Tag: foodie

recipes

Easy Zucchini Noodle Pasta

tlkitchen

Hey there foodies! I hope you all had an amazing week! I wanted to share with you guys a quick and easy dinner recipe I put together tonight. I was really inspired to eat something filling, healthy and that would leave me feeling good inside, instead of overly full. This dish is super easy to make and it taste amazing. Hope you enjoy and as always, happy eating!

What you need:

  • 2 Zucchinis (Shaved in thin slices with a peeler or spiralized)
  • 1 jar tomato, basil pasta sauce
  • 1 cart whole mushrooms, minced
  • 2 garlic cloves, mined
  • 1 cup fresh kale, chopped
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 tsp of salt
  • 2 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp Italian seasoning
  • Pinch cayenne
  • Optional: nutritional yeast
  • Vegetable or olive oil

Method:

  • After mincing the mushrooms, in a pan with 1 tsp of oil, add mushrooms and allow them to cook down. Mushrooms are full of water, so we want all the water to cook out first. You can add a pinch of salt to help the process along.
  • Once mushrooms are dry, add diced onion, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp Italian seasoning and saute until onions are tender. Once done, set aside.
  • Use a vegetable peeler or spiralizer to create zucchini “noodles” These will be left raw, so make sure the cuts are thin.
  • In a sauce pan, quickly saute kale with 1 tsp of oil, just until kale withers down.
  • Add pasta sauce, garlic and the remaining seasonings to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes
  • After 5 minutes, add mushroom “meat” and simmer for another 5 minutes.
  • Plate Zucchini and sprinkle 1 tsp of nutritional yeast, give it a toss to make sure each zoodle is covered. (If you are not familiar with nutritional yeast, it has a mild cheesy flavor and is great for a cheese replacement.)
  • Add cooked sauce over zucchini and sprinkle a little more nutritional yeast on top.
  • ENJOY!
recipes

Vegetable Stir Fry with Tofu Dumplings

tlkitchen

Good Morning foodies! Happy weekend to all and I hope you guys had an amazing week.

So how is everyone’s New Year going so far? Mine, pretty great & pretty busy but I wanted to make sure I didn’t forget about you guys! Last week I was playing around with recipes and I put together an amazing, yet simple, Chinese inspired dish. This dish is full of veggies and has some pretty impressive flavor. Try it out and let me know what you think! Happy eating 🙂

What you need:

Stir Fry

  • 1 Yellow, green & red pepper, sliced
  • 1 Medium onion, diced
  • 1 Cup sugar snap peas
  • 2 Cups fresh broccoli
  • 2 Large carrots, peeled
  • 2 Garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • Salt & pepper to taste

Dumplings

  • 1 1/2 Cup red cabbage, chopped (leave 1/2 cup raw)
  • 1 Garlic clove, minced
  • 1/2 Block of extra firm tofu, diced
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 3 tsp orange sauce
  • 1 Pack wanton wraps (Mixture makes 18-20 dumplings)

**(you will also need Olive oil or vegetable oil)

Method:

Stir Fry

  • In a hot pan with about 2 tsp of olive oil, on medium heat, add garlic and ginger. Move around in the pan until you can start to smell it and then add onions until they become translucent.
  • Now add in the peppers. After about 5 minutes add sugar snap peas and seasonings. Saute for about 5 more minutes and add in broccoli and soy sauce
  • Cook until broccoli is steamed but still crunchy. (Personal preference, as I like to keep my broccoli with a crunch but feel free to cook it down more)
  • You can also add a little more soy sauce it need be and salt & pepper to taste.
  • Cut the heat off the stir fry
  • Using a vegetable peeler. peel skin off of the carrots.
  • With that same peeler, start to peel the flesh of the carrot into thin ribbons until most of the carrot us peeled.
  • Add raw carrot to warm stir fry (stir fry should be off the heat at this point, we don’t want to cook the carrot)

Dumplings

  • In a pan with olive oil add garlic and move around in oil until you smell the garlic.
  • Add pressed and dice tofu and let it sit. It is better to leave tofu be as it is cooking because it take a few moments for it to start to brown.
  • Once tofu start to brown, flip it to cook the other side as well
  • Add in only 1 cup of red cabbage and seasonings. Saute for about 5 or so minutes.
  • Add in orange sauce and simmer for 3 minutes
  • Set a side and let mixture cool off a bit.
  • After a few moment of rest, add in 1/2 cup raw cabbage (This is for texture)
  • Grab a small bowl of water
  • Dip your finger in water and line the outside of the wanton wrap
  • Add about a tsp of mixture in the center
  • Fold wrap in half and start to pinch the sides down. You can scrunch up the sides if you choose to or leave it smooth, whichever is easier for you.
  • In a clean pan add 1 tsp of olive oil
  • When the oil gets hot, place your dumplings, straight up, in the pan. Only the bottom half should be touching the pan. Note: Do not add too many dumplings at one time, you want to give them space to cook.
  • Once the bottom part of the dumpling is brown, you want to add a splash of water to your pan and immediately cover the pan with a top. Lower your heat and let the rest of the dumpling steam.
  • After about 2-3 minutes it should be done!
  • You can dip in soy sauce or add on top of stir fry…or hey, do both! I sure did
  • Most importantly, enjoy!
blog post

Happy New Year!

tlkitchen

Hey there foodies and happy New Year! Can you believe we are already in the year 2020. I swear life goes by so fast and I don’t know about you guys but 2019 felt more like 3 months opposed to 12. Last year was a big transition for me. I had great things happen and some not so great things but in all, I appreciated every moment.

Normally, I like to be the girl that says “I don’t do New Year resolutions” but lets be honest here, there is something extremely gratifying about looking out into a fresh start and setting goals. If life can change in a second, imagine what you can do if you have a whole year! Some of my goals for 2020 include, pay down debt, as I want to look into buying a home in 2021. I want to travel to at least one state I have never been before, Obtain a passport (so that state traveling can transition into international traveling) and of course I have a blogging goal this year!

Now, I have never actually given myself a blogging goal before, not for the year at least. I usually go with the flow but then life always seems to get in the way and I realize that I have not blogged in weeks…okay, months. One of my life goals is to actually become a professional blogger, so I think going with the flow is not going to get me very far. To be realistic, I know I can’t stop life from happening and I definitely can’t snap my fingers and all of a sudden rid myself of all procrastination. So I am going to take it a big slow and give myself an overall goal, rather than a weekly or monthly goal.

In the year 2020 I would like to have written and posted 100 blog post! This one being post #1. I have been feeling very creative lately and being in culinary school is really challenging me to expand my “art” and create new recipes, so I think I can put together 100 of them within a year. I am really excited to move forward in my life, with my blog and with whatever 2020 has in store for me.

So what are your goals for the year? If you haven’t given it much thought, I challenge you to come up with at least one goal that will help you move a step forward in life. Again, happy New Year to all, be safe and happy eating!

-TL Cannon