Sunday, February 8, 2009

Irony - it's not just a person from Tehran

One of my favorite blogs is Kath Eats Real Food. Kath is a 26-year-old studying to be a nutritionist, and her recipes focus on whole grains, vegetables, and lots (lots) of oatmeal. I admire her creativity and her seemingly boundless energy. She, like a lot of food bloggers, often gets free samples to review.

Occasionally, I leave a comment on her blog. A few days ago, I received an email from a representative of Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce company - Kath had recently reviewed a couple of their products. The rep offered to send me a free bottle of sauce if I'd review it on my own blog. Ponder, for a moment, the ironic beauty that is a recovering anorexic writing a food review. I wrote back saying sure, buddy, I write about eating disorder recovery, but if you want to send me some sauce I'm game.

**NOTE** Even though I'd read Kath's review and checked out the website ("Christ is our CEO"), Jim pointed out that this isn't the safest thing to do. I tend to have magical thinking that things like this won't end badly, but it's something I should keep in mind. And you should too. **END NOTE**

I didn't think anything would come of it, but lo and behold, Friday afternoon a box appeared on my doorstep. So then I had the dilemma of actually using the sauce in something. I don't eat a lot of meat, and I don't know if straight barbecue sauce on vegetables would be that tasty. So I decided to go back to Kath and try her baked tofu recipe. I was ambivalent about tofu, but that's because I only had it plain, mixed in with veggies or a salad.

Procedure: 1 Cut a block of extra-firm tofu into bite-size pieces. 2) Press between paper towels and plates for about 20 minutes. 3) Coat pieces in Country Bob's sauce. 4) Spread in an even layer in a baking dish well-coated with cooking spray. 5) Let the tofu soak up the sauce while the oven heats to 350. 6) Bake for 15-20 minutes until the outside of the tofu is chewy.

I mixed it in with some steamed green beans. The verdict? It wasn't bad at all. However, I'm not a sauce expert by any means, so I really can't say if it was Bob's sauce that made it tasty or just that I like baked tofu. I'll probably use the rest of the sauce, but I might try using something else with which to coat the tofu.

Anybody else have ideas for using up a bottle of barbecue sauce?

8 comments:

Cammy said...

Hmmm, my mom puts BBQ sauce in her meatloaf, but if you're not typically a carnivore that doesn't help much...would it work as sauce for rice or something? Cool that you got picked to do a review!

Lisa said...

Cammy, I think it was a mass emailing of everyone who commented on Kath's blog. I thought I was special at first, too, but then I understood.

Wrapped up in Life said...

Mix it with Ranch for some YUMY salad dresing!

brie said...

Yeah, my hubby puts it on my ass and licks it off. ;)

I Hate to Weight said...

i'm down with jim. i could not write a food review. did you have a reaction?

Tiptoe said...

Good for sampling this and simply trying something new.

As for BBQ sauce, I know my dad put some in his baked bean recipe, along with a little ketchup and brown sugar and mustard. Seriously. Surprisingly, it is good.

But you know, you could always be the dare devil too and make your own concoction. It might come out tasty. ;-)

Sarah at Journeying With Him said...

Lisa, I have a great recipe for you (I also love Kath's blog)--here is the other food blogger that I enjoy reading. I make this all the time and you could probably just use up the whole bottle making this recipe every so often!

http://eatliverun.com/breakfast-recipes/meatless-sloppy-joes/

D loves it!

jimpurdy1943@yahoo.com said...

I wonder what the salt content of their BBQ sauce is?

Brie, LOL!