Pantry Fried Rice

There are two things I always have on hand, no matter what: eggs (or any type of protein) and short grain brown rice (or any grain). When you take these two things and add vegetables, soy sauce, and other ingredients, you can create a delicious meal in less than 10 minutes! You can change the ingredients based on what you have or your preferences, just make sure you cook the longest cooking vegetables (like carrots + squash) in the pan before the shortest cooking vegetables (like garlic + green onions). You can also easily make this vegan by subbing crumbled tofu or edamame for the eggs!

Pantry Fried Rice

• 2 eggs (for vegan: 1/2 C finely crumbled tofu or 1 C thawed edamame)
• 2 C cold, cooked brown rice (or quinoa, millet, white rice, or jasmine rice)
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 2-3 green onions, thinly sliced (or leave it out, if not on hand)
• 1-1.5 C vegetables (I used leftover steamed kale but feel free to use whatever you have and chop it small! See note above about cooking times)
• 1 TBS GF soy sauce
• 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
• splash of rice vinegar
• sriracha for serving
• additional add-ins: fresh herbs like Thai basil or cilantro, toasted sesame seeds, thinly sliced carrots, finely chopped steamed broccoli, finely minced ginger

1. Preheat a skillet on medium heat. Add sesame oil and rice (I also added the kale here now to get it crispy and warm; add your long cooking vegetables now). Stir and cook for 2-3 minutes, until starting to warm and crisp up. 
2. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs together in a small bowl until smooth with a fork (for vegan, just crumble your tofu finely or thaw the edamame). 
3. Now add the garlic and green onions (if using; add other short cooking vegetables). Stir to combine and cook 1-2 minutes, until the green onions and garlic starts to brown lightly. Drizzle in the soy sauce and vinegar, and stir to combine. 
4. If using the eggs, make a well in the center of the rice and add them in. Let cook for about 1 minute or more, until starting to set on the bottom. Stir into the rest of the rice (for vegan, simply stir in the tofu and edamame, until browning).
5. Stir and flip the rice occasionally until the rice and eggs become lighly browned, about 3 minutes or more, until the eggs are cooked to your desired consistency. Serve with plenty of sriracha!

Les Bouchées Quotidiennes

This is possibly my new favorite cocktail because it tastes like a sweeter version of a Negroni. I've been searching for different ways to use pomegranate molasses and this might be the tastiest way yet! If you've never tried Campari, I highly recommend it, but only if you like slightly bitter, strong alcohols. 

For  Father's Day last weekend, I decided to make dinner for my parents and Mike. I grew up eating lots of Southern food (minus the lard and ham hocks), like collard greens, fried cornbread, BBQ chicken and black-eyed peas. Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry encompasses everything I loved as a child, and more, minus the meat and dairy. If you love Southern/Soul food, I can't recommend this book enough. These are the first recipes I've made from it, but they were so easy and pretty much every recipe does not require "special" ingredients. For this dinner, I made Creole Hoppin'-Jean and Johnny blaze cakes (aka johnny cakes with jalapenos). I think I could eat this meal every single day and never tire of it. The texture of the Johnny blaze cakes were incredible, even though they were a little tedious and took a while to cook (it's totally worth it though).

Whenever I make pie, I always ask myself why I don't make pie more often. For dessert on Father's Day, I made this chilled chocolate pie with an oat-almond crust. I left out the strawberry compote and bought some rice whip instead (mostly because we devoured all of our local strawberries). This is probably the easiest vegan/GF pie I've ever made. The crust held up wonderfully and everything came together smoothly and quickly. My favorite part about this pie? The texture was incredible. Getting the texture right for a vegan pie filling is something I've had trouble with in the past, but this one was creamy, thick, and delicious. 

I made this Tuscan kale + tomato pasta this week, which actually ended up giving us two dinners. The sauce was very "soupy", which I liked in some ways. We omitted the Parmesan rind, which I'm sure would add a lovely flavor to the sauce, so ours turned out slightly bland. If going the vegan route, add some dried Italian herbs/oregano/salt when the sauce is finished and extra fresh thyme and basil leaves for serving. This sauce came together quickly and was very easy to make, but I think I liked it better the second night (see below).

