Tofu + Bacon??

I have seen a lot of recipes for tofu bacon running around the internet and I was curious to try it out.

Thin strips of tofu marinating in soy sauce, liquid smoke, mirin and nutritional yeast.

When I read the tofu bacon recipes most of the comments rave about how it tastes just like bacon. This I find hard to imagine.


I pan fried the tofu until it was crispy and it ended up looking like this:

While the tofu had a bacon-like look to it, it in no way tasted like bacon. The only way you could think this would taste like bacon is if you never ate any pork product your whole life - including bacon.


It just tasted like crispy tofu with seasoning. 


So, I am still perplexed by the whole tofu + bacon thing.


I ended up having a bowl of veggies.

Ignore the tofu bacon - I didn't even bother to eat it.

This was one of my 'toss everything together and see if it works' meals.

 
I put 1 chopped tomato, corn kernels cut fresh from the cob, mushrooms and black beans into a skillet to simmer.

I also added 2 tsp. of taco seasoning to the pan.

While the vegetables simmered I put a corn tortilla in another pan to get crispy.

When the tomato started to release its juices and the mushrooms had started to brown, I plated the veggies.

I sprinkled the chopped up tortilla on top and added some diced avocado.

Fresh chopped cilantro adorned the top.

 A very delicious breakfast but now I am behind on protein for the day.

I sense a protein bar in my near future.

You had me at pasta and bacon

Pasta with bacon and watercress.

Ever have one of those work days when you do a huge amount of work and then feel like you produced a huge amount of crap?

I had one of those days last night. I was up all night writing. I wrote a lot of pages.

But at 5am when I was taking the dogs for a long walk, all of the work I did last night seems awful, without merit and will never see the harsh fluorescent lights of a book store.

I am sure it is just because I am way too over tired and I should sleep.

But at 6am I was starving so I made some pasta.

I cooked the pasta according to the package directions. While that was boiling away I pulled out two pieces of bacon out of the freezer and set them sizzling in a skillet.

When the pasta was cooked al dente I drained it and set it aside. When the bacon was nice and crispy I pulled it out of the pan and let it dry on paper towels.

I drained off most of the bacon fat and tossed the pasta back into the skillet along with one clove of garlic, minced, the bacon and 1 cup of watercress.

Just so you know, I added 1/2 a piece of bacon to my dish – the dogs got to enjoy the other 1 1/2 pieces

When everything was warmed through, I plated the pasta and added a generous shaving of Parmesan on top.




Happy Friday!

Living and learning goes better with bacon

Just a friendly heads-up - there will be ranting up ahead and yes, ohhh yes, there will be bacon.

Do you have someone in your life that is dismissive of your accomplishments?


Oh, wait - here is a shot of bacon to hold you over while you read.

Bacon wrapped rice balls (the dog's treat).

This morning I got some good news and I was calling people to share. Everyone is ecstatic for me. This is something I have been working on for a while and it is finally starting to pay off. 

Then I make a call to a person who's reaction goes something like this:

Me: "Blah, blah, blah *insert any great news you want here*"

Other person: "Oh *pause* well I guess that is good news. *another pause* So anyways, I bought these really cute shoes the other day..."


And I am thinking - "Wow, way to be dismissive."


And then it hits me - Why do I keep expecting different results???


Wait, you probably need another shot of bacony goodness at this point.

Seasoned rice with an over easy egg with a sprinkling of bacon.

Have I confronted them on this issue? Heck yeah. Which results in them saying in a condescending tone, "Oh I didn't realize it was THAT important."


So my positive action of the day (aka. my living and learning moment)? In the future I will wait for the giddy euphoria to pass before calling them - that way it won't bother me.


There, *big sigh*, I feel much better - Thanks for listening:-)


On to the food:

Seasoned rice with egg and bacon, miso soup, nori strips and green tea.

I always mix the rice and egg together.

 This is my favorite green tea:

If you want to see how I go about eating this you can check out an earlier post here.




Since the dogs looked like they were contemplating taking me out so they could wolf down the bacon, I made them this:

Bacon wrapped rice balls.

They are now draped over the couch in a porcine induced stupor:-)

Seaside Brunch

Everyone else was content to hang out and chat this morning so we didn't end up heading out to brunch until 11am.

We decided to go to Toasties in downtown Pacific Grove.

More coffee!

My niece chose scrambled eggs with potatoes and toast.

I was in the mood for eggs over easy and potatoes.

My other niece enjoyed bacon and banana chocolate chip pancakes.

MMM, bacon...

Banana chocolate pancake.

Then fueled by copious amounts of caffeine and sugar (is there any better combination) we did the next logical thing.


Manicures!


My niece went from this:

Pre-manicure.

To this:

Post-manicure.

My hands were transformed from this naked state:

Pre-manicure.

To this:

Post-manicure.

Now it is time to shop!