Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Beginnings


I’ve been thinking about starting a food blog for a while, not that I necessarily have the free time for such an undertaking, but nonetheless, here we are. I’ve decided to do this primarily because I am incredibly obsessed with food. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts, snacks, I love it all. My favorite things consist of bacon, cheese (even though I’m slightly lactose intolerant), avocado, chocolate, and vegetables of all kind (excluding brussel sprouts). I love to create healthy dishes, but have a soft spot for dessert (and bacon), so this is probably what you will see most of. I usually cook just for myself—especially when it comes to dinners—so much of what I will post on here will be individual serving sized. 

Here are some other things that can be expected from this blog:
1) inconsistent posts
2) inaccurate measurements
3) random life insights
4) my current obsessions in music, fashion, etc.

I also like to eat out, and will probably also post photos of tasty things from neat places around NYC. 

I get a lot of inspiration from the following bloggers, and will probably share some of their recipes as well:

I also enjoy:

I have found that I sometimes make delicious things out of the blue and then devour them before I have the chance to even recall what I did, let alone recreate it in the future.

This happened the other night, when I returned home after a super long day, and proceeded to make dinner. I had some tofu I wanted to use (been into working with tofu lately.. chicken gets boring). I was starving and didn’t want to wait for rice to cook, but this would have been even better (and more filling) over jasmine rice. Or rice noodles. Yay carbs. 



I used this premade sauce that my dad got for me for Christmas. It's soo good! I would have loved to make one from scratch, but c’est la vie.


Even if you don't think you like tofu, I encourage you to try it out!





Here’s the recipe:


Tofu & Peppers in Crunchy Peanut Sauce

Ingredients:
2/3 of a square of tofu, cut into ½-inch pieces
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of minced garlic
2 tablespoons of chopped onion
½ bell pepper, cut into bit sized slices
1 tablespoon of canola oil (peanut or sesame would have been better)
small handful of peanuts, coarsely chopped
¼ cup Peanut Satay Noodle and Simmer Sauce
red pepper flake to taste


Spray large pan with cooking spray.
While it’s heating, cut tofu into approx ½-inch to 1-inch cubes. Once the pan is hot, place the tofu pieces in it.
Cook until the bottoms are seared and then flip. I have found that this is the key when cooking with tofu; otherwise it’s too mushy. When finished, remove from pan and set aside.
Let the pan cool for a minute, and then spray again with cooking spray.
Add salt, garlic, onion and bell pepper slices. Toss until peppers are soft and onions clear. Add some oil- peanut or sesame would be ideal, but I used canola. While cooking, coarsely chop peanuts and then toss with the pepper/onion mixture.
Add peanut sauce.
Put tofu in a bowl, and then pour pepper onion and peanut sauce mixture over tofu. Sprinkle with red pepper flake to taste.


(I didn't decide to write up the recipe until after I ate most of it, but that's what was left by the time I got my camera out...)