Not Vegetarian - but Supportive

I believe that eating a plant-based diet is best for the planet and for most people's health.  But when I say plant-based I don't mean meat free.  I just mean that it's possible to get most of the protein our body's need from grains and legumes.  By also adding dairy and eggs it's actually easy to get more than enough protein.  But, for variety and convenience sake we do eat some meat - mostly chicken.  My digestive system is weird and can't handle most beef or pork, but I can eat some sausage, ham and BACON - which I do occasionally, even though it's not the healthiest.  Tastes good!  And that counts for something.

That said, one of my favorite cookbooks is The Vegetarian Gourmet's Easy International Recipes by Bobbie Hinman.  If your interested, follow the link - it leads to a popular online seller which shall remain nameless - they're not giving me any money.  Anyways, I like this book because the recipes are simple, use ingredients I usually have on hand (for the most part) and include lots of veggies.  And flavors of the world, which thankfully our whole family enjoys.

This week I made a dish from her book that was designed to be vegan.  But I don't eat tofu, so I substituted chicken breasts.  I forget what it's called - something about Caribbean pepper tofu with pineapple.  The first time I made this dish Liam was so excited about the combination of pineapple and supper that he said I was the best mommy ever.  This time he was just mad that I hadn't kept any pineapple separate so he could enjoy it on its own.  He got over it by the next day, and ate the leftovers really well.

It looks like a pretty big batch, but this is the kind of food you can eat A LOT of.  We ate it for supper two nights and Liam and I polished off the last little bit for lunch the third day.

Best when eaten with rice!