Coconut Tofu with Vegetables and Quinoa

I froze so much food before leaving and now I come back to a full freezer! I am literally throwing meals together! Here is one that was a delicious hit (not going to post my miserable fail from yesterday).

I have 5 frozen containers of tofu in my freezer, after I giving 2 away I'm left to come up with 3 dishes. I'm still a tofu-newbie, but WIC gives us 8 packages a month so I am upping my skills (Yes! WIC gives tofu AND soymilk if you get a Dr's note).

Anywho, I had defrosted a package of tofu and was pressing it in between my cutting boards with some cans on top. One of those cans happened to be coconut milk...

Tofu and vegetables simmering in coconut milk

Ingredients:
8 oz package of extra-firm tofu
1c canned coconut milk
1 1/2c (+) mixed vegetables
2 tbsp tahini
Olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
1c quinoa (pre-cooked)
Dash of chili powder (add more to increase spiciness)

Directions:

• Press tofu between paper towels & two plates to get excess water out for 30 minutes.Then cube (lucky me mine came pre-cubed!)
• Add tahini & olive oil into skillet (or wok if you've got it like that)
• Sauté vegetables 2-4 minutes (or until thawed out if using frozen vegetables).
• Add cubed/pressed tofu to pan tossing in oil.
• Add coconut milk, soy sauce and chili powder. Simmer for 3-4 minutes.
• Using a slotted spoon remove tofu and vegetables.
• Stir quinoa into leftover coconut milk and remove from heat.

Ready to eat.

Tips:
-If you want to cook more quinoa simply increase the amount of coconut milk you add.

-I cook the quinoa and tofu/vegetables separately because I've found that they keep longer that way and I can always use the quinoa in another dish.

-When reheating I added a little leftover coconut milk and reheated it in the skillet rather than microwaving.

Weekly Cooking

Breakfast: Vanilla Quinoa Oat Mini Muffin Tops

I never thought I'd be letting MJ eat ice cream for breakfast, but these just looked so tempting and nutritious that with a few modifications I had to make them! After officially weaning MJ all his nutrients are coming from his meals. So it is even more important to make sure that all his nutritional needs are met. This recipe contains the super grain quinoa, which is a complete protein, as well as oats another powerful grain. 

Ingredients: (yields 24 mini muffin tops)

1/2 cup melted So Delicious Coconut Vanilla Ice Cream

1/2 cup cooked Quinoa

2 tbsp virgin coconut oil

1 3/4 cup ground Oats

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

• Cook quinoa and let cool
• Melt ice cream and combine with melted coconut oil
• Add ice cream+oil to quinoa
• Mix ground oats, baking powder and salt & add to wet ingredients
• Mixture should be a thick muffin mix consistency, but not stiff. Add more oats or melted ice cream to get desired consistency.
• I originally scooped spoonfuls onto a cookie tray, but they didn't look right so I baked the second batch on the reverse side of my mini muffin tray.

First batch didn't look smooth enough, but still tasted delicious.

Lunch: No-rice Risotto with Rainbow Chard

I saw the most beautiful rainbow chard at the market. I just had to buy it. The colors were just so vibrant and enticing. Chard is also a Vitamin K & A powerhouse I wasn't sure what I was going to make, but I knew I needed the protein from beans. I paid for my first app last week, the Green Kitchen app and it paid off with a delicious No-rice Risotto recipe that only needed a few modifications. The recipe originally called for mascarpone cheese and I couldn't find any soy-free cream cheese, so I used coconut milk, which of course altered the original intended taste.

Ingredients: (Makes 3-4 adult servings)

2 cups of rainbow chard (stems & leaves separated)
7 cups cooked white beans (I used Northern beans)
1 red onion
2 garlic cloves
1 lemon; juice & zest
olive oil
2c vegetable broth
1 tbsp potato starch
4 tbsp coconut milk
sprinkle of salt

• Cook beans (I used dried beans so I soaked them overnight and simmered them in veg. broth for an hour), but drained, rinsed and cooked canned beans are fine too.
• Chop garlic, chard stems and onions very finely and saute in olive oil
• Add veg. broth & chard and cook well.
• Add beans & potato starch and simmer while stirring frequently.
• Cook until veg. broth dissolves.
• Add lemon juice, thyme & a sprinkle of salt
• Add lemon zest before serving

