Quick & Green

Sarah's Pina Colada Green Smoothie:

Delicious, and earned a lot of envy from my coworkers.  :)

Lunch: leftover Maryland's Kale (from Sunday) and another batch of Appetite for Reduction's Cool Slaw.

Garlic hummus and crackers in the afternoon, too lazy to take a picture.

Dinner: the return of the tostada! Brown rice tortilla, vegetarian refried beans, Nanita's Green Chile (another local product - I need to try them all, right?!), half of an avocado, chopped romaine.

A tight shot of the layers:

You're welcome.

One More Sunday

I don't know about you, but I could use one more day to my weekend.

The morning started with a little Kombucha, purchased yesterday during my trip to Whole Foods.

Followed by breakfast, about an hour later: tofu, garlic powder, nooch, salsa, spinach.  Served with a brown rice tortilla.  It's decided - this is my favorite way to make a tofu scramble.

 Lunch time: I finished the rest of my Vietnamese Noodle Salad Bowl from yesterday, and steamed up an artichoke.  Served with garlic hummus.

 Afternoon run:  2.5 miles in an unknown amount of time - I forgot to restart my Garmin after pausing it at a red light (realized this about six blocks later).  Water crackers and more garlic hummus upon my return.

Dinner: a new side dish from Everyday Happy Herbivore, called "Maryland's Kale".  It involves garlic, onion, and kale all sauteed in water and then covered with Old Bay Seasoning (a new purchase for me).  I was in the mood for barbeque, so I had a little sauce atop a Chik'n.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Vietnamese Cravings

Once or twice a month, a good friend and I visit our favorite Pho restaurant.  They've accommodated those of us wanting veggie broth, instead of beef, and always ask which you'd like when ordering the tofu. (For anyone who doesn't know: Pho, pronounced "fuh" like "duh", is a soup with rice noodles - add bean sprouts, green onion, jalapenos, etc to your protein of choice.) I ask my meat-loving friend to try my broth, to make sure it differs from hers - and the answer is always "yes".  Regardless, one day I will make my own Pho - just to be safe.  Sometimes when I go in, I order the tofu spring rolls and have those instead of anything else.  They (2 pieces) are HUGE, and based on their shape. . .incredibly phallic.  Thus, I turn fifteen shades of pink if any men are observing me while I "ooh" and "aah" over their awesomeness.  At some point, I will be brave enough to photo said rolls.

Whole Foods does their best to replicate it, and it's what I ate today:

**This was dipped into peanut sauce shortly after this picture.

While Whole Foods hasn't added Pho to their prepared menu, they do have these:

You know you've really won when they egg roll doesn't have any eggs in it.  And it tastes strongly of garlic.

I still have over half left, but I like to add chili sauce and peanut sauce to my noodle-salad-bowl.

Green Indeed

As promised yesterday, I paid for my indulgence last night by having a lot of greens today.

Green #1: Spinach, gala apple, frozen peaches, water.  I'm out of straws, so it made for an interesting experience.

 Green #2: Kale, green cabbage, shredded carrots, Lite Goddess Dressing

 Green #3: Afternoon snack of cooked peas with a little Earth Balance and ground pepper.

 Green #3.5 : Let's be honest, it's really only green in color.

 Spinach Fettuccine with Happy Herbivore's Alfredo Sauce.  Sprinkled a little crushed red pepper for show (and taste).  My only issue with this HH sauce is that the recipe does not match the ingredient list.

I'm in need of a workout, but Wednesdays I typically work 9-10 hours, so that's not happening today.  Why can't we all work less, but be paid the same? The world would be full of happy people if it were true.  :)

Blame It on Mardi Gras

I didn't earn any beads today, but I did my best to honor the day: quick breakfast of Grape Nuts and almond milk.  Followed by coffee.  More than the usual one cup.

 Lunch: Southwestern Vegetable Quinoa Wrap, courtesy of Whole Foods.

 Afternoon: gala apple and peanut butter - no picture.

I was inspired by this for my Mardi Gras dinner - I totally should've flown to England to participate.  Thus, I give you: Boozy Banana Pancakes.

Pancakes and Banana Foster's (kind of): melted Earth Balance, rum, vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar.  I didn't finish all three pancakes, but my system definitely feels the shot of rum!

