Meatless Monday - Spicy Peanut Butter Tofu with Sriracha

I love tofu. Always have, always will.
The key to tofu is cooking and/or seasoning it properly. Plain tofu = no bueno.

Monday is a rough day for some and a new beginning for others. I really got into Meatless Monday after reading that the meat industry generates one fifth of man-made greenhouse gases...which is more than transportation. Incredible. What's one day without meat? If you haven't heard of the cause "Meatless Monday," read more about it here:
http://www.meatlessmonday.com/about-us/history/
It's an awesome and easy movement to be part of, give it a shot.

In honor of Meatless Monday, I bring you Spicy Peanut Butter Tofu with Sriracha (it's also vegan!)

Makes about 4 servings (I live alone and this provided about 4 meals with salads)

Ingredients:
14-16 oz. firm or extra firm tofu
1 T peanut oil (I only had
several large garlic cloves, sliced
large piece of ginger root, sliced
2-3 T diagonally sliced green onions (for garnish)

Sauce Ingredients:
3 T soy sauce (reduced sodium is fine)
3 T rice vinegar (if using seasoned, use half of the sweetener)
2 T smooth natural peanut butter (use the lowest sugar
peanut butter you can find)
 1 T honey (agave nectar or a dash of regular sugar works)
2 T vegetable stock or water
1 T Sriracha (more or less to taste)



Instructions:

Drain the tofu. Put tofu pieces between a double layer of paper towels and press down with your hand so the liquid in the tofu is absorbed by the towel. Most likely you will need to switch out the paper towels 5-6 times to get the moisture out of the tofu. I tend to leave a heavy pan on top of the tofu so I don't have to stand there during the process. After drained, cut tofu into lengthwise strips about 1 inch wide.  

Whisk together the soy sauce, rice vinegar, peanut butter, honey, stock or water, and then add the Sriracha Sauce. Cut the pieces of garlic and ginger, and diagonally slice green onions.

Heat the dry wok (or heavy pan) over high heat for one minute.  Then add the oil and heat about 30 seconds more.  Add the sliced pieces of ginger and garlic and cook just until they are fragrant (about 30 seconds); then remove and discard.  Add tofu pieces, lower heat to medium high and cook, turning often, until the tofu is nicely browned on both sides, about 7-8 minutes. 

When all the tofu pieces are browned, add the sauce, turn heat to low, and cook just until the sauce thickens slightly and coats the tofu.  Don't cook too long or the sauce will get too thick and won't pour over the tofu pieces. I found that this is no more than 30 seconds. Remove pan from the heat, transfer tofu pieces to a plate and pour sauce over and garnish with green onion slices (if using.)  Serve hot.

The tofu kept in the fridge for 4 more days. I reheated pieces on medium in the microwave to put on top of salads during the week. 

Happy Monday!

 

Love Your Local Mountain

Happy Sunday to all of you powder hounds out there.
After an amazing day out on the mountain yesterday, I realized I needed to dedicate this post to one place that has influenced my life for the last 15 years.

Lost Trail Ski Area is celebrating its 75th season this year. I moved to the Bitterroot Valley in 1999 and my family took up Lost Trail as our home mountain. Weekend after weekend my dad and I made the trek to the mountain for ski school, two-man chairlifts, and cheese fries. I can honestly say that there was no better way to spend my weekends in the winter.

Today I ski at the same mountain I know and love. Even though Lost Trail has expanded, thinned, and changed, I believe it's for the better. Change is a good thing...as long as they keep the cheese fries. It still brings the same snow, terrain, and local feel that makes anyone feel at home.

Here's to the mountain that brings me great memories, snow, and views that never cease to amazing me.

Heart Pound Cake: I Love Baking for Others

In my office, we are pretty big on bringing in food to share, primarily baked goods. Given that it was Valentine's Day, I thought I'd bring something in to share the love.

I'm always up for a Pinterest challenge. Seriously who are these creative people coming up with all of these crazy ideas?

Ingredients:
2 boxes of pound cake mix
1/2 c unsalted butter, softened and divided
4 eggs, divided
1 1/3 c milk, divided
red food coloring
cooking spray or oil to coat the pan
Glaze: (optional)
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
2 TBS milk (give or take)

Method:
Preheat oven to 350.
Coat a 9×5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
 Prepare your first pound cake: combine 1 box of cake mix, 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) softened butter, 2 eggs, and 2/3 cup milk in a large bowl. Whisk together with an electric mixer as directed on the box.
Mix in food coloring until you reach your desired shade.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 8-10 minutes less than instructed on box (about 50 minutes.) Let cool 5 minutes in pan, remove and cool on wire rack for 1 hour.

