Love for Food

Yes, I know I post a lot of salads. I made this one for dinner last night and had to share. The recpie came from the Eating Well magaizne website. I subscibed to the magazine for a year, since the rate was low but never made any of the dishes. I thought they were too hippish and not my taste. I got on the mailing list and still get e-mailed weekly recipies. I saved this recpie becuase I'm always looking for protein sources for my salads. I love tofu but was not so sure about how it would be in a salad. I picture limpy, mushy, blobs. Not very appealing. When I got this recpie in my inbox, I put it aside and forgot about it. For the past two weeks, I have been very good about going to the gym. I got a one month trial at New York Sports Club and wanted to check out all of the classes. Walking home after a workout, I really wanted to buy takeout. I deserved a treat for all that hard work! But it wasn't in my budget this week. And since I have a ton of greens from the farmer's market; I convinced myself I wanted a salad. I had just taken a kick boxing class and did some walking on the treadmil. It was a lot of work and I didn't want to negate my calorie loss. I thought about adding tofu and I'm glad I did. I thought the salad was great. Healthy but tasty at the same time. I kept the salad parts deconstructed, so that I could make one salad at a time. It took a bit of work and chopping the first time but I'm eating the salad again for lunch and still have enough for two more times. You can also use the components and mix them up to make a different meal out of them. Ingredients: Serves Four
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 14-ounce package extra-firm, water-packed tofu, rinsed, patted dry and cut into 1-inch cubes
8 cups mixed salad greens (I used arugula and green leaf mix)
1 large cucumber, chopped
2 avocados - cut into bite size pieces
1 large tomato - cut into bite size pieces
1/2 cup of cilantro roughly chopped

Method:

• Whisk canola oil, vinegar, honey, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger and salt in a bowl.
• Place tofu and 2 tablespoons of the dressing in a large nonstick skillet. Cook over medium-high heat, turning every 2 to 3 minutes, until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes total. Remove from the heat, add 1 tablespoon of the dressing to the pan and stir to coat.
• Toss greens, tomatoes, cilantro, avocado and cucumber with the remaining dressing. Serve immediately, topped with the warm tofu.