Note: I will pay for my sugar tomorrow by having greens at all three meals. :)

President's Day Weekend

Shortly after my last post, I made the four hour drive to visit my grandparents in rural Kansas (the square state to the east of my square state).  They are supportive of my plant-based diet, but they don't know how to feed me.  As it was only for two days, here's what I brought:

I ate almost everything you see here, grandma also supplied a couple of baked potatoes, and PB&J toast.  

The return trip today was a little dicey - we had to reroute through Nebraska (square state to the north), as the 60mph winds in eastern Colorado had created blizzard conditions, closing all of the highways.  Not falling snow - blowing snow.  Well, we still encountered white out conditions for about an hour and a half in Nebraska - absolutely terrifying, you can't see anything.  Nonetheless, by grace we survived and here's what I saw for the last hour (mountains in the background):

 Once home, I ran to store to pick up a few things, and that included dinner:

Nom nom nom.

Now, to catch up on everyone's posts (my internet service on my Blackberry only let me view two blogs the whole weekend!).

For the Love of Waffles

I haven't posted, as I've eaten nearly the same thing everyday! Saturday mornings are my time to break the pattern, and break I did. . .

 Apparently, I don't know how to cook blueberry waffles, as any recipe I use (today I tried this one) results in my waffles splitting in half.  We're talking half on the upper iron, and half on the lower.  The moment I get my fork in there - they fall right off the skillet.  This leads me to believe that it's not a "stick" issue - it's something else.

Regardless, this does not stop me from slathering said waffle in brown rice syrup and finishing my plate.

It should be noted that this does not occur with plain waffle production.

Any ideas or suggestions?!?!

Enjoy the three day weekend, unless you're working.  In which case, you should eat waffles for breakfast.  And then report back to me.  :)

More Repeats

For breakfast: back by popular demand. . .

 Grape Nuts and almond milk.

Grande Americano with a little steamed soy.  When people give you gift cards, they need to be used, right?!
Late morning, I had a Mrs. May's Strawberry Trio Bar.

 Lunch: leftover lasagna from the weekend (tofu ricotta, spinach, noodles and sauce - nothing fancy!)

 Garlic hummus and crackers after work.

For the last repeat of the day: tostada.  Brown rice tortilla (obviously a little burned during its trip to the broiler), vegetarian refried beans, half of an avocado (it's in there - trust me), vegetarian green chili, shredded romaine.

I hope to be slightly more interesting in my food choices tomorrow! In the meantime, good night, my fellow bloggers. . .

Celebrations

So, today I completed another biological year of life.  I celebrated myself by taking the day off of work.  Thus, I stayed up late Sunday night, watching the latest "Downton Abbey" episode (yes, I love it), followed by sleeping in.  Started the morning with pumpkin-blueberry baked oatmeal and a nice big cup of coffee.

 I totally should have hinted at a one cup ramekin to make my baked oatmeal look prettier.

Late morning massage. Aaaaahhh.

Lunch with a friend, I settled on a new place: Tree Haus Bistro.  I ate half of The Madrone (these are my leftovers, which the matron of the establishment wrapped in butcher paper, sealed with a sticker and put into a brown bag for me to carry.  Kind of like she was my super-awesome mom, sending me off with a wholesome lunch).

Much to the horror of my mother (who later remarked she was not traumatized, and I should stop saying so), I made my own "birthday cake".  It was a chocolate peanut butter pie.  Really messy, didn't turn out like I thought, but rich in flavor.  Would you like some? I'm about to force it on my co-workers, as I have so much left.

 A productive afternoon, running a few errands.  Headed over to dinner with the folks.  Mother does a nice job selecting flowers for me.

There was some sesame tofu and rice.  And a too-big slice of the aforementioned pie.  Now, I want to be sick.  But isn't that what your special day is all about?

Today is slightly sweeter, as it is official - after seven years in seventh grade, I've secured a high school position for the fall at a new school.  So blessed, feeling ready to embrace my next year.  :)

Dinner Saves the Day

Grape Nuts, Almond milk.  Black coffee.

 Plenty of leftovers in the fridge for lunch, but I chose to have this:

 Green smoothie: kale, juice from a lemon half, one Gala apple, banana.
The last of my favorite garlic hummus and water crackers.

