Oven-Baked Tofu Scramble

I love gas-powered cooking ranges. I love my oven. I love cast iron pans.

I swear with the combination of these two things, I can't go wrong with meals I make. They are a magic team.

On days when I am lazy, or busy, or making a lot of things at once (like brunch or dinner parties), my oven and cast iron pans are my best friends.

Almost like a crock pot. You can just toss everything in, turn over to anywhere between 350-450 degrees, depending on what you're cooking. Check back in 15 min-1hr later and your meal is ready.

I usually make tofu scrambles over a stove top, but sometimes I remember I can just toss it in the oven to create effortless magic. The good thing about this is that it also saves it from becoming to mashed up (unless that's what you want. I sometimes do).

For this
Cube some Extra Firm Tofu
Chop some Bell pepper, onions (and other veggies you like)
Add oil, salt, peppers, and other spices and herbs you like
Throw into oven at 400 degrees

Cook for about 30 mins, check and turn over, cook for longer if you want browner.
Ready!

Pan-Grilled Tri-Tip, Roasted Potatoes & Carrots, Almond Gravy Green Beans etc

 >Pan-Grilled Tri-Tip
> Roasted Potatoes & Carrot Blend
>Almond Gravy over Sauteed Green Beans
>Persimmon, Plum & Pomegranate Spring Greens Salad

Grub this!

Pan-Grilled Tofu, Sauteed Greens & Potatoes

>Extra-Firm Tofu seasoned with salt and spices and grilled in a cast iron pan
>Mixed Greens sauteed in onions and olive oils with apples to cut the bitter
>Cubed potatoes loaded with herbs & spices and cooked with bell peppers and onions, simmered in a pan.
>Spring Greens Salad

Plate: Chicken Soup, BuzzwordFood Salad, Fresh Garlic & Rosemary Toast

 >Chicken Soup with Bell peppers & Onions
> Buzzword Food Salad
> Garlic & Rosemary Toast

I was on my way to the grocery store to pick up some household staples, and see if something may inspire me for dinner, when I ran into my upstairs neighbor Emily and found out she would be making chicken soup that evening. I invited myself into her meal by offering to make a salad and 'some bread thing'. Awesome! I was glad to have someone else make a good chunk of the meal, because I had been a bit stuck. I was also excited about soup, because I kinda-sorta never like soups and just never really think to make them. Well our forces combined to make something that I was really excited about.

I have been pretty much using a lot of Rosemary to cook these days, because you know if you've ever had a rosemary plant, that baby GROWS. So I've been trying to put a dent in it (even doing things like rosemary pesto; another post on that).

How to:
>BuzzwordFood Salad? Check here to learn how I made this
>For the toast: I threw some fresh garlic cloves and some butter into a mini mortar and pounded. Spread it on whole wheat bread, sprinkled fresh rosemary on top of the bread and threw it in the broiler. Another way to make it would be to throw all the herbs and garlic in the mortar and pound with butter.
>Make your favorite chicken soup recipe, just make sure to throw in lots of veggies too, to make it a true grub-a-plate meal

Discovery: Will the Real Yams please stand up?!

"I'm going to take this back and show people what a real yam is. Sweet potatoes are NOT yams!"- a friend

Yeah, these are yams. This picture captures one of my favorite places to be. The Backyard of my Grandpa's village home. The Oba is where Yams are stored.

"Yam is a versatile vegetable. It can be barbecued; roasted; fried; grilled; boiled; baked; smoked and when grated it is processed into a dessert recipe. Yams are the staple crop of the Igbo people of Nigeria, in their language it is known as ji, and they commemorate it by having yam festivals known as Iri-ji or Iwa-Ji depending on the dialect." -From Wikipedia, Read More

If you are not in Nigeria (or other local sources), you may find Yams at an African/Caribbean Food store. I'll be posting a plate featuring a yam dish soon. I can't wait!

Recipe: When I FALL in love...it will be forever!

Let me introduce you to my 'Ode to Fall' salad. It's delicious!

Here's the story: I like Jicama and when I run into it, I remember that I like it. I had this large Jicama that I needed to use quickly because it was going to go bad soon. So I knew it would be the perfect thing to make for a brunch party where people could help me put a dent in it.

I knew I wanted it in a salad and looked online for recipes; I found one I liked but by the time I got up to start making it, I forgot what it was, and because I can't follow a recipe to save my life. I was like 'umm, how about this instead'? I had to think/work fast because, I was expecting a lot of people over any minute and was still behind. I was excited about doing something that was 'hella fall' and I liked the colors I could see it making. We had just picked up all these cool fruits and veggies from the farmer's market, so I thought how about it. The result was a winner, and I'm just saying this from all the good feedback I got that day.

Okay, so now pay attention because this is REALLY complicated.

Ingredients

1. Jicama
2. Fuyu Persimmons
3. Pomegranate

Directions:

1. Grab Bowl
2. Peel Jicama
3. Shred into bowl
4. Grab Persimmon
5. Shred into Bowl
6. Open/Tear Pomegranate
7. Drop seeds into bowl
8. Tear off mint leaves
9. Garnish
10. Proceed to Ravish.

Complicated. Right? Okay so it's not. I somehow suspect this will work on kids. Got kids? Try it on and let me know.

