Tempeh Attempt

As a fairly new vegetarian (going on three months!), I’ve been trying to scout out different forms of protein that I can add to my diet.

 

A girl can only take so many black beans and edemame.

 

Let me rephrase that.

 

A girl cannot live on sunchips and cinnamon rolls alone.

 

When I was in Springfield this past weekend, I made my way over to my favorite store in the world, Mama Jean’s. Mama Jean’s is an all-natural market that is just, well, amazing. I knew they would have plenty of options that I could try. Some of my all-time favorites have come from that store - bulk bins of whole wheat couscous, jars of maple almond butter, and my standby toast of choice - Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin Bread.

 

In my search for cruelty-free protein, I’d read about this stuff called tempeh and seiten, and while it sounded pretty funky, I figured I would give it a try. One unexpected bonus – tempeh is really cheap! Like $2 a pack. That makes me happy.

 

So what exactly is tempeh? Basically, it’s a high-protein food of Indonesian origin made from partially cooked, fermented soybeans.

 

Mmmmm. Moldy soybeans. Doesn’t that sound delicious??

 

Nutritionally, it's pretty great. For 1/3 of the package, it has only 160 calories, 7g fat, ZERO cholesterol (take that, red meat!) 9g carbohydrates, 3g fiber and 16g protein.

 

I decided to try the West Soy original tempeh. It came in a little refrigerated pack, much like a package of hot dogs.

 

 

When you take it out of the pack, however, it does not resemble hot dogs in the least. More like bumpy cheese.

 

 

According to a recipe I decided to try, you're supposed to cut or slice the tempeh like you would chicken, then steam it for 10 minutes in a pot of boiling water on the stove. Tempeh is pretty bland and boring on it's own - marinating is a MUST. For my first tempeh attempt, I decided on one of my favorite food groups: Chinese.

 

What can be better than green peppers, onions and pineapple in a soy sauce? I figured that if the tempeh was absolutely disgusting, the pineapple would make up for it.

 

Here's my recipe (you all know I don't measure when I cook, so have fun trying to recreate this.):

 

Pineapple Stir-Fry Tempeh

 

1 pkg tempeh, cubed (or sliced) and steamed

2 small onions

2 green peppers

1 can pineapple chunks

cornstarch

water

 

Marinade:

Minced garlic

Ground ginger

1/2 C. tamari (soy sauce) - actually could use less. It's pretty salty.

5-6 T. pure maple syrup (Not sugary pancake syrup. This stuff is the Real Deal.)

Some water (about 1/4 C.)

A little bit of olive oil

Black pepper

 

 

Whisk all the marinade ingredients together in a dish. Place the sliced and steamed tempeh in the marinade, cover and refrigerate overnight.

 

 

Spray a skillet or saucepan (you'll need something with sides) with cooking spray. Take tempeh out of the marinade and put the pieces in the skillet over high heat, but reserve the liquid. Brown the tempeh on each side for a couple minutes, then take it out of the skillet and set aside. Pour the marinade into the skillet and add green peppers and onions. Let simmer for a little bit until veggies soften. Add pineapple, including juice. Bring to a boil. Mix a little cornstarch with water, then drizzle in the pan. Stir until it thickens to however thick you like it.

 

Put the tempeh in a bowl and spoon some of the veggie/pineapple mixture over it. 

 

It's not a very good picture, but the tempeh and veggies were really good! It was a little chewy like chicken, and the marinade was good. I will definitely use less soy sauce next time...it was really, really salty. In my opinion, I would have liked it to have more of a pineapple flavor. I think next time I'll use pineapple juice and less soy sauce in the marinade.

 

Next up: attempting to use seitan.

 

Wow. Spellcheck just tried to tell me "seitan" should be spelled "satan." I bet M would wholeheartedly agree.

 

He wasn't at home last night to witness my dinner creation. There was a baseball game a million miles away that I just didn't have the energy to drive to after work. 

 

I'm such a good, dedicated coach's wife.

 

Plus, I'm in the middle of making some freaking AWESOME Mother's Day gifts that are a little time-consuming, but you'll have to wait until after Sunday to see what it is so I don't ruin the surprise. M saw them on the counter this morning and said, "That's really, really good!!" That made me happy.

 

I spent almost all night working on the project since SOME people's mothers live two states away and the post office doesn't really like it when you stand at their counter and say things like, "What?? Why can't you get it there in 15 minutes?? I don't understand!!" Goal: get it mailed by tomorrow with gigantic signs that have warnings like Don't Open Until Sunday or Else You Will Never See Your Grandpuppies Again!! (Actually, the grandpuppy excuse would probably backfire. See my previous post for more clarification. My in-laws bought us that chair. Oops.)

