A Day Off: Frech Toast & Texas Barbeque Tofu Sandwiches

After the Pre-Easter Picnic Brunch, I took home half a baguette, which was left mostly open overnight. This morning I thought I'd better save it by making it into French Toast

French Toast

1/2 baguette, sliced
About 1 cup Milk (I actually used Vanilla Soymilk, Unsweetened)
3 eggs
Cinnamon (optional)
Butter for cooking (or oil)



I never measure when I make it, so I can't tell you exactly how much milk I used, but the basic idea is to mix up milk and egg and dip some bread in it, then fry it (medium-high heat, use a thick pan, and lots of butter helps).

French Toast is really easy, especially once you've made it a few times. The hardest part if getting the ratio of batter to bread accurate. Some people like to lightly dip their bread, but I like my bread to soak up as much batter as possible. I also like to add cinnamon, and usually vanilla extract, too. Today I got the ratio just right - not a drop of batter leftover, and every piece of toast saturated thoroughly. Oh yeah, and I had some "Ambrosia" and strawberries leftover from the brunch so I served those up as well.



After the Pre-Easter Picnic Brunch, I also ended up with a LOT of potato salad! Somehow, I inherited a very large and very full container. I wanted to make something that would go with potato salad. In fact, I think I will be making things to compliment potato salad all week. And what goes better with potato salad than barbeque?

I was really hungry, so I made my quick version. I post it here today with the promise that I will also make my involved version sometime.

(Quick) Barbeque Tofu Sandwiches

1 package baked tofu (terriyaki flavor)
4 slices jalepeno cheese (or jack, cheddar, etc)
1/2 heirloom tomato, sliced
2 foccacia buns (mine had rosemary, which added an interesting flavor twist)
Barbeque sauce

My buns were frozen, so first I heated them up in the microwave to defrost them a bit. Then I sliced them in half. I also sliced the baked tofu into 4 thin slices.

I placed two slices tofu on one half of each bun, then placed two slices cheese on top of that. I put them in the toaster oven, toasted them once, then turned it to broil for 5-10 minutes. Then I added the other half of the bun and toasted one more time.

I pulled out the sandwiches, added the barbeque and sliced tomato, and voila! I served it with a heap of potato salad, 1/2 of a sliced up avocado with slat and pepper, and the leftover brussel sprouts from Friday.



Marshall says: "Yum! That was an amazing sandwich!"
And later he says: "That sandwich was so good!"
Time: 15 minutes
Leftovers: Well, I actually took some of the tofu and cheese I would have put on my sandwich, and put it one piece of bread sliced in half to make a half sandwich for lunch tomorrow.

Saturday Potluck: Funny Sushi

I wanted to make something that would be popular at the potluck I was going to... but I also didn't want to make a trip to the grocery, nor did I want to make something that would be super expensive, because it is a very large potluck and I wanted to make a good volume. I happened to have rice and nori, so I thought I could make sushi. I didn't have any of the normal fillings, but I recalled some very weird sushi rolls I used to make in college, and thought I'd revisit some of those recipes.


The first thing to do is the cook the rice. White rice is pretty quick, maximum 20 minutes. I made a large recipe - leftovers are easy to use.

2.5 cups white rice
5 cups water
about 1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar

Put it all in a pot, bring it to a boil, then reduce to low heat. Cook another 10-15 minutes. Turn the heat off after all the water is gone and let it sit a while. Then add the seasoned rice vinegar and mix well. You are supposed to use short grain white rice - it's the stickiest. But I used long grain white this time, and I"ve used brown rice plenty of times in the past.

The next step was to gather some fresh greens from the garden. That is a euphemistic way of saying that I picked some of the dandelion greens that are running rampant. This was also a chance to do some weeding, as I'd promised Marshall I would do while he was gone.

1 colander full of dandelion greens (well washed)
1 package baked tofu (savory flavor)
1 large ripe avocado
1 package nori seaweed



Cut the tofu into thin strips. Slice the avocado thinly as well. I like to slice it in the skin, then remove it with a spoon. It works pretty well. Lay out a large piece of nori. Take a handful of rice and spread it out thinly over about 3/4 of the nori sheet. (You leave a little strip across the top without rice, and fill the rest.) Lay a thin row of tofu, avocado, and dandelion greens all in a strip in the middle of the rice. Roll it up tightly and then use a little water to seal the nori to itself.



Serve with soy sauce and pickled ginger.

Potluck says: It was gone in less than five minutes. That's a hit!
Time: 60+ (rice takes 20 minutes, rolling takes 20-30, picking greens takes 10-20)
Leftovers: I kept one roll uncut, wrapped in saran wrap. I can cut it and have it for lunch tomorrow or this week. I also have a few servings of rice and some chopped up tofu. And a whole basketful of greens, with boatloads to clips form the yard!

Thursday Night: Italian!

I have always wanted to make lasagna, but I always thought it would be hard. Then a friend at work said it was really easy, and I felt inspired. Still, it took me about a year to remember to buy lasagna noodles. I finally got some today! I got home determined to make it, even though I realized I only had half the sauce required (actually more like 2/5), and almost no cheese. Do you think that stopped me? No, it did not. And I was very glad I'd had a stint at veganism in college - I pulled out all the old "fake cheese" tricks.

Healthy Lasagna

1/2 box lasagna noodles (more like 3/5)

1 jar pasta sauce (actually 4/5 of a jar)
I should have used a second jar of sauce, but I didn't have it, so I used 1 small can tomato paste, and about 2-3 cans of water, plus a tablespoon or so of Italian seasoning.
1 small jar olive tapenade (optional)

Mix the tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, and olive tapenade in a medium bowl (easier if you just have 2 jars of sauce - no mixing required).

1 package firm tofu (soft, silken tofu would have been better - a little more wet; this replaced 1-2 cups of ricotta or cottage cheese)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup "dry" parmesan (like Kraft)
2 eggs

Crumble the tofu into the bowl. Add the eggs, nutritional yeast and parmesan. Mix well.


1 tomato, slice thin
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan

Alternate layers of:
sauce
noodles
cheese mixture

Top with sliced tomato and grated parmesan. Tomato could also go in the middle. Cook for 60-90 minutes, until noodles are soft.

Mini Caprese

Heirloom tomatoes are not quite in season, so I got the heirloom cherry tomatoes instead. I think they grow better in a greenhouse, so are better out of season than the large ones.

1 package heirloom cherry tomatoes
1 package small mozzarella balls in brine (drained)
1 large spoonful of pesto

Mix all ingredients together and let marinate 30-60 minutes. Yum! I also added a tiny bit of extra olive oil.

Marshall says: Well, he didn't say much, except he did warn our neighbors that it was "hippie lasagna." Everyone pretty much liked it, but agreed it could be a little saucier. I think 2 jars of sauce would have done the trick, because the made up sauce was thicker, and so probably got drier from cooking than regular sauce would have.
Serves: a lot of people
Total time: 30 minutes prep, 90 minutes cooking, 2 hours total
Leftovers: We had 4 people eat, and we didn't eat half of the pan of lasagna. At least 4 servings leftover.