We had a delicious, easy to prepare meal last night topped with a triple layer coconut birthday cake. We made Creamy Tofu and Broccoli Skillet from The Vegetarian Family Cookbook. We added red and roasted bell peppers and used nutritional yeast instead of faux cheese. A tip: many of the recipes in this book call for baked tofu. Sixteen ounces costs about $8.00 at Whole Foods. I baked my own for $1.29.
I also made a simple salad that everyone went crazy over. I took a bag of broccoli slaw, added shredded carrots, some craisins, and a can of black beans, and tossed it all together with a bottled lime cilantro vinaigrette.
I also made the Polenta Napoleans from the recipe given to me in macrobiotics class. The stacks are made of baked polenta and two different pestos, and are topped with a mushroom onion sauce. The sundried tomato pesto was good, but I have to say the pepita cilantro pesto is about the best thing I've ever eaten. I don't know if I toasted the pumpkin seeds just right or what, but it was so great.
The coconut cake takes two days to make. I used a recipe from Dining With Friends. I haven't made anything else from that book, but it has lots of tasty looking recipes I would like to try. Between the cake layers is a coconut custard creme which is so good. I think I like it better on its own. The frosting is a basic buttercream and beautiful toasted large flakes of coconut. It's a shame I didn't get pictures to do it justice.
Too bad my hometown chef couldn't beat Bobby Flay last night, but he made a great showing. I endured 20 minutes of meat cutting to support my chef! I always try to imagine tofu in place of the meats on all the food shows, or concentrate on the sauces and side dishes, but it's not always easy.
4 comments:
I'm cuckoo for that coco cake.
Was it your b'day? Happy b'day!
$8 for baked tofu at Whole Foods. Wow! That's nuts! WTG on doing it yourself instead. The Poletna Napoleans looks terrific. Pepita Cilantro Pesto ....just the name alone sounds tasty! You did a beautiful job on the coconut cake. Wish I had some :)
That polenta dish sounds delicious!
Everything looks fantastic...especially dessert!
That is one fabulous looking spread. I think I'd go crazy for your salad, too. Yum! And the coconut cake looks divine, and I can almost taste that custard- was it gluten free? I'm awed.
I know what you mean about watching the meat-filled cooking shows, esp. on the Food Network. I usually watch and mentally substitute, like you said, but sometimes I get really sick of it. Fortunately, I have a couple of vegetarian cooking shows I can watch here on PBS...
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