Tofu and Veggies with Peanut Sauce

Tofu and Veggies with Peanut Sauce

As I have discussed numerous times before I live with three males (my two boys and my husband). My boys are both very tall and thin (like my dad) and eat all the time. I think by the time they are teenagers I will just go to the butcher and purchase the whole cow cut-up (you can do this and it's awesome for big families!).  All three of the males in my house are big meat eaters, especially pork. However, I am the odd one out. I was a vegetarian for over 10 years and eat two out three meals everyday without meat. I am attempting to convince the rest of my family that vegetarian food can be just as delicious and filling as meat. It has been an uphill battle, but I'm still trying. I'm particularly adamant with my husband since his father had triple bypass just a few years back. Adding more plant based proteins is always a good idea for heart health.  This week I tried a new recipe for Tofu and Veggies with Peanut Sauce from Redbook magazine.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes of total time, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. Make sure to fully squeeze all the water out of the tofu. It really has to be pressed firmly or the tofu will not crisp up in the oven. Even with all the squeezing I found that my tofu needed 30 minutes in order for the vegetables and the tofu to fully brown. Additionally, I used the whole eggplant instead of half. My family loves eggplant and I didn't want to waste the other half. Finally, I chose not to add the chopped peanuts on top. Honestly, I forgot and it was fine without them. 

I was so happy with how well this recipe went over with my family. My husband and kids loved the tofu and eat their entire servings. The only change my family would make was to add another vegetable besides the green beans. My oldest loves green beans, but my husband would have preferred another vegetable or just additional eggplant. Overall, this was a great vegetarian meal option and something I would make again. 

For the recipe go to Tofu and Veggies with Peanut Sauce. 

Healthy and Low-Fat Southwestern Vegetable and Chicken Soup

I have a horrible habit of trying to eat healthy and then falling off the wagon. Don't get me wrong the majority of the time I eat very healthy, but making big changes in my diet always seem to take a number of failures before they are successful. In college I ate a ton of restaurant food. There were always cheap places to eat and I rarely made food at home. Eventually it caught up with me when I realized that I never seemed to have any energy and I generally felt run down. I vowed to change my habits and I did until I started graduate school and then I was back to my old habits. After getting married I vowed again to start eating healthier, then I got pregnant and the smell of meat made me sick. To compensate I ate a ton of ice cream and peanut butter. After my first son was born I reformed and gave up pretty much any bad food while I breastfed. Then I became pregnant again and my bad food habits quickly came back. So over the years I have started and stopped a lot of healthy eating plans. Luckily since having my youngest and starting this blog my eating habits have leveled off. 99 percent of the time I eat healthy and the other 1 percent I remind myself that I'm human. Since my husband's dad had heart surgery last year I have been determined to make my husband healthier. He has lost 30 pounds in the last year and a lot of it has had to do with dietary changes. This week I made a new healthy recipe for Southwestern Vegetable and Chicken Soup from the February 2013 issue of Eating Well magazine.

This recipe has 16 ingredients. It takes 1 1/2 hours of total time, 1 hour of which is active and makes 8 servings. I did make a few changes to the recipe. First I made my own chicken stock from scratch. It really does taste better and is a great way to save money. Second, instead of diced canned tomatoes I used one fresh tomato. I am trying to use more fresh ingredients and rely less on canned goods. Plus the price of fresh tomatoes is lower than canned currently. Finally, I also used fresh spinach and I cooked my own beans.

I love that this recipe is high in vitamin C and only has 5 grams of fat and 199 calories. It has great flavor and the lime juice makes the soup delicious. I tasted the soup before adding the lime and the lime makes a tremendous difference. Make sure to salt at the end, especially if you are making your own stock or using low sodium store bought. This recipe could easily be modified to being vegetarian by omitting the chicken and using vegetable stock instead of chickens stock.

For the recipe go to Southwestern Vegetable and Chicken Soup.

