This recipe is unusual among my tofu ideas: It's Chinese-flavored but contains no soy sauce, onion, or garlic! Its sweetness makes a nice contrast with something salty or spicy. Try it in a Tofu-Soba Supper (or over rice) with Salty String Beans. To make 5 servings, you will need: 10 oz. firm tofu 2 Tbsp. … Continue reading Tangy Honey-Apricot Tofu
Recipes
Salty String Beans
For this Favorite Summer Recipes edition of Works-for-Me Wednesday, I've got a recipe that uses fresh green beans (plentiful in summer) and plenty of salt (good for replenishing sweaty people). It's my attempt to replicate the string beans served in many Chinese restaurants. I'm not giving specific measurements because I always just look at the … Continue reading Salty String Beans
Jeremy’s Stuffed Shells
Jeremy Halpern is a friend Daniel has known since grade school, who has some good ideas about food. He gave Daniel this recipe years ago, written on a tiny sheet of paper, which we have carefully kept ever since. These cheese-stuffed pasta shells have been our Christmas dinner every year since 1997. Once we'd tried … Continue reading Jeremy’s Stuffed Shells
Chickicheesinara Sauce
A decade ago, my friend Alison posted some recipes online, and several times since then she'd mentioned her Chickicheesinara Sauce for spaghetti . . . but for some reason, I never got around to trying it until just a few weeks ago! Not only did my whole family like it, but also I noticed something … Continue reading Chickicheesinara Sauce
We Eat This. 8 Unusual Nutritious Foods
My mother has taken several trips around Japan, visiting many ordinary people and not just the tourist destinations. She says she's often been served an interesting food and asked what it is, only to get the reply, "We Eat This." Translation: "We don't know enough English and you don't know enough Japanese for us to … Continue reading We Eat This. 8 Unusual Nutritious Foods
Optimal Oatmeal
This is the breakfast that works for me in chilly weather! I have a fast metabolism, and prolonged hunger makes me dizzy, so it's important for me to eat enough breakfast that I feel full until lunchtime. This breakfast also is high in iron, which was especially important when I was anemic while pregnant and nursing. Oatmeal is supposed to help increase milk supply for nursing mothers. It also has lots of fiber for good digestive health. This recipe is vegan yet rich and creamy. It's convenient because all the ingredients are shelf-stable, so I can make it even when we're running low on fresh stuff. Most of the ingredients are inexpensive in bulk at the food co-op.
Lentil Rice
This is a recipe that really works for me! I developed it when I was on maternity leave and wanted hot lunches and needed plenty of nutritious calories for breastfeeding, but I was distracted by the baby and often literally had my hands full. It takes a while to cook, but it can be left … Continue reading Lentil Rice
7 Ways to Eat Less Meat
Reducing the meat in your diet can save money, reduce environmental impact, improve your health, and reduce the calories per meal. (Obviously, all these things are affected by what you eat instead of meat!) You don't have to become a total vegetarian to experience the benefits of eating less meat. Here are some tips for … Continue reading 7 Ways to Eat Less Meat
American Beanwich
We rarely eat meat anymore, and I don't miss it much, but once in a while I miss the particular flavor of a McDonald's cheeseburger. The soyburgers that try to taste like ground beef succeed only (in my opinion) in tasting like my elementary school cafeteria's hamburgers; I prefer the veggie burgers that don't even … Continue reading American Beanwich
Spam’s Spinach-ghetti
Don't worry, this recipe does not include that horrible canned meatlike product!! Way back in 2001 (whoa, I feel so old every time I say that!) when we bought a share in a CSA farm for the first time, we were baffled about what to do with so much spinach--the first few weeks, we received … Continue reading Spam’s Spinach-ghetti
Grape-nuts Smile
This is a simple, nutritious snack or breakfast that my four-year-old has been enjoying since he was two:Put some Grape-nuts cereal and milk in a bowl.Use healthy toppings to draw a face on the top surface.Eat!This started when I fixed him a bowl of Grape-nuts with sorghum syrup (huh?) and on impulse dribbled the syrup in … Continue reading Grape-nuts Smile
Favorite Summer Recipes
UPDATE: I added some more recipes before linking this to the 2013 Summer Recipe Round Up and the Hearth & Soul Blog Hop! This week's Works-for-Me Wednesday theme is favorite summer recipes, so my post about menstrual cups isn't my official WfMW contribution this week, but check it out because those sure do work for me! Here's … Continue reading Favorite Summer Recipes
Canned Fish Concepts
These are not exactly recipes, more like general "how to cook" ideas that work for me. I prefer ideas like this to specific recipes because they're easy to remember without digging out a recipe card. Our family is mostly vegetarian. We do like fish, but we live far from the ocean, where fish tends to be … Continue reading Canned Fish Concepts
Pasta Prima Becca
It's Works-for-Me Wednesday, and as I enjoy the leftovers of a meal made out of leftovers from my church's Easter reception, I have to share this tip! At the end of a party, usually there are some random vegetables lying around on the veggies-and-dip tray. I have seen people throw these into the garbage!!! What … Continue reading Pasta Prima Becca
Raisin Bran Bread
This is my modification of a recipe from Kellogg's All-Bran cereal, reprinted in Best Recipes from the Backs of Boxes, Bottles, Cans and Jars by Ceil Dyer. She says that this "Bran Nut and Raisin Bread" was served in the very first in-flight meal on a passenger plane, in 1930! I went looking for a … Continue reading Raisin Bran Bread
Lazy Loubie
Loubie is a Middle Eastern dish I've often enjoyed in restaurants. A little experimenting at home showed me that it's quite easy to make using canned vegetables! To make 4 main-dish servings, you will need: about 30 oz. canned green beans (or 2 cups fresh, or thawed frozen) about 30 oz. canned diced tomatoes (or 2 … Continue reading Lazy Loubie
Eat More Kale!
It's Works-for-Me Wednesday! Kale is an affordable, nutritious vegetable that many people know only as the garnish on restaurant plates--and based on my observations while washing dishes in a restaurant, 99% of people receiving a kale garnish don't eat it. I grew up knowing kale as a notorious vegetable used by my maternal grandmother's family, … Continue reading Eat More Kale!
Toaster Oven Tip
A standard square cake pan, pie pan, or bread pan may fit into your toaster-oven.I can't believe I never thought of this before! Somehow, I had gotten the idea that the reason toaster-ovens often come with their own pan and the reason special toaster-oven pans are sold is that pans designed for regular ovens are … Continue reading Toaster Oven Tip
Ten-minute Tofu
This is a really easy way to make a tasty main dish to accompany whatever you have on hand. It has its own flavor, somewhat similar to chicken nuggets, and because the flavor is unevenly distributed it's more interesting to eat, I think.For one serving, you will need:10 strips of tofu about 1/8" x 1" … Continue reading Ten-minute Tofu
Tofu Soba Supper
Daniel and I are really into one-pot meals, but once in a while we make a meal with three separate components. This is one of those meals that is quick and easy to make despite the multiple parts. It has many possible variations. Soba noodles are spaghetti-like Japanese noodles made from buckwheat. They have a … Continue reading Tofu Soba Supper
The Earthling's Handbook 