Date night: T

My husband and I are both kind of work-a-holics. As a result, we don't see much of each other, and we have decided to do a weekly date night for some "us" time. Because we are total nerds, we do an alphabet theme. We alternate weeks, and each week the menu has a specific letter theme. Think Sesame Street. Well, this week it was my turn and dinner was brought to you by the letter 'T'. I made a vegetarian tortilla soup and tofu tostadas. Both were splendid. I served them along side some Tecate beer with lime (my husband's favorite) and we split a fruit tartlette from a local bakery for dessert.

Vegetarian tortilla soup

This is basically just a mexican style vegetable soup with tortilla strips and cheese on top. If you want tomake it healthier (or vegan), omit the tortilla strips and cheese. It's still delicious.

2 TBSP olive oil
1/2 large onion finely chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
2 small carrots thinly sliced
1 poblano pepper chopped
1 14oz can fire roasted tomatoes
2.5 cups veggie broth
juice of 1 lime
1 TBSP fresh cilantro
*1.5 TBSP cumin
*2 TBSP chili powder (more if you want)
*2 tsp cayenne powder (optional - add more if you want)
*1 TBSP chipotle powder (optional)
salt to taste
* I added all of the spices by eye and for my personal taste. Start adding spices slowly and adjust it to your taste. If you don't go for spicy food, focus on the chili powder and cumin. They are smoky, but not spicy. Personally, I like spicy food, so my estimates are going to be on the spicy side.

Saute onions, garlic, carrots and peppers in olive oil until soft.

Add salt and spices and stir for another minute to develop the flavors.

Add the tomatoes and the cilantro and heat through. Add the veggie broth and bring to a boil. Feel free to adjust the amount of broth depending on how soupy you like your soup.

Taste the soup and adjust spices to your taste. Squeeze lime juice into the pot.

Simmer the soup for 15-20 minutes to combine flavors.

Top with grated cheese, crispy tortilla strips* or crumbled tortilla chips and enjoy.
*see recipe below

Tofu tostadas

I know that a lot of people don't like tofu. However, my husband isn't one of them. If it is prepared wel,l he loves the stuff. I think it's a little weird. I don't have any problem with tofu. I'll happily eat it, but it's a strange thing to LOVE. That being said, I made this dinner for him, so I had to include tofu. This recipe was inspired by some tofu fajitas that we had last year during a trip down the California coast. If you really don't do tofu, you can easily replace it in this recipe with more veggies, beans or even meat if that's how you roll. If you're open to tofu, though, give this one a shot. It's pretty yummy.

Tofu

1 container extra-firm tofu
1/2 cup corn starch
2 TBSP cumin
1 tsp cayenne
~4 C vegetable oil

Cut the tofu into three thin slabs across the short side of the tofu.

Place a clean kitchen towel on a large plate and place the slabs of tofu on top of it. Put another clean kitchen towel on top of the tofu and top with a second large plate. Place a few cans on top of the top plate so that you are pressing the water out of the tofu.

Let the tofu sit for at least an hour.

Slice each slab of tofu into 4 equal sized strips.

Combine cornstarch, cumin and cayenne. Toss the tofu strips in the mixture.

Heat the vegetable oil on high in a large pot that is appropriate for deep drying until it is hot enough that when you put in a test piece of tofu is sizzles like crazy. You'll probably need to heat the oil for about 10 minutes to reach this temperature.

Drop the tofu pieces in 2-3 at a time (depending on the size of the pot). Fry the tofu for about 5 minutes or until nice and crispy. Carefully remove the tofu and place on a paper towel to remove excess oil.

Veggies

1 tsp olive oiil
1 onion sliced thin
1 poblano pepper chopped
2 C raw spinach chopped
1 TBSP chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onions and pepper in olive until onions begin to carmelize (8-10 minutes)

Add spinach and toss until wilted. Toss cilantro in with veggie mixture.

Assembly

Toppings:
chopped cilantro
1 avocado sliced
salsa
shredded cheese

Assemble tofu, veggies and toppings of choice on top of a tostada shell*. Get a napkin because it will be messy and dig in.

* Again, I used a store-bought tostada shell because I was lazy. It's really easy to make them yourself so that they are healthier, though. Just use the recipe I included below for tortilla strip. Just keep the tortillas whole and treat them the same way.

*Tortilla strips

Since I was making these recipes on a Thursday night, I cheated and used broken store-brought tostadas as my tortilla strips. You can actually make these easily, though and I think they are better this way. They are certainly much healthier.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cut corn tortilla into bit sized strips and spray with cooking spray on both sides.

Lay tortilla strips on a cookie sheet and bake for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, remove from oven and turn the strips. Bake for another 3-5 minutes, or until crispy.