Peanut Yum Sauce (with vegetables and rice)

I am a planner.  I like to know what's going on for the week a week in advance.  I like to have vacations planned out to the day.  I like to lay my clothes out (and the boys clothes) the night before.

This doesn't always happen, but it's the way I prefer.

I also meal plan.  For me, it's the easiest way to shop and cook.  There's no, Oh, this looks good....but I don't have what I need.  Planning meals out for 2 weeks is just the way I do things and it works for me.  I love picking out what I'm going to feed my family.  I look at blogs and cookbooks.  I make sure there is balance -- no one wants to eat 3 lentil-heavy meals in one week, right?  Well, when I went to meal plan and write out my grocery list this past week, I goofed.  I had written down: Mama Pea's Peanut Sauce.  And so I wrote down the ingredients for the sauce and only the sauce.  Oops.

So when I got around to making dinner Thursday night, I realized that we would all be a little hungry after consuming just the sauce.  Good as it was, we would have been hungry.  Thankfully, I cooked up some brown rice and cleaned my freezer out of all the leftover bags of veggies and we had a tasty and filling meal.

No one was the wiser to my goof and everyone loved it!  I loved how insanely quick and easy it was.  Seriously, if I had instant brown rice on hand (or hand some pre-made) this would have taken 10 minutes to put on the table.  No joke.  I tweaked the recipe - surprise surprise - you'd think with my planner ways that I would stick with a recipe but for the life of me I just can't!

Peanut Yum Sauce (with vegetables and rice)

Serves 6

Active time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes (if you have to cook your rice)

Total time: 50 minutes

Serving Suggestions: Round this meal out with a small bowl of soup (a pureed creamy vegetable sort) or a big green salad chocked full of more raw veggies.

What you'll need:

• 1 1/2 cups dry brown rice OR instant brown rice + 3 cups of water
• 2  1lb (16 oz) bags frozen California Blend vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots) OR 6 cups frozen vegetables (great way to clean out those "end of the bag" frozen veggies)
• 1 box silken tofu, drained
• 1/2 tsp coconut extract
• 3/4 cup natural peanut butter
• 3 TBLS soy sauce OR Tamari
• 1 TBLS lime juice
• 2 tsp powdered ginger
• 1 TBLS minced garlic
• 1 TBLS agave OR honey
• ¼-1/2  tsp Cayenne pepper (to taste)
• Salt to taste
• 1 cup unsalted dry roasted peanuts for garnish (optional)

What you'll do:

• Cook your rice with the water.
• Steam, Microwave, or Roast (400 for 30 minutes with a little olive oil) vegetables until soft and tender.
• Combine the remaining ingredients (except the peanuts) in a blender or food processor and pulse until smooth and creamy.
• When the vegetables and rice are done, combine with the sauce in a large bowl and stir until everything is coated nicely.
• Serve with the peanuts sprinkled on top if desired.

Time Tip:  Cook your rice ahead of time

Nutrition Facts (per serving, 1/6 of recipe):

Calories 453 (Calories from fat 179); Total Fat 20g (Saturated 4g); Cholesterol0mg; Sodium 513mg; Potassium 669mg; Total Carbohydrate 56g (Dietary Fiber 8g); Sugars 10g; Protein 18g; Vitamins/Minerals - Vitamin A 6638 IU; Vitamin C 53mg; Calcium 139mg; Iron 3mg; Folate 102mcg