We are all busy women here. Working women, working moms, stay at home moms, single moms. We are on the go. Taking care of our families as well as taking care of ourselves. The food aspect of taking care of ourselves is sometimes difficult. Food prep, a gazillion steps to make one recipe, I get overwhelmed just reading those recipes let alone actually cooking it. So this week I wanted to bring you a family meal that is delicious and will give you leftovers for lunches afterwards.
This recipe uses packaged already shredded veggies, a bottled sauce and precooked rice. The only chopping you will need to do is green onions (though some stores do carry precut green onions) and cutting the tofu into cubes. It is that easy.
Now if you love to cook and chopping veggies is the way you calm down after a long day at work- have at it! If you do not want to use tofu- you could use a lean protein of your choice. You could also add in other veggies if you like. Broccoli and snap peas would be nice. Water chestnuts, bean sprouts would also be good.
Sweet and sour sauce: I have a favorite recipe from Nom Nom Paleo by Michelle Tam that is in her first book. But it is just another step that I don’t have time for. So I look for a sweet and sour sauce that doesn’t have any high fructose corn syrup. Locally, for me that is Kikkoman’s Sweet and Sour sauce. If you eat meat as your protein of choice- check out Nom Nom Paleo. Even if you don’t eat meat- get it from the library, she has a lot of great healthy sauce recipes.
I prefer the super firm tofu from Trader Joe’s. You do not have to press the water out. It has a great, meaty texture. Just slice and cube. For rice you have several options. You could cook the rice yourself, you could get precooked frozen brown rice from Trader Joe’s or you could get the organic brown rice from Walmart that is already cooked and you just have to microwave to heat up.
This makes a large amount! It fed 4 of us for dinner with 5 servings leftover for lunches during the week.
Let’s get cooking!
Ingredients:
2 blocks of super firm high protein tofu (Trader Joe’s)
1 10 ounce bag of shredded cabbage
1 10 ounce bag of shredded cabbage mix (purple and green cabbage with carrot shreds)
1/2 – 3/4 cup of chopped green onions (I love green onions so I always add the 3/4 cup)
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 bottles Kikkoman sweet and sour sauce
1tsp to 1 tbsp chili paste (we love spicy so we add at least 1 tbsp but if you are not into spicy go for the 1 tsp)
cold pressed olive oil
Cooked brown rice
I use an electric skillet for this- as it holds more of the veggies. Heat up to medium high heat and add in a tbsp of olive oil. Add in the tofu and sprinkle with the nutritional yeast. Cook until golden brown. Add in the garlic and green onions, stir to incorporate. Add in the cabbage. Stir until the cabbage is all mixed in with the tofu and other ingredients. When the cabbage has wilted down some add in the sauce (I mix the sauce with the chili paste first so that I can taste to see if it is spicy enough). Once the sauce is heated up it is done. Serve over brown rice.
This makes great leftovers. I try to have it in the refrigerator all the time as the boys will eat it for lunch or a snack.