I decided to give grilled tofu a whirl. As per usual, I scribbled down some ideas as they came to me during the day at work. How I get from the topic of behavior rating scales to salad... who knows.
So here's what I made: Grilled Mint Tofu & Strawberry Spinach Salad
Grilled Tofu:
- 1 block of extra firm tofu - pressed
- Marinade:
- olive oil
- 2'ish tsp agave
- dash of rice vinegar
- cilantro
- mint (dried, but fresh would have been better!)
- pinch of salt
- spinach
- sliced strawberries
- goat cheese
So, here's the marinade. I sliced the tofu into thin triangles, and let them sit in there a bit.
I made sure to coat them a bit before sticking them on the [George Foreman] grill. I used the little Foreman I bought on Spring Break in college. I used it TONS then (best grilled cheese maker ever post day on the beach) but rarely pull it out now. Overall I like a real grill better, but in cases such as this, the Foreman was a nice alternative to have! Besides, I think the small triangles I cut may have fallen to their firey death on a traditional grill... So if you're using a real outdoor grill, maybe make the triangles bigger, or perhaps cut the tofu into rectangles that would be more grill grate friendly. :o)
Grill the little suckers. I re-coated them with marinade throughout the grilling process. PS - They pop up and dance around, so beware of flying tofu!
So, while that was going, I was thinking that I might need a bit more substance to my dinner, and bread sounded pretty delicious. Enter, whole wheat oat quick bread.
Here's the ingredients for a small loaf of Whole Wheat Oat Quick Bread:
- 1/2 c. oats
- 1/2 c. flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)
- 1 t. salt
- < 1 T agave (since I halved a recipe, it was one of those measurements that wasn't even steven)
- 1/2 T oil (I used olive)
- 1/2 c. milk
Just because I like these measuring cups. :o)
Blend the dry ingredients in a food processor to help get the oats nice and fine. I put in about 3/4 of my oats in to get all nice and dust-like. I put the rest of the oats in at the end because I wanted to make the bread a bit heartier.
Then add your wet ingredients.
I just mixed them in the cup together before throwing them into the food processor. Then a took a picture of it because I liked the way it looked. So much cooler looking in person.
After the ingredients are nice and mixed, I added a handful of chia seeds and the rest of the oats. Again, I was going for the heartier consistency.
Baked for a bit over 20 minutes (and probably about 2 minutes too long - not the bit too dark points) at 450*F. It didn't really taste burnt though, nor was it dry, so yay for that! Just not as purdy in the picture.
Almost ready!
Last element of the dinner - Lime & Mint Salad Dressing
This one was a measure free concoction, however, here is what is in it:
- lime juice
- balsamic vinegar
- dried mint
- dried basil
- dash of olive oil
Kevin and Rudder fell asleep while I was making dinner, and were next to impossible to wake up from their nap. So I figured I'd give them a few more minutes of sleep before they were dragged into the kitchen for dinner, and read through the Square Foot Gardening book Kevin ordered for me. I still refuse to put down wooden grid markers, but otherwise I liked some of the ideas. :o)
Ta-da! Dinner! It was nice and light, fresh and crisp, and all around a yummy salad. Even though I used what seems to be a lot of mint, it didn't taste extraordinarily minty to me, but just enough for that nice mint and strawberry taste of summer. :o)
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