Hello again! So sorry I had to abandon ya'll last time before I got to lunch recipes! The blog was getting far too long and I was running low on time and I wanted to do lunch justice, since I knew so many of you wanted recipes! I decided to slow down so much, in fact, that I am going to break lunch down a little bit MORE and give you some individual lunch recipes so you can pick what works for you! I have to warn you about my "recipes", though.... I only measure out the ingredients that count in terms of FAT, PROTEIN and CARB macros (so spices or condiments without fat, protein or carbs I just sprinkle as I please). So if you are someone who likes to follow the recipes EXACTLY I apologize because I don't measure everything so you aren't going to get a nice little list of measurements and a step by step guide. I'll tell you how to cook it, sure, but probably not what you're used to. But I think cooking SHOULD be personalized. I'm not the master. I put cilantro in just about EVERYTHING, whether it should belong or not. So if you don't like cilantro, don't put it in! I put relish in my egg salad because I'm weird and I love pickled foods; if you don't like relish then don't put it in! You're really the master of your own destiny here, so please use my "recipes" as more of "inspiration" but don't fret if you want to substitute some things out! I'll let you know the foods that went into the macro count and you can sub the rest as you please (or sub whatever you want, but know your macros are in your hands if you change the important stuff!) Today's Recipe....So I tend to meal prep on Sundays so I have enough to last all week. Otherwise lunch may or may not get taken to work and that probably wouldn't end well. I've made a few vegan keto lunches thus far and I have found this one to hold up the best throughout the week (though I think I used an expired product in my chicken salad the second week so I threw the rest away after a bought of food poisoning symptoms... I'll make it again and check the labels this time... fun fact, though: did you know it's not *illegal* to sell expired products in a grocery store? The expiration dates are just a "suggestion" anyway, so stores don't technically HAVE to pull them when they are past their "best by..." date. I learned this after about 2 dozen rounds of buying expired products and having to exchange them at a store which shall remain unnamed. And yet, still, I haven't learned...) OKAY, man am I birdwalking today, sorry! Coffee clearly hasn't kicked in (or maybe it's kicked in too much....) ALRIGHT BEFORE I KEEP TALKING ABOUT NOTHING, LET'S TALK FOOD. TODAY'S RECIPE IS: VEGAN EGGLESS TOFU EGG SALAD (Hence the title, duh) But First... Let's Talk TOFU!Okay let's get one thing out here right now... TOFU IS NOT FLAVORLESS NOR BLAND (NOR GROSS!!!!) I don't want to be the bearer of bad news here, but if you think tofu is not amazing and versatile and one of the most amazing ingredients out there, you're doing it wrong. If you're cutting open a pack of tofu and trying to eat it out of the tray with a spoon, then yes, it probably will be squishy and flavorless and... even I wouldn't try that... But if you INCLUDE it in a recipe, it will absorb all the flavors of your spices and marinades and you can make it more or less firm as you see fit.... HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE TOFU?! Even self-proclaimed "tofu-haters" have tried this recipe and declared it "really good" so if you're afraid of tofu this might be a good place to start. BUT keep in mind that for some reason NOT ALL TOFUS ARE CREATED EQUAL!!! And I don't even mean firm vs. extra firm vs. silken (that's a whole different conversation); I mean carb count. Next time you're at the grocery store, grab all the tofus they have and find the one with the LOWEST net carbs. At my store, there were three FIRM tofus 0, 1 and 2 net carbs. (Clearly, I chose the 0 net carb option haha). So if you have one of the higher net carb varieties (again, I have no idea WHY they are different... they just are) you are going to need to adjust your macro count accordingly. I lucked out with this current recipe, since the only major carb source ended up being my celery (ha!) The IngredientsI'm sure you all are just LOVING listening to me ramble on, but let's get to the recipe, shall we? I mean I don't have all day here, do you...? Now this picture you see here is actually from the FIRST time I made the eggless egg salad, not from last night when I made the batch from which you will momentarily see pictures, but the basic ingredients are still the same. I think the only major difference are in the batch pictured here I had onion and garlic powder added and in the new batch I excluded those spices but added cilantro. Again, DO WHATEVER TASTES GOOD TO YOU! I am here for SUGGESTIONS and ADVICE! I am not the recipe police! I am a BIG supporter of "as you go" cooking. It drives the people I cook for CRAZY because *apparently* my food never tastes the same twice, but I tend to wonder why this is an issue.... (???) BUT, if you INSIST on knowing what I put into my batch, here you go:
