Tag Archives: tofu

Chopped Cheese, Peanut Butter Tofu

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Highlights from a yummy week…

Equator remains some of the best bottled cold brew I’ve tried.

Ube and pandan simple syrups. They were good-not-great in iced coffees but nice in Diet Cokes.

The best yogurt bowls = plain skyr with tons of blueberries and chopped marzipan.

Durian ice creams. These were both so flavorful and the Mavens was some of the creamiest ice cream I’ve ever tried.

I went to Duck Island Bread Company for bread and ended up with a great pistachio croissant.

We used the bread to make wonderful sandwiches. Sourdough pullman / ginger miso mayo / shredded, baked super-firm tofu tossed with peanut butter, gochujang, lime juice, brown sugar, and veggie broth / sliced baby cucumbers marinated in white sugar, Sichuan peppercorn, Milu everything spice, and rice vinegar. Plus roasted baby broccoli.

For Five‘s chopped cheese sandwich was surprisingly good. Even these leftovers were delicious.

Congee bowls. Brown rice slow-cooked with chicken stock / mustard greens and scallion sauteed with soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, and pepper / ground turkey sauteed with peanut butter, lime, brown sugar, Sriracha, dark soy sauce, fish sauce, and chicken broth / chili crisp.

Tuna noodle casserole. This came out so well! Brami radiatori protein pasta, canned tuna, and canned trout / mushrooms, leek, and red scallions sautéed with flour, corn starch, veggie broth, gochujang, fish sauce, and sesame oil / baked topped with a mix of crushed honey butter chips and seaweed chips. Plus roasted broccoli.

My Rex Manning day tradition is rewatching Empire Records with pizza and brownies and this was our best year yet! Brownies = Hummingbird High’s small batch brownies. These are even better than my go-to brownie recipe (I did add a bit of espresso powder and topped them with cinnamon maple pretzels).

Pizza = a variety of slices from Tori T’s. This is some of the best pizza I’ve eaten; the crust is perfect.

Marsh Madness

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Highlights from the week…

Easter candy, obviously. My favorites were the Trader Joe’s marshmallow eggs, which were, in fact, the best marshmallows I’ve ever eaten.

Adam and I are both head over heels for these dried kiwis from Target.

My parents sent me these *guava* Oreos. I don’t love golden Oreos but the guava flavor was spot on.

A tasty take on eggs in purgatory. Eggs cooked in a mix of sauteed roasted cherry tomatoes, canned diced tomatoes, scallion, garlic, gochugaru, and gochujang. We topped our bowls with pimento cheese. Eaten alongside roasted cauliflower.

Baked tacos. The filling was a food processed mix of sauteed mushrooms, poblano peppers, scallions, black beans, sesame seeds, and taco seasoning. Plus tons of cheese.

I used the leftovers to bulk up turkey meatballs. <– We will be doing this again. Plus roasted zucchini and Trader Joe’s cheddar and jalapeño biscuit bites. We burned the bites but they would have been a hit otherwise.

Our favorite meal of the week was these tofu wraps. Tortilla / Kewpie / baked super-firm tofu marinated in gochujang, pickle juice, soy sauce, sugar, garlic powder, and onion powder / thinly sliced cucumbers tossed with sugar, salt, Milu everything spice, sesame seeds, sesame oil, and rice vinegar. Plus baked brussels sprouts sauteed with soy sauce, brown sugar, and chili crisp.

Hot Honey Butter Crunch

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‘Twas a yummy week! Some highlights…

Cottage cheese with cinnamon, vanilla bean powder, granola, and pineberries.

A savory cottage cheese bowl dinner with sauteed zucchini and green onion, a fried egg, sunflower seeds, Milu everything spice, and chili crisp.

Something I will be making again – crispy baked butter beans and shredded super-firm tofu tossed with honey, butter, chili oil, and gochugaru. Served on top of sauteed shredded brussels sprouts.

We ate the leftovers (still great!) on salads with romaine and chicory blend lettuce, cilantro salad dressing, sauteed baby broccoli with garlic, and Dubliner cheese.

A loose take on callaloo with yellow onion, red jalapeño, frozen chopped spinach and kale, ginger, urfa, coconut milk, and tons of crab. Plus homemade dumb bread.

No S’more Snow

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The three best things I ate this weekend…

1) Peanut butter and jelly dessert-y yogurt bowl. Plain skyr with chocolate honey crunch peanut butter, Crofter’s blueberry jam, a Michigan whiskey cherry, and honey granola.

