Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

These days, it’s not practical to always eat out with your family. Sure, it can be relaxing for career-oriented moms like me, especially after a hectic day at work. But besides being impractical, it is also difficult to gauge whether your family’s getting the proper nutrition that they need.

Being a working mom, it is quite a gargantuan task to find time to cook my family’s meals. I need to exert more effort and allot more time when I’m in the kitchen. But of course, the foremost problem is that I do not have the luxury of time. It’s quite frustrating to be a mediocre cook, especially since my mom, being Kapampangan, is such an expert in whipping up Filipino delicacies.

Some women find it easy, cook effortlessly and finish in no time while others find it difficult and time-consuming. For career-oriented moms like me, cooking is more of the latter.

For us, time is of the essence. We need to change roles immediately right after office; from a working woman to a domesticated mom. We need to be smart and find ways to lessen the stress especially when it comes to cooking. We normally think of a recipe that is quick to prepare, healthy and delicious at the same time.

I’m glad I came across this book called Four Seasons of Tofu. It has more than a hundred and one healthy tofu recipes that are quick and easy to prepare. I call it my cookbook treasure. Here are some of my favorites:

BBQ Skewered Tofu

Ingredients:

1 package of Tofu, boiled for 10 minutes, drained and cut into "1" inch cubes

32 shrimps, cleaned and deveined

8 large mushrooms, quartered

4 green bell peppers, cut into 8 pieces

¼ cup cilantro, minced

soy sauce

salt and pepper

lemon

16 bamboo skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes

Directions:

Prepare barbecue. On each bamboo skewer, place 2 shrimps, 2 tofu cubes, 2 mushrooms and 2 bell pepper pieces. Sprinkle prepared sticks with salt and pepper. When grill is hot, grease grill and place tofu sticks, cover and grill for 5 minutes on each side. Brush tofu sticks with soy sauce. Place on large plate, sprinkle with cilantro and lemon juice. Makes 16 skewers.