BBQ Tofu

This was my Wednesday night creation. Here’s the sauce I made up:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

2 cups pureed tomatoes (i used diced tomatoes and pureed them in a food processor)

1/4+ Annie's Naturals BBQ Hot Chipotle Sauce (or your favorite BBQ sauce)

3 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3/4ish cup unsweetened coconut milk

add

1 14oz block firm tofu, cubed or sliced ( but soft works too. All I had was soft and it worked just fine)

Heat a large skillet to medium heat. Add tofu and cook for approximately 5 minutes while you prepare the sauce.

To prepare the sauce; Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Puree in a food processor/blender some more if you would like a creamier sauce.

Add sauce and stir, making sure the tofu is well coated. ( Be aware, this recipe makes extra sauce, so don’t try to pour it all on there just yet.)

Cook for 10-15 more minutes, or until tofu is starting to brown/the sauce is boiling/ or its at the done-ness you prefer

Muffins, Muffins, and more muffins!

I recently got ‘The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes’ by Kris Holechek, and have been in a baking stupor ever since.

The book has cookies, breads, muffins, cakes, easy bake oven recipes/ single serving recipes, and some other yeasted recipes. Everything is really fast and easy to make ( although I tend to start modifying things and end up with a more complicated but just as delicious recipe)

The first two days I made 3 loaves of banana bread. Yep, 3 loaves. But I didn’t get a picture because they were usually gone by the time I found my camera. they were kind of small loaves, but that's perfect, because then I can make a bigger variety of things.

Next, Corn bread. Which I don’t have a picture of either. Darn. However, it was really delicious sweet cornbread.

Then, finally…*drum roll* ‘Randy’s Upside Down Sticky Muffins’ Which are those rolls with gooey pecan syrup on the bottom in muffins form.

this one was just a mini loaf made out of some extra batter. The plain one was really good toasted with Earth Balance.

These muffins were so good I used one as motivation to break my personal record at a Cross Country Meet. I wouldn’t eat it unless I did.  and guess what? I did! So i managed to sneak my muffin on to the bus and eat it on the way home. Delicious.

Today, Its my version(I pretty much completely changed the recipe) of the Peary Berry Muffins.

Here is how I did it.

Apple-Pearamon Muffins

2 1/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 c. maple syrup or agave  nectar

1 teaspoon baking power ( 2 for low altitude)

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1/4 c. cinnamon or regular applesauce

1 cup almond/soy/rice milk

2 medium pears, peeled and shredded

1 c. apple, peeled, cored, and shredded.

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400. Grease or line about 16 muffin cups.

Combine Dry Ingredients in a large bowl. Combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients and fruit. Mix until just combined.  Scoop into muffin cups until 3/4 full and bake for 20-25 minutes. Make sure to check these after they get out of the oven to make sure the bottoms of the muffins are baked through.

 

 

Eating out with a XC team!

 So...This weekend I had 2 cross country meets where we took a bus both days, and then got dinner/lunch on the way back. Eating out with people can be interesting when you have no choice where to go. However, here is my rundown of Colorado Springs chain restaurants with accidentally vegan option (because, can we really hope that anyone but someone at Whole Foods even knows what a vegan is, let alone carries vegan food?)

1) Chipotle - Veggie burritos with corn salsa, guacamole, and lots of black beans? yes.
2) Subway - Their employees are not very well educated about what is in their food, but fyi, Italian Bread is vegan. I held up a giant line once to find that out.
3) Noodles and Company- They even have a sign that says what's vegan! I love their food!
4) Pei Wei- Has the best tofu i've ever had. I don't know how they make it so dense and delicious. Anyone have any idea?
5) Taco Bell- Yes, Taco Bell. Bean burritos without cheese are actually vegan. So if your ever starving in the middle of Kansas and there's no other food around, Taco Bell is available!
6) Grocery Stores - The #1 resource for a hungry vegan on the move. Enough said.

The past two days I ended up with a Chipotle and a Subway. I was lucky!


Also, thought number 2..
http://www.easyvegan.info/2009/12/09/defensive-omnivore-bingo-game-on/

Check this Defensive Omni card out. Hilarious!