Last night I was avoiding the tiny bars, calling out to me, when I had a great idea: chocolate bars are like chocolate chips – why not put them in cookies? So I did, and they turned out great!

These cookies are delicious and easier to get rid of than mini chocolate bars. You can make a ton of them and send them to work with your husband, put them out at a party, or send them to soccer practice with your kids – then everyone else will gobble up your leftover Halloween candy for you. Perfect.

You can use any cookie recipe that has chocolate chips in it to make Halloween cookies, but here is the recipe that I used:

Halloween Candy-Bar Cookies!

Recipe at my Recipe Box
Yield: 3 dozen

Ingredients

• ¾ Cup unsalted butter
• 1 Cup granulated sugar
• ½ Cup light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 Tablespoons half and half
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
• ½ Teaspoon salt
• 2 ¼ Cups All-Purpose Flour
• ¾ Cup uncooked oats
• 2 Cups candy bars, chopped, (around 15 fun-size bars)

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter and sugars in mixer bowl. Add egg, egg yolk and cream, and mix to combine. Sift together dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda) and add to the sugars, mixing until dough is a uniform consistency.

Chop candy bars in to small pieces (about the size of large chocolate chips). Add candy bar pieces and oats to the mixture, and mix by hand to combine.

Chill dough in the freezer for a few minutes to make sure it is cold. Using a 1 tbsp measure, drop dough onto cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!

What that means to me is that this dish has potential – I can make it into a bunch of different dishes based on what I pick that ‘something’ to be. This type of recipe is great to have on hand because you can usually make it with leftover meat, or with whichever vegetables are kicking around your fridge.

I found this great recipe online for Creamy Artichoke Lasagna. It is similar to a traditional lasagna, except there artichokes instead of meat, and it uses an alfredo sauce instead of the traditional red sauce to go with the ricotta cheese. Honestly I would easily classify it as more of a ‘Baked Pasta Dish’ than a true Lasagna, but hey, I didn’t name the recipe.

So check it out, and let me know what you think:

Creamy Artichoke Lasagna

Serves: 6-8
Start-To-Finish: 2hrs

Ingredients

• 3 Cups water
• ¼ Cup Lemon juice
• 15 fresh baby artichokes
• 9 dried lasagna noodles
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• ½ Cup Pine nuts
• 4 Cloves garlic, minced
• 15 Ounces ricotta cheese
• 1 Cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1 Cup fresh basil, snipped
• 1 egg
• ¾ tsp. salt
• 1 Cup vegetable or chicken broth
• ¼ Cup All-Purpose Flour
• 2 Cups half-and-half, or light cream
• 1 Cup shredded mozzarella cheese

*Make it lighter: Use safflower oil, egg beaters, skim milk and soy mozzarella instead!

Method
In a large bowl, combine the water and lemon juice; set aside. Cut off the base of each artichoke. Snap off outer leaves until you reach leaves that are yellow at the bottom. Cut off the top third of artichokes; quarter artichokes. Immediately place artichokes in water mixture to keep them from browning. Drain artichokes.

Since it is winter I used canned artichokes instead. Just rinse them and press out any excess liquid on a paper towel-lined plate before hand. Fresh artichokes would add a nice bit of texture to the dish.

Cook noodles according to package directions; drain. Rinse with cold water; drain again.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over medium heat. Add artichokes, pine nuts, and half of the garlic. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until artichokes are tender, stirring frequently. Transfer to the large bowl. Stir in ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup of the basil, the egg, and salt.

For sauce: In a small bowl or glass measure, combine broth and flour. In the large saucepan, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add the remaining garlic; cook and stir until garlic is tender but not brown. Stir in flour mixture and half-and-half. Cook and stir until mixture is thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat. Stir in the remaining 1/2 cup basil.

To assemble, spread about 1 cup of the sauce over the bottom of an ungreased 3-quart shallow baking dish. Layer three of the cooked noodles in the dish. Spread with one-third of the artichoke mixture and one-third of the remaining sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella and parmesan. Repeat layering noodles, artichoke mixture, sauce, and cheese two more times.

Bake, uncovered, for 35 to 40 minutes until edges are bubbly and top is lightly browned. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving. Makes 12 servings.

