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. 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I have a major sweet tooth. Over the years I have tried numerous times to give up sugar without much success. Now in my mid thirties I have resigned myself to the fact that while I hate salt I love sugar. Potato chips and salted treats do nothing for me. I literally could sit with salty snacks in my cupboard for months. Sweet treats on the other hand call my name. I love them. Since I know that sweet treats are a serious temptation for me I have learned over the years that denying myself only makes matters worse. To stay thin I allow myself treats ever week in moderation. Denying myself completely just makes me want to eat the entire cake instead of a small piece. As I age closer to 40 I have also discovered that it takes a lot more work to stay thin so I have modified my diet to try to include as many natural foods as possible. In the last month I have tried to start swapping out granulated sugar for honey and molasses. The flavor is still there, but I can reduce the overall amount of sugar needed and it doesn't cause me the same amount of sugar highs. Yesterday I tried  a new recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies from the January 2013 issue of Family Circle magazine.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 28 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 28 cookies. I did make a number of modifications to this recipe. First instead of using 1/2 cup of butter I substituted 1/2 cup of canola oil. I am trying to reduce the amount of butter that I am baking with and this was an easy substitution. Secondly, instead of the 1/2 cups of granulated sugar I used 1/2 cup of honey. For the 3/4 cup of brown sugar I used slightly less than a 1/2 cup of molasses, so between the honey and molasses I had approximately a cup of liquid. Since I increased the amount of liquid by using honey and molasses I added an additional 1/4 cups of brown rice flour. I eat gluten free so I omitted the all-purpose flour and used equal amounts brown rice flour instead. My baking time was slightly longer than the recipe since I made substitutions, approximately 5 minutes per batch.

For gluten free cookies these rose very well. Oftentimes gluten free desserts end up flat, but these did a great job of baking up. My husband actually thought they were a little too cakey, but my two boys and I liked the texture. I liked the peanut butter, but I wasn't a big fan of the chopped peanuts. I think if I made the recipe again I would leave them out as an ingredient.

For the recipe go to PB Chocolate Chunk Cookies.  (registration required)

Kung Pao Chicken

I can't believe how quickly my kids are growing-up! My youngest is turning four in just a couple of weeks and is definitely starting to assert his independence. Right now he is having a long debate with me about the reasons that he needs to have jam with a piece of gluten free bread. I must admit that the kid has a lot of willpower. With my children growing older I seem to have less and less time to spend on pretty much anything. Instead of getting my shower first thing in the morning like I used to, I am lucky to have one before going to bed. My time is more and more limited which means that I am relying on recipes that take little prep and cook time, especially on busy weekdays. That doesn't mean that I don't still love involving and delicious recipes, it just means that they are once a week instead of everyday. It also doesn't imply that I have given-up on big flavors and great food. There are some great recipes that take little time to make, but turn out as well as recipes that take three times as long. Recently, I tried a new recipe for Kung Pao Chicken from the October issue of the Food Network Magazine, which with 25 minutes of total time looked perfect for my active and busy household.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes a total of 25 minutes, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. Instead of using frozen stir-fry vegetables I chose to use fresh vegetables. The flavor of fresh vegetables is much better and I could control the exact type used. Since I don't eat gluten and most cheaper soy sauce has gluten as a main ingredient I used gluten free soy sauce instead. When I first stopped eating gluten I had no idea how many things use wheat as an ingredient, I've learned to be very vigilant with my label reading. Instead of chicken breast, I used chicken thighs. I prefer chicken thighs for flavor, they really are worth the extra amount of fat. Since I used fresh vegetables my total cooking time was increased. I let my dish cook for an additional 5 minutes after adding the sauce. Finally, I added a pinch of crushed red pepper to enhance the flavors. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two boys really loved this recipe. I like that it took less than a half an hour start to finish. The fact that the recipe has 41 grams of protein is another great selling point. My two boys are both in growth spurts so high protein meals are essential. This recipe doesn't have traditional Kung Pao Chicken flavors, but would be a good dish for people that want a more mellow stir-fry. I would suggest increasing the ginger slightly if you want to add a larger flavor punch in addition to the addition of crushed red pepper. If you are expecting leftovers I would double this recipe. The dish made exactly enough for my family of four. If I made this recipe again I would double it to have lunch the next day.

For the recipe go to Kung Pao Chicken.

Healthy Energy Bars

When I was younger I was very active. I was on the swim team, I danced and I competed in marathons. All of my free time involved doing something physical. After having kids all my free time started being eaten up by spending time with my kids (which don't get me wrong I love!). Taking them to t-ball practice, play-dates, and school activities. My workouts have been delegated to workout videos and yoga. While my type of workouts have changed I am still very active. I hardly ever sit down and I am always looking for something to eat to keep my energy levels up. As I was looking through the pages of the July/August issue of EatingWell Magazine I noticed a recipe for Energy Bars which looked perfect for my busy workout and life schedule.

