Kid-Friendly Tofu Fingers

Kid Friendly Tofu Fingers PinWhile we were visiting Amelia’s family in Atlanta, Amelia’s 9 year old niece  challenged us to make more kid-friendly vegan recipes and this Tofu Fingers recipe one of them. She really liked them, as did the whole family. She’s a VERY picky eater, so anything other than “I hate it” means she loved it. She dipped hers in ketchup, but her grandpa and I preferred BBQ sauce.

If you’re concerned about feeding organic soy to your children, rest assured it’s not only safe, but highly nutritious. Most of the myths about soy were created by the dairy industry when soy milk started eating away at their profits. The unbiased, legitimate science shows soy is actually protective against the very ailments that, ironically, dairy has been shown to cause.

One of the main concerns about soy is the phytoestrogen content that the myths claim can interfere with human hormones. Phytoestrogens are a type of plant estrogen that behaves much differently in the human body compared to mammal estrogen found in cow’s milk, which looks just like human estrogen inside our bodies.

In fact, one study found that soy was protective against early puberty in girls, whereas consumption of meat was strongly associated with early puberty in both girls and boys.

We strongly encourage you to buy only organic soy products, though. The unbiased science is far from settled on the health effects of GMO, but putting that aside, there are plenty of non-health reasons to avoid GMO products. GMO’s encourage monocrops, which are destroying the soil. They are leading to superbugs and superweeds that are resistant to even the strongest pesticides. They lead to more fertilizer and pesticide use, which contaminates water supplies. And they give corporations too much control of our food system. Please consider watching GMO OMG for an overview of the GMO industry.

Back to the recipe at hand… These Tofu Fingers are very tasty dipped in your favorite dipping sauce like ketchup, BBQ sauce, Vegan Ranch Dressing, salsa, Grandpa’s Vegan Dipping Hot Sauce, etc. They make a great afternoon snack or appetizer, or as a side dish with soup and salad.

Tofu Fingers 2

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Tahini Stir Fry with Tofu

Tahini Stir Fry PinThis Tahini Stir Fry with Tofu recipe is one of our favorites stir fries. We used to eat this one almost every week because it’s fast, easy and flavorful. However, since I found out I still have high cholesterol, we’ve cut this one out for awhile.

We still eat stir fries similar to this one every week, but the tofu and tahini add 5 grams of saturated fat per serving, which is way more than I need to consume while trying to lower my cholesterol. It’s also not great for weight loss so if you’re trying to lose weight or lower your cholesterol, you’re better off eating our low-fat Easy Vegan Asian Stir Fry.

Greger might disagree with this advice, but I side with Esselstyn and Ornish on this one. They’re the experts in heart disease, which runs rampant in my family, along with cancer, stroke, diabetes and obesity. With the deck stacked against me, Amelia and I have decided to err on the side of caution when it comes to foods high in saturated fat, like tahini.

With that said, the tofu in this recipe adds a nice meaty texture and contributes most of the 18 grams of protein. And it absorbs the flavors of the sauce and other ingredients so it’s very tasty. This recipe is also loaded with fiber, vitamin C, calcium and iron.

This is a nice one-pot meal (not counting the rice) so it’s also fast and easy to clean up.

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Locro de Papa Soup

Vegan Locro de Papa Soup PinThis Vegan Locro de Papa Soup recipe is a plant-based version of a traditional Ecuadorian potato soup. It’s a delicious and satisfying soup for a cold rainy day.

We learned about Locro de Papa Soup on our first trip to Ecuador. Due to a language barrier, we didn’t know it was traditionally made with cheese. We asked the server in our broken spanglish if it had cheese, but he must not have understood us because he assured us it didn’t. I’m pretty sure it did, though.

Despite having cheese (we think), our very first traditional Ecuadorian dish was a real palate pleaser! So Amelia decided to figure out how to make it “sin queso” and this was her creation thanks to a little help from Laylita’s Recipes (an Ecuadorian native from Vilcabamba).

