Mattar Tofu

I wasn't entirely sure what this dish was supposed to be like when I saw it in 20 Minutes To Dinner, but it looked nice so I thought I'd give it a shot.

It turned out like a very mild curry. It's very healthy, everything in it is either dry fried, or steam fried. It was tasty enough, and easy, but I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to make it again. It was good, not great.

Served with the obligatory brown rice, blah blah blah.

Gary's Dish Washing Rating - 3/5

Caldo Verde

This is apparently a traditional Portugese soup, although I have no idea how authentic this particular recipe is. This recipe is another one from Bryanna Clark Grogan's book, 20 Minutes To Dinner. It's a flovourful, nutrient dense, potato and kale soup.

I think I got some weird pleasure out of tipping an entire bag of kale into my soup pot, but then, I am very odd.

Bryanna Clark Grogan is obsessed with her blender! Once again she called for the onions and garlic to be blended. I didn't see the point, so I minced my garlic and diced my onions. Who minds a little bit of chunk in their soup? I'm not one for dirtying up my blender if I can get away with it, it's so awkward to clean! Anyhoo, it's a really hearty, filling soup, and it makes loads, so there are plenty of leftovers, and leftover soup is one of my favourite lunches.

Gary's Dish Washing Rating - 1/5

Chimichangas, Sour Cream, and Salsa

These were really good! So good in fact that I just had some leftovers for breakfast - Shh... Don't tell anyone...


The chimichangas are filled with a low fat refried bean recipe from Bryanna Clark Grogan's book, 20 Minutes To Dinner. Her recipe says to blend all the ingredients together, but I prefer my beans with a little bit of bite to them, so I mashed my beans and then just added the remaining ingredients. I think it was much better that way. The recipe makes loads, so I'm going to freeze some of the leftovers for quick dinners when I need them.

Chimichangas are fun to make, they're almost like Mexican spring rolls. You put a little line of filling into your corn tortilla, fold in the sides, and then roll it up. Traditionally they are deep fried, but I sprayed a teeny bit of oil on them and baked them, which worked just fine.

The sour cream is also from a recipe in 20 Minutes To Dinner. I was glad to find a recipe for sour cream as the Tofutti stuff seems to have disappeared from all the Health Stores here. It wasn't as good as Tofutti, but it was a helluva lot better for you, so it's a trade off. The salsa is boring old shop bought stuff, so nothing to write home about there.

I'm currently waiting on a few cookbooks that I ordered recently. It's a very exciting time for a cookbook junkie like me! I'm waiting on The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook, The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen, and Please Don't Feed The Bears. Anybody who has these books should leave me a comment with what to make first. I'm so excited! I love getting new cookbooks!

Gary's Dish Washing Rating - 4/5
The high rating is mainly because of the homemade sour cream, and our blender being a royal pain in the butt to clean. If you already had that made, or bought some, it would only be a 2.