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 1 1/4 hours of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 12 bars. I chose to double this recipe. My boys have been known to eat the majority of any granola bar recipe that I make so in order to actually have enough energy bars I figured I should double the recipe. I was unable to find straight pumpkin seeds, so instead I used a combination of sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Instead of using light corn syrup I went to the health food store and bought brown rice syrup. For the rolled oats I used old-fashioned since that is what I already had at home. I also bought the crispy brown rice cereal at my local health food store. I tried my regular local grocery store and wasn't able to find it at all. Instead of following the recipe to press the bars before going into the oven I modified to make it easier. I sprayed a spatula with non-stick cooking spray and pressed as hard as I could with my body weight. This method worked well and was easier than the written instructions. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I wasn't sure if my two boys would eat these energy bars. They aren't overly sweet from the brown rice syrup, which I liked, but with kids it can be hit or miss. I was very happy when my oldest told me they were delicious. My two boys ended up eating more than half the batch. I liked that these bars are filling, not overly sweet and have a great taste. They were perfect after one of my workouts and I would definitely make these again.

For the recipe go to Energy Bars.

Kung Pao Chicken

 

My oldest son loves chicken. Don't get me wrong he devours bacon and can eat a far larger portion that I ever can, but most days his meat of choice is chicken. It has been this way as far back as I can remember. When he started table foods I would cut up whatever food we were eating into very small bites and serve it to him. Most foods he wanted nothing to do with, until he discovered chicken. I thought that he would never stop breastfeeding and start table foods and then chicken became center stage (he still breastfed until I was halfway through my pregnancy with my youngest, but that is another long story). To this day if I mention dinner will contain chicken he gets very excited. He is also at the stage where he is wanting to help me more and more in the kitchen. I welcome this curiosity and enthusiasm, it's a great way to teach math without him knowing. Currently, he is still too young to handle the raw meat, but he has become quite good at measuring out ingredients and peeling vegetables. This week my oldest and I made a recipe for Kung Pao Chicken from the September issue of All You magazine.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 15 minutes of prep and 20 minutes of cook time and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients and made no ingredient modifications. As always I made my own chicken stock. Additionally since I don't salt my stock I used regular soy sauce instead of reduced-sodium. I used a whole head of broccoli, which was slightly more than the four cups suggested by the recipe. For my serving I decided to leave off the chopped peanuts, but my husband served it this way and thought it was delicious. Finally I let my chicken and vegetables cook together closer to 10 minutes to ensure that my chicken thighs were fully cooked. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My husband was disappointed that this recipe didn't taste like Kung Pao chicken. Kung Pao chicken is one of his favorite dishes, so he was expecting something different from this dish. He still thought that this recipe had a great flavor, but was in no way traditional Kung Pao. My two boys on the other hand loved this recipe and ate all the leftovers. I would agree that it doesn't taste like traditional Kung Pao. To me it had a taste similar to garlic chicken, if the name of the recipe had been changed to garlic chicken it would have been more accurate. Regardless of the name it is a very easy and inexpensive chicken recipe.

For the recipe go to Kung Pao Chicken.

Chicken-Peanut Stir-Fry

Stir-Fry is one of my favorite dishes to prepare. Growing up in Seattle I was lucky to be surrounded by numerous restaurants and an entire international district full of delicious food. Best of all were all the ethnic grocery stores that were literally everywhere. I never had problems finding any ingredients and was fortunate to have friends moms teach me to make dishes that were far from my comfort zone. These were the foundations for my love of cooking. I tried just about every type of recipe that I had someone that could teach me to prepare and would spend hours looking through the various groceries stores for ingredients that I had never heard of. Some ingredients I loved and some not as much. An example is gooey duck, I have tried it more than once and still can't get a taste for it. One of my friends from back home though insists that it can be delicious. When I moved to West Virgina I was in for a shock. There was one international market in my area and a small Lebanese market. A couple of years ago the international market closed so I am down to one store to discover hard to find ingredients. I have also discovered how generous my friends and family are back home. Numerous times I have received care packages filled with ingredients not available in my area. I have also successfully converted my in-laws to branch past the food that they were used to eating and discover how great new foods can be. I was pleased to discover that the June issue of the Food Network Magazine had a recipe for Chicken-Peanut Stir-Fry, which looked delicious and easy to prepare.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 25 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I had to go to multiple grocery stores to find all the ingredients. Nappa cabbage can be hit or miss to find in my area and I picked a week when it was sparse. Luckily I was able to find it at the third store I tried. I had no problems finding any of the other ingredients. Instead of basmati rice I used the jasmine rice I already had in my cupboard. My chicken took longer to cook than the time suggested by the recipe. I think that I might have cut my chicken slightly larger than suggested and hence why it took longer to cook. Finally, the bunch of scallions that I bought was very big so instead of using the whole bunch I used four scallions in total. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two boys loved this recipe and ate their whole servings. I love that the recipe has 35 grams of protein per serving and is lower in sodium than most stir-fry recipes. Since the soy sauce and peanuts were salted I found that I didn't have to add additional salt, which was a pleasant change of pace. This recipe states that it makes 4 servings and it makes exactly that amount. There was just enough for my family to eat for one meal with no leftovers. If you are serving more than four people or want leftovers I would suggest doubling the recipe. Overall an easy Stir-fry recipe that even people that have never made stir-fry before would be comfortable preparing.

