Mother's Day and Food on Sticks

Well first of all happy Mother's Day to all the moms, step moms, dads pulling double duty, expecting mothers, those working on the process of becoming a mother and the list goes on.  I celebrated my first Mother's Day as a step mother and I feel very loved and appreciated.  I received an awesome card from my stepson, a wonderful text from my stepson's mother, a beautiful card from my mother-in-law and my hubby took me to lunch.  Oh and I called my mom of course. :)

Dessert from lunch today…I need to learn how to make this (no I don't).  

We've had a jammed packed weekend.  We kicked it off with a family wedding on Friday, having friends over Saturday night, and celebrating Mother's Day today.  AND we finally saw the sun for the first time in about a week!

Back to business..So if you've been reading this blog you've realized that I love cooking for people by now.  As I mentioned we had friends over last night so of course that was my time to shine.  Our friends are not vegans (thought thankfully they are very open minded!) so I needed to come up with something they would enjoy.

I'm also cooking for a five year old so I opted to make some kabobs.  Everyone enjoys food on a stick right?  Eating off a stick somehow makes food more fun for kids, I highly recommend it if you're not afraid of your child poking his or her eye (or their siblings).  

I made two versions of kabobs, one I will share with you now.  They went over really well! As you can see from the picture below I made a ton of kabobs for four people, but we only had three leftover!  I call that a success. 

 Our more popular kabob was my take on sweet and sour.  Here's what I did…

Ingredients

• 1 block extra firm tofu (pressed)
• 1 pineapple
• 1 red pepper chopped
• 1 green pepper chopped
• 1 sweet onion chopped
• about one cup of your favorite BBQ sauce
• about one cup of your favorite grape jelly

This recipe was super easy and honestly fun to make!  First step is to press your tofu to get out all the extra water.  I used my trusty tofu press, but if you don't have one wrap the block in a towel and place something heavy on top (book, tea kettle, etc.).  Next I created my marinade.  I whisked together my BBQ sauce and grape jelly to create a sweet and sour marinade.  Once my tofu was drained I chopped it into cubes and placed in the sauce.  I let this set for about twenty minutes.  

Next part is the fun part.  Chop up your peppers, onions, and pineapple and get to sticking.  I love creating different combinations of colors on the skewers.  Once all my veggies and tofu were "stuck" I placed them in the oven and cooked them for about 25 minutes at 400 degrees.  I will be making these again for sure as well as experimenting with different combinations of proteins and veggies.  Happy Mother's Day everyone!