Yum! It was pretty good on its own, about four stars. With a little help, I think it could make it to five.

Bon Appitite!

The problem with having rice or a potato is that both are empty carbs. They will both fill you up, but neither gives you a significant amount of fiber or protein. If you check out the nutritional information for white rice, you will see that it only has a measly 1g fiber per serving. A potato isn’t much better, with 3g of fiber if you manage to eat the skin.

Recently I’ve retired the rice maker and started looking into grains. It turns out there is a whole world of grains and seeds out there, each with a different taste and texture. Grains are also really good for you. Check out this comparison for a 1 cup serving of the following:

Imagine that! With a more exciting side-dish that provides over 10g of protein, it is easy (and healthy) to reduce the amount of meat that you eat. Plus, the extra fiber helps lower cholesterol.

Now.. what to make?

Mashed potatoes are a blank canvas. They are just a basic starch and can be made in to a lot of different dishes by adding other foods to them. Here are some of my favourites.

Delicious Leftover Mashed Potatoes

Enjoy!

My concern was that without the moistness of the marshmallows, the oats would be too dry. I realized I was going to have to cook the oats into a granola before pressing them into bars, but most of the granola recipes I could find used from 1/2 to 3/4 cup of oil. That’s a lot of fat! Luckily, I stumbled across a recipe for granola made with apple sauce, and with a few tweeks, it worked out perfectly.

Since you have to make the granola first, this recipe does take a little bit more time than the first recipe I posted. For me, it is worth the extra effort, but if it is to much of a committment for you then just find a tasty store-bought granola (I’m sure Kashi makes one, or you could find one in the natural foods aisle). The recipe I have makes about twice as much granola as I need for the week’s bars, but I’m finding that there are actually a lot of delicious places to use it – in muffins, baked with peaches, or in your cereal.

So here we go…

Even Better Granola Bars

View the recipe on my Recipe Box
Makes 14 bars (about 45g each)
Start To Finish: 20min

Ingredients

• 1 ½ Cups Apple Cinnamon Granola
  Recipe at my Recipe Box
• 2 Cups rice cereal
• 20 Regular Marshmallows
• 2 Tbsp. Margarine, like Benecol Light
• ½ Cups chopped dried fruit
• 2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar, packed
• 1 Tbsp. honey

Note: You can change the ratio of granola to rice cereal to suit your tastes. Just keep about 3½ cups total. More rice cereal will make the bars lighter and more crispy, more granola will make them hardier.

Method

You can prepare the granola ahead of time, or even buy pre-made granola at the grocery store. There is no need to let it cool completely before using it in this recipe.

Melt the margarine in a non-stick pan with a fitted lid. It is best to use a cast iron or similar type of pan to get a slow, even temperature. Marshmallows burn easily at high temperatures so stay at medium or medium high. Add marshmallows, brown sugar, and honey to the pan, and allow the mixture to melt slowly, stirring often with a wooden spoon.

Lightly grease a pyrex pan (or 2 loaf pans) with margarine, or line them with wax paper.

Once the marshmallow base is melted, add the granola, rice cereal, and chopped fruit to the pan, and toss to coat everything evenly. Pour the mixture into the prepared pans and press firmly with a rubber spatula. If you are using a pan with curved edges, fold the mixture back to create square edges. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to set, about 15 minutes. Cut in to 14 bars and serve.

Nutrition Information

Nutritionally speaking, these granola bars are great. They definitely rival other ‘healthy’ store bought granola bars like Kashi Trail Mix bars.

The exact makeup will change depending on the ratio of granola to rice cereal you use (more granola will give you more fiber) or quantity of nuts and types of oil/margarine you use (more nuts and real butter will up the saturated fats significantly). The recipe above is a good starter recipe to try it out, but I think I will up the granola in the future to try it out.

Here is the nutritional information for the entire recipe as I have posted it above. (Divide by 14 for per-piece numbers):

So let me know what you think! If you come up with some delicious variations I’d love to hear what they are.

Happy Baking!

Cholesterol is something your body naturally needs – and produces – to help stabilize and support cells in your body. In fact, your liver produces enough cholesterol (about 1000mg daily) for your body to sustain itself. When you consume too much in your diet, you start to run into problems.

