Tofu: Mandarin Orange Style (And The Docu-Drama Diet for Gardening)

This rarely-makes-an appearance-on-veggie blogs stir fry was a cinch to make and very fast--that's how I like my stir fries: fast. An added bonus--it really, really tasted good. I mean, like restaurant take-out good. Even with the tofu (for which I am not a fan--even being vegan--no one will ever convince me that tofu is manna from heaven for vegans). Some nights I'd rather suck on a rusty nail rather than cook with tofu. But in this meal here, it works!

This is the stove top set up--sometimes it helps to visualize your prep and cooking.

Ah, the first sign of spring! It was cloudy, they were trying so hard to hold their heads up!

The Longest Mile Lasagna Garden. So much potential. I have no idea what I will be doing here yet. But see that green clump there on the right--that's fresh chives from last year! Who knew?!

I have been to the mountain. . . of compost. I'm going to have to keep the post short and sweet--that may please some and anger others. My docu-drama life, well, it will have to be put on hold for the time being. (Lifetime Channel, please call me!) I am now in "gardening-mode"--and I'm not talking pruning roses (that's done)--I'm talking big changes for Green Acre. (We only have one acre. It feels like ten after me, myself and I spend a day in it, trust me.)

I envy people with lawncare help. Why? I've already asked my neighbor's five year old for lawn mowing services--just to get on the top of the "list" of summer jobs for the kid in the future. I inherited a home with a beautiful landscape, tons of bulbs, and tender loving care that was next-to-nearly dead when we placed our contract on this here place. (I saw the potential). The landscape is full of bulbs, planted not by me (I have bulb aversion) but by the previous owner's girlfriend. (Before, as the story was related to us via "the neighbors" he dumped her for some young thing he met in a bar--so the yard stuff was, thankfully tended to by an older, wiser woman--she is forever in my thoughts when I see my bulbs popping up). One day in the coming weeks I will casually take off in my "sports car" with sore back, sore arms, sore everything. . .  (my car is in the shop for the second time in two weeks, but I digress)--and peer out my tinted windows admiring all of the perfect, manicured lawns I've run past or walked past this winter and notice this: everything will be green. And perfect. And popping up with bulbs or forsythia in bloom. I will  look in awe and think about the person they must have hired to toil away for hours, for days making their yards so beautiful. I will wish and want and yearn. I will make a mental note of said plants in yards and write myself a note to "look into" perhaps getting "one of those for myself"--because there ain't a gardener in the world who doesn't covet. I will be unable to focus for at least a month. (It's either early alzheimer's or my annual Spring Fever.)

Don't even get me started about the first "awful" thunderstorm we'll have that will destroy all of my new plantings and pound out holes in my very carefully layered lasagna vegetable garden. Or, godforbid, topple a a giant oak right on top of my tender oak-frame home. There will be storms. We are in tornado alley. I await the green sky and green air with dread and high anticipation. I've sworn for years I can tell when a "big one" is coming--I can smell these storms miles away, I can feel them, too. My dowsing rod awaits its next appointment--please send inquiries soon. I am gifted is all I can say.


And. . . don't let me start on how difficult it is to remember what the heck perennial that is with it's baby green head peeking out of the mulch. . . or is that a weed? Consult the manual. But there isn't one--I always, always tell myself to write names of plants and stick them in the ground to ID them to mark areas "not to stick the shovel in" for just this reason. I never, ever do it. Somehow the year goes by and I am staring at my pumpkins, ready to walk away from the whole veggie-dom and call it a "season".

*Clearly, I have been missing my blogging responsibilities. Clearly those lazy mornings of pithy comment-writing are gone by the way side for now. I am here in the wee-hours of the evening awaiting Mr. Thyme, uploading my photo from the last dish I made and felt would befit Vegan Thyme.

As for this dish and its arrival. . . truthfully, I am not a huge rice fan. I mean, look at me, do I look like a rice gal?  Potato gal--that's more my speed. But if you're vegan and you have vegan cookbooks, you will find plenty of "rice" options. So, with this yummy dish (we've tested it before), I turned to an old favorite cookbook--(and it cost me a dollar): Quick Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin and adapted her recipe with this other rice/tofu mix from another fave cookbook (that did not cost me a dollar, I paid more for it): Vegan Express by Nava Atlas. Both of these cookbooks are in my "grab" section. "Grab" as in when I do not even feel remotely like cooking--these ladies know how to throw down good chow fast. And folks, these days. . . not really feeling the "I can't wait to get into the kitchen and cook/blog thing". Just not. It's a wonderful sort of diet--I just don't know what I'd call it? "Post-Traumatic Dog Bite Victim Family Member in Rehab Diet?"

Tofu: Mandarin Orange Style

1 package tofu, drained and cut into small cubes (set on paper towels to dry some more)
3 tablespoons peanut oil for cooking tofu, then 2 tablespoons peanut oil for veggies
1 red onion chopped
3 garlic cloves minced
1" piece of ginger minced
1 green bell pepper chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped
2 baby bok choy chopped
1 can mandarin oranges, drained--reserve 1/4 cup of syrup
1/2 cup chopped peanuts for topping (optional)

For Sauce:
zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup orange juice (or whatever you can get out of the orange you just zested)
1/4 cup rice wine
1/4 cup mandarin orange syrup
3 tablespoons Shoyu or Low Sodium Tamari
3 tablespoons arrowroot
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons chili oil (or cut back if heat bothers you)

First, get the rice cooking--however much you need to feed two (or more?)! Have your rice ready and plates for dinner all out--this recipe, once you have all the chopping done, goes pretty fast! Take your drained and dried out cubes of tofu and place in a wok with about three tablespoons of peanut oil over medium heat. Fry the tofu until it begins to brown on all sides. (I find that if I leave the tofu undistrubed for too long, it sticks to my wok--so I keep and eye on it and don't let the heat get too high--I just keep turning it to get it evenly browned). This took about fifteen minutes. I removed the tofu to a plate covered with a paper towel to drain and dry out some more. Next, place all of sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk well. Set aside. Next, prep all veggies and set aside. Next, in a wok or large skillet add peanut oil and warm up a bit-medium heat should be fine. Then add onion, garlic and ginger--cook for about five minutes, stirring often. Next, add all of the chopped veggies. Finally, add the sliced bok choy. Stir a minute or so. Next, pour the sauce over all of this and stir fry until the peppers just begin to soften. The sauce will thicken as it warms. Finally, add the tofu cubes. Toss to coat in the sauce. Don't overcook this or you will be eating non-crunchy veggies and that totally sucks. Serve the veggies on top of the rice and then top with as many baby mandarins you like. (*If you would like more sauce as I inevitably always do--just add a bit more orange juice and maybe a teaspoon more of the arrowroot to boost the "sauce" factor.)