(Tofu) Scramble with Friends

Breakfast used to be my favorite meal.  When I lived in DC there were plenty of places to get a good omelet complete with peppers, onions, cheese, tomatoes, avocado and yes, bacon.  I loved omelets, scrambles and bacon, egg & cheese sandwiches.  But then I turned vegetarian and I stopped eating meat, and then eggs. And now breakfast kind of sucks.

During the workweek, I usually eat a piece of fruit and a Luna bar or some equivalent of a nutrition bar for my first meal. And during the weekends, I make lunch my first meal.  On the rare occasion, I find myself at a restaurant during breakfast, I look over the menu extensively, trying to find something I can eat. Fruit, toast and hash browns seem to be the backups, and those are just boring-- especially if you're going out to eat. (That's the time you indulge a little, right?). I normally hate going out to eat for breakfast, unless they have tofu substitutes for eggs. Then I'm on board.

    In the past two months, I have lucked out and had two delicious tofu scrambles at restaurants.  One of them was at Magnolia Bistro in Burlington, which is now my new favorite breakfast place. It had everything you'd ever want in a scramble and it was just perfect! It also came with some hearty breakfast potatoes and toast, which was nice after a night of celebrating the holidays! After that breakfast, I vowed to make my own tofu scramble.  I figured it can't be that hard, right?  Right!  It was super easy and now I am hooked!!

Here's what you need:

-- 1 package of firm tofu

-- chopped peppers

-- diced onions

-- corn

-- black beans

-- olive oil

-- spices

-- cheddar cheese

 I took one package of firm tofu and crumbled it into a pretty deep frying pan, and added a little bit of olive oil.  I cooked that on medium for awhile and continually added spices. Now, I didn't have garlic or cumin like most of the other recipes call for. But I did have this freakin' amazing spice mix from my favorite company Penzey's called Arizona Dreaming that had those two ingredients in it, and a lot of other tasty ones (including ancho chili pepper, black pepper, onion, garlic, paprika, spices, cumin, citric acid, Mexican oregano, cilantro, lemon peel, chipotle pepper, red pepper, jalapeño, cocoa, natural smoke flavoring). I added a LOT of spice!

Meantime, I was cooking the peppers, onions, black beans and corn mixture. Once the tofu seemed cooked and was slightly browned, I added the veggie blend, more spices, and a little bit of cheddar cheese.  I served the scramble with a little more cheese on top, and then a side of toast from Great Harvest Bread.

The tofu scramble turned out to be super good!  It was enough for three very filling meals (which you could probably stretch to four if you had an extra side of fruit or hash browns), although my boyfriend was hungry and finished it all!  It was so simple, satisfying and tasty!  And aside from the cheese, I think it's a pretty healthy dish with lots of protein  There is no doubt I will make this again, but maybe switch it up with different veggies and spices. 

Nearly Perfect Panini

I work really early in the morning.  That means my "lunch" time is at 10:30 AM.  Usually I eat the same two things every day for lunch: carrots and hummus, or a vegan BLT.  But I decided to switch things up and make use of our lovely panini maker.  And I learned that there are three important things in any panini: 1) cheese to make everything stick, 2) a sauce or condiment to give it some flavor, and 3) the bread.

Bread is super important. You don't want something too flimsy, but you don't want something that isn't going to work in the panini maker either.  I went with the Burlington-made Klinger's Bread Company Four-Seed Sour Dough that I bought from a local co-op down the street.  Good choice by me.  Next, I spread on some of Giada's sun-dried tomato pesto that I had seen at Target and had always wanted to try.  I thought it might taste good on a panini.  I threw in medium sharp cheddar on both sides of the bread, then stuffed it with sprouts, spinach and avocado.  I didn't use anything on the bread and luckily the pesto soaked through and gave it that crusty, grilled look and feel.

My panini was just delightful!  And it was complemented with a handful of sweet potato chips.  I like to have something crunchy on the side.

I've made paninis before with too many ingredients and they don't press.  So the key is to limit it to only a few things-- like the classic and amazing caprese paninis with tomato, basil, mozzarella.  For the rest of my life, caprese sandwiches will always remind me of touring Europe with all of our belongings on our back and very little money for food.  Many meals consisted of a three-euro sandwich that we would eat in a park or botanical garden.  It was just perfect.

New Job, New Place, Same Me

Okay, so I've been slacking on this blog.  It was once something I loved to do once or twice a week, and it became something I put on the back-burner.  Everything else-- decorating a new apartment, taking naps to make up for a lack of sleep during the night, and even watching ABC Family's "Jane By Design" back-to-back on Hulu-- took precedence.  Truthfully, I'm still going to do all of those things but I'm also going to incorporate blogging in there too.  After all, I'm now living in a region where a healthy, organic, vegetarian, whole-foods, sustainable, local foods lifestyle is popular.

In April, I moved to the Champlain Valley for a new job.  The area includes Vermont and northern New York.  Being in NY and VT means apples, cheese and maple syrup-- which I have yet to incorporate into my cooking.  It also means I'm closer to home, Montreal, the Adirondacks, Boston, and NYC.  And I plan on taking advantage of all the things this area has to offer, just like I did in the Midwest.  (See my travel blog, which I also really need to update: Cross Country with Courtney ).