I had a ton of leftover tomato sauce from the Tuscan kale pasta, but did not want to eat pasta again. Two pounds of pasta in two days (for both of us) is not okay with me, as crazy as that sounds. Suddenly I remembered the eggs in tomato sauce that I've been making for weekend breakfasts every now and then, and wondered if I could do the same thing here. Here's the beauty of this recipe: we left the tomato sauce in the pot we cooked it in, with the lid, in the fridge. For dinner, I just put it on the stove to boil, straight from the fridge, lowered the heat to simmer (covered) for 10 minutes. Then I cracked four eggs gently into the tomato sauce and cooked 5-7 minutes until pretty much set, then 2-3 minutes off the heat uncovered. We ate these eggs over buttered toast with extra tomato sauce, fresh thyme and basil. You could also serve this over Italian polenta for an extra delicious dinner!

The most abundant herb in my garden is fennel. I hate licorice candy, but I am a sucker for how fennel smells and tastes. Plus, the big, green fronds are so pretty shooting every which way from the middle of its pot. But what on Earth will I do with all of this fennel? Yes, I can take out the root and eat it, but then I will have to grow fennel all over again. Well I did find one way: potato soup! Fennel fronds are the perfect balance for a creamy, potato-corn soup. I used this recipe with these changes: I omitted the tofu bacon, used 4 fresh corn cobs instead of 1 cup, omitted the nutritional yeast and jalapenos. I also broke my corn cobs in half and added them to the soup while it simmered, then removed them before taking it off the heat to blend it. I think I used about 1/4-1/3 C of torn fennel fronds to stir into the soup. Also, this soup is a cinch to make. There is no sauteing, or oil, and it takes about 30 minutes or less with prep time included. Always a plus!

One thing I am trying to be better about is using leftovers from one dish for a completely different one in the same week. Earlier this week, I made this curry soup with jasmine rice and tofu croutons (not pictured because I have made it before). There was a ton of rice and half a package of tofu leftover. Last night I used both of these to make peanut butter + kale fried rice. I added broiled sesame tofu, Thai basil, sriracha and chopped peanuts. Sadly there are no leftovers because we ate all of it in one sitting. This is definitely going on my "too busy to care" meal rotation during the school year. The ingredients are simple and it takes maybe 10 minutes to pull together. The sesame broiled tofu is something I go back to again and again because of how simple it is. You can find the recipe in this post.

Les Bouchées Quotidiennes

Hell week is almost over! I can almost taste it! It's hard to believe that spring break is in a week, which I am so excited for...except I will be studying the entire time. But, it does allow for baking time! Here's what we've been eating lately:

Remember that gigantic butternut squash I chopped last week? Well here's the last way we finished it off: with a smoky butternut pasta sauce with steamed collards. This sauce is easy enough for a weeknight, but decadent enough to feel special. I love the liquid smoke/smoked paprika with the sweet squash and collards. I'll definitely be making this again!

Okay, maybe it's just me, but when I see "weird" food combinations in recipes, I have to try it. Like, immediately. When Sara posted this recipe with pomegrante, mint, orange, chili powder, and millet, it went on my "to make ASAP" list. Although it seems like a lengthy recipe because of the odd ingredients, it actually isn't at all! The flavors were perfect together and created a really nice sweet/cooling/spicy flavor profile. 

Simplicity in its purest form is the vegan bowl: a grain with vegetables, protein, and some sort of sauce. I could live solely on bowl dinners. I heard a rumor that Sara's next cookbook is ALL bowl recipes, which is crazy awesome. Anyways, this roasted broccoli bowl was great for a busy weeknight. I love that you roast all the vegetables and chickpeas on one tray. The sauce didn't really thin that well, but it was still delicious and made a great wholesome meal!

I'm not sure how it's taken me so long to make carrot soup. I have so many different variations saved, but I settled on this super simple one from Deb (aka head food goddess of the Internet) with some Middle-Eastern spices, swirled with a tahini dollop (which I have been eating a lot of recently) and topped with my own creation: gluten-free za'atar croutons. The flavors are warm, comforting, and delicious. Za'atar has become one of my favorite spices lately. For the croutons, heat a pan on medium, add a TBS or so of butter/olive oil, then about 2 heaping cups of cubed/torn GF bread, a generous pinch of za'atar and a tiny pinch of salt. Then stir occasionally, toasting the bread, until all sides are lightly browned. Then devour!

Sometimes not having anything to eat for lunch is a challenge I like to take on. Today's lunch consisted of things I need to get out of the fridge (as it always does): GF bread spread with homemade roasted garlic mayo, homemade roasted red pepper spread (from the broccoli bowls), caramelized red onions, eggs over easy and hot sauce. Maybe not the healthiest lunch, but it was damn tasty and filling!