Meatless Monday! Kung Pao Tofu with Coconut Rice

This recipe is from Cooking Light Magazine. I substituted the chicken with tofu (drained and pressed). It was really super good. A good Chinese Food flavor, but with healthy ingredients. I made it with a whole teaspoon of the crushed red pepper and it turned out too spicy for me. When I reheated the leftovers, I added a splash of rice wine vinegar which tamed it back perfectly.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 block of tofu drained and pressed
  
• 3/4 cup water
• 3 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon bottled minced ginger
• 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
• 1 cup thinly sliced red bell pepper (about 1 large pepper)
• 1 cup snow peas, trimmed
• 2 tablespoons chopped unsalted, dry-roasted peanuts

Preparation

1. Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until softened. Add garlic; sauté 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add chicken tofu; sauté 3 minutes or until it begins to brown.

2. Combine 3/4 cup water and the next 5 ingredients (through crushed red pepper), stirring with a whisk until sugar dissolves. Add water mixture to pan; bring to a boil. Add bell pepper and snow peas to pan; cook for 2 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender and sauce thickens. Sprinkle with nuts.

I served it with Coconut Jasmine Rice. Simply cook 1 cup rice with 1 1/4 c. water, 1/2 cup light coconut milk, and a pinch of salt. Delicious!

And I had a lot of the coconut milk left over. So, I froze it in ice cube trays. Last night I made more rice, so I popped in a couple of the ice cubes and easily had more coconut rice.

Visit Meatless Monday.com for more ideas and help with going meatless at least once a week.

Modge Podge Magazine Files

This is one of those projects that has been on my to-do list for a long time. I finally got to Ikea for these wooden magazine boxes.

I traced scrapbook paper to fit the sides and fronts and backs. And glued them on with Modge Podge.

Then I filed and sanded down the edges for the top layer of Modge Podge to adhere better and also because I wanted to ink the edges.

This one is for recipe magazines or pages, so I liked the cupcakes on this paper.

Then I inked the edges and applied the Modge Podge over the entire box.

A happy little project! See my side bar for parties I'll link to this week!

Fibers on Friday: Heels!

Welcome to Fibers on Friday, a day that we can all come together and parade our crochet and knitting projects! And more specifically this month, to participate in a sock challenge, Turning Heels in the New Year!



How are the socks coming along? I've had much success and I'm still thrilled with the progress. I feel a sock addiction coming on, I must say! I really love the pattern I've suggested for this challenge, it's knitting up so nicely.

Here is our time line for the sock challenge:

Here's where we are in our time line to knit a pair of socks by the end of January:

• By Dec. 31st everyone needs to have gathered their supplies and checked their gauge.
• January 7th we'll show off our cuffs and leg of the sock.
• January 14th we'll show off our heels. Yes, Turning Heels in the New Year!
• January 21st we should be done our gussetts and foot and be ready to close the toe.
• January 28th we'll be well into our second sock and we'll display our works in progress.
• By Feb 4th we should be able to take a picture of our feet adorned in TWO fabulous socks!!

I did decide that I need to teach myself the Continental style of knitting in order to speed things up a bit. So, I watched some videos and started on a washcloth; a project that doesn't mean much, doesn't have to be pretty, but would give me practice. Here it is; the tension is not even, there are some mistakes, but overall I'm happy. I'm not ready to put the new method to the test with socks or a sweater, but I will move on to bigger projects using it.


And as if that wasn't enough knitting, I started a sweater. The Shalom. Ahhhh, I've been waiting and waiting to start this. I put it on the back burner in order to finish the sweater for Afghans for Afghans. Well, that has been mailed off, so onto Shalom!

My list of link parties is listed on my sidebar, but this has been a pretty big week of link-ups which has introduced me to a few more parties:

CPS #200 Cards!

I had such a crafty day the other day. First on the agenda was making some Thank You cards for Christmas. As usual, I reach for the CPS Sketch of the week. And here it is:


And I just turn it into an assembly line, naturally.

I used Cosmo Cricket's "Oh Joy" for all of these on PTI Craft Cardstock.

I went on to finish a scrapbook page, I knitted some of my socks for the sock challenge, I knitted a little of a new sweater I've started (Shalom), and I made a fantastic tofu dinner which will be posted for Meatless Monday soon. I foolishly though that the snow day we had today would lead to some down time spent knitting and watching movies, but no. I had to shovel because my husband is away and then we plaaaayyyyeeedd.......which was awesome!!


So, me and my TIRED body will sit down later to knit.

Domestic Diva

Have you seen these pattern kits for aprons? I bought this at JoAnn Fabric a few years ago intending to get together with my sister for a sewing day. Three years later and we haven't done it, so I sewed hers for Christmas and sewed mine the other day.


You get this big hunk of fabric with the pieces and instructions printed on it. You just need to cut out all the pieces and sew. Pretty cool.

And now I'm a Domestic Diva!

Fibers on Friday: Cuffs

How are your socks coming along? Are you having fun? Ready for our first sock link-up? Let's hit it!

Here are mine.

I knit the cuff and leg to just a tad over 6" as called for in the pattern. I would have gone longer, but I am trying to avoid needing another ball of this yarn since I don't know what it is or where I got it. So, if it will do two socks in total, I'll be happy! My next pair will be longer. And I can already tell you there WILL be a next pair! I am really enjoying these so much more than my prior attempts. Why? I'm not sure. I think the challenge is helping to keep me motivated. I think this pattern is just better than the ones I've tried in the past. And perhaps I'm a slightly better knitter than I was a year or two ago.

Last night I started the heel flap. I caught my self just in the nick of time for a major mistake: the pattern says to knit rows 1 and 2 of the heel flap and then repeat for a total of 29 rows. Well, I was well on my way to knitting those rows 29 TIMES....so I would have had double the amount of rows I needed. I'm thankful for that little voice that whispered to me....."Beth, read the pattern....read the pattern more carefully....something is not right.....read it! read it!"

So, tonight I will start Turning Heels....oh yeah, baby!

Here's where we are in our timeline to knit a pair of socks by the end of January:

• By Dec. 31st everyone needs to have gathered their supplies and checked their gauge.
• January 7th we'll show off our cuffs and leg of the sock.
• January 14th we'll show off our heels. Yes, Turning Heels in the New Year!
• January 21st we should be done our gussetts and foot and be ready to close the toe.
• January 28th we'll be well into our second sock and we'll display our works in progress.
• By Feb 4th we should be able to take a picture of our feet adorned in TWO fabulous socks!!

I can't wait to see who is participating and how you're doing! No worries if you're not doing socks, you can still link up any knit or crochet project you've been working on.

Ruby Lou Dolls!

I've been so excited to show you these dolls I made for Christmas! I made FIVE! One for each of the little girl cousins in my family nearby. This pattern is from Sew Much Ado and I cannot say enough about it! There is not one glitch. There is not one misprint. Every single pattern piece is precise and perfect. I am so impressed and so glad I made these dolls!



I had quite the assembly line going! I made one individually just to see what I'd need and if I'd run into any problems before I started cutting all the other pieces out. Once I knew everything was great, I started pounding them out. I had three good days of sewing these cuties! It was a big endeavor, but boy o boy are they cute and cuddly and durable! A huge hit!