(Breakfast) Cookie Monster… and another New Food

Have you all met Abbie yet?  This girl is a genius.  She took my Snickerdoodle Oatmeal recipe and adapted it to create a Snickerdoodle Breakfast Cookie! 

Check out Abbie’s super-fantastic, creative version (pictured above) of my Snickerdoodle Oatmeal.  Thanks, Abbie, for the awesome idea– I definitely want to try it out soon .      

 

 

And now, on to Week Three of the New Food Challenge: 

This week’s new food comes courtesy of the Asian Market.  It’s called “Yaki-Fu” or “Kai-fu” or just plain “fu”… or “bran puff” (leave it to the Americans to call it something boring!).  Below is Wikipedia’s definition of the oddly-textured stuff:

Baked spongy gluten: Similar in texture to a sponge, kao fu (sometimes labeled in English as “bran puff”) is made by leavening raw gluten, then baking or steaming it. These are sold as small blocks in Chinese markets and are then diced up and cooked. This type of gluten absorbs its cooking liquid like a sponge and is enjoyed for its “juicy” character. Chinese kao fu is coarser in texture than its Japanese counterpart, yaki-fu, due to the relatively larger air bubbles it contains. Kao fu is available in fresh, frozen, and canned forms.

And a picture, for your viewing pleasure:

While searching Google for a picture (I forgot to take a pic of the package I bought), I came across a photo from none other than the famous Susan!  Along with the photo, Susan wrote a terrifically-informative post about the roasted gluten, highlighting its nutritional benefits and uses.  (She also provides a yummy-sounding recipe, which I’ve bookmarked.) 

Read Susan’s Yaki-Fu post here. 

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Chocolate-Covered Meal of the Day

This being my first time with yaki-fu, I was quite unadventurous– I simply employed the sauce from this post (friend #3) to marinate the fun, sponge-y pieces.  It was awesome!  The yaki-fu soaked up all the flavor of the sauce.  I have big plans for this stuff in the future .

Rounding out the meal: 

Zesty Zucchini Fries, with a bit of vegan mayo (first featured in this post) for dipping, the usual best-ever tomato soup, and Eden Grains’ Rye Pilaf (I love you, Eden Grains!)

Close up of the fu:

So  sponge-y!

 

Remember to enter the challenge if you want to win enticing goodies from companies like PB&Co, Artisana, Naturally Nutty, Larabar… 

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