Last night's dinner and cookies!

Dinner last night was yummy once more. Hubby actually said last night, "The meals have been so great that I forgot we were going veggie until you mentioned it." :) I mentioned it only because we weren't totally last night. :( I wanted eggrolls with dinner and I went to the local grocery store I only had a choice of 3: 2 chicken and a shrimp. *SIGH* I can't say that it was a lot of meat, but still. If I had thought it would have been such a problem I would have checked in another store while I was in town earlier- especially since I had to go to the health food store anyway. Oh well, live and learn. The HFS didn't have any baked tofu - it had been a while since I had been there. So I ended up going local in a sense: I bought some tofu (Twin Oaks that is literally made up the street from me) and Thai Peanut Sauce (San-J that is made in Richmond) and I made my own baked tofu. I have to admit, I've never technically had pad thai. Well I've had it, but only at home (Isa's recipe), so I am not totally sure what pad thai noodles are. I picked those up at the grocery store too (not the HFS- that section was very tiny now too, they've done some major changes, all they had was a few packages of somen and a few other bottles of stuff but nothing like they used to have in an actual section. I must say I'm not real impressed with the HFS - it's one reason why I don't go there that often anymore.) and I picked up what was called stir-fry rice noodles. The picture on the front looked almost the same as the picture on their pad thai package so I figure it was close enough for government work. And I guess since I've never had real pad thai I can't complain, right? Well, since the tofu was double what I needed and I didn't want to have to bother with changing water on the tofu, and the noodles were also double, I ended up doubling the recipe. I did not double the turmeric though. I know that turmeric can be bitter, and the regular amount of turmeric worked out fine. Oh, and I changed clothes before cooking - because I'm messy and turmeric stains. And since it's in the low 80's today - I'm not making pizza and we're having this as leftovers tonight, which is fine with both of us -the noodles are cooled anyway, and it tastes great cold too. Yay!

I also made some cookies this morning while it was still cool. I had two bananas that either had to be used up or frozen. I chose to use them up. Next time though, I will make the cookies smaller and only use 1 cup of chocolate chips, 2 cups was too much for me. (Yes, this is me talking, I swear, 2 cups of chocolate chips was too much, I guess WW is working.)


Mellow Yellow Rice Noodles with Roasted Peanuts

Serves 4
Vegetarian Times May 2008

This dish shows that not all tumeric-spiked dishes have to be hot and spicy. Feel free to throw in steamed spring vegetables, such as sugar snap peas or asparagus to add color and crunch. Recipe by Fiona Kennedy.

1 (8 oz) pkg pad thai rice noodles
3 Tbsp canola oil
4 large shallots, peeled and thinly sliced (1/2 cup)
1 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp ground turmeric
1 clove garlic, minced (1 tsp)
1/4 cup lime juice
7 oz baked Thai-flavored tofu cut into thin strips
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup chopped roasted peanuts

Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain, rinse under cold water, and drain thoroughly.

Heat oil in small saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots, and cook 7 to 9 minutes or until shallots are golden. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, turmeric and garlic. Add lime juice, and stir to combine.

Transfer noodles to large bowl, and fold in tofu, cilantro, peanuts, and turmeric sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

Per serving 487 cal, 14 g port, 20.5 g total fat (2.5 g sat fat) 62 g carb, 0 mg chol, 366 mg sod, 2 g fib, 5 g sugar



Banana-Oatmeal Chocolate-Chip Cookies

Makes 30 cookies

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup oatmeal (not quick-cooking)
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
2 bananas, cut into 1/4-inch pieces

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and butter the paper.

In a small bowl, stir the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together; set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until smoothly blended, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during the mixing. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until blended, about 1 minute. The mixture may look slightly curdled.

On low speed, add the flour mixture, mixing just until it is incorporated. Mix in the oatmeal. Mix in the chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Use a large spoon to mix in the banana pieces, mixing just until they are evenly distributed and some of the pieces are mashed but most are still visible, about 20 seconds.

Use a tablespoon to drop heaping spoonfuls of dough (about 3 level tablespoons each) onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies 3 inches apart.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the edges are lightly browned and the tops look dry, about 18 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

-- From "The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook"

Per cookie: 142 calories, 2 grams protein, 6 grams fat, 4 grams saturated fat, 22 grams carbohydrate, 1 gram fiber, 13 milligrams cholesterol, 67 milligrams sodium