EnviroMom Meatless Supper Club: week 8

If there's one thing I suspected and confirmed while participating in the Meatless Supper Club, it's that there are no gourmets in our family. We like simple food. Spice is welcome, but only with the adult members of the family. 'Quick and easy' are also appreciated most of the time. That's why this week I'm vegetarianizing an old stanby: fried rice. I used to think this was a dish only a restaurant could make, and then after I met my husband he demystified it. I found that once I knew a few tricks of the trade (such as Minute Rice isn't really rice), I too could fry rice like a pro, and that our home-made version is lower fat than restaurant versions, low cost and a fail-safe, go-to meal in our house. Typically, we make fried rice at least once a week because rice is our main starch and inevitably you have leftovers. That's key. You need day old rice, not fresh.  Here's our house fried rice:

Fried Rice with Bacon (D'oh! I forgot -- this is the Meatless Supper Club)

Fried Rice with Tofu

4-5 cups cooked day old rice (I used a mix of white and brown)
2 scrambled eggs
7 oz. firm tofu, cut into small squares
1 cup carrots, cut into small bite-size pieces
1 cup peas
soy sauce
cooking oil (I used canola, peanut and sesame)

Start with prep. Chop the carrots into bite-size pieces. Squeeze out extra water from the tofu, using about half of a regular 14 oz. package, then cut it into small cubes. Pan fry the tofu in a few tablespoons of oil (I used peanut oil, hoping that would give a little extra flavor but mostly only made my kids plug their noses). Remove the tofu from heat, once it's golden brown around the edges. In a big saute pan, scramble two eggs, and when they're done, add to the tofu and set aside. Put the carrots and peas in a dish with a bit of water (the carrots I used fresh, and the peas frozen), and micro-steam to soften. Once done, drain the water.

Once the prep work is complete, squirt a bit of canola or cooking oil into a big saute pan, and fill with day-old rice. Use a spatula to break up the sticky chunks of rice, and as it heats, stir fry it around. Once it's heated through and de-chunked, pour some soy sauce onto the rice in the form of a letter 'Z' that fills the pan (this is just enough soy sauce for us, but use as much as you like). Then stir fry that until it's evenly distributed through the rice (I usually put in a few drops of sesame oil too for flavor, but this is optional). Now the rice is done, then it's pretty much just like tossing a salad. Add in the veggies, and stir fry to evenly distribute, then the egg, and finally the tofu until it's all mixed up. Voila! I kept my sides simple and served this with a plate of cut apples.

On serving this meal, I kept waiting for the kids to say: 'where's the bacon?' but they did not! I'll note that in our house, bacon isn't a pig product -- we only use 'pig-urky' (our name for turkey bacon). Yet by taking the meat out of our regular fried rice, we brought the meal even further down on the food chain. This meal was enthusiastically gobbled up, and they asked for seconds and licked their plates clean. One final note on fried rice -- it can be made with anything, and it's an ideal low-meat meal if you have leftover chicken, pork chops, steak or whatever. Play around with the veggies and proteins to find the mix that you like.

It's hard to believe that it's the last week of our meatless challenge. The time went fast, but as one of our bloggers mentioned what an interesting seasonal transition it's been -- when we started we were still working with summer squash, tomatoes and basil, and slowly we've moved to warm and soul-soothing soups, winter squashes and casseroles. Without further ado, let's see what our guest bloggers have dished up for our final week of the EnviroMom Meatless Supper Club.

Mary Beth at Salt and Chocolate made Cauliflower-Cheese Pie with Grated Potato Crust. It's a glowing example of an ideal fall meal. Warm and filling and looks delish!
(photo credit: Salt and Chocolate)

Jen from Life on Bean Road made Butternut Squash Soup to celebrate her birthday with 10 friends via a soup swap. What a fantastic idea! Her soup is rich and creamy, but get this: dairy free. Gotta try me some of that. If you're intrigued by the soup swap concept, please do read up at Jen's blog as she explains how that works.

Beth at The Cummings Clan made Portobella Mushroom Fajitas that got a thumbs up from the majority of the fam, with an especially hearty vote from her husband who she says might pick starvation over mushrooms!

Melanie at Recipe Journal made Peas + Cheese Tortellini, and as is usually the case, Melanie's photo makes this dish look like the most delicious meal in the world and I have to stop myself from drooling all over the keyboard. I also appreciate that it's a fairly simple meal that would probably even appeal to the simpletons in my family. Wait a minute... I don't think that's the right word. Oh well, moving on.
(Photo credit: Recipe Journal)

Nancy at Nano's Kitchen made Pasta with Brie, Mushrooms and Arugula. Bravo to Nancy for trying out this recipe on a 'meat & potatoes' crowd, who surprisingly liked it, although she said it could have been cheesier.

Heather at Production Not Reproduction made Southwestern Corn and Potato Soup. It was creamy and yummy and Heather's family gave this a thumbs up. She said she'd mix in some black beans next time to amp up the protein factor.

Andrea at Minimonos made Corn Fritter Burgers that (hold onto your hats...) tasted better than regular hamburgers, according to the unanimous vote of her family. What's especially exciting is that they've enjoyed this experience so much that they will continue to do meatless meals weekly. Way to go, Andrea!!

(Photo credit: Minimonos)

Sadly, sickness has taken root in the homes of Industrious Emily and Marleen at Walking on a Wire. Emily graciously shared two of her favorite vegetarian recipe sites. We want to wish both families a speedy recovery and a special thanks for their posts of the past seven weeks.

And that's all folks! Eight weeks has gone quickly by and we've been so pleased to present these very talented bloggers' vegetarian meals. Heather and I both want to thank all of our guest writers who participated. We could not have done this challenge without their dedication, creativity, and willingness to experiment with meatless meals. A big thanks also to the husbands and kids who sometimes stared at their dinner plates with dismay... While some families may be relieved to be moving on from this challenge, many of us are thrilled to have more time to experiment with what's become a wealth of family-friendly vegetarian dinner recipes that were presented over the past 8 weeks. Thank you also to all of our readers who joined us, tried new meatless meals and offered suggestions on improving recipes.

How about you? What were your faves? Did you cook along with us? Will your family work meatless suppers into your repertoire on a continuing basis?