Sesame Ginger Tofu 

Ingredients

• 14 ounces Tofu, firm or extra firm
• 1/3 cup Blue Agave or Honey
• 3 tablespoons Tamari
• 3 tablespoons Ginger, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons Sesame Oil (use the variety that is not toasted)
• 2 tablespoons Rice Vinegar
• 2 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
• 1/4 cup Flour
• 1 tablespoon Canola Oil
• 1/4 cup Sesame Seeds, lightly toasted
• 6 Green Onions, chopped

This recipe is very similar to the Whole Foods Sesame Ginger Deli Tofu.  This is a very tasty sauce that I would recommend doubling as you will want more. The first time I made it, I made it per the recipe above. The second time, I doubled it and it was the perfect quantity. If you have a meat eater, the sauce works well with chicken as well.

While, you do not have to have a official Tofu Press, I love the one I purchased from Tofu Xpress via Amazon last month. You can try a method like this one to press your tofu if you only eat tofu occasionally. Pressing your tofu rids it of the excess water and allows it to absorb a sauce or marinade much easier, giving your tofu great flavor. If you are going to purchase one, I would highly recommend the Tofu Xpress as it is very easy to use and doesn’t take much time or effort.

While your tofu is pressing, combine the blue agave (or honey), tamari, ginger, sesame oil, rice vinegar, garlic, and red pepper flakes in a sauce and bring to a simmer.

Cube the tofu after you have drained the water. Dip the tofu in the flour lightly.

Next you can either fry your tofu or bake it. It obviously tastes better fried but baking is much healthier and it is still quite tasty baked.

To Fry:  Fry the tofu in canola oil until golden brown.

To Bake: I marinated the tofu for about 30 minutes before baking. Then I baked the tofu.

Toss the tofu with about 2/3 of the sauce.  Save the remaining sauce for your vegetables or as additional dipping sauce.  Top with your toasted sesame seeds and green onion.

On a side note, I had no clue how to toast the sesame seeds. Luckily, my friend Donna was over and before I had to google, she gave helped with out. It was quite easy but basically I just toasted in a pan on the stove. Yes, I know that is probably pretty basic but I do often google things like that!

Serves 4.

Yum, yum, yum.

We paired with steamed broccoli (topped with a little sauce) and quinoa, which is great for protein, fiber, and iron!

Drool….

Post Dinner Analysis

This was a hit. We had some friends stop by as I was cooking and all three of them – including a 11 year old boy thought it was delicious! My husband loved the sauce and even like the tofu version. Again, one batch is just not enough so I’ve made a note to always double this recipe.

Freezer Friendly

I’ve read that you can freeze tofu. I think this is a recipe that could be frozen but is probably better freshly made.

Meat it Up

Substitute chicken for tofu using the exact same steps. I really hate cooking meat but as a labor of love for my husband, I made the chicken variety on the second batch! Either version, he says I can make it again. :)

Meatless Mondays is a weekly feature which will showcase some of my hits and probably misses with living a meatless life. Many of you know I stopped eating meat about a year ago for personal reasons. While, I haven’t had any desire to go back to eating meat, it has been a struggle to find healthy foods to eat.

Everywhere you go, meat is the main dish. Since I was new to this lifestyle, it led me to eating unhealthy options. I’m on a path now to cook healthier options at home without meat. While going meatless is a personal choice for me, you can still save money by having one meatless meal a week.

Will you join me on this journey by preparing one meatless dish every week?

If you have any questions about the vegetarian lifestyle, you can read more about it at GoVeg.com.

Um, yeah, that looks delicious, right? You can see how to make this homemade creation for a fraction of the price you will find at popular coffee shops over at Mom Advice. She rocks and I can imagine she had a great time taste testing the Homemade Salted Caramel Mocha Latte.

If you are in the mood for an inexpensive Iced Coffee recipe, check out Savings Lifestyle for way to make it at home!

This recipe is so easy and so delicious! I mean, how can it go wrong if it’s made with Nutella, right? (Except for my oldest son, who hates Nutella with a passion, which I can’t figure out at all!)

Ingredients

• Pastry Sheet
• Flour
• Nutella
• Berries of your choice
• Egg (optional)
• Sugar

This is SUCH a easy recipe! If you follow on Facebook, you received a teaser about how much the rest of the family enjoyed this tasty treat! When you add the fruit, it’s almost healthy! ;)

Roll out your pastry sheet with a rolling pin. This is where the flour comes in as you may need the flour so it doesn’t stick to the rolling pin, of course.

I cut the pastry sheet into 6 rectangle. You could also cut into 4 rectangles if you want them to be bigger.  Scoop a bit of Nutella (about a spoonful) and a about a spoonful of the berries of your choice onto the pastry.

