June 12th

One of our Facebook posters keeps mentioning that we should get some spicy baked tofu on the menu.  Well, that sounds like something I should try, so I did.  I found this recipe on the interweb.  They have the internet on computers now. 

Spicy Baked Tofu

Ingredients:

• 1 14-ounce package Organic Extra Firm Tofu, pressed, drained and sliced into 12 1/2″-pieces
• 3 tablespoons Thai Kitchen Spicy Thai Chili Sauce Marinade
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1″ piece ginger root, grated

Instructions:

 

Toss everything (except the tofu) into a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.

 

press tofu to remove extra moisture (standard technique there)

slice tofu block into 12 equal pieces

in a small flat bottom bowl, marinade the tofu (in the sauce you set aside) the for at least an hour.

preheat oven to 350 degrees.

bake tofu for 60 minutes, turning tofu over every 20 minutes

I followed the recipe almost exactly. I couldn't find the Thai Kitchen brand sauce so I substituted that with "House of Tsang" brand Szechuan Spicy Stir-Fry Sauce.

After pressing and cutting the tofu, I simply put it back into the original container so it could marinade

I made sure to get the sauce in-between the slices so it coated evenly.  

I cooked up some rice and steamed up a pile of veggies to put under the spicy tofu.

I actually made a second batch of the marinade and drizzled it over the top of the plate.  This little lunch was very easy to make. It did take a over an hour, but most of that time was waiting for it to bake.  Actual work time was probably less that 10 minutes.  

That marinade/sauce was flat out awesome.  It was so good that I licked the bowl clean.  Even the meat eaters in your life would enjoy this meal.  It did have a little spice, but my kiddos ate it with no problem.  

I didn't really intend to lean towards an Asian flair, but since the spicy tofu was suggested by a Maty fan, I gave it a run.  I'm really glad I did.  

I'm going to tuck the Asian sauce recipe into my go to bag.  

This recipe is very easy and very good. 

More to come next time. I have a black bean and quinoa enchilada recipe that I can't wait to try.

June 11th

Sorry for the lack of blog activity the last few days.  I have just been too busy to cook anything fun.  Luckily, it is really easy for me to grab a veggie burrito at Maty. 

I have always loved a good salad.  Here is my lunch from the other day. 


One big fat salad.

Snow peas, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, red onion, a few grinds of black pepper, and some Smart Bacon.  I fried up the bacon and tossed it in a little bit of this...

I also added a little drizzle of Blue Cheese Dressing.  It was amazing.  One great thing about having all of these veggies around is that I can make an amazing salad in no time.  That Smart Bacon really topped it off.  I was actually hunting through the bowl trying to find the fake bacon bits. 

Great mental note to myself here.... Use the meat sub (Smart Bacon) as an accent to a dish and don't try to make it the main ingredient.



Now for a real recipe.  Carrot and Beet burgers.

I got this recipe from Emily.  She is a Matador customer, and a flat out fantastic person.

Here is her recipe.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup sesame seeds

1 cup sunflower seeds

2 cups peeled grated beets (1-2 medium beets)

2 cups grated carrots (about 4 carrots)

1/2 cup minced onion (about 1 medium onion)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup cooked brown rice

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup finely chopped parsley (or cilantro)

1/2 cup flour

2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari

1 clove garlic, minced

1/8-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Butter or oil for greasing the baking sheet.

Directions

1. Cook the brown rice.

2. Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly grease a baking sheet spray cooking oil.

3. Place a small, heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the sesame seeds and stir them on the dry skillet just until lightly browned and fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes, watching closely to avoid burning them. Immediately remove from heat and transfer the toasted seeds to a dish to cool.

 4. Return the skillet to the heat. Add the sunflower seeds and stir them on the dry skillet just until lightly browned and fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes, watching closely to avoid burning them. Immediately transfer them to the dish with the sesame seeds.

Use a Cuisinart! Do the beets and carrots first then transfer to a bowl and bleed with the soy sauce. drain liquid after a while then add a little additional soy sauce and then add oil.  Meanwhile, rinse Cuisinart and do garlic, then onion, then cilantro (or parsley) and then transfer to drained carrot/beets.  

5. Combine the beets, carrots, and onion in a large bowl. Stir in the toasted sunflower and sesame seeds, eggs, rice, cheddar cheese, oil, flour, parsley, soy sauce or tamari, and garlic. Add cayenne and mix until thoroughly combined. (add flour one tablespoon at a time). 

