fake meatball subs

Tonight I made fake meatball subs. Here is the link for fake meatballs and the tomato sauce.
The fun part of this is calling the boys in and we all take our sub bread (I tried french bread a few times but its more bread then balls, sub bread does the trick) that I had toasted some and we all assemble our sandwiches. I cut up green onions, mushrooms, and red peppers to put on them. I had some zucchini in the sauce too, since the lady at the farmers market gave me an extra one today. SO on mine I put on mayo and mustard (sounds gross but it makes the sandwich really really good), then the fake balls, then the tomato sauce, then pickles, mushrooms, and g.onions, and then mozzerella cheese, and a little parm sprinkled on top of that. they all went back in the oven until the cheesey cheese was melted. yummy.
Yesterday I had my job interview, and I was a wreck all day. We had to drive across the island so I put together my favorite travel lunch: hummus,
goat cheese, toasted bread I made (the 6 grain), apple slices, and usually I have carrots but I was out. yummy. But I couldn't have dinner, the days stress collapsed my insides.
The day before was meganachos. We used to get this at taco stand, and I try to make it but its never as good. Here is my tofu recipe for it:

Extra firm tofu, shake out water. Cut pieces fairly thin, about 1/2 inch from the end. In my cast iron skillet I heat up olive oil. The tofu really does benefit from some marination in soy sauce, but I procrastinate. So when the oil is hot put in the tofu. The first round of seasonings are:
soy sauce, enough to cover the top of each piece. Its easy to over soy, but I think that playing around with it is necessary because every one likes soy different. Then I coat the top with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. When I say coat I mean I just shake it over until I see some on all the pieces.
When I flip them (when they start getting brown) I move the pieces around so they will cook evenly and add: cumin across each piece, fennel seeds (this is the secret ingredient that makes them taste like sausage, I use about 1/2 tablespoon), and cinnamon across each piece
When I flip again I put on each piece basil, thyme, and coriander.
When they start getting pretty cooked I cut them into smaller pieces and turn down the heat from med. to a little lower.

mega nachos:
1 can refried beans
I spread this across the bottom of the pan and bake on 350 degrees while the tofu cooks.
Next I cut up veggies to go on it. The ones I suggest are black olives, I like zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, red peppers, and green onions. When the beans are hot and the tofu is done I combine the veggies (raw), tofu, and beans in a casserole dish and top it with moz. cheese. yummmy.

fake meatball night

ahh fake meatballs. always satisfying. I had all of that left over tofu from ravioli the other night, which used a surprisingly small amount of tofu. So I had all of this tofu mashed up with what was once frozen spinach and mushrooms. I weighed it, and it was a pound. This is good, cause thats how much I needed for my fake meatball recipe. Everyone said it was better than normal because the tofu had been sitting in flavor this week from the spinach, mushrooms, and then the salt, pepper, garlic sauce, and small amount of tomato sauce. This is how it went down:

1 pound tofu mixed with spinach and mushrooms *but usually I just do tofu
1/2 cup wheat germ
about 1/8 cup dried parsley
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon redpepper flakes
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
Mix that all together with your hands.
Usually I have to really press the tofu for some times before I make this for it to taste good, cause if there is a little water you will taste it. I don't know why. Maybe you wont, but I do. So press first.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
put 2 tablespoons of oil on a baking sheet
roll these guys into balls, the suggested ball is 1 and 1/2 inch. I keep them small, but not too small. about 3 fit on my subroll. Then I stick them into the oven and flip them every ten minutes. They cook a total of 30 minutes.
This is what I do with them:
I put them into subs. with tomato sauce. Tonight I forgot we ate the left over sauce for lunch and had to make some real quick. I did this:
pureed the can of chopped tomatos.
added 2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
shook in basil and parsley and pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
This tasted like too sweet crap. I called clyde in. He suggested it needed to cook off. So I shut the lid and let it cook for 10 minutes. It tasted fine.
I cut up my sub buns (I used to make french bread for this but there was too much bread involved, go subroll unless you want mostly bread) put my sauce and balls and cheese on there and baked until crusty.
Usually I will put cut up vegetables on it, but were out of everything but carrots and cabbage. This was a generally good food day. I started clyde and I on multi-vitamins today. Since we have been writing down everything we eat AND I got that book that tells me the nutritional content of everything we eat I see we are not getting enough B12. protein yes. Zinc yes. B6 yes. B12 no. So I had no choice. We'll see how it goes.