Dinner

My daughter loves manicotti and I decided to make a batch tonight. She readily agreed to help. It ended up being too late for my wife, who enjoyed leftovers; she will eat this tomorrow and I may cook a tofu dish for my daughter and me. I used Jovial brand manicotti shells  made from brown rice. I used the recipe that they had on the box as a rough starting point. In one pan, I made a sauce with a 14.5 ounce can of crushed tomatoes, along with peas (my daughter's request; I would have used artichoke hearts), spinach, butternut squash, nutritional yeast, oregano, salt, pepper, and red chili powder. As it simmered, I prepared the filling. I had purchased on sale Kite Hill brand "ricotta cheese" made from almonds. The box's recipe called for 16 ounces of ricotta, but my tub was half that size, so we needed to improvise to get additional bulk for the stuffing (the recipe even had additional items - 4 ounces of Parmesan cheese, a beaten egg, and 4 ounces of mozzarella che...

I decided to make risotto like I described last May  with a 1 to 2 ratio of arborio rice to water pressure cooked for 5m, along with cubes of potato and carrot, plus peas, onion, and garlic. I also prepared tempeh (tofu for my daughter; I had some tofu, too) in the air fryer at 350°F for 4m. Results Pending Ideas for the future Pending

I prepared Anasazi beans in my my  Instant Pot  pressure cooker by soaking for 8 hours then cooking with just enough water to cover for 23m. I put the beans in a large  Saladmaster  skillet pan after sauteing, without oil or anything else, shallot slices. I mixed in bell pepper, salt, and cumin, and cooked for a few minutes. I then added 1/2" cubes of fresh tomato and cooked for another 2 minutes or so. I served alongside some quinoa that I had made (1 part quinoa to two parts water and a vegan bouillon cube, brought to a boil and then, with the heat off but covered, let stand for 10m or so). Originally, I was going to experiment with using cranberry sauce mixed into the beans, but I had purchased some tasty organic cranberry sauce that tasted so good that I decided to top the quinoa with the sauce so that the sauce could be used by itself, with the quinoa, or with the beans, as each of us desired. Results Pending Ideas for the future I should indeed experiment with ...