 

6. Using your hands, shape the mixture into 12 patties and arrange them in rows on the baking sheet.

7. Bake the patties until brown around the edges, about 20 minutes. Flip at 20 and let cook 5 more minutes on the other side. 

Makes 12 patties.

I followed her recipe exactly.  Well, almost.  I did four times the amount of cayenne powder.  I wanted a little more pop.  I can't help it. I need the heat. I used cilantro instead of parsley.  Lastly, I used a Cheddar/Jack blend for the cheese.  I don't think any of my substitutes would make a difference in the over all recipe.

I topped it off with some Creamy Swiss Cheese.  A side of vegetarian baked beans and dinner was served.

I had a little bit of trouble cooking the patties, but nothing I couldn't handle.  I ended up with 9 burgers instead of 12 so I had to cook them a little bit longer.  It wasn't a big deal, but that was the only snag I came across.  Better portions next time and it isn't a problem.

The final result was great.  While making this, my mind was racing with new ideas.  This recipe is wide open for twists and turns.  You can just about add anything your heart desires to this base recipe.  Just like the Sloppy Joes from last week, you can take this recipe and play.  That is exactly what I was hoping for.  Recipes I could just use what I had on hand and goof off.

Diced Jalapenos
Quinoa
smart bacon bits (must be amazing)
BBQ sauce
Emily suggested topping it with avocado and pepper jack cheese or fresh mozzarella.

You could just about do any burger idea on these.  Mushroom Swiss, Smothered Green Chili,  Bacon Cheese burger, fried egg, or whatever.  Hit your favorite burger place and steal some ideas.  My favorite burger place is Stuft.  I just pulled up their online menu and the list of ideas is endless.

Make it vegan by skipping the egg and cheese.  Maybe toss in some cashew cheese instead of the egg to help bind it. 

It would be very easy to make it gluten free. I always use corn flour instead of wheat flour anyway.  It gives everything a new layer of flavor.  Skip the soy sauce and go for tamari, kill the bun and BINGO! You have  gluten free dinner.

So, not only is this recipe a good meal, it is also a great starting place if you want to get a little crazy and try some new stuff. I'm not a big fan of beets.  They always seem to have a little to much of an "earthy" taste them.  I was a little hesitant to try it but Emily really sold me on it.  I wasn't disappointed. 

You should make sure you have some latex or vinyl gloves on hand before you make this.  Working with beets stains your skin.  It looked like I butchered a herd of farm animals when I was done. 

The delivery driver from Ft Collins Brewery (Justin) is starting his own hot sauce business.  He has a Beet and Jalapeno hot sauce that he let us try.  It was really good.  We have a bottle of it behind the line at Matador.  If you want to give it a try, let us know.  We would love to share.  With any luck, he will be in full production very soon.  I will make sure to promote his business on our Facebook page when he is up and running.  

One funny side note.... The Matador softball team played against the Stuft softball team tonight.  It was a really fun game and even better because we won.  Sorry, Stuft. 

I have a hot enchilada recipe in my back pocket that I will cook next.  Stay tuned.

June 7th (only a few days left)

I'm quickly running out of time.  On one hand, I'm excited to get some meat back in my diet. On the other hand, I'm bummed.  I still have the need to keep playing with veggie foods and I hope I don't get away from cooking in this direction too fast.  The pork has a stronger pull than the veggies have.....

I watch way too much Food Network, and there are a few guys I would consider as "go to" guys.  My top three are Alton Brown, Tyler Florence and Bobby Flay.  I love how Alton Brown makes it a food lesson.  It is all about the how and why.  Even when he is talking about something you don't care about, you learn something about food that you can use later.  Tyler Florence is fired up about everything and he gets me excited to try new stuff.  Bobby Flay is the king of the grill and peppers, and those are two of my favorite things.  I mention these guys because I have tried many of their recipes in the past and I think their stuff matches my taste the best. 

I prefer to look towards a professional chef when I look for new recipes.  I have tried a ton of things on "home cook" style sharing websites and they are really hit or miss.  Nothing against a home cook/chef, but if your going to take a stab in the dark on a new recipe then you should look to someone who has a million dollar network behind them. Having said that, I have the good fortune to know some people that should probably have their own network.....

Onward towards kale!

