer and enjoy. Click on the lemonade tag top read more.

So that's it. Oh, and Here's the complete nutritional info for the tofu scramble; one recipe = 2 servings, nutritional info set up for a single serving Truthfully, I chowed it all down myself, but it could be for 2 people. Especially with the fresh juice added.

5 Minute Garlic Toast with Pesto Dip

I just made this up as a quick snack tonight. I wanted some garlic toast, but I'm all out of butter, *gasp*! However, I did have some leftover Papa John's Garlic Sauce from the last time I ordered breadsticks:



So, I slathered some of the garlic sauce on 3 pieces of bread and popped said bread in the toaster oven.

While that was toasting away, I took a few spoonfuls of the pesto sauce from last night, and mixed it with some Newman's Own Cabernet Marinara Pasta Sauce:



This is my favorite packaged pasta sauce. I always pick up a jar at Super Target because it's only $1.97 there as opposed to $3-5 everywhere else I've seen it.

Enjoy!

And a quick list of other food consumed today:
Breakfast was the one-two combo of the S*bucks Soy Latte and a Clif Bar (Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch flavor today)

Lunch consisted of veggie sushi, as well as:


Really healthy today, hahaha. I also had a quick snack/dinner of a Boca Chik'n patty with vegenaise and ketchup. I'm trying to get rid of a lot of the more unhealthy foods in my house to concentrate on more fruits and veggies as well as losing some weight. Wheeee!

Now to figure out what I should eat next...

Italian Baked Tofu with Pesto Rotini and Sautéed Pattypan Squash

Whew! I need a better title for this dish. This was dinner. Very good. My first time with baked tofu! So very easy and tasty, I am excited to improve and expand on baked tofu.

I apologize for the slightly blurry photo, I'm trying my best to improve my photography skills. This one's a little better:



I'm too tired to put up all the directions and such right now, but I'll do it sometime tonight or tomorrow.

As Promised...

What You Need:
1 Block of Tofu (I used 16 out of 20oz of this jumbo sized tofu. Most water packed tofu blocks come in 16oz slabs.)
Pasta, any type
Pattypan Squash (I had nearly 500g worth)

Marinade:
Equal Parts of...
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
lemon juice
--> I believe I used about 3-4 T of each, mixed in a bowl.

2-3 Garlic cloves, crushed

Good pinch of...
Dry Italian Seasonings (I wound up using "poultry seasoning" because it was thyme, sage, rosemary, etc.)

Directions:
Put all ingredients in a bowl, whisk with fork, pour over tofu/veggies/whatever you are marinating.


Pesto:
Really Bad With Measurements on this one....
Basil Leaves (1-2c?)
Garlic (I used WAY too much, and that's saying something coming from me, so I'd say 1 big clove)
Pine Nuts (I believe I used about half a cup or more
Olive oil (1/4c?)
Salt, To Taste
OPTIONAL: Parma! Vegan Parm, really tasty addition. (Really, Really addictive stuff.)

---> Pesto Directions:
In food processor (Or The Magic Bullet!, blend all ingredients together. The result should be thick, like a paste rather than a thin sauce.


Ok. For the Baked Tofu:
1. Cut into an equal number of slabs. I got 6.
2. Lay tofu in a single layer on a flat surface like a small cooking sheet or, like me,In a big pot.
3. Pour marinade over tofu.
4. Flip after 30-40 mins to get other side of tofu marinated.
5. Preheat oven to 375-400 degrees F, depending on your oven.
6. Lay slabs out on cooking sheet,Like This. NOTE: save the marinade! Use it for the veggies!
7. Bake tofu on one side for about 20 minutes, then flip to brown other side slightly. I over didmine, but it was still tasty.
8. Remove from oven, cube or slice as desired.

For the Pattypans:
1. Slice/chop/cube/whatever 450-500g of pattypans
2. Over medium heat in a very lightly oiled pan, sautée patty pans for 2-3 mins
3. add some of the marinade (1/4c? I didn't measure, just poured some in)
4. Sautée for another 5-7 mins, until desired tenderness. Add more marinade if needed. The balsamic vinegar sort of becomes a glaze.
5. Finished! Serves 2-4.



So, yeah. The way I put everything together was to make the pesto while the tofu was marinating and prepped the veggies and had the pasta ready to go. Once tofu was in oven, I boiled some water and sautéed the pattypans for the last 10 minutes of the tofu cooking. Everything was done at about the same time.

I'm really, REALLY excited to try baked tofu again. I'm thinking of doing a more asian-flavored baked tofu next time.

