healthy meat-free dinners and snacks

It’s been an interesting meat-free journey over the past month. I will declare January the month of experimenting with tofu.
1. I got some medium firm tofu, sliced it and fried it in a pan with avocado oil with a little sesame oil added in, then sprinkled sesame seeds on it while it was still in the pan.
2. To the tofu, I added sauteed tomatoes and onions.
3. And later in the week, mushrooms, red onions and spinach.
Despite all the flavorings, the tofu was still pretty bland, but an okay departure.
4. I defrosted a butternut squach-cauliflower soup I made a while back, then added the sauteed tomatoes and onions that I had left over from the tofu topping and tore some raw spinach leaves for texture.
5. This meal was very filling. While cooking whole wheat cous cous (5 minutes on the stove), I chopped up into tiny pieces some raw cauliflower, carrots and arugula. This was great to have in the fridge to fend off hunger. I also added a handful of hemp seeds.
6. Pea pods and broccoli stems got sauteed with olive oil and garlic, and I opened my bag of frozen, pre-cooked shrimp for a very fast, healthy dinner. I love broccoli stems, after removing the hard skin on the outside, the inside has a wonderful texture.
7. Have you heard of Hemp Butter? It’s made from hemp seeds (which look a little like sesame seeds). Think peanut butter with an earthier, greener taste. Not bad! I am trying different hemp products to write about in Organic Spa Magazine, so stay tuned! In this photo, is the hemp butter spread on a crispbread of rye and sesame, from Ryvita.
8. I whipped up this snack in seconds: tofutti, avocado and halved cherry tomatoes with a sprinke of cayenne pepper on a Wasa Rye Cracker. So good, I had another.
For the month of February I will be experimenting with beans.