Carrot Onigiri

I sometimes get lazy, but want to fool myself into thinking what I'm eating is fancy, simply to make myself feel better. So I make simple yet fancy feeling foods.

Like this Carrot Onigiri!

Simple Carrot Onigiri

Ingredients:
Cooked sushi Rice, seasoned with Mirin
Shisho Rice flavoring sprinkles (optional)
Nori, cut into strips
1 Carrot, steamed and mashed

Directions:
I used a triangle press, but if you don't have one, you can use your hands to form the shapes. Take a small handful of rice with wet hands, and place in the press, pushing down. (Or flatten it down with your hands) Add a spoonful of the carrot.
Place another handful on top, and press it down again.
Add a strip of nori on the bottom, and sprinkle with shisho sprinkles or sesame seeds.
Nom!

I ate it with some Spicy Vegannaise! Just mix a spoonful of vegannaise with some sriracha sauce to taste, and use it as a dipping sauce!

Easy Salt and Pepper Tofu

I have been having a bit of a lazy week, with lots of peanut butter and crackers, plain rice with steamed veggies... very uninspiring to be honest.

It's also Canadian Thanksgiving, but the hubs be working, and I'm not visiting family this year, so I had to fill my day with some sort of food to be thankful for.

So I made one of my favorite dishes- Salt and Pepper Tofu.

Easy Salt and Pepper Tofu

Ingredients
Tofu, cut into cubes- medium firm to extra firm
Cornstarch
Salt, Pepper, Chili Flakes
Oil, for frying.

Directions
Heat your oil in a large skillet, enough so there's a nice layer of it in the pan.
Toss the tofu in some cornstarch, and add a few at a time, frying them, flipping them constantly, so that all the sides get nice and golden toasty.
Remove from the oil, and immediately toss with salt, pepper, and chili flakes. Be generous with it! It's what makes it so yummy! Place on some newspaper to drain any remaining oil.
Continue with the rest of the tofu!

I served mine with some leftover basmati rice from the night before, stirfried with some frozen mixed vegetables, fresh garlic and freshly ground ginger... it was awesome.

Happy to Be Back Sushi

So I've been gone. Again.

I broke my computer. Again.

But Now I'm back! And I made some sushi!

Super Unhealthy Sushi

Ingredients:
Sushi Rice, prepared
Eggplant, cut into sticks
Tofu, cut into sticks
Carrots, grated into matchsticks (I have a julienne grater)
Scallions, bottom cut off
Sesame Seeds
Rice Chex
GF flour mixed with soy milk to form a pancake like batter
Oil, for Deep Frying
Nori
Vegannaise
Sriracha sauce

Directions:
Heat the oil on the stove.
Take your Rice Chex, and crush to form tempura like flakes with a rolling pin.
Coat the tofu and eggplant in your Flour and milk mixture, and then quickly toss with the rice chex flakes.
Deep fry the tofu and eggplant until golden and crunchy.
Spread the rice onto the sushi, and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Top with a scallion, carrot strips, and some tofu and eggplant.
Roll the roll and slice into pieces.
Mix together some vegannaise and sriracha sauce to form a spicy mayo dip.
Enjoy!

A Rice Cooker Meal

So I'm currently waiting on my student loans to come in, and we just finished paying rent and a bunch of bills, so it's fairly slim pickings in the money for food department. This means we head back to the staple vegetables: potatoes, onions, carrots, and cabbage. Cheap, delicious, take a little while to go bad. Everything you want in a vegetable when you have a very depleted bank account!

But how to combine them? There is a very easy way to accomplish this. And it involves only 3 items: A small mug, a knife, and a rice cooker.

Here's the sitch:

Easy as Heck Rice Cooker Casserole

Ingredients:
1 carrot, chopped up
a chunk of cabbage, chopped up
1 small onion, chopped up
1 chunk off of a sweet potato, peeled and chopped up
Rice
Water
Spaghetti Sauce

Directions
Take all your chopped up vegetables and chuck them into the rice cooker.