A few days ago, I mentioned that I purchased some kale but didn't get a chance to try it yet.  Jill posted a salad recipe that I really wanted to try, but didn't get a chance to do yet.  I can hopefully get make it tomorrow.  I need to grab some ingredients so I can do it right.  Here is what she posted (if you don't read the blog comments)

I love kale, it's my new thing. I've a kale salad I LOVE..
In a small bowl whisk 1TBS. olive oil, 1Tbs. Dijon mustard and 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar.Season with course salt/pepper.  In another bowl, combine 3 cups mixed shredded kale and red cabbage, 1 peeled and julienned carrot,1/4 c. fresh parsley leaves. 2 Tbs. diced red onion and 2 Tbs. each sunflower, pumpkin, and hemp seeds. 3. Season with coarse salt and pepper, drizzle with dressing and toss to eat! YUM....I use 2-3 different kinds of kale in this. It's delish..

It sounds great and she is a rock star, so I know it will be great.  I will make it tomorrow.


Now for the recipe I did get to try.  Bobby Flay had the first one I looked at, so I ran with it.  This is his sauteed kale recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds young kale, stems and leaves coarsely chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock or water
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Directions

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until soft, but not colored. Raise heat to high, add the stock and kale and toss to combine. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove cover and continue to cook, stirring until all the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add vinegar.

I went heavy on the pepper and topped it off with a touch of Parmesan cheese.  It was fantastic. 

It was a big batch and I killed it all (by myself).  It would make a great side dish to any meal and I would highly recommend it. 

More to come tomorrow.  Cheers

Tuesday June 5th

I started off the day stealing this recipe

http://bicyclingvegan.blogspot.com/2012/06/tempeh-joes.html

Sloppy Joes, vegetarian style.

I followed her recipe fairly closely.  By the way, she is a Matador regular and someone I have been plastering with questions every time I see her.  She has been a vegan for years. Her blog is packed with hundreds of ideas and recipes.  I have read tons of her stuff, and snagged lots of ideas.  If your a veggie head, you should subscribe to her blog.

Anyhow, here is her recipe for Vegan Joes

1 block tempeh (use gluten-free tempeh for gluten-free joes)
Olive oil
At least 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 can diced tomato
1/2-1 can tomato paste
up to 1 c water
4 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder (or 1/4 c onion diced)
1 t salt
1 t chili powder
1 t cumin
Optional: pepper


The substitutes I used....
Fire roasted tomatoes instead of diced tomatoes
granulated garlic instead of powder (I think it has more pop)
8 oz (1 cup) of diced red onion instead of onion powder
cayenne pepper instead of chili powder (I also doubled it so I could get some heat)

Since I used fresh red onion instead of powder, I started by cooking that first.  The onion was slowly sauteed until it was a dark golden brown then I followed her directions.

I toasted my bun and added a sprinkle of extra sharp cheddar cheese.

This little guy was was the result.

My mom cranked out some great Sloppy Joes when I was growing up, but I will be honest, I have grown to hate the idea of a Sloppy Joes.  Maybe school lunches made me hate them or perhaps the years of horrible Manwich commercials have scarred me for life.  I just can't understand why images of kids with crap smeared all over their faces would be a good marketing campaign.  For some dumb reason, the idiots in the marketing department at Manwich think that makes people hungry for their red, sugar filled crap.

Seriously, the second ingredient is high fructose corn syrup, the forth ingredient is corn syrup and then a little later down the list... they even add sugar.  Their newest marketing campaign says its healthy because there is "a full serving of vegetables in every can."  I think that stupid little can of garbage represents all that is wrong with America. 

Putting all of my dislike for Manwich aside..... I enjoyed the Veggie Joes.  If I was going to do the recipe again, I would try to add a little more tempeh.  Probably two blocks instead of one.  However, when I look at her blog pictures it seems like her batch has a lot more tempeh than mine did.  I probably picked up a smaller "block" than she had.

There was nothing wrong with that lunch.  I would happily try it again.


See you next time, Cheers

June 4th update

Three weeks down, only one week to go.  There is no way I can get enough cooking in over the next 7 days to satisfy my original plan.  I won't continue my all vegetarian diet past my 30 days, but I will keep cooking vegetarian stuff.  I don't mind it for myself, but I don't want to be a bother to the people around me.  I just haven't tried enough stuff to satisfy my desire for learning.


I spent most of Sunday helping people move into a new home.  Doughnuts for breakfast, cheese pizza for lunch and fast food bean burrito for dinner.  Horrible diet, but at least I ate less than I normally would have.