Spicy Turkey and Green Bean Stir-Fry

This time of the year is always crazy in our house. My youngest son turned 4 last week and between school, cooking and gift buying my time is very limited. I seem to always be running out of time and money. Since I bake a lot during the holidays I also try to make sure that my dinners stay at least somewhat healthy. Plus then I can let myself have more holidays cookies, right? I make a lot of chicken throughout the year. It is a great lower fat option and can be delicious in so many recipes. However, chicken can also get a little boring. I try to add in turkey and other poultry to keep my family's taste buds interested. This week I tried a new recipe for Spicy Turkey and Green Bean Stir-Fry from the December issue of the Food Network Magazine, which looked quick, low in fat, and filling.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I did make a number of changes. First, I have never seen 99 percent lean ground turkey in my area. The only types normally available are 85, 95 and 97 percent. So I bought the 85 percent lean ground turkey. Since my turkey was higher in fat I did not fry it in as much vegetable oil. Plus I drained my ground turkey after it was done browning. I eat gluten free so I used gluten free soy sauce. Always read your labels, since wheat is a top ingredient in many low priced soy sauces. After tasting the recipe as written, I changed a few things. First I doubled the amount of chile paste, soy sauce and added three garlic cloves instead of one. I also served it over brown rice instead of white rice. I stopped serving white rice about 6 months ago and now my two boys prefer brown rice. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

After all the changes this recipe worked much better. As the recipe was written it lacked flavor, but after an increase of the chile paste, soy sauce and garlic the taste worked. Finely grated fresh ginger would be another great addition to the flavor in this recipe. I always use magazine recipes as a starting point to making a better recipe. This is an example of a recipe that with a few changes works out well.

For the recipe go to Spicy Turkey and Green Bean Stir-Fry.

Keralan Vegetable Stew

Cold season seems to have hit my house. Last week I finally recovered from the cold that I had picked-up from my oldest son when my throat started hurting. This week everyone in my house has been sick. I love how once my oldest son started school I have gotten every single cold that has gone around school. The one good thing about when my whole house has a cold is that I can make spicy foods. I love anything spicy. Growing-up my mom invented an peanut noodle dish with chili oil that I loved. The only problem was that my dad hated spicy foods and every time my mom made the dish it seemed to get spicier and spicier. I loved it, my dad hated it. My kids are hit or miss with spicy foods. The older they seem to get the more opinionated and picky they become. So when everyone ends up ill I make dinners spicy. Recently, I made a new recipe for Keralan Vegetable Stew from the September issue of Food and Wine magazine, which looked full of flavor and delicious.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes a total time of one hour, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I have never seen fresh curry leaves in my area, so I chose to use bay leaves instead. I ended up having to go to two separate stores to find frozen pearl onions, which is normal for my area. Instead of serving the dish over white rice I used brown rice. I prefer brown rice and rarely eat white rice. I ended up letting the stew simmer for almost an hour instead of the 30 minutes suggested by the recipe. I kept the heat very low and let the flavors meld. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I must have gotten some very spicy Serrano chiles because this recipe had a lot of kick. It was way too spicy for my kids as written, but once I added Greek yogurt it was much better. I would suggest seeding the chiles or using a milder chile if you are looking for milder flavor. I will say that if you have a cold this dish will definitely work on your sinuses. Additionally, the flavors were very delicious and the vegetables came out perfect. Since my family really loves curry this dish was perfect for us.

For the recipe go to Keralan Vegetable Stew.

Portuguese Chourico Stew

I have a weekly tradition when I go to the grocery store. After I've bought all the meat that I have for my menu plan for the week I make a beeline for the reduced meats section. I love looking through the reduced meat section! In case you have never shopped the clearance meat section, it's a section of the store where the meat that is going to expire in the next couple of days is marked downed, sometimes by as much as 50 percent. Whenever I see a great deal on a meat that I know we will use I purchase it and stick it in my freezer. This way I have meat at a much lower price which is a great way to reduce my weekly food budget. A couple of months back I bought a number of packages of Chourico sausage on clearance and put them in my freezer. Last week I searched the internet and came across a recipe for Portuguese Chourico Stew, which looked simple and a great way to use discounted sausage.

