Long Weekend Stock-up

For some reason I didn't realize until about noon today that this upcoming Monday is a holiday in the US, which means most businesses, including my job, are closed... YES!  Free day off!  I decided quickly that I'm going to take the extra time on this three day weekend and do a little cooking and baking stock-up and try out some recipes I've had on my radar for a while.

My lovely great-aunt gifted me a copy of the The Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health: More Than 200 New Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes for Delicious and Nutrient-Rich Dishes a while back.  I've found that it contains a couple pretty good sounding recipes for homemade veggie burgers that are freezable.  We've been sort of hooked on MorningStar Farms and I'm hoping to find a homemade alternative. Going to start with Spinach-Tofu burgers and see how it goes.

I also am going to try another one of Camilla's awesome snack bar recipes.  The Clif bars worked out so well that I can't wait to try black bean power bars too.

We've been on a big Greek-kick lately (when I say we, I mainly mean me; I cook it and Dan eats it).  Earlier this week I tried some new Greek Style Veggie burgers using couscous and made my own tzatziki sauce (with a bit of inspiration from Stephanie) (more on both of these later, I hope, when I make them again), so building from that theme, I'm also going to try to tackle pita bread (Cooking Light recipe) and hummus (recipe from a friend).


Lastly, I made some bean and bell pepper fajitas last week.. those have been requested to make and encore appearance on our menu this weekend.  Hope to have a full post on this awesome, quick, easy and so tasty recipe for you as well. 


I'm thinking I want to make some kind of vegan baked-good... like a cupcake.. anyone have a good recipe for a simple vegan cupcake with frosting?  We'll see if I get that far.

Fried Tofu with Sesame Dipping Sauce

Here's a quick and easy recipe for a small-plates sort of dish.  I served it with some Birds Eye Steamfresh Asian Vegetables With Roasted Cashews.  I'll be completely honest that this one is all about the sauce, but the tofu turned out really great too.  Much better than the first time I did a fried tofu dish.  Dan enjoyed it too! 

Here's the recipe for you.  Let me know what you think!

 Fried Tofu with Sesame Dipping Sauce

3 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari (I used the tamari)
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
1 teaspoon dark or toasted sesame oil
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 package (14 oz) extra firm tofu, drained and mosture removed
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 egg
1 cup pank bread crumbs
4 tablespoons vegetable oil

• For sauce:  Combine first six (6) ingredients in a small bowl.  Set aside.
• Cut tofu crosswise into 4 slices, then each slice diagonally into triangles.
• Place each flour, eggs and panko in seperate bowls
• Dip each piece of tofu in flour to lightly coat all sides, then dip into egg, then into panko.  Repeat for all tofu pieces.
• Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in large nonstick skillet over high heat.  Reduce heat to medium.
• Add half of tofu in a single layer.  Cook 1-2 minutes per side or until golder brown.  Repeat with remaining tofu, adding more oil as needed.  Serve with dipping sauce.

Tofu Crumbles Tacos

It was new meat-alternative product night at our house tonight!  I was on the hunt for some taco type items as I had some left over corn tortillas from Bean & Cheese Enchiladas that I previously made that I wanted to use up, so decided on a less formal taco night for this week.  I saw the Marjon Original Tofu Crumbles at the grocer the other day and figured, what the heck, might as well give it a try.  I knew that I had already purchased a can of Vegetarian Refried Beans so if this product failed, I still had some girth to put into the tortillas.

First impression was the same as when I introduced us to Gimme Lean Ground 'Sausage' in that it sort of looked like cat food in the vacuum sealed package (We actually fed our cats some wet cat food just before this and I will have to say the cat food looked a little more appetizing).  I immediately regreted my decision to spend the $3.99 or whatever it cost.  Again, I forged ahead.  Can't learn unless we make mistakes right?  I think I just gave away that this didn't go over to well.... read on....

So I looked over the packing for the instructions and surprise, surprise, none were available.  I don't understand why these meat alternative products don't include any type of instructions.  The product did contain some simple recipes on the side and back.

After review, I came to the conclusion that I just needed to heat it up. So I moved forward with handling the same way I would for ground beef and slapped in a skillet. I was pretty impressed that once I got it in the pan, it was pretty darn close to looking like ground beef.

The best way for me to explain the results is that this product was unnecessary.  It wasn't bad.  It wasn't good.  It was nothing; just kind of there.  I think that if I was a person that heavily relied on or expected texture to certain foods, then maybe this product would help me with meeting my need for a meat-type feel.  But really, I would have been happy with just the beans that I had for my tacos.  I believe Dan felt the same way.  We tried to spice it up with some chili powder, cumin and other spices and, while it added a little flavor, it didn't do much at all.  I would like to give it another try in maybe a simple spaghetti night and through it in with a jar of sauce.  I could see the texture doing a little good in that type of situation.  Conclusively, I won't count it out as an option; I would like to try it again in a different medium (as mentioned); I wouldn't rush out to buy it again.  

Hot & Sour Soup

 

Friday night's dinner was Hot & Sour Soup based on a Pampered Chef Recipe.

I know I've bombarded you with PC Recipes all week, but so far this is the only Vegetarian cookbook I have so that is how I set up our first week.

This soup was very tasty but a little too much vinegar for us.  I added some extra veggie stock to the left overs and will test it out tomorrow for lunch to see if that toned down the sour part at all.  I used only 1 tsp of the recommend 1-2 tsps of Red Curry paste, since, as mentioned yesterday, I'm not a big spicy fan.  I do love vinegar though and after i finished my bowl, I polished off the rest of Dan's too.  We enjoyed the soup with some store bought Spring Rolls from Fresh Market and the combo made for a great meal.

I'm excited to start working on next weeks menu.  So far so good!  Tomorrow, I'll be searching and researching recipes for next week so I can hit the grocery store Sunday and get stocked up.  Planning on a 'recipe free' meal of zucchini (probably roasted) and stuffed mushrooms.

[EDIT] After adding the extra (2 cups) of veggie stock to the left overs, it really helped to cut the vinegar and it was excellent left-overs for lunch!![/EDIT]

Tofu Parmigiana with Fire-Roasted Tomatoes

 

Dinner from Sunday - January 2, 2010

The above meal is from Pampered Chef.

Recipe TBA