Easy Weeknight Chap Jae

I very much enjoy Korean food.  Every time I look up recipes for bibimbap or Chap Jae online, though, I'm overwhelmed by the sheer amount of steps there are.  And since I don't cook Korean food often, it always requires ingredients that I don't have on hand and won't necessarily use up all that quickly (and sometimes they're hard to find without making a trip to the Asian market).

I was up skiing in Mammoth in April, and we were doing our usual grocery trip.  And I found two things that are hard to find in LA.  One of those things is creamy chicken flavored Maruchan instant ramen, so I stockpiled that.  But the other thing was Korean sweet potato glass noodles!  And on the side was a super-easy recipe for chap jae!  So I picked up a couple packages of those, as well.

So now I present to you my modified version of the recipe on the side of the package.  Is this authentic? Probably not.  Is it super-easy? Absolutely.  Does it taste good? Yes.  My version is also vegan.  It makes 3-4 servings.

Ingredients

• 7 oz sweet potato glass noodles
• Half a brick extra firm tofu (~7 oz, you can press it if you want but it's not necessary)
• Half an onion
• One small zucchini 
• 1 large or 2 medium carrots
• A few generous handfuls of spinach
• 3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp sesame oil
• 3 Tbsp sugar

Instructions

1. Prepare the noodles according to the package.  The brand I used had two different cook methods.  One involved soaking the noodles for 30 minutes and then boiling them for 6 minutes, the other just called for boiling them for 6 minutes.  Both ways were fine.  If you're going to soak, do that first and then you can prepare the rest while the noodles are soaking.  You want them to be done or close to done when you start cooking the veggies.
2. Marinate the tofu.  In a bowl, mix 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp sesame oil, and 1 Tbsp sugar.  Cut the tofu into dominoes, and mix them with the marinade in the bowl.  Let sit while you do the rest of the prep work.
3. Make the sauce.  Take the remaining 2 Tbsp soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar, and mix in a small bowl.
4. Prep your veggies.  This is a stir fry, so you want to have everything ready to go.  Shred the carrots and slice the zucchini into thin slices.  It's helpful if you have a food processor with a shredding attachment and a slicing attachment.  Chop the onion into half-rings. 
5. Pour a little bit of a neutral oil into a large skillet.  Let it got shimmery and then add the onions, stirring frequently until they're soft.  Add the tofu and heat through, then add the carrots and zucchini.  Once those are wilty and soft, add the noodles, the sauce, and the spinach.  Stir until the spinach is wilted, then remove from eat and serve.

Avocado Toast

Do you really need a recipe for avocado toast?  No.  At it's most basic, it's avocado.  On toast.  The whole recipe is right there in the name.  But if Chrissy Teigen and Gwyneth Paltrow can include recipes for avocado toast in their books that they sell you for money, I can include it on my blog that is free.  Consider this more of a guide to things that I like to put on my avocado toast, and that I think you should put on yours.

First, you need your base.  Now, you could use bread and toast it, however, I will offer up a different suggestion.  Last year I was doing keto for a while, and toast was a no go.  Since I love carbs I gave that up, but I did find something that was actually quite low in net carbs that is also delicious.  Crisp bread!  My favorites are the Dr. Kracker Pumpkin Seed Cheddar flatbread, or, for even fewer net carbs, Trader Joe's Norwegian Crispbread.  The Trader Joe's crispbread has 3 net carbs!  And is actually delicious.

Next step:  garlic spread.  That shit is delicious.  I was unaware of its existence until we moved into our apartment, which is across the street from a middle eastern restaurant.  All of the plates come with garlic sauce, and I love it.  Despite not loving garlic.  This whole post is full of similar contradictions.  Anyway.  You can get it at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, or probably anywhere, really.  Just get it.  You will not be sorry.

After the garlic spread comes the avocado.  If you can find a fuerte avocado, get it.  It is far superior. At this point I should make a confession.  I didn't use to like avocado.  As it turns out, it's actually the texture I can't deal with; I find it gross and slimy.  But if it's mashed it's fine.  So I mash 1/4-1/2 (depending on the size of the base/avocado) of a ripe avocado on my avocado toast, and I can handle it.

At this point, if you have access to fresh, delicious tomatoes, slice them up and stick them to the mashed avocado.  Cherry tomatoes also work, but you still have to slice them.  If you live in a place where tomatoes are sad, hothouse grown, move on.  Wait until summer.  I live in CA, so there are delicious tomatoes at the farmer's market year round.

