Chillin' & Grillin'

It was my turn to cook dinner for the group again and this time around I decided to utilize our grill. I originally planned to just throw some unadulterated vegetables straight on the grill, but woke up in the morning feeling inspired to try something a bit more challenging. Enter: marinated bbq tofu and veggie kabobs. I actually don't care for tofu, I find that it tastes like squishy nothing unless prepared really well, so I decided to make a marinade for it to sit in while we went off to a beautiful watering hole for the day. The house refrigerator had a bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, which not only has a cult following but includes quite a few culprits on it's ingredient list (I'm talking high fructose corn syrup, artificial caramel coloring and nasty preservatives...not on MY food!) 


I was a bit rushed and spastic when mixing up this alternative concoction, so I completely failed at recording what went in it, let alone any particular measurements, but I'm pretty sure it went something like this:
1 Small can of tomato paste
1 Small can of unsweetened diced pineapple
3 Tbsp molasses 
1 bottle Tamari soy sauce 
1 Head of crushed fresh garlic
1 Nub freshly grated ginger
Mustard seed, chili powder, black pepper, to taste 


I drained and chopped up lots of tofu (oh this meal was meant to feed 13 people, by the way) and placed it in two large zip-lock bags, divided all the bbq sauce between the two bags and popped it in the fridge while I went swimming for the day. This made dinner prep sooo much more simple (which I was very grateful for in my sun-stricked state) All I had to do was chop the veggies and stick them on a skewers with the tofu, alternating colors in a preconceived pattern, obviously and drop them on the grill. Actually, I had a fabulous sous chef do all the grilling for me while I prepared the guacamole (see recipe bellow). I should mention that the remaining bbq sauce was dumped onto of the kebabs pre-grilling. 

Veggie Kebabs:
Marinated tofu (see bbq marinade recipe above)
White onion, chopped 
Zucchini
Red bell pepper
Green bell pepper


also on the grill...lots of corn! Because who doesn't like grilled corn?

The guacamole was kept simple and included:
Avocados
Garlic, chopped, lots!
White onion, chopped (a good way to use up all the pieces that were too small for the kebabs!) 
Tomatos, diced
Lime juice
Sea salt
**Keep the pits of the avocados in the guacamole until ready to serve to prevent browning

Note: this meal is best enjoyed outside with friends!