Vegan Mofo 24.2: Tamarind, Orange and Cayenne Glazed Tofu

Wednesday afternoon was hectic at our place. We ran by our local library to pick up a book I had put on hold and then went to the gym to get our hour of cardio in today.

Cardio in the middle of the afternoon is not as easy as first thing in the morning. However I still managed to burn over 450 calories in an hour so that made me smile. If you are wondering I use my body bugg to calculate calorie burn. Yes, I do love my little gadgets. ;-) I did a combination of treadmill on a steep incline, the elliptical, stair climber, rowing machine and track. Since I get bored easily I switch exercises when things start to feel monotonous. I guess I need to start taking music with me so I don’t get bored as quickly.

After the gym we went to the Baltimore County library to drop off three books and then to Wegman’s. The only thing on grocery list was popcorn and tofu but I managed to pick up dried beans, raw sesame seeds and golden flaxseed while I was there. When I met Dan in line he was telling a stranger how good nutritional yeast is on popcorn. Who is this man, and where is my husband? LOL, I love that Dan has become such an advocate for vegan food.  I am sure I had a big dopey grin on my face when I walked upon this conversation.

On the way home I realized I should have picked up oranges so we parked the car and walked to Giant for oranges. Somehow limes and bananas jumped into the cart too. ; -) It was good that we walked to the store since my legs were already starting to seriously tighten up.

Once we got home I wanted something simple for dinner. This tofu glaze is based on something that Ian made this week that was decidedly nonvegan. However like always I get inspiration from his food that I can easily turn things into a delicious vegan item. Here is what I did:

Tamarind, Orange and Cayenne Glazed Tofu
Serves 2

Ingredients:

14 ounces organic extra firm tofu, cut into 6 slabs and pressed of excess water (make certain it is a brand without soy protein isolates added)
1 orange, zested and juiced
1 tablespoon tamarind
cayenne, to taste
stevia if you think it needs sweetener, this will depend on how your sweet your oranges

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees convection. Line a half sheet pan with parchment, silpat or easy release aluminum foil.

Combine the orange juice, orange zest, and tamarind and whisk to combine. Add cayenne to taste, and stevia if you think it needs to be sweeter.

Place ½ of the marinade on the 6 pieces of tofu and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and allow it to rest for 5 minutes. This resting time will make the tofu easier to flip. Coat the second side of the tofu with the remainder of the glaze and bake another 25 – 30 minutes or until the tofu is the texture you like.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 212.96
Calories From Fat (46%) - 97.63

Total Fat - 11.7g
Saturated Fat - 1.1g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 17.49mg
Potassium - 381.11mg
Total Carbohydrates - 11.82g
Fiber - 1.51g
Sugar - 6.76g
Protein - 20.1g

Comments:

This tofu is lightly sweet and spicy with a lot of flavor. We both enjoyed the flavor of this tofu. I served it tonight on top of a spinach and orange salad dressed with white miso and mirin and a sweet potato on the side.

This dinner took a little while (to bake the tofu) but didn’t require much work from me. It was exactly the type of meal I needed tonight since tomorrow will be a food free for all. I am planning on making a healthy dinner like normal only with a larger variety of dishes. This is going to be the first all vegan Thanksgiving for my extended family. We will see how this goes. *fingers crossed*

Happy Thoughts:

Wednesday has been good so far. Here are my happy thoughts this evening:

• In spite of the fact that I was not in the mood to work out this afternoon I still managed to burn more than 450 calories and that made me happy. I know my legs were torched since it was tough going down the stairs to leave the gym. That is when you know you had a good workout. LOL

• We got all our errands run and were back home fairly early.

• Dinner turned out really well. I love glazing tofu and this recipe was very tasty

What Do You Have to be Thankful for?:

Since it is almost Thanksgiving I thought it would be good to share what we have to be thankful for. I will go first:

• I am thankful to be married to my best friend. I love you baby!

• I am thankful to have another holiday season Dan and I can spend together healthy and happy.

• I am thankful for my other best friend Louis. You mean more to me than you know.  I love you man. ;-)

• I am thankful that I was finally able to accept that what you ingest makes a big difference in your health and that if you give it a half-hearted effort you will get a half-hearted result. This was huge for me and it only really jelled for me about a year ago. I feel much healthier now than I have in well over a decade, maybe longer.

What do you have to be thankful for this year?

Signing out:

It is time for me to relax so I am ready to get into the kitchen and get cooking first thing tomorrow. I am always amazed that it takes me so many hours to cook these big meals and we are finished eating them in well under an hour. It seems like such a waste of time to spend all that time cooking.

I will talk to you all again soon. Tomorrow should be much more hectic than usual but I will try to get a post in. Right now I am off to relax in a hot tub and work the stiffness out of my leg muscles.