This is a great recipe for people who avoid dairy on the regular and need a chemical-free alternative to ice cream. It’s also a great recipe for people who don’t avoid dairy but are dieting! I wont give an official calorie count for this recipe because it can change a lot depending on what kind of peanut butter / tofu / sweetener you use.

Even if you’re not a fan of tofu, this recipe is amazing. I started experimenting with tofu in desserts last year thanks to Peas and Thank You, and this was a winner too!

It all happens in the food processor and if you have teeny tiny little containers like these it measures out to about 100 calories per serving!

13.5 oz package of silken tofu
4 tablespoons organic chunky peanut butter (can be smooth if you don’t want peanut chunks)
2/3 cup agave / maple syrup / Joseph’s Original Sugar Free Maple Syrup <- that's what I used
1 medium ripe banana

Blend it all together in the food processor and divide it into 10 servings. Freeze overnight and voila! It gets harder than regular ice cream, so take it out a little before you want to eat it and let it warm up and melt a bit. So good. Even if you end up having more than one, it's still a lot less calories than a bowl of ice cream.

Generally, a bowl of strawberries doesn’t need any dressing up around here. All of the kids will devour a bowl without any sugar on them, without them being dipped in chocolate (though that never hurts, especially if it’s dark chocolate). Sometimes, though, I feel like a little something and these little somethings are just the thing. No dairy, just a little hit of sugar and a tofu punch at the same time! Totally impossible to eat just one.

Let’s get educational, shall we? What’s so great about strawberries and tofu anyway? Weeeell, since you asked…

What’s so great about strawberries?
-1 cup of strawberries has 141% of your vitamin C for the day and 28% of your manganese (not to mention the fiber, folate, iodine, potassium, magnesium, vitamin k and omega 3 fats)
-cardiovascular support and prevention of cardiovascular diseases
-improved blood sugar regulation, with decreased risk of type 2 diabetes
-prevention of certain cancer types including breast, cervical, colon, and esophageal cancer
-anti-inflammatory
-amazing combination of phytonutrients–including anthocyanins, ellagitannins, flavonols, terpenoids, and phenolic acids

What about tofu?
-4 oz tofu has 43.7% of your daily tryptophan (an essential amino acid which is the key ingredient in serotonin, which promotes feelings of calmness and relaxation), 39.6% of your calcium, 34.5% of your manganese and 33.7% of your iron (plus protein, omega-3 fats, selenium, copper, phosphorus and magnesium)
-the iron in tofu is important because it’s used as part of hemoglobin,which is responsible for transporting and releasing oxygen throughout the body
-…and hemoglobin synthesis also relies on copper, which is also in abundance in tofu
-soy protein can help to lower total cholesterol levels by as much as 30%, lower LDL (bad cholesterol) levels by as much as 35-40%
-soy protein may reduce cholesterol and the risk of heart disease
-lower triglyceride levels, reduce the tendency of platelets to form blood clots, and possibly even raise levels of HDL (good cholesterol)
-helpful in alleviating the symptoms associated with menopause

4 ounces non dairy cream cheese, like Tofutti
1/2 cup extra firm silken tofu
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons lemon or orange juice

Just chop the tops off the strawberries and hollow them out. Pulse together all the ingredients and pipe the filling into the strawberries however you want. Pastry bag, zippy bag, spoon…whatever.

Another hit from Sarah Matheny’s Peas and Thank You.

I made these three dips to go with the tofu nuggets when four of my girlfriends came up to visit. Of the three of us that are down with tofu, we polished off the plate and sought out more things to dip! We also each had a different favorite. I loved the homemade barbecue sauce the most, I swear it tastes like the stuff in the bottle we used to buy but it’s honestly better. Talea liked the lime thaini best and Gill favored the Cinnamon Vinaigrette. That worked out well since we each wanted to hoard our own dip anyway!

The sauces, like all the recipes in this book so far, came together really simply. The nuggets are a bit of a time investment because you need to press the tofu and leave it to marinate, but really, it’s a hands off time investment so it’s not an issue.

The BBQ sauce came together in a saucepan.
All the vinaigrette needed was a whisk and a bowl.
The lime thaini made good use of my food processor and was literally done in under a minute.
As for the nuggets, after you’ve pressed the tofu and cut the brick into little nuggets, make the marinade and leave it overnight in the fridge. Then you make the coating and the egg-free egg step. Curious? Buy the book! It’s totally worth it, I love it and will always use this instead of eggs when I coat things. Then of course you coat each nugget in both bowls (after shaking off the marinade) and bake them! So so so crunchy and good. If you have stayed away from tofu because you don’t like the texture this is a great recipe to try because they’re nothing tofu-y about this!