Beans and Tofu

Another week of busy cooking and baking in the kitchen! For much of the week, our dinners consisted of tofu or beans.

Tofu is very versatile and tasty. We cooked tofu wedges (with soy sauce, garlic powder, and dried basil) and served as is with asparagus. The next day we had the tofu wedges in a sandwich with creamy avocado and fresh spinach. Later in the week, we incorporated it into the "Thai Turkey" recipe that we loved before going vegetarian. In replace of turkey, we added tofu cubes. The marinade in this recipe gave the tofu a great flavor. We served this with whole grain couscous. It made lots of leftovers, and the leftovers seemed to taste even better!

Thai Tofu Saute

Sauce:

2 cups water

3 Tb honey

6 Tb soy sauce

6 tsp sesame oil

6 tsp curry powder

2 tsp cornstarch

3/4 tsp crushed red pepper (or fresh chili pepper, diced)

Mix the sauce ingredients and set aside. Can make ahead if desired. (We didn't seem to have on hand cornstarch or sesame oil, so we omitted it this time.)

Saute:
1 1/2 cup red bell pepper, cut into thin strips

1/2 cup sweet/yellow onion, cut into thin strips

1 clove garlic, minced

1 packet of firm tofu (16 oz)

1 packet frozen brocolli ( ~1 1/2 cup)

whole unsalted cashews

2/3 cup whole grain couscous (makes four servings) (read directions on box for cooking)

Saute first two ingredients in a large saucepan and cook until slightly tender. Add garlic, tofu, brocolli, and the sauce and cook until brocolli is tender. Add cashews within the last 5 or so minutes. While sauting, we cooked the couscous (took only 5 minutes).

In addition to tofu wedges, we had Tofurkey deli slices - in sandwiches and wraps, with creamy avocado! Tofurkey is the best alternative to turkey!

Beans are filling, versatile, and flavorful with various spices. We had one of our favorite foods - bean burritoes with avocado, tomatoes, lettuce, and salsa. Love spicy salsa (and Guiltless Gourmet Baked Blue Corn Chips)! For leftovers, we spread the refried black beans in a tortilla, topped with sauted mushrooms and bell pepper, sealed it, then baked it for 10 minutes or so - made a tasty bean-filled enchilada! Later in the week we made white bean cakes. We used the same recipe as the Black Bean Burgers from last week, but we used white beans, red bell pepper, and ground red pepper instead of black beans, green bell pepper, and jalepeno powder.

White Bean "Burgers" with Wheat Burger Buns:

The buns that we made (used VegWeb recipe) had whole wheat flour and white whole wheat flour. We recently have started using the white whole wheat, and we like it alot because it's still whole grain/whole wheat, but less dense if it was all whole wheat.

We also served the bean burgers with Roasted Cauliflower, which is one of the best cauliflower recipes!

Other "non Tofu or Bean" foods that we enjoyed:

Tomato-Mushroom-Zucchini-Garlic Pasta

We just sauted some fresh diced tomatoes, lots of diced mushrooms, one large zucchini, and 2 cloves of garlic. Then we served it over Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat Spinach Spaghetti and loved it! We really like Hodgson Mill whole wheat pastas, and the spinach variety turned out great as well.

Healthy Carrot Spice Muffins

We made 24 mini muffins that were soft and flavorful. Not too sweet or rich. Love anything carrot!

So, another week lies ahead, and may we all enjoy the time we have with family and friends. Take time out of your busy schedules, and reflect on the joy in your life. Take some time to relax and enjoy the good in life!

Kind regards,

LK