Cucumber and Feta Salad

Supposed to be a wrap, with the cucumber cut using a mandoline or peeler and the rest of the ingredients inside. But, I don't have any way to keeping them together so I made a salad. 

Ingredients:

• 2 cucumbers
• 1 block of feta cheese, or 6 oz
• 5 TBSP yoghurt or Greek yoghurt
• 1/4 of a red bell pepper, chopped fine
• 10 olives, chopped fine
• 2 TBSP lemon juice or lime juice
• pepper

Directions:

1) Cut the cucumbers into bite sized pieces.









2) Chop the feta finely, and then smash with a fork.
3) Add the yoghurt and combine.
4) Add the bell pepper, olives, lemon and pepper and combine.






5) Mix with the cucumber.
6) Serve with parsley.

Garlic Parsley Toast

Pretty simple, but sometimes I don't think of a recipe until I see it, so I think other people must do the same thing.

I added more parsley than the original recipe called for because I just found out it's SUPER healthy. Better than kale healthy.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 TBSP olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• 1 TBSP parsley, chopped
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• pinch of salt
• 2 slices of wheat bread

Directions:

1) Mix the oil, garlic, parsley, red pepper and salt.
2) Put the bread in a pan until it is toasted on one side.
3) Flip and spread the oil mixture.
4) Allow to toast on the other side.






Of course, if you have a toaster oven or oven you can toast the bread at 450 F to your liking.

Spicy and Peppery Tofu

This was called 'black pepper tofu' but I guess I didn't add enough pepper or because it was no fresh ground the flavor didn't come though as much. Again, it came from the app on my phone.

Ingredients:

• 1 block of tofu, cut into cubes
• flour to dust the tofu
• vegetable oil
• 6 + 8 green onions, sliced then
• 2 red chillies, thinly sliced
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 1/2 TBSP ginger, chopped
• 2 TBSP black pepper
• 5 TBSP soy sauce
• 1 TBSP sugar
• rice

Directions:

1) Toss the tofu in the flour.
2) Put enough oil in a pan to come up 1/2 a cm and heat it.
3) Shake off excess flour and fry the tofu.
4) Put the tofu on a paper towel when you remove it from the oil.
5) In another pan (or clean the first one) add 1/2 cup of oil and heat to low heat.
6) Add the 6 green onions, red chillies, garlic, and ginger.
7) Saute until the contents are soft.

8) Add the soy sauce, sugar and pepper.
9) Add the tofu and 8 green onions.
10) Serve with rice.

Spicy, Garlicy, Lemony Mushrooms

This recipe is supposed to have sherry and be Spanish, but I left that our since I couldn't find it, and added more lemon and hot pepper.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup oil
• 8 button mushrooms, quartered
• 6 garlic cloves, diced
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• juice of 1 1/2 lemons
• 1/4 cup water
• salt, pepper and hot pepper powder

Directions:

1) Heat the oil to high heat.
2) Add the mushrooms and cook for 4-5 minutes, until tender.







3) Add the garlic, red pepper, lemon juice, water, salt, pepper and hot pepper powder and cook for 2-3 minutes.
4) Serve either alone or with rice or with bread.

Cold Sesame Noodles

These are the simplest and best noodles I've made so far! Why did I not make them before?? You need to have the stocked Asian kitchen though...Recipe taken from here.

Ingredients:

• 10 oz noodles
• 2 TBSP rice vinegar
• 2 TBSP sesame oil
• 1 TBSP soy sauce
• 2 tsp sesame seeds
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• handful of green onions
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper

Directions:

1) Cook the noodles.
2) Let cool.
3) Mix the rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, sesame seeds, ginger, salt, green onions and red pepper together.







4) Combine the noodles and sauce.
5) Serve with sesame seeds, spring onions and crushed red pepper on top.

