A PL&B Original Recipe: Coconut Crusted Tofu

Okay, unfortunately I had no pictures to go with this post, so I had to gank them from various places around the internet (if you click on them, it'll take you to the source).


I am so excited to introduce you to another PL&B Original Recipe: Coconut Crusted Tofu!


This recipe was inspired by some coconut crusted tilapia that Emily made for Brandon and I a few weeks ago. I was so enamored with the fish, that I really wanted to retry the coconut crusting on something else. I thought about doing it on tempeh - which I might still do - but tofu seemed like the appropriate medium. Plus I had some in my fridge.


While eating our coconut crusted tilapia (and celebrating Tu B'Shevat with four bottles of wine) we pondered some life-sized questions. In a Tu B'Shevat Seder, you explore four worlds in representing them with different fruits and glasses of wine:


The Physical World - a fruit that is inedible outside and edible inside (we represented this with a clementine). Plus one glass of white wine


The Emotional World - a fruit that is edible outside and inedible inside (we represented this world with a date). Plus, a glass of wine that is half red, half white


The Intellectual World - a fruit that is completely edible (represented by a fig) and one glass of wine that is 1/4 white and 3/4 red


The Spiritual World - no fruits, just a glass of red wine with one drop of white


What do these worlds mean to you? Why do you think they would be represented by those specific types of fruits?

Coconut Crusted Tofu
over a bed of wilted cabbage

The tofu can also be baked instead of pan-fried. I accidentally burned the tofu because I was using a [too] hot cast-iron skillet. Baking might make them a bit more enjoyably brown instead of dark and crispy like mine were.


Ingredients:

1 package tofu

1 cup flour

1 tbs cornstarch

1 egg

1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or not - your choice)

oil or clarified butter for pan-frying

half head of red cabbage, quartered and cut into thin ribbons

fine grain sea salt

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil or clarified butter

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

a handful or two of raisins (or chopped dates)

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to garnish (optional)

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and saute the onion for a few minutes, with a few pinches of salt. Stir in the garlic and cabbage and cook for just a minute or so, until the cabbage softens up a bit. Stir in the raisins and the vinegar and cook one more minute. Remove from heat, remember, the cabbage will continue to get more and more tender even after you remove it from the heat, do your best to avoid overcooking it - where it collapses entirely. Plate your wilted cabbage and garnish with a bit of Parmesan if desired.

Drain and slice tofu as desired, I prefer flat slices as opposed to cubes. Beat egg and put in a bowl that is big enough to dip your slices of tofu. Mix the cornstarch with the flour and pile it on a plate or bowl for dipping. Place coconut on another plate or bowl for dipping. First, dip the tofu in the flour mixture so it’s lightly coated. Next, dunk coated tofu in egg. Finally, coat with coconut and set aside. Heat enough oil (or butter) to coat the bottom of your skillet on medium heat. Pan fry the coconut dipped tofu until the coconut is golden brown then flip and brown the other side. Set on a paper towel or over a cooking rack to drain.

Serve tofu over bed of cabbage.




Peace, Love & Bagels,

(oh and just an aside, what do you think about me doing a post series about "A Week In The Life Of My Stomach"? Got the idea from Ashley) 

12 Steps to Sustainability

The other day was probably the best day of my working life...my company bought all of our employees coffee mugs and water bottles!

(don't mind our messy workspace...engineers at work!)

This was my company's effort to reduce the cost of buying disposable cups and "go green" (though, probably more the former). I already use my own coffee mug and water bottle because I couldn't stand using those Styrofoam cups!! Plus I'm not trying to make any more trash than is absolutely necessary. I'm all about sustainability and doing right by the environment. 

This prompted me to think about the baby steps I take to make the world a cleaner, greener place to live. I want to share them with you in the hopes that you will gather some ideas and adopt a few of the same sustainable habits that I have found to work in my life. You don't need an environmental degree; just some common sense and a desire to do some good.

There is an old Chinese proverb that says "It is possible to move a mountain by carrying away small stones." so if everyone does a little, we can make a big impact!

1. Take your own bags/containers to the grocery store. Back home on Maui, grocery stores are no longer allowed to give you plastic bags. I think that is a GREAT idea and can only hope that someday Ohio also adopts that policy. In the meantime, every time I go food shopping, I try to bring my reusable grocery totes and keep more plastic bags out of landfills. From National Geographic: "The same properties that have made plastic bags so commercially successful and ubiquitous—namely their low weight and resistance to degradation—have also contributed to their proliferation in the environment. Due to their durability, plastic bags can take up to 100 years to decompose."