Look at the veg. Yum!

Next, take a mug, and fill it with rice.

I never quite fill it to the top, else I always spill it

Add the rice to the bowl. Next, add 1 mug full of pasta sauce, and 1/2 mug full of water. Stir everything together.

Oooh this looks good!

Turn the rice cooker on, and let it do it's thing.

Sweet Babies!

Then you eat it, and enjoy the fruits of your very cheap labor. Adding things like garlic, regular potatoes, other vegetables, etc, and it'll still work. If you want to add frozen peas (and who wouldn't?) add them in right at the end, else they get all mushy and weird... no good.

nom nom nom!

The Easiest Soup you'll ever Eat

So I've been ridiculously lazy lately. Call it the stress of planning a wedding where everything is falling apart, or perhaps the course I'm taking, or researching my thesis, or even perhaps the cold frigid winter  is getting to me, but I've not wanted to do a damned thing lately. (Excuse the language)

This sadly has included cooking to any great degree. I've been lounging around eating cereal out of the box in my sweatpants, and it's frankly been really depressing as a whole.

So I decided to make something delicious and simple that could perhaps cheer me up slightly. I needed something that was the simplest thing I could think of, and I made my tomato cream soup.

Super Easy Tomato Cream Soup

Ingredients:

1 large can diced tomatoes

1 cup soy/almond/rice milk (whichever you prefer)

Basil, Salt, and Pepper (To taste)

Directions:

Chuck all the ingredients into a blender. Blend until smooth. 

Transfer to a soup pot, and bring to a boil. 

Serve over Rice (if you want!)

If it's a bit too thin for you, and you like your soup thicker, feel free to add a bit of cornstarch (a tbsp or so) to the blender while you're blending it, and it will cook up thicker. 

Chocolate Rice Cookies

I got bored last night. So bored I needed to make some cookies!

It was a very slow night, and I really wanted to bake SOMETHING, but didn't have any flour besides glutinous rice flour, which you really can't make much besides mochi cakes with. So, I took my spice mill and ground up some brown rice and jasmine rice as finely as I could with it, which took FOREVER, because I could only do about 1 tbsp at a time.

Despite this, it all turned out for the best, I think! Also, I had put in some puffed rice, but I didn't like how it turned out, so I left that out of the ingredients.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Rice Cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1 cup sweet glutinous rice flour
1 tsp guar gum
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup vegetable shortening or vegan margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
1 cup warmish water
1 1/2  tbsp finely ground  flax seeds mixed with 3 tbsp room temperature water, and left to sit a few minutes.

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350.
In a bowl, sift together the flours, salt, cocoa, guar, and baking powder until everything is smooth and there are no clumps of cocoa. (I find cocoa gets pretty clumpy.)
In a separate bowl, cream the shortening and sugar. Once that's all combined, add in the vanilla and flax mixture, beating until mixed.
Add the sugar mixture to the flour, stirring as much as possible. Start adding a bit of the water, a tbsp or so at a time, to help you mix it until it's the consistency of cookie batter (You might not need the full cup!)
Add in the chocolate chips, stirring to combine.
Drop onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat, and bake for about 10 minutes. Cool on a rack!
I find these cookies taste best the day off, and they're VERY dippable!
Check out the action pics!

A glass of Almond Milk awaits!

The first dip

Not quite dipped enough!

The second dip!

There we go!

Nom Nom Nom!

A little Simple Tiffin Lunch for your Wednesday

It's been a while since I posted a tiffin lunch, one of those 3 tiered lunches I make for Matthew.

I haven't been 100% lately, been dealing with a few life issues, and all last week Matthew was off from work, so we weren't home a lot, hence the lack of updating. I've been a terrible blogger!

