FOODIE FRIDAY: TOFU RICE BOWL

Happy Foodie Friday!

Today's recipes is one of my absolute favorites. If I could choose to only make one thing for dinner for the rest of my life, this would be one of my top choices.

I can make this tofu rice bowl in the evening for dinner and be able to divide it into two halves to have for one half for lunch the following day.

Adapted from Mealime

Ingredients

• 1 crown broccoli
• 1 medium carrot
• 1 (12 oz) package extra firm tofu
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 cup jasmine rice
• 1/2 lime
• black pepper
• crushed red pepper
• honey
• natural peanut butter (we'll want the runniness)
• salt
• sesame seeds
• soy sauce
• virgin coconut oil

1. Cook rice per directions, set aside
2. Wash and dry any fresh produce
3. Peel and grate/mince ginger and transfer to small bowl
4. Preheat skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 tbsp coconut oil. Once heated, add ginger and cook until fragarant (10-30 seconds)
5. Drain and cube tofu, add to skillet with ginger and season with salt/pepper to taste. Cook 8 to 10 minutes until golden brown
6. Cut broccoli into bite-sized florets and transfer to a medium bowl
7. Peel carrot and trim off ends. Using a box grater, corsely grate the carrot and transfer to another medium bowl
8. Transfer tofu and ginger out of pan and add broccoli to cook until soft (2-3 minutes)
9. Peel and mince/press garlic. Transfer to a small bowl to prep the sauce
10. Juice lime and add to garlic
11. Add peanut butter, soy sauce, water, honey and crushed red pepper to the garlic and lime juice. Whisk until combined
12. To serve, arrange rice, tofu, broccoli and carrots in a bowl. Drizzle with peanut sauce and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Enjoy!

FOODIE FRIDAY: VEGGIE LASAGNA

Happy Friday! TGIF!

I'm SO happy it's Friday because I FINALLY get to share this recipe with all of you that I perfected this past weekend.. I always take recipes that I find online/in books as "suggestions" and add or subtract whatever I want and kinda just.... make it up as I go once I've gotten some guidance from the original source. I, for the first time, truly perfected a recipe while completely winging it. Mmmmmm I wish I had more of this left to eat it again even though I ate it alllllll week long.

Let's get into it. Making a veggie/vegetarian lasagna. Trust me, you will love this one.

Adapted from Cookie and Kate

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 large carrots, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1 medium zucchini, chopped (about 1 cup)
• half one medium butternut squash, chopped (about 1 cup.. or a bit more)
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Tomato sauce

• 1 large can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes
• ¼ cup roughly chopped fresh basil + additional for garnish
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Remaining ingredients

• 2 cups (16 ounces) ricotta cheese
• ¼ teaspoon salt, to taste (aka more)
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste (more)
• 9 lasagna noodles
• 8 ounces (2 cups) freshly grated low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella cheese (more won't hurt)

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. To prepare the veggies: In a large skillet over medium heat, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Once shimmering, add the carrots, zucchini, yellow onion, and salt. Cook, stirring every couple of minutes, until the veggies are golden on the edges, about 14 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and set aside.
3. Meanwhile, to prepare the tomato sauce: Pour the tomatoes into a mesh sieve or fine colander and drain off the excess juice for a minute. Then, transfer the drained tomatoes to the bowl of a food processor or blender. Add the basil, olive oil, garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes. Pulse the mixture about 10 times, until the tomatoes have broken down to an easily spreadable consistency. Pour the mixture into a bowl for later. Rinse out and return to the machine.
4. Transfer the cooked veggies to the bowl of the food processor. Pulse until they are more finely chopped, not super puréed (although that's okay too!), about 5 to 7 times, stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary. Pour into a separate bowl and add in ricotta cheese. Mix then add salt (to taste) and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Stir to combine. Now it’s lasagna assembly time!
5. Spread ½ cup tomato sauce evenly over the bottom of a 9” by 9” baking dish. Layer 3 lasagna noodles on top (overlap their edges as necessary). Spread half of the veggie & cheese mixture evenly over the noodles. Top with ¾ cup tomato sauce, then sprinkle ½ cup shredded cheese on top.
6. Top with 3 more noodles, followed by the remaining veggie & cheese mixture (we’re skipping the tomato sauce in this layer.) Sprinkle ½ cup shredded cheese on top.
7. Top with 3 more noodles, then spread ¾ cup tomato sauce over the top (you may have a little sauce leftover) to evenly cover the noodles. Sprinkle evenly with 1 cup shredded cheese.
8. Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil, but don’t let the foil touch the cheese. Bake, covered, for 18 minutes, then remove the cover, rotate the pan by 180° and continue cooking for about 15 more minutes, until the top turns spotty brown.
9. Remove from oven and let the lasagna cool for 15 to 20 minutes, so it has time to set and cool down to a reasonable temperature. Sprinkle additional basil over the top, then slice and serve.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know if you make this lasagna! 😋

FOODIE FRIDAY: SEEDY AVOCADO TOAST

Okay, okay. You may think this is a strange post. "Come on Bails— how hard could avocado toast be?!"

It's not. That's the point!

I'm big into avocado toast but not in the I'm-a-milennial-and-can't-afford-a-house kinda way. More like in the homemade, buy-one-bag-of-seeds-and-you're-good-for-months way. For those who may not know, I've been a vegetarian for over a decade. The math just barely adds up, yes. I was in middle school when I decided I would no longer eat meat. I went through some trials and tribulations but here I am thriving at age 25! A friend recently reached out to me asking for some veggie recipes so I decided I would continue on my Foodie Friday series where I’ll post every now and then with some of my tried and true veghead meals. First up? An avocado toast with two different salts and eight kinds of seeds.

Alrighty, here's what you're gonna need:

• A good sourdough bread. The more local, the better, although my Safeway makes a fine loaf!
• Coarse salt— I actually use two. A kosher salt and Maldon Sea Salt Flakes (they are worth it, trust me)
• Black pepper
• Crushed red pepper flake
• Nutritional Yeast
• Chia Seed
• Hemp Seed
• Trader Joe's Super Seed & Ancient Grain blend
• An avocad

There's really not anything else to say. The good info was the blend of ingredients listed above! Toast your bread and smush on your avocado with a fork and layer up the toppings. It's sooooo good. Wanna add a egg? Easy. Hot sauce? Done. It's so fancy yet so easy and the perfect base to add on even more.

I asked my Instagram followers last month to share their go-to avocado toast toppings and I got some solid answers but some really wild ones as well. Let me know below what your personal go-to is!