Food Tips, July 2026

Some practical advice:

1. We used to use Tofuky Chik'n all the time, but it hasn't been available in Tucson for years. (I still eat metric tons of Tofurky Deli Slices.) We currently use soy curls (picture of the bulk bag above; voice recognition helpfully sometimes translates as "soy girls"  😆 ). We have a dealer who sometimes gets us similar but super-cheap soy chunks from Mexico. 

But in the past year, having been veg for a combined 70+ years, Anne and I have been eating lots more tofu than ever before - specifically, Trader Joe's high-protein tofu. We freeze and thaw it, then put it in a tofu press. We'll use that in pretty much anything (except this, from 2014 - that uses soy girls). The tofu goes into everything from curry to "hash" -- normal potato, sweet potato, carrots, peas, and anything else we want to throw in (e.g., crushed tomatoes), spiced with whatever we're in the mood for....

2. It is incredible what spices and sauces are available! Berbere for an Ethiopian kick (in the winter, we'll make berbere lentils in the InstaPot - there are many recipes online; I don't even try injera); chipotle for that earthy Mexican; many curry pastes and powders. Trader Joe's has a wide variety to try (not just in meals, but sprinkled on bread or popcorn).

3. Prepared foods are quite excellent these days, speaking as someone who grew up on Salisbury "steak" TV dinners.  This red bean curry is one of our favs. Since Japan, we've also been eating a lot more ramen (generally ordered from here - you can just search on "vegan ramen;" yes, the "Hello Kitty" chicken noodle soup is vegan). We add in soy girls, peas, dried edamame, and extra siracha.  

4. We (especially Anne) eat quite a bit of Silk Soy Milk Yogurt. For some odd reason, ordering this directly from Amazon has been much cheaper than getting it directly at Whole Foods, even with delivery! 

I eat sauerkraut most days. We grow broccoli sprouts (2 minute video), too, based on our pal Ken's suggestion. We do this so much we buy 4.5 pounds of seeds at a time. We don't do any of the fancy stuff in other videos / guides - that linked short is all we do. We don't believe all the "fights / prevents cancer" claims about the sprouts, etc., but we like them well enough. They are cheap, it is easy to have them fresh (we have several containers going in sequence), and they basically taste like nothing (esp compared to kale, broccoli florets, etc.). 

5. Anne makes me overnight oats with nuts, dried fruit, protein powder, and soy milk. I add Trader Joe's frozen Wild Boreal Blueberries (the best tasting, IMO). 

6. Since I've not mentioned Trader Joe's, our friend Kari hipped us to their Thai Wheat Noodles. As per a meal she once made us, we just toss them in with sautéed tofu, veggies, ginger and garlic (TJ's has frozen garlic and ginger in little red containers) and then a teriyaki peanut sauce that Anne whips up (generally part of a bottle of store-bought teriyaki, TJ's peanut butter, and siracha). No need boil water, etc.