I would like to give myself a huge serve of SHAME for the Ultimate Fail that was Month O Vege.
I did learn some really great things though - like how tuna is the new chicken, and what to do with tofu and how easy and tasty felafels are every week! My real downfall was when we went to a mate's birthday and the ONLY thing on the menu was a whole spit roast lamb that had been cooking for 12 hours. WHO CAN SAY NO?!! I have resigned to the fail, but decided I will give it another really good crack sometime next year. Also because the whole 'lets try and help lose weight too' thing didn't work either.... urrrggghhh..
Anyway, I have done LOTS of fun thing recently, like the Moonlight Cinema and BBQs and Scuba Diving and Christmas dinners and present shopping and wrapping and Christmas tree buying and wine. I love Christmas.
Apparently there are different types of Tofu. I had never thought of that before. I mean, red lentils are red lentils and carrots are carrots. According to Wikipedia (the trustful source): "
Tofu (豆腐 Japanese tōfu, Chinese dòufu, Korean doobu) or bean curd is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks." So it would make sense that there are different 'brands' or ways of processing said bean curd... I had just never thought of that before.
In our stir fry last week we had a very nice brand of tofu. We are not big tofu eaters, but we feel as a meat replacement it really does do well - i think its the chewyness that really helps. I have a friend at work who says she doesn't like "thick things in my mouth." I try not to crack laughing everytime she says this and get given A LOOK - you know, the MUM one. Rudeness aside, she means she doesn't like heavy sauces or creams or things that feel 'thick'. Pasta with a creamy sauce is apparently 'thick' but with a lemon and chilli sauce could be considered 'thin'. Baileys or Kahlua is thick, Vodka and Tequila is thin (I pity a woman who doesn't enjoy a glass of Baileys!) Anyway, I find tofu quite 'thick' and I think it contributes to that sort of meaty sensation that you look for in a dinner time meal. Sorry for the bajillion innuendos in this paragraph. In-YOUR-end-o.
How pretty is this tofu??
Last night we ate spinach, ricotta and roast pumpkin canneloni. The back of the packet recipe for canneloni is very good and lots of online reviews think so too. I have to skimp on the nutmeg though as I am not a big nutmeg fan after one Christmas overdosing on eggnog. Eggnog, is very thick. So I go light on the nutmeg and otherwise just use the back of the packet recipe. No, sorry, I lie. I don't even fully use the packet recipe - I use tomatoes out of a jar and I don't heat it up first, I let the oven do that bit for me.
Roasting the pumpkin is the key to this dish. Also, small pieces of pumpkin are about the only thing I have successfully roasted in my prehistoric oven so I make the most of it when I can.
Todays lunch I had tuna sushi with soy sauce (yum!) Soy is apparently the god of veggie food - it makes soy beans, soy sauce and of course soy milk which is often associated with vegans and which I drink when I feel like a 'thick' drink. You know.
