Dinner Tonight

I'm finally home for a weekend with time to unwind. After inadvertently missing a race with Heidi, I spent the morning at the Stanford dish with Laura and Teresa, and Laura's daughter, my goddaughter, Evelyn ("Evie"). If you've never had a chance to see "the dish" it is a lovely place. We walked about 6 miles, saw a few cows, and got to enjoy plenty of sunshine. I also got the chance to learn a few lessons about negotiating with 2 1/2 year olds in the process. As I think about it now, the lessons apply well to adults too...

I spent the rest of the day preparing for upcoming meetings and am ready to put down my work for the day and to start thinking about our evening and what to make for dinner...

From this the past few box we have the following items on hand:

• mint
• cilantro
  
• baby carrots
• mixed lettuce
• escarole
  
• bok choy
• spigarello
• red cabbage
• broccoli
• agretti
  

I also have some high-protein tofu in the fridge and some peanut butter in the pantry. Putting many these together I've settled on a Vietnamese-inspired stir-fry in a spicy peanut sauce served over brown rice. All we'll need to do is prepare the veggies into bite-sized pieces, chop the herbs, marinate the tofu, cook the rice and stir-fry it all.

For those of you that are not regular tofu eaters, it is worth noting that pressing tofu can improve its texture and its ability to absorb flavor. Just slice it into relatively evenly sized pieces , wrap in a smooth towel, and press beneath a weighted cutting board for 30 minutes or so prior to marinating.

The veggies that didn't make the cut -- lettuce, escarole, agretti, spigarello, and red cabbage -- will have to wait for another day.