OT a can opener casserole

Thank you for this receipe!!!! Thank you very much!!! Barbara in FL

Here's another, and it's healthy to boot. :)

Tasty Vegan Lasagna (Adapted from a recipe on

Preheat the oven to 350.

Take the tofu, salt, and herbs for a quick spin in the food processor. (Say about 5 pulses, or until it resembles cottage cheese in texture). Okay to omit the salt if your diet demands it. The more herbs the merrier.

In a 9x13 baking dish, put 2 tbsp of water in the bottom. Add a layer of uncooked lasagna noodles, a layer of the tofu mixture, a layer of sauce. Keep layering noodles, tofu and sauce until you run out, reserving enough sauce to top the whole thing with a thin layer. Cover with foil, cook for 60 minutes (it's okay if the oven hasn't gotten to 350 yet, as long as it's not stone cold.)

Slices better if you let it cool 15 minutes first. Heavenly the next day, and no one will guess that it's vegan AND healthy. I keep a couple of the tofu terabrick packages (the kind that last for months) on hand just because this is such a great dish for busy evenings.

Enjoy!

Here's one that will feed a hungry bunch of people AND raise your cholestrol at the same time Seriously, this one, all from cans and bags, has become a family "heritage" recipe.

Frito Pie

One or t wo cans Chili -- no beans One or two cans of tamales (yes, you will find canned tamales at the grocery store. you just never knew it before) A big bag of Fritos (Must be Fritos corn chips, nothing else works the same way) Big bag of shredded cheddar cheese chopped onion (ok, it's fresh but what the heck....)

Open cans of tamales, unwrap the tamales (important step, ladies and gents) and put them into a big glass dish so that the bottom of the dish is covered with tamales all snuggled up together. Pour on the chili. Crush a bunch of the Fritos and mush them around, sorta poking them down into the little spaces in the chili. Sprinkle the chopped onion around. Put a bunch of the cheese on and stir it around. Put in a little water. You want it to be sort of juicy but not too juicy. (Read exact recipe here, lol) Then put down a good layer of broken up fritos. The rest of the bag. Cover the top with the rest of the cheese. This is where most of the cheese should go.

Bake this in a good hot oven until everything is bubbling on the bottom and the cheese on the top is really baked. It shouldn't be just melty. It should make a nice crust when it comes out of the oven. By this time the bottom of your oven will be a real mess, but leave it until af ter Christmas.

Serve this with tall glasses of iced tea or Coke or whatever sweet icy drink you like. Some people will want cornbread on the side (I grew up in the south). My mom served it with the proverbial "fresh salad" which now can come straight from a bag, cornbread (instant, just add water) and pinto beans cooked with fat back. (we suggest passing the Beano at the table)

This is the best stuff you will ever wrap your gums around. Whenever my sisters and I get together, this is the dish we cook. It is so much a part of the good part of our childhood. This is party food. Cook it up for supper one night and your family will be your slaves. Or at least they will wonder why you took time out of your precious quilting to make this incredibly time consuming (don't tell them how quick this goes together) meal.

Bon appetite! ;) Sunny

Are you pretty sure I can get away with cooking with tofu? I think I could smuggle it into the kitchen in a plain brown wrapper. Is it an 'acquired' taste or will no one ever notice it is there? And please do tell us what herbs you choose - we wouldn't want to present what looks like lasagna but tastes like oyster gumbo. Polly

"Kathy Applebaum" Here's another, and it's healthy to boot. :)

As long as you 'hide' the tofu in a good recipe you should be ok. Good spaghetti sauce should do the trick. That whatever you grab herbs is not a good combination. Taria

Polly Esther wrote:

No one will know unless you tell them. :) Tofu doesn't taste like much of anything on its own -- it just absorbs all the flavors around it. If you don't confess, everyone will think it's a mild cheese.

My usual herb selection is black pepper, garlic, toasted onion powder, thyme, oregano, and lots of basil. Any selection of herbs that sounds Italian will do just fine.

Next you're going to ask me about quantity, and this is where I'll admit that I never measure. A guess would be about a tablespoon total, if I'm using dried. If I cut from the garden, it's about 3 puny sprigs of thyme, 3 of oregano, and a hunk of basil, stem and all.

It would probably work well, but it would take it out of the "into the oven in under 3 minutes" category. :)

Does your sweetie know that elephants are vegans? There's something to be said about their weight and their skin. Polly

Polly,

I've made lots of recipes using tofu - such as cannelloni & lasagna. No one will know unless you tell them. Tofu pretty much takes on the flavors you cook it with. (I'm not much for tofu either, but when it's disguised with other ingredients, it's very tasty.)

Pauline Northern California

You can also crumble the tofu by putting it in a bowl and squeezing it - sorta like when you are makiing pie dough. Then when you fry it it hides the look of cubes.

We have been eating tofu for years (we're vegetarians) and I love the stuff, even raw dipped in a bit of catsup. yummmmm