Dinner: Cheesy Spinach-Avocado Pasta

I had some washed, chopped spinach that I had stored in the freezer a few weeks ago so I decided to use it for this extremely simple recipe. There are definitely a lot of ways you could play with this recipe. I added some nutritional yeast to give it a "cheesy" taste, I think it could also go great with some soy cream cheese, but the avocado really gives it such a creamy texture and delicious base.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 avocados
4 c frozen spinach
2 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 garlic cloves
lemon juice from 1/2 a lemon
sprinkle of salt
sprinkle of pepper
Pasta (Brown Rice Pasta to make it gluten-free)

• Puree frozen spinach and avocado along with lemon juice
• When it reaches a creamy consistency heat in saucepan & add olive oil, garlic & nutritional yeast (sidenote: this could also probably be a really good raw dip if you didn't cook it)
• Spice accordingly
• Add to pasta tossed in olive oil
• Sprinkle with nutritional yeast and serve

Simple & Delicious

Mama's Birthday Lunch

MJ's Lunch at Busboys & Poets (The 14th & U location) yesterday.

Quinoa & Mixed Veggies (which look like zucchini, roasted red peppers, eggplant & green peppers?)

He also noshed on my sweet potato fries that came with my portobello panini.

 

Great lunch, very MJ friendly and of course a great vegetarian, vegan AND gluten-free selection.

Didn't get a picture before MJ dug in but not pictured was the AMAZING mango sorbet, which he was splitting with an adult friend (and I think he ate almost twice as much as her!)

Yearning for Summer Fruit

This Week's Menu:

I got all of MJ's produce this week for $15!
(Disclaimer: I already had the bananas, but that's still pretty good!)

Breakfast: Oatmeal with Banana Pure

Tricksters!

Although it isn't even officially spring yet I saw some beautiful fruit at the farmer's market and I just HAD to buy these blackberries. Don't they look delicious?! Well surprise of all surprise they WEREN'T....what was I thinking buying blackberries in March....from a stand that just popped up this week with a wide selection of out-of-season fruit (side eye). They had samples! The sample blackberries were so sweet and delicious I had seconds! They were so tempting and I fell for it. Ugh. Lesson learned.

I initially though of blackberry mini-pies or tarts, but they just aren't sweet enough to stand alone and I didn't want to add unnecessary sugar. So I audibled. Popped them in the freezer to mix with smoothies. I'll just puree some of the frozen bananas I  saved from last week and pair it with oatmeal. Womp, womp.

Lunch: Eggplant Dip on Brown Rice Bread

I personally don't like eggplant, but I think it is important to give MJ the chance to enjoy foods even if I don't. This is my sesame oil-less take on baba ghanoush (which I also don't particularly like). BUT more important than that MJ liked it. I paired it with some Ener-G Brown Rice Bread that I found at the Harris Teeter.

I started with 1 large eggplant, rinsed & poked holes through it so it doesn't explode!

Broiled for 30 minutes

Let cool

Scoop out innards

Add 2 garlic cloves
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 tsp chili pepper
chopped cilantro (I think I used about 8 sprigs, but we love cilantro)
Puree

Spread on toasted brown rice bread

Bite sized pieces

Dinner: Steamed Green Beans & Quinoa w/ Roasted Carrot Ginger Sauce

For dinner this week I decided to give Marley some time to practice his pincer grip...(or just an excuse for me to be lazy and let him feed himself) so I chopped up the green beans to finger food sized pieces and steamed them.

But....he probably needs more than just green beans for dinner. So I made some quinoa in vegetable broth and freestyled this carrot ginger sauce.

I couldn't find a recipe that suited us so I took a little of everything and came up with this:

Roasted carrots and grated ginger  in 1 tbsp olive oil for 25 minutes (until fork can easily go through)

Pureed with 1/2 can of leftover coconut milk and 1/4 tsp of rice vinegar

 Note: I think this turned out pretty well, BUT I think I'd add maybe up to 3/4 cup of coconut milk to make it a bit creamier.