Burmese Tofu!

I don’t really remember how I got obsessed with making Burmese tofu. I think I was reading about how terrible soy is for women (especially if you have hormonal dysfunctions like I, and so many women, do), and I was looking around for a substitute (probably, sounds like me). I do remember this was several months ago. I have been wanting to make this recipe for a while now. I had the bag of chickpea flour, just waiting in the wings. When I started making mug cakes and waffles with the flour I knew I had to use it for what I originally bought it for (because I would end up making 101 chickpea mug cakes and no tofu). So, here’s how I started…

First time using pano on my phone and it’s for food!

The ingredients:

• 1 Cup of Chickpea (Garbanzo Bean) Flour
• 3 Cups of water
• Several shakes of turmeric
• Two shakes of crushed red pepper
• As much garlic as you can stand in your cooking (I can stand a lot!)
• About four grinds of Himalayan Pink Salt
• A few grinds of black pepper

As you can see, I’m really precise (heh). The most important thing is the flour and the water – you can season this however you like. Some people use broth or stock in place of water and, hey, if I had some I’d probably use that too. So, you boil two cups of the water and, in the meantime and in a separate bowl:

• Blend the flour, and the spices, with the remaining cup of water.

Once the two cups of water have reached a rolling boil, add the flour/spice/water mixture. It’ll look like this:

Glossy…

So, you have to whisk-whisk-whisk away to get rid of any lumps and until the mixture looks glossy (like it goes in the picture). You are now ready to pour the mixture into your prepared pan. To get your pan ready, line it with parchment paper. I used an 8×8 Pyrex pan.

Smooth it better than I did! I should’ve used a bigger pan…

Smooth it out in your pan, using a spoon or a spatula.

Then, once it’s spread out in the pan, let it sit until it gets room temperature (so condensation doesn’t form when you put it in the fridge). Which brings us to the next step: put it in the fridge! I let it sit out for about an hour and put it in the fridge for about three hours and I got this:

After it firms up in the fridge, you can cut up your tofu in any shape you want for your dishes. I cut mine two ways – in triangles and small rhombuses (yup, I said “rhombuses” – wait, is it “rhombuses” or “rhombi”?).

Rhombuses (rhombi), for stir-fry…

Here I am frying the triangles in some olive oil:

Try not to use too much oil – these are like little sponges…

They are SUPER YUMMY! Take a look at this:

Golden brown and delicious!

Crisp on the outside, a little soft on the inside. Seasoned perfectly (if I do say so myself)!

So, I made some meals with it:

I will most definitely share my stir-fry on Instagram!

So this was an easy, delicious recipe. A success! I can add this one to my repertoire, change it up a bit, make different sides. A great soy substitute!

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Saturday Waffle: Squash Waffle!

Yay! It’s Saturday! For today’s waffle I decided to go with something a little autumn-like, a little pumpkin spice-like: The Squash Waffle!

I started with some frozen winter squash that I got from Hannaford (my second favorite supermarket after Trader Joe’s)…

I defrosted the squash in the microwave. It took about 5 minutes. In the meantime, I got my dry ingredients together…

• Scant 1/4 cup of garbanzo bean flour
• 2 scoops of Bodylogix Natural Whey Protein Powder in Snickerdoodle
• 1/4 Teaspoon of baking powder

I am crazy with the baking powder. You can always use a little less, but I’m always afraid that my protein pancakes/waffles wont rise, but they always do!

Then I add the wet stuff…

• Stevia – 1 packet
• 1 and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1 flax egg (1 tablespoon of flax meal + 3 tablespoons of water – let sit in fridge for 30 minutes to gel up)
• 2 tablespoons of plain greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup of the defrosted winter squash

I ended up adding a few more shakes of cinnamon and about a tablespoon more of squash as I was blending the batter. I wanted it to taste really spicy.

As I waited for the batter to become a waffle in the waffle iron (I’m sure there’s a better way to say that) – OH – While I waited for my waffle to cook, I made a small fig shake…

I had some figs that were starting to get too-too soft so I wanted to use them up today. I had a vanilla fig smoothie yesterday morning and it was incredible. Today, I am leaving out the protein powder that I used yesterday and I’m making more of a shake.

• 3 figs
• 1 tablespoon hemp seed
• 1 scoop of MSM powder (my MSM comes with a tiny scoop)
• 1/4 cup of plain greek yogurt
• A couple of drops of vanilla extract
• 1 packet of stevia
• Ice
• Unsweetened almond milk (till you reach the fill line)

Here is breakfast!

I added some Greek yogurt mixed with cinnamon on top, along with Walden Farms Pancake Syrup (that’s not quite clean, but it’s a syrup with no sugar and no calories!).

To be honest, I wish I had oats to make oat flour for this recipe because the garbanzo bean flour gave it a savory taste, so I should have added even more cinnamon and stevia. Live and learn! Now you’ll know if you try this recipe – use more sweeteners if you use garbanzo bean flour in a sweet dish!

Enjoy!

Saturday Morning ~ Zucchini Pancakes

As you might have guessed, I’m a big fan of the Food Network and the Cooking Channel. I haven’t watched it much recently, mainly because some of the personalities I enjoyed have either left, or are doing projects I’m not fond of now. WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ZUCCHINI PANCAKES? Answer: Everything…

I happened to fall asleep with the tv on the Food Network (I am a HUGE Chopped fan, and I’ll watch that no matter what!) and when I turned it on in the morning “Brunch at Bobby’s” was on. Usually, I’ll turn the channel if Bobby Flay is on. Not because I don’t like him, I do, but because he’s usually grilling (I don’t do that) or on one of his competition shows (not a fan of those). This time though, I was intrigued. He was making something interesting, something with zucchini, uh, pancakes with zucchini? Now, I’ve seen and heard of zucchini pancakes before. But I had usually seen them done latke style, savory. But that morning, Bobby made them sweet and delicious looking. The way he described them too, “…they taste like banana bread, well zucchini bread”, that got me. I usually don’t bake (I hate being precise in the kitchen), but around the holidays I do bake bread from scratch and my two specialties are Date-No-Nut Bread and Zucchini Bread. So, duh, of course anything you can make into a bread you can make into a pancake! I had to try these pancakes out, especially if they taste like my bread (he-he)…

Since I’m not a chef and I am trying to keep this low(-ish) carb and high protein – I took many, many liberties with this and used many, many shortcuts. I didn’t even make the special syrup  he made his with (although I should have, but I just used my last apricot yesterday). Here’s what I used:

That’s pretty much it. Here it is in the measuring bowl:

1/3 Cup Kodiak Cakes Mix, 1 Scoop Vanilla Protein Powder, a few shakes of cinnamon and a 1/4 teaspoon of orange zest

I used the smallest zucchini I could find and I added a scoop of protein powder, a few shakes of cinnamon (the mix already had cinnamon and it smelled very cinnamony) and a little orange zest (the part I listened to Bobby Flay about). I added some yogurt for even more protein, and used almond milk as the mixing liquid:

I used about a tablespoon of the yogurt and enough milk to make a batter. You’ll know that batter look when you see it!

And, that’s it! Mix, griddle and serve!

Pretty plate…

Pretty easy! I served it with orange slices because “Waste Not, Want Not”. C’mon now, did you think I’d use an entire orange just for a 1/4 teaspoon of zest? Eat that thing up! And that, I did…

See the zucchini?

Yum! Tastes like Christmas…