Sunday, March 24, 2013

Fridge Tea

No posts from me lately mostly because I've just not been eating much this past week or so. Hard to blog about eating when you're dumb and don't eat. Don't do that. Don't be like me. Do as I say, not as I do.

And given my emotional and practical stupidity, here's a non-food post about fridge-brewed tea. I have a system for this that involves old peanut butter and applesauce jars. I recycle a lot of jars. 




Fridge Tea

- Cold water
- Teabags
- Clean Jars

Basically the rule of thumb is 1:1, one teabag to one cup of water. A pint jar is obviously two cups and a quart jar is four cups. I usually make stronger tea, so 3 teabags in a pint jar, 6 in a quart jar. Your preference.

Fill the jars up, throw the tea in and leave in your fridge over night. Tea does go bad, so don't leave it in there more than a few days. That's why I like to make small jars like this because I don't have to worry about an entire pitcher going rancid. Also, I'm so obviously hipster it fucking hurts.

You can sweeten it with whatever, but obviously, if you're going to be authentic about this, you're going to have to suck it up and make simple syrup. Simple syrup is a sugar-to-water ratio of 2:1; heat the sugar with the water over high heat until you make syrup. You can store it separately to use in your tea.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Sriracha-Lime Salad Dressing

I know. Stop it. Don't you eat anything that isn't coated in three inches of Sriracha, Holly?

The thing is when I'm stuck on a flavor combination, I try to figure it out. There's a combo here of Sriracha, lime and sugar that you've noticed has been the theme for the last three entries. I'll probably move on to something else eventually, but I'm trying to knock this out. It's how I work. I get obsessed with something until I feel like I've adequately worked it out and then I move on to a new problem. 

Ok, so salad. Eat to Live Joel Fuhrman says you should eat salad every day. Per ounce, nothing is really more nutritious for you than greens. I buy that. But salad dressing is kinda gross. There are only a few kinds I actually enjoy, most of them made by Paul Newman. And there are no Sriracha salad dressings, so I mean, really, what's the point. So I invented one!

Sriracha-Lime Dressing

- 2 tbs. Sriracha
- 2 tbs. lime juice
- 2 tbs. white sugar
- 1 tbs. minced garlic
- 1 tsp-1tbs. olive oil (I don't really even know if this is necessary. Err on your fat preferences.)
- 2 pinches black pepper
- 1 pinch of salt

Shake it up in a jar.


Monday, March 4, 2013

Stupid-fast Sriracha Peanut Noodles

I received two special requests in the last two weeks. The first asked for something that could be packed in a lunch box. The second asked for something that could incorporate leftovers. Well today's you're lucky efficient (vegan-friendly) day.

This recipe will use leftover pasta. I don't care what pasta. Obviously, I recommend whole wheat pasta over white. But do you care what pasta? No. Probably not. You just have that leftover tupperware of pasta and you're like fuck what do I do with this?



Ok, so this is basically a variation of the peanut sauce recipe I use on everything. Except it's different. It's more Sriracha-y and it requires no immersion blender. You can make this sauce in literally two minutes with a fork. It'll yield a much smaller amount (enough for a small jar) that you can stash in at work to eat over leftover pasta.

Sriracha Peanut Noodle Sauce
(Adapted from here)

- 1/2 cup of peanut butter 
- 3 tbs. of Sriracha
- 1 tsp. minced garlic (or powdered)
- 1 tsp. powdered ginger
- 1 tsp. black pepper
- 1 tbs. sesame oil
- 2 tbs. lime juice 
- 1 tbs. sugar
- 3 tbs. hot water


This is some rich, thick sauce.  It's slightly tangier (because of the lime) than my crack sauce recipe. If you like cold sesame noodles and sriracha, you will like this. If you don't, well, you're shit out of luck, pal.