journeys and adventures!

That is, a journey to my health food store and adventures in new recipes.

On Saturday, after blogging and watching it snow and generally laying about, I made a trek to the Healthy Life Market.  Healthy Life Market is code for overpriced stuff that's good for you.  Seriously, I only go here once every month or so, for two reasons:  it takes 20 minutes to get there and it's fucking expensive.  Sometimes, though, a girl needs to splurge on stuff that she can only find at the health food store.  And don't think those jerks don't know that they have a monopoly on the local healthy person market.  Jeez.  Sorry, but the prices really are ludicrous at this place.  I'm getting all worked up just thinking about it again.  Now it's time for you to tell me that what I got was worth the price and the drive.  No, I'm not going to tell you how much I spent.  Suffice to say that it's probably more than you think it is.

chickn nuggets, tofutti pizza, FYH mozzarella, organic tofu, ezekial bread, EB sticks, and some fake pepperoni

ww pastry flour, beet sugar, ww couscous, nutritional yeast*, green lentils, cumin, chile powder, cayenne

coconut milk, almond butter, d-mannose, wild rice blend, nature burger mix, quinoa pasta

So I guess I had a decent haul.  The nuggets and pizza and part of the pepperoni are already gone (also, the most expensive food things, of course...one does pay for convenience).  This morning I had that sprouted bread as toast with some almond butter.  I've never had either of these before, and must say that they're pretty good.  The bread is very earthy with all the seeds and sprouts in it and the almond butter is...well, it's good, ok, but not nearly worth the price.  Seriously, that tiny jar was $5.  What?  Why?  I mean, I get that almonds are more expensive than peanuts...  but I think...  I might...  like peanut butter better.  I'm sure some of you are gasping in horror right about now, but, eh!  Call me crazy if you must.

I also made good use of the tofu and whole wheat couscous last night.  Ahem.  Look:

you know you're intrigued

That is pesto hummus stuffed tofu.  I got the idea here, but honestly did not even read through the recipe once before making it.  In fact, I saw the title over a week ago and it just popped into my head, and I thought, 'I do not need a recipe for this.  I can make it up as I go.'  And I was right.  I'll post my recipe below.  It may or may not be close to my muse, but again...no clue here.  I suppose I could glance at it before I link it, haha...  But I probably won't.**

Anyway, I used the last of the pesto I had sitting around.  Half of it on the tofu, half of it mixed into my couscous.  I had a couscous overload last night.  It was a bit ridiculous.  You can see this from my picture:

that isn't even half of the couscous i made

Those are turnip greens and sugar snap peas with a nice tahini sauce in the background.  They were good, but I dumbly forgot to wash my greens before steaming them.  There may or may not have been alcohol involved in this silly omission.  The flavor was good though.  That tahini sauce is:  tahini, lemon juice, scallions.  And it was tangy and wonderful.

Here's the recipe for the tofu.  I must warn you, I cut some corners with it, but this dish was really delicious, despite my laziness.

Pesto-Hummus Stuffed Tofu

1 block extra firm tofu (not silken), pressed and cut into 4 large chunks

1/2 cup hummus

2-3 Tbsp basil pesto

a bottle of italian dressing (sigh, yes, i marinated it in italian dressing from a bottle)

Ok, so once you have your four chunks of tofu, slice a slit into one side.  This slit should make a little pocket inside and not go through any of the other sides of the chunk.  I hope that makes sense.  Marinate them in the Italian dressing for about an hour, turning them fairly regularly so that all sides get nice and soaked.  

Preheat your oven to 375F once the hour's up.  Place tofu and marinade in a small glass baking dish and bake for 30 minutes.  Then take it out.  Mix up the hummus (mine was already prepared by my local deli) and the pesto (guh, it came from a tube, honestly).  Then spoon it into a plastic bag, cutting off one corner of the bag to form a makeshift piping instrument.  Pipe a generous amount of the hummus mixture into the slits you cut earlier.  Pop the dish back into the oven for another 30 minutes.  

That's it.  It was embarassingly easy.  And it was delicious.  Make sure you use a tofu that you like the flavor of, since the marinade doesn't really penetrate all the way to the middle in that hour.  I'm sure it would be even better with homemade hummus and pesto.  But isn't it nice to know that it was good with storebought stuff as well?  I think so.

Oh, I was going to do a review of those holiday soy drinks.  Well...  How about, instead:

This stuff:

Tastes infinitely better than this stuff:

I didn't take those photos.  Silk doesn't even have a picture of that pumpkin spice crud on their website.  Even they know it's not good.  As for the Vitasoy?  I can't wait to get back to the store to stock up.  Anything chocolate and mint is basically a no-brainer for me.  It all stems back to the days when my dad would surprise me with a treat of peppermint patties on the occasion that he might pick me up from school.  Oh, how I rued the day that I found out they weren't vegan.  Sad.

*Mom and Dad, if you're reading this, yes I know I just asked you for nutritional yeast from Elkins when you go and then went and bought my own the next day.  Please, still get me some if you go.  I only got that bag because I'm addicted to the stuff and it's only a pound and it costs 9 fricking dollars a pound here, which makes me insane.  I'm sure I'll need/want more by the time I see you in a couple weeks.  (a big huge bag, please!)

**I did look at that recipe and mine is so much easier.  Granted, they made a sauce to put the tofu in, but they didn't think of the idea of making a piping thingamabob instead of somehow trying to put it in with...a knife?  huh?