Saturday Morning Update with Tofu Frittata

Good morning! I am not exactly certain what happened but life at my house got very hectic over the last 36 hours. When I get started doing anything my tendency is to get hyper focused. Yesterday my target was exercising and purging the house of unnecessary stuff. Not exactly a fun day, but I was very productive. However I didn’t really cook anything that I thought was photo worthy.

This morning on Tyler’s Ultimate he was making spaetzle, and is using what I consider a crazy amount of fat. But that is my reaction to most of what I see on the Food Network. However, the mustard sauce is a good idea and would be easy to make vegan and healthier than his. If anyone else watched this episode and wants to give it a try don’t forget that there are two spaetzle recipes on my blog. One with herbs and one without that you could use in place of the traditional egg and milk version of spaetzle.

I mentioned that we went to the eye doctor about 2 weeks ago. Well, yesterday afternoon my glasses came in and my friend Jackie brought them home with her last night. Since she lives just down the street I went to her place to have them adjusted and pick them up. Now I can see to drive safely again. Yay! I had eye surgery 10 years ago so I wouldn’t need to wear glasses again, so I was surprised by how much I like the look of these glasses. They really are adorable. Jackie and Dan did a great job picking out a nice pair for me. I never thought I looked good in glasses but these are so cute I may have to rethink my position on glasses now. Who am I? This is so out of character for me it is a little crazy.

Yesterday for dinner I made a quick spinach salad for dinner. To change it a little I added lightly steamed green beans and warm grape tomatoes. I made a veggie burger to go on top of the salad and when it was cooked I tossed a cup of grape tomatoes into the same pan and seared them quickly until they were just a little warm and soft. Then we used wine vinegar on the salad to cut the “fat” in the veggie burger. This worked really well. I may start warming my tomatoes for the salad more often. Last night I did it because I know that when tomato is cooked the lycopene is better absorbed. Also, I used the burger pan since it had a little residual fat in it from the burger. Lycopene is fat-soluble so it needs to be consumed with a little fat so the body can use it.

After dinner we had a carrot, apple and ginger juice. Even the hubby liked the juice, which made me happy. He will be drinking more of these since they are good for him and he liked it.

The last bit of news is that my hubby is going to Oklahoma City on Tuesday for work. While I was doing research on where he can eat I was reminded that 105 degrees is there. I sent the hubby the link to the restaurant and now he is excited to go there. The food is vegan and raw. I can wait to get a full report from the hubby. He better send me pictures during dinner. I had looked into attending the cooking school they have but didn’t want to be gone for a month. I can’t wait to hear what the hubby has to say about dinner. Who knows, I may change my mind and go to Oklahoma City for class after all.

Tonight we are probably having dinner with Walid and Jackie. I know, we are out for dinner again. I really haven’t been doing much cooking this week. But sometimes even I need a little break from the kitchen.

Today my kitchen project is to work on changing my steam baked seitan cutlets. I am trying to cut down on our flour consumption so I want to see if I can make a cutlet without breadcrumbs but with the same tender texture. I have a few ideas for how to do this. We will see if any of them work. I am hopeful.

This morning for brunch we had a tofu frittata with millet. When we were omni I used to make many different egg based dishes. One of my favorite dishes has always been the frittata. Whenever I had leftover pasta I would use that in the frittata. Since we are trying to reduce flour from our diet as much as possible that meant that pasta was out. This morning I decided to add a little millet to the dish to see how that would work. Here is the dish I made.

Tofu Frittata with Millet Over Spicy Tomato Sauce and Broccoli
Serves 2

Ingredients:

½ cup millet, dry
1 cup water
1 pinch salt
1 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
¼ cup water
12.3 ounces of organic silken tofu, firm
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons sprouted whole-wheat flour (can substitute whole wheat flour)
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion flakes
2 pinches of salt
1 pinch freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
sprinkle of paprika for color - optional
14 ounces tomato sauce
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes
4 cups frozen broccoli florets

Directions:

Combine the millet, water and salt and bring the water to a boil. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low and cook the millet for 15 minutes. Then turn off the heat and allow the millet to sit undisturbed for 5 minutes.

While the millet is cooking water sauté the onion until tender. Then cool the onion and drain any remaining water.

Combine the tofu, cornstarch, flour, nutritional yeast, turmeric, garlic, onion, salt, pepper and Dijon and puree in your food processor or blender.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly grease an ovenproof skillet to cook the frittata in.

Combine the millet, onions and tofu and stir so that everything is evenly distributed. Place the mixture in the skillet in an even layer and cook over a medium low heat to create a crust on the bottom of the frittata. If you like you can sprinkle a little paprika on top the frittata for color (I did). Five minutes is more than enough time to create the bottom crust. Place the skillet in the preheated oven and cook until the middle of the frittata is firm. This took 15 minutes in my oven. It may take a little longer in yours because I had the oven set on convection this morning.

While the frittata is cooking heat the tomato sauce with a pinch of red pepper flakes over low heat and hold until needed.

Cook the broccoli in the microwave until it has thawed enough that you can easily cut it into bite size pieces (1 ½ minutes in my microwave). Then cute the broccoli florets into ½’s or ¼’s and return them to the microwave until just warm (another 1 ½ minutes in my microwave).

To serve place the tomato sauce on the bottom of the plate. Top the sauce with the frittata and finish with the broccoli.

Nutritional information (does not include optional paprika):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 569.67
Calories From Fat (14%) - 79.18

Total Fat - 8.77g
Saturated Fat - 1.34g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 699.82mg
Potassium - 1915.51mg
Total Carbohydrates - 92.59g
Fiber - 19.29g
Sugar - 15.37g
Protein - 31.19g

Comments:

As you probably know I like to combine tomatoes and broccoli because the nutrition they contain is better absorbed when eaten together. Millet was used in place of pasta because it is a nutritious whole grain. Dijon mustard was something that I always used to add to egg dishes, which is why I included it here.

The texture of this dish is not exactly like egg, but it is close enough for us. It has a nice firmness, but is still tender. We like that the bottom got a little brown and almost crisp. By creating a little firmness on the bottom it makes it easier to remove the frittata from the pan. The millet did a nice job standing in for the pasta that I used in my traditional dish.

This dish if very filling and satisfying. Each serving of this dish contains approximately 4,075IU of vitamin A, 200mg of vitamin C, 300mg of calcium, 8mg of iron, 275mcg of folate, 260mcg of vitamin K, 550mg of phosphorus, 210mg of magnesium, and 17mcg of selenium. From a nutritional perspective I am quite pleased with this meal. It was tasty, contained a nice amount of protein, fiber and nutrition. What more can you ask of your food?

Unrelated note:

I am off to experiment with seitan. My husband is in mourning already. I had to promise that my new recipe would be just as good as my old one or he could have that instead. Wish me luck.