Prepare your second box of pound cake mix the same as the first, except omit the food coloring. Coat a 9×5 loaf pan with cooking spray and pour about 1/4 in of batter to cover the bottom. Align your heart cut-outs down the center, keeping them tightly together. Pour the remaining batter over the sides and top making sure the heart cut-outs are covered.

Bake according to the directions on the box. About 1 hour. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.
To make the glaze (optional): Mix powdered sugar in a bowl, slowly add milk until you reach a desired consistency. Drizzle over cooled cake.

I'll be putting this baking endeavor in the Success column.
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Enjoy!

Celebrating Winter

Winter Carnival in Whitefish, Montana is one of my favorite celebrations. For the past couple of years I've made it a long weekend of skiing, beer drinking, and general celebration of all the things I love about Montana and winter. I have been lucky enough to ski at Big Mountain (I just can't call it Whitefish Mountain Resort) frequently for the past few years. The terrain, scenery, and snow are some of the best in the state, in my opinion.

If you've ever skied Big, you know that there is commonly a serious inversion of fog that can make it nearly impossible to see on some days. All the days of inversion and fog are worth it when you get a bluebird day on the mountain which happened on Saturday. So. Extremely. Happy.

Glacier National Park is one of my favorite places in the world to begin with, but seeing it from the top of Big Mountain covered in snow was just amazing. Friday and Saturday were both a balmy -5 degrees which was manageable with this view and several pit stops to drink a PBR with the group of Yeti's and Team Canada.

The only let down this year was that the beer barter was cancelled. Typically the event is a talent show after the parade with beer provided and sold by Great Northern Brewing Company. I was pretty bummed to see this event cancelled. Fingers crossed for next year. To those who haven't been before or went this year and didn't get to experience the beer barter, here is a photo from last year where we were watching from the roof of Great Northern Brewing Company:

During my three day getaway I was able to visit several eateries and bars to enjoy some of my old and new favorite items.

My go-to's:
1) Bacon cheeseburger and fries - The Bulldog Saloon. You can't beat watching the Winter Olympics and eating burgers with a pitcher of PBR after a cold day on the mountain. 
2) Green smoothies and Americanos - Cowgirl Coffee. 
3) Breakfast Burritos- Alpine Village Market

New favorites:
1) Bluebird Double IPA- Great Northern Brewing Company
2) The Vespa- Latitude 48. Gin and champagne in the same drink, yes please.
3) Chubbie Yuppie scramble - Loula's

Overall it was a successful long weekend to Whitefish for Winter Carnival full of great friends, good beer, and mountains. Until next time.

Groundhog Day > Super Bowl XLVIII

The Super Bowl is one of my favorite celebrations. Food, drinks, and football. I mean does it really get any better than that?

Rough day to be a Denver fan or for anyone who wanted to watch a good match up. Luckily I was distracted with good friends, food, and the Puppy Bowl.

I'm currently in a food coma. This explains everything:

My contribution was Hawaiian Ham and Swiss sandwiches with dijon-balsamic onions.
Having a Bloody Mary bar at home was probably the best decision we made this year. When is the Monday after the Super Bowl going to become an American holiday? Food for thought.

At least the groundhog saw his shadow. Six more weeks of winter. Bring on the snow, let's ski.

February, You're Already Looking Good.

"I'm really happy I didn't go skiing today" - Said no one ever, usually.
Luckily, I can say that I did head to the mountain today, after highly considering not going. It's amazing how easily swayed I can be with several inches of powder, great terrain, and cheese fries. All of which Discovery Ski Area had today.

One of my favorite things about Western Montana is the smaller, family owned and operated mountains. We are lucky to have so many inexpensive mountains that have great terrain, snow, and are under 2 hours away in all directions.

As I mentioned earlier, cheese fries. My FAVORITE ski food. Disco does cheese fries best. Doesn't hurt that their cookies are delicious and most often still warm out of the oven. Healthy lunches tend to occur while skiing.

Processed cheese aside, the 6 inches of snow and turns that were made today made them worth it.

The view of Georgetown Lake and the Pintler Range isn't too bad either. Happy Saturday everyone!