After being at the beach for a few days, I came home starving for real food! So I threw together this Garlic Panko Tofu and my wife loved it!

Trust me, I did NOT feel like cooking after 2 days of being a beach bum. But it was either skip a recipe this week or come up with something new, pretty quickly, as my grandson's birthday was the very next day and I KNEW I'd be busy.

So I found some leftover rice in the fridge, made a simple sauce, and began microwaving a bag of frozen veggies. As I was pressing my tofu I thought, "I wonder how crispy I could get this if I used Panko Bread Crumbs and air-fried it" ""

This is the result.

I won't go as far as to say it was "crunchy", because I think that's virtually impossible without frying it in oil. But the texture WAS chewier, and the panko did add a bit of crispiness to the tofu. And it was delicious!
I added the tofu to my pan where I had begun sauteing my veggies with a little onion, mushrooms, and lots of garlic.

And then I added my sauce, which is a combination of my favorite flavors in a stir fry.... soy sauce for saltiness, rice vinegar for a little tanginess, maple syrup for sweetness, a little mirin for some extra sweet & tang, and just a few teaspoons of my new favorite chile, Gochugaru, which is a granulated chile powder made from Korean chiles.

No worries - if my wife likes it - it's not that spicy.

All in all, we were very happy to be eat...