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.

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.

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.

Do you have fresh garden tomatoes? This recipes is delicious with fresh garden tomatoes! This is yet another recipe I love because it is customizable for each family member’s preferences.

Tomato Basil Pesto Panini

Ingredients

• Bread
• Basil Pesto
• Fresh Mozzarella Cheese
• Tomatoes
• Pasta Sauce (optional)

Spread a thin layer of Basil Pesto on one side of the bread. Layer a thickly cut tomato with mozzarella cheese. Add pasta sauce to the other piece of bread if you want. Cook in a Panini Maker or cook like a grilled cheese.

I have the Cuisinart GR-3 Griddler Jr 3-in-1 Nonstick Countertop Grill which has been a good investment as we use it quite often. Kids can also use it by themselves as it is easy to operate than the stove.

Yummy and so easy!

For the little kids, I made half sandwiches with pepperoni, sauce, and mozzarella.

Post Dinner Analysis

Everyone loved the customized sandwich. For the little ones, I left off the pesto, since it’s green. For the older guys, I put pepperoni on it. My oldest daughter and I ate it vegetarian style. Everyone was happy.

Freezer Friendly

I’d skip the freezer on this one!

Meat it Up

Add pepperoni.

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.

This recipe is so simple and so tasty. I love that you can use basically whatever you want to make it your own personal flavor. You will never go back to canned beans once you make these Crockpot Refried Beans. You will also love that they are super-economical!

Crockpot Refried Beans

Ingredients

• Bag of Dried Pinto Beans
• Green Pepper
• Jalapeno Peppers, Serrano Peppers, or whatever kind of peppers you like!
• Onion (optional)
• cumin, chili powder, red pepper flakes, or a packet of taco seasoning

Directions

Cook beans in a slower cooker with around 6 cups of water. Add your peppers, onion, and seasoning. I used what we had from our little garden – (2) green peppers, (2) jalapeno peppers, and (3) I don’t know what kind of little green peppers. I used a taco seasoning packet since we are out of cumin at the time along with a teaspoon or so of chili powder and red pepper flakes. I didn’t measure any of my ingredients, I just kind of tossed them all in.

Once the beans were cooked, I let mine cool because it was late. I then used my Ninja Chopper, my absolute favorite kitchen gadget, to mash the beans.

I adapted my recipe from Budget Bytes and she has some great step by step instructions with pictures.

Serves 4 – 6.

Post Dinner Analysis

Delicious enough to eat plain, on burritos, with chips, or however you like them! I left out the onion so that my picky onion hater would eat them too. However, I think if it was mashed up in there, he might not even notice.

Freezer Friendly

Freeze in freezer friendly containers. I broke my batch up into several containers about the same amount that you would get in a can. Next time, I’ll triple my batch to maximize my time even further.

Meat it Up

I’d leave these just as they are. No need for meat. Though, I know some restaurants will ad some type of pork products to flavor. I don’t think these need it at all.

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.

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?

Spinach Puffs

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspon baking powder
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup Cheddar Jack cheese
• Spinach, chopped

Combine flour, baking powder, milk, egg, and cheese until well mixed. Add in fresh chopped spinach. Spray muffin pan with non-stick spray. Fill cups 3/4 the way full.

Cook at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Makes 1 dozen regular size muffins or 2 dozen mini muffins.

Dip and serve with warm marina sauce.

Post Dinner Analysis

These were a tasty little snack. I wouldn’t consider this a full dinner but the kids seemed to enjoy the ones I made with pepperoni.

Freezer Friendly

Freeze after cooking.

Meat it Up

Add pepperoni.

Vegan Option

Use vegan cheese.

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

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?

Eggplant Parmesan

Ingredients

• 1 Eggplant
• 1 cup Freshly grated Parmesan or Romano Cheese (Of course, I like using my Ninja Chopper to grate mine easily and quickly! We’ve said GOODbye to the fake parmesan forever!)
• 2 cups Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
• 1 1/2 cups Spaghetti or Marina Sauce

Slice eggplant 1/4″. I leave my eggplant unpeeled. Layer eggplant  in 8.5″ x 11″ dish. Then layer half of the parmesan cheese, half the mozzarella, and half the sauce. Repeat. Sprinkle with additional parmesan cheese.

Cover and bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees.

Serves 4 .

Post Dinner Analysis

Great recipe for eggplant during the summer season.

Freezer Friendly

Freeze before or after cooking.

Meat it Up

Add sausage.

Vegan Option

Use vegan cheese.

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