1. All this week we’ll be coming up with easy food gifts that you don’t have to make with your oven. The first one up is this super simple peppermint chocolate bark. Click through to read how to put it all together! As always, check labels (or company websites) to make sure the ingredients you use are vegan. Bark Supplies a 24 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 tsp mint extract 4-5 candy canes parchment or wax paperBark Instructions Line a rimmed flat baking sheet with the parchment/wax paper. In a double boiler (or, if you’re unequipped like me, a small pot inside a large pot filled 1/4 with water) melt your bag of chocolate chips with the mint extract, until it’s consistently smooth and creamy. Be careful to stir slowly - if you do it too fast the chocolate will seize up and become hard. (Not that I’ve ever done that or anything….) Meanwhile, crush the candy canes with a hammer or in a food processor/blender. When the chocolate’s melted, pour it into the baking sheet. Spread it out carefully until the whole pan is filled. Sprinkle the top with the crushed candy cane. If you want to keep the top very flat, lay another piece of parchment/wax paper on top and roll it with a rolling pin. Freeze for a few hours, at least one hour. How I packaged these bark pieces: Break the bark into small pieces. Wrap in tissue paper, then tie it up with twine. Get some small gift boxes - I got mine from a craft store in the baking aisle. Before assembling, write your message on the box - I carved “to” and “from” stamps myself, but you could just as easily draw/write it out. Put the bark in the box, then tape it shut with some washi or decorative tape. Make sure to keep the bark in the freezer until you plan to give it away. Hope you like this little project, and find it easy enough to make! :)
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    All this week we’ll be coming up with easy food gifts that you don’t have to make with your oven. The first one up is this super simple peppermint chocolate bark. Click through to read how to put it all together!

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    December 17, 2012
  2. When we asked you guys to ask us anything last week, we got a lot of questions about tofu. What is it? How do you cook it? How do you store it? Most importantly - how do you make it not taste like a big block of bland? Read below to learn a lot more about tofu, one of our favorite foods. WHAT IS IT? Tofu is basically soybean bean curd, and is made through a process not too unlike making cheese. It’s not some weird healthy food - it’s good food that just happens to be pretty nutritious that’s gotten a bad rap over the years. I know I’ve had my share of terrible tofu dishes out in the wild, but that doesn’t mean it’s inherently tasteless or bland. It’s the opposite: tofu is like a giant sponge, ready to be absorbed by any flavor you give it, and if you prepare it right it will be great. WHAT KIND SHOULD I BUY?We buy this super-firm high-protein tofu, because you don’t have to press it before you use it and it’s more nutrient dense. We use it for everything! Very firm and firm tofu are best for stir fries, tofu scrambles, and any dish you want the tofu to stick together. Soft and silken tofu are best for sauces, smoothies, soups, pies, and any dish you want the tofu to be more of a liquid.HOW DO I PREP IT? If you’re not using the super firm tofu, you’ll need to press it before you cook it. To press: Drain out the liquid from the tofu package. Wrap the block of tofu in a thick towel. Place the wrapped tofu on a plate, then put another plate on top. Place a stack of books or something heavy on top. Let sit for at least 30 minutes. You need to press out the water in the tofu so you can get flavor in it. Imagine the block like a sponge full of water - once you press the water out, all of the holes in the sponge are empty. That’s what you want! Pressing makes the tofu more dense and chewy, rather than wet and soggy, and will end up in a better flavor for you later. The beauty of tofu is that there are so many ways to prepare it. Usually, I fry it or steam it after marinating it. Below I’ve put together four dishes that use slightly different processes. These all make great quick weekday meals, and the marinated ones get better with age. :) This is a stir fry made with marinated tofu. The tofu was marinated overnight in a mixture of kimchi, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, black pepper, and a little cayenne. I put chopped onion, bell pepper, and the tofu on to cook in some of the marinade itself. Once the tofu started getting crispy and the onions were caramelized, I tossed in the cooked noodles and ate up! One of my favorites: a Canadian BLT. (Meaning: tofu Canadian bacon.) I very thinly sliced some tofu and let it marinate overnight in soy sauce, liquid smoke, maple syrup, sriracha, and salt and pepper. In the morning, I fried it up on a pan and ate it in a sandwich with garlic vegenaise, lettuce, and tomato. A tofu scramble recipe can vary wildly between people, and for me I change it up every time I make it. This one is a mix of tofu, butternut squash, dried cranberry, and spices - but the main ingredients for a scramble usually include tofu, turmeric, olive oil, vegetables, garlic, and salt and pepper. Just crumble up your tofu into a pan with your ingredients and cook until you’re happy with the texture. (I like it to be really crispy!) Scrambles are so great because they can introduce you to brand new ways of eating. I used to hate mushrooms and any leafy green, but by chopping them up in small bits and increasing the size each time, I’m eating them at every meal of the day. This is my boyfriend’s favorite way to eat tofu: shake n’ bake tofu. Toss some small cubes of tofu in a ziplock bag with nutritional yeast, flour, garlic & onion powder, bouillon powder, salt and pepper, and a dash of cayenne. Shake up the bag until everything’s coated. Fry the cubes in a hot oiled pan until golden brown, and serve on a salad or with barbecue sauce or with anything, really! HOW DO I STORE TOFU? If you have leftover tofu from your package (without any flavoring added to it), store it covered in water in a sealable container for up to a week. Change out the water every two days to keep it fresh. You can store the marinating tofu in the fridge for up to a few days. But really, I can never keep it in my fridge for that long :)
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    When we asked you guys to ask us anything last week, we got a lot of questions about tofu. What is it? How do you cook it? How do you store it? Most importantly - how do you make it not taste like a big block of bland? Read below to learn a lot more about tofu, one of our favorite foods.

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    October 15, 2012
  3. you can cook tofu in many ways, but i think what’s more important is the preparation of the tofu. i used to be terrible at cooking it until i learned how to better prepare this versatile, easy-to-find food. now it’s one of my favorite proteins to cook on a weekly basis! we almost always work with extra-firm tofu. take it out of the package and drain out the water. then wrap the block in a thick towel, put it on a plate, and place something heavy and stable on top. this is called “pressing” the tofu, and you should do it anywhere between 15 minutes and 2 hours. tofu is like a sponge; the longer you press it, the more open it will be to take any flavor you want to give it. i like to press it for about an hour. when you take it out of the towel, it should be a tougher texture, drier and denser. make a marinade for your pressed tofu. this can be whatever you like, it could be mustard based, red wine vinegar with spices, barbeque, etc. my favorite marinade is this “bacon”-flavored marinade. i usually make that marinated tofu and coat it with barbeque sauce. depending on what you’re doing with the tofu, cut it in the shapes you want and put it in a sealable container. we’re going to use it for sandwiches, so i sliced it into 1/4 inch thin pieces. pour in your marinade, and seal the container. shake it up so everything is evenly coated. let it marinate for at least a couple of hours, though i like to let it go overnight. you could do a quicker preparation, this is just the best way to get the most flavor and best texture possible, in my opinion. the quick preparation for big flavor is an hour: 20 minutes press, 30 minutes marinate, cook. after preparing, you could go plenty of ways with cooking the tofu. you could fry it on a pan (3-5 minutes per side for a “steak”-like piece of tofu), cube it and put it in a soup, bake it in the oven, coat it with a batter & deep fry it, and more. check out our tofu tag for ideas. experiment and have fun!
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    you can cook tofu in many ways, but i think what’s more important is the preparation of the tofu. i used to be terrible at cooking it until i learned how to better prepare this versatile, easy-to-find food. now it’s one of my favorite proteins to cook on a weekly basis!

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    July 1, 2011