What's for Dinner?

Everything seems so busy the closer to Christmas it gets. I didn’t even make it to the grocery store this weekend. I had to scrounge around the kitchen on Sunday to put together a nice dinner, which I wanted to do especially for Chase since he had to work until after 7:00.

I started with something I thought Chase would really enjoy – Tofu Pie. I mixed together a pound of crumbled tofu, 2 cups of brown rice, a can of red beans, a whole sautéed onion, a cup of chopped carrots, a half cup soy milk, some garlic, rosemary, thyme, and red pepper flakes in a huge bowl. Then I stuffed and packed it into a deep dish 10-inch pie plate and baked it forever. Here it is out of the oven.




It was huge!

I don’t think Chase was able to eat even one-eighth of this pie. It’s a good thing he likes it because it will last him quite a while. I made the Mustard Sauce from V-con to put over the pie. I put some on chickpeas and it was yum!

For a side dish I made Cabbage and Peas. I thawed half a bag of frozen peas, then sautéed them with Indian spices - cumin, tumeric, fennel, and garam masala – and then added in half a head of sliced green cabbage and let it soften. We both enjoyed this a lot.

Always room for roasted veggies – this time potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and green peppers.

Here is Chase’s plate…

… and here is my plate - no soy for me.

I’m quite tired of seeing and smelling sugary sweets, as cakes and cookies and candies from clients and vendors arrive at my office at least 3 times a day (and are eaten up in a matter of hours). But Chase likes to have dessert and I came up with something that turned out quite nice. I love the recipe for Pineapple Lemon Bars in Vive, especially the oat crust. Pineapple and lemon seemed a little too “sunny” for the day, so I made the recipe into Apple Cranberry Orange Bars. I subbed in one fresh chopped apple and about ¾ cup dried cranberries for the pineapple, and orange juice and zest for the lemon.

We had it warm with a scoop of Rice Dream, but melting ice cream is not a pretty picture.

I also made lots of my ever popular Texas Trash for office gifts. If you need an addictive snack to have on hand during the holidays, I highly recommend it.

I am super stressed with many unexpected and very large expenses this month and not able to bring joy to those I love with the gifts I had hoped to give them. So I leave you with this quote which comforts me – a reminder of the true spirit of the season.

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. -- Burton Hillis