The traditional recipe calls for little cubes of mozzarella or similar cheese, but we’ve replaced that with cubes of tofu to give it the same texture without the saturated fat. It’s best to use organic tofu if you can find it. Most tofu sold in grocery stores in the states is organic.

The key to getting the traditional locro color and taste is the achiote powder. We had a hard time finding this in Denver, but we eventually found some in a Whole Foods. Two of the three Whole Foods and none of the other grocery stores we checked carried it.

We used olive oil to saute the onions and garlic, but you can replace that with a 1/4 cup of veggie broth to make this an oil-free dish.

Like any soup, this pairs well with a salad or some whole grain bread for dipping.

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Mexican Lasagna

Vegan Mexican Lasagna PinWe love our vegan comfort food, and it doesn’t get any better than this Vegan Mexican Lasagna! It’s savory, satisfying and muy delicioso!

Amelia found a recipe using tofu, salsa and a few other ingredients mixed together to make a crumbled tofu Mexican dish, but it had one major flaw. While it tasted delicious, it wasn’t very appetizing to look at. In fact, it looked a little gross.

After a few comments from the peanut gallery (me) about its lack of visual appeal, Amelia had the brilliant idea to use it as the “cheese” filling for a Mexican Lasagna. It kind of has a ricotta-y texture and tons of flavor, so that seemed like a good use for it.

Using our Vegan Overnight Lasagna as a guide, we created this super delicious Vegan Mexican Lasagna. In place of tomato sauce, we used salsa. In place of lasagna noodles, we used torn up corn tortillas. In place of cashew ricotta, we used Mexican tofu ricotta. And in place of Beyond Meat’s Beefy Crumbles, we used refried beans. We also didn’t let it sit overnight since the tortillas were soft and didn’t need to absorb the liquid like the lasagna noodles do.

We cooked it covered with aluminum foil for 30 minutes and uncovered for another 20 minutes and that seemed to work fine. It would be great topped with some vegan shredded cheese, but we wanted it to be an oil-free recipe so we skipped it and just added a little extra salsa when we dished it out.

Serve it with some diced tomatoes, avocado or a small side salad. Maybe even some extra refried beans. This is a great recipe to feed to friends and family. They won’t know it’s vegan.

Vegan Mexican Lasagna Cooking Video

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Teriyaki Tofu Stir Fry

Teriyaki Tofu Stir Fry PinThis Teriyaki Tofu Stir Fry recipe is filling, nutritious and satisfying. The teriyaki gives it a delicious sweetness and the soy sauce makes it savory. It’ll surely be a favorite recipe for your standard rotation.

There are a lot of myths and misinformation about soy and tofu floating around, thanks to the dairy industry. When they first noticed soy milk carving out a chunk of their dairy profits, they launched an all-out assault on soy to stop the hemorrhaging. Thankfully, it hasn’t worked and soy continues to edge out dairy and other unhealthy animal sources of protein.

Despite the false, unsupported claims made by the dairy industry in their soulless and arguably criminal attack on soy, according to Dr. Michael Greger, author of the bestselling book How Not To Die, “Soy seems to lower breast cancer risk, an antiestrogenic effect, but can also help reduce menopausal hot-flash symptoms, a proestrogenic effect…. Overall, researchers have found that women diagnosed with breast cancer who ate the most soy lived significantly longer and had a significantly lower risk of breast cancer recurrence than those who ate less.” [source]

Organic tofu is a healthy source of protein that has been consumed by the longest living humans for thousands of years. It’s time to put the anti-tofu movement to rest and embrace this nutritious food.

This recipe uses a little oil to make the tofu crispy, but you can replace that with vegetable broth if you eat an oil-free diet. Add some sesame seeds to the broth for a little natural oil that’ll be released during cooking.

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Pad Prik King with Tofu

Vegan Pad Prik King PinThis Vegan Pad Prik King was inspired by one of Amelia’s favorite Thai restaurants in Littleton Colorado, Wild Ginger. We used to go there almost weekly when she lived in the area. Now, since we live far away, Amelia decided to make us a vegan version so we can enjoy it whenever and WHEREver we want.

