Surprise Guest

Posted on March 5, 2010. Filed under: Daily Update, Recipe | Tags: Bacon, Baking, Broccoli, Chocolate Avocado Pudding, Cocoa Powder, Cookie Friday, Cookies, Dinner, Friends, Lunch, Mighty Maple, Peanut Butter, Popchips, Pumpkin Oatmeal, Recipe, Sour Cream & Onion, Soy Sauce, Tempeh, Tofu |

I mentioned I was in a rush this morning, but I never really made clear why on a day I had no class.

Truth was I had company to attend to! My friend, Eury, decided to take the train down from Boston for the day before she goes to England for a month(lucky duck!). I’ve known Eury litrally since day 1 of high school; for freshmen and sophomore year we had all the same classes and were in the same circle of friends. More recently, I met her in Boston to eat at Grezzo‘s here. While I was finishing up eating breakfast, Eury was understandably hungry from the train and walking. I whipped up something I know pretty well:

Who doesn’t love tofu, broccoli, and soy sauce? It was fun to catch up and have my mind off work while we chatted. One thing we had “planned” to do was bake cookies, which was a lot easier to manage in high school with visits at home than to dorms. Still, we had all the ingredients on hand for a certain recipe.

Eury brought 3/4 cup Florida sun crystals sugar, which was the perfect amount for 5-ingredient peanut butter cookies. I don’t keep much for baking around, but peanut butter and an egg I could certainly manage. I love this recipe because it’s so simple; it was gluten-free before I knew I needed that!

Even though we were dealing with a finicky oven, they came out great for the most part. For the peanut butter, we used 365 brand creamy. Not only is it so delicious, but there’s a coupon in the new Whole Deal flyer letting you get a jar for just $1! For peanut butter that’s just peanuts and salt, that’s a bargain. After a bit more time, Eury needed to catch one of the trains heading out of Providence so we said our goodbyes. I gave her a coconut oil chocolate; I’m still waiting for the review 😉

After she left, I was definitely hungry for lunch. What I really wanted was a nice, juicy burger. Since it’s a Friday during Lent, that was not an option. And–to be honest–I was actually feeling resentful. I could tell that wasn’t right, but rather than sulk and force myself to eat something “real” while resenting it, I decided to go for an out-of-the-norm lunch that would just keep me happy. Last weekend, I picked up this raw cacao at the natural food store and decided to make really raw pudding.

I’ve had a lot of chocolate avocado pudding, but would you believe I’ve never had it 100% raw before? Well, now I have. In the bowl went avocado, coconut milk, raw cacao, and raw agave. To balance out the chocolate, I had one of our peanut butter cookies. The pudding didn’t taste ground breakingly different, but it did have a bit more of a bitter taste and was a unique experience. And, sure, I’d make it like that again. When this didn’t quite fill me up, I went for dessert.

It couldn’t have been wrong to go for another; the first one was part of lunch and this was a wholly different snack 😉 And who can turn down the smell of fresh cookies? With enough peanut butter and sugar in my system, I was able to get to the computer for the first time and get to work. Somewhere along the line, I had the nerve to try something I’d been thinking about for a few days now. It’s no secret I love my fakin’ tempeh bacon, but that’s off limit for Lent, too, so why not make my own?

Tempeh Bacon

Ingredients:

1/2 a block of tempeh

1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon ground garlic or onion(optional)

Cut the block of tempeh vertically into thin strips with a sharp knife. Lay these out carefully in a deep dish with a flat bottom or in a sealed plastic bag. In a small cup, mix together the wet ingredients and spices if using. Pour the marinade over the tempeh bacon, and toss and turn until well coated. Let this sit for at least 30 minutes. Before preparing, pat dry with a paper towel. Cook either heated in a pan with a teaspoon of oil or in the microwave on a paper towel.

After this plop of Mighty Maple, I had easily eaten 1/4 cup nut butter through my day so far. Fantastic. Besides that, it was pretty delicious; the tempeh bacon didn’t taste quite as good as Lightlife’s, but it’ll get me through the Lenten season. I love the maple/smoky/salty flavor to it all. This filled me up a lot, too, and was probably more protein than I had gotten all day, haha. After that, though, I had no real appetite for hunger. I wasn’t craving much beyond veggies and tofu, so that’s what I whipped up.

You definitely can’t say I feed my guests things I wouldn’t eat; I just heated up tofu in a pan with some soy sauce, steamed broccoli in the microwave and then finished that off in the pan, too. I threw in some sour cream & onion popchips to round it out, even though I wasn’t particularly in the mood for them; the dish just felt empty otherwise. My mind keeps going back to last Friday night, when I felt so overwhelmed and needed the promise of ice cream and a trip home the next day to push through. I’m definitely far from there tonight, but I’ll take the ice cream 😉

Check out this giveaway for some Sahale nuts or this giveaway for chocolate milk–both good choices!

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7 Responses to “Surprise Guest”

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Did I miss something? Since when did you have to become gluten-free or why?!

I read an interesting study recently that said if you don’t have celiac’s or severe intolerance, it can actually do more harm than good to eliminate it for long periods – it decreases the bacteria in your digestive system that helps with all that proper digestion, etc….so that’s why alot of people experience digestive problems or are having to “supplement” with probiotics, etc, etc….

eatmovelove
March 5, 2010

Just found your blog! It’s wonderful, and thank you (in advance) for sharing all of your recipes. Cheers!

Shells
March 5, 2010

Raw cocoa in my opinion is very over rated. Honestly, I dont care if it’s raw or not, and im a raw foodie 🙂 The thing is, I am not hung up on the raw label of being raw, i just like things that are not baked, crunchy, fresh, etc and so that’s raw, but some people take it a diff level, i.e. raw cocoa. The only differnce i can taste is the price 🙂 It’s just not worth it to me, but glad you tried for yourself. I am also cheap in addition to not caring about labels/status.

The cookies, i still love those and want to make them!!! I need to do something bout the egg, flax egg i guess.

Thanks for the $1 365 PB.. That’s a freakin deal!

And regarding being GF, or gluten light, all my research shows that in general it’s better to stay off your allergens than continue to inflame your body and make it work or compensate in order to digest things it really doesnt want to. And, gluten is naturally hard to digest, compared to say, fructose. Write me if you wanna chat, I have thousands of hours of research that ive poured thru. I think you’re totally on the right track to avoid/reduce gluten if you have proven isssues with it.

Averie (LoveVeggiesAndYoga)
March 5, 2010