Saucy weekend

Hello everyone,

Sorry for my long absence, but I was in Toronto for Shabbos (Jewish Sabbath), visiting my family. Of course, being in Toronto means that I get to go to all the kosher grocery stores and buy kosher products that I can't find in Ottawa. I bought a ton of stuff.

First, a bit of background information:

Last week my husband got some test results back from his doctor, indicating that he might have a slight, smidge of high cholesterol. It should be noted that the test was done at, what might possibly have been, the most stressful time in his entire life (wedding week!), but nevertheless, I'm taking the results seriously.

So here's the new plan: I'm going to be feeding my meat-loving, Calgary-raised cowboy tofu twice a week.

I went to Genesis, which is a great bulk food store in Thornhill (north of Toronto), which carries tons of kosher products. I bought hunks of SoSoya (Textured Vegetable Protein), which I'll flavour with all the cool Asian sauces that I bought, and serve them together as a stirfry.

Here are a few of the products I bought:

These are just some of the sauces that I bought for our upcoming stirfry dinners. Hopefully a few tablespoons of these sugar and garlic-laden sauces will mask the flavor of the tofu and make it palatable for him. I should note, though, I happen to love SoSoya and don't need to mask the flavor at all. Maybe he'll feel the same way...after all, I did get him to admit that he enjoyed tofu ground beef.

Oh...and the first picture you see is of Walden House's sugar-free, fat-free, calorie-free alfredo sauce. Needless to say, this was purchased for pasta, not for stirfrys. I have no idea what this will taste like, but I was so intrigued by the possibility of alfredo sauce without sugar, calories or fat, that I just had to try it.

Other purchases I made from Sobey's and Genesis were quinoa, barley, Canadian wild rice, and whole wheat couscous. I'm hoping that introducing some of these cholesterol-lowering grains into our diet will help in hubby's "rehabilitation". I'm also hoping that they'll make for some interesting meal ideas for me to post.

Now I have to go and clean this apartment. Our bathroom was renovated while we were away in Toronto. What a mess!