The Process...This recipe is exceedingly complicated, so I apologize in advance... It has three main steps:
(I was kidding about the complicated, by the way...) For those of you who are visual learners... Tofu:Cut your tofu into squares. You'll be mashing it up later, so don't worry about getting perfectly symmetrical squares. Some people prefer to press their tofu ahead of time to get all the moisture out, but for this recipe I don't find that necessary. If you want to, however, wrap your tofu in a towel or paper towel and put something heavy on top until the moisture has been extracted. Then proceed. Condiments and SPices:The only thing I measured here was the Vegenaise. I did 6 tablespoons so each serving would have just about 1 tablespoon of Vegenaise. (Though by now you all should know I would have put the entire jar into the bowl if I could have. Or just skip the rest of the ingredients and eat it with a spoon instead.... mmmmm.....) Gotta get my fat in! But you can do a little more or a little less, depending on your personal needs. For calculating how the macros divide, I find the Lose It app INCREDIBLY helpful. You can create custom recipes and add all your ingredients then check the macros per serving. So you can then adjust the ingredients either as you go or ahead of time until you get the recipe that fits best for YOUR macros (I will talk about MY macros for this in a bit, but remember we all have our own dietary needs, so adjust the recipe what works best for YOU! Need more fat? Add more vegenaise. Need more protein? Throw in another tub of tofu (as long as it's the right carb count). YOU DO YOU! As for the spices, start with a dash or just a bit more (I know a pinch is less than a dash... what would be the next step up from a dash...?). Then at the end you can taste and add more of whatever it needs. Produce: Celery and Herbs (AND MIX!)I am a big fan of crunch and a variety of flavors. So I added celery, parsley, cilantro AND dill. You could probably cut out the parsley and cilantro if you're not a huge herb fan. I would keep the celery and the dill, though, to keep that authentic egg salad flavor and it's not just a mush pile, but has some different texture to it. And the celery here is the only thing with carbs, so you can add a lot without worrying about it being too carb heavy (since you're dividing by 5 or 6 or whatever your serving size is). AND THEN SMASH IT UP! MIX IT UP! MASH IT UP! I use this pretty cool spoon mixer/masher tool I bought from some kitchen gadget party (Princess Party?) but you really could use a potato masher, or a fork, or your hands if you don't mind getting in there and getting dirty. Or, if you like your tofu more chunky, feel free to just mix it and leave the tofu chunks... chunky... Let's Talk MacrosSo, if you recall from my last post (I don't fault you if you didn't remember, since I had to look it up myself haha) I have the following macros left for lunch:
And this bad boy (Divided by 5 servings) has 266 calories that break down as follows:
So, with this for lunch, I am 10g Fat and 6g Protein short for the day.... But I have 9 carbs to spare to stay under my allocation. So, in this case, I would eat some Go Lo Foods Almond Butter as a after-dinner snack (15g Fat, 8g Protein and 1g net carb), AND/OR add some avocado (10g Fat, 1g Protein and 1.5g Net Carb) depending how closely I stuck to my plan for the rest of the day. Again, it's not about doing exactly what I do, but doing what works for YOU!!! The Finished Product...I ate this for dinner last night, so I added tomato and avo both because I didn't eat much the rest of the day. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE MACROS DO NOT INCLUDE THE AVOCADO OR TOMATO!!!! |
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About MeI have been carb-loving vegan for over a decade, but carbs stopped loving me as I approached 30... Archives |