Cholesterol doesn’t dissolve in your blood, it just kind of lumpily floats along with the help of lipoproteins. Different types of lipoproteins bond with different types of cholesterol. Together they form a lipoprotein shell with a cholesterol blob in the center.

• LDL or Low Density Lipoproteins refer to one of these blobs that is less dense. These are the bad guys. They tend to end up deposited in your artery walls. Eventually, white blood cells come on by and try to digest LDL particles, but it all turns in to a big cholesterol-whitebloodcell-debris-mess called ‘plaque’. As the mass of plaque grows, it will eventually block the artery.
• HDL or High Density Lipoproteins refer to the blobs that are more dense. These are the good guys. These guys remove bad cholesterol or move it back to the liver to be reprocessed, and they clean up the artery walls.

You basically want to keep your HDL high and your LDL low. Having a low HDL means there won’t be enough of a cleanup crew – and a high LDL means there is more mess being made than can be cleaned up. If either of these levels is off, you can run into problems like blocked arteries or atherosclerosis. And since there are no visible warning signs, it is important to get your cholesterol levels checked at your annual doctor’s visit.

My LDL is High!

• An LDL < 100 mg/dL is optimal.
• An LDL > 160 mg/dL or more is high.
• An LDL > 190 mg/dL or more is very high.

Lifestyle changes are hard to make. I think that is why a lot of people would much rather take a prescription medicine than put in the effort to change their lifestyle to improve their health. Luckily, changing your diet is a lot easier. Everybody has to eat, so it’s not like you are changing your routine. Just making a few small changes to what and how much you eat makes a world of difference.

That being said, get ready to have your self-control tested!

The main nutritional elements you need to watch is your cholesterol and fat intake. For people with high LDL or with manifest arteriosclerosis, the following guidelines are recommended:

• Total fats: 25-30% of total calories
• Saturated fats: less than 7% of total calories
• Monounsaturated: less than 10% of total calories
• Polyunsaturated: less than 10% of total calories
• Cholesterol: less than 200 mg daily

So if you figure out how many calories you should be consumed daily (calculator) and knowing that fats have about 9 calories per gram, you can calculate how much your ceiling is. Say you require 1700 calories per day – that means you should consume less than 47g of fat, less than 13 of which from saturated fats, per day. And remember, these numbers are maximums, not targets.

Last fall, we found ourselves up in the ‘high’ range for LDL, and started on a VERY strict low-cholesterol, low-fat diet. I posted about it back in November, and included a very comprehensive weekly food spreadsheet you can put up on your refrigerator, colour in the blocks as you eat, and measure your progress at the end of the week. You can download the spreadsheet for your own use from that post, and I hope it is helpful for you.

Simple tips to lower your LDL

Read the Nutrition Info

Looking at the amount of dietary cholesterol that is in something you are about to buy is important, but also look at the saturated fats. Sat Fats raise the level of cholesterol in your blood, so think of them as cholesterol in disguise. Most importantly, look at the serving size. A lot of times the listed serving size is smaller than what you are actually going to eat. Don’t think that just because something is ‘low in saturated fat’ means you can eat as much as you want.

Choose Carefully

Your body needs fats, just like it needs vitamins and water. You just need to make good decisions about which fats you consume. Saturated fats, Trans fats and foods where the label reads “Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils” are bad choices, and you should make every effort to avoid them. Try to choose monosaturated fats instead.

Buy foods you SHOULD be eating.

I find the easiest way to not eat something is to not buy it. Don’t go out to a steak house if you shouldn’t be eating a steak, and don’t buy a package of bacon and pretend you’ll just have one piece. If you have good snack options available that you can pop in your mouth when you are hungry, you’re more likely to stay on track. For a full list of foods you should try to eat more of, and those to avoid, check out this post from when we started our diet, and look at the ‘Diet Guidelines’.

Replace Commonly Used Items

You don’t sit down and eat a block of butter for dinner, but you probably have butter every day. Certian foods always seem to make it in to our meals, like cooking oil, butter, mayonnaise, and salad dressing. Replace these items with low cholesterol alternatives, and you will be doing a little bit every day to improve your health. Try Safflower Oil, margarine, BestFoods Cholesterol-Free Mayonaise and Home Made dressings. Choose skim milk instead of 2%.