Noodles with Tofu and Greens

Recipe taken from here.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz noodles
• 1 block tofu, cut into slices
• salt and pepper
• 4 TBSP peanut oil OR 3 TBSP sesame oil mixed with 1 TBSP vegetable oil
• 1 bag of greens (cabbage, spinach, mixture...) (I used spinach)
• bunch of green onions
• 1 TBSP red pepper flakes
• 3 TBSP soy sauce
• pinch of sugar

Directions:

1) Cook the pasta and reserve 1/3 of the water.
2) Pat the tofu dry and season the tofu with salt and pepper.







3) Heat 2 TBSP of the oil in a pan.
4) Cook the tofu for about 3 minutes on each side, until starting to brown.
5) Heat 1 TBSP of the oil.






6) Add the greens and let cook for 2-3 minutes.








7) Add the scallions, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, sugar and reserved water and let simmer for a few minutes.
8) Mix with the pasta and serve with the tofu on top.

Tofu Hot Pot

Recipe taken from here, after finding out that tofu hot pot existed though the International Korean Menu Guide app. It would be a lot better if the app had the recipes on it, but oh well....now I get to search and find a lot of options!

I found doing it this way to be a little bland, so in the future I would add more soy sauce, or make a larger portion of the sauce/broth.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 block of tofu, sliced
• 1 cup of mushrooms (or enough to cover the tofu in your pot), sliced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced
• 1 red thin pepper, sliced
• 1 TBSP soy sauce
• 1 TBSP hot pepper powder
• 2 TBSP vegetable oil
• water
• 1 cup of spinach
• 4 green onions, chopped
• pepper

Directions:

1) Stack the tofu, mushrooms, onion, bell pepper in a pot in that order.








2)  Place the soy sauce, hot pepper powder, and vegetable oil in a pan and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the powder has thinned out.






3) Add the sauce to the pot and add enough water to cover the vegetables.
4) Bring to a boil.
5) Lower the temperature and cook for about 15 minutes.






6) Add the spinach and cook for another 5 minutes.
7) Add the green onions and pepper and bring to a boil.
8) Serve with rice.

Simple Stir Fry

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cooked rice
• 2 TBSP vegetable oil
• garlic
• green bell pepper
• red thin pepper
• cucumber
• mushroom
• tofu
• soy sauce
• onion
• spinach

Directions:
1) Marinate the tofu in the soy sauce.
2) Heat the oil in a pan.
3) Add the garlic and let cook for 2-3 minutes until you can smell it.
4) Add the peppers, cucumber and mushroom and sautee for 3-5 minutes.
5) Add the tofu, onion and spinach and sautee for 3-5 minutes.
6) Plate with the rice.

Grilled Corn and Potato Chowder

 In the final use of the Boston Organics box this week, I used up the corn and some of the onion. The recipe was taken from here (a Boston Organics recipe!) and changed a bit.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound red potatoes, chopped
• 1 TBSP salt
• 3 TBSP butter, softened
• 4 ears corn, shucked
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• dash of ground red pepper
• 3 cups low-fat milk
• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 1 TBSP thyme
• 1/2 TBSP black pepper

Directions:

1) Place potatoes and 2 tsp salt in a saucepan and cover the potatoes with water.
2) Bring to a boil.
3) Cook for 2 minutes.
4) Remove from heat and let sit in the water for 5 minutes.
5) Preheat a grill pan to medium and put cooking spray on it.
6) Drain the water out.
7) Melt 1 TBSP butter and spread it over the corn.

8) Place corn and potatoes on the grill pan.











9) Grill for about 15 minutes, turning occasionally.
10) Cool the corn a bit, then cut the kernels from the cobs.











11) Place 1 cup of the kernels in a food processor (or blender) and blend until smooth (it won't get too smooth, at least it didn't for me...).
12) Melt remaining 2 TBSP butter in a saucepan.






13) Add onion and saute for 3 minutes. I used a spatula to stir, so I could scrap the sides.







14) Add 1 tsp salt and red pepper to the pan and cook for 30 seconds.









15) Stir in potatoes, corn kernels, pureed corn, milk, half and half, and thyme and bring to a simmer.







16) Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
17) Add black pepper.