The latter part of this pregnancy is kicking my butt. While I feel like I’ve been lucky (in terms of pregnancy symptoms, that is) in the first and second trimesters, the third is more challenging than I anticipated. So though my 31-week belly really isn’t big enough to complain about (see above) and my weight gain is itty bitty, my body constantly aches and I feel like I have a permanent hot flashes. I’m burning up ALL THE TIME.
But alas, since we got an AC window unit in our house I’ve been slowly getting back into cooking again. I probably only cook real meals four times a week, but it’s better than nothing, right? Here’s what we’ve been cooking lately:
Cheeseburger Pizza (We made this light on the meat/cheese, and heavy on the veggies. Might be better if we had added more meat. 7/10 if you’ve got a decent, flavorful pizza crust.)
Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps (10/10. These were amazing and had so much flavor. If you didn’t already know, you would never guess it was tofu. Avocado is a MUST. Surprisingly filling, so with the three of us we had plenty of leftovers for the next day. Leftovers microwave great!)
Baked Onion Rings (9/10…one point taken off for the amount of work these are to make. We cut the recipe in half and gobbled down the entire plate. Would definitely make again!)
Sour Cream Coffee Cake / Funfetti cupcakes (coffee cake homemade, funfetti obviously boxed)
We’ve also had White Chicken Chili (Yesterday Tyler called this his second favorite meal I make), zucchini and carrot fritters, bruschetta, and BLT wraps. I’ll try to post more soon!
Hey Alie! In going to make the vegetarian lettuce wraps for dinner tonight. I watched a ton of movies on Netflix and I’m taking the plant based plunge. I’m doing a juice fast now, but I figured why wait to feed my family good food right? My question is, do you always press your tofu and do you always get “extra firm”? I read the recipe and it didn’t mention either. Thank you!! I’ll let you know how it goes!
Oh yay!! Seriously, it is all about getting the right recipes. At first when we weaned off meat, I tried to replace it with other things or fake meat. But that didn’t really work, so instead of replacing the meat we just made vegetables, beans and grains the stars of the meal. Our cooking also was inspired by many other cultures instead of being heavily American.
I generally use extra firm tofu. I don’t always press it because I forget to plan ahead, but definitely try to get as much water out of it as possible! Extra firm is for grilling and baking, and soft is for purees to get that silky smoothness.
Anyway, I hope that helps! Definitely get a couple of cookbooks. I love Chloe coscarelli’s, and quick fix vegan. The recipes aren’t so intimidating with their favors and ingredients. :)