Sunday 22 July 2012

WW Tofu nut balls and princesses

One thing leads to another.  Leftover rice led me to a favourite recipe for Tofu Nut Balls.  Buying craft stuff with Sylvia leads us to Spotlight where we bought fabric for blogging photos.  Making princesses and monsters out of old toilet paper rolls leads to ideas for decorating a birthday card.

Here are the princesses and monsters.  The monsters have jangly bells on pipecleaners through holes make with a hole punch.  I meant to make some crazy hair too but the pipecleaners took over.  Googly eyes are lots of fun.  I was impressed that Sylvia wanted trousers on her princess.  I cut out a crown top and tried a few ideas for hair on our princesses.

The hair idea transferred nicely to a princess birthday card.  It was a joint effort between Sylvia and me.  I was pleased to find a use for the ribbon that has been hanging around the house for ages.  Sylvia decided on one green eye and one pink eye.  I'm thinking of trying this card with fabrics rather than paper.

The birthday card was made while these tofu nut balls baked in the oven.  I needed something quick to get dinner underway and, with a tub of old rice, I found we had everything I needed for tofu nut balls.  It is a simple ingredient list and they are easy to make.  The Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen was one of the first vegetarian cookbooks I owned.  These tofu nut balls were a magical discovery all those years ago.

I wonder if I would find them quite as amazing if I found the recipe today.  Probably not.  I have encountered many vegetarian burgers since then and they have quite a few similarities to nut roasts.  However, I still find them easy and delicious.  They are equally good as nibbles at a party or vegetarian meatballs with pasta.

Mollie suggests serving them with tomato sauce or mushroom tahini sauce.  I have tried both and prefer tomato sauce.  I made a basic one to serve these with on Friday night - olive oil, onions, garlic, a tin of tomatoes, salt, maple syrup and worcestershire sauce.  Simply yummy.  (I imagine a pumpkin sauce or a pesto sauce would be great too.)

It was a simple dinner with some steamed broccoli and brussels sprouts on the side.  That was all we needed between last week's baking and the weekend's social meals. 

One things leads to another.  A healthy meal leads to Ricki's Wellness Weekends and I have no doubt that visiting the Wellness Weekends page will lead to many interesting and delicious blog entries.  I am also sending the monsters and princesses to Red Ted's Art Blog, a recently discovered source of inspiration for craft.

Lastly, my concern about Shabby Blogs has lead me to take them off my blog design and replace the wallpaper with a new one - check out this post to see the progression of designs on my blog.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
One year ago: MLLA Chickpea, potato and tomato stew
Two years ago: Syrup cake, shoes and chooks
Three years ago: SHF Apricot sponge – by any other name
Four years ago: Stouty Oatmeal Beer Bread
Five years ago: Sesame and Lemon Bread

Tofu nut balls
From The Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen
serves about 4

3/4 cup cooked brown rice (or cook 1/2 cup dried brown rice)
225g firm tofu
2 tbsp tamari
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup wheatgerm
oil spray (or oil for frying)

Place 1/2 cup cooked rice and 110g of tofu with all the tamari in a food processor or blender and blend to make a smooth paste.  Mash up remaining tofu in a mixing bowl.  Add rice and tofu paste, almonds and wheatgerm.  Stir thoroughly until you have a stiff mixture.  Roll into balls the size of walnuts.  Spray with oil spray and and bake on oven tray at 180 C for about 30 minutes or until golden brown (mine took longer) or shallow fry until golden brown.

On the Stereo:
Unknown Deutschland: the Krautrock Archive, vol 2: Various Artists

20 comments:

  1. Love the princesses and monsters, and the tofu balls sound delish. Hope you've had a good weekend.

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    1. Thanks Cakelaw - we had a lovely weekend but very busy

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  2. Sounds like lots of fun has been happening at your house! I'm very impressed with Sylvia selecting trousers for her princesses, and I like your new background. I also like the look of these nut balls - I have been contemplating making some savoury nut balls lately, so the recipe was well timed.

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    1. Thanks Kari - I liked the idea of princesses in trousers. I am still unsure of my new background because it is more overbearing than the last but will do for now. Highly recommend these tofu nut balls

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  3. I really like that material in your first photo and love the monsters and princesses. It looks like you have been having fun. Cooper loves crafts as well. Great looking tofu balls too.

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    1. Thanks Jac - I saw some tablecloths recently that were so much more expensive than these fabric scraps. Craft with kids is fun isn't it

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  4. how cute are those princesses! sounds like a great indoor activity for kids! and those tofu balls....yum yum yum!! have a great night!

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    1. thanks GF happy tummy - indoor activities have been the thing lately - though we had a sunny weekend and got to take sylvia out on her bike

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  5. yum! i always forget to make extra rice so I can use it in recipes like these!

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    1. thanks Lisa - I often make extra rice these days for fried rice or a rice gratin - have some extra rice in my freezer right now that I am not sure what to do with

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  6. These look delicious! I've had that cookbook for years and never tried this recipe, but I will now :)

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    1. Thanks Kate - this was one of my favourite recipes from the cookbook when I used it regularly

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  7. and I think I'll steal that craft idea - love the princesses and monsters and card!

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  8. The tofu balls sound great, and the princesses and monsters as so cute! The new background looks good, it fits in well.

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    1. thanks Mel - glad you like the background and I agree the princesses and monsters are cute

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  9. I LOOOOOOOOOOVVVE your princesses!

    Thank you for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!

    Maggy

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  10. How adorable are those princesses and monsters! The tofu balls do sound like nut roast in a ball, but very good nonetheless. That's one Katzen cookbook I don't own, so thanks for the recipe. And what a shock to learn that she has gone back to eating meat!

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  11. These look great - the tofu nut balls AND the princesses. Brings back memories of my daughter (who's 16 now) making a team of Olympic athletes out of toilet rolls during the 2000 Olympics. :-) She's now vegan (the rest of us are vegetarian), and these tofu nut balls look like something I'll be trying. I started to print out the recipe and realised I have a copy of Enchanted Broccoli Forest, I just haven't opened it for a long time!

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  12. Can you come and do crafty things at my house? Please? I was completely entranced by the enchanted broccoli forest as a teenager, I have lots of happy memories of reading it, though I don't think my mother made anything from it. I've just inherited her Moosewood Cookbook and still find it a comforting read. Does Sylvia eat these?

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