LEMON BLUEBERRY LOAF CAKE

I am behind in tax prep so the text will be terse today. All I have on my mind is sheer amazement at how much of our income goes towards food. And Amazon. Being a grownup is scary. I remember playing house when I was little and always wanting to be "the mom." I had a fake checkbook to pay for things in this make believe adult-land I thought was so glorious. Now I am IN adult-land and I don't understand why on earth I was so anxious to be here. Take me back to where I could write my little sister a check for $20,000 just for being my pretend daughter!

But there is loaf cake. I make a lot of these and realize there is a similar one in the recipe archives but they are popular here. Hugh likes a sweet in the morning with coffee and I like cake after dinner so we can polish one these off quite quickly. They gift beautifully too if you're taking food to a friend. It's a snack to be shared no matter how you look at it. 

LEMON BLUEBERRY LOAF CAKE // Makes one 9x4 loaf

Adapted from Food and Wine 

The original calls for 2 cups of all purpose flour which, by all means, go ahead with. This was our wheat-free version and is sort of my standard loaf cake ratio anyway. Change the fruit, maybe replace the yogurt with mashed banana and the berries for chocolate chips. It's a great base to work with.
For the oat flour, I simply blend up rolled oats. The glaze here is optional. I am happy with the loaf as is but Hugh likes it a bit sweeter so the glaze keeps everyone happy. You can mix in some melted and slightly cooled butter if you'd like it to resemble more of a frosting.

3/4 cup coconut oil, melted and slightly cooled
1 cup natural cane sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. lemon zest
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 cup plain goat yogurt (or regular)
1/4 cup lemon juice

1 cup superfine brown rice flour
1 cup oat flour
2 Tbsp. flaxmeal
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
 

// glaze //

2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 cup powdered sugar

lemon zest, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350'. Grease a 9x4 loaf pan and line it with parchment. 

Wish a hand or electric mixer, combine the coconut oil and sugar until well blended. Add the eggs, one at a time until well mixed. Add the vanilla, lemon zest, yogurt, lemon juice and mix. 

In another bowl, combine both flours, flaxmeal, baking powder and soda and stir to combine. Gently add the dry to the wet ingredients to mix. Fold in the blueberries and pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake on the middle rack for 1 hour and 10-15 minutes until golden or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove to cool completely. 

In the meantime, whisk the lemon juice and powdered sugar together to create a glaze. 

Glaze the cooled cake. The loaf with keep covered for three days. 

---

---

SRIRACHA ROASTED BRUSSELS SPROUTS

We roast a lot of vegetables in the cooler months. Everything dumped onto one large sheet pan, almost any number of spice combinations, and then you just leave them alone. I am all for minimal hands on time these days while trying to keep both kids happy before dinner. I've watched a couple episodes of Cooked on Netflix lately and am so intrigued by Michael Pollans' research about how the world eats - how our tendencies with food and cooking have changed so much over time. He had a statistic that said Americans spend an average of twelve minutes a day preparing food to eat. Twelve! I realize I cook for work and you read food blogs so we'd lie on the upper end of the test group because of that, but no wonder there is more obesity and diabetes than ever before. I get that time is limited. It is an era where most households have two working adults, everyone is tired, fresh produce is more expensive than a frozen dinner, so why would someone choose to cook when it's cheaper and faster and more simple not to? But as a proponent of fresh, real foods, I can argue the case for roasted vegetables on even our busiest of days. A recipe like this that calls for 5 minutes of hands on time and 25 minutes in the oven and could pair with a number or proteins or some quick cooking whole grains. I've made the habit of cooking nearly twice what we eat at one meal so I can repurpose the leftovers which helps save time for  another evening. I really want to start meal planning but I am not there yet. Believe me, we pick up burritos and order pizza in between too, but I hope our food culture swings back stronger towards making more food. I really think cooking this simply is a easy enough to prioritize for the sake of health. We're getting persuaded to believe cooking is too hard, but is it? Preach it, Michael! Anyway. I like the show. 

