Tofu with Date Honey & Ginger Sauce

For Shabbat, I made Chicken in Date Honey & Ginger Sauce. My family really likes this recipe, and it's become my new go-to Shabbat Chicken recipe.

And since I have one vegetarian child, I decided to see how he would like Tofu with Date Honey & Ginger Sauce... (You can do this with chicken cut into small pieces, too, if you're so inclined)

(Note: Date Honey (Silan), even the all natural, no sugar added kind, is MUCH less expensive than Bee's Honey! It has a different flavor, so I don't use them interchangeably, but it's a great option when you are looking to sweeten a recipe without straight sugar.)


Recipe:

1 block of tofu (about 300g), cut into strips
1 "splash" of olive oil for the pan
3 Tablespoons Date Honey (also called Silan)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
ginger (I used dried ground ginger because that's what I had on hand, you can use fresh grated ginger instead if you prefer) to taste
garlic and ground pepper to taste

First, saute the tofu lightly in olive oil.
Add all the other ingredients to your pan and stir while cooking over high heat. 
It's done within a couple of minutes.

Serves 3, at least.

Got a thumb's up from the veggie son!

Enjoy!

Food Recall (Israel)

E.Y.N Food Industries ltd. and the Ministry of Health have announced a recall of "Teva Ha'aretz" brand "Natural Tofu" because they may be contaminated with e.coli.

The recall includes all Teva Ha'aretz Natural Tofu with all expiration dates currently on shelves thru 23/4/2015.

Consumers are advised NOT to eat this product. Please return to the store where purchased.

You can reach the manufacturer at 04-6378450 with questions.

Please share this post with your friends and family who may have purchased this tofu, and be sure to follow me on Facebook so you don't miss updates!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

I decided that not going to the supermarket is good in so many ways - I don't lose hours in the checkout line, my kids don't lobby me to buy ice cream and popsicles and chocolate, so I don't have to listen to all that whining, and I don't spend $ on gas (and everyone knows that is a huge budget buster here! Recently, one of the gas stations here lowered their price to under 7 NIS per liter, and I was so happy. Until I realized I must be crazy. It's still a TON of money.).

So, I'm trying really hard to stick to the pantry challenge.

Here's tonight's plan:

Tofu sloppy sams with pitot

Steamed kishuim (summer squash similar to zucchini)

Homemade oven-baked "french fries"

Melon

And now I'm off to spend the day with my kids!
Let me know what you're making, and if you're doing a pantry challenge, let me know how it's going!

Monday Night, May 23, 2011

I hope everyone had a great Lag Ba'omer! It's a fun holiday, but not so much fun for asthmatics. My inhaler got a lot of use, unfortunately...

But, Sunday is now over, and Monday is approaching. Time to plan!

Here's what's on our menu:

Sloppy Sams (tofu sloppy joes) with Pitot

Make your own salad (we have lettuce, purple cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, and whatever else I discover)

Watermelon

Keeping it simple - there's a lot going on here lately and every day is BUSY!

Sloppy Sams Follow Up

I was so happy last night when the sloppy sams were eaten without complaint! I think we're finally getting closer to a truly successful sloppy sam recipe!

Here's what I did:

(This recipe requires a small amount of advance preparation, but it is well worth it.)
The night before or in the morning, open and drain a package of firm tofu. Place on a towel lined plate, cover with another clean towel (or paper towel), and weigh it down. I used my cast iron fry pan to weigh it down, and it really drained a lot of liquid out of the tofu over the hour or so I drained it.

Once the tofu is well-drained, crumble it finely with a fork (in a bowl you can cover). I seasoned it with soy sauce, garlic powder, and onion powder. Cover the bowl and refrigerate till you're ready to throw the sloppy sams together.

Later, finely dice 1 medium onion, 2 cloves of garlic, and a sweet red pepper. Saute in olive oil over medium heat, preferably in a cast iron pan. When the onion is translucent and fragrant, add the tofu crumbles. Continue to cook, stirring frequently. Once the tofu browns somewhat, add tomato paste, water, sugar, vinegar, ground black pepper, and any other seasonings you like. Allow to cook over med-low heat till warmed through, stirring occasionally. I also added some oat bran toward the end, because I accidentally used too much water. This thickened it up really nicely, and even added fiber and nutrients to our meal.

Even my 6 year old daughter, who always claims not to eat Sloppy Sams, ate it all up!

