Monday

I have several friends that seem almost fascinated by the food we eat. I don't know if it is because it is not typical or if maybe they are not very adventurous with food but whatever the reason a couple of them have asked me to write about our dinners more often. So, I started the week with every intention of posting a photo and recipe every night. Ahem...sorry about that. I need to play a little catch up.
Monday we had General Tao's Tofu and a spring roll. The recipe is here. The photo above is a little deceiving because I forgot to put the sauce on the food before I took the photo. This is what it looks like with the sauce.
This is the perfect recipe for people who are afraid of tofu or haven't really ventured out into making Chinese food at home. I love to fix this because it tastes like take out without all the fat and sugar and MSG. I do make a couple of changes to the recipe though-for starters I double the sauce. I like my rice to be saucy too and so will you. So double it. BUT don't double the sugar. It doesn't need it and neither does your body (or your very energetic 2 year old boy's body). Also you can use any veggies you like and you can put it on rice or noodles. I recommend brown rice because it tastes great and is better for you.
If tofu scares you I have a little advice. If you live in Lawrence buy Central Foods Tofu. They have it at the Merc and HyVee. Squeeze around until you find one that is firm. Take it home and put it in the freezer. The morning of the day that you plan to fix this dish take your tofu out and let it defrost in the sink. That night open up the package and give it a good squeeze. The more water you can get out of your tofu the firmer it will be and firm tofu is a good thing. Don't buy the silken tofu. That is for desserts. Oh speaking of that I have a great silken tofu dessert that I will post about this weekend. Anyway, don't buy the silken or you will never want to cook with tofu again. And that would be a shame.