I’m very proud of myself today.  I. Made. Tofu.

I made tofu.  Well, I didn’t make it from fermented soy beans and wait a bajillion years for it to solidify.  I bought it from Trader Joe’s, but I prepared it, and it tasted good!

After my adventure in seitan cooking last week, I decided to give tofu another shot.  Every time that I’ve made it in the past,  it just seemed to have crumbled into a million squishy, tasteless pieces, that I then had to pick around to get to the veggies.  Tonight though, I had a plan.  My idea for tonight started because I’ve been jonesing for Thai food lately.  I do love me some Thai food mightily.  Whenever I go to a Thai restaurant I order a red curry dish, which, much like Lucky Charms, is all sorts of magically delicious.  Unfortunately, it’s cooked in coconut milk and wee fistfuls of oil. Some how, deep down inside I know that it’s not so healthy.

Tonight I decided to deconstruct the dish.  Instead of the shrimp I usually get in the dish, I decided to sub in tofu.  First though, in order to not be stuck with mushfu, I baked it.  I read that on the interweb somewhere.  Thank you interweb, thank you, thank you.  I wrapped my tofu up in paper towels and let it dry out while I was at the gym, so when I got back, It was all ready for slicing and dicing.  I cubed it and put it in the toaster oven for about 5-6 minutes on each side.  Just enough to help it solidify, but not so much that it was toasted.

I knew I was going to have to use oil in the dish, but I wanted to minimize my usage, so with my tofu baked, I decided to take the same approach with the veggies.  I partially steamed my broccoli and snow peas so that they wouldn’t need quite as much oil to cook them through.

Meanwhile, while all this was happening I opened up a can of lite coconut milk.  It may be lite, but that stuff is decadent.  Then I added in a couple of spoonfuls of red curry paste, a little brown sugar and some basil.  I let that simmer in a sauce pan while I went to saute my tofu and veggies, which were all golden-y brown with only about a tsp. of vegetable oil.  Not bad if I do say so myself.

When it looked like my veggie-fu was cooked, and my curry sauce sufficiently simmered, I poured a quarter of my mix in with the veggies let that cook for a few seconds then served it on brown rice.

Hurrah for being creative with cookery.  The best part is that I froze the rest of the curry sauce in 1/4 cup increments, so that next time I want to make the dish I’m already half way done.

I’m doing slightly better with my resolutions today than I was yesterday.  I even got creative with my workout.  I had to, the gym was crazy.  I was fine when it came to cardio.  I ran, but when it was time to hit the weight room I was shocked.  There were lines for everything!  Never before in the history of life have so many people wanted to torture their bicep muscles into submission at the same exact moment.  I’m  not big on waiting around, at least not when I’m wearing spandex, so I headed home.  During my cooking downtime moments I used my free weights to get in a  fairly decent strength training session if i do say so myself.  Lunge, stir, curl, simmer, squat, chop, press.

Oh!  And thank you all for your music suggestions.  I’m going to hit up iTunes and take your musically wisdomful suggestions!

Breakfast

Mango
Kashi Go Lean Crunch w/soy milk
Coffee w/soy milk & Stevia

Lunch

Whole wheat wrap w/hummus, arugula, tomato, avocado
Trader Joe’s Soy & Flax Seed Tortilla Chips
Salsa

Snack

Ding. Ding. Ding.  Ladies and Gentlemen we have a winner.  I think I may have found my new favorite Larabar flavor.
Banana bread Larabar

Dinner

Tofu, broccoli, and snow peas over brown rice
Red curry sauce