Some stuff I have been up to the past week...

I haven't posted in a while...a combination of being busy, lazy and a little under the weather has put me off the computer. I have been cooking and snapping pictures but just not posting them online. I'm a little tired now,  so I will let the pictures do the talking:

Easy vegetable soup made after a meeting ended pretty late at about 10 p.m. So, I just used a can of vegetable soup and added spinach (from the lasagna), baby corn and carrots to it for added nutrition. Toasted some bread with herbs and ate it for dinner.

This Western food idea came about because I bought an avocado for the 1st time in my life and it was seating in the fridge for about a week. Fearing that it would rot, I decided to make guacamole out of it. By the way, neither have I eaten an avocado or guacamole before. However, after peeling the skin, I realised that the avocado was very unripe. Not at all soft. So, without much choice I went ahead and did the guacamole and decided to use it as a salad and make some western food. I used 'mock chicken nuggets' and toasted some bread and made some vegetable side dish. The guacamole was quite tasty but I didn't like the avocado taste.. a little eggy (maybe because it was unripe). The 'nuggets' were disgusting.. tasted a lot like MSG and the bread and vege were nice. Except for mock mutton nothing else seems to come close to the real thing!

Something else that I cooked over the week, was a vegetable kuay teow. I decided to keep it pale by only using light soy sauce. Quite tasty.

For an added vitamin C boost, I made a kiwi-orange juice. Pretty delicious.

And a couple of days ago, I made a meal of rice and vegetables. Here's a close up of the dishes:

Tumeric Okra (Ladies Finger)

Marinated Tofu with Snow Peas and Carrots

Potato Curry (Lack of inspiration)

Recipe for Marinated Tofu with Vegetables (for Melissa) (original recipe adapted from here) 

This recipe is an estimation, please adjust it according to taste. any vegetables can be used.

2 pieces of firm tofu (or more)

Enough dark soya sauce  to marinade the tofu

1 tablespoon of vegetarian oyster sauce (or to taste)

2 stalks of celery

10 snowpeas, vines removed

1 carrot, sliced

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 a thumb size of ginger, minced

1 stalk of spring onion, chopped

Some oil

Pepper to taste

Method:

1) Cube the tofu into preferred size. Marinade it in dark soya sauce + water for an hour or more. Turning it around occasionally to ensure even marination. 

2) In a wok, heat some oil and lightly fry the tofu until a crust is formed. Remove and let it sit on some kitchen towels. (This is optional. If you prefer a lower fat version, do not fry it.) Note: Frying marinated tofu can be annoying because it tends to stick.

3) Remove excess oil and in the same wok, saute onions until soft. Add chopped garlic and ginger and saute until fragrant.

4) Add vegetables, pepper, soya sauce and oyster sauce to taste (I used the left over marinated soy sauce. But if you prefer something lighter coloured, use light soy sauce) 

5) Once the vegetables have cooked to your liking, add the tofu and stir fry it for a minute.

6) Stir in some spring onions and use the rest as a garnish (Try not to leave this out, it adds a nice flavour to it)

7) Eat!