Eggless, Dairy Free "Egg" Salad

I've been eating tofu a lot lately, and it's not because I need to. I love eggs and meat, am not going vegan, and have no food allergies. But I love the taste of tofu, and I love how light and easy it is to digest. It's cholesterol free, virtually carb free, low in calories, and still packs protein. My stomach feels untroubled after eating tofu--feels more relaxed and slim.

I was a little wary of tofu at first. It seemed foreign and tasteless. Then I realized it's what you do with tofu that makes it delicious--just like the dairy free products I use. I started putting it in scrambled eggs and omelets, then added it to flavorful dishes like curry and soup. I really got crazy and made a recipe using tofu to make dairy free chocolate mouse. It's pretty delicious. I love that Chipotle now has a tofu option for their burritos. I usually get chicken, but after trying the sofritas, I was completely sold. I noticed a huge difference in how my stomach and body felt after eating a burrito bowl with sofritas versus chicken. Tofu is just so much easier for the body to digest.

This tofu recipe is quick to mix up and full of flavor. Experiment with different spices to see what suits your tastes. Eric is adverse to this particular recipe because it has sweet relish in it--he hates vinegary things. But I love pickles. For a totally different flavor, I want to try it with curry next. The best thing about this tofu salad? No egg boiling, peeling, or slicing!

Ingredients:

1 12oz package silken tofu
1/4 cup vegan mayonaise
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped yellow onion
2 tablespoons sweet relish
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
green olives for garnish *optional

Directions:

1. Remove tofu from packaging, draining water, and place on paper towels. Pat dry. Mash or crumble the tofu into medium bowl.

2. In a small bowl, mix vegan mayonnaise, turmeric, pepper, paprika, mustard, salt, and then add to tofu.

3. Mix in celery, onion, relish, and parsley. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Serve on crackers as an appetizer, in a bowl as a veggie dip, or make an egg salad sandwich. It's so delicious!

   
       

Olive and Pimento Cream Cheese Alternative

I really miss cream cheese. I have cravings for it all the time. When I lived in Pittsburgh, PA, one of my favorite places to go for breakfast was Bruegger's Bagels, where they had a delicious selection of cream cheese to choose from, including strawberry, pumpkin, and, my all time favorite, olive and pimento.

I used to make my own flavored cream cheese when we first came out to California and had great success with pumpkin, blueberry, and olive pimento, but when dairy started bothering me I stopped. I've tried to come up with cream cheese alternatives, first by using creamy goat cheese instead. I mixed it with raspberry preserves to make raspberry cream cheese, and it was a great option, until goat cheese started bothering me as well. I thought about trying Toffuti cream cheese alternative, but I could never bring myself to buy it--it's made with hydrogenated oils and therefore contains trans fat. Why put that stuff into my body?

Then, when I was a Trader Joe's the other day, I found a container of cream cheese alternative called "This is Not a Tub of Cream Cheese This is a Tub of Non-Dairy Spread." Yeah, that is literally what it's called. It is made out of coconut oil, sunflower oil, soy protein, and lots of thickeners. It is cholesterol free and also free of hydrogenated oils. The only problem with it is that it tastes nothing like cream cheese. It just looks and spreads like cream cheese. So I went to work to try to make it edible. I figured that adding strong flavor to it would really make a difference, so I mixed in some green olives and the spread became really something to be happy about. I devoured the two halves of my mini bagel with olive pimento spread and needed more. So I made another one. And another. It's almost like eating cream cheese again! Definitely worth a try. I would love to try pumpkin next.

Ingredients
1 container This is Not a Tub of Cream Cheese This is a Tub of Non-Dairy Spread
1/2 cup Manzanilla olives stuffed with minced pimentos.
1 teaspoon Manzanilla olive juice

Directions
1. Dice the green olives with pimentos still inside.


2. In a small bowl, thoroughly mix the diced olives with the cream cheese alternative and the olive juice. You can easily add more olives if you want. The more olives added the more it tastes like green olives and the less it tastes of the spread.


3. Spread it on your favorite toasted bagel and watch it disappear before your eyes!