Adventures In Tofu

I am so very proud of myself.  I ate tofu yesterday.  OK, that's really not something spectacular of which to be proud.  What makes me proud is that I cooked it.  It was not just the tofu in my hot and sour soup from the Chinese place across the street.

I like to cook, so tofu shouldn't be such an accomplishment for me.  But 90% of my cooking falls under traditional American-style meat-eater.  And my vegetarian cooking, aside from salads and pasta dishes, was all Indian.  Since the doc put the kibosh on the spices, I had to venture outside my comfort zone.

I made a delicious vegan soup yesterday using tofu and vegetable broth.  I'm going to have to look up how to make the broth - this was my first time EVER using packaged broth, and it made me feel more than slightly inadequate.  I pan fried the tofu with some Tastefully Simple Rustic Herb seasoning and a smidgen of the Italian Garlic Bread seasoning.  I added this to the broth with some barley and "California Medley" (cauliflower, broccoli, and carrot) veggies.  It needed salt and pepper, but it was so yummy and very filling.

The butternut squash I made for the side was not so yummy, but that was my fault.  I burned it, and then ate it anyhow.  I never made squash before.  So now I know....it needs more water if I am going to cook it on the stove.

Today I did have meat.  Some turkey meatballs.  I'm not going to just throw out the meat I have.  But I am not buying anymore.  The spaghetti and meatballs was the perfect meal for tonight.  It's been cold in the North East USA.  Between the soup last night and the spaghetti tonight, I'm nice and warm.

Someone told me that this switch to semi-veganism would make me lose a ton of weight.  I said "not likely".  I know (via the interwebs) plenty of fat vegans.  I don't care about getting skinny, but I do care about staying healthy.  I think adding so much more fresh food to my diet will help a lot in that regard.

What is your go-to food when it's cold out?  If you were to give up a certain aspect of your diet (meat, sugar, dairy, whatever), what would you miss the most about that aspect?