Peanut Butter and Honey Tofu

During my Lenten vegetarian journey I've been making a lot of my favorite chicken dishes using tofu in place of chicken. This dish was a take on one I remembered from when I boarded with a vegetarian family back in university. I remembered that they would make peanut butter tofu with soy sauce as a stir fry quite a bit. I used the peanut butter part as an inspiration for this dish. Here's what you need to know about cooking with tofu. Tofu comes in a variety of firmness degrees. If you want to stir fry it, the firmer the better. Firm to extra-firm if possible. Medium or soft will just fall to mush. Also tofu takes on flavor really well so marinate it for at least 1/2 hour before cooking. Tofu on its own is pretty bland. I remember the university residence's 'veggie' burger way back when was just a slab of plain tofu between a bun. That is just wrong. Fortunately vegetarian cooking has come a long way in North America since then.

I didn't measure any of this, I just played as I went along. The result was so tasty that I made it again within a week (a true sign I've made something right). Slice the tofu into cubes. I cut 1/4 a brick as I was the only one eating it. You could do a whole brick if you are serving to others. Put the tofu into a small bowl and add some hoisin sauce (I used about a tablespoon or so). Mix it up so the tofu is coated. Put in the refrigerator to marinate it for at least 1/2 hour.
Heat a frying pan to medium/high heat with a little bit of cooking oil, or non-stick spray. Add the tofu to the pan plus a tablespoon or 2 of peanut butter and a tablespoon or 2 of honey. Mix in well. Stir fry for a few minutes until everything is heated through. Serve with rice or noodles. I served this along with a veggie stir fry with noodles. As a side note, I did the exact same thing to some chicken meat for the rest of my family. They liked it. I haven't had the chicken version yet, I'll let you know after lent.

Lentil and Mushroom Loaf with Savory Potato Filling

When my college roommate Ang heard I was going vegetarian for Lent, she remembered this dish I made back in the day and asked for a copy of it. I'll admit I haven't made this in years, but I remember loving it. Like all good recipes it comes with a back story. I ate vegetarian for about 10 years. When I boarded in college I lived with a vegetarian family for 2 years. They had some fantastic cookbooks. This recipe came from Vegetarian Celebrations. This book was dedicated to finding delicious holiday vegetarian dishes. This recipe is one I would often make at Christmas and Thanksgiving in lieu of Turkey. When I started cooking on my own I wanted a copy of this book. Unfortunately by then it was no longer in print. One bookstore was able to find me a copy an order it in (remember this was before the days of Amazon) and I'm glad to have this book in my collection now.

Shell:
1 cup raw lentils
1 tbsp canola oil
2 cloves minced garlic
6 oz white mushrooms
5 oz thawed frozen spinach
1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
2 tbsp wheat germ
freshly ground pepper to taste
dash nutmeg
1 cup firmly packed grated Stilton or Gruyere Cheese (or sub. mozzarella style soy cheese)

filling:
1 tbsp canola oil
1 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 cup coarsely mashed potato (from about 1 medium cooked and peeled potato)
1/2 tsp each: seasoned salt, dried thyme, and dried basil
freshly ground pepper to taste
curly parsley for garnish

Rinse and sort lentils. Combine in a heavy saucepan with 4 cups water. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer, covered, until the lentils are tender, about 45 minutes. Drain.
Preheat the oven to 350*
Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic and mushrooms and saute over medium heat. stirring until the mushrooms are wilted. Stir in spinach, lentils, soy sauce and wheat germ. Grind in some pepper and add the nutmeg. Cook, stirring unil the mixture is heated through, then stil in the cheese.
Lightly oil a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Pour in about 2/3 of the lentil mixture. Press some of the mixture up the sides of the pan to create a shell about 1/2 inch thick. Transfer the remaining lentil mixture to a small bowl and reserve until needed.
Rinse the skillet and heat the oil. Add the onion and saute until golden brown. Add the remaining filling ingredients and saute, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Transfer into the lentil shell, then cover the top with the reserved lentil mixture. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the top is crusty.
Remove from the oven and let the loaf stand for 15 minutes. Slide a spatula or knife around the edges to loosen it. Cut slices and arrange them on a serving dish, Garnish with parsley and serve.

Pimp my Pizza

Okay, I cannot believe I just used that as a title of one of my blog posts. *LOL* It just popped in my head so there you go. Laugh with me if you will.
So this is about pizza. I love having an easy meal to pop in the oven each week. We have a regular pizza night. I don't order in. I buy frozen. You can get frozen pretty cheap, and much less oily than take out. I get them 3 in a box at Costco for about $12. My kids like plain cheese, but I like my pizza more interesting than that. I really don't like frozen pizzas that already have veggies on them. I'm sorry, but they just don't taste very good. What we do is bake one plain for the kids and then add to the second one for us.
Last night's was soooo delicious. I grated on a little cheddar. Then added some chopped red onion, red pepper, mushrooms and tomato. Finished it up with some crumbled feta and baked it according to the box directions.
The possibilities are endless for pizza. Add as much or as little as you like. Sometimes we just add a little sliced onion and few tomatoes and that does it. Just gives it a little bit extra to make it that much better.

