Here’s another common weeknight meal around our house. Also another appearance by a vegan superstar straight out of the frozen section at TJ’s. Meet Trader Joe’s Frozen Vegetable Fried Rice. We are fans.

In one bag you’ve got your rice and a vegetable mix that includes corn, carrots, peas…and a few other things I can’t completely recall at the moment. All we do is brown some tofu, add the mix, a few more servings of frozen veggies (I usually add more peas and some shiitakes) a little Shoyu and some Sriracha – donezo.

Recently I discovered some super yummy frozen vegan spring rolls from Ling Ling as well, so we’ve started eating these with this meal too. Lil’ hint: I find these are better if you bake them a smidge longer (5 minutes or so).

And that concludes this episode of “Busy Vegan.” See ya’ll next time!

Veggie Fried Rice

Ingredients

1 Bag Trader Joe’s Vegetable Fried Rice
1-2 tbs roasted peanut oil (or flavorless oil, whatever you prefer)
7 oz extra-firm tofu, cubed
Additional frozen veggies, to taste
1-2 tbs Shoyu or soy sauce
Sriracha to taste (optional)

Directions

• Place tofu on a clean towel between two plates. Stack a few heavy books on the top plate and press tofu for 1/2 hour, turning once.*
• Remove rice mix and frozen veggies from freezer
• Slice tofu into cubes
• Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.  Add tofu and cook until golden, turning to brown all sides evenly
• Add rice mix, veggies and shoyu to pan with tofu and stir-fry for several minutes, according to package directions
• Add desired amount of Sriracha and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes longer, remove from heat and serve with additional Sriracha

*This step is optional – as it does make this meal slightly more time-consuming to prepare – but pressing first is a good way to get really flavorful tofu. It will still cook up without being pressed, and still be tasty, but you’ll likely need to cook it longer to get it to brown if you don’t press first.

Yield: Serves 2-3