In other news, I've become the editor of an academic journal for my department's graduate Journal, Word in the World. We're taking submissions for the next issue, so if you are a graduate student and have a paper, poem, story, or painting dealing with anything Theological, feel free to e-mail it to me! (If it is a painting or photo, or photo of a work of art, make it as high resolution as possible!) Click here to do so!

Back from plugging my new job, here's the food!

Deconstructed Sushi and Salad Tiffin

Layer 1

Spinach Salad

Ingredients

Enough Spinach to almost fill the tiffin

A small handful of peels from a carrot

A small handful of Dried Cranberries

Directions

Layer the salad with spinach on the bottom, carrot, and then craisins. 

Layer 2

Cranberry Cherry Salad Dressing

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp dijon mustard

1 tbsp cranberry cocktail

1 tbsp black cherry juice

(I had a bottle of cranberry cherry juice, so I used 2 tbsp of that)

some snow peas for bottom of container

Directions

In a small container with a screw on lid, put all of the dressing ingredients. Shake vigorously until all the ingredients are combined. 

Layer 3

Deconstructed Sort of Sushi

Ingredients

1 cup Rice Mix

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1/2 small onion, diced

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp tamari

the peels from a small carrot

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 sheet nori, shredded

1/4 cup tofu, diced into tiny dices

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp tamari

Sprinkles of sesame seeds or rice seasoning

Directions

Mix together the Rice mix and 1 tbsp rice vinegar, set aside.

Pour the other vinegar into a bowl, and add the carrot peels. Set aside.

In 2 small bowls, mix up the separate sesame oils and tamari. Add the tofu to one bowl, and the onion to another. Mix them well. 

In a small non-stick frying pan, fry up the tofu mixture.

Once cooked, mix together with the rice and shredded nori. Press into bottom of container.

Cook up the onions in the same frying pan. 

Drain the carrot peels, layer the carrots with the onions on top of the sushi, and top with the sesame seeds or rice seasoning. 

That's it! Tadaa!

Awesome Rice Mixture

I make a lot of things with rice. I can't help it, I love rice. I spose it comes back to my childhood, when my mom only really knew how to cook Thai food, so we ate lots and lots of rice. It has been hard coded into my DNA, I'm sure.

However, I feel quite unhealthy eating only white rice, as it's not as healthy as normal rice, but brown rice isn't my favorite.

So I  make this rice mixture, and it works out quite nicely with a balance of healthy and delicious. It's great in stirfries, with curries and chilies, in sushi, and can be kept in the fridge for a few days as well.

Natalia's 3-Grain rice mixture
Ingredients:
1 cup jasmine rice
1/2 cup brown rice
1/2 cup white quinoa
3 cups water

Directions:
There are 2 options- rice cooker and on the stove. The rice cooker is easy. Combine all of the ingredients into the rice cooker, and set to cook. Done.
On a stove, combine the 3 ingredients in a saucepot with a tight fitting lid. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Once it boils, reduce heat to lowest setting, and cover, letting it cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for 10-15 minutes, fluffing with a fork afterwards.

The longest pancakes on the planet- Dosas

So my Fiance works with a large group of people from all over the planet, and one of those people, a lovely lady by the name of Yuri, likes to keep up with my cooking, and give me recipes. One such recipe she gave me was for an indian dish named "Dosas", otherwise known as a very elaborate pancake. It takes a long time, but is pretty delicious, especially made with my customized toppings!

Dosas (As altered through Yuri)
Ingredients
2 cups jasmine rice (the recipe called for basmati, but I had jasmine)
1/2 cup Green Split peas (it called for Urad Dal, but I had none)
4 cups water

Directions
You need a large bowl, and a medium bowl. Start at nighttime!
In the large bowl, place the rice and 3 cups of water together. Cover and set somewhere warmish.
In the medium bowl, place the split peas and 1 cup of water, cover and also set somewhere warmish.
Leave them sitting there until the next afternoon.
First, open the rice. It should have absorbed quite a bit of water. Pour off any water that remains, and then dump the rice into a blender.
Begin to blend it, adding in a bit of water at a time to make it a batter like consistency. Place back into the large bowl.
Rinse out the blender, and repeat this process with the split peas, blending into a paste.
Add the split pea paste into the rice, and stir to combine.
Cover, and replace the bowl in a warm place until the next day, allowing it to ferment together.
The next evening, remove the cover, there should be a little film. Stir with a whisk to combine once more.
Spray a non-stick pan with some cooking spray, and fry like you would pancakes.
You can enjoy like that, OR, you can make my topping!

