Special 9 Days Dinner Menu and Recipes!

Special Nine (9) Days Vegetarian, Vegan, Non-Dairy Dinner Menu and Recipes!

For my peeps who abstain from eating meat for the 9 days before Tisha B’Av (Jewish holiday commemorating the destruction of the ancient Temples), here’s an easy menu! You may want to save this for this coming Sunday evening. This would also make a beautiful Friday night meal for year-round vegetarians or vegans.

   

9 Days Menu

Total cook time: 60 minutes

(make ice pops morning or day before)

Serves 6

Chicken Parmesan (no real chicken or parmesan, no fake processed “meat”!)

Cinnamon Sugar Sweet Potato Fries

Revolutionary Healthy Asian Slaw

Pear Crumble (Sneak peak recipe from new free, mini e-book gift for subscribers. Subscribe now if you haven’t already!).

Healthy Ice Pops!

THE RECIPES

Chicken Parmesan (no real chicken or Parmesan, no fake processed “meat”!)

Ingredients

2 blocks extra firm organic sprouted tofu [This will be the firmest option. If you can’t find sprouted, press the tofu for 30 minutes before cutting it.]

Olive oil spray

1/2 cup whole grain panko bread crumbs (gluten free if needed)

1 tsp dried Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 Tb nutritional yeast

2 cups pasta sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 400. Cut tofu into 1/4-1/2 inch thick “steaks” (see note above about pressing it). Place parchment paper on two cookie sheets (1 block of tofu per sheet) and spray with olive oil or other non-stick spray. Mix breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning, salt and nutritional yeast together in a small bowl. Place the tofu 1 inch apart on the cookie sheets. Spray top with olive oil. Sprinkle approximately 1/2 teaspoon of the breadcrumb mix on the top of each “steak”. Place cookie sheets in oven until tops are browned, approximately 15-20 minutes.

[Prep sweet potatoes now].

After the tops are browned, take the trays out of the oven and flip the tofu steaks over. Sprinkle another 1/2 tsp of the breadcrumb mix on each piece of tofu. Place back in the oven another 15-20 minutes or until browned. You want the pieces to get a little hard. That’s when they take on the chicken consistency.

Remove from oven and top each piece with 1 Tb (or more!) pasta sauce.

Cinnamon Sugar Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients

2 large sweet potatoes (Increase # depending on the servings you need. Make up to 1/2-1 sweet potato per person.)

cinnamon sugar shaker

non-stick or olive oil spray

Directions

Preheat oven to 400. Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet and spray with olive oil or other non-stick spray. To cut the sweet potatoes into fries you can use a ridged knife or you can simply use a regular knife if you don’t have any kind of a fry cutter. Peel the sweet potatoes. For each one, cut in half horizontally. Then, cut each half in half again and cut out four fries by cutting into the quarter vertically. You’ll get 16 fries per sweet potato.

Place potatoes on the cookie sheet. Spray with olive oil or other non-stick spray and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. That’s it! Place in the oven for 30 minutes. You can turn them over half way through if you desire. If you have two ovens or can put in multiple racks, you can roast more than two at a time.

You can make the slaw now, or you can make it the morning before so that the flavors have time to meld together more.

Revolutionary Healthy Asian Slaw 

The most popular version of Asian slaw became a topic of conversation in a recent yoga class. Several people were raving about one specific recipe and handed me a copy. Some (not-Jewish) attendees served it at dinner parties and some (Jewish) attendees served it at Shabbat lunch. I admit that I love this dish when it is served to me at other people’s homes. However, seeing the actual ingredients, such as 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of oil, practically gave me a heart attack and diabetes on the spot! I promised to return with a healthier version. This is my creation.

Yields 8-10 servings

Ingredients

1 bag matchstick carrots (10 oz)

1 red pepper

1 bag Mann’s Rainbow salad with broccoli florets (12 oz)

1 bag Dole Asian slaw with kale and snow peas* (12 oz)

*If your store isn’t carrying this fancy thing that day, as mine wasn’t the day I went to take a picture of the recipe, just buy the regular coleslaw mix and add 1 cup kale leaves, torn into tiny pieces.

For the dressing:

2 Tablespoons maple syrup (up to ¼ cup, depending on how sweet or acidic you like your slaw)

¼ cup rice vinegar

1/3 cup low fat Newman’s Own Sesame Ginger dressing

2 handfuls each, slivered almonds and sunflower seeds (raw, unsalted)

Directions

Slice red pepper into matchsticks and mix with the rest of the salad ingredients.

In a separate bowl, mix the ingredients for the dressing. Pour over the salad and mix well. Add the slivered almonds and sunflower seeds and gently mix the salad again.

Pear Crumble (Sneak peak recipe from new free, mini e-book gift for subscribers. Subscribe now if you haven’t already!).

[or sub 4 peaches and 2 cups blueberries]

Ingredients

4 pears

½ cup cup old-fashioned oats

¼ cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Spray 8 x 8 ceramic baking dish with non-stick spray. Peel and dice pears, and place into baking dish. Add remaining ingredients and mix gently.

Bake uncovered at 350 for 40-60 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes.

Serves 4-6 [Great afternoon snack for kids the next day if you want to throw in a few more pears or you don’t finish it all]

Popsicles!