Daily rant_ Food diary #1
Hi, to keep everyone entertained, I'll try to post about quite a few things I cooked and ate in a week while in quarantine. I still only eat 2 meals a day. I don't do the fasting thing religiously but I just don't feel hungry in the morning and eat 2 meals a day means there is one less meal to worry about. As always, I try to make sure my meals have a source of carbs, fat, and protein. I don't count calories nor care about it. I also try to make sure that at least one of my meals has greens in them and my favorite green is kale. The trendy kale is trendy for a reason and spinach is overrated. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
I think now is the time to take care of myself by nourishing my body with vegetables, grains, beans and uhm cookies. Don't judge, cookies have their own food group.
Here's what I cooked on Sunday
#1: Bake Japanese sweet potatoes
I poked a few holes on 2 of them, wrapped them in foil. Threw in the oven then preheat to 350F for them tempeh you'll see at #2. I left them in the oven even after the tempeh was done and the oven was off. Because there was still heat remained. We love efficiency
#2 BBQ tempeh
I cut the tempeh from Trader Joe'sinto strips (the best deal for tempeh ever. I don't know why people would pay more than $1.99 for tempeh if they had access to TJ's). But anyway, that was a tangent. I made my own BBQ sauce. Coat the tempeh with the sauce and bake it in the oven at 350F for about 10 minutes each side. I made them not super crispy and caramelized because I ứa gonna bake them again later in the week.
BBQ sauce recipe (made extra for later use):
1/2 tbsp coconut sugar/brown sugar
1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
4 tbsp ketchup (I used Trader Joe's organic)
about 1 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp tamari/soy sauce
a few dashes of smoked paprika
garlic powder (depends on how garlicky you like it)
some hot sauce (depends on how spicy you want it to be)
--> put everything in a glass jar, shake it up to mix well. Take off the lid and microwave it for 1 minute. Alternatively, you can heat it on the stove.
#3 Cauliflower Bolognese_Because cauliflower was on sale at Sprouts for 98c/lb, we love a good deal (3 servings)
I made a pot of cauliflower bolognese by loosely follow the recipe I got from Bon Appetit. I eyeballed everything. I used dried Italian seasoning instead of fresh rosemary, skipped the dairy because #vegan. I added a can of white bean for protein. Let it cool and store in the fridge for 3 dinners. I made it rather #thicc because I was gonna thin it out later with pasta water when I had my meals.
#4 Cabbage+carrot slaw_Made it while the bolognese was simmering
Cabbage is dirt cheap and it lasts so long in the fridge. I still have like 1/4 of a head of cabbage in my fridge right now. I have a recipe for it. This slaw is super versatile. I only had cabbage, carrot and the ingredients for the pickling liquid; it still turned out fantastic. You can put it in a grain bowl, in tacos, in a salad, in anything, really.
#5: Prep my veggies for the week
I destemmed, washed and spun a big bunch of kale so that I can easily add more greens into my meal later in the week. I also did the same thing with a carton of strawberries.
#6 Cook brown rice: do I need to say more.
_________________________
So here's how my meals turned out
Rice bowls
#1: Put a few strips of tempeh on a lined baking sheet, broil each side for a few minutes until crispy. Kale at the bottom + brown rice, microwave for 2 minutes. Alternatively, microwave the tempeh with the kale and rice. Then add the slaw and crispy tempeh. Topped with furikake, avocado black pepper, and hot sauce.
#2 Fried rice: Saute onions and garlic in a pan. Add tempeh then frozen veg, kale and day-old rice in the pan cover with a lid and let it steam for a few munites. Add the rest of the BBQ sauce made earlier, mix well and cook until it looks a bit dry so that the rice can be nice and crispy. Top with avocado, black pepper, the cabbage slaw, sesame oil, sesame seeds, nooch, and hot sauce.
