SlowCooked Peanut and Spinach Tofu

Posted by amanda in easy, peanut butter, recipe, satay, slow cooker, soy sauce, spinach, tofu, vegan, vegetarian

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I've recently added a slow cooker to my kitchen, and it's completely changed the way M and I eat throughout the week. This is our current favourite thing to have on hand. It packs a serious amount of protein, and is a great way to eat spinach.

You'll need:

• a slow cooker/crock pot
• a skillet

• 2 blocks of firm tofu, rinsed and cut into one-inch cubes
• 1/2-1 cup of peanut satay sauce (I like President's Choice Memories of Szechuan)
• 1 cup peanut butter (M likes crunchy best)
• 1/4 cup terriyaki sauce
• 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1 cup of water
• 2 tbsp minced ginger (mine are heaping)
• 5-10 oz of baby spinach (I put about half a container into cook, and then add fresh spinach to the dish throughout the week, to liven it up without wilting)
• 1/2 cup peanuts, crushed roughly (optional)
• 1-2 tsp chili flakes (optional)

 To make this goodness:

Brown the tofu in the skillet by lightly frying it, using cooking spray or olive oil. Set aside.

In a bowl, stir together everything except the tofu and spinach. Move this sauce to the slow cooker.

Add the tofu, and stir. As the tofu cooks in the sauce, check on it every once in a while to evaluate its consistency. I like my sauce fairly thick, but if you like it thin, add a little more water until you reach your desired sauciness. Because you won't lose any water in the cooker, what you see is what you will pretty much get, though it will of course thicken a little through cooking, and will pull together nicely.

Cook on low for 3-4 hours.

At 3.5 hours (or half an hour before you turn it off), add your spinach, mixing it in gently. The goal is for the spinach to wilt, but not get too icky.

Serve hot, and don't be afraid to add more spinach ALWAYS MORE SPINACH!

xo
A

 

Sweet and Sour Pork Chops

Posted by CK in crockpot, easy, honey, pork chops, recipe, soy sauce

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Sweet and Sour sauces are always so delicious. I always wondered how to make a really good one to use on pork chops, chicken wings or anything else that I fancy! So after a good long while of studying various recipes on the Interwebs, I whipped up this amazing sweet and sour sauce that I used on pork chops in my crockpot!

Ingredients (covers 5 medium sized pork chops):

• 1/3 cup of reduced sodium soya sauce
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1 tbsp of cider vinegar (if you don't have cider vinegar, you can use pure apple juice)
• 2 tbsp of brown sugar
• 1 tsp of cornstarch (more if you'd like your sauce to be thicker)

Simply mix all your ingredients together. Put the pork chops in your crockpot and pour the sauce over it. Set your crockpot on high for 3-5 hours or on low for 6-8 hours.

That's it! Deliciousness! :) I bet this would be amazing to marinate chicken wings in for game night!

Enjoy!

- CK

Delicious Homemade Pad Thaï

Posted by CK in pad thai, peanut butter, recipe, soy sauce, vegetarian

1 comments

Amanda and I are big fans of Thaï food - I'm particularly a big fan of pad thaï, minus the excessive amount of calories (pad thaï portions in restaurants can rack up to 1500 calories!!!). In the homemade version I made last night, I'm positive that while the calorie count can be slightly high, it is nothing compared to what you'd find in a restaurant and it pretty much tastes the same as a bonus ;)

So without further ado, go ahead and try this at home:

Ingredients:

• Magical pad thaï sauce:
• 1/2 cup soya sauce (if you have the reduced sodium kind, even better)
• 1/4 cup of lime juice
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp of peanut butter
• The rest:
• 1/3 pack of flat noodles (or whatever you have on hand)
• 10 regular sized uncooked frozen shrimps
• 2 celery stems, diced
• 2 smalls carrots, diced
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 egg whites
• vegetable oil

Preparation:

1. Soak your frozen shrimp in cold water for about 10 minutes (long enough so that it's easy to peel the shell off).
2. Cook the pasta according to directions on the package.
3. Next, scramble up the egg whites in a small skillet and put aside.
4. While all this is happening, get your pad thaï sauce mixture ready and put aside.
5. Mince the garlic cloves and fry them up in a wok for about 2 minutes.
6. Remove the shell from the shrimp and add to the garlic.
7. Once the shrimp is almost cooked (almost fully pink), add the celery and carrots and cook for about 3 minutes.
8. In the meantime, your pasta should be ready. Once it is, drain and add to the wok along with the eggs, mix well for about a minute or so.
9. Add the magical pad thaï sauce to the mixture and mix well until everything is well coated and the peanut butter has melted.

Additional options: You can add red pepper flakes for spiciness and peanuts if you want more authenticity (by authenticity, I mean restaurant style - I'm also quite positive this is not close to what we'd get in Thaïland...). For meat-eaters, add beef or chicken & for vegetarians, add some tofu (or replace the shrimp with tofu)! :)

This dish is great because it has so many variations. Plus, it only took around half an hour to cook (including prep time) and yielded about 3 portions.

Enjoy!

-CK