Holy cow you all- I am in college now. I moved in over a week ago now, and I have been enjoying myself a bunch. I have my room decked out in the colors and photos I love.

I got the chance to go camping in Sequoia National Park for four days as part of my orientation. It's so beautiful, oh my gosh. I just registered for my classes this morning, and they start this coming week. It's all so terrifying and exciting.

Seriously, I have smiled so much more in this past week than I usually do, thanks to the hilarious and generous people I've met. 

And yes, I have eaten too many avocados. Why wouldn't I?

This is the last recipe I tested and prepared in my own kitchen back in North Carolina. It's intuitive, and just flavorful enough for me. It can be easily doubled as a meal- the current size is great for a single dish or a snack.

On another note, it's clear that my posts on Tofu For Thought have been (and will continue) becoming sporadic. Yes, there is a kitchen in my dorm room, but I don't know how much time, energy, or interest I will have in testing out and posting new recipes as I get into the school year. 

But I do know that I want to keep working on this site, in whatever form that takes. So please keep up with me on social media and ask me whatever questions you have about my life and stuff.

I'm sending you all virtual hugs as thanks for visiting my site and taking an interest in what I have to share. <3

Now onto the recipe!!

Avocado Quesadilla
(makes 1 quesadilla)

Ingredients:

• 1 large tortilla
• 1/2 ripe avocado, mushed into a paste
• 1 small tomato, sliced thinly
• salt and pepper to taste (and other spices, like turmeric or cumin)
• about 1/2 tablespoon of coconut oil

Directions:

1. Lay out the tortilla and spread the avocado paste along one half of the tortilla. Place the tomato slices on top of the avocado mush evenly. Fold the dry half of the tortilla over the half with the avocado like a sandwich.
2. Heat up a pan on the stove and add the coconut oil. Once the oil is melted and shimmery, place the folded quesadilla on the pan and ry it on that one side for about 3 minutes (or until the tortilla becomes a slightly crispy brown). Flip it over and cook evenly on the other side.
3. Remove the quesadilla from the heat and serve with salt and pepper sprinkled on top. Enjoy!

Hi friends! Can you believe it's already July?? I think that's totally insane. In just a couple of weeks, I am having my wisdom teeth removed and am super freaked out about the procedure. I will have to abstain from crunchy foods for a while, meaning that things like granola will be off my menu. Sniff. But, I will get to eat loads and loads of smoothies, oatmeals, chia pudding, and other soft treats. And, of course, I have an excuse to catch up on movies, television shows, and books. Yes, please!

The result of this recipe is a mega-crunchy cereal that is rich, filling, and surprisingly sweet. Also, it's not a good choice for people like me who are just about to get their wisdom teeth removed. Just saying.

Let me know what you think of this recipe, as it's a somewhat experimental concept. I added cherries and dark chocolate, but you can use whatever other add-ins you'd prefer. Good luck and enjoy!

Buckwheat Groatnola
(makes about 2 cups)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of buckwheat groats, soaked for 3+ hours in warm water
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/4 cup of maple syrup
• optional add-ins: chocolate chunks, dried cherries, etc.

Directions:

1. Rinse off the groats that have been soaking. Place them in a new, dry bowl and stir in the cinnamon and maple syrup.
2. Spread the groats evenly on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake the groatnola at 300˚F for 60 minutes, stopping every twenty minutes or so to stir the groats around with a spatula.
3. After the majority of the groats have become crispy, remove the baking sheet from the oven and let it cool. Stir in your chosen add-ins and store at room temperature.
4. Serve the groatnola with vegan milk or heated in a microwave. 

It's summertime in the northern hemisphere, and that means strawberry season where I live. For me, it's always smoothie season, but smoothies are better than ever in the summer with all the fresh produce we can put in them.

Bananas and strawberries are always good combinations for snacks, breakfasts, and definitely smoothies. The ingredients for this particular smoothie are too simple to pass up; you're actually just sipping fruits and water, but the combination of flavors and the smooth texture are delightful.