Now it's time to put an egg on it.  When I was using actual bread for my avocado toast, I would put a fried egg on top.  Fun fact!  I also used to not like any eggs but hardboiled, scrambled, and omelettes.  The runny yolk doesn't really work with the crispbread, though; it just make it soggy and structurally unsound, so now I do scrambled eggs.

Last, but not least, Trader Joe's Everything But the Bagel seasoning.  So good.  Sprinkle liberally on top.

My Favorite Chia Seed Pudding

I was originally thinking of calling this "The Best Chia Seed Pudding," but I really hate it when food blogs do that.  Really?  Yours just happened to be the best?  Okay.

Anyway, in the past, all my chia seed pudding were kind of bland, regardless of the toppings.  Some toppings were better than others, but the underlying pudding itself was still blah.  And then I put in full fat coconut milk.  And the results were glorious.  It's also super-filling.  I eat breakfast at ~8:30, and this will keep me full for about four hours.

This chia seed pudding is vegan, gluten-free, keto, paleo, no sugar added, and delicious.  Which is the most important part.  And endlessly customizable.  Here I'll provide the basic recipe, plus some of the variations I've been making.

First:  the golden ratio for chia seed pudding is 4 parts liquid to 1 part chia.  So for this, since full fat coconut milk is so intense, it's 1/2 cup coconut milk to 2 tablespoons chia seeds.  You can probably use light coconut milk and get the same flavor, but I don't recommend the coconut milk beverage that comes in cartons.  It's too bland.  Also, full fat coconut milk is pretty thick.  You might want to thin it out by doing almost 1/2 cup coconut milk and then finish it off with the liquid of your choice (I use almond milk, because that's what I have).  So, put your chia seeds in a cup, bowl, mason jar, whatever.  Add the liquid.  Stir stir stir.  Stir more.  Add a splash of vanilla, stir more.  Put it in the refrigerator overnight.  In the morning, put ~1 teaspoon of cacao nibs on top.  The cacao nibs are crucial.

Above are two different variations I've made.  Top:  passion fruit.  Bottom: pumpkin pie.

For the passion fruit, just take a passion fruit and pour it over.

For the pumpkin pie, add a tablespoon of canned pumpkin to the pudding when you're adding the liquid.  Also add a dash of pumpkin pie spice.

My current favorite is peanut butter & jelly.  When it comes out of the refrigerator, I add a handful of raspberries and stir them in, sort of crushing them as I stir.  Then I drizzle some TJs mixed nut butter over (but you could use whatever you want).  So good.

Turkey, Spinach, Hummus Wedges

I was introduced to this by a dear friend in college, when she brought it as a snack to a party. It's really easy to make, has five simple ingredients, and it also makes a great lunch!

All you need is sliced deli turkey, baby spinach, cream cheese, hummus, and tortillas. I like whipped cream cheese, because it spreads more easily. I'd also recommend a big tortilla. For this particular batch I used an Ezekiel tortilla for extra texture. Spread the cream cheese on one tortilla and spread the hummus on the other. Stick the baby spinach on top of the hummus and the turkey on the cream cheese. Sandwich the tortillas together. Slice into eighths, and enjoy! If you're making this for lunch, I use one tortilla and just split it in half.

Poached Egg with Toast and Sautéed Broccolini

This is a riff on something that I found in the BuzzFeed Clean Eating Challenge, but it has bread, so it's infinitely better.

First, get your broccolini ready. For one serving I used about half a bunch. Wash it, chop off the ends, and peel the woody part of the stem off. I just use a small paring knife. Then, get your egg ready. Crack it into a small bowl or ramekin. Start boiling water in a small saucepan. Add a dash of white vinegar. This will keep the egg from feathering.

While the water is boiling, start sauteing your broccolini. Use a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic, if you like garlic. Alternatively, you can put in a small amount (quarter-cup) of water in the pan, cover it, and sort of steam the broccolini, and then saute. This will make the broccolini taste less raw, which I prefer. While this is happening, toast your bread. I used a challah roll. You can either do open-faced or a sandwich. I prefer the sandwich, since it keeps everything contained.

