You're a nice mom Lowspark! Here are some of my recipes. I've stayed away from the asian ones, since there are a lot on that EAting Well Web site. Be forwarned that I usually find those "low fat" recipes manage to be low fat because they have about half as much yummy sauce as you would want, so you might need to double the sauce ingredients. Tofu isn't that low calorie, although they do sell lowfat tofu, if you can find it. The reason I mention different techniques and ingredient amounts is I try and use as many lowfat techniques as I can, and some people do not like this kind of cooking, so you can adjust to suit your taste, just as I usually adjust regular recipes to make them lower in fat. Like in the tofu parmesearn recipe below, I'd use less parmesean cheese. Hopefully living in a metro area you can get the commercially marinated tofu. It is so convenient. The brand I get is "White Wave" and also "Tofu Kan." There's one other brand I get at Giant but I don't know the name of it. I'm not sure how they process it to get it so flavorful, but it's definately an art. You really can't just marinate tofu without baking it, it won't be that flavorful. I googled "baked marinated tofu" and came up with lots of groovy recipes. Here's how I'd do it if I was going to make the tofu salad above. Buy a tub of regular tofu, the kind that comes packed in water, not the silken tofu. Drain it and rinse it and then slice it into 1/2 inch slabs (or slightly larger). Make a "tofu press" by putting some paper towels on a tray, then laying the tofu out on the tray, then topping with more paper towels, then put another tray on top. Can use large plates for this. Then, put some heavy cans or books on top of the press to make it "press" down on the tofu. Use about 3 layers of paper towels. Enviro me uses clean dishtowels, you're just pressing water out of the tofu so it's not going to stain the towels and they can be washed. You don't have to press the tofu, but it presses water out and cuts down on the baking time. Press for about 15 min. Next, get some good italian dressing (I like Ken's brand or Newman's Own). Put a little bit in a shallow baking pan, then layer in the tofu, then cover with more dressing. You can use lowfat dressing. Bake in an oven. The temp can vary from 350-400 degrees, depending on how closely you want to watch it. I would say maybe 375. You want to bake it until the tofu dries out and is coated with the marinade. It will take 40-60 min. Turn halfway through. This baked marinated tofu will keep a few days in the fridge and can be used in salads and other dishes, or in sandwiches. Frankly, as you can see it's bit of a pain to make this compared to buying it already done in the store! You can use other marinades, such as teriyaki sauce. You can make your own marinade from scratch too. Here's a couple of my more traditional recipes. I've stayed away from the hard core stuff like curried tofu stew, lol! Tofu Stuffed Bell Peppers 4 peppers 4-6 mushrooms 1 clove garlic or 1/2 tsp. minced garlic/garlic powder 1 small onion 4 oz. tofu (can use silken extra firm or water-packed firm) 2 cups tomato sauce pinch oregano, basil, salt, pepper 1 TBLSP red wine (optional, could use maybe balsamic vinegar or leave out) 2 tsp olive oil 1 tsp. sesame seeds (to make sesame seeds digestible, I toast for about 10 min. and grind in the food processor, then keep in fridge for when I need them. Can leave out) 1 tsp wheat germ (or 2 tsp. if you don't have the sesame seeds) 1 cup cooked rice Steam peppers for 4-6 min. Put 1/2 of sauce in the bottom of a small baking pan. Saute onion and mushrooms in oil, add spices, tofu, rice and wheat germ and sesame seed. Stuff gently into peppers, top with remaining sauce. (Can sprinkle some italian shredded cheese or parmesean cheese over the top) Bake at 350 for 30 min. Low Calorie Quiche (use the crust below, which is a health food kind of thing, or whatever kind of quiche crust you like. As you know, I'm piecrust