As I write this post, thunder pops in the sky around me, leaves quiver in the bushes out back and the sky is a stark white color.  The gigantic clouds are on the verge of producing rain for the third time today, and I think it's lovely. 

My family and I have been staying at my grandma's beach house in eastern North Carolina for about a week and a half. The days are hot and sunny (except for today!), and the nights are short and not too dark. So basically, it's the ideal kind of weather for sipping smoothies all day long. ​

Oh and by the way, the rain just started and the thunder is getting louder. I'm staring out the window, sipping tea, blogging and reading -- my favorite kind of afternoon! I can only hope you're having as peaceful a week as I am.

I'm sending you virtual hugs, if you need them, and happy thoughts of good food and gratitude.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie
(makes 1 smoothie)

Ingredients:

• 2 bananas, sliced and frozen
• 2 tablespoons of hot water
• 10 fresh strawberries

Directions:

1. Place the frozen banana slices in a blender and pour the hot water over it. Blend this into a thick but even consistency.
2. Slice the strawberries and place them in the blender. Blend until the smoothie becomes an even pink color with no more banana chunks.

Last Friday, I graduated from high school. It was a strange and anti-climactic experience to say the least, but I am glad it's over, I think. Starting the first week of AP exams, my classes have been over. I have been doing my Senior Project (working at home to prepare content for this site) for a week and a half, and now suddenly I am no longer in high school. I had already graduated mentally a while ago, but being in the actual ceremony was both frightening and totally boring.

I am more free now than I have been in a while, since I have virtually no school work to do and hardly any places to be. I don't have a whole lot of things planned for this summer, and that's really exciting for me. It's a true privilege to have graduated high school and be waiting to attend college and not have much else to worry about. I am super grateful for everything.

I first made these Pecan Pie Bars a few weeks ago by accident, as is true for most of the recipes I share here. I combined dates and pecans and it had a subtle maple flavor that reminded me so much of the flavor of pecan pies  that I felt guilty eating it for breakfast. But the guilt wore away in a few minutes, so don't worry. The ingredients are super simple (two wholesome foods + water), and the result is even better than the dates and pecans separately.

Pecan Pie Bars
(makes 12 bars)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of pecan pieces
• 8 dates (I used medjool dates.)
• 2 tablespoons of hot water

Directions: 

1. Cut the dates into little pieces, and place them in a bowl. Pour the hot water over the pieces and let it soak for 5 minutes.
2.  While the dates are soaking, grind the pecan pieces in a blender for just a few seconds. You want to have varying sizes of the ground pecans: some larger chunks and some fine, flour-like substance.
3. Drain the dates and stir them into the blender with the somewhat-ground pecan pieces. Blend it as much as you can into a dough-lied substance, but you might just have to stir it. My blender did not want to cooperate, so I ended up stirring it up with a spoon.
4. Prepare a tray or plate with a layer of apartment paper. Spread the dough evenly in a rectangular shape on the parchment paper.
5. Place the tray with the dough in the freezer for 2 or more hours.
6. Then remove the dough, cut it into 12 pieces, and enjoy! Store the bites in the freezer when you’re not eating them so they don’t lose their shape.
7. Note on the texture: The 'dough' can be formed into balls instead of bars, of course, but that's up to you. Additionally, you can change the ratio of dates to pecans for more crunch or pecan flavor, and you can leave out the water for firmer bars.
   

This Friday (May 27, 2016) is the day I have been looking forward to for twelve years, and I'm definitely in denial.

It's the day I graduate from high school amid my friends and family and set off towards the real world, in the form moving across the country for college.

Last night, a long-time friend and I went to a vegetarian/vegan cafe for dinner and talked about the important things: food, life, YouTube, and college. We were talking about how people's backgrounds could or could not define them.

It's so strange to look at the life I've lived so far and say, this is all background.

