Tofu "Chicken" Nuggets

These tofu chicken nuggets got the disappearing plate of approval from my gang last night.  They didn't take that long to put together and were fairly simple to assemble.  These have a "skin" just like the Vegan Fried Chicken using rice paper wrappers.  Which makes them extra crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Tofu "Chicken" Nuggets

• 2 packages of extra firm tofu - frozen, thawed, pressed and then sliced into 6 slabs each (for a total of 12 slabs).
• 12 rice paper wrappers
• 1 cup non dairy milk
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tbsp paprika 
• 1 tbsp salt 
• 1 tbsp garlic powder 
• 1 tbsp onion powder 
• 1tbsp dried parsley
• 1 tbsp dried basil

Heat your oil.  I use our fryer at 350. (I am working on making a healthier baked version of these too)

Mix all the seasonings and spices with the flour into a shallow bowl.  

Pour the milk into another shallow bowl.

Now we need to put on the "skins."   One at a time soak the rice paper wrappers in a plate or shallow bowl with 1 cup of warm water in it.  Soak for about 20-30 seconds depending how warm your water is.  When it starts to get soft carefully take it out and spread it on your working surface, then place one tofu slab in the center and wrap it up like a burrito and set aside.  Repeat with all remaining pieces of tofu.

Now dip the wrapped pieces into the flour to coat, QUICKLY into the milk and then back into the flour and set aside.  

Once you have them all coated, I fried them 6 at a time for 3 minutes each side in our fryer at 350.

Let cool and serve.  We had ours with mashed lentils and some corn. 

My kids loved these!  If you wanted to add some extra flavor you could marinate your pressed tofu in some not chicken or veggie broth for a while before you start, that would make the inside have that "juicy" chicken feel (which grosses me out! but others seem to appreciate) and impart a lot more flavor to them.

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Mc Mama's Vegan Breakfast Sammies!

Time to share my favorite yummy breakfast sammies!!  


Making these for my husband helped him kick his Mcdonalds breakfast mcmuffin addiction.  This is the typical artery clogging breakfast he would have from McDonalds several times a week:  http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/full_menu/breakfast/sausage_mcMuffin_egg.html  These sammies require some prep work, so I usually make them in batches that last about a week so that everything is in the fridge and ready to go.  Once it's all prepped and marinated it's so easy to whip them up!

Step One: Making the egg substitute.

You need:

• 1 block of extra firm tofu.  Frozen, thawed and then pressed or squeezed until all the water is out. 
• Apple cider vinegar (about a cup)
• Nutritional yeast (about a cup)
• Dijon mustard (about 3-4 tablespoons)
• Tumeric (about a tablespoon)
• and about 1 teaspoon each garlic powder, onion powder, sea salt and pepper

In a resealable container mix apple cider vinegar, yeast and mustard.  Play around with the measurements until you have something that resembles mayo in texture and consistency.  Add the other spices and mix well.



Slice the tofu into about 1/4-1/2 slabs and dip in mixture to coat them really well and then line them up in the container cover and refrigerate overnight.



Step Two:  Making the "bacon"
I use the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance for fakin' bac'n.  I don't always have what I need on hand so I just go with what I have. This time around I didn't have tomato paste so I just skipped it and I was out of fresh garlic so I just put in a dash of garlic salt instead.



You will need:

• 3 tablespoons braggs, or tamari, or soy sauce
• 1/3 cup apple cider
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste
• 1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1 8 oz package tempeh
• 2 cloves of crushed garlic
• 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil

Slice the tempeh into thin strips.  Mix all the remaining ingredients in a resealable container and add tempeh.  Cover and let marinate at least an hour or two overnight is best.



The tofu and the tempeh will keep for about 5-6 days in the fridge.


Step 3:  Cooking and assembly

You need a few more ingredients for the final product:

• English muffins or sourdough bread
• Veganaise
• Tomato slices
• Avocado slices
• Soy cheese slice (I was out of cheese today so mine are sans cheese)
• Olive oil for cooking

Heat some olive oil in a large skillet and then brown your tofu slabs and bac'n until they are nice and crispy on both sides (about 3-5 mins per side).


While they are cooking slice your veggies, and spread a thin layer of mayo on your bread of choice.

After the tofu and bac'n are done remove from pan and set aside, I like to brown the bread in the oil and if you assemble the sammie and try to do it then you will have a mess on your hands when you try to flip it :)  So I learned to brown the two sides of the bread BEFORE assembly, I guess you could toast them in a toaster but doing it this way you get a kind of deli grilled sammie feel.

Ok so bread toasted, start stacking it on

 
and the last step is: TO DIG IN AND ENJOY!!

Tofu Scramble for Miniature Vegans aka a Tofu Scramble Your Kids Will Actually Eat

Ahhh tofu scramble... nothing screams breakfast more to me these days than a delish tofu scramble served with breakfast potatoes and a slice of toast.  However, my kids and I have VERY different ideas about what is delish... see to me this:


is a FABULOUS tofu scramble, but to my kids it is reason to run away from the table screaming.  "Ahhhh mom... what are all those bits!?"  "What are the yellow ones?"  "What are the red ones!?"  "Tomatoes, mom you know I hate tomatoes unless it's ketchup!"  "Mom you know avocado makes me barf!"  "Spinach!  Mom WHO eats spinach for breakfast!"


Sigh... so I decided to make a tofu scramble just for them with no "bits" of anything, no "barfy" stuff lol, no spinach... just a tofu scramble that in my opinion is scarily close to real scrambled eggs. 

It was super easy to throw together, only a handful of ingredients and the kids ate it all for breakfast this morning and asked for more!

Tofu Scramble Your Kids Will Eat 

• 1 Block of extra firm tofu
• 1/2 tsp tumeric 
• 1/2 tsp BLACK salt black salt is the key in making these actually taste like eggs!  It is sulfury and tastes like egg yolks!  I buy it in the bulk section of my local health food store. 
• 1tsp onion powder because the kids like the taste of food cooked in onions but not the oniony bits!
• 1 tsp ground mustard
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• Some fresh cracked black pepper to taste  If your kids get wigged out by the little black bits from pepper in their food you can try white pepper which adds the same flavors but is sneaky invisible! 
  
• 2 tbsp almond milk, added in at the end I'm sure any non dairy milk will work, I just had almond on hand today

So I want to tell you first; DON'T freak out about pressing your tofu for this dish!  Somethings like tofu steaks and patties etc... yes you need to press out the water to cut it and maintain the tofu's shape, but with a scramble you are mashing the hell out of it anyway so it really doesn't matter.  The trick is to cook off the water!  So open your tofu, drain and hand squeeze what water you can out of it.  Then crumble it into your pan.  You want to heat it over a med high heat and you will start to see the water coming out of the tofu like in the photo below.

Once you start to see the water releasing you want to keep cooking it, stirring occasionally until all the water cooks off (about 3-5 minutes).  Then it should look like this:

Add the rest of your ingredients and cook for about 5 more minutes.  

It all looked a little dry to me so I added a splash of almond milk and stirred that around and cooked for like a minute or two more.  The result was this:

 A tofu scramble my kids actually ate!  And tell me that does not look just like scrambled eggs!? 

Plated with some breakfast potatoes, fruit and toast I was very pleased with what we put in their bellies this morning!