Onward to Monday.  I was trying to go all veggie, no meat subs today.

I hit the local grocery store and picked up just about every vegetable I could find.  I planned on making a giant stir fry to pile on a bed of rice.  Rice is always great, and I have cooked a ton of it.  We have a little 6 cup rice cooker that we use all of the time.  I love just tossing junk in there and trying new stuff.  Besides, when a rice recipe doesn't work, you can just add hot sauce and get something edible.  You can never loose with rice. 

Tonight's rice was a little asian/mexican fusion.  1 1/2 cup rice, 3 cups water, 1 tbsp ancho paste, pinch of salt, about 5 grinds of pepper, 1 tbsp of veggie base and 2 tbsp of soy sauce.  Hit the button and bingo.

My stir fry wasn't really a stir fry.  I used a wok, but I prefer to steam my veggies rather than fry them. 

1 red onion
1 red pepper
1 shallot
5 cloves of garlic
1 yellow pepper
1 little bag of snow peas
1 bunch of broccoli
2 tbsp of ground ginger
1 zucchini
2 heads of baby bok choy

I fired up the wok with a little olive oil.  When it was smoking hot, I added the onion, red & yellow peppers, shallot and garlic.  I cooked them until they were golden brown and delicious.  Well more than most stir fry recipes would call for, but I wanted the onions to mellow and sweeten so the kids would grub them.  After about 10 minutes, I added the peas, broccoli, zucchini and ginger.  At this point, I put in about a cup of teriyaki sauce and dropped the lid on.  This is where I was looking to steam the veggies.  A few more minutes and I tossed in the bok choy to finish.  I move the veggies up the side and just let the teriyaki reduce and steam the veggies.  Lovin it.

Of course I put a little Sriracha sauce on there.

I think every bit of food in the world exists so you can put sauce on it.  I love teriyaki, but I hate how everything has high fructose corn syrup in it.  I decided to make my own.

I clicked on Tyler Florence's first recipe and went with it.

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 teaspoon dark sesame oil
• Juice of 2 oranges
• 2 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoon ginger, peeled and minced
• 1/2 cup scallion, chopped
• 2 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted

I skipped the sesame oil because I didn't have any, and I didn't want to buy it.  It had some good flavor, but I think it would work better as a marinade.  I will continue my quest for a great teriyaki sauce, and keep you posted

I made some chicken in another pan for my kids to add to their dinners.  I really wanted to try it..... It looked and smelled amazing.  My wife tried to play it down and said it was just OK.  She is a liar.

I cut some chicken breasts into cubes and just let it braise is a stock of soy sauce, garlic, pepper, and a Carolina BBQ sauce I made a few days ago.  My mouth is watering just thinking about that sauce.  The kids ripped it to shreds and my wife didn't say much during dinner because her mouth was full.

We all left the table happy.


I picked up a pile of kale but I didn't think it would work with the rest of the dinner so I will give that a run tomorrow.


More to come next time....

June the twooth

I'm still very disappointed in the amount of new recipes I have been able to try over the last week or so.  Work has been crazy busy this week.

Writing that makes me think that all I'm doing is making excuses.  Eating unhealthy food is very easy.  Never enough time to do it right so most people take the easy way out and eat junk.  My junk intake has been much lower during this quest, but by healthy eating standards, it is still lower than I would like.

Vegetarians sure do need to be committed to pull it off.  Not only for themselves, but if you live or hang out with people that aren't vegetarians then they need to help you out.  We snagged a pizza from Mama Roni's today.  Normally we would have just grabbed a pepperoni and ripped it to shreds. Today, we had to make it a veggie.... It was still the best pizza in town (in my humble opinion), but I felt bad that the meat eaters had to go out of their way for me.

I really dig Mama Roni's Pizza.  In all honesty, I know the owners, I think they are great people and I like their pies.  Back in the franchise taco days, we were interested in doing some delivery.  I needed some advise and I didn't know where to turn.  I decided to call my favorite pizza place and ask for help.  That's right, I did love the food before I knew them.  They invited me to come down and check out their operations.  They had no clue who I was or what I was doing, but they still offered to help me out.  In the middle of a crazy day, they sat down with me and answered every question I had.  They didn't need to give me the time of day, and  I wouldn't have been offended if they told me to shove it.  That is what you call good people.  Funny how the little things make a huge impact.  I didn't intend to use this blog as a platform for advertising, and that wasn't the intent of my story. Today just reminded me of a few things... I work with some really good people that go out of their way to help a guy out.  I also have the good fortune to be in the same business with some really good people that go out of their way to help a guy out.