Someday I'll have a real job or a real mission and I will think about how my first 18 years set the way for that. The life I've been living isn't the story, it's the context. It's strange to thing about, but super exciting. I have the rare opportunity to have a new start once I get to college in the fall, and I could not be more excited.

I guess I'm expected to be reflective and nostalgic as high school comes to an end and I say adios to my teachers and classmates. So that was my attempt at being reflective. I hope it went alright.

To all the other graduates reading this, huge congrats and happiness going forward. Let's go do stuff that will make our backgrounds proud.

Now that I've been super gushy and maybe made you all sad, let's switch gears and talk about something that matters to more people than just me: food.

I'm a huge fan of roasted chickpeas, which you can tell my the presence of now two recipes for them on my site. They're crispy and chewy, spicy or not, and really easy and cheap to make. Adding the salad ingredients was just a lovely bonus, making the chickpeas part of a more complex and wholesome meal. But you still get to eat a whole serving of chickpeas, and that's really what we're about.

Roasted Chickpea Salad Bowl
(makes 1 bowl)

FOR THE ROASTED CHICKPEAS
Ingredients:

• 1 can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans
  
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  
• 1/4 teaspoon each of your favorite spices (I used garam masala, cumin, cayenne, and paprika.)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400˚F.
   
2. In a bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir until the chickpeas are well coated with oil. Remove any of the soft, clear bean shells you see from the bowl.
   
3. Spread out the chickpeas evenly on a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the beans are dark brown and totally crispy on the outside.

FOR THE SALAD BOWL
Ingredients:

• a handful of fresh spinach leaves
  
• 1/2 of a bell pepper, cut into strips
  
• 8 cherry tomatoes, cut into halves
  
• 1 batch of roasted chickpeas (above)
  
• drizzled olive oil to taste
  
• drizzled vinegar to taste

Directions:

1. Fill the bottom of a bowl with the spinach, and top it with the pepper, tomatoes, roasted chickpeas, olive oil, and vinegar. Enjoy!

For the next ten days, I'll be  finishing my senior year of high school with a Senior Project. My school requires this project, but the rules are pretty flexible; many of my peers are doing internships, some are going camping, but I chose to work on Tofu For Thought. I get to pretend to be a full-time food blogger for a few weeks (and probably more in the summer once I graduate)!  So I have been cranking out recipes I’ve been wanting to make for a while, drafting new posts, refining my photography techniques, etc. It’s loads of fun and, of course, I’ve gained even more respect for the real-life bloggers who do this stuff for a living.

I’ve also been listening to loads of podcasts and catching up on reading books this week. For instance, I’ve been binging Jessica Murnane’s One Part Podcast, in which a food writer interviews other plant-based food bloggers. It’s informative and pretty hilarious, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in plant-based eating habits.

Now, onto the recipe! This recipe is one I’ve been preparing for myself as a snack for a month or two. It’s relatively easy, and the ingredients happen to be things that I keep in the kitchen all the time. The taste and textures are appealing. They're healthy enough to be eaten as breakfast and rich enough to be eaten as dessert. In the pictures below, I show how I make the dough balls, freeze them, drizzle on the chocolate sauce, and freeze it again. The result is a gooey cookie dough ball with a hard shell of chocolate. How can you argue with that?

Chocolate-Drizzled Cookie Dough Bites
(makes 12-16 balls)

​Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of oats, ground
• 10 dates, torn in half and pitted
• 5 tablespoons of hot water
• 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup of cacao powder (or cocoa powder)
• 2 teaspoons of agave (or a preferred amount of another liquid sweetener)

Directions:

1. In a blender, grind the oats into a flour.
2. Add in the dates and the hot water. Blend until it forms a dough.
3. Roll the dough into 12-16 little balls. The dough might stick to your hands, which you can prevent by keeping your hands wet.) Place them in the freezer for about an hour, or until they become relatively firm
4. While the dough is freezing, combine the melted coconut oil (melted in a double-boiler or a microwave) with the cacao powder and the agave. Don’t refrigerate it or let it harden.
5. Once the dough balls are firm, remove them from the freezer and drizzle them with the chocolate sauce as you like. I like to totally cover them with chocolate, so it ends up coating the bottom of the bowl or pan they’re on.
6. Place the chocolate-drizzled cookie dough balls for another 10-20 minutes, or until the chocolate is sufficiently hardened.
7. Keep them in the freezer until you just before you munch on them. Enjoy!

