I don’t like suburbia. It makes me sad with its sticky pavement under beige-and-smog backdrop. There is no joy in the suburbs, only heartache. Only traffic. Only box stores and styrofoam columns covered in a thin layer of peeling stucco. Only open- and closed-malls that carry the same things every other suburb carries: broken dreams and an opportunity to buy yourself out of shame.
In any case, we somehow found ourselves hungry and in the suburbs. This is probably the worst possible scenario for people like Justin & me. We are openly admitted to “food snobbery,” in that we really only want to eat actual food: something difficult to come by anywhere outside the home in America.
We ended up at the best option possible: Chipotle. I would have prefered a local place, like Cilantro or even Baja Burrito (I’m not sure if they’re a chain, though I don’t think so), but we were in Seekonk and this was the only real option. They offered a thing called, “sofritas,” a spicy maritnated tofu. Wait, what? A vegetarian (no, VEGAN) option in the suburbs? Where was black-and-white Rod Serling?
We decided to give it a try, and are we EVER glad we did. It was really good, and now we have something we can make at home to “beef up” our taco salad nights.
The recipe is rather simple and can be tailored to your own tastes. First, get some firm tofu, let it drain, slice it, then fry it on a very hot pan (cast iron works well). Then make a marinade out of tomatos, onions, chilis and and any other veg you’d like, plus a little soy sauce and apple cider vinegar. For our homemade, we used one half of a chipotle taco seasoning packet (chemistry, yes, but we’re almost out of cumin). Puree mixture.
Mix the tofu into the pureed mixture and cook until all the liquid has ben soaked up into the tofu. That’s all there is to it. But don’t take my word for it, google it for yourselves.
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Grocery project update is as follows:
Went out for coffee tonight, $5.50. Added to $107.13 = $112.63
| Whole Foods | |
| 4.6lbs local apples | $6.88 |
| 8oz cheddar cheese | $2.39 |
| .69lb bulk quinoa | $3.44 |
| sales tax | $0.00 |
| Total | $12.71 |
| Stop & Shop | |
| 1lb dark brown sugar | $1.50 |
| Chipotle Taco Seasoning (I know!) | $0.99 |
| 1 can pitted olive | $1.49 |
| 2 good sized avocados | $3.32 |
| 2.82lbs bananas | $1.10 |
| 8oz fancy shredded cheese | $2.49 |
| 8oz sour cream | $1.99 |
| 12 eggs | $1.99 |
| 1lb TVP | $2.79 |
| .65lb Olive Bar | $5.19 |
| sales tax | $0.00 |
| Total | $22.85 |
$12.71 + $22.85 = $35.56 + $246.42 = $281.98 divided by 27 days = $10.44 divided by 2 (people) = $5.22 per person per day.
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