Tofu Veggie Stir Fry

Most of the time, I try to grocery shop with a fairly solid menu plan in mind.  I like to buy veggies that can easily fit into a number of dishes so that I can stretch my budget while still having a variety of meals.  I have tried to do the "make a big pot of soup and eat it all week" thing, but I get bored easily, and John is even worse.  So instead, I am trying to make a couple of pots of different types of beans on Sunday (last week it was Tuesday) and use them throughout the week for different meals.  For example, this week, I did chickpeas and black beans.  The black beans made their way into a bunch of burritos, and a portion of the chickpeas went into the "tuna" salad, and I'll finish the rest tomorrow night.  

So all that is by way of saying, occasionally, I will see something that looks really good and get sidetracked, both in the grocery store and on my blog, apparently!  Last week, it was a napa cabbage.  I saw a really good one, and it made me want to cook up a veggie-packed stir fry.  I got it home and put it away, and then I promptly forgot about it for about 7 days.  I thought about it yesterday and realized it was about to be unusable, so tonight, it was stir fry time.  I am putting together my recipe here, but I would suggest using whatever veggies you have on hand that would hold up well in a stir fry.  

Tofu Veggie Stir Fry

1 tbsp canola oil

1/2 medium onion, chopped into half moon slices

1 medium bell pepper, chopped

3/4 cup carrots, peeled and sliced on the bias

1 cup sliced cremini mushrooms

4 cups napa or other cabbage

4 cloves crushed garlic

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tbsp red pepper flakes (more or less depending on your preference for heat)

1 block firm tofu, pressed and cubed

1/3 cup soy sauce or tamari

2 tbsp sugar or agave nectar

Garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste

Toasted sesame seeds and additional red pepper flakes for garnish

In large skillet or wok, heat oil over medium heat.  Add vegetables to pan in order listed, stirring for 30 seconds to a minute between.  After cabbage has been added, add garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes and stir fry until cabbage has reduced by at least half.  Add tofu cubes and mix with vegetables until heated.   Pour in soy sauce and sugar and mix well.  Continue to fry for several more minutes until cabbage has reduced in half again.  Add other spices to taste.  Serve over cooked brown rice and garnish with toasted sesame seeds and red pepper flakes if desired.

Eat with chopsticks if you have them!

This made enough for us to have a couple of bowls each, and I'm going to make a teriyaki tofu burrito with the rest for lunch tomorrow.

On a very different note, please take some time today to honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. in whatever way seems most appropriate to you.  He was truly a great man and someone who was lost far too soon.  Interestingly, Martin Luther King, Jr. has a connection to veganism.  His son Dexter Scott King and his widow Coretta Scott King applied his philosophy of non-violence to animals, and both became vegans, he for more than twenty years and she for more than ten before her death.  Please enjoy some quotes below from this truly inspirational civil rights champion and philosopher of peace.  His words are just as powerful and appropriate today as they were when they were spoken over 40 years ago.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom."

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. "

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. "

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."

"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. "

"Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him."

"Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality. "