Cookie Brownies!

Everyone loves cookies.  And everyone loves brownies.  Then how can anyone not like cookie brownies?  Don't ask me.  They have been a favorite of mine since I once had one back at a bake sale in the 3rd grade, and, oh, how I'll never forget that moment when I bit into the heavenly baked goodness that is a cookie brownie (and I wonder why I was a fatty).  Every since then, I have been on the hunt for a ready make brownie box mix for the darn things, but to no avail.  Finally, I saw this receipe on pinterest, and I decided to cave and make the things from scratch.  Oh, how I was mostly pleased.  I thought they were a bit on the dry side, so I will bake them for 25 minutes instead of the recommended 30, but, yes, I will make them again!  They were delicious with a tall glass of milk or warmed in the microwave for a brief 10 seconds.

The Ingredients

All purpose flour, salt, and baking powder mixed together and set aside. 

The wet ingredients with chocolate chips added. 

Obvi, the best part. 

Now mix the wet and the dry.

Until it forms a brownie batter.

Spread it out in a pre-greased 9 x 13 inch pan and bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Remove, cool, cut, and most importantly... 

EAT!!!

What's that phrase again?  Oh, right...

NOM NOM NOM

Tofu & Vegetables

Tofu is probably my favorite thing to eat, assuming it is prepared well.  You carnivores, don't give up on it!  It's really quite delicious, stuffed full of protein, and very healthy.  I was lucky to have two tofu dishes in the last week, one at a restaurant and one home-made, and both were delicious! 

This is General Tso's Tofu with added chillies for a spicy kick, served with broccoli and white rice.  It's from a restaurant called Five Star (look at the shape of the plate), and it was simply incredible.  The tofu was perfectly cooked, slightly crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.  It was probably flash fried, which makes it a tad bit less healthy, but it made me smile, and smiles are healthy, right?  (Monkey logic attack!)

This is the dinner I had yesterday, cooked by one of my best friends, Deepti.  Spicy thai tofu with a side of zucchini and mushrooms.  This tofu was healthier because it was marinated and then baked in the oven.  This is a great technique because it still gives you crispy/tender tofu but saves you the calories/mess of frying!  Deepti marinated the tofu in a mix of a spicy thai peanut sauce and some thai chili paste.  DELICIOUS! 

Slob Kebab

Good morning!

Since I was a total slob kebab after yoga yesterday and ate tortilla chips, nachos (spicy thai peanut sauce and melted cheese), a sweet roll, a banana, and some plain spaghetti, I will save you the torture of describing in detail that meal.  Instead, on to pad thai and bbq faux chicken thin crust pizza!  (Two SEPARATE meals, not to be served together, mind you.  But oh my, that could be fun.)

Pad Thai

I LOVE pad thai.  I LOVE Thai food generally.  I love it so much I'm going to Thailand from 8/31-9/16 (more on that later).  But as much as I love Thai food, I have consistently failed to make it taste like the restaurant at home.  But this time, I think we got as close as I've ever been.  It would have been nice (and much easier) to buy the ready made pad thai sauce at HT, but almost all of those use fish sauce, and you know I'm not down with that.  Instead, S. whipped together his own sauce using spicy HT peanut sauce (can you tell we love this stuff yet?), garlic, ginger, cilantro, ketchup (just go with it), peanut butter, and sugar.  We coated the rice noodles with the sauce in the pan and garnished the whole affair with green onions, cilantro, and, our favorite, bean sprouts.  Oh, yeah, we also added marinated tofu, but that turned into a mess as the tofu hadn't completely thawed from the freezer, turned a weird spongy texture, and was way too salty (with our garlic soy sauce marinade).  Next time, maybe just a garlic sesame oil marinade would be better.  In any case, the meal was delicious, as you can see:

