Broccoli 9-1-1

It’s probably pretty obvious that I have not been doing much cooking or eating the past few days. Let me tell you, and I am not saying this to complain, but I have not ever felt as bad as I have this week, even when I had pneumonia in the fall. I am happy to say that I am feeling weak but slightly on the mend. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and with a very busy week ahead I could not be happier.

The one problem with not being able to cook was a fridge full of fresh produce and other items that needed to be eaten this week. While many of the vegetables like beets and carrots are going toward a health-boosting juice today, our almost-rubbery broccoli found itself in a spicy peanut sauce with tofu and noodles.

It was a Nasoya kind of meal, thanks to Market Basket’s large tofu selection and wallet-friendly prices.

I used an entire block of Nasoya extra-firm tofu and a container of Nasoya Chinese-style noodles.

In addition, I used several heaping spoonfuls of Trader Joe’s Valencia Peanut Butter.

A generous drizzle of sriracha. . .

A head of almost-dead broccoli, cut into florets. . .

And a few splashes of Tamari soy sauce.

I started by pressing the tofu in a clean dish towel in a colander, draining off as much liquid as possible. Then, as I always do, I cut the tofu and left it to air dry for about an hour.

To assemble the meal, I cooked the noodles according to the package instructions. In a separate pan, I steamed the broccoli in a bit of water, then added in the soy sauce, sriracha, and peanut butter, mixing until a creamy sauce was formed. I tossed in the tofu and noodles, gave it a stir, let it simmer on low for 20 minutes so the tofu would absorb the flavors of the sauce, and served.

It was a nice return to real food. The Doritos had to go at some point. They were good and all, but probably not the best food for me to recover from my flu.

What’s on tap for your Saturday?