Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Feeling Saucy

Back when I had a shortish stint as a nanny, the kid would take a tater tot, dip it in ketchup and lick the ketchup off, and re-dip. He dipped each tot, fry, whatever at least three or four times in ketchup before eating. He would go through an entire bottle of ketchup in two days easy. He had a million food allergies, and ate a lot of dry, bland food so it kind of made sense. I may not re-dip my food many times over, but I do enjoy a dip.
Yesterday I had to pick up some more Dijon and yellow mustard, and of course I found a few other sauces to try too!
I'm excited to try this cashew Korma sauce!

This garlic relish looks really interesting. It's made with garlic, onion, sugar, canola oil, raisins and dates, and some spices. I don't know what I will use it for yet, but it just sounded too delicious to pass up.
I also picked up some more veggie bouillon cubes. I find them a million times easier, and more economical than the boxed stock. I don't use veg stock that often, and the boxed stuff haunts me if I don't use the whole carton. It sits in the side door of my fridge taunting me, and reminding me that it has an expiration date. If I were a more organized thinker, I would just put the unused in the freezer. But, I am who I am so the bouillon cubes work for me.
The Not chicken cubes are really good for chickpea noodle soup. And I make lots of chickpea noodle soup as the winter months drag on!
For dinner I baked some tofu in some coconut oil and salt and pepper. I've said it before, and I'll say it again this is hands down my favorite way to cook tofu. It's how I cook tofu 99% of the time. The other one percent is split between tofu scramble and tofu miso soup. I put less than a tablespoon of coconut oil in a baking dish, place it in the oven to melt it, and then place my sliced tofu down, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 350 for about twenty or thirty minutes, flip pieces over, season second side and bake for ten or fifteen minutes. You can bake longer if you want it extra crispy. It has a really great texture, and the coconut oil gives it a satisfying mouth feel. And it only takes a small amount of coconut oil to cook the whole brick of tofu.
I wrapped the rice and tofu in some butter lettuce leaves and dipped the wraps in the Spicy and Sweet chili heat sauce by Soy Vay pictured above. The sauce is amazing, and it definitely has a kick. Usually I add additional sriracha, but I didn't need it with this sauce. It's also a marinade, and I bet it would really make some tasty marinated tofu, or seitan too!
Do condiments play an important role in your life?


8 comments:

  1. Cashew korma sounds delicious. I've been getting into baked tofu doing a marinade first. I like the sound of using coconut oil and salt and pepper and will definitely give your method a try.

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    1. It's nice because then it doesn't compete with any other flavorings in your dish. If I want flavored tofu, I will bake it first for about twenty minutes with the coconut oil and S&P,and then put whatever sauce on it, and finish baking for about fifteen or twenty more minutes.

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  2. Food allergies or not, kids can be gross with food. I know I was XD I went through a really picky eating phase and I remember vaguely always trying to sneak butter and sour cream during dinner time. Like nothing else. Like I would just eat a pad of butter and spoonful of sour cream. Looking back it was probably because I didn't eat often, my Mom says that I would get so focused on something I would skip meals, which I can sometimes do as an adult. Funny thing is that now I really don't like either. I mean I like vegan sour cream, and I cook with Earth Balance, but you would never see me put Earth Balance on my bread. Uck. Just plain bread for me.

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    1. I was super gross about foods too. I used to trade my afternoon snacks with my grandparents dogs and have their biscuits! I also used to eat plain sugar, and all kinds of weird things. And I agree about the Earth Balance. I use it, but I can't remember the last time I've used it on bread!

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  3. That s a really weird story about the ketchup-licking kid.

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    1. I have sooooooooo many weirder stories! But seriously, it was so gross I couldn't eat my lunch with him because it was just a ketchup massacre. To this day I have a hard time eating ketchup without thinking of those dark days!

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  4. what wonderful finds, once again! I'm going to have to start doing more online shopping, I think! I'm going to try and do a small spree each month...maybe 25 to 50 bucks if possible hahahaha

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  5. When I lived in Erie, I had coe to the conclusion that I would have to look online for certain things. It's just hard to find places that don't kill you on shipping!

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