BBQ Faux Chicken Pizza

This meal is my go to.  It is delicious, quick, and looks so appetizing while it's baking it almost makes me want to eat my own arm.  But that's not vegetarian.  (Monkey logic strikes again).  The recipe is quite simple.    Drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil on a frying pan and heat.  Cook the top side of the tortilla until it is nice and browned, then flip the tortilla so the back is on the pan.  Mix a teaspoon of spaghetti sauce into 3 tablespoons of BBQ sauce and spread over the tortilla.  Add your chopped up Morningstar buffalo wings, red onions, chopped garlic, freshly chopped jalapeno peppers, and sliced mushrooms.  Sprinkle shredded cheddar/mexican cheese over all of the toppings.  Wait until the cheese begins to melt on the pan.  Once the cheese starts melting, pick up the entire tortilla with a spatula, stick it in your oven/toaster oven, and bake for 10 or so minutes.  Switch to broil for 2 more minutes.  When the cheese and the crust of your tortilla have browned, it's ready, and it's oh so mouthwatering-ly good.  Crispy too!  Next step: drizzle ranch on top and go to town.  YUM:

On another note, I'm moving at the end of this week.  I can't believe it's been a year since I've been here, since I finished law school!  At the same time that I'm sad to leave the friends I've made here, the familiarity I've grown to love, and the comfort in my job, I am also ready to start something new, to really push myself to my limits at work, to live only 10 minutes away from my parents, and to make new friends and a new life.  

I will never forget this year though.  It was plain old freakin awesome.

Welcome and Quinoa

I'll give you the same spiel I give everyone else the first time I meet them:

I'm T., and I'm a lawyer in downtown Raleigh.  I am finishing up a clerkship (basically a fellowship for recent law grads) this month, and I'll be moving to Greensboro in a few weeks to begin practicing real law.  I'll hopefully focus on criminal defense, intellectual property, employment discrimination, and education law.  

Now you roll your eyes because though that may tell you what I do, it doesn't tell you who I am.  Enter this blog. 

I'm T., and I am a crazy hippie who hates cockroaches but won't kill them because they have feelings too.  I am a strict vegetarian, but gosh do I miss marshmallows (damn that animal gelatin).  I love to try all sorts of foods and claim to be quite open-minded, but I dislike feta cheese (I know, I know, you might as well stop reading now), dates (cockroach lookalikes, beware!), turnips (yuck), and blue cheese (also known as foot fungus).  I do yoga and/or workout at the gym around four times a week to stay fit, but I swear I can, will, and have eaten an entire Papa John's pizza on my own.  I love iceberg lettuce, but I dare you to try to serve me a salad for dinner (I'm a vegetarian, NOT A RABBIT!).  I have bought only one app in my 4 year iPhone stint because I am a penny pincher, but leave me on a computer too long and suddenly Target and Forever21 are several hundreds of dollars richer.    

Now I know what you're thinking.  This girl is freaking nuts.  And, well, you're mostly right.  I'm rational and level-headed at work, but how would it be fun to be that way the rest of the day?  What you read above is a sampling of the monkey logic that pervades my life and who I am.  It gives me happiness and it reminds me not to take life too seriously.  And I'll be honest.  I like it here, and you should too.  

...

As an aside, S. and I made quinoa burgers and avocado fries for dinner last night!  Quinoa (pronounced: keenwah) is a great grain-like protein substitute.  We used basically the same recipe provided in this blog for the burgers.  I thought the burgers were yummy, but we forgot to put the cumin in, and S. really missed that.  Next time!  We topped one burger with gorgonzola and the others with 3 Pepper Colby Jack Cheese from Harris Teeter (my new all time favorite deli cheese) plus the usual lettuce, tomato, and red onion.  Spread the buns with smart balance mayo and bbq sauce/fancy mustard, and we were in heaven!  For the fries, I just sliced up the avocado, coated the slices with bread crumbs, and fried them.  We dipped them in spicy peanut sauce from Harris Teeter.  Fatty but OH SO DELICIOUS.   Here's our meal:

Oh, and we had strawberry banana milkshakes for dessert!  Okay, okay, will try not to be so fat tonight.  No promises, though.