The "wintry mix" outside meant that I stayed home today instead of going grocery shopping and baking Christmas cookies with a friend who lives near the store. It's been a lovely, non-school productive but gotten things cleaned, day. I haven't actually curled up with hot chocolate and a book (neither one actually), but still managed to wear PJs all day.
Wasn't really in the soup mood and I'm running "low" on groceries (enough to make it through Wednesday, no problem, could probably go a full week if necessary), so I looked online for recipes. Recently I've been looking at vegan blogs, so maybe it's not a surprise that I ended up looking at Spinach Tofu Stuffed Shells.
I had frozen spinach, because I always have frozen spinach (except I'm out now, yikes!). I had tofu, because I wanted to try cooking with it (never had before). I had canned tomatoes to make sauce. I didn't have the shells, nor do I keep rice cheese, but I decided to try it anyway. It's not pretty enough to take a picture, but, definitely worth noting for the future. My annotated adaption is below. Tofu is something that I'm learning to like. The texture of it scared me for so long. I don't like it when it's rubbery, which it can be way to often. In this dish though, it was smooth and creamy. Happy, not scary.
Tomato Sauce. Any sauce would work. This was just tonight's incarnation.
1 32 oz can crushed tomatoes
Generous shaking of basil
Sprinkling of oregano
Sprinkling of pepper
Half a dash of salt
2 cloves chopped garlic
Simmer sauce while pasta cooks and preparing noodles.
Noodles.
Half a bag of multi-colored whole wheat nugget pasta
1 package frozen spinach
1 package tofu
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Dash of salt
Sprinkling basil
Boil water and cook pasta. Drain when done.
Defrost spinach in microwave. (I suppose it'd be nice if you knew you were doing this to just let it thaw during the day.) Squeeze extra water out.
Blend tofu, olive oil, and salt in food processor. Should be smooth.
In medium mixing bowl, stir tofu mixture, spinach, and basil together. Stir pasta in.
The Casserole
Oh gosh, start preheating the oven now. (Unless you read ahead and remembered to do this earlier.) 350 F.
Tomato Sauce
Noodle Yumminess
Cheese (I used three handfuls of grated mozzarella)
Pour tomato sauce into 9 by 13 casserole dish. Cover bottom of pan half-inch to inch thick. No, you won't use all the sauce.
Spoon out the noodle yumminess, distributing it evenly across the casserole.
Sprinkle on cheese.
Put in oven. The original recipe calls for covering for the first 15 minutes, taking the cover off and then cooking 20 more minutes. I just put it in the oven, washed dishes, remembered something about covering it, put some aluminum on, kept on cooking. I'm not really sure how long it was in. Longer than 35 minutes though. Enough time to wash all my dishes from today.
Take out and enjoy.
2 comments:
loves it when you post your cooking news, even if i would never have the skills to replicate your recipes. it's always fun to hear what you're making. perhaps you could have a recipe/cooking-based blog? :)
I could have so many themed blogs, but I'd never keep track of them. The school one. The crafting one (or few). The cooking one.
So you get a smorgusboard here instead. With the variety to treat you/annoy you in turn.
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