Tuesday, March 17, 2009

3 ways to get protein in your system, and 1 way to make a day sweeter

I'm a huge advocate of switching around protein in any given recipe. As (I believe) most Canadians can tell you, tempeh is a little bit dear up here in the north, so I almost always substitute tofu and that usually works just fine. A little less... fermenty, but more sproingy*. In this case of the VwaV Sausage Crumbles I think it may have needed that extra bit of tempeh pungency, but anyway it was nice in a pita for lunch. Fennel is win, all the time.

(*look up "sproingy" in the dictionary and I guarantee there will be a nice block of tofu pictured there!)

Second favorite is for sure chickpeas, and I've even started to eat them out of cans, I love them so much. I should probably start soaking some now, actually... anyway, I was sick and in dire need of vegetables and honest food, and Dreena's Sweet Potato, Tomato & Chickpea Curry (real name?) was soooo tailor-made for the job. I added a dried chili for heat, replaced the zucchini with loads of kale, and sopped it up with some only slightly burnt brown rice. (my nose wasn't working very well and anyway, I like it crunchy! :P). I actually felt at least 63% healthier after eating this.

Leftover rice became little baked rice balls, from Extraveganza. They have tahini, ground almonds and dill, and I messed up by stirring the almonds right in instead of coating the balls, but fixed that with bread crumbs. Mmmm delicious breadcrumbs...

I had a hard time keeping these shaped - the mixture was very very sticky and err... ricey, but the flavour was really nice, and went super well with Tangerine Chipotle-Basil Hummus (my own special favorite concoction these days, and inspired by Mel, for sure).

I promised sweet, aaaand ---- here's the white flour I bought! Say "Hi," White Flour! ("Hi White Flour"). SO YUMMY. Dreena is cookie queen, they always come out with that great chewy bakery texture, and Anise Almond 5-Spice really *was* a nice break from chocolate, which was her selling point in the book. I think she needs to write a cookie book, because they're not giant fussy affairs to make, usually healthier than most, and always taste like something a bit more special than a mound of sugary dough. Mmm, I wish I had another one right now...

13 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Hooray for delish protein dishes and cookies!! :-D

Katy said...

I almost made that chickpea dish for dinner tonight, but then changed my mind. Now I wish I hadn't! I'll have to make it tomorrow for sure!

Anonymous said...

That chickpea curry sounds awesome. I am a huge fan of chickpeas too. I use tofu in place of tempeh in a lot of recipes too, but that's just because I don't like tempeh much.

Everything in this post and the previous one looks great!

Theresa said...

Rice balls? I want.

Carrie said...

I agree with you, I am very picky what I will use my stash of frozen tempeh for. Everything looks great!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for trying the sausage crumbles with tofu. Tempeh is way too expensive where I live, too. And I've been meaning to try these with tofu. :Ds

Nicole said...

Mmmmmm, I love coookies.

MeloMeals said...

tangerine chipotle basil hummus? YES PLEASE!

Anonymous said...

I hear you on the tempeh price tag - actually, even tofu is expensive here, but less. I really need to try those Dreena cookies- 5 spice goodness!

Vaala ◪ said...

Yummy! Yeah, I agree, switching proteins around is good fun - you can make the same meal in so many different ways depending on what you've got in your pantry/fridge.

Cookies look awesome too (but it's those sausage crumbles that are calling me).

aTxVegn said...

I love that chickpea casserole and I love your version of it. And your cookies turned out perfectly.

I swap tofu for tempeh in lots of recipes, cuz we're just not big fans. It usually works out just fine.

Anonymous said...

You should get some soybeans and make tempeh! It's easy and super cheap, I swear.

Everything you made looks delicious, especially those white flour cookies. Yum!

Anonymous said...

Oh I love five spice- That sounds like one amazing cookie.