Meatless Monday: Tofurger Helper To The Rescue

OMG, its Monday? Gonna try to keep this commitment to No Meat Monday--maybe just because I still have a crush on Paul McCartney.

So, I will whimsically replace ground beef with tofu in a very quick-to-prepare Hamburger Helper Double Cheeseburger Macaroni recipe, which can also be tweeked to have vegetables in it. I know, this isn't health food, but it is a start.

Potato,er, tofu masher.

What is tofu? According to Wikipedia, "Tofu, or doufu, also known as bean curd, is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is a component in East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisines." Mmm, coagulated bean curds. Soy bean curds.

The extra firm tofu takes on the flavor of whatever you cook it in. So I used my tofu masher (AKA potato masher) and actually marinaded the tofu for a few hours with Worcestershire sauce. But you can just mash it, create the consistency of ground beef, and treat it like hamburger in the Tofuburger (Hamburger) Helper recipe. In our part of the world, tofu is about $1.75 for 12 ounces, ground beef is about $3.99 for 16 ounces. So, since I got the Hamburger Helper on sale for 99cents, this meal for maybe four persons, is less than $3, not counting the Worcestershire sauce, and the cheese we sprinkled on top.

We have convinced ourselves tiny tomatoes are a treat (check out school cafeterias--the kids love them! and spinach leaves, too. Hope the First Lady can keep this up!) So, this is for when you are in a terrible hurry after a long Monday (takes 20 minutes tops), bucks down (anyone been there?) and still want to do something right.

Tofurger Helper Double Cheeseburger Macaroni