Don’t Over Do It

If you open a bag of chips and start eating from the bag, it gets pretty easy for that bag to disappear. You end up eating way more than you want, because you do it one chip at a time. I have some prep/measuring bowls of different sizes, (1/4 cup, 1/2 cup, 1 cup etc) that are perfect for snacking. You know how much you should have, so grab the right size bowl and fill it to the top – then put the snacks back in the cupboard and walk away. If you have to get up to go get more, you’ll think twice about doing it.

Measure Your Meats

Because cholesterol is naturally created by the liver, all meats and meat products are high in cholesterol. One of the most effective ways to keep your LDL down is to limit the amount of meat you eat. I think this is the hardest part, because culturally we are so used to meat being the centerpiece of dinner. If your LDL is high, you should try not to eat more than 5oz of meat per day. Not per meal, per day. That gives you about 2oz for lunch and 3oz for dinner. The good news is that you are going to save a lot of money, because meat is also generally the most expensive part of your meal. The bad news is that you might have a heart attack when you see a 3oz portion of chicken.

To help you visualize, a 3oz piece of cooked meat is the size of a deck of cards. Most of the pre-packaged meats (individually sealed chicken breasts or fish fillets) are usually somewhere between 6 and 8 ounces. For dinner, I will usually cook one of these portions, and divide it into three – One for my husband, one for me, and the smallest piece for his lunch the next day. Add to that a salad with home-made dressing, some steamed veggies, roasted potatoes and you won’t have room for more chicken.

This can, however, make it difficult to go out to a restaurant to eat. Most restaurant meat portions are way out of control – you will get at least 6 or 8oz of steak at a steakhouse. If you just start eating and say you will only eat half, that steak is going to disappear very quickly (oops!). Ask for a second plate and divide it up before you start eating, and take it to work for lunch tomorrow. Gourmet Lunch!

Oh, and while we are on the topic of meats, cut the fat off your pork chop, and take the skin off your chicken. Throw it away, don’t even cook it.

Egg Product

One large egg has 2g saturated fats and over 200mg cholesterol, while a ’2 egg’ portion of Egg Beaters have neither. Do Egg Beaters taste like real eggs? No, not exactly, but you can’t tell when you bake cookies, make pancakes, or bread chicken using fake eggs. It was suggested that people who have high LDL have 2 or fewer eggs per week, so use fake eggs to fill in the gaps.

Soy Cheese

My favourite food is cheese. I love it and there is no replacing it. However, sometimes you can sneak in some soy cheese and you won’t really notice. The two soy cheeses I try to keep around are SoySation Cheddar style Slices (to use in grilled cheese or on a hamburger) and SoySation Mozzerella style Shredded cheese (great on nachos, in a wrap, quesadilla, french onion soup, or a Panini). If you just can’t get past that it tastes a little different, try using half real cheese and half soy cheese. It really makes a difference to your diet.

Try Tofu

Just trrrryyyyy it. You probably won’t love it, but you probably won’t hate it either. I haven’t really found a tofu meat that I love (the consistency of tofu sausages or ground ‘beef’ is just weird), but I have made some tasty dishes with regular blocks of tofu. My favorite recipe to make with tofu is Tofu Cakes, but also check out this post for more ways to enjoy tofu.

Tips to Raise HDL

The number one way to increase HDL is to stop smoking, increase aerobic exercise and shed any extra pounds. As far as foods to eat, doctors and studies disagree about whether you can increase your HDL levels with foods. They have seen some results in studies that say you can, but they are not always consistent results. The following foods have shown results in some studies to raise HDL:

• Make sure you are getting enough soluble fiber from foods like oats, whole grains, beans, cucumber, garlic, onion, apples, prunes, pears and other high fiber foods.
• Cranberry juice may increase HDL
• Fish (and other foods containing omega-3s) can increase HDL
• Tofu and soy can increase HDL
• Drinking organic green tea daily may also help the body cleanse itself.

Goodluck!

I hope you put all this information to good use! We have been on a low-cholesterol diet for almost 10 months now, and I want to assure you this is a very sustainable lifestyle. Stick with it! You can still eat the things you love and love the things you eat. And don’t beat yourself up – everyone needs a ‘cheat day’ once in a while!

