This looks like a clean out the refrigerator meal.
Sauteed greens with mushrooms. Mashed sweet potatoes. A sautee of snow pea and onions. Glazed tofu.
I would guess Immer's recipes were the base for the greens and potatoes. Kornfeld's recipe would be the base for the tofu.

Dinner - March 3, 2010

We decided to try and go back to some simple meals. Just vegetables and beans or in this case processed beans as tofu. I guess that is not that simple but it is a step in the right direction.

I wanted to make Kornfeld's glazed tofu but realized I was out of soy sauce. I substituted some fermented black bean sauce. I then remembered that I don't like fermented black bean sauce (or at least what you can buy in a jar in the grocery). I managed to eat this but Matt couldn't.

The aspargus had looked great but when I roasted it in the oven it came out kind of stringy. I think I crowded it to much in the oven. For reference 2 lbs of asparagus does not fit on one cookie sheet.

Dinner - February 26, 2010

This is based on Saag Tofu from my Eating Well Ipod Touch Application. You can find the recipe here. I substituted unsweetened soy milk for the yogurt. I would call it more like "not creamed spinach with tofu over rice" but still very good. I accidentally upped the cumin which I liked.

I plan on making this a regular for us. It was super fast. I would serve it to vegetarians but I wouldn't call it saag to prevent expectations of a really rich sauce. I think pan size would limit being able to easily make this for four. I think we ate all of it.

Lunch - February 25, 2010

I used the left overs from the sandwiches to make a salad. I thinned the adobo/veganaise with a little water and tossed it all together just before eating. Find the original post here.

I thought this was great. It is inspiring me to eat more salads for lunch.

Dinner - February 24, 2010

This is a TLT (Tofu, Lettuce, and Tomato) Sandwich from Eating Well's Ipod Touch Application. In the background you can see Black Bean Soup from Eating Well Magazine's February 2010 issue. The sandwich recipe can be found here. The soup recipe can be found here.

The recipe calls for extra firm tofu but I had (and generally prefer) firm tofu. I smashed it under a pipe plate with some weight on it before proceeding with the recipe. I found the tofu came out of the oven as promised which is unusual for me and backed tofu. I used veganaise for the mayo. I thought these sandwiches were good but should never be compared to a sandwiches with bacon. The tofu tasted mostly like mustard to me.

The soup calls for prepared salsa. I did not have any so I substituted 1/2 cup diced tomato, a clove of garlic, a 1/2 tsp of adobo sauce, and 1/4 cup of bell pepper. I added the cilantro un-chopped to the food processor with the last batch of soup. This soup was easy and better than canned.

Dinner - September 27, 2009

Can you name this vegetable?

This was a vegetable that I got at the Farmers' Fair in Newport. This was a great little festival where they paired local growers with local chefs and sold tastes of some great dishes for rather low prices. The next day they did a traditional farmers' market.

I don't remember what this vegetable was called. I was told you could put it in salad or cook it. I went in between and used it like I use bok choy in the Eating Well salad Asian Slaw with Tofu & Shiitake Mushrooms. The recipe can be found here.


To go with this dish it looks like I tried my hand at making Szechuan Green (and yellow) Beans. I recall we liked this dish but I haven't found my notes on how I did it. I think this was a mixture of recipes I found on the internet.


This is the last picture from my old camera.

Dinner - September 22, 2009

Yellow oyster mushrooms (before) are pictured above. Yellow oyster mushroom (after) with some flat green beans are pictured below. This is again based on the Eating Well recipe that can be found here.


Myra Kornfeld's The Healthy Hedonist has become one of my favorite cookbooks. I don't think I go a week without hitting it. The dish below is Glazed Tofu (with brocolli added) which is part of her Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry. The stir-fry is a great dish and works with a lot of vegetable substitutions. I have posted on this one before where I served it with some noodles. You can find the old post here. On this day I just made the Glazed Tofu step and added broccoli.

