Pesto Tofu Stir Fry with Quinoa

I have been feeling a little stale with my cooking these days. I have no new ideas, no inspiration and we have been doing more than our regular share of take out and quickly rustled up meals. In keeping with the low cooking interest, my refrigerator is bare and has very few vegetables. After a spring/summer/fall with fresh vegetables from my CSA and farmer' market, I don't want to get vegetables that were grown many thousands of miles away and off-season. But, I also can't think of many recipes using butternut squash (or cut it up regularly). Maybe that's just an excuse.
Along the lines of being stale, I stared at an empty refrigerator a few days ago, except for some spinach. I also wanted to make something with quinoa. I have 3 boxes of quinoa and need more recipes using this grain. Luckily, I remembered that 100 cookbooks had a fun stir-fry recipe and some corn in the freezer (from the summer). I also had a jar of sun-dried tomatoes and it was time to try the recipe. Her photo was also much better than mine.






But, the taste was not-so-ordinary. We both really enjoyed the stir-fry. I added some red chilli flakes too - because I need more spice to the recipe. As I was cooking it, I was not sure about the meal, but it was very yummy!!!

Em, I hope you are doing well :)

Welcome JTD!!

Welcome to JT!! Em had her baby boy on Dec 3rd. He is healthy and appears to be happy and Em is occasionally on Facebook, so I take that as a good sign. I assume that she will not be as regular posting her recipes. I am not sure what she is 'cooking' these days, so I'm going to keep trying to fill the void (and it will be a void).

In spite of the quiet for the past week (or more), I have been cooking. Just recycling old recipes and forgetting to take photographs.

Here are somethings that I made in the last week and verdicts (without photos or detailed recipes because of the lack of photos!).

--Peanut Butter pancakes - I created and re-created this recipe from a bunch that I saw. I will try it again and post it. This did not have as much peanut flavor as I would have liked. But, I'll tweak it and try to post it another time.

-- Date nut slices - based on this recipe. I think I may not have waited long enough for it to thicken. So my slices were nowhere as pretty as the ones in the original post and were too mushy. I still have some left in the fridge - V does not like nuts in any of his foods and won't have too much of it anyway.

-- Stir Fry - based loosely on this recipe, but with broccoli, tofu, seitan, cashews and peanut sauce and soy sauce stir fried in oil with some garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes. Quick and easy to make and very enjoyable. I found a Peanut Sauce at Target (Archer Farms brand) that I really like. So, we're having a variety of stir fries that feature this Peanut sauce with variations.

-- Thai Curry - modified from this recipe, thai curry is a staple at our home. I make it when I need a quick dinner - it's a great one-dish meal. I added some squash and root vegetables this time for a change and some of the peanut sauce mentioned before!

-- Vegan chilli (made in a slow cooker) - I will try make it again in the next couple of days and post a recipe!!


Good night and have fun with JT, Em!