Back to the food.

I was chatting with a customer about superfoods today.  Those foods that are just flat out so good for you that you should eat them every chance you get.  The top ten on most lists are

yogurt
eggs
nuts
kiwi
quinoa
beans (black are best)
salmon
broccoli
sweet potatoes
berries

Take salmon off the list and you have a veggie paradise.  Everything on that list also tastes great so they are all a slam dunk.  Some other lists have great foods I think should be included too.  I would toss these into a master list of amazing foods.

avocado (but you already knew that)
hot peppers (duh)
barley ;)
horseradish
cabbage
spinach (or dark leafy greens)
onions (red, white, yellow, shallots, and garlic)
spices like cinnamon, pepper, oregano, ginger and mustard
nuts
chocolate (the darker the better)

Sure, your personal tastes could kick one or two things off that list, but the vast majority of great foods taste great too.  A few years ago, my wife and I decided that every time we go to the store we will always just grab some random fruit or veggie while we are there. Want it or not, we just made better food available.  Fun times are had with fruit.

Bottom line, eat all of those any chance you get.


More to come next time.


Cheers

May 30th and 31st

I'm more than half way done with my 30 day run on a vegetarian diet.  I haven't had a chance to do anything great in the kitchen.  My last two days have really just been filled with whatever food I can grab.  Unless something really changes, I won't have any chance of getting what I want out of this.  Even though my 30 day veggie quest will run out, I will keep working on vegetarian food after I'm done.  I have just been too busy to give this as much time as I want to give.  

I don't really have any great food experiences over the last few days, but I did want to share some recipes.  Before I hit some recipes, let me give you a quick run down of what I ate.

Breakfast was simply some egg and potato burritos at Matador.  I flat out love the Maple Jalapeno hot sauce.  Vegetarian or not, that stuff rocks.  I'm sorry to pimp out our stuff, but that sauce is great.  I just can't get enough of it.  I really like the breakfast sausage TVP from Harmony Foods.  You can get it at Vitamin Cottage, Sunflower and Whole Foods.  There may be some other stores in the Fort, but I know these guys have it.  If you want a breakfast meat sub, then that is the winner.

I made a few enchiladas over the last few days.  I'm a huge fan of an avocado and cheese enchilada.  A customer recommended that to me a while back, and I'm glad I tried it.  The standard cheese and onion enchilada works just fine too, but I find myself looking for more.  Rice & cheese, beans & cheese and even a grilled veggie & cheese enchilada rank higher than just cheese & onions.

Avocado and sweet potatoes have been my best friends over the last few days.  In the back of my mind, I know they are great foods that are really good for me, so I eat the crap out of them.  I'm sorry to mention Matador food again, but since we have so many sauces, I can have something totally different every day.

I'm loving summer.  This is fresh fruit season and I can just grab great fruit everywhere.

Now for some recipes.  I'm not going to give out any Maty recipes here, but I will toss out some great stuff I have tried.  After all, I have a business to run here.  If I told you all of our secrets, there would be no need for you to give us your money.  ;)

This is an enchilada sauce from Alton Brown.  That dude is a  food king.

• 2 dried chipotle chiles, stems and seeds removed, diced
• 3 large garlic cloves, minced
• 2 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons toasted cumin seeds, freshly ground
• 2 cups veggie broth
• 3 cups tomato sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 

I always have a can of chipotle in adobo.  I sub out the dried chiles for a few of those.  Just toss everything in a blender, give it a spin, then off to a sauce pan.  Let it simmer for 10 minutes.  Bingo.

Make your own soft corn tortillas.

You can buy this little guy at just about any kitchen store on the planet. It is under $20. 

1 cup of corn flour (masa harina)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup water

You simply can't get any easier than that.  Fresh, simple, and no additives or preservative.  It is also a ton of fun for the kids.


My favorite guacamole

• 3 avocados, halved, seeded and peeled
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 medium onion, diced ( I like a red onion)
• 2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
• 1 clove garlic, minced

 Just toss everything into a bowl and mash the crap out of it.  I love to zest the lime and add that to the mix.  There isn't anything wrong with tossing a jalapeno or habanero into the recipe. 


I will toss out some more recipes soon.  Give these a try and let me know what you think.