This past weekend, I violated one of the cardinal rules of cooking: Don’t prepare a recipe for the first time on a special occasion. I can now attest that this rule exists for a reason.

Saturday evening marked our delayed Valentine’s celebration, and I aimed to cook up two tasty looking recipes: Tofu Vegetable Loaf (a Whole Foods recipe) and Very Vanilla Rice Pudding (from Ellie’s The Food You Crave). The tofu loaf turned out to be more of a hassle than I anticipated, largely due to the fact that the majority of its preparation involves a food processor—a vital piece of kitchen equipment that I do not own. I love my KitchenAid mini-chopper, but it just can’t handle large volumes of food. So, I opted to puree the tofu for this recipe using my blender…well, that did not work out. I added a small amount of water to help things along; let’s just say that the end result was more like a scramble than a loaf. At least it tasted alright.

Fortunately, the dessert came out perfectly—thick, creamy, and sweet. For the photographic deets, scroll down.

I have to say that this cooking fail is a bit ironic—it’s usually desserts (remember those cookies?) that I screw up. Main dishes are more my forte, particularly if it involves tofu. Go figure.

How about you? What type of dishes are you best at preparing? Entrees? Desserts?

Here’s a look at the rest of my eats this weekend:

Saturday

After a rather empowering 3-mile run, Seth and I decided to hit up Bruegger’s for breakfast. I ordered the Sundried Tomato Egg White Bagel Sandwich. I wanted mine on whole wheat, but they were still baking in the oven. I contemplated ordering some other (non-whole grain) flavor for the sake of convenience…but ultimately I stuck to my nutrition diva ways and waited for the next batch of whole wheat. It was worth the wait:)

My BPS (i.e., bottomless pit syndrome) re-emerged yesterday, so it wasn’t long until I was hungry again.

Dinner was the aforementioned tofu mess.

On the dessert menu was Ellie’s Very Vanilla Rice Pudding.

My tweaks:

-I used unsweetened almond milk instead of vanilla soymilk. Considering the main meal was soy-based I thought we had both fulfilled our soy quota for the day.

-I added a drizzle of pure maple syrup to each of our servings…just because I felt like a little extra sweetness:)

This pudding was pretty fantastic—the almond milk really heightened the creaminess factor. Plus, its nutritional stats are so reasonable that it would also make a good breakfast!

The exact recipe is not available online, but here’s a very similar version: Rice Pudding

Sunday

Behold. The return of the Banana-Bloob.

For lunch, I evoked childhood memories with a (vegetarian) bologna and pickle sandwich. Alongside it, I made a creamy broccoli slaw using Greek yogurt and Dijon mustard as the base for the dressing.

The evening meal was a winter version of my Strawberry Fields Forever Salad. Anyone else as anxious as I am for berries to be back in season?!

Alright, I am off to chill before another week begins.

Before I sign off, I’d like to wish a very happy birthday to Seth’s dad:)

Filed under: Meals