Asian Pasta with Sesame Tofu and Exciting News!

Hello all! 

Been a bit since I've visited the old blog, but things got crazy in my life yet again.  Moved back up to the Cleveland area and in the process of selling my old house and trying to find a new one and also, I am now a mama-to-be and my husband and I are expecting our first child at the end of August!  So lots of exciting changes and a lot of work to be done. 

That being said, I am going to try to devote more time to cooking.  I've gotten tired or eating pre-made meals from the local Mustard Seed or lazy dinners.  We are currently staying with my parents while our house sells and that has created many cooking challenges, as I have little room for storage of groceries and cooking supplies, but I am determined to work through the challenges and make some tasty meals once again.  I've ordered The Vegan Pregnancy Cookbook and Raw Food in Pregnancy for some meal inspiration and planning a super shopping trip tomorrow for supplies.  It has begun!

Today was a "what can I make with that I have lying around..." kind of day.  It started out as a lazy stir-fry meal, but turned into something magical.  This recipe is gluten free, vegan, and has tons of protein.  Behold!


Asian Pasta with Sesame Tofu
 Serves 2-4.  Cook time: 40 minutes (if you're a good multi-tasker)

Asian Pasta with Sesame Tofu  
(Pardon the crappy phone photography.  Have to drag out the ol' camera rig here soon.)

Ingredients: (I will link some of the gluten free brands I used, but feel free to choose your own.)
2 Blocks Extra Firm Tofu (drained and pressed)
1 pkg Explore Asia | Edamame and Mung Bean Spaghetti(organic)
2 T sesame seeds
3 T Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 T Coconut Secret Coconut Aminos
3 T Rice Vinegar
6 T Bragg Liquid Aminos
2 t Sky Valley Sweet Chili Sauce
1 t Sesame Oil
1/4 c Organic Cane Sugar
1 bag frozen veggies of your choice, steamed or thawed (I used 365 Organic California Blend)


Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and put a pot of water (approx. 8 cups or more) on the stove for the noodles and bring to a boil.  While the water is getting hot, drain and press your 2 blocks of tofu and cut into cubes. 

In a large baking dish, place the tofu and drizzle with the olive oil and coconut aminos (if you are not gluten free, soy sauce will work in place of the coconut and Bragg aminos) and mix until lightly coated.  Place in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring halfway.  Once the 30 minutes are up, add 1 T sesame seeds and place in the oven for another 10 minutes.  Flip the tofu and add the remaining 1 T sesame seeds and cook for an additional 10 minutes or longer depending on how you like your tofu. 

While the tofu is cooking, cook the edamame and mung bean spaghetti according to package (7 minutes worked beautifully for me). 

In a large bowl, combine rice vinegar, liquid aminos, sweet chili sauce, sesame oil, and cane sugar. 

Once noodles and tofu are done, combine with the sauce.  You can chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or overnight if you prefer a cold dish, or serve warm. 




 

Tofu Baked Ziti

This is a different recipe than previously posted.  This recipe is one I made up on the fly using what little ingredients I had and a few borrowed in a borrowed kitchen.  

1lb uncooked brown rice pasta
1 block extra firm tofu
1T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3T Nutritional Yeast
1t Garlic Powder
1t Onion Powder
1t Italian Seasoning
½t Finely Ground Sea Salt
¼ Fresh Ground Pepper
2-3c Pasta or Marinara sauce

Cook brown rice pasta to package directions.  Preheat oven to 375° F.

Drain and press tofu and crumble into a medium bowl. Massage olive oil into tofu.  Add spices and mix well. Once pasta is cooked and cooled, add ½c pasta sauce to the bottom of a 8x8 baking dish.  Add a layer of pasta, then a layer of the tofu mix, then another layer using ½c sauce. Repeat until dish is full adding extra sauce on top to make sure everything is covered.  Bake for 30 minutes.

Sorry no photo - hubby and I gobbled it up!

Baked Ziti

This has to be my favorite thing I've made so far!  Maybe it was just because I was starving when I got home and had to wait an hour for it to be finished, but man was it tasty!

Recipe: Baked Ziti

I added a little more vegan mozzarella than requested, and it could have used a little more sauce.

Fettuccini Alfredo

I used the recipe from Skinny Bitch In The Kitch's Fettuccini Alfredo.  We did everything to the recipe, but it didn't really taste like a good alfredo.  The recipe called for a tablespoon and a half of salt in with the pasta which made for some REALLY salty pasta.  And the alfredo sauce could have cooked a little longer to melt the grated Parmesan better and added more cream.  Overall, not bad, but could have been better with a few tweaks. 

Cilantro Pesto Pasta

I adapted a Cilantro Pesto recipe from the McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook and added a few things to make a pretty decent pasta dish.

Ingredients:

4 cups Cilantro Leaves

¼c Cashews

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

1 tsp Soy Sauce

1½ Tbsp Water

The recipe said to use a food processor, but I don't have one so I used a blender.  I am not sure what the difference between a food processor and a blender is, but it seemed to make a difference because the recipe did not blend too well.  I ended up adding more water than they called for and had to stop and mash down the ingredients a few times.  After a few minutes, I gave up.  

The pesto was very thick and I was not sure what to do with it in it's current state, so I warmed up ¼ cup olive oil in the microwave and mixed in a a bit of the pesto until it was a little more liquidy.  You can add as much olive oil as you like until you reach a good consistency.  The pesto is VERY strong, so a little bit goes a long way.  We added some to plain elbow macaroni and voila!

Day 1 - pt 3: Dinner - Mac & Cheez, Shopping

Finally got the house cleaned and got to go shopping. For a weeks worth of meals and a few extras, we only spent $23 at Save-A-Lot (mostly on Produce) and $68 at Walmart, with a few needed and unnecessary things added in there. I'd say for the weekly meals we probably only spent $50? Not sure if that is good or not, but we'll find out as time goes on.

We already had some elbow macaroni made and we were sick of the usual pasta sauce or garlic and olive oil we had been using, so we decided to find something new. Thanks for my cheese loving friend Ally, I looked to the "The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook" and decided to make a 'cheez' sauce for some mac & cheez. Due to copyright laws I am not sure if I can post the entire recipe here, but if you own the book I used the "Amazing Mac 'N Cheez Sauce" on page 64. It used flour, nutritional yeast, salt, onion powder, garlic, paprika, mustard, olive oil, and rice milk. I'm not sure how that combination of things give you the slighly cheezy taste it does, but it works and was quite tasty! If you are looking for it to taste like cheese, I don't think it really does, but it is definitely worth a try!

Day 1 of Veganism complete. Wonder what I'll make tomorrow!