Juicing Experiment #1

Ok, after only having 3 hours of sleep last night, I gleefully slept in until nearly 10am today! wheee!

I sat on the couch drinking water for a bit, pondering what to do with some of the ingredients in my fridge and cupboards. I know! JUICE!

On Christmas of 2006, I received a Jack Lalanne Juicer.

For those of you who don't know all about Jack Lalanne, he's insane. He's about 92 years old now, and swears by juicing everything. He does crazy stunts every ten years on his birthday, like when he was 60 years old, he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf for a second time handcuffed, shackled, and towing a 1,000-pound boat.

yeah. The juicer is great. I LOVE it. It's small, sturdy, and clean up is straightforward. I haven't been using it as much as I should, so I decided to experiment a little bit.

What you need:


Hardware:
A Juicer

Software:
200g cucumber (I've got young babies fresh from a friend's garden)
100g celery, segmented to go into juicer easier
8g ginger root, peeled
160g apple, quartered (ok to leave peel, stem, and seeds)

Juice ginger first, then celery and cucumbers. Put apple through last.

Here's what it looks like:


GREEN. So what does it taste like?

Ass. Total and complete ass.

Haha! Quite the setup for a disgusting drink, huh? I need to document it so I know how to change it next time. I like cucumber juice, but this is the first time I've used celery in juicing and it is definitely strong. The ginger is great, but I like eating ginger. Overall, I'd up the cucumber, take back celery, and maybe add more apple.


Ok, ok. That was cruel. How about a tried and true juice recipe?

"Real" Lemonade

What you need:


1 whole lemon, with peel (mine came to about 150g)
3 whole apples

The type/flavor of apples makes a HUGE difference. The whole lemon is very tart, but balances with the apple for a very tasty drink. So, if you like super tart, Granny Smith will achieve that. 3 Red Delicious apples make it much more sweet. 2 Red Delicious and 1 Granny Smith is a nice combination. Pink Lady, McIntosh, whatever, go crazy and experiment!

Slice the "nubs" off the ends of the lemon:

Quarter all the apples (or slice in half, whatever fits in your juicer). Leave teh skin, stem, and seeds.

Put lemon through first, then all the apples. Makes about 2 cups of liquid. Drink and enjoy:

Lunch: Soup and Salad

Here's a typical lunch at work for me:



And:



The salad comes from a "salad bar" called Greens to Go, which is a counter service style place where they limit what you can have on the salad (3 veggies, 5 pcs protein, portioned out items). While that is unfortunate, it's still the freshest and most nutritious food I can get other than bringing food from home.

What's in the salad?
Mixed greens, romaine, broccoli, tomatoes, portobella mushrooms, cucumbers, snow peas, sunflower seeds, craisins, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.

The Nile Spice soup is actually quite tasty for an instant soup. 110 cals total, 1.5g fat; 12 fiber, 12 protein. A little high in sodium, but that's ok with me.

I also have some carrots that aren't pictured for me to snack on for the rest of the day. I'm not sure when I'll eat next, but I have plans for what it will be.

So, I have now becomes completely obsessed with photographing every piece of food I eat. I can't promise that I'll keep up this crazy amount of posting. This blog is like a new toy to me. All food, all the time. The great thing is that my ultimate hope that this blog would motivate me to cook more is coming true. I'm really excited to make all sorts of food experiments I've been meaning to make for a long time. Somehow, the ability to post the food and share it with everyone makes it much more appealing to cook. I'm also excited to finally create and fine tune a few recipes of my own.

Raw Avo-Zuch Salad

Here is a raw avocado-zucchini-green pepper salad/dip I made back in January. It's very filling, very tasty and very refreshing:



RECIPE:
1 avocado, diced (mine was 100g)
1 zucchini, diced (150g)
1 bell pepper, diced (I think red would be awesome, but I only had green, about 100g)
1 red onion, diced (60g, to taste)
Lime Juice, To Taste
Salt and Pepper, To Taste
Optional: Diced Cucumber (100g?)

toss together in a bowl, add salt, pepper, and lime juice to taste. I think it would be tasty with some diced tomato in it, too.

I ate it as is out of the bowl, but it would be great with flax crackers or some other raw bread, or even regular crackers/chips/bread/etc.

Breakfast: Clif Bar and Starbucks

I was going to make some juice this morning, but I was running late. So, I settled for a Clif Bar (Banana Nut Bread flavor) and a Grande Iced Soy Latte from Starbucks:



*Did you know? The hot chocolate and the mocha from Starbucks are vegan, just ask for soy and no whip!