2) Mez S’mores Cups are a 10/10. Perfect texture and not too sweet.

3) An easy roasted dinner. Brussel sprouts and super firm tofu with blue cheese, dried cranberries, and Trader Joe’s sweet and spicy pecans.

Chopped Sandwich Dip

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Are my fellow New Yorkers ready for the weekend weather? I am not. But the highlights from my last week included two winner recipes!…

These Rolling Pin chocolates had a good filling but not enough of it; I thought the chocolate was too thick.

Obviously the fanciest thing I ate this week was this bowl of four types (pineberries, Sweetest Batch strawberries, Sweetest Batch blueberries, and super jumbo blueberries) of berries!

This brown sugar clementine Polar seltzer is nice, but some sips taste like pancake syrup in a disquieting way. P.S. I am drinking a Nixie black cherry lime sparkling water while I type and it is a 10/10!

Take-out tacos. Guac shop soft tacos with tofu, sweet potato, cabbage, cheese, and spicy aioli.

Chili when it’s chilly. We used ground turkey, sweet onion, poblano pepper, orange and yellow bell pepper, dark red kidney beans, fire-roasted diced tomatoes, tomato paste, dark soy sauce, fish sauce, salt and pepper, gochugaru, and smoked paprika. I topped mine with extra-sharp cheddar, plain skyr, and sweet and spicy jalapeños. Served with roasted broccoli and a toasted English muffin with blueberry jam.

See also – chili cheese potatoes. Baked potatoes and leftover broccoli with butter, chili, cheese, and zhoug.

Buffalo chicken twice baked potatoes! I re-baked them stuffed with mashed potato, baked chicken, cheddar, blue cheese, green onion, salt and pepper, butter, and Frank’s hot sauce. These were great. Plus baked zucchini, which is always great.

I bought special sauce Kettle chips, so obviously I had to plan a meal around them.

Chopped Sandwich Dip! The dip was far better than the chips. Diced baked chicken, dill pickles, sweet heat bread and butter pickles, garlic sauteed baby broccoli, cheddar, Milu Everything Spice, white pepper, Dijon, Dijonayo, Duke’s, and plain skyr. Scooped with the chips and baby carrots.

Eggs In The Second Week Of January

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Things from the 2nd week of the year…

Skyr bowl. With blueberries, and Cascadian Farm oats and honey granola.

These Haribo Soda Sours are my new favorite gummy. They remind me a lot of the Sodalicious fruit snacks from back in the 90’s (which were my very favorite — when our island got a K-Mart when I was a kid it was a big deal and I was allowed to choose one snack for fun, these were it).

Another throwback – these fruit and cream Quaker oatmeal packets are pretty darn good.

The prettiest sundae of all time. Frutero soursop ice cream topped with dulce de leche, sweetened condensed milk, sprinkles, and edible flowers.

Chips lentil puffs and salsa.

Dipping dinner – taquitos and roasted baby broccoli with salsa and homemade guacamole.

I made Korean marinated eggs and tossed super-firm tofu in the marinade and it turned out great. Served on savory oatmeal with kale (sauteed with gochujang, maple, rice vinegar, and lemon) and chili crisp.

Baked turkey meatballs, roasted cauliflower, and honey butter baby carrots (baked with evoo, salt, pepper, and gochugaru) topped with Trader Joe’s Zhoug and cilantro salad dressing.

This dinner was loosely inspired by shakshuka and eggs in purgatory. Eggs, extra-sharp cheddar, and parmesan cheese cooked on a tomato-y sauce (roasted Bahama Bomb tomatoes sauteed with fire-roasted diced canned tomatoes, garlic, shallot, yellow bell pepper, urfa, smoked paprika, and salt and pepper). I topped mine with Zhoug and cilantro dressing and scooped it with sweet and spicy jalapeno kettle chips.

Hello, 2026!

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Some highlights from the new year…

My New Years Eve plan was fancy cheese plates and an early bedtime. We ended up eating deranged snack boards but I was in bed by 9:30! Pimento cheese, baby carrots, deviled eggs, and extra-crunchy Southwest chicken taquitos.

The best part was the homemade deviled eggs because we topped them with this delicious everything spice from Milu.

We started our new year with the Buzz’d monthly special, obviously; salted brown butter iced latte with brown butter cold foam.

P.S. The alternative title for this post was “Drinks on Drinks” because in addition to drinking my weight in hot chocolate I also tried several canned beverages. Huxley tangerine energy drink – good not great; I would not buy again but I would try in other flavors.

