Sunday, September 12, 2010

I'm back!

Hi Peeps! Sorry for the long delay between posts. I have been busy and for a minute there forgot I had a blog to write! Whoops. After going to school for seven years to be a school psychologist, I am now working in retail! Wooo  Quite sad, but better than not having a job at all! I believe I will enjoy working at this new job. It isn't forever. 

I also haven't tried anything new since the last post. I should have named my blog The Picky Vegan. I tend to eat the same things. I've been eating oatmeal for breakfast and salad with some other protein for dinner. I could have shared a few things I eat, but like I said, I forgot. I'm sorry, there will be other times! 

My parents gave me an early birthday gift! It was kind of hard to have me wait since I found it, showed it to my Mom, then it came in the mail. Granted I didn't read the box when it came in, which is not like me. She thought I did and gave it to me early anyways. On to what I got!!!!! Extremely excited about this. A Tofu Press! EEEE :o)   



Since I started cooking tofu, I learned it is hard to get all of the water out. You have to press that thing in between two towels for like 3 hours to get it dry enough. I never plan that far in advance so mine usually only sits for 30 minutes. This then usually causes me to get burned if I'm frying it in a pan. Hot oil and water DO NOT mix! I now bake my tofu, much easier. So, all this time I've been thinking there should be some kind of contraption for getting all the water out. Well, low and be hold...I was reading Peas and Thank You blog (one of my favorites) and she had a tofu press on there. I asked her where she got it and she gave me the web page and said it's worth it!

I couldn't wait to try it out.  
 As you can see the water pools on top. And you just drain it off when you've let it sit long enough. Again, the directions said to let it press for 1 hour or overnight. I only did 30 minutes lol. This was mainly because I was going to try a new recipe and it called for marinating the tofu for an hour as well. I only did 30 minutes! :o) It all worked out.  Also notice that my tofu is lop sided? It did that when I would press it with two towels and a grill press? I'm not sure. Maybe our counters are not level. 

I tried this new recipe called Oven Fried Tofu. It was really good! 

Oven Fried Tofu

o      1 block of tofu
o      ¼ cup soy sauce
o      ¼ cup water
o      ¼ cup flour
o      ¼ cup cornmeal
o      ¼ cup nutritional yeast
o      Spices (use whatever you like, I used paprika, red pepper, black pepper, garlic powder)

Drain tofu for 1 hour or over night (30 minutes!). Marinate in soy sauce and water for 1 hour or over night (30 minutes). Cut into fillets. Dredge through flour, cornmeal, spices mixture. Place on slightly oiled pan and bake at 425˚  for 30 minutes

Marinating the tofu, notice the lid!!! It's an all in one dish, drains tofu and allows you to marinate it as well! Awesome!


After dredging through flour mixture and placing on stoneware


What it looks like when it's done cooking! Yum 
Doesn't look like much because Madre and I already sampled a few! :o)

And there you have it! I absolutely love my new tofu press! I learned on another website I follow that you can make your own yogurt at home! I'm really excited about that and plan to make the purchase one day. Especially since I have to drive 45 minutes once a month to buy plain yogurt at Whole Foods. Kroger only has the fruit ones. I like them but I like the plain better. Less sugar and more versatile. 

More too come...there are  a lot of birthday's this month. So, I will be baking! :o)

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