Day 1....maybe I should have thought about this a little more....

From Maggie’s — Blog by Maggie Restivo

February 17, 2010

And so it begins, 40 days and nights of cooking vegetarian at home. This week is an incredibly hec-tic week to kick off the vegging out challenge. If I had to pick the craziest night of this hec-tic week it would most definitely be tonight. Tomorrow is my written and cooking midterm at school (I drew veal scallopini with Marsala cream sauce, herb roasted potatoes, sauted escarole, and another veggie of my choice). Still being without a car is not helping my situation because my ride showed up way late, we had to stop by the nearest Whole Foods on the way home because no place in my town (or for three towns over) sells quinoa OR silken tofu, and we got stuck in rush hour traffic. So it was 7p.m. by the time I got home.

Ok enough of the complaining. Moral of the story: I should have given more thought to what I was going to prepare for supper tonight.

I ended up throwing something together out of (mostly) what I had in the house. First I large diced some extra firm tofu and marinated it in some soy sauce with a few shakes of fish sauce. Then I diced some onions and sauted them with some garlic, added water and quinoa and cooked that. After the quinoa finished I drained and sauted the tofu. I tossed the quinoa and tofu in a bowl, added sun-dried tomatoes, olives, spinach and mozzarella cheese.

I am calling the end result a “warm Mediterranean inspired quinoa salad”...I know the tofu was marinated in soy and fish sauce and that isn’t Mediterranean in the least, but it brought a nice umami/salty flavor to the whole dish. For an impromptu meal it was really very tasty. When I started cooking I was really dreading not only the whole meal but the whole 40 days. (Honestly I was thinking about guilting my boyfriend into ordering a veggie pizza and calling it a night.) After eating I am actually looking forward to my 40 day challenge again. That being said I really need to plan my meals better.

All right enough stalling, back to midterm studying. Primal cuts here I come! In mind only of course) 1 day down, 39 to go!