Caesar Salad Face Off

An all time favorite, the Caesar Salad. Probably the first time you ordered a salad for a meal, it was a Caesar. In all its simplicity, the lettuce, a rich dressing, cheese and croutons, tossed together in a surprisingly filling bowl of creamy and crisp goodness. And let’s face it, you don’t order a this if you are counting calories, unless you have the dressing on the side, but what’s the fun in that? If I’m ordering a Caesar salad, I want every inch of it drenched in dressing. because the dressing is really the star of this salad.

Kale Caesar Salad

I have a very big spot in my heart for Caesar Salad. As a youngster, Parmesan cheese was a staple on our dinner table. I put  it on everything. Pasta, green beans, eggs, broccoli, whatever it was, it probably had Parm on it. So when I discovered there was a salad in which the dressing was uber rich and creamy, and then was covered in my favorite cheese, my mind was blown. This was it for me. I loved it. Thinking that since I was eating a salad, it was healthy. Wrong. But, there are ways to make even our favorite not-so-light-in-calories meals into a healthier and satisfying dish.

Vegan Caesar Salad

At a young age I found myself ordering entree salads for my meals when we were eating out – no, I wasn’t trying to be more adult, nor was I trying to be “healthy,” I just really liked Caesar Salad. What 10 year old wouldn’t? Alright, maybe I was a “unique” child, but it is the truth that once Caesar Salad was introduced to me I ordered it everywhere I went. And over the years I matured from enjoying the Caesar Salad at Chili’s to having it prepared table side (raw egg and all).

Friday Top Five – Volume 13: We don’t feel so good…

Here at Fried Tofu we have unfortunately fallen sick as of late; Susan coming down with a stress and lack of sleep related head cold in August (?!?) and Morgan thinking she had appendicitis and going through many tests in the ER one day (turned out to be something else, not just in her head), then was slammed with seasonal allergies. Fortunately we are getting better thanks to some of our remedies listed here in our Friday Top Five. This is what makes us feel better when we are sick or just plain stressed out. Stay healthy out there, fall is on it’s way.

Breakfast Scramble Face Off

When you think of a breakfast scramble you probably think of eggs; unless you are Vegan then your thoughts quickly switch over to the scramble you can have…Tofu. For this week’s Face Off we decided to try our hand at breakfast scrambles – two unique breakfast options with simple, yet interchangeable, ingredients.

Green Herb Egg Scramble

The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters is one of my favorite cookbooks. Flipping through the pages for inspiration, her creations are not overly complicated and give you dishes where the simple flavors shine through. Using local and seasonal ingredients is the core of this book, and you can’t get more local then pulling basil leaves off the plants sitting on your deck or in your backyard.

Tomato & Pesto Tofu Scramble

There are no Vegan substitutions for eggs. Sure you can find egg substitutions for your Vegan Baking needs, however, when creating a dish where egg’s are the star of the show, such as Scrambled Eggs, a faux egg just doesn’t exist. Our next best Vegan option is the incredible, versatile, TOFU!

Salsa Face Off

Like hummus, salsa should be something you make at home frequently and buy at the store only when time is at a premium. There are so many different ways to throw together a salsa, you can probably make one right now with just a few things from your fridge and cabinets. Now, I use the term “salsa” loosely, as there have been many different versions I have tried over the years. Some are smooth and and liquidy, some have little bits of veggies still floating around in a lovely spicy sauce, and other are just straight up veggies mixed together for a delicious combination of flavors. Any way you put it, salsa is super easy to make, a great way to use up veggies that might be taking a dive, and can be used as a starter to a meal or as a meal enhancer.

Corn & Bean Salsa

As a child I was always in the kitchen with my mom while she was cooking or baking, trying to learn how to make her recipes so I could one day replicate them myself. I started to keep a recipe file and this very salsa recipe happens to be the first one I put into my card index at the age of 15.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

Improvising. Somethings things just don’t go your way, and you have to do it. To me improvising is the beauty of cooking, you can leave something out, add a dash of something in, or change the amounts of ingredients and whatever you are making can still turn out delicious. And since I tend to forget to pick up at least one item every time I go to the store, I improvise a lot.