Dosa Topping

Ingredients:

Hummus

1 medium onion, diced

1 carrot, peeled with a peeler into strips.

1 tsp olive oil

Salt, Pepper, and dried chili pepper flakes

Directions

In a frying pan, heat up your olive oil.

Add in the onion dices, and your carrot peels, and sautee for a few minutes.

Spice with salt, pepper, and chili flakes.

As you cook your dosas, spread hummus on them, and then top with the sauteed veggies.

Stack a few like this.

Eat up with happiness!

Thursday's Quick Lunch- Fried Cabbage Curry Rice

A simple and quick lunch recipe for you!

Fried Cabbage Curry Rice

Ingredients:

1/2 cup leftover rice

2 cups chopped cabbage

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1/3 cup frozen peas

1 medium carrot, chopped

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp curry powder

2 tbsp tamari (or soy sauce)

2 tsp cilantro paste

1 tsp chili paste

Directions

Mix together the sesame oil, curry powder, tamari, cilantro paste, and chili paste. Pour a tiny bit into a wok, and set the rest aside. 

Heat up the wok, and add in the onions. Fry for about 1 minute. 

Add in the cabbage and carrots, fry for another minute or so (add in a bit of water if the pan gets super dry)

Add in the rest of the ingredients, including the rest of the sauce mixture. 

Fry together until everything is nice and hot. 

Eat and Enjoy!

Dinner with the Mums

Here's a look at what I did today!

Isn't it pretty? I was re-potting flowers today! My mums and myself went to a little nursery in the middle of nowhere, and all of their annuals were on sale for 99cents a box! It was amazing!

They had so many pretty flowers. I'm not usually a big fan of flowers. To be specific, I'm not a fan of cut flowers, whilst potted plants I find quite nice. So I re-potted two boxes of plants to bring home to brighten up the new apartment!

Very excited about this!

I also made dinner for my mums tonight!

I absolutely adore making dinner for my mother, because she is such a great consumer of food. She's not big on cooking, and she's not particularly creative in a kitchen, so she is constantly amazed at what I put in front of her. I have to admit, it's nice having a captive audience who shows the highest level of enjoyment that is possible while eating food.

she looks sort of cranky, but she was raving about the food!

So I made her some fake General Tao's tofu!

Faux General Tao's Tofu
Ingredients:
Sauce:
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp Cornstarch
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp white wine
1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
1 dash of cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes

Breading:
1/2 cup brown rice flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
dash of salt
dash of pepper
Almond milk, for dipping

Other:
1/2 block firm tofu, pressed and cut into squares or triangles
Oil for deep frying
1/2 cup carrots, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp peanut oil
Rice, to serve it with

Directions:
In a small bowl, mix together all of the sauce mixture, set aside.
Heat the oil for deep frying on high on the stove. (or use your deep fryer if you have one!)
In another bowl, mix together all of the breading, except for the almond milk.
Dip the tofu into the almond milk, and then toss in the breading mixture.
Deep fry the tofu for a minute or so, until the outside is crispy.
Place on a paper towel to drain.
In a wok, heat the peanut oil, and fry the garlic, onion, mushrooms and carrots, until the carrots are softened.
Give the sauce a stir to re-integrate the cornstarch, and pour into the wok. Add the tofu, and mix until the sauce is thickened and everything is nice and coated.
Pour over rice, and eat with every sign of enjoyment!