Monday Night

Aside from the frugal aspect, I'm looking for easy meals. We usually have busy days, and since I homeschool my 4 kids, I really don't have much downtime...ever.

For Monday evening, I'm looking to incorporate leftovers into the plan (I've been trying harder not to have to throw those out. If you have tips to make sure that leftovers get used up, please share! My kids sometimes groan when they see a food served "AGAIN".).

I just took stock of the fridge, and while most of our Shabbat food actually got eaten (and the leftover barley went into the freezer), we have plenty of vegetable noodle soup left!

(By the way, I'm really big on soup right now. It's winter, and we live in a "warm" location in Israel, which means we have a poorly insulated house and not-so-efficient heaters. And it's raining - a good thing! In other words, sometimes it's colder inside our house than out, and I'm too frugal to heat the place all the time!)

So here's what we'll be eating (it's a vegan menu!):

Vegetable-Noodle Soup
Sloppy "Sams" in pitot
Steamed Cauliflower and Broccoli
Oven-crisp Roasted Potato Wedges
I rarely do dessert during the week, but maybe I'll even bake muffins! I have a few wrinkly apples to use up.

Some notes about these foods:

The soup is the same one from Friday night. I keep all my Shabbat soups pareve, so I can use them again during the beginning of the week.

Sloppy Sams are Vegetarian Sloppy Joes. I'm making these with drained and crumbled tofu (I buy these at Kimat Chinam; if you buy 3 tofu cubes at a time, they are 3/23.99 NIS. Does anyone have a better deal to share?), browned in olive oil with diced onion and peppers, cooked with tomato paste, water, and spices. We still haven't worked out the perfect combination of Sloppy Sam spices, so if you have any TNT recipes, please share!

Cauliflower and Broccoli - the cauliflower was on sale for 1 NIS/kilo, so we'll be going heavy on the cauliflower, light on the brocolli. The best price I found for broccoli was 8 NIS/kilo at Yesh. Kimat Chinam was 14 NIS/kilo and Rami Levy something like 17 NIS/kilo. My kids love broccoli, so I figured I would have to continue to buy it and stretch it with the cauliflower...

For the Potato Wedges, I usually combine olive oil, mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper. Mix well with potato wedges (just scrub and cut - leave those peels on so you get the vitamins and trace minerals!), and bake in the oven at 400 F till crispy and turning brown. The kids like to eat them with ketchup...

Shabbat Menu

This week's Shabbat menu is built around the produce I got at Kim'at Chinam for 1 NIS/kilo, and the produce I got at Yesh for 1.99 NIS/kilo. Both really great deals! I just have to learn how to figure out how heavy 3 kg is, as the maximum you can usually get when they have these sales is 3 kg per type. Unfortunately, I lowballed all my purchases, and could have easily come home with twice as much produce for these awesome prices...

When we don't have guests, I try to keep my menus simple - that means fewer courses and fewer dishes, but still plenty of good food to fill everyone up! Since we have no guests this week, here's my plan:

Vegetable-Noodle Soup
Pomegranate Chicken
Pan-Fried Tofu Steaks for my favorite vegetarian (my 12 yr old - yes, a boy!)
Carrot Kugel
Oven Roasted Beets
Oven Roasted Cauliflower
Toasted Barley with Mushrooms
Salad - lettuce, purple cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and avocado
Lentil-Barley Stew (in the crock pot, for lunch)


Some notes about these dishes:

When making a vegetarian vegetable soup, I always sautee all the veggies in extra virgin olive oil, then cook, covered, to reduce, for 10-15 min. before adding any liquid. I don't know, I just think it tastes better this way in the end. I use onions, garlic, celery, tons of carrots, zucchini, and other veggies as the mood hits me. It's a really easy soup.
I also save all the trimmings from vegetables (don't use potato peelings or beet trimmings, though!) in gallon-size zipper-close bag in my freezer. when the bag is full, I simmer the trimmings in water for many hours in my huge stock pot, to make vegetable stock. Just make sure you strain it well when it's done. I then use some for the day's cooking, and freeze the rest in pint-size containers for later use.

Carrot Kugel - I usually make 6 of these at a time, and freeze for later. My 3 year old can't get enough of them, so I serve carrot kugel almost every week. I use a modified muffin recipe, bake in loaf pans, wrap well, and freeze.

Oven-Roasted Veggies - what could be easier!

The toasted barley recipe is new for my family, but I have promised them that we'll be trying out new dishes, in order to find some new favorites (this is what I need that vegetable stock for this week)