Gone too fast!…and, Tofu on You ;) January 28, 2009

*I am a total dork!  I saved this one as a draft instead of publishing it on Sunday!  Grrrr….. *

Why do weekends have to be so fast?  This weekend has ended up well, did not involve work after all (yee-yeah!), and has laid the groundwork for a week with some new food combos.  I’m seriously excited to put Sriracha on like everything possible and break a sweat from the heat!  Ya feel me?

I’ve got a block of extra-firm tofu pressing in the fridge right now, and I’m tempted to cook it tonight so I can use it for lunch tomorrow   Hell, I’m gonna get on that NOW.

I sliced it into 12 pcs., rubbed some BBQ sauce and Sriracha on it, and baked it for 35 minutes at 425.  It’s done…check it out:

Before:

After:

Perhaps I overdid it a bit, but it still tastes good   More details on that in a minute.

On to the rest of my day…

Last night I totally thought of prepping my oats, but got distracted and never did it.  So, this morning I went for a bowl of Barbara’s Shredded Oats with two sliced strawberries and almond milk.  I also tried out a new creamer in my coffee… Silk French Vanilla Creamer.  Yay!  I found an alternative to the super-fake-o Coffeemate!

Around 9:40 I left for the gym to hit up my usual Sunday yoga class.  Holy moley, the class was packed already by the time I entered the door at 9:55.  Because there’s no class beforehand anymore everyone moves in early and the place fills up fast.  I got a spot up front and was perfectly happy, tho.  I forgot my towel AGAIN, but managed not to sweat all over the place.  I opted to head out after yoga rather than do cardio without a towel.

Not too long after getting home lunch started calling my name.  I was struggling to figure out what to eat when I remembered my Gardenburger riblets in the freezer.  Perfect!  I put that in a tortilla with shredded carrot, chopped celery & green bell pepper, and green leaf lettuce.  It was really messy, but divine.  I also had some carrot and pepp on the side, and an whole apple. 

The afternoon was easy and productive, and at one point I finally made some bird “suet” from old PB, trail mix I didn’t want, bird seed, raisins, and old cornmeal.  Want a bite?  I poured it into old suet containers and my tofu container and popped it in the freezer.  I hope the birdies love it tomorrow

I also refilled my hummingbird feeders, but totally pushed my thumb through the plastic on one of them!  I guess 2 years in the sun has made them brittle   I got sugar water on my arm, the counter, and the floor.  Boo.  At least we still have one feeder.

Eventually I realized I was pretty hungry around 3:30, and went for a modified regular snack:  Dannon Light’n'Fit strawberry with 1/2 a banana.  It tasted good, but I got more of the fake sweetener taste in this flavor.  Freddy’s was out of vanilla

Around 5 we went to Fajitas for dinner.  I had the same thing as last time there:  tortilla soup and part of a Casuela.

Not pictured is the guilty goodness that is La Casa: a small glass of 1/2 & 1/2 blended with ice cream and Bailey’s Irish Cream, then topped with cinnamon. 

I bought the tofu yesterday and was hoping to have it for dinner tonight or tomorrow, but then I realized we are eating at McCormick’s tomorrow, and that having it for lunch would be great.  Prepping and baking it was so easy!  I’ll have to experiment with toppings and see what else, besides my current fave flavor combo of BBQ and Sriracha.  Told you I’d put it on everything I could!  I ate three of the driest looking pieces with more of the said sauces:

Oh, and I had a few small glasses of chardonnay.

No, both glasses aren’t mine, sillies!

Shit, when did it get to be 11:45??  Oy vey!  I’m outta here and off to bed.  Might as well start the week with a good amount of sleep…

Take care, and I hope your weekends were very enjoyable

Happy Birthday To Me….again! January 26, 2009

Hey everyone!  This girl’s Monday was not so bad, how about you?  I woke up not wanting to go into work, and consequently going in late, but was reasonably productive during the day. 

I should have had my oatmeal at home, b/c with all of my lateness and dropping off LB at my mom’s I didn’t get to work until after 10

I used my scale to add ingredients, rather than using measuring cups, and I think I mis-weighed my liquids last time b/c this was really liquidy compared to normal.  Oops.  Moving on…

Eventually we ate lunch, like around 1, and it was a nice change from the norm:  tortilla with roasted tofu, celery, carrot, and green bell pepp, BBQ sauce, green leaf lettuce, and some Sriracha.  Yummmmmy!  I also had Wheat Thins Multigrain Crisps, 1/2 cup cc, and 1/2 a Fuji. 

I felt sorta hungry a few hours later, and I realized it was my allergies making me feel a bit weird.  I find it odd that one of the effects of allergies on my system is increased hunger, or a sense of being hungry.  I took and allergy pill, drank some water, and ate the rest of my Fuji.  Those are bald eagles at NW Trek Wildlife Park in the picture frame.

I had mega filing to do today, and didn’t get as far as I’d hoped.  I was organizing client files, updating profiles, and calling clients as I went.  Slow going, but really productive.

Tonight we had plans to go to McCormick’s to use a few gift certificates, one of which was from my birthday.  I had quite the spread:  coconut fried shrimp, filet mignon with green beans and carrots, and blueberry cobbler with vanilla bean ice cream.  And a Diet Coke with dinner, decaf coffee with cream afterward.  I ate moderately, sharing all of my food, and ended up pleasantly full but not uncomfortable. 

Happy Birthday to me….uh, I guess I’m celebrating on a quarterly basis now?  I had asked the waitress about using the certificates we brought, one of which was from my b-day as I said, so that’s why she put the candle in the dessert.  It was cute and fun!  I think I could get used to this quarterly thing.  Remind me to celebrate again in April!! 

