Breakfast Quinoa

Vegan

I was half-heartedly looking for a breakfast quinoa "recipe" just because I was still unsure as to the best way to cook it. Oatmeal is easy because it's familiar. I whipped this together this morning and it seems to have worked out pretty well...

I did my standard 1/4 cup of grain + 1/2 cup water (1 grain to 2 water) and made it exactly like oatmeal...brought the water to boiling, lowered the temp, let it simmer until it started getting soft. After that I tossed it quickly into the cast iron with some oil and mixed it for about 5 minutes or so, just enough for it to get hot and coated and cooked a little further.

I added chocolate rice milk, walnuts, dried cranberries, flax, and chia seeds; again, my standard oatmeal toppings. The result? The quinoa had an incredible flavor, overwhelming everything else. Bursting with nuttiness. It's a highly recommended alternative to the relatively bland taste of oatmeal.

That also got me thinking about how much oil I use in my cooking, so I may try to cut down on that...I always use extra virgin, but I'm wondering if I'm just tasting the oil more than the food. Experimentation time!

Going Vegan

I'm finally taking the (not very deep) plunge and going entirely vegan. After getting more immersed in the vegetarian/vegan world I began to realize I was being entirely dishonest with myself about why I "couldn't" go vegan, and finally stripped myself of the last of my preconceived notions about what it means. It didn't hurt that I took a look around my kitchen and realized I had been slowly cutting out all dairy and eggs in the first place; I hardly eat cheese anymore, I've never drank milk, and eggs really are not that appealing to me (I mostly got back into cooking them because my boyfriend loves them). The only holdout was yogurt, which I was eating and cooking with frequently, but spending a few minutes looking up alternatives removed any doubts.

So here I go.

Tofu, Eggplant, and Hummus Taco

Vegan

This was easily my best meal to date, and a major victory in a few different areas. It was the first time I feel like I cooked both tofu and eggplant WELL. I've been experimenting with the two for a while with less than amazing results. LAST NIGHT THAT ERA CAME TO AN END.

All you need is...

Tofu (super pressed)
Eggplant
Oil
Curry powder
Soy sauce
Teryaki
Szechuan peppercorns*
salt/seasoning mix
tortillas
hummus

Press the living fuck out of your tofu. You want the firm/extra firm stuff, then leave it in the fridge under some heavy stuff at least overnight. Once you're ready to cook it, cut it into cubes, then toss it in your soy, teryaki, peppercorns, and curry powder. Let it sit while you heat up your cast iron skillet and slice your eggplant in nice, thin slices. Once your skillet is super hot put in the tofu and cook it for a while, probably at least 10 minutes. You'll be able to smell when it's getting ready due to the peppercorns. After the tofu is done, put in the salted eggplant and let that cook for a while (at least 5 minutes, probably more). I eyeballed both of them.



I downed this excellent meal with an excellent Dreadnaught from 3Floyds, which contributed to the out-of-this-world awesome of this meal.

* A note about szechuan peppercorns...these things were probably one of the only reasons this was as good as it was. This spice is truly a thing of beauty, so much so that they were apparently banned at one point. If you can find some snatch them up.