Me loves me some tofu pasta!

 "Tofu pasta?  TOFU pasta?  Did you start drinking early today Mindi?"

Good guess (and I won't go in to all of the reasons I would be justified in doing so today....most of which also explain why it is Monday morning and I started typing this Sunday), but no.  I really do heart this stuff!

The four of you who have been reading this blog for a while might remember that I have mentioned Hungy Girl quite a few times.  And that I follow Weight Watchers.  And that I'm thinking about becoming a vegetarian/semi-vegan (I've made the jump to vegetarian...I just don't think I will be giving up dairy any time soon).  So how do the three of them intersect?

Because for quite some time Hungry Girl has been mentioning Shirataki noodles...so much that I was convinced that she was getting paid to plug the stuff (even though she swears that she doesn't).

Then I was at the supermarket on Friday and found the noodles.  Right next to them was a recipe leaflet put out by the company with Hungry Girl's picture on them and I thought "A-HA!  See - she IS getting paid to plug the stuff.  I'll show her!  I'll make this one recipe right here just to prove that this stuff tastes like ass!  They're TOFU noodles fercryinoutloud!".  (Before you say it, I still hadn't figured out how me making an inedible meal was really going to "show her", but when you are a stay-at-home mom, sometimes you just gotta take your little thrills where you can find 'em!)

 So I made this recipe (shown at left) on Saturday night for Fettucine Tuna Casserole, substituting Trader Joe's Chickenless Chicken Strips for the tuna and Oh.MY.Lord was it good!  It was also an obscenely large portion for the Points (although I am stepping back from Weight Watchers for a bit.....more on that in another post).  After all, the whole 2-serving package of noodles is only a point...and that is only if you follow the "you should still count any non-vegetable that calculates to zero points as at least 1 point" rule.   Oh - and since my husband & kids refused to try it, I had the leftovers for lunch & dinner yesterday (I divided it in to 3 portions instead of 4...the whole friggin's recipe was only 12 points!) and found that they do reheat in the microwave well. 

I will say this:  everything I read about these noodles told me two things:  number 1 is that they aren't that good with tomato sauces...use them for creamy pastas.  The other is that the key to not having them taste like rubber is to rinse them well, nuke 'em for a minute and then dry them.  After I took them out of the microwave, I pressed them between 2 paper towels, changed the towels, then did it again.

One other thing:  I did a little more experimenting with this stuff last night, using the Spaghetti this time and trying to make a pasta primavera that was in the same leaflet.  I think that I will be sticking to the Fettuccine because the spaghetti just became a tangled mess.

But seriously - give these things a try.