“Fish” Tacos

I love the tanginess of the lemon and cilantro in these tofu “fish” tacos.

Tacos, ready to go!

Condiments

Ingredients:
Tacos:
1 package firm tofu, cut into cubes
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lime, juiced
1 tablespoons ancho chili powder
1 jalapeno, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
8 corn tortillas

Garnish:
Shredded white cabbage
Hot sauce
Vegan sour cream
Thinly sliced red onion
Thinly sliced green onion
Chopped cilantro leaves

Mix olive oil, lime juice, chili powder, jalapeno and cilantro. Marinate tofu in this mixture at least 15 minutes up to 4 hours (the longer it marinates the more flavor it has). Preheat grill to medium-high heat and place foil on top. Place tofu on foil and cook for 20 minutes or until it is lightly browned. Place the tortillas on the grill and grill for 20 seconds. Use 2 corn tortillas per taco. Add tofu to tortilla and use any or all garnishes.

Tofu with Black Bean Sauce

I made this the other day and it was great! I found the recipe on Tastespotters.com and changed it up a bit.

Ingredients:
1 Block Firm Tofu, drained, cut into ¾ or 1 inch cubed
1 Green Bell Pepper, diced
½ Medium Yellow Onion, diced
2 to 3 Thai Bird’s Eye Chilies, chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, chopped
1/4 cup green onion
2 Scallions, chopped
3 Tbsp Sesame Oil

Sauce
3/4 Cup Vegetable Stock
1 tsp Dark Soy Sauce2
2 Tbsp Black Bean Sauce
2 tsp Soy Sauce
2 tsp Sake
3/4 tsp Corn Starch

Heat the oil in a wok over a high heat. Fry the bean curd in batches until light golden in color. Drain the bean curd on paper towels and set aside. Pour off the oil and reserve 1 Tbsp. Heat the oil on low heat. Cook the garlic until they are fragrant and golden in color. Then turn the heat on high. Toss in the chilies, peppers and onions. Give it a quick stir, mix in the bean curd and add the sauce and green onion. Bring it to a quick boil and season with sea salt if necessary. Serve immediately with rice or udon noodles.

Bento 30 – Spring Rolls

I made a bunch of spring rolls for dinner so I would have leftovers for my bento today plus more. I recently got into making spring rolls, I used to have trouble rolling them, but I think I’ve got it down now. I made a peanut sauce for some tofu veggie lettuce wraps I made the night before, so we used the rest of that with dinner/bento.

Without further adieu, here’s the bento

There’s the spring rolls on the right with some of the peanut sauce in little piggy sauce containers. I added a little bit more of cilantro and green onion to snack on with the spring rolls too.
I sliced up a pear and put in some cherry tomatoes. The other weird looking stuff is some dried spiced tofu… I got it at Tim’s Oriental Market. It was on sale for 39 cents (because it was expired) but I bought it anyway and tried it out. It tastes somewhat like tofu jerkey, not as chewy though. I’m hoping I don’t get sick from it, but it was so cheap I couldn’t resist.

In other news, one of the pictures I submitted to onabentofrenzy’s site was shortlisted! I am so excited that my bentos are actually good looking and I’m not just a crazy person with this site, hehe. There will be a poll on the site soon to choose the winner, so we’ll see how it goes!

Bento #5

Yesterday it was one of my friends birthdays. She had to work today, so for a special after birthday treat I’d make her a nice bento for her lunch at work. I’ve been wanting to make some of my udon noodles for a bento so I used those and some other fruits and veggies I had around the house.

First here’s hers

On the right you can see the mushroom flavor udon noodles, pan fried tofu, and grilled yellow bell pepper and onion. On the left there’s strawberries, blackberries, grapes, raspberries, pretzels, a fortune cookie, and a mint.

And here’s mine

Mine is basically the same, but I have blanched asparagus and no fortune cookie and mint.

I stopped off at her work and we had lunch together. She enjoyed her meal and it was nice to make her something yummy since she has been eying mine!

Vegetable Sushi Dinner Extravaganza

Last night I made a bunch of veggie sushi for Jason and I. It included asparagus, carrot, avocado, and yellow bell pepper made into different kinds of rolls. I tried out making spiral rolls, regular rolls, and inside out rolls. Out of the three I would say the inside out rolls gave me the biggest problems because the rice was so sticky! I also made some tofu sashimi which turned out pretty good. I soaked the tofu in some soy sauce before I made it to add a little extra flavor.

Overall I think the meal was pretty successful. I tried to focus on presentation more and even made little carrot flowers to make the sushi even cuter.