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. This information is based on my experience and bits and pieces I have picked up along the way. You should always discuss your lifestyle changes with your doctor

Are you fighting your cholesterol? Was this information helpful to you? Let me know!

And that means Corn-on-the-Cob is back in grocery stores. Since it is only available at this time of year, I like to take advantage and eat it as much as I can. Corn-on-the-Cob is great barbecued in it’s husk or wrapped in tinfoil, but sometimes you have to mix it up a little – so here is one of my favourite summer salads to make with it:

Enjoy!

Tried it? Let me know how you like it!

I was in the supermarket today, going through the cereal aisle when I saw rice krispies and remembered I had a bag of near-stale marshmallows at home.  I couldn’t resist a perfect opportunity to make some old school rice krispie treats, so into the cart they went.

I got home and took out my measuring cups, Pyrex dish, rice cereal, margarine and vanilla, and went to find the marshmallows. At first I couldn’t find them and thought I had a slight moment of panic, but there they were, at the back of the pantry, right behind the rolled oats. Rolled Oats? Light bulb.

Rice Krispie squares and granola bars are pretty similar. Think about breaking a Quaker Chewey granola bar in half – you see all the little marshmallowy strings. A little looking around on the internet and I had some direction. Just make the marshamallow base, add a whole bunch of oats and cereal, throw in some surprises like dried fruit, nuts, or chocolate, and press into the pan.  Turns out, if you can make rice krispie treats, you can make granola bars!

Granola Bars!

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups rice cereal, plus 1/2 cup if necessary
• 1-1/2 cups quick cooking rolled oats, plus 1/2 cup if necessary
• 40 marshmallows (about 1 bag)
• 1/3 cup dried fruit, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup nuts, coarsely chopped
• 3 tbsp imperial margarine, plus more to grease the pan
• 1/4 c. chocolate chips, coarsely chopped

Note: I try not to use a lot of nuts because they are pretty high in saturated fats. You can use more if your diet allows!

Method

Throw butter and marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 3min. You probably want to stop it every minute or so and give it a stir, or it might grow out of control in your microwave.

Meanwhile, give the fruit, nuts, and chocolate a good chop, and grease up your Pyrex dish. Note: the hot marshmallows melted most of my chocolate chips, so the whole thing is a little chocolatey. If you want them to stay in one piece, consider adding them at the very end.

When the marshmallows are melted, add 1 1/2 cups of both the oats and the rice krispies, as well as the nuts, fruit, and chocolate. You might reserve some of the goodies to press into the top after for decoration.  Give it a good stir, and add in more rice kripsies and oats if you can. It will be a very stiff mixture!

Once combined, press mixture into the pyrex pan using a rubber spatula. If your pan has rounded corners like mine, use the spatula to fold over the edges of the mixture so that they are more square.

For mine, I saved some of the cherries to press in to the top.  Roughly cut the mixture into bars, then cover with plastic wrap and into the fridge to set. Once they are cooled and more or less stay together, they can be stored at room temperature in an air-tight container, much like you would store rice krispie treats.

Nutrition Facts:

Some things to note of course is that these bars are not identical. For example, mine are much more delicious. They both have chocolate chips, but the chewy bar does not contain nuts or fruit.   As you can see from the breakdown below, those two items do add a lot of fats, calories and carbs. Makes you wonder, if the chewy bars don’t have nuts, where does all that fat come from?

Quaker bars were a good comparison here, because they look like they also have a marshmallow base.  There are healthier granola bars out there (like Kashi TLC bars) but I think they use honey instead. Next round, I think I’m going to go that route

The Cost:

What do you think? Did you try them? Make them better? Let me know!

English Muffins

For a scalable copy of this recipe, bookmark it at my Recipe Box

Ingredients

Directions

Mix yeast and half the water in a bowl until dissolved. Add the remaining water and yogurt and mix well.
Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the salt. Pour in the yeast liquid and mix well into a soft dough. Turn out on a floured counter and knead well until very smooth. Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 30-40 min in a warm place until doubled in size.