I created this recipe for Sriracha Roasted Brussels in working with Electrolux and their blog Live.Love.Lux. You can find the recipe on their site.

I have a recipe for a homemade sriracha in Bowl + Spoon (ps. that's a really great price) if you have extra time on your hands or I like the Trader Joes or Sky Valley brands which don't have all the junk in them. 

CRUNCHY TOFU CHOP

I rocked Cleo for a solid hour in that stained, suede chair. Nursing on either side of that just to try to calm her down while she screamed at me. She screamed even more at boobie-less Hugh. Pecking at his collar bone searching for one anyway while refusing to take a pacifier. Baby cries may not have a ton of gusto to them yet, but man can they grate on you. They make you empathetic for a little while but progressively become really frustrating. So I made cookies at 10pm because the only other sweet around here were date-coconut ball things and I needed something more serious than that. I didn't measure anything, I just eyeballed and trusted my experience to come up with something close. I referenced a recipe for how much baking soda or powder to use because it's the one piece of a cookie recipe I can't seem to log to memory. I added crisp rice cereal per Tara's instagram post and cut up a chocolate bar with scissors so I didn't have to wash a cutting board. We baked off a large one in the toaster oven to share as a late night snack and Cleo started crying again before it cooled. I know emotional eating is a real thing and that our relationship with food can greatly affect our long term health but sometimes, cooking for what you need in that moment, can be just the thing. Maybe it's cookies, but the next day, in light of a fresh start, I chopped up the vegetable drawer to make this easy lunch. You wore me down last night, little girl, but today is mine! That is how I felt as I stood over my largest salad bowl, eating this with a serving spoon. If food didn't connect us to things, to see the ebb and flow of what happens in our own kitchens, cooking would be nothing but a responsibility. The cookie nights versus the salad days, the big enough pots of pasta that I can treat someone to a last minute dinner delivery or share bits of "toddler food" with a friend who isn't sure what to feed her son. It's more than a responsibility. It's a gateway to so much more when you stand back.
I know at first glance it may look like a lot of ingredients here, but I think you'll find they are mostly pantry staples and it's more chopping and less cooking. When I asked a few months back what you all were looking for here, many of you requested easy, week-night, real-life sort of stuff and this is that for us. It's an even quicker version of this if you have rice leftover. I know I should probably just be cheerleading for salads here, but if a cookie is what you need, I hope you find that too. The sweetest spot is right in the middle.

CRUNCHY TOFU CHOP

I resisted avocado here because I wanted it to stay crunchy in the fridge but use one if you have it and may be eating this immediately. This could also be wrapped in a tortilla if you are going for a handheld situation. I used leftover rice, but quinoa could be a quicker cooking option. Most of the work here is the chopping as listed in the ingredients. Otherwise, it comes together in minutes. 

Serves 4

1 14 oz. pack extra firm tofu
1 heaping Tbsp. coconut oil
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
sea salt and pepper, to taste
2 large carrots, grated
3/4 cup cooked and cooled brown rice (or quinoa)
1 small hothouse cucumber, seeded and diced
1 bell pepper, seeded and diced
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 small bunch cilantro
2 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
1/2 cup toasted cashews, roughly chopped

// dressing //

1 minced garlic clove
1 Tbsp. agave nectar
2 tsp. sriracha
1 tsp. tamari
juice of one lime
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

Drain the tofu and pat dry with a paper towel. Cut it into small cubes. 

Preheat a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Warm the coconut and sesame oil and once they are hot, add the tofu. Season generously with salt and pepper. Saute for 5-8 minutes until the outsides are just browned. The longer you cook it, the drier/crunchier the tofu cubes get so time it to taste. Set aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the carrots, cooked rice, cucumber, bell pepper and onions. Very roughly chop the cilantro and add it to the mixture. 

In another bowl, whisk all the dressing ingredients together and toss desired amount with the salad to mix. Season to taste. Add the sesames and cashews. The salad may be kept dressed in the fridge for 2-3 days, slowly loosing some of it's crunch but still enjoyable.