Hi there! I hope this post finds you in good health. This recipe is my way of justifying making hot chocolate in the hot days of the summer, or having ice cream in the winter. It involves pouring rich, dark chocolate over smooth banana ice cream. Don’t tell me your mouth isn’t already watering.

Healthy Hot Chocolate Floats
(makes 2 servings)

Ingredients:

• One serving (about 1 cup) of vegan hot cocoa
• 4 bananas, sliced and frozen overnight
• 1/4 cup of hot water

Directions:

1. Prepare the hot cocoa. Let it cool a bit while continuing on to step #2.
2. Take the frozen slices of bananas out of the freezer and set them on a counter. Place the slices in a blender and add in the hot water. Blend until it reaches an even, ice-cream-like texture.
3. Scoop half of the banana ice 'cream' into a serving dish, and scoop the other half in another dish. Slowly pour the half of the hot cocoa over each serving of ice cream. Enjoy immediately with a spoon.
4. Optional toppings you can add: cherries, cacao nibs, chocolate chips, or chocolate shavings

I spend a lot of time in my room. Like, a lot. I don't even know what I do a lot of the time. I watch a lot of movies and read a lot of articles, but I also tidy and retidy my room a bunch. Oftentimes on weekends, I don't eat actual meals, just lots of snacks spread out over the day.

These snacks are three of my favorites, and they're all healthy, flavorful, wholesome, and full of energy. Reminder to myself: the next time you find yourself reaching for another chocolate bar or cookie, grab one of these snacks instead. If you're leaning towards a healthier and environmentally-conscious 2016, these are three great snacks to keep in your kitchen.

1. PECANS + CRANBERRIES + CACAO NIBS
I am a sucker for trail mix. This snack is like a trail mix in that it contains chocolate, fruit, and nuts. But it's basically a concentration of all the good and healthy parts of trail mix with none of the junk. Yay! Of course, you can sub chocolate chips for cacao nibs for a less healthy option, and you can use any other preferred dried fruit or nut in place of the cranberries and pecans. These are just my favorites.

Here's how to prepare it:
1. Combine 2 tablespoons of cranberries with 2 tablespoons of pecans and one tablespoon of cacao nibs. Easy enough, right?

2. MEDJOOL DATES + SHREDDED COCONUT
This past summer, I became a huge fan of medjool dates. They are sweet and chewy and taste like candy. I like to keep a stash in the pantry all the time. Recently, I prepared them with some coconut shreds, and it was awesome. There's something about the combination of the date flavor and the coconut that just tastes awesome.

Here's how to prepare it:
Take 3 medjool dates and cut them in half, longwise. Remove the pits. Dip the cut side of each half-date into a pile of shredded coconut (preferably unsweetened). Dig in!

3. AVOCADO + PEPPER + SRIRACHA SAUCE
I usually reach for something sweet when I want a snack, but sometimes only something savory will do. That's when I reach for an avocado, since I love them and anything made with them. This is just a more flavorful (and spicy!) way to enjoy an avocado.

Here's how to prepare it:
Cut an avocado in half and remove the pit. Take one half of the avocado and sprinkle on some cracked pepper and drizzle a little bit of sriracha sauce (or another sauce you like, such as soy sauce). Using a fork, gently integrate the pepper and sauce into the 'meat' of the avocado. Enjoy!

If you try out these snacks, let me know what you think.
What are your three favorite snacks?