Turn out again onto the counter and knead lightly. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 3/4″. Using a 3″ cutter, cut into rounds and scatter the semolina over each muffin. Re-roll the trimmings of the dough to make more muffins. Place them on a waxpaper covered baking sheet, cover, and let rise again 30-40 min.

Preheat oven to 350.

To serve immediately: Bake muffins for 10 minutes on a lightly greased baking sheet, then flip and bake for another 5-10 minutes or until crispy brown.  Serve right away.

To keep for later: Bake muffins for 5-10 minutes on a lightly greased baking sheet, making sure they only get lightly golden on the outside. Turn and bake another 5-10 minutes.  Let cool on a wire rack and then freeze or store in a air-tight container.

Let me know if you come up with any good flavours!

Now, keep in mind that 5oz is the daily recommended intake of meat or fish. Which means you have a turkey sandwich or some chicken on your salad for lunch, and you’ve probably eaten 2oz of meat. That only leaves you 3 more ounces of meat for dinner – which happends to be the recommeneded portion size for a meal.

Have you ever seen 3oz of meat? it is really small. The first time I measured it out I checked and rechecked because I couldnt believe it. It’s just not what youre used to seeing. Here are some examples to help you visualize:

After awhile, you get used to meat being a side in your meal, not the main event. You can still fill your plate up – a big green salad, some steamed veggies, anda little bit of meat can easily fill you up. Fish is another good alternative because fish is really light so you get a bigger volume of it in the 3oz. But sometimes, you need to bring in the tofu.

Tofurkey

I admit I was a little skeptical about tofurkey – but it does actually taste like turkey. That is, it tastes like turkey, if you can get over the fact the texture is more like a sponge and its a lot more greyish/brown than turkey. How do they get it to taste like turkey? I’m not really sure I want to know.

The good thing about tofu, or ‘bean curd’ (ew), is that it is a vegetable, not a meat. It doesn’t count towards your meat intake for the day, leaving a larger portion for dinner where you really notice it. I like to make sandwiches with a little bit of real turkey (say half to one ounce) and then add as much tofurkey as you like. Top with lots of veggies and some lite mayo, and you got yourself a pretty good lunch.

You can marinate tofu to taste like pretty much anything you like. On it’s own, it doesnt taste like anything. I don’t really like the texture of plain tofu, but I came across the recipe below that uses cornmeal to crisp up the outside. I admit, it’s pretty good for not-meat.

Crispy Tofu and Vegetables

SERVINGS: 4 servings
Source: Diabetic Living Magazine

• 12 to 16 ounces extra-firm tofu (fresh bean curd), drained
• 3 tablespoons reduced-sodium teriyaki sauce or soy sauce
• 2 cups fresh snow pea pods (8 ounces)
• 1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
• 1 medium red sweet pepper, cut into thin strips
• 1 medium yellow sweet pepper, cut into thin strips
• 8 green onions, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 2 teaspoons cooking oil
• 1 tablespoon white or black sesame seed, toasted (optional)

Remove strings and tips from pea pods; cut in half. Set pea pods aside. In a shallow dish combine cornmeal and ground red pepper. Drain tofu, discarding marinade. Carefully dip tofu slices in cornmeal mixture; press gently to coat both sides. Set tofu slices aside.

Pour 1 teaspoon of the sesame oil into a large nonstick skillet. Preheat over medium-high heat. Stir-fry sweet pepper strips for 2 minutes. Add pea pods and green onions; stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes more or until crisp-tender.

Remove skillet from heat; stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon teriyaki sauce. Transfer vegetable mixture to a serving platter; cover and keep warm. Wipe skillet clean.

In the same skillet heat the remaining 1 teaspoon sesame oil and the cooking oil over medium heat. Cook the coated tofu slices for 2-1/2 to 3 minutes on each side or until crisp and golden brown, using a spatula to turn carefully. Serve tofu slices over vegetable mixture. If desired, sprinkle with sesame seed. Makes 4 servings.

• Calories151
• Total Fat (g)6
• Saturated Fat (g)1
• Sodium (mg)473
• Carbohydrate (g)15
• Fiber (g)3
• Protein (g)9
• Vitamin C (DV%)196
• Calcium (DV%)6
• Iron (DV%)14