Veggie Curry In A Hurry

I'm so bad at planning meals ahead of time....it just makes me feel so boxed in!  I always start with good intentions, but inevitably, by the time spaghetti night or stir-fry night roll around, I'm not in the mood for the dinner du jour.  I have issues with structure, I know.  Yesterday around 4:00 p.m. I was trying to decide what to have for dinner {per the norm} when I remembered I had a block of tofu in the garage fridge.  I try to get sneaky with tofu every now and then and "surprise" my family at dinner time.  Sometimes it goes over well, other times....not so much.  This time, I had a brilliant idea {I hoped!}....

I decided to marinate it and use it in place of chicken in my chicken curry in a hurry recipe.  I used 2 Tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce, 2 Tbsp fish sauce and 1 tsp seasoned rice vinegar.  After rinsing and pressing the water out of the tofu {place on a plate with paper towels and put a heavy skillet on top for about 20-30 minutes} I chopped it into small pieces and put it in the marinade.  I let it sit for about 10-15 minutes {stirring occasionally} and then popped it into a hot skillet sprayed with cooking spray.  It got a little crispy on the outside and it really soaked up the flavor of the marinade.  It was GOOOOOD!  I couldn't stop myself from snacking on it!  That's what led me to my next ingredient....chickpeas.

I followed my chicken curry in a hurry recipe and simply added the tofu and 1 can of chickpeas {rinsed & drained} when I would normally add the chicken.  So Simple!  My family had theirs over jasmine rice, but I decided to try something a little different and have mine over lettuce {a little trick I learned from my sis-in-law}.

I will definitely be making this again....and the tofu is so great by itself, I might make it more often just for snacking!  The family seemed pleasantly surprised by the great-tasting tofu....well, most of them.  =)