Archives for June 2011
A Happier Hour
Robbie, Val, and I had happy hour on the brain since mid-morning. We headed to Mad Dogs & Englishmen after work and scooped up an outdoor table. It seemed like such a great idea, but it was a tad on the swampy side – even our drinks were sweating!
Our drinks went down super easy and the hummus went down even easier. Mad Dogs serves their hummus with warm naan, which is never a bad thing. It hit the spot, for sure.
Val and Robbie ordered some meaty sandwiches that were served with ridiculously tasty sweet potato fries. And amongst the meaty menu choices, I was able to find some veg-friendly dishes.
I ordered the Crisp & Fresh salad which was shredded cabbage, jicama, apples, asian pear, basil, pecans, and apple cider vinaigrette (i.e. perfect salad). But the side of toasted almond and golden raisin basmati, although photogenic, was a little on the dry side and overall so-so. I wasn’t too disappointed though, because the hummus and salad filled me up quite nicely.
Pop Yum Pop
Here it is! My favorite childhood snack: popcorn and nutritional yeast. I might have been the only kid in town that didn’t care for movie popcorn. And you better believe I was the only kid in town that requested yeast on the regular.
My mom had an ancient air popper, or so I thought. It turns out that poppers haven’t changed much over the last twenty years.
Well… Except for the fact that the like-model popper that I bought spewed out scorching hot kernels and gave me awkward popcorn burns. Not cool.
So I bought the carnie-like popper pictured above and, since then, popcorn making has been a lot less painful.
All you have to do to recreate this snack is pop some kernels and sprinkle with melted Earth Balance, salt, and nutritional yeast, in that order. And! Since nutritional yeast has 18 amino acids, 15 minerals, and is a super duper source of B-complex vitamins, there’s nothing guiltful about this guilty pleasure.
Patience Pants Pizza
Pictured above is the magical tofu press I’ve spoken so highly about over the past few weeks. It’s convenient, compact, and saves a boat load of wasted paper towels. No more water soaked cookbooks, spills in the fridge, or partially pressed tofu.
I. Am. In. Love.
The only downside of pressed tofu is the foresight required as it takes a few hours to get it right. It’s easiest for me to stick it in the fridge overnight.
I sliced the pressed block in half, rubbed with olive oil, and then sprinkled with garlic salt.
Then I put it in a 450 degree oven for 45ish minutes.
After it was crispy on the outside, I topped with chopped spinach, marinara, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and mozzarella Daiya. I baked for another 10 minutes, until the Daiya was melted.
This dish reminded me of a cross between pizza and eggplant parmesan, a combination that I eagerly embraced.