mid-October slump

This weekend I didn’t have very much time, energy, or new ingredients, so I kept it very simple. It still tastes good though!!

Basically, I made white rice and a stir fry. I usually make about a cup of (dry) rice in my lil rice cooker, and that is a good amount for four days.

PS: I bought most of the veggies last week when I did a big shopping trip, and I shopped them and kept them in the fridge in little ziplock baggies. The celery and cabbage kept really well, and it was really convenient when I went to make this. I’m probably gonna keep doing it next time I do another big shopping trip. I usually get my veggies at Berkeley Bowl instead of Trader Joe’s, where I get most packaged stuff, and Berkeley Bowl is really far from my house so it’s easier to just buy in large quantities for two weeks rather than just a small trip every week. Maybe at some point I’ll do a post about my grocery shopping trips and what I buy/how much I spend/other related stuff.

Another PS: I’m doing lunches for 4 days a week now instead of 5, like I said in my post last week 🙂 but these can all be adapted for quantity.

Here it is in all its glory!! Again, it’s pretty boring looking compared to most of my meal preps. It was also a really gross-looking picture (the colors all looked kinda gray in the lighting) so I did my best to edit them to look marginally more appealing but tbh I’m pretty bad at photo editing. To my talented friends, please tell me how to make food look better!!!

Tofu Stir Fry

Tofu scramble is one of my favorite things to make for breakfast and its essentially the same recipe, I just changed the ratio of tofu to vegetables a little to make it more lunch-friendly. You can change the flavoring of this in any way you like; I really like doing a it with curry powder and cumin. You can also use any vegetables you like, this is just what I had left over. I always use firm tofu for scrambles, anything else has a weird texture to me.

• olive oil
• 1/2 large onion, sliced thinly
• 1-inch piece of ginger, finely minced
• ~3 large stalks celery, cut on a diagonal bias (if you’re fancy, or just chop it up)
• 1 cup shredded red cabbage (about 1/4 medium head of cabbage…not exactly sure because I had chopped it up a couple days before)
• 1 package firm tofu
• soy sauce, maple syrup, sesame oil, chili sauce

Heat olive oil in a pan over medium low heat. Add onions and sauté until translucent, 3-4 minutes. Don’t be impatient with onions, they taste best cooked slowly over a lower heat. Add ginger and sauté until fragrant, another minute or so. Add celery and cabbage and cook for about 8 minutes until soft. Drain tofu and add to pan, crumbling as you add it. Smoosh down any big pieces with a spatula or spoon to make sure all the pieces are uniform-ish. Cook until most of the liquid is gone and the tofu has browned a little. Add the soy sauce, etc. or any flavorings you like, and cook until liquid has mostly evaporated. Let cool and portion out into containers over rice!!

This is it in the pan, cooling. I left the picture obnoxiously large so you can see details.

You may have noticed that I always use soy sauce, maple syrup, and chili sauce. It’s because its a really good combo and makes it taste way more interesting and complete than just soy sauce or just chili sauce.

Wow. longer post than I intended. Happy cooking y’all (mostly Frieda)

Hi mom if you’re reading this