Apple Week dinner recipe!
Hoooraaaah!
First off, I accomplished a couple exciting things for the blog today! Look, a logo! I really hope you didn’t log onto the blog this afternoon around my lunch break, cause you probably saw this logo in one of about 17 weird locations with strange font and numerous awful borders cause I kept publishing weird trials . . . sorry about that. I’m going to keep fiddling with it, so you may witness some of my awesome high-tech blogging.
I just think you should know how savvy this little blogger girl is. I also made business cards with my new logo on them, and really wanted to have a simple green line under the logo with contact information underneath. But I seriously could not work the super-simple design-your-card website to get the darn line on there! So you know what I did? I opened up Paint. Remember Paint?!!? Drew a plain green line. Uploaded it as a photo. Hope I’m not making any graphic designers out there cringe 🙂
But it got the job done. No one will ever know, right? Well, except for everybody I just told . . .
Another little announcement – I’m going to have to extend Apple Week by a day because yesterday’s recipe was a sad miserable failure 🙁 I’ll tell you more about it on Sunday when I plan to remake it and defend my culinary honor with a triumph.
Bummer was that I certainly would have given it another go, but by the time the recipe didn’t work out, the sun had gone down and there would be no more natural light for pictures. I long ago decided that I should try to avoid pictures taken with dim artificial indoor light, as they turn out yellow and icky. But with the sun going down so early lately, that gives me a super brief window after work to get my recipes made and photos taken if I need to do mid-week photo shoots. Blogging was a whole lot easier when I was living in always-sunny Southern California and was unemployed. Shocking, no?
Well I found a solution to this little problem. The second exciting thing I did for Mr. Blog today! Check it out.
I’ve got a little photo set! Still not as great as natural light, but these pictures will do. Now I can blog through the winter! I’m a happy camper.
Okay, enough. I can only talk about things other than food for so long.
Next apple recipe! I’m making an apple and onion saute and apple cider gravy that are components of an old favorite (non-vegan) Rachael Ray recipe. Only I’m pairing this yummy combo with a big ol’ slab of sweet-and-spicy maple glazed tofu.
serves 2
adapted from 30 Minute Meals
1 T Earth Balance
1 apple, peeled and thinly sliced
1 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 C apple cider (plain or spiced will work! I’m using some leftovers from my fresh pressed stuff!)
1 T flour of choice
1 block extra firm tofu
2 T maple syrup
2 T balsamic vinegar
1 t hot sauce
1 1/2 t vegan worcestershire
2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 t vegetable oil
Drain and press tofu. Slice tofu in half down the side of the block so that you have two thin large blocks of tofu.
Combine maple syrup and balsamic vinegar in a shallow baking dish. Lay the tofu in the marinade. Leave for ten minutes, then flip and marinate the other side for ten minutes.
You can cook it one of two ways – sear it or bake it. Baking gives you a really firm tofu, which I know a lot of people (myself included) love. Searing it is kind of a rich and delicious way to do it, and you can get a better glaze that way. If baking: bake for about 40 minutes, flipping once halfway through. If searing: heat vegetable oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the tofu and cook for about 3 minutes per side, until browned. Then pour in the marinade and flip the tofu a few more times for about 1 minute.
While the tofu cooks, make your gravy! Melt Earth Balance in a large skillet, add apples and onions, and cook on low for about 15 minutes. Salt and pepper the yummy mixture, and set it aside. Then pour the apple cider into the same pan, add the flour and whisk until it thickens. It’s really yummy if you add in another teaspoon or two of Earth Balance. 😉
Apple cider gravy. Really. And I think you’ll be very surprised at how well sauteed onions go with sweet apples!
Pile all the parts high, and dig in. So good.
Nutrition facts per serving: Calories: 293; Calories from Fat: 101; Total Fat: 11.3g; Saturated Fat: 2.5g; Sodium: 212mg; Total Carbohydrates: 44.3g; Dietary Fiber: 3.9g; Sugars: 30.6g; Protein: 5.5g
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