Recipes

Recently I have been trying to create more meatless meals, mostly lunches, to lessen my meat intake. It is kind of crazy to me that I was a vegetarian for nine years (yup! nine years) and now find that I eat meat at almost every meal in some form or another. So I am trying to add in more meatless meals but also trying not to go on carb overload. A good solution to that has been tofu. This recipe was inspired by a salad of the same name I have seen at Whole Foods, but I decided to create my own. You can make a million variations on this with whatever vegetables you like, and you could even throw in some cheese or deli meat if you wanted. If you have this as a meal, you will probably need two servings, which would be 6 points plus.

Tofu Antipasto
Servings: 8
Serving Size: 3/4 cup
Nutritional Info: 115 calories, 7 g of fat, 9 g of carbohydrates, 4 g of fiber 7 g of protein * 3 P+

Ingredients
12-ounce package silken extra-firm tofu (that has been dried and pressed)*
12-ounce jar roasted red peppers (water packed), drained and sliced in strips
11-ounce jar (water-packed) artichoke hearts, rinsed and drained
7-ounce can (water-packed) hearts of palm, rinsed and drained and thickly sliced
1 cup grape tomatoes
1 small celery stalk, trimmed and diced
1 large fresh red or green pepper, chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup pitted olives, sliced (I use a mix of green and black)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp capers, drained and minced
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
1. Combine the garlic, capers, mustard, salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar with a whisk in a medium sized bowl to make the dressing.

2. Once the tofu has dried, cut it into smaller pieces and add it to the dressing. Cover and let it marinate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

3. When you are ready to serve, combine with the rest of the ingredients. Enjoy! If you want to add a little more texture to your tofu, you could also slightly grill it by searing it for 1-2 minutes on each side using a grill pan.

*It is recommended that you always press or dry out your tofu before using it to take out the added moisture. I follow this simple technique to dry mine out. Cut tofu crosswise into 6 slices. Arrange in 1 layer on a triple layer of paper towels and top with another triple layer of towels. Weight with a shallow baking pan or baking sheet and let stand 2 minutes. Repeat weighting with dry paper towels 2 more times.