Meatless Monday/Thursday & Malfatti

Have you ever stopped and thought about how much fat is in the meat we consume?  I didn't, until I started working out with a trainer and I really had to think about what I was eating.  While I will never be a vegetarian, I am more cautious about what's going in my mouth.  I've started eating less and less meat over the past 7 months and it hasn't been that difficult or actually something that I really set out to do.  It just sort of happened.  Chris thinks that I'm half way to being a vegetarian already, but that is so not true!  I like a good steak, a turkey burger, some pork souvlaki or some ground turkey chili still.  I just don't eat meat every day.  Here's my "Chicken" Chow Mein I made for Meatless Monday Thursday,  (Somehow we skipped the Monday part and moved it to Thursday this week.  It still counts, right?)

Now, you're probably wondering why I called it 'Chicken Chow Mein' and wondering why you swear you see pieces of meat in that bowl.  Well, it's chicken, sort of.  It's actually a Gardein soy chicken.  Not really a chicken at all, but a soy based product.  Let me tell you, this is actually good!!  And, it tastes nothing like some of the nasty stuff that I've known as soy before.  Gardein has some amazing products out there and there is nothing like their Chipotle Lime Chicken Fingers or my favorite, Chicken Tenders.  If someone would have put the chicken tenders in front of me and told me they were actually chicken, I would have believed them.  They taste no different, yet have 8-10 grams of protein (depending on which product you get) per serving!!!  If you have kids and they like chicken fingers, try these out.  They won't know the difference!  I get these at the local Target Superstores, but they have them all over.  Check out your frozen food section.
All week, there's been a facebook craze with pages that start like this:  You know you're from (insert your home town here) if....  It's got me thinking about growing up in Napa and what I really missed.  (There are a lot more things I don't miss, I can tell you that!)  But one of those things is Malfatti's.  Ever had them?  Ever even heard of them?  If you grew up in Napa (or Italy, apparently) or if you ever had relatives that lived in Napa, and you came to visit for the holidays, you probably know what Malfatti's are.  They are this insanely wonderful pasta dish (No, not really pasta.  It's more like the insides of a ravioli, without the actual pasta on the outside).  I remember as a kid, going with Grandma or Grandpa or my Uncle's or Aunts, inside of a liquor store, to get raviolis and malfatti.  Crazy thing about this was, you had to always bring your own pot.  You couldn't go there and just order the dishes and expect it to come to you packaged a ready to go.  Your pot was a must.  Everyone has heard of ravioli, but malfatti are something I have only experienced in Napa.  It was just a little while ago, that I learned malfatti were not invented in Lawler's Liquors or The Depot, but were actually made in Italy.  Who knew Napa was so progressive?
After reading post after post on facebook, on all the people that loved and missed malfatti, I decided to hunt down a recipe and see if I could make them myself.  Turns out I can!

Malfatti in Marinara Sauce

These were so good and brought back of wave of memories.  While there will never be anything like Lawler's Liquor's or The Depot's, they do satisfy a craving and will do, until I get back to Napa and ship some of the good stuff back here to AZ.  (I made a double batch of these and have some in my freezer, waiting for my next "I must have" fix)