challenged so I usually use store bought, lol! I got this recipe from "Vegetarian Times" magazine, and have never made the crust, just the filling. It sounds good, and I have been known to make an oil-based pie crust.) Crust: 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup white flour 1/4 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. baking poweder 1/4-1/3 cup canola oil 2 TBLSP lemon juice 1 1/2 tsp. honey 2-3 TBLSP cold water 1-2 tsp. sesame seeds (see above for how to prep. them) Preheat oven to 375. Grind oats to coarse flour in a blender or food processor. Mix dry ingredients together. Drizzle in oil until the mixture looks like coarse sand. Add lemon, honey, and 2 TBLSP water til the dough forms a ball, add more water if necessary. Roll between two sheets of wax peper. Sprinkle sesame seeds to coat bottom of pie pan. Prick crust on sides and bottom. Bake 10 min., then remove from oven and reduce heat to 350 degrees. Filling: 1 tsp. water or olive oil (I'd probably use at least 2 tsp. or 1 TBLSP EVOO) 1 cup diced onion 1 tsp. minced garlic (or less, I don't use that much) 3 cups broccoli florets (I often use frozen broccoli) 1-2 TBLSP water 2 large egg whites 10 oz. package soft, silken tofu 1 TBLSP prepared dijon mustard 1 tsp. dried basil 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. white pepper 1-2 TBLSP grated parmesean cheese Heat oil in a skillet over med. heat. Add onion and sautee 3-5 min. until translucent. (you may need to add more oil or water, this is a low cal recipe, I probably use more oil than this). Add garlic and broccoli and water. Steam until broccoli is bright green, ~2 min. Drain veggies if necessary. Place in the pre-baked pie crust. Whip egg whites until frothy. Add tofu, spices and parmesean. Blend until smooth. Pour into pie crust. Garnish with strips of red pepper if desired. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 min. Tofu Sloppy Joes - serves 5 6 TBLSP oil 1 large onion, diced 2 med. green peppers, seeded and diced 2 cans spanish style tomato sauce 1 1/2 TBLSP chili sauce/powder 2 TBLSP tamari or low salt soy sauce 1 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. black pepper 1/2 tsp. dried oregano 1 TBLSP prepared brown mustard 1 TBLSP brown sugar 1 1/2 lbs firm tofu, frozen, thawed and squeezed dry and crumbled Saute onion and peppers in oil, Add tofu and soy sauce. Add tomato sauce and spices. Simmer over low heat until nice and thick. Serve on whole wheat hamburger buns with sweet potato fries and coleslaw. Tofu Parmigiana 1 1/2 lbs. tofu 2 eggs (or 1 egg, 2 egg whites) 1 TBLSP tamari or low salt soy sauce 3/4 cup toasted wheat germ 3/4 cup grated parmesean cheese (or less, maybe 1/2 cup) oil for cooking 1/2 cup onions, sliced 1 carrot, shredded 2 cloves garlic, minced or to taste (I use one clove) 1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced 2 cups tomatoes, seeded and diced, or 2 cups thick tomato puree (I use canned crushed tomatoes) 1 TBLSP fresh basil or 1 tsp. dried 1 tsp. oregano 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes salt to taste 8 thin slices mozz cheese Press tofu until dry, or use a marinated kind. Slice tofu into 8 thin slices. Beat together egg and tamari/soy sauce. Mix together what germ and 1/4 cup of the parmesean cheese and put in a pie plate or on a large dinner plate. Dip tofu in egg, then dry mixture. Refrigerate while you prepare the sauce. (Geez, I don't know why you have to do that, you could prepare the sauce in advance!). Saute onion, carrot, garlicand mushrooms in oil. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer until thick and all flavors combined. Fry sliced tofu until golden. Heat broiler. Sprinkle baking pan with sauce and 1/4 cup parmesean. Place browned tofu on sauce in a single layer. Tof tofu with mozzarella cheese slices. Pour on remaining sauce over and around the tofu. Top with remaining parmesean. Broil until bubbly. Serve over brown rice. A fancy dish for special occasions.