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes approximately an hour of prep and cooking time and makes 8 servings. All the ingredients besides the sausage are very basic and I had no problems finding any of them at my local grocery store. The recipe doesn't specify what type of canned green beans to purchase, so I used cut regular green beans. Make sure to adequately wash the green beans to rinse off the metallic taste. I love sweet onions and used one for the onion in this recipe. The sweetness was a nice contrast to the spiciness of the sausage. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

If you love spicy foods you will like this recipe. The chourico sausage and crushed red pepper give a spicy flavor to the stew, which my husband and I enjoyed. The spiciness of the stew isn't hot like chicken wings, but rather has a temporary burn that doesn't linger. My husband thought this was one of the best stews he had eaten in a long time and ate multiple bowls. I liked that the recipe uses water and all the flavor comes from cooking the sausage and vegetables. Best of all the skill level for the recipe is low, making it accessible while maintaining flavor.

For the recipe go to Portuguese Chourico Stew.

Saveur Stewed Green Beans

Before moving to West Virginia I had never eaten southern style green beans. The beans my mom made growing up were french style green beans, not the runner style beans popular around here. The first year my mother-in-law gave me a bunch to cook I was unaware that I needed to take the strings off of the green beans, and as imagined they were a disaster. The following year my mother-in-law was kind enough to show me how to make green beans using oil, onions, a ham hock and a lot of time on the stove. That is the way I have been making them ever since, however, every cook book and food magazine I have read talks about southern style green beans using a smoked turkey leg. When I opened up a recent issue of Saveur magazine and saw a recipe for Stewed Green Beans using a smoked turkey leg, I decided to try the recipe to see how it compared to the West Virginia style green beans I always make.

This recipe has 6 ingredients and takes approximately an hour to cook. The prep time will very depending on how long it takes you to string green beans. I normally string all my green beans at once while watching TV, since it's not the most exciting kitchen prep work. My two boys 'helped' me string the pound of green beans for this recipe plus an additional pound to freeze, which took approximately an hour total. I used bacon fat, instead of unsalted butter. I keep a cup of bacon fat in my fridge to use for cooking, my husband prefers the taste in cornbread and green beans. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

These green beans turned out delicious. I preferred the taste of the smoked turkey leg to the use of the ham hock. The rest of my family just loves green beans in general so ate them happily, as they would have if I had used a ham hock. A great easy way to use fresh runner beans when in season.

For the recipe go to Stewed Green Beans.

Everyday Food Sweet-and-Sour Chicken with Green Beans

The area that my family lives has limited options for high quality restaurant food. There are a number of greasy chain restaurants, but high-quality ethnic food is lacking at best. My whole family loves Chinese food and I have started making dishes at home, instead of choosing between the two greasy buffets available in the college town we live in. I have found a number of pork stir-fry recipes that I love, but have been looking for more chicken options. I was intrigued when a recent issue of Everyday Food magazine had a recipe for Sweet-and-Sour Chicken with Green Beans.

This recipe has 13 ingredients and is very easy to put together. The total time is approximately 25 minutes. All of the vegetable prep is very easy, with minimal chopping required. I made a few modifications to the original recipe. I had made roasted peanuts to use for this dish, but my two-year-old got a hold of them, so I was forced to leave them out the finished product. Additionally, I was unable to find fresh green beans by the pound, so I bought a fresh refrigerated pack. I followed the rest of the recipe as stated.

My whole family enjoyed this recipe. It was very easy to put together and took little preparation time. I liked that the main protein is chicken; we eat a large amount of pork, so it's nice to have some stir-fried chicken recipes in the mix. This recipe is great for a weeknight meal or to introduce kids to a larger variety of tastes and foods.

For the recipe go to Everyday Food Sweet-and-Sour Chicken with Green Beans.