Japanese Rice Bowls



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Cubes of tofu marinating in water, soy sauce, nutritional yeast flakes, sage, rosemary, thyme, onion powder, and garlic powder.



Savoy cabbage, carrots, and broccoli.

I sauted the chopped vegetables in a bit of olive oil. When the pan got dry, I drizzled in a bit of the marinade.  I also added some soy sauce as well as some fresh grated ginger and garlic at the end.

The drained tofu was pan fried in a non-stick skillet. I cooked the heck out of it so it had a nice dry texture.

 

I found this great looking Teiyaki Sauce at my local Kroger store "City Market".  The brand is "Soy Vay".  I looked at the ingredients and it appears to be free of any animal products.  I found these Black Sesame Seeds on my Birthday Shopping Trip on Saturday (we went to Manitou Springs, CO).



Lunches for the week.  I love it when I look forward to my "leftovers" for lunch. 
It sure makes getting out the door a lot easier in the morning when I have my meals ready for the week.



Do you ever get inspired to make a dish after having a wonderful meal in a restaurant? I sure do!  My coworker and friend, Mrs. W, and I both celebrated birthdays this week.  Last year and this year for our birthday celebrations, we went to a local Japanese Restaurant called "MoMo's".  We decided this should be official tradition and we plan to go again next year, too.  This time, I had a great rice bowl dish with brown rice, sauted cabbage, broccoli, and carrot.  It was topped with tofu with a drizzle of thick, tasty teriyaki sauce, and a sprinkle of black sesame seeds. 

I so wanted to be able to duplicate this recipe at home and this was my first effort. At the restaurant, I would have enjoyed half has much rice and twice as much of the sauted veggies.  Also, at the restaurant, the tofu was prepared in a manner which surprised me... don't get me wrong... it was delicious, but it was unexpected. It appears the tofu slices were dipped in Japanese Panko Bread Crumbs and then deep fried.  They looked like fried fish. The center was soft and moist...delicious.  For my at-home-version, I marinated the tofu in a recipe called "Pan-Fried 'Breast of Tofu'".  This was a dish Harriet made for me when I had my crash course in Vegan cooking; the recipe is from a cook book entitled "Almost No-Fat Holiday Cookbook".  Harriet's tofu was much better than mine.  I think she might use tamari in place of soy sauce, which is something I need to try.  I added finely grated fresh ginger & garlic as well as a few splashes of soy sauce to my sauted veggies, which was probably not in the restaurant version... it just sounded good to me.