Plant Based Protein

During this pandemic we've been having a protein rut of sorts. The youngerchild does not eat red or gamey meats or fish, and the elderchild won't eat beef. This leaves us basically cooking a lot of chicken and pork. I've been trying to expand the protein options by adding tofu, and one night we tried vegan sausages. The remaining 2 vegan sausages remain, unopened and unloved, in the fridge. Tofu has been slightly more successful, with a couple of stir fries. The youngerchild asked if it could be cut up smaller after the first attempt, so there would be a higher ratio of surface area (aka the part that actually has flavor) to volume. The second attempt had much smaller pieces of tofu but even then, they weren't consumed completely but more was eaten, at least. The elderchild is completely fine with the tofu in any form. 

There will be more fish in the future, and the plan is to make sure the youngerchild has something else to eat, but I'm tired of not having fish because I love it and would like to eat more of it. However, in the interest of increasing the plant based protein in our diets, last night I made tofu alfredo sauce. It wasn't bad, but there was a lot of tweaking of the recipe to get it to the point that it tasted more like alfredo and less like tofu. 

What I did was blend 16 oz. of silken tofu with 1/2 cup whole milk in a blender, then add 2 T. of butter that had been used to sauté garlic. (The garlic was discarded, it was just for the flavor.) Then I blended that with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and about 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, and heated it up in a saucepan. I added a little bit of fresh parsley, adjusted the seasonings, and voilá. Served over ravioli: cheese for the youngerchild, a combination of butternut squash and sausage for the rest of us, with fresh basil on top. 

And, guess what? 

The youngerchild had seconds.