Monday, February 28, 2011

Sesame Tofu with Garlic String Beans and Brown Rice

This is my new favorite post-run dinner! I'd normally be against using a "bottled sauce," but this one is made with good ingredients and is SO GOOD.

Thanks to Robin for requesting that this be posted!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup (dry) brown rice

1 block of extra firm tofu
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. canola oil
1/4 cup (4 Tbsp.) Soy Vey Veri Veri Terkiyaki sauce (I got mine at Right by Nature in the Strip District)

1 lb. string beans
1 Tbsp. Earth Balance
1.5 tsp. minced garlic
Garlic salt to taste


Serves 2 decent eaters

First, put the brown rice on to cook, because it takes a long ass time (you know what I mean if you're a former white rice eater!) I use a rice cooker, and I'll admit to not knowing how (or wanting) to make real rice in a pot. Seriously, get a rice cooker if you don't have one. They're magical.

For the sesame teriyaki tofu, start with a block of extra firm tofu. Whole Foods' 365 brand is my favorite. First, drain the liquid, then use paper towels to press it. Be firm, but don't press too hard or it will crumble! Then slice it in half lengthwise to create two wide rectangles and press again (the inside is still very wet!) You want to get as much water out as possible, because we are frying this, and water and oil DO NOT MIX! I didn't get mine pressed well enough while focusing on taking photos for this, and I ended up spattering hot canola oil all over my foot. It's blistering now. So just suck it up and press the water out! You can layer paper towels then stack some heavy books or something on it if you have the time.


Next, cut the rectangles into strips. I find it easiest to make one cut down the center, then one to the left and one to the right, creating four strips. It makes it easier to eyeball them for evenness. Then turn the strips and make three more cuts. You should end up with 32 cubes total (Or "close enough to cubes" if you're like me. Whatever.)


Next, toss the cubes in a bowl with some corn starch. For the easiest and most uniform coating, measure 1 Tbsp. of cornstarch into the bowl, add the cubes, then add another Tbsp. of cornstarch on top.


While the cornstarch is absorbing the rest of the tofu's liquid, move on to chopping the ends off of the string beans. I don't know if this step is necessary, but it makes them look pretty! I weigh a pound for the two of us, which looks like a lot, but I promise they cook down a lot!


Next, add the Earth Balance and garlic to a pan.


After it melts, add the string beans and stir to coat them. I use a small one because I think stacking the beans helps to steam them without burning the outside. Just be sure to stir them around a lot!


Heat the oil in a large pan/skillet/wok/whatever until it's very hot. I use a low-tech method called "eyeballing the viscosity," which just means I lift the pan, swirl the oil around, and see if it looks like it has gotten very thin. Oil is much thicker when it's not hot. If you have access, I'd recommend using a deep fryer for this. After my accident yesterday, I'm definitely planning on getting one! When the oil is hot, add the tofu. Please be careful! The tofu has hidden water inside and will most likely crackle and spatter oil. Cook it until it looks something like the photo below. And don't worry, tofu and string beans are both tough to burn. Depending on how you like your beans, you may need to cook them a little longer. I like mine still "snappy."


When the tofu is done frying, you can dump it onto a plate covered in paper towels if there is still grease left. Remove the pan from the heat and add 1/4 cup of Veri Veri Teriyaki. Interesting fact: In Eminem's Slim Shady video, there is a bottle of this stuff in his fridge!




Plate up and serve!


Per serving:
Calories - 681
Carbs - 68
Fat - 33
Protein - 28

Sunday, February 20, 2011

My Vegan Weight Loss Plan

So now that I feel 100% comfortable with the vegan thing, I am going to work on losing weight and getting in shape!

My diet plan:
100% vegan! I will be tracking everything I eat on sparkpeople.com (with a 1300 calorie per day goal,) cooking from scratch a little less (I don't want to burn myself out by spending too much time working out and cooking,) and drinking Nutribiotic vegan protein shakes (it's tough to get the protein I need for weight lifting by eating such a low calorie vegan diet.)

My exercise plan:
We are hitting the gym 3x a week (Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.) I am doing the Couch to 5k program for cardio and lifting weights afterward. We may add in some racquetball, basketball, swimming and hula hooping for variety since they have such good facilities for those things!

Also, I'm going to GET MORE SLEEP. Not "catching up by sleeping in until 2 PM on the weekend" sleep... I'm going to be in bed by 10 PM every weeknight!

It's pretty simple, I guess. The toughest part is going to be just getting my ass into the gym and not snacking when I get stressed out. Thankfully, I have Dustin to drag me to the gym when I don't want to go!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Not From Scratch

I've been struggling to find a way to make easy dishes AND track on sparkpeople.com, because counting calories is the only thing that really works for me when I want to lose weight. However, I find it difficult to track meals that I make from scratch 3x a day. Even if I do food groupings, I have to add new ones constantly, and I just don't have the time to be cooking all of my meals from scratch AND entering each ingredient on a website. Dustin and I both work full time. He is back in school now, and I will be too in the fall! But I NEED to track calories in order to lose weight, so I have to find a way to eat more packaged/pre-portioned foods.

