Stuffed mushrooms

 Based on https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/15184/mouth-watering-stuffed-mushrooms/

24 oz mushrooms

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp minced garlic (from a fridge jar)

1 package cream cheese (8 oz), softened

1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (maybe also a bit of the powdery Parmesan cheese for texture)

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp onion powder

Scant 1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper

Maybe add 1/4 cup bread crumbs next time

3 tbsp butter (optional)

Clean mushrooms; separate steps and caps, lay caps out to dry, mince/chop stems. Sauté oil, minced stems, and garlic until stems stop releasing liquid and start to brown. Put into a small bowl to cool. Put butter into still-warm pan to melt. Mash everything else together (cream cheese through cayenne/bread crumbs). Once mushroom stems have cooked, mix them in as well. Spray baking sheet, lay out mushroom caps, fill with filling. Optionally sprinkle with more bread crumbs. Brush mushrooms with melted butter to keep from drying out (optional — it does help, but they’re still good without it). Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, until mushrooms are tender and tops are golden.

Vegetarian Chili

Here's a rough guess at the chili I made today.  It turned out delicious & exactly how chili is supposed to taste!  Based on some combination of this, this, and whatever I had around the kitchen.

• 1 can diced tomatoes, not drained
• 1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can great northerrn beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can Trader Joe's cajun style black beans, drained but not rinsed
• 2 stalks celery, chopped into bean-sized pieces
• 1 bell pepper (I used half an orange bell pepper and half a red bell pepper)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp vegetarian worcestershire sauce
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1.5 tbsp chili powder
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• a few shakes of onion powder
• a little black pepper

Throw everything in the slow cooker & mix it together.  Cook on high for about 2 hours, then leave it on low until you're ready to eat it -- I left it for about an hour.  Stir occasionally.  After the first hour, taste a few beans and add seasonings as needed.

Zesty Sweet Chili Tofu

The cafeteria at work has a very limited selection of things I like.  But one of the few things I was really impressed with was their sweet chili tofu.  It was bright orange, sitting on a heating coil for the 3 hours that lunch was available, and had a slightly weird texture... but it was delicious.  I haven't seen it in a while though, so I decided I had to find a recipe that was like it; this recipe is just like work used to make!

I found this sauce recipe, but naturally I didn't have peppers or garlic in the apartment, so I substituted.  I also only made half the recipe; I find that gooey asian-style sauces like this that have cornstarch in them get gross if you put them in the fridge, so I didn't want too much left over.  My recipe looked something like this:

• 1/4 tsp garlic powder (probably plus a little extra)
• 1/2 tsp (very heaping -- probably closer to 3/4 tsp) red pepper flakes
• 1/8 c white vinegar
• 1/4 c sugar
• 3/8 c water
• 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp water

For the first boiling part, I left it on for way longer than 3 minutes -- it never really thickened up, but I did notice that I'd lost some liquid.  The cornstarch worked really quickly once I added it, and I ended up with this much sauce:

It all fit into the big spoon I had been stirring with, which was about how much I wanted anyway.  This ended up being very spicy; I'd probably use less red pepper if I made it again.

For the tofu, I just chopped up & pressed a block of tofu, oiled the pan & the tofu, then baked it for a little over 30 minutes at 350 then 375 (because the sauce was done and I was hungry), flipping every 10 minutes or so.  It stuck to the pan relentlessly; maybe parchment paper would've helped.  Then I tossed it with the sauce.  It was just the right amount of both, and turned out fantastic (albeit a bit spicier than I'd've hoped).  It would've been perfect with some rice, which I had meant to make while the tofu was cooking but totally forgot.  Will definitely be making this again!