• Home
  • Recipes
    • Vegan
    • Raw
    • Salad
    • Soup
    • Treats
    • Smoothies & Juices
      • My Awesome Smoothie Book
      • Favourite Products
      • Smoothie & Juice Recipes
      • Juicing Articles
  • Happiness
  • Adventures
  • Work with Me
smarterfitter

Books

Two New Cookbooks

March 24, 2009 · By Monica Shaw

3AF326A0-5BF2-4196-B603-8C9F20F40B09.jpg 2008A058-7624-4145-9E67-66C956760F03.jpg

It’s been a while since I posted a food diary, but there’s no time like the present to start again. It’s a shame I picked the day when I took the world’s nastiest photo of Bircher Muesli. But so be it. Today was an excellent day all the same: I managed to fit in a swim, a walk, a resistance workout, and a bit of stretching; I discovered not only how tasty black-eye peas are in tacos, but also how good those tacos are as a mid-morning snack; best of all, Tim surprised me with two new Cookbooks:

  • How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman
  • Ottolenghi: The Cookbook by Yotom Ottolenghi

These two cookbooks couldn’t be more different, but in that way they compliment eachother well. Ottolenghi is gorgeous, full of mouth-watering photos and deliciously intricate recipes. How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is in-your-face practicality, a massive volume of simple recipes and illustrated how-tos (e.g. how to braise/bake/stir-fry/broil tofu).

Simple Tofu Stir-Fry with Brown Rice and Spinach GomaeBoth of these cookbooks are sure to see a lot of action. Tonight I started with Bittman’s Stir-Fried Tofu with Scallions, “the most basic stir-fry you can make and one you can build on indefinitely. Master this and you master the world, at least the world of stir-frying tofu, which is not insignificant.”

As a self-respecting, wanna-be vegetarian chef, this seemed like a lesson worth learning. I’m still perfecting the technique, but I will tell you that veggie stock gets added to the stir-fry pan while the tofu is cooking. This step caught me off guard, but when the stock reduces, it turns out to be an excellent way to flavor the tofu. Hurray for learning!

If you’re interested, excerpts of Bittman’s book are available in Google Books and Yotam Ottolenghi has a few recipes up on his blog, including some of his legendary salads such as Couscous adn Mograbiah with Oven-Dried Tomatoes and Wild Rice Salad.

Diary for March 24, 2009

Breakfast

Bircher Muesli with Bananas

Ugliest Photo of Bircher Muesli EVER

Snack

Black-Eye Pea Taco with Avocado, Kale and Trader Joe’s Corn Salsa

Taco as Mid-Morning Snack

Lunch

Black-Eye Pea Taco and a Raw Kale Salad

I liked my taco snack so much I had it again for lunch.

Black-Eyed Pea Taco

Raw Kale Salad with Carrots and Mushrooms

Dinner

Simple Tofu Stir-Fry with Brown Rice and Spinach Gomae

About Monica Shaw

Veg lover, dog owner, hill walker, wild camper, avocado addict, nerd. I write about how to be awesome through a "smarter fitter" approach to eating, drinking, living and working.
Learn More →

Share

Share
Tweet
Email
Pin
Comment
Previous
Next

Comments Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




  1. Adam Steer - Better Is Better says

    March 24, 2009 at 11:18 pm

    Your photography skills are so good that you make vegetarian fare look yummy! 🙂

    Cheers,
    Adam

    Reply
  2. Alanna Boynton says

    March 25, 2009 at 5:58 pm

    Beautiful photos! They are making me very hungry. I love the idea of black-eyed peas in a taco!

    Reply
  3. monica says

    March 25, 2009 at 9:27 pm

    You guys are way too kind!

    Reply
  4. Sagan says

    March 26, 2009 at 2:20 am

    Mmm I love it when you post photos of your eats, it always looks so tasty. New cookbooks, exciting! Thanks for the links.

    Reply
  5. Sophie says

    March 27, 2009 at 8:14 pm

    Tim did really well with his surprise book gift! Those are two of my favourite books from the last year or so.

    I love Mark Bittman’s book for all of its tables and lists – it’s just the thing for improvising. And the Ottolenghi book is just gorgeous. If you want an afternoon project try the sour cherry and walnut stick.

    Reply
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Search





Instagram

Instagram did not return a 200.

Follow Me!

About

  • About
  • Work with Monica
  • Contact
  • Smarter Fitter Smoothies

Follow Me

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Search

Subscribe

Buy my book

Smoothie eBook

Copyright 2023 smarterfitter