Tofu and Guisantamole

How was everyone’s Monday? It was cold and dreary here, yet again, but the weather people are promising sunshine and warmth by the end of the week! I’ll believe it when I see it. Chicago in the Spring is kind of crazy… one day its 35 and cloudy, and the next: 65 and sunny. Makes no sense!

I mentioned yesterday that my mom had made a fantastic dip for Easter dinner at her friend’s house aptly named “Green Pea Guacamole.” Being the Spanish teacher that I am, I couldn’t leave well enough alone, so I had an interesting thought process on the way home (does anyone else do this?):

• Guacamole comes from the word “aguacate” for avocado and “mole” for sauce.
• Man I really want an avocado
• I just bought peas for mom’s green pea guacamole
• The word in Spanish for green pea is “guisante”
• I still really want an avocado… no wait, I don’t have the Points®
• I could call the green pea guacamole something creative…
• What would look good on the blog?
• GUISANTAMOLE!

Yup. That’s how my brain works. Series of random thoughts that somehow wind up back at the original point seems to be the trend lately… anyway, thats where I got the title for this post! Mom, what do you think about the name for the dip?

Originally, this “guisantamole” was my grandma’s recipe. She’d make it in her Cuisinart, and every time she’d make it, she’d remind us “this is made of PEAS!” The following recipe makes 6 HEFTY dip servings.

106 calories, 2 g. fat, 5 g. fiber per serving!

Guisantamole

Grandma’s Green Pea Guacamole

Ingredients

4 c. thawed frozen green peas

1 large red onion, cut into chunks

1 large bunch cilantro

juice of 2 limes

1 jalapeño, cut into pieces

salt, pepper, and cumin to taste

Directions

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor (or large bowl if using a hand blender) and pulse to combine, and then blend until smooth. Enjoy with tortilla chips or veggies, or even as a spread on a sandwich!

Again, a simple recipe that is much more than the sum of its parts. It really gets better the longer it sits, so I’m excited to have some tomorrow.

Forget chicken on a salad, gimme baked tofu!

Tonight’s dinner was really simple and delicious. I made some standard baked tofu (using the fantastic GC Tofu Recipe) but I did something a bit different. I cut my tofu into cubes instead of slabs, and cooked it in a super-hot skillet instead of in the oven. I don’t think I’ll bake tofu again! This was half the time and twice the taste! I think Krista was the first one to tell me about doing that, and its AWESOME! Thanks Krista! I put my crispy tofu cubes on top of a salad with some TJs fat free Asian sesame vinaigrette, and all was good in the hood.

Without even realizing it, I did really well today with Coco‘s salad challenge! I had a chicken Caesar at lunch today, and then this huge salad for dinner! I feel so much better when I eat lots of vegetables over lots of junk… and I’m so relieved to be eating/cooking my own food this week!

Rose had a post today where she talked about dreading a certain day of the week… and I realized while reading (and commenting) that I really dread Tuesdays. It’s my longest day of the week, and Friday just seems SO FAR AWAY! I’m going to enjoy my Monday night before the Terrible Tuesdays sink in… sigh…

Tagged as: family recipe, salad, simple recipe, tofu