 

On top of being a good, dedicated coach's wife, I'm an excellent daughter-in-law. (sarcasmscarcasmsarcasm)

 

Question of the Day: What's your favorite meat-free recipe?

Storm Damage

I tried to be nice last night.

 

And you know what happens when you try to be nice? It comes back and bites you in the pants.

 

Very, very much in the pants.

 

It all started when I was getting ready to leave for our away baseball game yesterday afternoon. I was positive that as soon as I got there the game would be cancelled from the massive storms that were headed our way - we were even under a tornado watch with the possibility of heavy rains, flooding and nickle-sized hail.

 

You know. A beautiful night for a baseball game.

 

So I thought I would be nice. 

 

Instead of leaving the dogs outside in their run under the carport, I thought it would be better if they stayed inside just in case the lightening and tornadoes got really bad. Last time storms came through we had limbs down in the yard - I don't want the dogs to get hurt by storm damage.

 

"Seriously," I thought to myself, "how much damage can three couch-potato dogs do?" 

 

Turns out, a lot.

 

I'm almost hesitant to post the pictures. Actually, I'm very hesitant to post the pictures. The pictures are very much like I think the end of the world will look like as depicted in the Book of Revelation.

 

It's that awful. 

 

It's one of those things where you walk in the door and look around. You don't see anything amiss so you let your guard down and think "Alright! Nothing happened. No accidents. No blood and fur. Everything was fine."

 

Then you go into the next room. 

 

And see this. 
 

 

See the chair in the middle of the room? That's our very, very heavy chair-and-a-half recliner.

 

That is not it's normal parking spot. Not even close.

 

Man, they had a good time, didn't they? A little puppy party when I was only gone for three hours.  

 

I just stood there. I was proud of myself - I didn't scream, I didn't freak. I just stood there and thought, "Ok. Ok. Oooookkkkkkaaaayyyy. Well, what now?"

 

My other thought was that I needed to clean it up before Matt got home or else there'd be four of us sleeping in the kennel for the next week.

 

First order of business: move the chair back to it's rightful position. I figured they ripped apart a blanket, tossing fluff every which way and having a grand old time.

 

Yeah. It wasn't a blanket. Not even close. Guess what I saw when I walked around to start pushing the chair back to the other side of the room?

 

 

Yeah.

 

Once again, I just stood there. I couldn't speak. I couldn't think. My mother's voice popped into my head. I could seriously hear her saying something along the lines of "Oh Addie. Can't you have anything nice? You should have thought about this when you wanted three dogs."

 

I think I started giggling out of pure hysterics.

 

What else are you going to do? Matt and I came to a conclusion a long time ago that has done wonders for our relationship. If something like this happens, why freak? Why scream? Why get all worked up over something that already happened? Matt always says you can't go back in time to change anything, so you just make the best of it and move forward. It's all about how you choose to react.

 

You can either make a bad situation worse with a bad, mad, freaked-out attitude or make that bad situation better by realizing that hey - it's just a chair and not the end of the world and you're still alive and you have a roof over your head - so you grab a broom and do a quick reupholster job with your favorite Christmas blanket.

 

 

See? It looks better already. And my sister saved the day by emailing me about 10000 links to websites that sell recliner slipcovers. We'll be back to our non-trashy, non-ripped apart furniture selves in no time.

 

And of course, the dogs acted like nothing was wrong. They plum wore themselves out and have spent most of today sleeping.  

 

Don't let their innocent sleepy-faces fool you. They're just dreaming about their next round of destruction.

 

 

And just in case you're wondering, we did have some pretty bad storms last night. We are very glad the dogs weren't out in it, despite the damage on the inside of the house. Ironic, I know. Bet we're one of the only lucky families in that situation.

 

Yay us.

 

On another note, Knuke tried to get into Matt's duffel bag earlier this morning. Matt just keeps it on the floor in the dining room - it has all of his baseball stuff in it that he takes to school and to games. I told Knuke to get out of there, and Matt told me something interesting. Apparently, last week Knukie figured out how to actually unzip the bag with his teeth. Matt caught him unzipping it and taking out a baseball that was at the bottom.

 

He just wanted a smelly old baseball to gnaw on.

 

So they're now in their crates for awhile today (with toys and treats...it's not a complete time-out) because every mom needs a break sometimes.

 

Today I love: A spouse that is super laid-back and crates with dog-proof latches