really quickly

If me today were to walk up to my self five years ago and urge Former Self to try baked tofu, Former Self probably would've smashed a piece of pizza in Future Self's face and then dumped the remainder of her 32 ounce Coors Light Draft over her head. But Former Self would be in the wrong here, and not just because she resorted to violence at the mere suggestion of healthy eating. Look, I was a tofu skeptic for a long, long time and still am, to a point, in certain venues. Tofu is for total crunchies, right? Self righteous vegetarian people who send Move On emails to your inbox at the rate of one million per hour? Right? Think again. Seriously, I implore you, think again. This here baked tofu is delicious. A game changer of the soy variety. I have been eating slices of this on my salads lately and let me tell you, it's toothsome, salty and satisfying and if loving tofu is wrong, I don't want to be right.

BAKED TOFU
(originally found on the kitchn)

1 block extra firm tofu
Soy Sauce
Sesame Oil
Sesame Seeds

Remove your jiggly wad of soy product from its plastic box (but save the box, it's perfect for marinating the pieces in (of COURSE I recycle too, I'm freaking giving you a GD tofu recipe for chrissakes)). K, so take the tofu out and place it on a plate or a shallow bowl. Stack two other dinner plates on top of it and let sit for about 15 minutes, to purge its extra liquid. Preheat your oven to 350. Then, slice your tofu into equal width slices, you can go as thick or as thin as you want. I choose a medium thickness (about 3/4 inch) so that it will absorb its marinade quickly but still be a nice, sizeable piece of 'fu. Take your slices and cover them with soy sauce and a little drizzle of sesame oil. Let sit and marinate for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. I usually dunk them, go do a couple things and then deem them ready to bake. The longer they sit the more they will have a chance to soak in salty goodness. Give a baking sheet a light spritz of oil (olive or vegetable), place your slices on the sheet, sprinkle a few sesame seeds on. Bake for about 30-40 minutes, flipping over once during the process. Eat as a snack, on salads, or sliced into chunks tossed with noodles and your favorite Asian style dressing. See that wasn't so bad was it?



Longer post tomorrow! With lots of delicious pictures. My job has the nerve to be busy this week. Harumph.

*about this photo. I THOUGHT I took a picture of my pre-baked tofu slices, but it turns out it was a video, because just before that I had been taking video of my kittens doing cute things. Since I will spare you my shaky camera hand hovering over tofu while I softly sing "Alejandro" in the background (hello, embarrassing) the only photo I have is a picture I took of Paul's lunch. Yes, I make him lunch. I'm a CATCH.