Liquid Death sparking strawberry energy drink – good not great; I would not buy again but I would try in other flavors.

Protein Pop watermelon clear protein drink – good not great; I would not buy again but I would try in a sour flavor.

NYC has a thousand hot chocolate options right now but I only have my eye on four. We hit three this weekend (our final/upcoming stop is the one I’m most excited for). Good – Lost Borough. Topped with torched marshmallow fluff, whipped cream, and a cinnamon Graham cracker.

Better – Frenchette Bakery. French-style hot chocolate topped with a toasted green chartreuse marshmallow. This was solid hot chocolate but it wasn’t a drinking chocolate.

Best – Rigor Hill Market. Rich and thick chocolate topped the best burnt marshmallow I’ve ever eaten.

I’ll never get tired of my usual plain skyr and blueberries bowl but I did particularly enjoy this one I smashed a hunk of cheesecake into.

The best thing we’ve eaten in 2026 came from Apollo Bagels – lightly toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese and jelly.

Brunch at Holy Water. This was a weird meal – we probably wouldn’t go back but we adored several items. We despised both of our drinks but the vodka lime Jell-o shot was the best I’ve ever had. We also had solid hushpuppies with honey butter and Tabasco.

Adam’s lobster roll was ho-hum but my (very solid) pancakes came topped with praline and bourbon maple syrup and with a side of their Nola fried chicken — some of the best fried chicken we’ve ever eaten.

We ordered take-out from Primehouse – (too much) sushi and these sort of insane Waygu meatballs. I didn’t take a photo until I realized how fantastic the leftovers were, they started out with three huge balls and a bunch of melty burrata.

A much-needed veggie(tarian) meal from Little Beet – charred broccoli, hot honey roasted carrots, green beans, and miso tofu with Chimichurri and cranberry harissa sauce.

Trader Joe’s frozen veggie pancake topped Sriracha and pimento cheese.

My favorite meal of the week was homemade! Collard greens sauteed with mined garlic, salt, pepper, gochugaru, rice vinegar, maple syrup, and smoked poblano bbq sauce. Agi’s Counter-inspired potato salad – with hard boiled egg, smoked canned trout, chopped pickles, celery, green onion, celery seed, salt, white pepper, smoked paprika, horseradish, rice vinegar, Dijon mustard, Duke’s mayo, and plain skry.

Peppermint To Be

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I hope all my readers who celebrate had a Merry Christmas!

No post from me last week because we were on vacation back home in the VI! We had a fantastic week. Food highlights were my mom’s coffee cake, iced lattes consumed at the beach, and Gladys’ Cafe‘s soursop juice.

Things from the past week included lots of on-theme eats!…

Candy canes and other mint goodies. I was not a fan of the Hint, it wasn’t flavorless but the flavor (which I disliked) was not mint.

I also didn’t love these Hail Merry eggnog bites – too waxy/coconutty.

Last loser – I hated this Southern Tier eggnog so much that I threw it out and bought Ronnnybrook instead. <– warning to December 2026 Emily

It is Sumo season! Adam and I both think oranges are Christmas-y; thank you, Laura Ingalls Wilder.

We went on a fun seasonal date the Sunday we got home and shared a gingerbread scone from Hometown Bakeshop and an iced peppermint mocha from Sweetie Pies on Main.

Prost latkes (my favorite in the city) for the last night of Hannukah.

Kung Pow chicken salad. Baked chicken (marinated in skyr, rice vinegar, dark soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, sesame oil, Sriracha, and sugar) / sauce – skyr, mayo, minced ginger, sugar, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and dark soy sauce / roasted red bell pepper and green onion / peanuts. Plus roasted broccoli.

Turkey burger cheese fries. Trader Joe’s ketchup chips / Seriously Sharp cheddar / baked turkey meatballs (ground turkey with panko, mayo, white pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder) / chopped pickles and Sugar Bomb tomatoes / sesame seeds. Steamed green beans sauteed with dill pickle mustard, onion chili crisp, honey, and rice vinegar.

Red and green salads for Christmas! Baby spinach and arugula / Trader Joe’s cilantro dressing / tomatoes / red bell pepper / sauteed baby broccoli / baked tofu (marinated in warm water with baking soda and cornstarch / tossed in peanut butter, gochugang, sugar, and rice vinegar) / savory granola.

The (fantastic!) granola was this tteokbokki-inspired one I found at 99 Ranch.