No physical workout today, just my bi-monthly mental /emotional exercise in therapy.  It's the best investment in myself I've ever made.  I'll talk more about my experience in another post.

Easily the best meal of the day: Angela's Avocado Pasta, which has obviously become a staple in my meal rotation.

Anyone with exciting weekend plans?

Chilly Tuesday

This morning when I awoke it was 12 degrees, and an additional inch and a half of fresh snow on the ground.  Today's high temperature was 25. Did these facts stop me from eating cold meals?  No, no it did not.

 Breakfast: Sarah recommended the Peaches 'n Green smoothie (frozen banana, frozen peaches, spinach, rice milk).  It also called for vanilla protein powder, but I didn't have any.  I also had a Starbucks Grande Americano with a little steamed soy on top (at least that was hot!).

Lunch: I have been under the influence of Shen to prepare SB's Red Wine "Beef" Stew.

I try to limit my microwave usage, so I ate this cold - still really tasty!  Good call, Shen.

Afternoon, it's too cold for a run outside and I'm too tired (Not sleeping well. When the stress has passed, I will share its outcome) to exercise at home.  However, I'm not too cold or tired to eat more cold food.  Snack, party of six.

One celery stalk cut into six.  Half of a large carrot, cut into six.  Six Carr's Water Crackers.  Garlic hummus.

Ok, fine.  Now, I'm cold.  The usual cup of Bengal Spice while making dinner.

Dinner: tofu scramble, prepared in veggie broth.  Spinach, nooch, salsa. A brown rice tortilla to assist with scoop-age.

Shortly thereafter, I had half of a baked potato with Earth Balance.  Apparently, this was a hungry day.  Or maybe I was insulating myself against the 10 degrees expected overnight.  :)

Snow Day #2

Woke up to the end of the storm: 16 inches total.

 I was faster with my breakfast decision: cinnamon roll baked oatmeal (except with blueberries, no icing but a little brown sugar caramelized).  Not the best presentation, but the absolute best taste! Black coffee in another one of my favorite mugs.

10:45am - I see sunshine!

 11:45am - Let the melting begin!  10 block walk in snow boots to scope out the condition of the streets, 35 minutes to clean off and shovel out my car (my obliques and shoulders are sore!).  Ready to get back to normal!

Met up with a friend for a late lunch: Boulder Blue Tea (rhubarb, strawberry, and something else I don't remember), tomato soup (made with soy milk and water), and an unpictured onion bagel, toasted and plain.

 My first recipe tested out of Everyday Happy Herbivore: Cauliflower Pumpkin Curry served with peas and medium grain brown rice.  Spicy, rich, and filling.

Every weekend should be three days long.  :)

Snow Day!

It started snowing last night around 5:00pm, and forecasters were able to convince school districts, government agencies, and many businesses to close today.  Needless to say, I was beyond excited!  So excited that this morning, I couldn't decide what to have for breakfast.  While I figured it out, I ate a banana and drank coffee out of my International Spy Museum mug.

 Two hours later (around 10am), I figured it out: blueberry waffle made from scratch.  I totally winged it, good flavor but a little chewy, not to mention that it was more like upside down blueberry waffle.  Served with brown rice syrup.

Around noon, the flurries were lightened to a smaller, rain-like snowflake.  I shoveled a path for Remy to romp around in (by that time, about 11 inches had fallen).

 Totally lucked out with this cute picture:

Late lunch: the last tostada.  Last of the vegetarian refried beans, half an avocado, Roberto's Green Chile, and the last salvageable shreds from the head of iceberg. On a brown rice tortilla.

 Followed by more shoveling.  4pm totals: 13 inches.  If you like to ski, snowboard, or snowshoe - mountains are reporting up to 4 FEET OF SNOW. Crazy!

Two cups of tea, and a small banana-date-rice milk shake.  I know it's snowing, but I really wanted something sweet!

Followed by more shoveling.

Dinner (Part One): noticing my lack of dark greens, I had a kale salad (dressed with a little olive oil, fresh squeezed lemon juice, Penzey's Forward spice, sea salt, fresh black pepper, sesame seeds).

 Dinner (Part Two): two small red potatoes roasted in a little olive oil and the same Penzey's spice.  Ketchup for dipping.

 It is now after 7pm, and my current backyard total is just over 15 inches.  And it's still snowing.  :)