2. Travel with a Nalgene. A lot like my first point, I'm just trying to keep plastic water bottles and disposable cups out of our landfills. This is an especially poignant point for me because I used to live on an island. There is only so much land to fill with trash before it starts taking over. Plus (and this is probably less relevant nowadays) but certain materials leech chemicals into the ground, and there is a very intimate connection between the quality of the soil and the quality of the food we are eating. My overarching rule; reuse as much as possible.

3. Use cold water when you do your laundry. This is both about saving the environment and saving money. I once read that about 90% of the energy used in washing clothing is from heating the water. I mean, that alone is reason to wash only in cold water. Can you imagine how much money you'll save in one year if you even just do 50% of your laundry in cold water??  

4. Invest in a programmable thermostat. Seriously, you can get a good one for like $25. Again, it's a money saver and an energy saver. You can program your heat to kick on or off depending on when you're home and when you're not. I know I always have trouble remembering to turn down the heater at night, until I wake up sweating! A programmable thermostat will definitely help save some cash, because it takes the thinking out of heating our home.

5. Turn off your computer at night/when you're not using it. Ok, I realize some of these are no-brainers, but this is something that took a while to kick the habit. When I was in college I'd leave my computer on all day and all night, in hopes that I might get some fun responses to my witty away-messages or to make sure I didn't miss any important emails. Plus, I wasn't paying the power bill! Now that I'm off my 24-hour a day IMing habit, I don't really need my computer on at all hours of the day. Neither does my electricity bill. Neither does mama earth. 

6. Sign up for e-bills and pay them online. Let's save some trees here, people!! I love this one because lord knows I get enough junk mail...sifting through the junk to find a bill can be scary. What if you accidentally throw it out?? Junk mail is another story altogether. I'm not quite there yet, but there are websites (like this one) you can sign up for that can help reduce the amount of junk mail you get, thereby reducing the amount of junk mail you toss and saving even more trees!

7. Bring a set of (microwave safe!) dishes and utensils to work. I stopped using the paper plates and plastic forks, knives and spoons in my office a long time ago. It makes me sick the sheer amount of paper and plastic that we throw away here in a day...and we barely have 50 employees!! I brought in a glass bowl, a knife, fork and spoon. I generally borrow plates from the dish drain if I need them because I'm not crazy about bringing any of my nice dishes in. Things break here pretty easily.

8. Avoid using paper towels. I try as much as possible to use dish towels and wash cloths to clean up around the kitchen instead of using paper towels. This is going to take a little more attention to laundry, but I think it's worth the effort. Less paper trash in your trash can and in our landfills. You will probably enjoy the benefits of taking the trash out less often as well!

9. Print double sided. My coworkers hate it when I do this because no one is used to reading on both sides of the paper here. Well, I could care less. You'll use half of the amount of paper you normally would by just clicking a few buttons on your printer settings (wow, am I good at math or what?!) Honestly, I can print just about everything double sided, except for maybe our 11x17 drawings of our parts. It's worth the few clicks for the number of trees you'll end up saving. Paper accounts for about half of all municipal solid waste (source) so that is also half the paper that would normally end up in a landfill. 

10. Unplug appliances and phone chargers when not in use. According to the US Department of Energy, "75% of all electricity used to power electronics is consumed by products that are switched off" (source) and only 5% of the power drawn by cell phone chargers is used to charge the phone, the other 95% is wasted when it's just plugged into the wall. I mean, I'm sold. It'll save you a bunch on your CO2 emissions too (aka your carbon footprint...let's try to reduce those!)

11. Bring a dish towel to work to dry your hands. I actually brought two; one for the bathroom, one for the kitchen. I can't tell you how many paper towels I was going through every day just to dry my hands. It was just foolish. I dry my hands on dish towels at home, why not at work too? Although if you work in the food industry, this will probably be frowned upon, I would advise against that one.

12. Grow your own herb garden, year round. For us that means, outside in the summer and a window garden in the winter. There are many wonderful reasons to grow your own food (or buy locally!) and your own herb garden can be the start of that. Between transportation, processing and packaging, the energy use of our food system puts an enormous stress on the environment. Just growing your own herbs is a step in the right direction...remember, we're taking baby steps here. If everyone did just one thing to offset our carbon emissions, we could collectively make a huge difference. Off my soapbox, there are a ton of resources (like this, or this) online as to how to start an herb garden!

What steps do you take to live sustainably?  Do you have any other easy tips to save energy, water, paper, etc.???

Peace, Love & Bagels,

Wineday Wednesday: 6th Sense Syrah

I smell with one nose, an ancient black rose,

a memory linger, briefly exposed.

I see with two eyes, through shadows and lies,

a secret revealing, wrapped in disguise.

I hear with my ears, three falling tears, 

echoing softly, heightening my fears.

I taste with my tongue, my panics begun, 

four sides enclosed, melded as one.

I touch with my hands, a sinister plan,

five fingers discerning where I do stand.

