A favorite: ginger baked tofu stirfry on tofu noodles

This one isn't exactly new - i do baked tofu a fair amount - i am however trying to get over this strange aversion i have to ginger - so i thought i would try and use more ginger in the tofu in this version. I bought a brand of tofu i've very purchased, and it was supposed to be "extra firm" but i really found it quite crumbly, which was an added challenge. For the veggies, it was also the standard, except i got these adorable little eggplants - so cute!

I diced the tofu before baking it and made a soy/ginger marinade.

I used the microplaner as it allows for almost a liquidization of the ginger.

Overview of the operation

Tofu noodles

Dinner

Lighter mexican salad

The winter is getting to me, so i thought it would be nice to make a colourful salad full of "fresh" ingredients to help perk me up. This one's base was canned corn and black beans - i know not exactly fresh, but corn is a total reminder of summer, and i had both in my pantry.

Ingredients Chopped up

I mixed the corn and black beans with seasoning, including some lime zest.

I added all the veggies - except the romaine lettuce and toss it with a little sour cream and lime juice mix - its a nice low fat dressing that seems decadent, but isn't.

Reading Week and Winter Feast

Because i am a poor student i didn't get up to much for reading week, but i did visit my parents, and there is a norther version of Winterlicious called winterfeast that they run at a few of the inns and restaurants. We went to two of them along with visiting the Alton Mill and a Cider brewery (if that's what you call cider makers)



We went to the Millcroft Inn and had quite an interesting meal, especially the dessert:

Roasted Tomato Soup

Filet (rare) with these really neat potatoes that were super filling




Dessert - pinapple carpachio with sweet peppers, coconut and a ginger/coconunt icecream


(there was a great deal of debate about the icecream flavour - i thought it tasted a little like French's mustard)

Rare tuna with wasabi aioli at One 99 in Orangeville

Spirit Tree - a cider place with a bakery and small restaurant





So much cheese

Squash pizza with carmalized onions and pumpkin seeds

(i will be making this soon)

Cider menu - my dad's personal heaven

Mission: Roasted Red Peppers

Whenever i buy i jar of roasted red peppers, i end up using some of them, and the rest get moldy/weird so quickly it is such a waste, especially because i like them so much. I know i could roast them myself, but without gas its really an annoying process. This time when i was contemplating buying them i decided that i would try and use them all before they went funny.

I thought about making a soup, but instead i went for a pasta sauce where they were the base instead of tomatoes, and for the remainder, i was going to make hummus.

I pureed and seasoned the peppers for the base of the sauce and reserved some of them for the hummus

Hummus ingredients - pretty simple

The pasta as okay - i didn't love it, but the hummus was really good. I even made little samis for lunch with it.

Potato Hash with Baked Egg

So i think i saw a dish similar to this on foodgawker or something, and it had been sitting in my head for a while, and really it involves ingredients i almost always have - so one lazy saturday - which i have way to few of these days, i decided to chef-it-up and make this egg baked in potato hash.




For the hash i used the standard onions and garlic. I cut the potatoes smaller than i would usually, and boiled them first - it allows you to make a better crust on them.

boiled potatoes

I did the potatoes for a while then added the onion and garlic. This way takes a lot of patience.

Once the potatoes were crispy i made a small well and cracked an egg in it. I then seasoned it with pepper and added some shredded cheese, putting it in the oven, i think i had it pretty high - maybe 450. Important to use a pan that can go from stovetop to oven.

The hardest part was taking this out of the pan effectively - the presentation wasn't as centred as i would like, but this would actually be a really good thing to make for a group in a larger pan. It was actually amazing, and i ate everything on that plate!!!

Raptor's Game and the return of Salad King

One of my school mates has been dying to go to see basketball since he's from Vancouver and their team has been gone for over a decade. We finally got it organized (well i credit him) and went to see the Raps play the Bulls- it was a great game and we won!!!



This coincided with the re-opening of Salad King - so we went there for dinner before the game.

I got the tofu curry - i also got it a 5 for spiciness - it was pretty hot - but i managed thanks to water and plain rice. The guys beside me got a ten and a seven. I might try a seven with noodles next time.

Patrick got the veggie curry - mild.

We stopped by seven-eleven on the way to the game and i was fascinated by these

Cora's and Thai Food in Waterloo

As another installment in my food travels in Waterloo - as i already mentioned, i'm not that into conference food, so we escaped a few times for something different. The first meal, my trusty Iphone and chowhound dug up a great thai place right by our hotel - of course i forget the name.



We also went to cora's:

I tried to be healthy and got the poached egg, with cottage cheese, fruit and rye toast

The waffles with fruit

Sunny side up, bacon, hash browns, blueberry pancakes and fruit

We got a veggie thai and a fish one.

Vegetarian in Waterloo

While i was in Waterloo at a conference, sick of conference food a friend of mine who used to go to UW took me to this vegetarian place near campus. I was pretty excited, and it was low key and tasty! I had the pad thai - which was super tasty, very tangy, with mock beef - something i hadn't had in years.

The menu
Basic
Spring rolls - they were good, but i was a little disappointed the sauce in packets.

Mushroom Congee
My friend ordered the black bean eggplant - it was sooo good!

Squash Soup Forever

Cold weather does really mean soup, and i haven't really been making too much of it as i have been eating pho, ramen and udon soups a lot lately. And yes these are the student kind - the kind your boil... so much sodium. So i thought it was time i actually made my own. (again)

So much chopping - i swear my arm was tired.

(squash, sweet onion, potato)

And voila

(don't know where the other pics went)