Buffalo Toad Food

Week 2 of camp is officially underway!! We had a blast today bowling, and two of my 4 year old campers got strikes! I can’t even do that well! It was also the very first time in 10 years of working at camp that I did NOT pig out on the snack food that all the junior counselors bought… I had 3 French fries, and was done! GO ME! Now, for a sentence that doesn’t end in an exclamation point: We had tofu for dinner.

Why the title of “Toad Food” instead of “tofu”? Well, when my sister and I were little, my mom would take us to this Japanese place not far from our house, and our meals always came with miso soup. Back then, I didn’t like the soup at all, but my sister LOVED picking the tofu out of everyone’s bowls. At one point, she started calling it “toad food” and it kind of stuck. As a matter of fact, calling tofu “tofu” is hard for me! It’s been toad food as long as I can really remember.

ANYWAY, when I got home today, we had a container of tofu that needed using up, so I sliced it up and got it under some weights to press out the water. Upon opening the fridge to concoct my usual Gliding Calm-inspired rub, I noticed that we had a HUGE bottle of Frank’s Red Hot just sitting there. Hmm… I wonder… buffalo tofu? I thought it could be done! THEN I remembered a simple recipe for buffalo chicken tenders, and decided to adapt it for tofu. Here are the steps, in numbered-list form (my second favorite, only to bulleted lists)

1. Slice tofu and press out water.
2. Sprinkle tofu with paprika and black pepper
3. Melt 2 Tbsp. Smart Balance or other butter or butter substitute.
4. Mix with approximately 1/4 c. Frank’s Red hot
5. Bake or sautee tofu until crispy.
6. Coat tofu pieces with butter/Frank’s mix.
7. Enjoy!

I served ours on a bed of lightly sauteed spinach:

Tagged as: simple recipe, spicy, tofu, vegetarian