Week Four

Well, I did not get a chance to cook again last week. Over spring break I had a day of fun, got sick, got sicker, went out and partied anyway, felt worse, and then it was back on the grind again. It's all good though. I'm still making a post each week, and that's what matters!

There hasn't been much time for food shopping again, so I stuck to one of Rachel Ray's 5 ingredient recipes that looked easy and yummy. I made her Cauliflower Fritters recipe today. It was so simple and yummy; I love it! However, I must say the fritters alone are kind of bland and could use some kind of seasoning, but with the salad and lemon juice they're delicious (and healthy)! I would definitely make this again and/or try to make another type of fritter. This was great cooking practice.

Photo proof:
(The brown slices are Tofurkey breakfast links cut in half and then in half again. I also sprinkled some cheese on top of the salad. Mmm!)

P.S. They're not burnt!

Week Three

So far, spring break has been awesome! But I haven't gone food shopping and, thus, have not bought the ingredients for the exciting recipe I planned to make over break. Still, I hope to cook again this week, which I will blog about, but I decided to try a recipe tonight because I was really hungry. Also, I'm slightly sick, so that made me extra hungry and lazy. The recipe I chose is extremely easy but very delicious!

I made BBQ Tofu Cubes. I actually messed up the recipe (yes, even with as easy as it is) by adding way too much BBQ sauce; I realized it shortly after I added the mixture to the pan. To fix my error, I scooped out as much sauce as possible and just added a little salt. It came out great! For side dishes, I heated up a bag of rice (yes, I'm a cheater) and fixed some easy coleslaw. For the coleslaw dressing, I mixed up a little oil, white vinegar, lemon juice, dijon mustard, and salt.

Photo proof!


Mmmm!

Week Two

This week was a little hectic school-wise, so I chose another simple recipe and promised myself I'd try a more challenging one next week since it will be spring break. My dad requested a pasta dish, so I decided to try this Spinach Mascapone Pasta recipe. For a side dish, I made this Mozzarella and Tomato Salad recipe.

I was a little afraid of making the spinach sauce and using the food processor, but it was really easy! Cooking this meal has definitely inspired me to try to make more pasta sauces on my own. The sauce turned out more lemon-y than I expected, but I think I used too big of lemons. Luckily, I love lemons, so that is fine by me! The salad was not very challenging to make, but I love the combination and thought it would add some color to the plate. Unfortunately I didn't have fresh basil, but the dried seasoning type worked fine to me.

Here is proof of my attempt:


Yum! Later, I still felt like cooking, so I made myself a smoothie treat! I have never made a smoothie on my own. Isn't that sad? I made this Strawberry Banana Blueberry Smoothie recipe, but the recipe needed an additional cup of water. Also, I used almond milk instead of regular milk and added protein powder and whipped cream. It was delicious!


Yikes! It's 10 p.m., and I have homework to do tonight still! But I had such a fun day, and I'm pretty proud of the outcome. :) I can't wait until next week's cooking challenge! I already have a recipe in mind. Yay!

**FOLLOW-UP NOTE: The pasta dish is way better the next day!! I love it!

Week One

To start off, I should introduce myself and the blog. My name is Naomi. I'm a college student, so I am busy all the time with classes, homework, and my part-time job. Thus, I don't have any hobbies because there simply is no time. The other night I was thinking about this and decided to do something about it: I picked a hobby to work on for the next six months! Since I don't know how to cook many dishes, I am challenging myself to cooking a meal a week for 25 weeks. To start off the recipes will be less challenging, but later on I will try tougher recipes.

For week one, I made baked tofu and asparagus! I've made tofu in a skillet before, but have never marinated it like this or baked it in the oven, and I have never made asparagus either.

Here are the recipes I used:

• Baked and marinated tofu
• Baked asparagus

I made two changes to the recipes. For the tofu, I added sesame seeds to to top after I flipped it over for the second 15 minutes of baking. Also, I put the asparagus in the oven for the 2nd half of the baking, so I raised the temperature to 400 degrees. The 2nd side browned better, so if I was to bake it again I would bake both sides at 400. My tofu didn't brown as well as in the picture, but it was super delicious! The asparagus too. :)


I am open to recipe suggestions! For now, I am looking for recipes with minimal ingredients to cut costs.