Vegan day 96: Quinoa with raw pepitas and dried cranberries
If at first you don’t succeed, try try again!
oh boy! I guess I didn’t exacty know what I wanted to cook today. I wanted something with tofu… but that’s not how it ended up. I messed up twice today- two different dishes- actually THREE TIMES!
(1) I set out to make baked tofu with some veggies that I had in the refrigerator. I don’t know what came over me and made me take the spinach out of the freezer- but I did. I guess I was looking to do a baked tofu, a few fresh veggies and some sautéed (frozen spinach). Mark my words- I will not use frozen spinach again unless it’s in a smoothie or a baked vegan pasta free lasagna and EVEN then- I may just go with fresh. Frozen spinach just doesn’t taste good to me. I have tried a few difference brands but to no prevail. At one point, I just kept adding whatever it took to make it taste good- persistent I can be! I added salt, garlic powder, salt, vegan butter spread (against my better judgement) and then even more salt. ugh- I have salty, fattening spinach now- ohh with frozen peas and carrots too. Great! Back to the drawing board to see yet what I could accompany this dish with.
(2) Now I blot and dry out some tofu- not as well as previous days I think. I bake away- while sautéing the fresh vegetables from my refrigerator. The veggies came out nice although I didn’t have much of them. Waiting for my tofu to toughen up a bit, I dive into the quinoa to hopefully add flavor and substance and save the day. Wrong.
(3) While leaving the kitchen for what only felt like moments, I came back to burnt quinoa and rubbery tofu. I threw out the quinoa (and the pot fyi)- it was that bad! lol I refused to quit though. I am super stubborn sometimes.
(4) I made more quinoa– and stood close by watching it this time. When finished, I mixed the cooked quinoa with the some extra virgin olive oil, raw pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and dried cranberries. I was about to call it a day until I felt the desire for something green in there. Little did I know, I had some fresh spinach in the refrigerator- it tastes so much better than frozen– not even a resemblance! I chopped it up finely and ended up with:
Quinoa with pepitas and dried cranberries!
Disclaimer: The information given here is for educational purposes only. You should not use this to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease without consulting with a qualified health care provider.
[Thursday April 5th 2012 blog]