#3 Kale + Brown rice + Kimchi ( I already have in the fridge) + frozen peas, microwave for 2 -3 minutes. Topped with slaw, black pepper, furikake, hot sauce, and sesame oil
Bolognese:
#1: Cook pasta (I used brown rice fusilli from TJ's), heat 1 serving of the bolognese with some kale and frozen peas, then thin it out with about 1/4 cup of pasta water. Topped with nooch, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and salt
#2: Heat 1 serving of the bolognese with some frozen peas. Thin it out with some water. Microwave kale + brown rice. Add on top the bolognese. Topped with nooch, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and salt
#3: Cut one baked sweet potato in half. Broil it for a few minutes until it's slightly charred. Heat 1 serving of the bolognese with some frozen peas. Thin it out with some water. Topped with nooch, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and salt
#2: Buckwheat porridge
#3: Chocolate peanut butter smoothie bowl
#4: Bagel + vegan cream cheese
#5: Steel-cut oats
#6: Snack my feelings away with nuts, and dried fruit
I think now is the time to take care of myself by nourishing my body with vegetables, grains, beans and uhm cookies. Don't judge, cookies have their own food group.
Here's what I cooked on Sunday
#1: Bake Japanese sweet potatoes
I poked a few holes on 2 of them, wrapped them in foil. Threw in the oven then preheat to 350F for them tempeh you'll see at #2. I left them in the oven even after the tempeh was done and the oven was off. Because there was still heat remained. We love efficiency
#2 BBQ tempeh
I cut the tempeh from Trader Joe'sinto strips (the best deal for tempeh ever. I don't know why people would pay more than $1.99 for tempeh if they had access to TJ's). But anyway, that was a tangent. I made my own BBQ sauce. Coat the tempeh with the sauce and bake it in the oven at 350F for about 10 minutes each side. I made them not super crispy and caramelized because I ứa gonna bake them again later in the week.
BBQ sauce recipe (made extra for later use):
1/2 tbsp coconut sugar/brown sugar
1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
4 tbsp ketchup (I used Trader Joe's organic)
about 1 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp tamari/soy sauce
a few dashes of smoked paprika
garlic powder (depends on how garlicky you like it)
some hot sauce (depends on how spicy you want it to be)
--> put everything in a glass jar, shake it up to mix well. Take off the lid and microwave it for 1 minute. Alternatively, you can heat it on the stove.
#3 Cauliflower Bolognese_Because cauliflower was on sale at Sprouts for 98c/lb, we love a good deal (3 servings)
I made a pot of cauliflower bolognese by loosely follow the recipe I got from Bon Appetit. I eyeballed everything. I used dried Italian seasoning instead of fresh rosemary, skipped the dairy because #vegan. I added a can of white bean for protein. Let it cool and store in the fridge for 3 dinners. I made it rather #thicc because I was gonna thin it out later with pasta water when I had my meals.
#4 Cabbage+carrot slaw_Made it while the bolognese was simmering
Cabbage is dirt cheap and it lasts so long in the fridge. I still have like 1/4 of a head of cabbage in my fridge right now. I have a recipe for it. This slaw is super versatile. I only had cabbage, carrot and the ingredients for the pickling liquid; it still turned out fantastic. You can put it in a grain bowl, in tacos, in a salad, in anything, really.
#5: Prep my veggies for the week
I destemmed, washed and spun a big bunch of kale so that I can easily add more greens into my meal later in the week. I also did the same thing with a carton of strawberries.
#6 Cook brown rice: do I need to say more.
_________________________
So here's how my meals turned out
Rice bowls
#1: Put a few strips of tempeh on a lined baking sheet, broil each side for a few minutes until crispy. Kale at the bottom + brown rice, microwave for 2 minutes. Alternatively, microwave the tempeh with the kale and rice. Then add the slaw and crispy tempeh. Topped with furikake, avocado black pepper, and hot sauce.
#1: Cook pasta (I used brown rice fusilli from TJ's), heat 1 serving of the bolognese with some kale and frozen peas, then thin it out with about 1/4 cup of pasta water. Topped with nooch, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and salt
Other stuff I ate:
#1: Breakfast bowl
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