I sense with my mind, a thought so unkind,

I'm trapped six feel under...

in a bottle of wine.

2005 6th Sense Syrah

Graton, CA

$15.49

I guess my feelings are lukewarm for this Syrah. It has a smell that immediately reminded me of roses, which immediately reminded me of something very sweet. It wasn't too sweet though. It was enjoyable, but not necessarily something I'd go back to over and over again. I bought it because Brandon told me that he recently had a dream about being able to see ghosts...so I thought this was appropriate!

So, would I buy this wine again? Yes, if I was going to dinner at a Bruce Willis fan's home. Also if said Bruce Willis fan enjoyed a red wine that was right in the middle of a light red and a bold red. 

DISCLAIMER/DISCLOSURE: I am, in no way, a wine connoisseur and have had no professional experience with wine tasting or reviewing. My opinions are my own and I am not compensated in any way for them.

Peace, Love & Bagels,

Clemenquat Salad

Here's a quick, easy and delicious salad that we had with our dinner the other night. Does it even come as a surprise that I got the recipe from Heidi Swanson's cookbook? Good, I didn't think so.

Clementines are in season right now and the last bunch we bought was the absolutely bursting with flavor and deliciousness. 

Kumquats are an interesting bunch. They're very sentimental for me because my uncle used to grow them in his backyard when I was little...and I never liked them! They were WAY too tart for me. As I've aged and my taste buds have come into their own, I realized that I absolutely love them. You can eat the entire thing, they are a citrus-y fruit with a sweet peel and tart innards. I got my at a local foods/health foods store, but I highly doubt you can grow them anywhere in northeast Ohio...they must have come from California or something.

Kumquats are little grape-sized balls of deliciousness.

Clemenquat Salad

from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking

Ingredients:

5 clementines, peeled with pieces separated

10-15 kumquats, sliced into disks

5 celery stalks, chopped

2 handfuls of walnuts

3juice of ½ lemon

1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

salt + pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix the clementines, kumquats, celery and walnuts in a medium sized salad bowl. In another bowl whisk together lemon juice and olive oil, add desired amount of salt and pepper. Dress salad with dressing, garnish with fresh parmesan cheese and serve!

What is your favorite fruit to include in salads? Where do you get it from?

Peace, Love & Bagels, 

Marathon Monday: Training Week #6

This week's running schedule!

Last week was a strange week. Let's start with, the temperature was below zero for 3 out of the seven days. Instead of a nice easy 6 miler on Tuesday, we got out, ran for 3, then I decided I was just too uncomfortable to finish. Thursday was, again just too damn cold...so we decided to practice yoga INSIDE instead of doing our 800s. Training is supposed to be fun, not torture. I'm still going to be able to run a marathon in May regardless of whether I skipped a few training runs here or there.

Besides, every now and then you need an easy week.

Friday and Saturday were both pretty easy runs. We just did a 10k on Saturday and it was the first time we ran in the sun since we were on Maui. I overdressed because it was supposed to be cold and WINDY. Windy, it was, but the sun is stronger than the wind (I believe there is an Aesop's Fable about that) and I had to take off my sweats within 5 minutes of beginning.

This week, we're only going to do five 800s, instead of seven, since that is what we were supposed to do last week and we skipped it. Plus, I haven't updated my training schedule but it's really only supposed to be six this week anyway. I'm looking forward to a tougher week, mostly because the weather is going to warm up. So maybe, just maybe I won't have to spend 20 minutes getting ready to run!

Some things I want to keep an eye on this week:

• My left shin, it's been nagging a bit on the last few runs. At the very least, I need to do a few toe taps before heading out the door to warm up those muscles a bit. 
• Brandon's right foot, which has been hurting him again. Two of his metatarsal bones (2nd and 3rd ray I think) sit very close together and rub against each other. Painful.

Today, I'll be venturing outside for my run at lunch. I'm excited to have the afternoon off because of running earlier in the day - that's what I love so much about running in the morning. When it is lighter and warmer earlier (like maybe in April or May) we might begin to do a few of our runs before work instead of afterwards. 

I can tell I'm getting stronger. The most telling thing is the number of push ups I can do in a row. I think I'm up to about 23 right now, which is awesome!! That's 11 more than I could do two weeks ago! I'll try to get some in before or after my run today, but I always feel so ridiculous working out in my office. We really need a dedicated workout room!

This week, I also want to pay close attention to how I'm fueling my body. We have several tough runs coming up, so gorging on sugary snacks and pizza is probably not my best choice (guilty, there were a lot of those things last week!) Although, I'm not gonna lie, one of my colleagues brought in the most adorable "conversation heart" sugar cookies. I will be enjoying one of those shortly.

If you're training, how did your last week go? What's in store for this week?

Peace, Love & Bagels,