what did you do today?

Me?  What did I do today?  The mister and I ripped down gross wallpaper from our kitchen and installed a vinyl tile backsplash!  And and and this entire project (including the rental of a vinyl tile cutter) cost just under $50!!!!  I'm nifty and thrifty....recognize. 

BEFORE:  Dingy, green and white, possibly from the 60s, peeling wallpaper.  Icky.  

AFTER:  Fun, shiny, not peeling black and white checks.  AWESOME!! (please, ignore other dingy aspects of the kitchen....they will be remedied soon)

Yay for productive days!!!  Now, I'm going to sit in the middle of the kitchen floor, drink an entire bottle of wine, and enjoy my black and white tiles.  

LOVE!!

Vegan Yum Yum

Well folks, I enjoyed doing the last food blog so much I decided to do another :) Being a stay at home lady for the time being has reignited my joy for delicious vegan cooking.  

So, today we have yummy left over veggie stir fry with easy peanut sauce.  I hate measuring anything, so you will find that a lot of my measurements are inexact.  I feel as though measuring takes all the joy out of everyday cooking -- and I'm lazy, so please feel free to estimate ingredient amounts to your preference and tastes!

Ingredients:

8 oz. super firm tofu - cut however you want :)

Half medium onion - chopped

Half red pepper - chopped

3-4 cloves pickled garlic (or regular garlic if you don't have any pickled)

Couple handfuls of chopped baby carrots

1 medium zucchini - quartered and chopped

Handful of your fave mushrooms - chopped

Ground ginger to taste (I used about a tablespoon)

Sauce:

Creamy peanut butter 

Soy sauce 

Start by heating up about a tablespoon of vegetable oil in whatever skillet you have that will hold all these delicious veggies.  Once the oil has heated up, toss the onion and red pepper in the pan and simmer for about 5 minutes.  

In the meantime, you can mix up the peanut soy sauce...I use a dollop of peanut butter and enough soy sauce to thin the sauce to a drippy consistency.  

Don't forget about the onions and red peppers on the stove!  It should be time to add the tofu, carrots, and the ground ginger.  Yell 'BAM!" or something when adding the ginger, for funsies.

Stir the ground ginger into all the ingredients and saute for another couple of minutes.  Then, add the zucchini and mushrooms.  After I add the last of the veggies, I like to put a lid over them so they cook faster and the flavors mingle nicely.  Just take the lid off and stir the veggies every couple minutes until the veggies are to your desired firmness. Yum.  

When the veggies are cooked to your liking, take off the lid and add the peanut soy sauce.  Stir in the sauce and serve with rice.  

 

Yum yum yum yum....

LOVE!

here we have a food blog

Well folks, the mister and I have been busy moving and I have not had a lot of time to cook delicious vegetarian meals.  We've been eating out a lot, and that's been cutting into our ever tightening budget.  Now that we have gotten our kitchen stuff unpacked in our new house, we will be eating out hopefully only a couple times per week.  Hopefully meaning we still want to eat out all the time because we're in a new city with delicious dining fare, so we will eat out whenever we can :)  

Back to the idea of eating at home...With the recent revelation that I have so many stomach problems because I'm very lactose intolerant, I've been eating mostly vegan fare.  This has been super easy in Portland (wiki says it's the most veggie friendly city in the US).  The groceries have tons of tofu and fresh veggies *swoon* - it's been easier than ever to be vegan.  

With the time crunch on meal preparing, I've been simply throwing together whatever is left over in the fridge and cabinets - this particular dish turned out really delicious, so I had to share.  I'm calling this Dark and Lovely Chili:

Ingredients: 

8 oz super firm tofu (cut into cubes)

2 cans black beans

1 can tomato paste

1 pack chili mix

2 cups water

2 cups uncooked rice

Dollop of your favorite vegan sour cream

Start cooking the two cups of rice in whatever way you want - package instructions or in a rice cooker.  I'm lazy and like to not worry about the rice while it's cooking, so the rice cooker is for me!

Now, put a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in whatever pan will hold all the remaining ingredients (I used a 4 qt).  Over medium heat, saute the tofu cubes until all sides are light brown.  Throw a little salt on that shit.   

While the tofu is sauteing, drain and rinse the two cans of black beans, because no one likes the taste of that nasty liquid starch they use to pack the beans in the can.  

Time to just throw stuff in the pan!  Plop the rest of the ingredients right down on top of the cooking tofu - black beans, tomato paste, chili packet, and water.  

Mix the ingredients up in the pan and bring to boiling.  As soon as the entire mixture is boiling, turn down the heat to medium-low and let simmer for about 10 minutes (until desired consistency is reached).  I generally just simmer until the rice is finished.....lazzzyyy.

 Finished!!!!  Now, just slop that chili in a bowl with some rice and a dollop of vegan sour cream and viola! You have an easy, yummy, filling meal for cheapies!

LOVE!