I thought this would be impossible, until I accidentally ended up at Right by Nature in the Strip District, where I almost fainted at all of the amazing things they stock. My most exciting find was frozen vegan burritos!! I keep trying to find the downside to them, but they are 1.Vegan 2.Frozen/pre-portioned 3.Made of natural ingredients 4.Delicious! So the only real downside is the cost... I think they were $2.25 each. But I guess if I have to compromise on something, that's what I'd want it to be! Sure, I can get a burrito the same size at Taco Bell for 99 cents, but ugh... I've eaten Taco Bell once in the last 2 months or so, and I can't imagine doing it again any time soon. I'm seriously reformed here! I want to be able to trust the companies/foods I put into my body, and unfortunately, that comes with a price in this country.

For work lunch today, Dustin took a veggie fajita burrito and I took the spinach tofu one. I added some hot sauce on top because I don't like a too dry burrito:







I'm still having a tough time tasting anything thanks to this cold, but I can tell these will be life-altering. I WILL seek out more things like this so I can track what I eat starting today. Going vegan ended up knocking me further off track than I ever imagined it would, but then again, I never imagined it would stick like this! I am so proud of Dustin and myself, even if we took a while to get back on the weight loss wagon. This is the biggest lifestyle change anyone could imagine for the two of us, and I think it's only going to help us now that we're starting again. I no longer crave pizza late at night. I don't think soda is an acceptable replacement for water. I don't REQUIRE something chocolate after every meal.

Everything has changed on the inside. Now it's time to change the outside too.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Lemon Seitan Stir Fry

Sorry, it's another crappy picture! But you're lucky I took one at all! I used my phone because I was too lazy and eager to shovel this into my mouth hole to do the real camera thing! My iphone takes good photos, but Blogger screws them up when I upload them to Picasa for some reason. :(

The recipe is Vegan Dad's seitan lunchmeat modified with slightly less sage and fennel, then sliced into strips and stir fried. I used a packet of lemon stir fry seasoning, but it was so bland that I ended up adding lemon zest, lemon juice, soy sauce, and sesame seeds. It turned out good, but I will definitely make my own sauce from scratch next time!

Banana Walnut Waffles

I modified a recipe from Veganomicon by adding cinnamon, ginger and clove, because nutmeg alone is a little boring. I make a big batch of waffles on weekends and freeze them for easy work breakfasts. These are my favorite so far because the recipe requires much less oil than others because of all of the mashed banana. :)





(Sorry about the crappy photo- I took it with my iphone under fluorescent office lighting!)

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Sloppy Joes and Mac n Cheese!



TVP sloppy joes are AMAZING!! I rehydrated the TVP granules using fake beef broth that I got from the bulk bins at the co-op, browned it a little in a pan, then added a can of sloppy joe mix that we had leftover from the non-vegan days. I'll probably want to figure out how to make it from scratch, because I'm sure it's full of stuff I don't want to be eating. Also, the buns are hot dog buns from Whole Foods and were the perfect size.

I also made mac and cheese out of whole grain rotini pasta and a mixture of stuff that I didn't write down. It definitely included a block of silken tofu, soy milk, yellow Daiya, garlic salt, chili powder, turmeric and onion powder. I put it into personal sized casserole dishes, topped it with breadcrumbs and paprika, then baked it at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Next time, I will not make both of these together. The sloppy joe had about 300 calories, so I'd serve it with steamed veggies instead.

Dustin's Burnt Almond Torte

Okay, so Dustin and I don't get each other gifts for holidays, and this includes birthdays. Most people think it's weird, but we don't. We can't hide anything from each other anyway! So usually, all we ask for is a specific cake and/or restaurant outing. I almost always got a DQ ice cream cake, but obviously, that's not vegan. So I thought about what would be the most amazing thing I could imagine veganizing, and demanded that Dustin, who is new to cooking and baking in general, make it for me: A BURNT ALMOND TORTE.

I don't even know how to make a burnt almond torte. But I thought the internet could help, so I wasn't worried. Little did I know that burnt almond tortes are a Pittsburgh thing, so the internet wasn't helpful at all! Since I demanded such a crazy thing, I ended up helping out a little, but most of the credit really should go to Dustin. He is the best. :) (Also, this is based on my memory of the last one I had from Prantl's bakery in like 2004, so it might not even be close. But who cares? It was great!)

From Valerie Goes Vegan!


From Valerie Goes Vegan!


He made two 8" round cakes using the vanilla cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, substituting mostly almond extract for the vanilla. He did the same thing with the buttercream frosting from the same book, making the BEST almond frosting I've ever had in my life. The almonds are just slivered almonds cooked in sugar over a low flame until they caramelized a little.

Seriously, I was SO happy with this!