Meal Plan: March 15th- March 19th: Red Thai Tofu and (Bhutanese) Pineapple Rice

Happy election day! Here in Israel, election day is a national holiday, meaning a day off from work! It's already coming to an end but I can say that I got a lot of Pesach cleaning done and my room is looking a lot tidier and less dusty. Trying to focus on getting as minimalist as possible and getting rid of things that I don't need, have any use for, or have simply expired. I'm making progress but it's not always easy!

In any case, this week, I put the second package of tofu to use in the recipe for Red Thai Tofu. (Tofu, being from soy is not allowed to be consumed by Ashkenazi Jews on Pesach which is approaching faster than I can say chametz! Gotta get a move on the rest that I have laying around!) I made the Bhutanese Pineapple Rice, which was pretty good, to go along with it. 

This week I spent 71 shekels. (Btw, I am already five pounds into my ten pounds of oats! Yikes!) I picked up red onion, frozen cauliflower (for next week's dinner), potatoes, pepper, cucumber, corn, fresh ginger, canned pineapple for the rice, and garlic. 

Isa's tofu recipes are a bit labor intensive, for me at least. Lots of chopping, for both the tofu and the rice and then all of the tofu needs to be browned before the sauce gets made. The component of this dish that makes this a Thai dish is the red curry paste. It adds a little spice to the tofu. Honestly, I really like tofu in any form so it can't really be bad to me, but this dish didn't wow me as much as the previous tofu recipe I made. I would be much more inclined to make the soy-hoisin tofu again if I would be asked. Therefore, I won't include the recipe here. won'That said, there wont be leftovers of this in my fridge by the end of the week- no tofu goes to waste here. I'm really curious to try the Apple-Miso tofu.

Shabbat Cooking Part 2: Unfried Fried Rice

Isa suggested that the Hoisin Mustard Tofu be served with her Unfried Fried Rice. Who am I to object? I should mention, that I loooove fried rice so that was a no-brainer. Turns out it was the perfect accompaniment to the tofu. I had leftovers for Shabbat lunch and they just hit. the. spot.  I'm going to take a break from tofu this week before trying another recipe.

I started by cooking the rice in the Instant Pot and then used the saute function to finish it off. I love the ease of using the same pot for one recipe and really like getting use out of the IP. I opted to add frozen peas to the recipe as that's what I had on hand. Pesach is coming and I gotta use things up! I made a double recipe of the rice.

Shabbat Cooking: Mushroom Tibs

Shavua tov!
It's been a long time since I've hosted a meal for my friends at my place and so I decided to organize a small one. I knew that except for the chicken that I was preparing for my guests that everything else would be WFPB. I made Isa's Smokey Split Pea Soup again (I made it exactly as the recipe stated this time and it was so good!), a batch of rice in the Instant Pot (not perfect yet!), a salad and these mushroom tibs.

I had been wanting to try these mushrooms for ages but couldn't figure out a way to incorporate them into my meal plans. Mushrooms are pricey here and it would take quite a lot of them to turn them into nightly dinners. I figured they would be appropriate for dinner and so they made it to the menu. This recipe also comes from Appetite for Reduction (when I say I'm cooking through a book, I mean it!). Isa explains this as an Ethiopian inspired recipe. I've never had Ethiopian food before so I took her word for it. I was a bit nervous that my friends wouldn't like these because they are loaded with pretty much every spice I have in my cabinet. (The curry stained my pan!!) Turns out, they were a hit. I really liked them myself and had the little bit that was leftover with some leftover Persian rice. Yum. This really is a winning side dish. Definitely try it. I doubled the recipe pretty much and I left out the oil as well. Another keeper!

Shabbat Cooking: Moroccan Spiced Couscous Salad

A lot of potluck Shabbat meals happen 'round these parts and while I enjoy them, coming up with something healthy and creative to make does not come easy. I was asked to make a side dish for dinner this Friday night. something that I myself could eat, considering that the remaining guests are omni eaters. I finally settled on some sort of grain salad. The options were either barley or couscous and seeing as couscous cooks faster, whole wheat couscous it was going to be. That was the easier part. Finding a recipe that worked with what I had around and that was appealing was the real challenge. What can I say? I'm picky. When I exhausted Pinterest and the rest of the internet, I turned to my book shelf. One of the first books I picked up was.. you guessed it, Thug Kitchen. Almost immediately I saw the recipe for the Moroccan Spiced Couscous. Although I gave the book a lukewarm review, I decided to give it a go knowing that I'd doctor it to bulk it up anyway.

Meal Plan Feb 1st-Feb 5th Part 2: Fresh Corn and Scallion Cornbread

This recipe, in my humble opinion, was the star of this week's meal plan. Maybe I just love corn, maybe I just like quick bread type things, I don't really know- but it was just.so.good and it really hit the spot.

I had all of the ingredients on hand for this recipe except for the scallions. I didn't realize how pricey they were and seeing as their flavor wasn't pronounced in the final product, I'd probably leave them out next time around. I used frozen corn as that's what I had, as well as soy milk and coconut oil as my chosen milk and oil. Not exactly McDougall friendly, in terms of the oil, but we all have our weeks.

There really isn't that much more to say about this recipe than that I loved that the corn flavor came through nice and sweet and that it reheats nicely. I'll be making this again and again. And again.

Meal Plan: Jan 25th-Jan 29th- Part 1- Baked Spanish Rice

This week's meal plan included two recipes. I saw someone review this recipe for Baked Spanish Rice and when I saw that it was in the Thug Kitchen cookbook, I decided to make it to accompany the dish I had been meaning to make for a while.- the Beer and Lime Roasted Cauliflower Tacos. I figured I'd leave out the tortillas in the recipe and serve it over a more healthful brown rice.

First things first- my grocery bill for the week was 64 shekels. I bought peppers, tomatoes (finally found some decent ones!) cucumbers, a bag of frozen cauliflower, carrots, avocado, a can of beer (for the roasted cauliflower), a new set of containers, and a bottle of soft drink (for my Shabbaton this weekend). Not bad at all!

Back to the baked rice.

I'm pretty familiar with baking rice- I learned the technique from Alton Brown ages ago, and it's pretty convenient. The Thug Kitchen recipe calls for blending up a sauce in the blender, heating it with some broth on the stove and then pouring it over the rice. You cover the rice, bake and then add some peas and corn and lime juice when it's done. I like to get things done in advance so I decided to make this Saturday night.

I gotta say, this recipe was quite underwhelming. I didn't find it to have much flavor aside for the peas and corn. It made a good base for the cauliflower, but I could have just as well saved myself some dishwashing by just making plain rice. Not terrible, just pretty bland. Adding the lime juice does help, but I got very little tomato flavor here.

You can find the recipe here.

Let me know if you disagreed, or how you changed up this recipe.