Yummiest lunch ever, aka not exactly crucial post except for procrastination purposes

Or at least in recent memory...

Spanish rice and tofu = Better Homes Spanish Rice recipe + 1 package extra firm tofu:

1 clove garlic, minced
1 med. onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped

Sautée those with in big skillet olive oil (recipe says 1T, I used a bit more, ahem). When onions turning clear, add and stir in:

1 28-oz can diced tomatoes with liquid (i.e. do not drain)
1 c. water
3/4 c. rice (uncooked)
1 t. chili powder
1/2 t. pepper
several shakes Tabasco or sim.
1 whole package extra firm tofu (crumble or use the already-cut-into-cubes kind)

Bring all to boil. Cover and simmer 20-25 minutes til rice done and liquid absorbed.

Caveat... My rice wasn't done after 30 minutes so I added another 1/2 c. water and turned it up to boil again. I let it boil a good 7 or 8 minutes, then turned down to Strong Simmer (left it at about 1/3 heat, couple steps above actual simmer) for another 20 minutes.

So so so yummy. Interestingly it called for no salt and tastes great (normally I'm not a huge salter so you wouldn't be able to take this at face value if you love salt but I'm going thru a particularly salty phase for some reason and it still tasted yummy to me!) Lots of other veggies could be added as well and of course fresh tomatoes would really make it yummy but this was great and fairly easy. The veggies do end up a bit overcooked but the rice and tofu had plenty of time to soak up spices this way - in future I will cook the rice beforehand and add early, then stick in oven or let Low Simmer for extra long time so rice can absorb flavors hopefully. Of course the tofu could be marinated beforehand if you like to do that; I almost never have luck with getting tofu to soak up any flavor whether I marinate it beforehand or not, but in this case it did (possibly it couldn't really ignore the Tabasco).

One of the best parts was using my big paella pan that I hardly ever get to use. :)