When the water just starts to form bubbles, you are ready to poach the egg. I like Alton Brown's method. Stir the water to form a whirlpool, and then gently slide the egg from the ramekin into it. Turn off the stove, cover the pot, set a timer for five minutes, and go do something else.

When all the constituent parts are ready, assemble into a sandwich. Eat.

BuzzFeed Clean Eating Challenge: Day 12

So, today was my last full day of this, so this will be my last post on the subject. Tomorrow I'm off to New York, so I'll do breakfast, lunch, and the afternoon snack. I guess this little experiment worked, in that I lost the weight I wanted to lose, but it's definitely not sustainable, as I've been super-hungry. I'm glad to end early and eat some pizza and bagels! I'll get to today's recipes, and then wrap up at the end.

Breakfast: Blackberry Yogurt Parfait. A repeat from earlier in the week, and still good.

Lunch: Black Bean Chili with Carrots. Leftover chili from last week, along with the smokey paprika yogurt, which I used half of in the chili and half as a dip for the carrots. I felt really full after eating this, but then got hungry very soon after.

Afternoon Snack: Unsalted Peanuts with A Pear. I feel like some of the snacks were just random things put together to meet a caloric goal. My pear was overripe.

Dinner: Asian-Style Cod in Parchment with Bok Choy. This had so much potential, and failed so utterly. I don't know how big they think a bok choy head is, but 6 was way too much. I used three and they barely fit. I had to use more parchment. The sauce was too lime-y, and I ended up giving the veggies to Carl and eating a handful of pecans.

Evening Snack: Almond milk with dark chocolate. Again, a repeat.

Overall, there were some good recipes, but I think I need more fat and carbohydrates in my diet otherwise I get hungry and cranky. It was also a bit meat-heavy, and I prefer to minimize the meat I eat, both because of the environmental impacts and the fact that I don't like handling raw meat. I want to try and continue eating fewer cookies, and this was a good way to sort of quickly reset. I would also like to minimize the carbohydrates, but we'll see. It was also a lot of work, in terms of prepping and cooking and cleaning for so little food. I hate washing pots and pans, so I like to make things that will last me a few days for dinner. It's also a bit limiting in terms of eating out with friends. I'm hoping I can maintain the weight loss and come up with fun, filling meals in the future.

BuzzFeed Clean Eating Challenge: Day 11

Overall today was far better than yesterday, but I'm getting really antsy to get back to eating things that aren't just veggies and small amounts of protein. Recipes here.

Breakfast: Kale and Banana Smoothie. A repeat from earlier in the challenge, but I added cinnamon to it this time and it made the smoothie far more flavorful.

Lunch: No Mayo Tuna Salad in Romaine Cups. I used Napa cabbage, since I wasn't buying a head of romaine for four leaves, and there was so much cabbage left over. I also used a 7 oz can of tuna, since that's what we had, and it seemed silly to save two ounces. Plus, the caloric intake for the day was on the low side.

Snack: Banana Avocado Pudding. I was very wary about this, given my last foray into avocado based puddings. This turned out to be not so bad, though. I also added cinnamon, which I think might be key to everything. I would have preferred a more chocolatey pudding, but overall I was pleasantly surprised. Probably wouldn't make this by choice, but it was fine. It was, however, more of a smoothie by 3:30 PM, since I made it in the blender at 9:30 AM. Speaking of the blender, I remembered to clean it the fancy Vitamix way (even though it's not a Vitamix). Put a few drops of soap in, fill it up halfway with water, and then turn the blender on a low setting. It cleans out a lot of the gunk, and then all it needs is a quick wipedown on the sides and lid.

Dinner: Snap Pea Salad with Radish, Feta, and Hard-boiled Egg. No radish for me. All of the dinner salads just seem so small for dinner. I'd rather eat a smaller breakfast portion (closer to 200 calories) and then have larger lunches and dinners. None of this breakfast like a king, dine like a pauper crap. I think because I generally eat a fairly late breakfast.

Evening Snack: 1 oz dark chocolate. I used my 70% dark chocolate chips. I ate them slowly to savor them, rather than just popping the whole serving in my mouth at once. I guess it sort of helped.

I also ate a few rogue strawberries and some potato chip crumbs, as I continue to experience low-level hunger all day. As I near the end, I've been trying to figure out how to make this more sustainable in the long-term. Most of my breakfasts actually fit in, but I need lunches and dinners that will work, and that I can eat with Carl, because I'm tired of cleaning so many dishes.