Chicken Pesto Linguini, Toasted Curry Cauliflower, Spring Green Salad

For dinner my husband made:
>Pan-Fried Chicken
>Whole Wheat Linguini & Basil Garlic Pesto
>Oven Toasted Curry Cauliflower
>Farm Fresh Spring Greens

This is one of those super fast meals. I'm usually not excited about pasta because I feel like it goes through me so quickly and makes me hungry, but whole wheat or rice pastas keep me full with just a little bit.

You can search the internet for pesto recipes and or ask your friends.

This pesto he made with basil, almonds, garlic, olive oil, parmesan and salt tossed in a food processor and done.

Recipe: BuzzwordFood Salad

The concept of this salad makes me laugh. It comes from the 'Superfood Salad' movement. Apparently they have these at Whole Foods (I don't really shop there except for urgent situations or quick natural food finds) so I don't know. But I actually got one on a road trip back from Oregon to Oakland at a Fred Meyers. I thought 'oh what a great idea!'. I liked the salad a lot, and I've decided I will go on to make various versions and themes of superfood salads, except I will be calling them BuzzwordFood because basically it's all the trendy new foods that we are going crazy about these days. Lol!

In this Salad:
Quinoa
Sunflower Seeds
Pomegranate
Avocados
Kale
Cherry Tomatoes
Black Beans
Red Onions
*and in my snootiest voice* all tossed in a home-made acai berry juice dressing (acai berry juice, non-fat yogurt, olive oil, salt, black pepper).

You too can make your own BuzzwordFood salad with these or other 'superfoods'.

Baked Chicken, Creamed Spinach and more

Baked Chicken
Roasted Potatoes
Creamed Spinach
Spring Greens Salad

-Grub this plate!

Chicken & Veggie Stew, Delicata Squash...

-Chicken & Mixed Veggies stew in Fresh Tomato sauce

-Roasted Delicata Squash

-Spinach, Cabbage & Raisin Salad

An in-season plate, with Fall veggies (Squash, Spinach, Cabbage). This meal was relatively quick, filling and delish. And I have to say, I really notice the difference between organic produce (not like huge manufacturer organic, but some good ol' small farm food). That shit is GOOD!  It just tastes better, it really does. We had the privilege of getting these delicata squashes, tomatoes and other veggies from a friend's farm, and boy I tell ya. Yum!

For the stew: Chopped up some skinless chicken thighs, threw in a pot with chopped onions, garlic and tomatoes (no added oils, just the juice from the chicken and the tomatoes) season with salt, dried rosemary from our backyard, ginger powder, let it stew. Once chicken was cooked to my standard, threw in some organic frozen mixed veggies, let it sit for a bit and it was done.

for the squash: threw it in whole into the oven, 475 degrees, for about 30 mins or until tender.

for the salad: bag of 'coleslaw' mix, spinach, raisins, lemon cucumbers, apple cider vinegar, honey and some fresh herbs, toss.

A World of Tastes: WIC Calendar 2013

OMG. This is some healthy. tasty. nutritious-food-geek stuff! A CALENDAR, with cool printed layout to boot. Just peeped the 2013 WIC Calendar 'A world of tastes...on MyPlate'. And I'm too juiced, makes me inspired to cook. For each month they feature a Plate inspired by different geographical regions on the continent. The only thing that I can hate about this is that they don't have more menus/plates. At least one per week would have been cool (hehe). But that's fine, because that's what we get to do here at GrubAPlate... create some together. With the WIC calendar you get 12 yummy looking recipes... I can't wait to make them and share them with other grubbers. I can't find good images on the internet to share, but I will keep searching. Maybe I'll be able to post some scans or pictures from Plates that I make.

Dinner: Turkey Quinoa Loaf et. al

Turkey Quinoa Loaf
Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Steamed Green Beans
Fresh Cabbage & Raisin Salad


-Submit/View Recipes for this plate!

How to 'Grub a Plate'

Okay here's the short of it:

• A bunch of people send in menus (in form of plates*)
• They are collected (with a collection goal of at least 70 unique menus)
• Then put into a calendar + list + blog article
• Shared with folks

What Else?

Well the format for submissions is inspired by the Plate Method, so you don't just submit a dish, but a balanced 'complete meal' that is:

• Healthy + Nutritional (Avoid/minimal deep-fried, artificial & highly processed)
• Easy + Accessible (Consider foods that can be made in reasonable amounts of time, with ingredients that can be found easily)
• Tasty + Edible (please!)

*The 'Plate Method'?

Take your Plate. Divide it into 4. Put in:

• 1/4 lean protein
• 1/4 healthy carbs
• 1/4 low-carb cooked veggies
• 1/4 fresh vegetables

click to read more about the Plate Method

Certain dishes such as soups, wraps and salads can also be 'plate' worthy if they include a combo of two or more 'sections' of the plate.

Wanna participate?

You can:

• Simply SUBMIT a list for a meal idea
• Then SHARE this blog with your family & friends
• Also include RECIPES for one or more the dishes (feel free to include vegan, veggie or meat-lover variations)
• Take it a step further and include TAGS about special diets, allergies, or cultural info (e.g. diabetic, gluten-free, halal)
• If you know how include HOW to obtain 'special' ingredients (where to shop, how to grow, how to make)

Imagine the possibilities

These help to create more fun around making healthy food.

• Theme Nights: create themes to inspire variety & excitement in meals (Indian, Game Night, Out in the Woods, etc)
• Potluck: have people bring different items from parts of the plate
• Invite Yourself: Tell a friend or family member you would like to come over to eat
• Cook for someone: Make a plate you think someone else would like and invite them over or make them a plate to take to eat at home or take to work.

Grocery!