For the recipe go to Chicken-Peanut Stir-Fry.

Woman's Day Coconut Beef with Rice Noodles

I absolutely love coconut! I love it in cakes, cookies, curries, you name it, I love it. Growing up I was always the odd one out in the family. While everyone was raving about the great brownies, I was disappointed that my mom hadn't made macaroons. So one of the first things that I learned to bake was macaroons. Then quickly came coconut cake and seven layer bars. To this day, seven layer bars might possible be my favorite dessert food, it combines all the great memories of my mother baking them every Christmas with my love of all things coconut. To me they are the perfect food. As an adult I have tried to tone down my sweet tooth which has been helped by turning thirty. I always thought that everyone was joking when they told me that my thirties would slow down my very fast metabolism. To my dismay I have learned that having two pieces of coconut cake in a day will indeed catch up with me now. So in order to not give up all things coconut I have learned to cook with coconut and coconut milk in various dishes and curries. The May issue of Woman's Day magazine had a recipe for Coconut Beef with Rice Noodles, which looked like an easy crockpot recipe full of flavor.

This recipe has 12 ingredients.. It takes 15 minutes of prep and five hours of cooking time and makes four servings. I did have to make a few recipe modifications. I was unable to find rice noodles, so I substituted the only similar thing at the grocery store, rice sticks. I chose to use fresh cilantro instead of basil and the full 2 tablespoons of red curry paste. I would suggested browning the beef before placing it in the crockpot, it was very dry by the time it was done. Additionally, if I made this recipe again I would add the full can of coconut milk and increase the other ingredients accordingly.

I was a little disappointed by this recipe. The beef turned out dry and the flavor was too subtle. I would suggest making the changes I suggested in the last paragraph. Without the changes this recipe is lacking. I do think that it could be saved, it just needs the beef to be browned before placing it in the crockpot and the liquid to cook the beef in definitely needs to be increased so the beef doesn't become overly dry. What this recipe does have going for it is that it has 39 grams of protein and 11 grams of fat and only costs $3.07 per serving.

For the recipe go to Coconut Beef with Rice Noodles.

Homemade Peanut Butter

My family eats a large amount of peanut butter and I have had a soft spot for it ever since I can remember. My mom made her own from scratch and I loved the days she made it and put it on homemade toast with honey, yum! My two boys seem to have inherited my peanut butter obsession and can eat jars of it in a weeks time. Store bought peanut butter isn't bad, but the taste of homemade is so much better, so I have experimented with the recipe over the years until I have found one that works.

Homemade peanut butter is very easy to make. Only three ingredients are needed for the roasting and
four for the actual peanut butter. To roast the peanuts, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and place two pounds of raw peanuts in the shell on a baking sheet. Toss with a small amount of peanut oil and kosher salt and roast for about 25 to 30 minutes. After the peanuts have cooled enough to touch, shell and peel off the skin. For the peanut butter place the roasted peanuts into a food processor and add honey, salt and peanut oil until the desired consistency is reached. I normally process the peanuts by themselves until they are finely ground and then add the other three ingredients to taste. You can actually get away with adding very little oil if you use spanish peanuts which have a higher oil content, but I have only been able to find virginia peanuts locally, so I have to add additional peanut oil. Place the finished peanut butter in the fridge and it should last about 2 months, but we always eat ours in a week or two.

This is a very easy way to get protein in my family's diet and takes very little effort to make. I love that homemade peanut butter doesn't include any of the preservatives or additives that many store bought varities contain. My two year old enjoyed this recipe on the spelt pancakes from one of my previous posts and absolutetly loved it. A delicious, easy recipe that is a great way to use peanuts and add extra protein.