Three Things

Easy skillet dinners, cookies for breakfast, a book that changed my life

Greetings eaters and readers! And a big shout-out to all of you from Brooklyn, Boston, New Jersey, and San Francisco who have made it to one of my Weekday Vegetarian: Get Simple events this past week. I’ll be in Portland and Seattle on Wednesday, 9/11, and Thursday, 9/12, then next week, it’s back to Westchester, New York (my old stomping grounds) for an everyone’s-invited book party. Please come! 🙏 And if you can’t make any of these, and somehow harbor a burning desire to hear me talk about cabbage and tofu, you are cordially invited to attend a Get Simple virtual event on Thursday, September 26 at 6:30pm ET, where I’ll be joined by the great Emily Nunn. (Register here.) OR, just partake in the fun in the best possible way: By cooking from the book! The recipes that seem to be getting the most love right now are the Orzo with Zucchini and Brown Butter, the Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes and Burrata, and the Miso-Mushroom Tacos. (You could also just plead “weekend” like I did on Sunday, and make ye olde skillet fave, Chicken with Apples and Curry, above). I feel like any one of these dinners sound like just the thing to eat in front of, say, a high-stakes, nail-biting presidential debate? Speaking of which! I went to a Yuval Harari event at the 92nd St. Y over the weekend and he absolutely blew my mind. Harari is an Israeli historian and thinker, best known for his mega-bestselling book Sapiens. His new book, Nexus, out today, is about how we get our information — from the Bible to the printing press to Facebook to AI — and it was both fascinating and terrifying to hear him discuss the future of truth in an AI world. And now 🥵🥵, here are Three Things this sentient human would like you to know about this week…

1. Creamy Peanutty Cabbage & Tofu Stir-Fry

There’s a section in Get Simple devoted to “store-bought saviors” (i.e. products to have on hand that help make dinner come together faster) and every time someone asks me about it at a book event, I somehow end up talking about one particular item on the list — the pre-baked tofu* — and one particular meal I’ve been making with it that I discovered too late to include in the book: This Creamy Peanutty Cabbage and Tofu Stir-Fry. Careful readers know that I’ve written about my tofu and cabbage lunch stir-fries many times before — that one calls on dried onion powder, garlic salt, and ginger for most of the flavor-building (because: I do not chop at lunch), but this recipe is dinner-worthy, calling for fresh aromatics as well as a few dollops of peanut butter, which, when melted into the pan, then mixed with the soy sauce and rice wine vinegar, makes the whole thing taste like Sesame Noodles, but with cabbage. I finally wrote up a real recipe for you here. You’re welcome!

*Note: Pre-baked tofu often has built-in flavoring like Sesame Teriyaki and Sriracha. Those will work, but try to seek out a block with the least amount of seasoning so you can build the flavor yourself -- I like Wildwood's "Savory" one.

2. Zoë’s Morning Cookies

On most weekday mornings, I lounge around in bed for a bit, then walk my dog to get coffee via Central Park while listening to The Daily before I start work. It’s all very calm and civil, decidedly the opposite of the morning scramble of yesteryear when the girls were little and I had to somehow get myself out of bed before 8:00 am. (How did I do that?) I think back then I would’ve wanted to know about these Morning Cookies, made with whole wheat flour, bananas, dried fruits, nuts and coconut, and the kind of treat that Zoë François describes in her new book as “perfect for throwing in the gym bag or the back pack.” It’s one of many extremely appealing treats in Zoë Bakes Cookies, which I’ve decided will be my go-to gift for all the bakers in my life this year.

Speaking of cookies: Remember Christina Tosi’s Iced Oatmeal Cookies? Those were good.

3. What book has changed your life?

I had the honor of being interviewed for Gretchen Rubin’s “5 Things Making Me Happy” last week. Gretchen is the mastermind behind the multi-tentacled Happiness Project, and I’ve always loved how she is able to apply lofty philosophy about human behavior to the day-to-day business of ordinary living. In the interview, she asked me a question that has since become my most favorite conversation starter at the dinner table and beyond. She asked: What book has changed your life? And this is part of what I told her:

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by Haruki Murakami…The most famous quote from the book is probably “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional” but the line that hit me the hardest was “Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live lives to the fullest. If you’re going to while away the years, it’s far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive than in a fog, and I believe running helps you do that.” It was a complete mind-shift for me and I went from sort of slogging my way through my boring three-mile run to really embracing them.

This isn’t even the whole story, though. I ended up getting so into running after reading Murakami that I decided to train for a half-marathon. I started waking up at 6:00am to fit in longer runs, and ran several Sunday 10-milers to train, behavior that my family will verify was a major departure for me. I couldn’t believe how mentally strong I felt, and how much I loved running again, all thanks to Murakami. That is, until, I popped my calf muscle a week before the race. I don’t want to say I was bereft exactly, but I was pissed. I had never been injured before, and I was losing my mind waiting to recover, so I decided to join a local gym to workout on the elliptical — the only exercise I was cleared for. I had planned to ride that out until I could run again, but the gym membership came with a free half-hour strength training class with a woman named Rachel, and it was Rachel who I credit with introducing me to the importance of a well-rounded exercise routine, and to some truly horrific — I mean invigorating — exercises like burpees and dips and pushing medieval looking weight-loaded sleds across gym floors. She also introduced me to my core, who I had never met before! (And who abandons me on the regs.) Rachel changed the way I approached my workouts and to this day, when I’m my best self and regularly training that way (definitely not always the case), I feel so good. Like amazing.

I realize that chain reactions affecting our personal evolutions are happening every single day in a million different ways, but it feels crazy to me that I can actually track this one back to picking up a book. And now, thanks to Gretchen (and Haruki and Rachel), I’m obsessed with finding more stories like this one. So I’d love to know: What book has changed your life — not just a book that you loved and recommend and re-read every other year and all that, but a book that has actually rearranged your world or worldview in tangible, measurable ways? I am legit salivating waiting for your answers.

Thanks for reading!
Jenny

My new book is here! Order The Weekday Vegetarians: Get Simple wherever books are sold…

Penguin Random House | Amazon | Bookshop | Barnes & Noble |
Hudson Booksellers | Books A Million | Powell’s | Target | Walmart |

(🥬🌿Or pick up a copy of the first Weekday Vegetarians if you’re behind on your homework. Thanks for the support! 🌺🥬💚 )