Cucumber ranch bowl, Mango fried rice, Mediterranean overnight tofu scramble

It's week sixteen and I'm still chipping away at this cookbook! This project has really made me wonder how many people out there try to cook through entire cookbooks (and what their motivations are). I also made some granola this week from Miyoko's Homemade Vegan Pantry which I haven't made in a long time and part of me was thinking...will this be my next cook through?! And then shortly after that thought...Let's not get ahead of ourselves, shall we?

Here's what I made this week:

• Cucumber ranch bowl with breaded tofu

• Mango fried rice

• Mediterranean overnight tofu scramble

The recipe does say "smother" with sauce

Cucumber ranch bowl with breaded tofu

• I might make this again

• I made 0 modifications

• I don't think this would freeze well

So, this cucumber sauce is interesting. In the future, I would not include the water (you add a bit of veggie broth) because the cucumber is so watery on its own. The guidance is to leave it a bit "chunky" and I just don't know that the texture of this I loved. It was very fresh-tasting though!

I used my rice cooker a lot this week for these recipes, and I also used it to steam the broccoli in this recipe which was nice and easy! And then I accidentally left it in there, so it got REAL COOKED. I was never a big fan of ranch dressing, and this really doesn't try to imitate it exactly, it's just a nice cucumber-dill sauce.

So much rice

Mango fried rice

• I would definitely make this again

• I made 1 modification

• I think this would freeze fine

This was a highlight of the week! The recipe calls for six cups of rice and I was like, "That is a LOT of rice" and it truly was. You would probably be fine using three or four. This makes a lot of food. Isa writes that this feels like a full meal because of the rice, nuts, beans, but gives some suggestions of added proteins if you want. I think this would be particularly delicious with some grilled tofu because it's really tropical-tasting.

My one modification was leaving out the coriander seeds because I still haven't bought a new bottle after realizing that mine is just too floral, and I don't like the taste of it. I also think that this was best the day that it was made. Because it makes so much food, that's a little bit of a drawback. But overall, I think the flavors of this are pretty unique from some of the other recipes in this book, and that makes it a standout for me.

Mediterranean overnight tofu scramble

• I would definitely make this again

• I made 0 modifications

• I think this would freeze fine (maybe make a double batch?)

This is the second overnight scramble recipe in the book, and I really loved the Thai overnight scramble. This is a very similar concept, just with Mediterranean flavors. I did think that the Thai scramble was a little bit watery, so when I put the Mediterranean scramble in the fridge overnight, I put it in a colander over a bowl. That probably drained about a quarter of a cup of liquid. I also saved the lemon juice for the morning for that reason.

For a weekday breakfast, this is really simple and I love that. My stepmom makes a modification of this by using sun-dried tomatoes instead of the roasted red peppers which I think is a really good idea because you're only using one roasted red pepper and if you buy a jar there's probably like six or so in there, so then you have to figure out what to do with this jar of open red peppers. Usually I would make a red pepper hummus with them but I didn't get to that this week.

Weekly Reflection

I had planned to make an off-Isa recipe to share with you all of an Amy's vegan burrito dupe that I have made before of their Vietnamese banh mi burrito that I really love. I love to do freezer prep burritos to have for breakfast or lunch, this Amy's flavor is one of my favorites. Making it at home makes it a little bit cheaper and also cuts back on the packaging waste. But I just didn't get to it!