After dinner and running an errand we headed home, changed, and left for the gym pretty much right away.  I dropped Chris off at Bally’s and moved on to 24 Hr. to get in 30 minutes on the stair mill doing level 8 intervals.  Not super fast, but enough to make me sweat   I’m gradually increasing the level as it becomes less difficult to do the fast interval for 2 minutes.  Progress, yeah!

Allergies are making me hungry again, I think.  Perhaps a small snack of 1/2 a banana and some Wheat Thins Crisps.  Not sure what else to make… I need to prep my oats, too.  Off I go before I forget!

Hope you all had a less-painful-than-usual Monday   Thanks to my new readers for stopping by, and thanks to Sharon for commenting!  I hope some more of you will de-lurk to say hi   Night night, yo!

A perfect Saturday January 24, 2009

Today was really nice, and I mean really, really nice.  I think everything went well from start to (almost) finish where I sit right now.  Super yay!

The day began a bit slowly and with sluggishness as I pried myself out of bed at 7:50.  Ugh.  But the thought of Bob’s Red Mill was enticing, and before I knew it I was pulling into the parking lot and looking at this:

WHOA, a little bigger than I thought.  Anyhow, this is the water wheel and stream in front of Bob’s Red Mill retail store and restaurant.   I love coming here   The old school mill is pictured below.

I looked around at all of the goodness, damning myself for not having already created my grocery list so I would know what I could buy without guilt.  They even have frozen vegan donuts!  Chocolate covered!

When Andrea arrived we took a gander at the vegetarian menu, and as I mentioned I wanted to try a vegan breakfast.  No, not a huge step or big deal, but I wanted to think a lot more about what I ate and try to avoid animal products.  Andrea recommended the biscuits and gravy, and I totally forgot about staying vegan. Were they vegan?  Did they have milk derivatives? I don’t know!  And I’m pretty sure I put some sort of milk based creamer in my coffee   Kudos to all of you who are vegan and remain very thoughtful about your food intake!!

The biscuits and gravy were really, really yummy.  I haven’t had something that rich tasting yet not too heavy in a long time.  Oh, mercy! Mmmmmmmmmm.  And the fruit cup on the side was just what I needed to round out my meal. 

We talked a lot about various things, including how we each married like the same guy (seriously, it is rather crazy!), and then we headed off to pilates to get long’n'lean.

Class was good today, and I felt more balanced and in control today during our moves than two weeks ago.  After class I did a half hour of upper body, and I tried the “squirreliptical” as Kath calls it.  It was a bit awkward at first, and harder than I expected, but I had a good half hour of intervals while watching random stuff around the gym.  This machine is on the 2nd floor of the gym, upstairs from the regular cardio area I use, and there aren’t any TVs mounted on the machines.  That half hour seemed sooooo long; I wanted to quit several times during the first 15 minutes.

After the gym I went home and made myself a nice easy lunch: an open faced sandwich with 1/2 a wedge LCL, one egg +one white scrambled, a slice of turkey; an apple; and some cc.  That hit the spot

Whoa, there is an intense movie on IFC now, “Flannel Pajamas.”  I like IFC and the different perspectives the movies provide. 

By the time we both ate and I cleaned up, neither of us felt like going to work like originally planned.  Yay!  I could stay home and relax like anyone should be able to do on a Saturday.  I ended up cleaning, doing laundry, and making an attempt at meal planning.  My food has been way too boring lately, without enough variety or spice, literally, so I opted to get some new things, additions, and more veggies.

I hit the store…and forgot my shopping list.  Because of that shopping took forever, but somehow I remembered everything.  It’s a miracle!  Some of the fun things I picked up included: produce wash, Silk vanilla coffee creamer, a butternut squash, strawberries, tofu, barbecue sauce, and Sriracha :0  Love it!

Washing my produce was rather satisfying.  Here’s my pile of freshness drying on a towel; the wash is on the left:

For dinner I had meatloaf in mind, and as I cleaned veggies I thought of adding diced celery and shredded carrots for more bulk.  My meatloaf consisted of: 1lb. 93% lean beef, 1 slice diced whole wheat bread, small shake of bread crumbs, one egg, 1/2 onion diced, 2 stalks celery diced, 1/2 carrot shredded, 1 clove garlic smashed, a glug of BBQ sauce, a squirt of ketchup, lots of ground pepper, and Nature’s Seasons.  It smelled so good!

On the side were baked potatoes and over-cooked broccoli.  I kind mis-timed the meatloaf being done and the broccoli sat for awhile.  It was so soft it couldn’t be picked up but by a fork in the stalk portion.  Ew. 

I added Sriracha to my meatloaf and potato, and BBQ sauce to the potato.  It was so good!  I probably ate too much of the potato just so I could have more of the sauces.

That’s Smart Balance on the potato, too.  I liked the meatloaf a lot, but Chris didn’t quite agree.  It was so tasty!  Maybe too much onion, but otherwise really perfect.  I think he just doesn’t know or like meatloaf much.  I guess this means I get the leftovers?  We drank this while eating:

Haha, no I didn’t drink Sriracha… it just wanted to make an appearance on the blog

Tonight I’ve been chillin’ working on recycling posts under The Three R’s, and watching TV.  Aw, I forgot the dryer buzzed….wrinkled clothes, here I come.

I ate a snack a little while ago: hulled strawberries and two pieces of Ghiradelli 72% chocolate.  I haven’t craved chocolate in awhile, but tonight it sounded yummy.

I’m a bit tired and think I’m going to take the LB out and go to bed.  A part of me really hopes Chris decides he doesn’t want to go to work tomorrow. If he goes he’ll want me to go as well.  Not like I don’t have work to do, but mentally I wouldn’t mind a full two days off.  (Or a whole lifetime off for that matter! )

Later y’all.  Have a great Sunday!