OK, here's the deal with soft tofu, (if your inspiration for using it is to cut down on saturated fat in recipes). You can use it to create any creamy type application, but bear in mind that tofu will not carry and enhance the flavor components the way cream will. So to compensate, tofu dips, desserts and sauces have to be "spiced up" more than maybe you would do usually. Frankly, this is not a problem for me, I usually love the "spicier" versions of things anyway. Besides being lower in saturated fat than animal based products, whole soy products have a lot of phytoestrogens in them, which have many health benefits in addition to being lower in fat. Also bear in mind that although it is lower in saturated fat, tofu is not extra low in overall fat, or low calorie, so use in moderation like all things. And of course some folks are allergic to soy so can't get any benefits. Some of the allergies can be attributed to the genetic modification (to include herbicide resistence), that is becomeing ubiquitous with soy, so seek out organic, non-gmo soy sources. I couldn't find my tofu chocolate pie recipe. I eat desserts so sparingly that this would not be the kind of thing I would make very often, unless I was going to some kind of party. Otherwise it would languish and get soggy in my fridge, and hog scarce space. However, while trying to find the recipe, I Googled soft tofu and got gazillions of great sounding recipes. Once of my easy peasy favorite things to do with soft tofu is to make tofu pudding tarts. Mori Nu makes various pudding mixes you can combine with soft tofu--like lemon, vanilla and chocolate. If you can't get Mori Nu mixes in your local health food grocery, you could order them online, or just Google for a recipe, there are gads of them out there. In fact, I am linking to one particularly interesting site I found while searching for the pie recipe. I buy those little phyllo cups, fill them with a dollop of the pudding, a dollop of my homeade preserves, and a sprinkling of sliced almonds. Very cute and very easy. But they don't keep, the phyllo gets soggy if you let them sit around too long, so I only make these for parties. Also tons easier than making a custard pudding tart. OK, so with a little Internet sleuthing, I found the recipe I made. But I also found out that unlike back in the 90's when I subscribed to "Vegetarian Times" where the recipe came from, gads more folks are cooking with tofu so there are so many more options! Note: I got this from a blog called "Dewey's Treehouse." I cannot find the real name of the blog's author, but she gives credit for the recipe to Jennifer McLain, from the January 1994 issue of Vegetarian Times. They have a feature called "Recipe Redux" where they pare down someone's favorite high fat recipe. I got a lot of great recipes from that column! The notes are from the blog author, not me. If the recipe ends up with weird symbols, that's from my cutting and pasting. Chocolate Pie After Redux (It can be made up to three days in advance.) Ingredients Crust: *7 oz. chocolate wafer cookies or graham crackers and *2 tbsp. canola oil or melted margarine. (My note: I just make a graham cracker crust following the directions in the Betty Crocker Cookbook. You can use any crumb crust recipe you like.) Filling: * 8 oz. unsweetened chocolate (a box of the supermarket kind is fine) * 2 10-oz. packages silken tofu (The first time I made this, I bought a 19-oz. box of aseptically-packaged silken tofu, because Jennifer insisted that the tofu be the silken type. The second time, I had to use what the supermarket offered, which was soft (but not silken) tofu in 300 g (about 10 � oz.) water-pack tubs. I used two tubs, and it worked fine.) *10-oz. jar blackberry preserves (Jennifer says that preserves made from any red berry (strawberry, raspberry or cherry) will work. You don't taste the particular fruit, it just adds sweetness and texture. The first time, I used a jar of black cherry preserves. The second time, I was again limited to what the discount supermarket had, and I had trouble finding anything in the jam aisle marked "preserves." I settled for a cupful of E.D. Smith Triple Fruit Wildberry spread, which is thinner than normal jam and seemed to work well.) *1 tsp. vanilla extract *1 cup liquid honey (You may think you need to cut back on the honey after putting in a cupful of preserves or jam. However, we tried cutting back, tasted it after blending, and agreed that it did need pretty much close to the whole cupful. Remember, you�re adding a lot of unsweetened chocolate.) Directions Crust (if you�re following the recipe here): Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In blender or food processor, combine cookies and oil or margarine and pulse to make fine crumbs. Press into bottom of springform pan or pie plate. Bake 10 minutes and cool. Filling: Melt chocolate in double boiler or over very low heat. Put remaining ingredients in bowl of food processor or blender and add melted chocolate. Process until very smooth, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides. Pour filling into crust, smooth top, and refrigerate until firm, at least 4 hours or overnight. Serves 12. Per serving: 409 calories, 17 g fat, 57 mg carb. Lpink's notes: Put some berries around the top for some extra style points! Also note, although it may be low fat, this is NOT a low calorie dessert!! But it's very rich so you won't be tempted to eat more than one tiny sliver! This post is getting to be long, I'll post some more recipes later. Here is a link that might be useful: Food Ferret soft tofu recipes

Thanks, Linda, I may try that...if all else fails, the "mistakes" will be tasty! :O)

If you tell yourself it is going to taste like meat, you will never like tofu...it's not meat and it will never taste like meat...I make chili using meat thinking my husband wouldn't know the difference, so many told me he wouldn't well he did and he didn't like it...and I didn't either...I don't object to a little tofu but the way to enjoy it is to accept it as tofu. It's not something that I have to gag down but not something I love to eat....or am dying for my next meal..