Dinner - July 31, 2009

Again, I have no idea what this is. It looks to have broccoli, tofu, and mushrooms. Was there a peanut sauce?

UPDATE: I found an entry in my calorie tracker for that day. I called the recipe "Broccoli, Mushrooms, and Tofu in Peanut Sauce" but I credited no source so maybe I did make it up.

This makes 4 servings. One serving had 377 calories.

Here is a general list of ingredients:
4 tsp peanut oil
4 cups broccoli
1 cup cooked shiitakes
1 block tofu
2 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp mirin
2 garlic cloves
3 tsp grated ginger
serve over 3 cups of cooked brown rice

Dinner - July 16, 2009

In the background we have "Asian Slaw with Tofu & Shiitake Mushrooms" form the Eating Well website. You can find the recipe and a pretty picture here.

In the foreground we have Sugar Snap Peas with Bacon from Bishop's Vegetables Every Day. We had some leftover bacon from our yearly BLT festival.

The slaw was hearty and satisfying. The sugar snap peas were fine but not anything I would ever bother to make again. The slaw could be a meal on its own.

I am going from memory here but I think the slaw was pretty easy. I also think that I used locally grown bok choy that was baby size. I did not use silken tofu but used regular firm tofu. I also used regular soy sauce.

Lunch - June 18, 2009

I rarely have lunch posts because we just eat dinner leftovers for lunch. I was not going to have any lunch to send with Matt the next day so I decided to make up this extra meal a day ahead. It ended up that Matt came home from work early and we both had this for lunch on the day that I made it. I later took the left overs up to my parents and the three of us had it for lunch.

This is from the Healthy Hedonist and is served over 50% whole wheat pasta. This is the Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry with Glazed Tofu. The recipe says you can make this in half an hour but I found that is just the cooking time. It took me an hour to get this together. The tofu recipe is separate and is located just one page ahead in the cookbook.

Matt and I liked this and my dad really liked it to. It is probably a little bit sweeter than I am used to making things but it made it taste like it came from a restaurant. I will definitely make this again. It could become a weeknight regular that would work for unexpected company.

I have the Glazed Tofu at 184 calories per serving for 4 servings. I have the Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry (including the Glazed Tofu) at 364 calories per serving for 4 servings plus the pasta. I said the pasta was about 200 calories per serving.

I made a note to try cutting the sesame oil back in the Glazed Tofu next time but I doubt it would be as good.

Double the C in Broccoli and Zucchini

We have been enjoying some vegetables from my parents' garden. Tonight we had zucchini and tomatoes from the garden augmented by broccoli and tofu from the local IGA.


For the zucchini I followed a recipe from Jack Bishop's Vegetables Every Day called Shredded Zucchini with Garlic and Herbs (page 370). I left out the olive oil completely and cooked it a little bit slower in a good non stick fry pan. Very successful.

For the broccoli I followed a recipe called Broccoli with Lime-Cumin Dressing from the same book (page 44). Again I left out the oil. I also reduced the shallot to about half since I wouldn't have the oil to mellow it. This was a good call. I also upped the lime juice to add some liquid and this was a bit to much. This one has potential.

For the tofu I followed the general directions I learned from Jack Bishop's A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. I used 12 oz of extra firm tofu cut into 8 slices. I cooked these in a dry non-stick fry pan until brown on each side. Then I added a mixture of 2 T soy sauce, 2 T mirin, 2 T lime juice, 3 T water, 1 clove garlic, and a good shot of hot sauce. Tossed the tofu and cooked down to a glaze. Probably worth going back to the source for a sauce but not bad.

Tomtoes were just sliced with a little salt ground on top.

Overall a very satisfying and quick meal. (I made it quicker by grating the zucchini and chopping the broccoli earlier in the evening). Couldn't really serve this to others and won't put this exact menu on heavy rotation. Glad to have the mellow dishes to sooth the tongue after eating the broccoli salad. These might be some good side dishes to know.

Made full recipes and had half each. With out the oil this is about 310 calories.