Moms do everything better

Tonight I tried to recreate this thing that my mom used to make all the time when I was little involving rice, tofu and mushrooms.  It didn’t work, but what I ended up with was okay, anyway:

It looks kind of risottoy, but that’s through no talent of my own.  I just over cooked the rice because I was talking on the phone when I did the measurements.  I can hardly figure out the measurements for rice when I’m giving it my full attention and I have a calculator in my hand, so doing it while on the phone was a bad idea.  Anyway, here’s the recipe I made up.  Watch that rice.

• 3/4 cup brown rice
• vegetable stock
• 8 to 9 cremini mushrooms
• 1 block tofu
• 1/4 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• Couple sprigs of thyme
• 2 T soy sauce
• Salt, pepper

Cook the rice using the package directions, substituting stock for the water.  Cut the tofu into eight long slices, and then cut each slice into fourths.  Salt and pepper it and bake it in a 450 oven for 30 minutes or so, flipping halfway though.  Slice the mushrooms and chop the garlic/onion.  Cook the onion until soft, then add the rice, the garlic and the mushrooms.  When the mushrooms are cooked, add the tofu, thyme, soy sauce and more salt and pepper.

I think I realized halfway through the meal why it didn’t taste the same as I remembered it:

Damn those seasoning packets.

Anyway, earlier I had THE blueberry Z Bar:

Pretty good.  Better than other fruit bars that always taste fake.  It still tasted a little fake to me, though.  Maybe I’m sensitive.