Buffalo Tempeh and "Cool Slaw"

Today I was completely exhausted. We had guests in town this weekend, so I was waking up earlier than normal, and doing a whole lot more stuff in general. It was a great time and we drank a lot of great wine and watched some good hockey! I had a presentation to give to my department yesterday- so Sunday night I barely slept, as I kept waking up practicing my talk in my head.

Today I popped into work after working from home all morning, and my advisor popped his head in. My first though is always "what did I do now?" But he handed me a gift certificate for a local restaurant that he said was "on behalf of the department." He said they have some stuff to thank people, and my talk yesterday was definitely worthy of thanks. Wow - just when I thought I had seen everything. Thanks advisor!


I came home late and threw together the simple marinade for the Buffalo Tempeh, which took exactly one hour to marinate... or the length of one nap. These recipes are both from Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

Buffalo Tempeh
8 oz. tempeh
1/2 cup veggie broth
1/2 cup hot sauce (Frank's is preferable - obviously)
1 giant clove elephant garlic (or 6 regular cloves)
2 tsp oregano

Cut tempeh into triangles and steam in a basket for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, stir together marinade ingredients and add tempeh when it's done steaming. let marinate as long as you want to nap (or be productive).

Heat pan and spray with cooking spray. Scoop the tempeh into the pan and saute until brown-ish. Add the rest of the marinade and serve!

Cool Slaw
1 bag cole slaw mix
1/4 cup cashews
2 Tbsp chopped onion
1/2 cup water
5 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp mustard (weber's if you have it!)
1 tsp agave nectar
1/2 tsp salt
ground pepper
***I also added 1 Tbsp of nutritional yeast because it felt like the right thing to do

Place all ingredients besides cole slaw mix (obviously) in a food processor and process for a good while - 5 minutes or so. Add to the cole slaw mix and let sit for a bit so it gets nice and saturated. That's it.

Enjoy your Buffalo-style veggie meal.

Tempeh with Snow Peas

Happy MLK day! I am at work all night, which is fine because I slept in until 10:30 today.

Yesterday I cleaned the house, while drinking some delicious beer and listening to the Gov't Mule New Year's Eve 2010 show. I hate cleaning, but beer and loud music make it much more bearable. Plus, it really couldn't be avoided any longer. My house had reached the stage where it was too disgusting to be able to sit down without shuddering thinking of all the dirt. I was even waking up at night - not able to rest thinking of all the dirt around. I'm usually laid back about messes, but this was BAD.

DRINK THIS BEER!!!! Thank me later.



Anyway- I had a leisurely morning full of lots of coffee and reading. I decided to make dinner before leaving for gym/work so that I could eat an actual meal at lab.

My sister-in-law posted a recipe for this meal on her blog a little while ago- and I started to salivate just thinking about how good it probably was. She and my brother made it for us on New Year's Day- and it was so delicious. Even my father ate it, who normally reacts pretty strongly to all the weird vegetarian stuff I make. His usual response: "it's different!"

The redeeming quality of this meal for him was the coconut rice it was served on top of. It's so simple, rather than cooking your rice in water, use a can of full fat (or low fat if you are a loser) coconut milk! I used short grain brown rice, put it into a saucepan, brought it to a boil and let it simmer for 50 minutes. And when it's done it is creamy and WONDERFUL!



The recipe can be found by following the link above! It takes about 5 minutes to throw together and costs about $1.05 - the price of freedom.

Tempeh and Temperature intolerance

It is HOT outside. Seriously. The heat index today was 100. Growing up in WNY - summers didn't get so warm. I remember lifeguarding in August wearing jogging pants and a hoodie. Well, those days do not exist here until December. Once it hits over 90 degrees- I whine. I know I do, and I feel bad that people have to listen to me, BUT DAMN IT IT'S HOT.

Anyway - I got home at a reasonable time today to do some "work" (read: writing. Blah). I made some for real rabbit food today - mashed cauliflower and kale with garlic chips. I threw some tempeh in after I sauteed the kale in sesame oil - even though I said I would have no more soy today. I couldn't help it, it sounded good. I made some shiitake miso gravy and smothered that all over the tempeh and cauliflower. Seriously - if you haven't made it - you have to try it. Just steam a head for 15 minutes, then chuck it in your food processor with some earth balance/silk creamer/salt and pepper or whatever you so choose as an embellishment. It was AWESOME. I also ate a lot of Kale. Go veggies. BUT I am still sweaty and gross and don't think I have any trash tv to watch tonight.

Am I half way done with my wine you may ask? No, that's actually a correct serving. Each bottle should yield 6 glasses. Try answering some questions on your current drinking now - alcoholic.

The wine is a Shelton riesling. I like it because it's more flavorful than a typical riesling, and much heavier on the tongue/palette, and almost tastes effervescent. Pretty good for a monster winery.