Tempeh or Tofu?

Apparently it doesn't matter because I HAD SUCH AN AWESOME MEAL TONIGHT!

It was just perfectly well balanced and quite delicious! Let's go into some background info on what a marco-ly balanced meal is. (macro-ly, I think I just made that word up).

According to some macro counselors, in order for food to be considered a meal, there must be a grain and a vegetable present. Hmmm. Maybe. However, if you ask me, I feel best when there is a grain (or pasta), a leafy green veggie, plus another type of veggie (root, round), and a PROTEIN. Being very active, I've always felt that I needed more protein in my diet. This doesn't mean to eat Animal Meat (except fish) but to add more other protein products.

I have selected my meal accordingly. This recipe is from A DIFFERENT Christina Pirello cookbook, but Christina's nonetheless. I have purchased my second book, "Christina Cooks, Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Whole Foods but Were Afraid to Ask"

And out of this book, I have chosen to prepare pg. 216 Arame with Fried Tempeh (except instead of tempeh I used tofu)

According to my personal macro counselor, Ms. Virgina Harper, at this point in my life I can use a little extra sea vegetable and tofu. Therefore, I have altered this recipe just slightly to suit my daily life (as all macros should do)... I'm also out of tempeh right now and tofu was more economical.

There are four parts to this recipe. 1- preparing the sea veggies, 2 - preparing the tofu (or tempeh) 3 - making the dressing (WHICH IS OUT OF THIS WORLD!) and 4 - creating a whole salad.

I don't know where she comes up with this! Honestly, it was out of this world! And so balancing. A point that Christina makes in her book is that, not only is Arame high in minerals and nutrients, but it does NOT have that "sea food" smell or taste. It's quite mild which makes it excellent for salad dishes such as this.

Oh, 1 more thing, I left the pepper out because I don't really like peppers. Ha! So feel free to alter any of these recipes to your own discression.

To accompany this meal, I made brown rice (which was left over) and tossed some lightly roasted almonds in it to give it a nice flavor. And I made steamed greens including Collard Greens and the tops of the radishes I had bought for this meal.

mmm mmMMMMM. It was all so yummy, I was singing while I ate. (not the best of ideas).

So there you have it, a grain, a green, additional veggies, sea vegetable, and a protein. That was one complete and balanced meal.

Try it! Love it!