This recipe is a go-to weeknight dinner for my family. My dad prepares all the ingredients (times 4 for the four of us) and lays them out in separate bowls for us to pile on our own taco salads. It's awesome. So today I share it with you all, and hopefully you can enjoy it as much as my family does.

It’s been much too long since the last time I posted. I’ve fallen off of the blog bandwagon, but this break time has made me realize just important this site is to me. The time I have spent away from working on this site, I have been reading other popular sites and articles to acquire more ideas about how I will improve my own site’s look and content.

Anyway, in the time I haven’t been blogging, I have been reading innumerable articles and blogposts online, watching too many YouTube videos about organization, heath foods, mindfulness, and reducing waste. It’s all made me think about how every action I take is a conscious choice to live a certain way. I am coming up with a list of my central beliefs and striving to live more in accordance with them, which you can read more about in this blog post.

.Burrito Bowl
(makes 1 big serving) (recipe courtesy of my dad)

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of chopped bell pepper
• 2 sliced mushrooms
• 1/4 cup chopped tomatoes
• 1/4 avocado
• 1/2 cup dried rice
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• roughly 15 ounces of canned (or soaked) beans (We used a mix of pinto + cannellini beans + black beans.)
• roughly 1/4 large sweet onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• Optional: 1 cup of fresh greens (We used chopped romaine.)

Directions:

1. Cut up the pepper, mushrooms, and tomato into small chunks. Then, mush the avocado into a pulp. Save these to top the cooked ingredients later.
2. *Cook the rice as directed on the container (or put it into a pot of 1 cup of boiling water and let it simmer for 8-10 minutes). Add 1/4 teaspoon of cumin and 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric with the dry rice.
3. While the rice is cooking, let’s prepare the sautéed onions. In a saucepan, sauté the 1/4 cup shopped onion in a man with the tablespoon of oil for 5-10 minutes, or until the onion piece look transparent.
4. Prepare the beans by boiling them for 5 minutes, or as per the directions on the can.
5. For the final setup: If you choose, lay a bed of greens on a plate or in a bowl. Arrange the rice, beans, and onions on the dish, and then sprinkle on the fresh vegetables. Enjoy now or refrigerate for later, but be sure to heat everything up properly**.

Notes:
*You can also prepare the rice, onions, and beans separately before the meal, and then you can heat them up in a saucepan before eating.
**If you used dried bean that you rehydrated, please be especially certain to cook the beans when reheating them to avoid eating bacteria.

How on Earth is it November already? Really- this year has gone by super quickly, it seems. The leaves are beautiful where I live, so I am not complaining at all. Plus, holiday season is coming up, and that means it's time for me to work on some dessert recipes that I- and my wonderful readers- will love to share with their family and friends this season.

In case you've ever wondered what my favorite dessert is, it's cookies. No question. But as I've mentioned before, I am usually pretty unskilled (read: terrible at due to lack of patience and instruction-following abilities) at baking. To my disappointment, homemade cookies are not a frequent thing in my house.

I tried to make this recipe several months ago, but I used way too much baking powder, and it tasted horribly salty. After that experience, I was only reminded by how terrible a baker I am. I struggle to follow instructions and have the patience to let treats cook fully.

Luckily, my craving for chocolate cookies last week got so intense that I decided it was time to redo my recipe with less baking powder and more chocolate (because why not?). The result was delicious! It is perfectly soft, and a good mixture between intense chocolate flavor and sweetness.

Maybe I'm not such a bad baker after all. :)

In fact, when I get home from a run with my mom this afternoon, I'm totally planning on making some decaf Earl Grey tea and enjoying one or two of these cookies- sounds like a perfect evening.

Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies
(makes ~20 cookies)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/3 cup vegan-friendly chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup dried cherries
• 1 and 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of liquid vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Combine the applesauce, oil, vanilla chocolate chips, and dried cherries.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, vanilla, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and stir until all the powder is combined in the dough.
4. Shape the cookies into balls and place them on parchment paper on a baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes at 350˚F.