Frozen pizza as is.

Frozen pizza plus!

Vegetarian Chili

Sorry no picture, I forgot! But this recipe is well worth remembering. I found it on food.com. It is very delicious and filling. This was also the tale of making sure you plug in the crock pot - I was sure I did and was kicking to find out it wasn't plugged in - only to find out my husband had unplugged it to plug in the kettle, forgetting to plug the crock pot back in. That happened not once, but twice with this chili! All was good though as I adjusted from cooking on low to cooking on high. It all worked out!

1 (11 ounce) can condensed black bean soup (or canned black beans in juice) - I used the canned black beans
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
1 (16 ounce) can vegetarian baked beans (in Canada beans in tomato sauce)
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can chopped tomato puree (I used a hand blend to puree a 28 ounce can of tomatoes)
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained (I don't buy canned corn so I used the equivalent in frozen corn - 2 cups)
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 zucchini, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 (4 ounce) can diced chilies
1 -2 jalapeno peppers, chopped (depending on how much heat you want)
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon cilantro (optional)


In a saucepan, saute the onion, bell pepper, zucchini, and celery for about 5 minutes. In a slow cooker, combine black beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, baked beans, tomatoes, corn, onion, bell pepper, zucchini, jalapeno, chilies, and celery.
Season with garlic, chili powder, cumin, parsley, oregano, basil (and cilantro if using). Cook for about 6 hours on low.

Beer and Butter Tarts

Sounds like a great title eh? Yes, my Canadian is showing a bit here.

About a year or so ago, my mom was hosting her book club. The selection of the month was Welcome Home, Stories in Small Town Canada by Stuart McLean (great book if you have a chance to check it out). As hostess for her book club she needed a menu to offer. She wanted all-Canadian food to match the book and was looking for ideas. My first thoughts were bacon and bannock. Surely we have more to Canadian food than that. Once we thought about it the ideas kept coming. Nanaimo Bars, poutine, cherry/cream cheese finger sandwiches, smoked salmon, beaver tails, Malapeque Oysters...now we were on a roll. I don't remember what her final menu included, but I know we had fun coming up with the ideas.

Last week I noticed a button on another foodies blog for Beer and Butter Tarts. I had to check it out. I'm glad I did. Beer and Butter Tarts is an aggregator for Canadian food blogs. I'm proud to say that Whatcha Eatin' is now a part of that venture. Canadians have a great love of food and being such a wide-spread, multicultural country there are all sorts of great foodies out there. Check Beer and Butter Tarts out here or on my sidebar button and enjoy!

Going Vegetarian for Lent

This past Wednesday marked the beginning of the season of Lent.  Lent is the time observed in the Christian calendar as the 40 days before Easter (relating to the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness after His baptism).  It has been traditionally observed as a time of prayer and fasting.  I've chosen to observe Lent in various ways in the past.  This year I felt called to give up meat.  I had considered a full Daniel fast of no meat, no dairy and no sweets, but as I'm still nursing my daughter I didn't want to affect my milk supply.  I'm not new to a vegetarian diet.  I was a vegetarian from the time I was 15 to 24.  I've learned a lot about food and cooking since then.  I've also developed a love of meat so this should be a good practice of self-denial for me.

I've planned out my first 2 weeks of meal ideas, but I'd love to have suggestions for other dishes to try over the next month and a half. If you have a great idea for a vegetarian dish, please share in the Linky below. I love trying new dishes and can't wait to see all of your fabulous recipes!




Current Vegetarian Meal Ideas

Veg. Chili
Spaghetti
Spanikopita with Greek Salad
Red Lentil Soup
Chinese Mushroom Stir Fry
Sweet Potato Curry
Vegetable Jalfreezi
Aloo Ghobi
Veg Baked Bean and Rice
Greek Pizza

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Cake

Here it is, my son Jeremy's 4th birthday cake!  This is my first cake using marshmallow fondant.  I am so pleased with the results!  I have stayed away from fondant in the past because let's face it, it looks pretty but tastes disgusting!  Marshmallow fondant is different.  It looks great and tastes nice and sweet, the way icing should taste.  I used a lot of icing dye to get the colours just right.  It takes a while to really kneed it into the icing so it has an even consistancy (especially red, the blues and yellow wasn't as much work).  The figures I picked up as a set at the Disney store.  If I keep making cakes like this, I may have to invest in some more cookie cutters (I could use a set of letters anyway).  I used the fondant recipe found here with no adjustments needed.