Crispy Tofu & Coleslaw

So our current trend of one step forward, two steps back continues! We were so excited on Monday while we were having our engine re-aligned as it was the last piece of the puzzle before we could leave. Job finished, we turned on the engine only to have it sound worse than before we did the any work at all on it. In the process of straightening things up, one of our four engine mounts had died.

The engine mounts are basically rubber blocks that absorb the vibration of the engine. These are the same engine mounts that I spent all weekend cleaning. We have decided to replace all of the engine mounts at once as we don't really know what shape the other three are in. They had been installed incorrectly on the engine and this possibly led to some extra wear within them. We are looking at a 2-3 week wait for parts. The bigger concern for us is that during this time we are basically engineless, both for mobility & charging our batteries, so we need to be extra conservative with our energy use! I foresee lots of library time coming up.

We were both craving some “bad” comfort food the other night and as we had already visited the fish and chip shop once this week with some of our visitors, we had to make do with some “healthy” bad food. For everyone who is concerned that Bryce isn't getting enough meat, he had his version of bad food for lunch today with hot chicken, feta and sun dried tomatoes on fresh rolls. The tofu was quite yummy especially when dipped in sweet chili sauce. I can’t wait to make onion rings in the same way! (This is did not work! Will need to experiment further!) The following day, I had leftover coleslaw tossed with leftover crispy tofu and avocado and it was delicious!

In the past, I have not been a huge fan of cabbage but as cabbage is one of the vegetables that keeps for a long time without refrigeration I’m trying to branch out and experiment while it’s a choice, not a necessity. As long as you peel the leaves off the cabbage for use, instead of chopping into it, the cabbage will last for a long while. Potatoes are also on the long life list! The fries were nothing special, yet another thing we are experimenting with. In an effort to minimize oven time, we precooked the potato wedges in the pressure cooker with the intention of grilling them to get them crispy. Next time we will still precook them but try baking them instead. It seems as though they spent along time in the oven under the grill but with very unsatisfying results.

Crispy Tofu & Coleslaw

For coleslaw

Cabbage, roughly shredded/sliced

3 tsp mayonnaise (vegan)

1 carrot, shredded or finely chopped

3 green onions, sliced width wise

salt & pepper, to taste

1. Toss all ingredients.
2. Serve chilled.

For crispy tofu

1 package of tofu (500g), rinsed, pressed & cubed

olive oil

½ c cornmeal (polenta)

chili powder, to taste

salt & pepper, to taste

1. Toss prepared tofu in olive oil.
2. Combine cornmeal, chili powder, salt & pepper. In small batches, coat tofu in cornmeal mix.
3. Place on greased baking tray. Bake for 40 min, turning halfway through.