'Risotto' stuffed peppers

I got a gift of a day off of work!

As a babysitter, I often get the day off when the kids are sick, or their mom gets off work early. So I enjoyed a little afternoon off today, and thus decided to make something slightly fancier than usual for dinner!

So I made 'Risotto' Stuffed Peppers. The Risotto is in parenthesis because while it's the same flavors as the risotto I am sort of known for making amongst my friendlies, I didn't cook it in the time consuming regular method, but faked it.

Anyhoo, here you go!

Risotto Stuffed Peppers


Ingredients:

1 Cup cooked jasmine rice
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
1/3 cup sundried tomatoes packed in oil, chopped
1/4 cup of the oil from the jar of Sundried Tomatoes
2 Bell Peppers, deseeded and cut in half.
basil, oregano, salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350.
Take the rice and dump it in a bowl. Combine with most of the oil, (leave about 1 tbsp) sundried tomatoes,  and the spices.
In a frying pan, sautee the carrots, onions, and mushrooms in the remainder of the oil.
When the onions are transluscent and mushrooms cooked down, dump the cooked vegs into the rice.
Stir to combine.
Place the bell peppers side by side in a casserole dish  and spoon the rice mixture into them. Don't be afraid to overstuff! They'll be fine!
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until steamy and the peppers are softened.
Serve and Enjoy!

Our first Lunch in the new place!

As I've harped on already, moving is exhausting! Even though we still don't have a stove quite yet (it comes later today!) and I had to come down to the local second cup to write this, I still managed to make a pretty delicious lunch.

Also, check out the first groceries I got for our new place! Not a huge haul, but a nice one none the less!

A bag of frozen peas and carrots, some pineapple, some coconut milk, some chopped garlic and a bit of cilantro paste.

I love cilantro paste, mostly because I despise cutting up herbs. I'll admit it, I take shortcuts when I can! Besides, being cooked in recipes it's far more convenient, and it also takes WAY longer to go bad! But moving on!

What Did I cook?

Well, Using the new rice cooker that Matthew got me for my birthday, I made a delightful rice dish for lunch!

If any of you have ever wondered what my recipes look like before I take the time to type them up here, check out my delightful chicken scratch recipe over here! I try to write down the recipes as I've making them (I rarely use cookbooks for anything, to be honest, though I own a lot of them!) I mostly do this so that I don't forget how much of everything I've put into my dishes, so that I can share them with y'all!

But onto the recipe!

Yummy Rice Cooker Rice with Peas and Carrots


Ingredients:
Sauce:
1 tsp Sesame oil
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger, minced
1 tsp chili paste or Sriracha sauce
2 tsp Cilantro Paste (or 2 tbsp chopped cilantro)
3 tbsp Tamari or Soy Sauce

Rice:
2 cups jasmine rice
3 cups water
1 cup frozen pea/carrot mix (Edamame also works nicely in this!)

Directions:


Mix together all of your Sauce ingredients in a small bowl, and set aside.

Next, take your rice and water, and place them in your rice cooker.

Add in the sauce, and swirl everything around, turning on your rice cooker and letting it go.

Twiddle your thumbs and clean up any dishes while that cooks.

When it is finished cooking, turn it to the warm setting, and mix in your peas and carrots. Let it sit for 5 minutes on warm setting to let the peas and carrots get unfrozen.

Serve! I garnished mine with some more cilantro paste and a shaking of red pepper flakes. It was super delicious!

But what if you don't have a rice cooker? You can still make it on stovetop with these modified directions:

Mix up the sauce as above.

Add the rice, water, and sauce to a pot, and place on high until the water starts to boil, stirring frequently.

Turn to low and cover the pot, allowing it to simmer for 5 minutes.

Turn the heat off, and let it sit, covered for 10-15 minutes, until all water is absorbed. Fluff the rice with a fork, and mix in the carrots and peas, re covering for 5 minutes.

Enjoy!