To reduce the calories, cut back on the brown sugar to your preferred level of sweetness. Also, be sure to buy vegan red chili paste. Many brands have fish sauce, which adds cholesterol that you just don’t need.

We like to serve this with brown rice, or you could serve it over some delicious Pad Thai noodles.

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Tofu Bacon

Tofu Bacon PinThis Tofu Bacon recipe is simple to prepare but tastes just like bacon. It’s perfect for your Vegan BLT or as a side dish for your Vegan Pancakes.

Real bacon is loaded with saturated fat and cholesterol. It’s one of the worst types of meat that people eat, and has been linked to cancer, heart disease and other serious illnesses.

This Tofu Bacon tastes like bacon, but without the harmful ingredients (and cruelty). Bacon gets its distinctive flavor primarily from the liquid smoke that’s poured over it during the curing process. By using the same liquid smoke along with maple syrup in this recipe, you get the same flavor.  It’s really challenging not to eat the whole batch!

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Balsamic Marinated Baked Tofu

Balsamic Marinated Baked Tofu PinThis Balsamic Marinated Baked Tofu recipe is easy and fast to prepare. It pairs well with Healthy Butternut Squash, Boiled Potatoes, Beet Greens, Sauteed Kale, a Side Salad or your favorite side dish.

Soy, and tofu in particular, have been attacked by the dairy industry for over a decade. When they noticed soy milk cutting into their cow’s milk profits, they funded a bogus “scientific” study and launched a smear campaign against soy.

Even though the study has been thoroughly debunked and soy has been proven to be healthy for us, the soy myth is still perpetuated by the uniformed, especially in the paleo and Adkins diet communities.

One of the most outlandish claims is that the phytoestrogens in soy will give men breasts. Plants do have phytoestrogen, but plant estrogen is completely different than animal estrogen. Unlike the animal estrogen in cow’s milk, phytoestrogen doesn’t have any affect on the human body.

Cow estrogen, however, does affect the human body. According to a 2015 study, “it seems that steroid hormones are very potent compounds in dairy foods, which exert profound biological effects in animals and humans.” As for cow estrogen hormones specifically, they have been shown to be responsible for “initiating and provoking of breast and prostate cancers.”

Regions of Asia have been consuming soy and tofu for thousands of years and they have some of the world’s longest life expectancies. Unless you have a soy allergy, you’re probably safe to consume it as part of a healthy, balanced plant-based diet.

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Vegan Huevos Rancheros

Vegan Huevos Rancheros PinThis delicious and easy Vegan Huevos Rancheros recipe will have you looking forward to breakfast. It’s loaded with protein and healthy carbs, but it’s oil free and gluten free.

You can use regular refried beans or mash up some pinto beans, but we prefer the refried black beans for a little extra flavor. Use organic corn tortillas instead of flour to keep it gluten free, but also because organic corn has more fiber than flour.

If you’re concerned about the carbs, you can use one tortilla instead of two, but it won’t have as much fiber and won’t be as filling. That means you’ll probably be hungry sooner and feel the need to snack.

You might also enjoy our Tofu Scramble.

Vegan Huevos Rancheros Instructional Video

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.

Tofu Egg Salad Sandwich

Tofu Egg Salad Sandwich PinIMHO, this Tofu Egg Salad Sandwich tastes far better than the real thing. I’ve never been an egg salad fan so I was very skeptical of this recipe, but Amelia out-did herself on this one. It looks, feels and tastes just like egg salad, but with less of the overpowering mayo flavor.

Turmeric is what gives the mashed tofu it’s yellow, egg-like color, but turmeric is also very medically beneficial on its own right. Thousands of studies have shown that turmeric can help with common ailments, such as high cholesterol, depression, inflammation, pain, arthritis, and more. HealthAmbition.com has a good article on the benefits of Turmeric.

We had a loaf of sourdough bread on hand, but you can use your favorite bread, preferably whole grain.

If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.