Super Easy Tofu and Asparagus Over Rice

Ok, friends, I think I finally have my picture dilemma figured out. For now, at least! I'm just going to use photobucket until all of that space is gone. Then...who knows! But, at any rate, this means that I can now put up regular posts again! Hurray!

I have had a headache most of the day, and Ben and his mom are still super sick, but I still got lots of candy making done today! I made peanut brittle, turtles, and coated a bunch of truffles. I also did some packaging. Saturday and the craft fair are coming pretty darn quick! I was thinking it might be fun to do a series of candy posts for the holiday season! What do you guys think? Would that be good for you? It's a lot of work, but I've really been enjoying all of the candy making!

Last week I was feeling tired, but it was my turn to make dinner. I thought I'd just throw together some stuff we had around. I had some of this red rice from Alter Eco Fair Trade to try, so I broke that out. Asparagus, tofu and a bottle of black bean sauce all appeared on the counter too, so I went at it!

Tofu and Asparagus over Red Rice

2 blocks of firm or extra firm tofu
1 bunch asparagus, cut into bite sized pieces
1 cup Alter Eco Red Rice
1/2 bottle black bean sauce
oil for frying

First, cut up your tofu into bite sized pieces and drain it, using paper towels or however you usually get the liquid out of your tofu. I seriously wish I had a tofu express! Totally on my Christmas list for this year!!!

I started my red rice cooking so it'd be done in time.

What a beautiful color!!!

 Wait until your rice is almost done cooking before you start this part. It only takes a few minutes. Heat up your frying pan with some oil in it, probably on med-high, and brown your tofu on all sides. Toss in the asparagus and fry just until it's bright green.

Then pour on as much sauce as you want. I used enough to nicely coat everything.

Pile some of the gorgeous rice into your bowl and top with tofu and asparagus! It's as easy as that! Super tasty too!

This red rice from Alter Eco Fair Trade was a bit chewier than the white jasmine rice, but it had great earthy flavor, and the color was just fantastic! Very tasty! A perfect base for this simple meal. YUM!

I made a quick side salad of mandarin orange segments with pomegranate on top! So pretty, and delicious! Nice and light.

Happy eating everyone! Hope you survived your Monday!

Southwestern Food Frenzy!

Wow, am I allowed two posts in one day?! He he. I just made some good looking stuff, and wanted to share!

I was feeling sort of snacky, and was looking around for something healthy-ish, but nothing was jumping out at me. What's filling and healthy, that's made with ingredients all ready in my cupboards? Hummus! I pulled out everything i needed and got out the trusty old Cuisinart.

Late last year B and I roasted a bunch of bell peppers, peeled them, sliced them, and packaged them in ziploc bags for freezing. This was such a great thing to do, we've been using them ever since!

Because I knew we had these roasted peppers i decided to make it a roasted red pepper hummus. It is not a very strict recipe, it's more of a guieline (like the pirate's code!), really it's just putting everything in, blending, and adding until it's the consistency you prefer.

I used:

1 can chick peas, tahini (only about 1Tbsp as it's strong), lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, cumin, and roasted red peppers (these can be purchased at you grocery store if you don't want to make your own).

Toss the chick peas, garlic, red peppers, about 1tsp cumin, and 2Tbsp lemon juice into your Cuisinart and blend. As it's spinning slowly add your olive oil until it doesn't look so dry and chunky. Stop and taste it, adding more lemon juice, cumin or olive oil as you see fit.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge. Use it on crackers or bread, as a spread for wraps and sandwiches, as a dip for veggies, or in whatever way your taste buds tell you to! You can make a plain version by omitting the roasted red peppers. Make up your own flavor combos for never ending hummus possibilities!

Dinner for tonight is not going to be what we thought, those elusive crabs avoided our trap, so it's chicken for us! B is BBQing some drumsticks, so i had to come up with something to go with it.

Keeping in mind the BBQ theme i decided on a black bean and corn quinoa salad, as inspired by a fellow blogger's recipe for black bean and corn salsa.

I used:

1 can black beans, about 1 cup frozen corn, 1 diced tomato, cilantro, green onions, cumin, olive oil, lime juice, cooked quinoa, and some more or our roasted red peppers.

I started out by cooking the quinoa (2 cups boiling water, add 1 cup quinoa, simmer until liquid is gone.). While it was cooking i got the rest of the ingredients together. In a large bowl i put the beans, corn, tomato, cilantro, green onion, cumin, lime juice, and peppers.

When the quinoa was done cooking I added that, tasted and re-seasoned it, then added s&p and a little olive oil and tried it again. Keep tasting and seasoning as needed. Stir well, cover, and chill until ready to serve.

I wanted to grill some asparagus to go with all this, but when i pulled it out of the fridge it was a little slimy, with lots of woody-ness at the ends. By the time i had it all cleaned up there wasn't much left of the asparagus. So i went diving in the veg drawer again and came up with some zucchini. I chopped up both and tossed them with olive oil, s&p, garlic powder, and some lemon pepper. They will go into the grill basket, and hopefully they'll be good!

All this dinner discussion has my tummy grumbling! Time to eat!