Vegan Feast; Baked Tofu and Vegetable Medley

Luis and I are by no means vegan but every once in a while I forget to defrost meat and have to make due. More and more of my friends seem to be discovering they have food allergies or just want to try to go vegan for awhile, so this meal is for you.

I recently discovered a recipe for Oven-Baked Tofu that is incredibly easy and tasty. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Take a typical package of tofu, remove from water and pat dry with paper towels. Place block of tofu on a pie dish (or something oven safe with sides) and brush with soy sauce. (If you don't have soy sauce you can just salt the block.) Let bake for 1 hour; then slice to serve.

A good accompanying dish is a variety of vegetables - also baked. For this combination, I used the following;

• 3 medium zucchinis, sliced
• 3 small summer squash, sliced
• 1 cup of cherry tomatoes
• 2 green peppers, sliced
• half large onion, sliced
• 10 cloves garlic, cut in half
• 1 teaspoon celery flakes
• salt and pepper to taste

Coat the bottom of the baking dish with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, add the vegetables, spinkle with herbs, salt and pepper and toss with 2 TBLS to 1/4 cup of olive oil. (Use more or less olive oil per your preference.) Place in an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees and bake for an hour.

You can use any combination of vegetables and herbs you want here. It is all about what you have around and want to mix.

Finally, I cooked up some quinoa - which a grain-like seed that is high in protein and has a pleasant, nutty flavor. It's easy to cook; boil 2 cups of water or stock, add 1 cup of quinoa, lower temperature and simmer for 10 minutes or until all the liquid is gone.

Chicken Burgers and Vegetable Saute

Chicken Chili Lime Burgers - yet another Trader Joe's instant meal - are needed today because I didn't defrost anything else. They are frozen and easily separated so I remove two from the box. I set them aside so that they will be ready to cook when everything is set up.

I decide to cook up a vegetable saute as the side dish to accompany the burgers. I have an orange pepper (washed, de-stemmed, seeded and sliced); 5-6 crimini mushrooms (washed and sliced); and 3 yellow summer squash (washed and cut to bite-sized pieces). I heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet and thinly slice half an onion. When the oil is hot - almost smoking - I add the onion and saute until just translucent. Then I add each vegetable and cook slightly before adding the next; onion, pepper, mushrooms and summer squash. When the vegetables get a bit brown but not mushy, I add 2-3 tablespoons of soy sauce, cover, and let cook for no more than 5 minutes. I typically don't want them too juicy - just covered with a bit of sauce. As the squash cooks it will release some additional fluid but if you still feel it needs more, add 1-2 tablespoons of water.

The burgers will be the last thing that I cook so I set up the plates with the fixings. I place a bit of fresh baby spinach on each plate with some sliced avocado (here I served 1/4 avocado per person but it is really up to you how much you want). I am all out of tomatoes but if I had them they would also be included on the plate. I am going to cook the burgers on the stovetop on a cast iron skillet. They do not take more than 5 minutes to cook - a bit over two minutes per side. As the chicken burgers are cooking, I put the whole wheat seeded buns in the toaster to get warm.

The burgers are quite filling and the addition of the vegetable saute makes them a not-so-guilty meal. Nice cold beer to set it all off and it is perfect.