Ginger Molasses Baked Tofu

Saturday night. I have grounded myself in order to get ready for my next trip. Luckily there are plenty of bad movies on TV and I have even more bad movies PVR'd. I didn't have much on hand to cook with, but I knew whatever I made I needed to incorporate a couple things: 1. roasted potatoes. I bought some from the Farmer's Market and I have been waiting all day to roast them up! 2. Tofu. I have had some in my fridge for too long and it is time something is done with it. 3. Sweet and Spicy. I just love that combo and I have a pumpkin spice cupcake for dessert that would go well with a sweet n' spicy dinner.

As usual, the next steps were to forage in the kitchen for a way to pull this together. I decided to make a basic marinade with ginger and molasses.

Molasses, specifically blackstrap molasses is about as healthy has sugar is going to get. It is full of minerals and is a great source for iron... like 15-20% of your daily requirement is in one serving. Not bad. Next time someone asks you how you make sure you get enough iron without tearing into animals for dinner, you can tell them that. Then you can google it when they don't believe you. It is also a  good source of calcium (10% of your daily requirement is in two tsp of molasses).

So yeah, healthy sugar! I still is a sweetener, so a little goes a long way, but it is so much better than white granulated sugar. Also a great choice to thicken and sweeten up a marinade.

Ginger Molasses Baked Tofu
*Serves two

• 1 block of tofu, cut into quarters or whatever shape you want.
• 1/4 cup of blackstrap molasses
• 1/4 soy sauce
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 Tbsp red pepper flakes
• 2 tsp sesame seeds
• 2 tsp chia seeds
• salt and pepper

First press your tofu and place it in a shallow dish. Mix the marinade ingredients together and then pour on top. Let it sit covered for at least and hour. Longer is better. Once the marinade is ready, preheat your over to 350 F. Get a cookie sheet and cover it with Foil. Add the tofu slices and if you are doing potatoes as a side, you can put those beside the tofu. Bake for about 30-40 minutes turning half way.

Save a little space for your veggies

I served this with kale which I added to the same cookie sheet about 12 minutes before everything was ready. This way I had nothing on the stove and with the foil, minimal dishes to clean up afterwards. It is a very practical way to cook!

The aftermath of an edible arrangement I got became the side dish of my dinner
Was told only a vegan would take garnish and eat it.. I'm ok with that. 

One dinner, one pan, no scrubbing. Love it.

The result - fast and easy dinner.

For dessert, I had my last cupcake that I got at the farmers market from vegout bakery. I bought a lemon and pumpkin spice cupcake. They were both amazing. They taste so homemade yet so perfect. It is really hard to describe it in words. I will be back for a birthday cupcake next week! If you are in Edmonton, go check them out sometime at the downtown farmers market.

Dessert from Vegout Bakery. So good, Edmontonians, Veggie or not, I recommend!

Now, the following day I decided to try this same recipe except for fried. It was even better than baked! Simply heat some oil in a pan and then bread the tofu in cornmeal. Cook about 7-8 minutes a side.

Same recipe, but fried. Seriously good.