Then fold over to close. Seal by pressing the edges of the pastry dough tight. Use a fork to make a decorative edge. Then cut a slit or two in the top of the pastry.

At this point you can either brush with beaten egg or spray cooking spray on the pastries. I tried it both ways and they tasted fine either way. Sprinkle with a bit of sugar.

Cook at 400 degrees for around 15 minutes or until golden brown.

The family LOVED this recipe! I tried it last night with frozen berries as we were out of fresh. They were a little juicier so next time I might thaw the berries and rinse before just placing them in the pastry.

Based on this recipe from Dam* Delicious.

This is one of the recipes I posted on my weekly Pinterest Meal Planning Board. It is based on this recipe I found on Annie’s Eats. For some reason, I thought making your own pesto would be a daunting task. I was pleasantly surprised to find out how easy it was!

Roasted Red Pepper & Basil Pesto w/Mushrooms & Penne Pasta

Ingredients

• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 oz pine nuts
• 1/3 cup  Grated Romano or Fresh Grated Parmesan (Again, love the Ninja Chopper!)
• 1 cup Roasted Red Peppers (I used jarred as this is what we had in our fridge)
• 1 cup Fresh Basil Leaves
• 1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Mushrooms
• Heavy Whipping Cream to taste
• Pasta of your choice (I used penne)

Chop the pine nuts and garlic in a food processor or your Ninja Chopper until finely chopped. Add parmesan, red pepper, basil, salt & pepper (to taste). Pulse until these items are well combined. Add olive oil.

Your pesto will look yummy like this…

Cook sliced mushrooms in a pan with a little olive oil.

Cook your pasta per the directions.

Add the pesto and mushrooms to the pasta in a sauce pan. Add heavy whipping cream as you desire. I used around 1/4 – 1/3 of a cup.  Heat until warm. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese.

Post Dinner Analysis

This one was great! However, my husband and I both agreed it could be spiced up a bit as it was a little bland. It was still good but we think some red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper would help spice it up for us.

Bonus: My youngest daughter who claims she hates vegetables enjoyed this one. She was a little skeptical because of the mushrooms so I told her I would make sure her plates didn’t have any mushrooms in it. She said it was yummy. Little did she know she was eating red roasted peppers!

Freezer Friendly

Freeze mixture without the pasta. Unfreeze and add pasta to the mixture.

Meat it Up

Add chicken.

Meatless Mondays is a weekly feature which will showcase some of my hits and probably misses with living a meatless life. Many of you know I stopped eating meat about a year ago for personal reasons. While, I haven’t had any desire to go back to eating meat, it has been a struggle to find healthy foods to eat.

Everywhere you go, meat is the main dish. Since I was new to this lifestyle, it led me to eating unhealthy options. I’m on a path now to cook healthier options at home without meat. While going meatless is a personal choice for me, you can still save money by having one meatless meal a week.

Will you join me on this journey by preparing one meatless dish every week?

If you have any questions about the vegetarian lifestyle, you can read more about it at GoVeg.com.

I have a new favorite toy – my Pampered Chef Veggie Wedger. It is so easy to use and gives perfect uniform to your wedges. Did I mention super simple? It was wonderful to have for this Rosemary Garlic Red Potatoes recipe.

By cutting these into wedges instead of leaving them as is, I reduced the cooking time and they were easier to eat. Let’s get started on this quick and easy recipe that packs a tasty punch.

Rosemary Garlic Red Potatoes

Ingredients

• 10-15 Red Potatoes
• 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 4 cloves crushed garlic
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary or 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary

Using the super nifty Pampered Chef Veggie Wedger…posting about because I absolutely LOVE! This is no way sponsored or provided by Pampered Chef, though I’ve done giveaways from them in the past. I just think this is one of the best new products in my kitchen.

Place your potato in the Pampered Chef Veggie Wedger.

Press down and align the wedger blades up with the bottom piece…

You will end up with pieces of potato that look perfectly like this….

Toss the olive oil along with the rosemary and garlic in a large bowl.

Bake at 350 degrees in a shallow roasting pan for around 45 minutes or until tender. You can serve hot or cold.

Delicious!

Find more meatless meals and dishes with my Meatless Monday series.

On Pinterest? Check out how I’m using Pinterest for Meal Planning.

Recipe inspiration from the Food Network.

I finally feel like I’ve found a useful way to utilize my Pinterest addiction! If you haven’t heard of pinterest, it is a site that allows you to create boards that you can pin pictures of items, which also allows a link back to the original site. It’s a great tool for planning, organizing, and remembering those cool recipes, crafts, and other things you find on the world wide web.

