Thai Peanut Noodles (V*)

This is a very quick and easy to make recipe. Excellent for lunches, but also scales well to dinner! These directions are for the lunch-sized version.

You'll need:
- fresh garlic
- fresh ginger
- onion
- vegetables (e.g. broccoli, mushrooms, bell peppers, etc.)
- better than boullion
- soy sauce
- peanut butter
- Thai sweet chili sauce (optional)
- Thai rice noodles
- tempeh/tofu/seitan (optional)

Put a pot of water on to boil. While you're waiting, sautee some onions, garlic, and grated ginger in sesame oil. Once the onions just start to wilt, add in whatever other vegetables you want -- I really like bell peppers, mushrooms, and broccoli. If you want some protein, you can add tempeh or tofu or seitan (or something similar) at this point, too. Dissolve some Better than Boullion in water and add that to the veggies, along with a splash of soy sauce. Once that's nice and hot, add a few spoonfuls of peanut butter (chunky is best!) and a dash of turmeric. If you have any sweet chili sauce, add that, too (or spicy chili sauce, if that's your thing). Mix everything together and cook it down for a few minutes so that the sauce is not too watery. Once the water you put on earlier is boiling, turn off the heat and add the noodles. Cook for about five minutes until the noodles are soft, then drain them and add to the peanut sauce. Coat the noodles thoroughly, and then enjoy!

Maita's quick yeast bread

Posting this here so it will stop being an email in my inbox:

Tripling this recipe yields 1 pika.

Ingredients

5 cups white all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons yeast (or 2 x 7g pkts)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups warm-hot water
1/4 cup cooking oil

Mix the warm-hot water together with the yeast and the sugar in a bowl. Leave this until it gets nice and foamy.

Then, mix in the flower, salt, and oil. You want to add enough flour so that the dough is no longer sticky, but not more than that--the amount may be slightly different from the given 5 cups. You can use up to half wheat flour/half white flour---no more. You may need a bit more water if you're using some wheat flour.

Knead for 5 minutes until dough is "elastic and smooth."

Leave in bowl covered with a damp towel until the dough has doubled in size--around a half hour.

Punch the dough down and divide into two pieces. Form these into loaf-like long cylinders and place on a baking tray.

When the loaves have risen again--poken them gently with a finger leaves a little dent---slit them open on top with a sharp knife for that artisinal look. You can also sprinkle on a bit of flour.

Bake at 400F for 40 minutes. At the beginning and a couple times during baking, spritz the bread/pans with water, which allows them to expand more (since the crust doesn't set as quickly) and makes for a crispier crust.

This recipes was inspired by this one.

Lentil Barley Soup

this is very very easy to make

1 cup dried lentils
1/2 cup barley
4 cups veggie broth
2 cups water
carrots + celery + onion + any other vegetables you want
2 teaspoons curry powder

Rinse the lentils and barley.
Throw it all together, bring to a boil, turn down to simmer,
cover and cook for about an hour

feeds probably 7