I will warn you…it is addicting…once you start pinning, you just.can’t.stop. Ask Merissa, who noticed my homemade pop tart pinning obsession over the weekend!

Back to how I’m using it for meal planning. For weeks now, I’ve been pinning recipes that look yummy and that I think our family would enjoy (with the Pin it button in my browser).  I have several food boards that I’ve been pinning to including No Meat Dishes, Yummy Foods, Budget Friendly Foods, Fun Food (usually things that are really cool looking that would never turn out that pretty for me!), and more. I’m a little obsessive about the food on Pinterest.

Yeah, I can pin it but can I cook it? That is the ultimate question.

Sooo….I’ve decided to use Pinterest for my weekly meal planning, which we need as I’ve been winging it quite a bit lately.  This not only gives me the links to the recipes but it gives me a visual of what I have planned for the week.

When I click on that board, it takes me to all the pins I’ve moved to the Menu Plan Board. You can easily move your pins from board to board with the edit function.

Once I had my menu set, I made my shopping list. There were specific recipes I was looking for as I had some items in the pantry and freezer that needed to be used.  I tried to plan several recipes around similar ingredients like the basil so the package wouldn’t go to waste. Most of the items that were on my shopping list with this plan was produce and a few spices.

I made several of these recipes yesterday so we will have plenty to eat this week and I have several new recipe posts to get crackin’ on. I even made big homemade pop tart plans. We shall see on that one! Kids are excited about it! :)

If you want to see my boards, follow me on Pinterest!

How do you use Pinterest?

This recipe is so delicious that I had to skip it ahead of a few others in my recipe posting queue! I used this Spinach and Sun Dried Tomato Pasta recipe from All Recipes and added and removed a few things based on what I had in the pantry.

Spinach, Mushroom, and Sun Dried Tomato Pasta

Ingredients

• 1 cup Vegetable Broth
• 20 Sun Dried Tomatoes (I used packed in oil)
• Olive Oil
• Minced Garlic or Clove of Garlic
• Ground Cayenne Red Pepper
• Mushrooms (not pictured above because I decided to add them in the middle of the recipe!)
• Spinach, bunch (or a 3-4 handfuls of baby spinach leaves)
• 1 cup Grated Romano or Fresh Grated Parmesan (Again, love the Ninja Chopper!)
• Pasta of your choice (I used ditalini)

I will apologize in advance for my lack of exact measurements. When I cook, I usually just add things until it looks or tastes right.

If you use Sun Dried Tomatoes packed in oil, you can skip this step. If you use the packaged kind, you will want to boil 1 cup of vegetable broth. Remove from heat. Place your Sun Dried Tomatoes in the broth for around 15 minutes. Then coarsely chop. Reserve the broth to use later in the recipe.

Go ahead and cook your pasta according to the directions. I used Ditalini Pasta as this is what I had on hand. I think that Penne, Angel Hair, or Linguine as well as many others would work well too. I like the Ditalini because it is cute and is a little firm.

With a tablespoon or so of Olive Oil, sautee the mushrooms along with the minced garlic. Add a few teaspoons of Ground Cayenne Pepper to your taste. I kept just kind of pouring it on so mine was quite spicy but not overwhelming.

Add the spinach and cook until wilted. I kept adding spinach as it takes up quite a bit of space until you start cooking it. I felt like 3-4 handfuls of baby spinach was a good amount.

Pour the reserve broth into the pan along with the Sun Dried Tomatoes.

I cooked until most of the liquid was absorbed. (You should see mushrooms in there too! I forgot about the package of mushrooms I needed to use and decided to add it near the end because they needed to be used up and I thought it would add to the recipe, which it did!)

Combine the Spinach Mixture with your cooked pasta. Top with your freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese.

Post Dinner Analysis

I loved this one! I am adding this to my rotation. Just the right amount of spice.

Freezer Friendly

Freeze mixture without the pasta. Unfreeze and add pasta to the mixture.

Meat it Up

Add chicken.

Meatless Mondays is a weekly feature which will showcase some of my hits and probably misses with living a meatless life. Many of you know I stopped eating meat about a year ago for personal reasons. While, I haven’t had any desire to go back to eating meat, it has been a struggle to find healthy foods to eat.

Everywhere you go, meat is the main dish. Since I was new to this lifestyle, it led me to eating unhealthy options. I’m on a path now to cook healthier options at home without meat. While going meatless is a personal choice for me, you can still save money by having one meatless meal a week.

Will you join me on this journey by preparing one meatless dish every week?

If you have any questions about the vegetarian lifestyle, you can read more about it at GoVeg.com.