Day 20

Whew! Over the half way point.  19 more school days to go.  Or 3 more Mondays (eeek!).

Greens appeared at all three meals.  Breakfast would've been a success had I not added so much water (nearly 2 cups!).  Organic Girl Super Greens, frozen cherries, banana.

 Lunch: courtesy of my hard work in the kitchen yesterday.  Clean Food's Quinoa with Sweet Corn, served with kale sauteed in veggie broth and heavily seasoned with Old Bay. It was delicious!

After work, I received "book money" to supplement my classroom library (students can check out books from me or the library).  Most teachers like to spend their school purchase orders at a local independent bookseller.  I love shopping for books, especially when it's on someone else's dime! Many of the employees are retired teachers and avid readers, so they know exactly what you need.

 Here's what $300 looks like in young adult novels:

I'll pull out some popular titles for tomorrow's post.

A Bhakti Chai was consumed on the way home, and once I arrived, two tablespoons of these:

 Dinner: Tofu scramble (curry spice, Penzey's Forward, pinch of green chile, Cholula, spinach, Follow Your Heart "cream cheese") served with a brown rice tortilla.  Another tasty meal!

Productivity Returns

This morning I spent over two hours pulling weeds, trimming hedges, trimming back trees, seeding grass, watering, and sweeping.  Once May hits, I'll be able to plant flowers! Nonetheless, that was my workout today.

Coffee fueled the spring morning activity, and for breakfast I revisited the fall:  Angela's Pumpkin Pie Smoothie.

 Still hungry afterwards, so I had a brown rice tortilla with Follow Your Heart "cream cheese".

Lunch: one and a half vegan veggie tamales (leftover from yesterday's WF dinner)

 Afternoon productivity included a visit to Sunflower Market.  My favorite Organic Girl Super Greens (for smoothies) was on sale 2 for $5 (normally $3.29 a box!!), so I thought I'd try this kale mix while it was cheap:

More afternoon productivity, I made three different items for the week.  Included are the slightly-well-done chickpeas (I had about two tablespoons).

Dinner: cooking yet again! Trying out Spice-Crusted Tofu (I cut my slices thinner and used agave for the honey), served with a small red potato topped with Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream and wilted spinach.  Tasty!

Hope you all had a great Sunday!

Finally Friday

Wrapping up the week, we have - a whole lot of the same! No green smoothie this morning, but I did have the rest of yesterday's melon cup, and a brown rice tortilla with almond butter.

 Lunch: second half of yesterday's WF stop, the other Kombucha (2 for $5)

 Tofu Spring Rolls

 Carrots and Garlic Hummus in the afternoon (not shown)

Dinner: a twist on my usual miso, switching bean sprouts for wakame and adding a few sliced leeks as well.

This was the Longest. Week. Ever.  So happy it's the weekend, I hope you have a great one!

Avocado Thursday

Hello! Tuesday, I intended to have you join me (for a friend's birthday) in a restaurant for dinner.  However, my fifteen year old vehicle had other plans.  Tow, repair, rental car, two days and a credit card later - here I am.  Such is life, and I'm lucky that it wasn't worse.  

Car issues continued (but were resolved) this morning, so no breakfast picture - but it was another green smoothie.

Lunch: kale, avocado, green chile, ground pepper.

 Afternoon quick trip to Whole Foods, procuring the ever elusive Gingerade (so good!) and. . .

 Melon cup

 Dinner: can't be bothered to cook, so a Chipotle Veggie Bowl happened. (Brown rice, black beans, corn salsa, red salsa, more avocado due to a generous amount of guacamole, and too little lettuce.)

Relieved to be back to normal! I'll be back tomorrow to make up for lost time. . .

Imitated, But Not Duplicated

Today's post will be backwards.

Yesterday, I attempted to make my own pho broth.  I looked here and here, and ended up using this as base before adding ingredients from the aforementioned recipes.  I probably should have not used the prepared base, but the idea of making a broth (clear veggie broth) to make another broth. . .was too much.   The whole operation was less than $20, and made about 16 cups.

For dinner, I heated up a little broth and prepared the goods - tofu (cooked in 1 tbsp of olive oil), bean sprouts, white onion, green onion, wide rice noodles.

 Broth added, obligatory sriracha.

It looks pretty, but it doesn't hold a candle - not even a match box - to Mrs. Nguyen . However, I get high marks for interest, effort, and execution.  :)

Prior to dinner, I tried something new:

 I enjoy all the suggestions for consumption:

I only had a few, but they were pretty decent.  Upon arriving at home, Remy thought it appropriate to dig into my bag, and see what was available for munching.  Luckily, he's a good boy and released the sea snack (but only after licking all the salt off).

Lunch:  leftover spaghetti (whole wheat noodles, Boca crumbles, Tomato Basil Sauce)

Breakfast: Super Greens, banana, frozen pineapple, flaxseed milk

The day started with this:

One of these days I will post an amazing recipe.  Just need to make something amazing first. Ha!

Simple Miso Soup

Seeing as I eat it pretty regularly, here is my (current) favorite way to experience miso.

Step One: Prepare broth.  Maud gave me a recommendation for vegan dashi.  Basically, I prepare three portions worth (a little less than 6 cups total).  I tear a piece of kombu into three pieces (one for each serving), and add cold water (six cups - but it doesn't have to be exact).

 Cover with a lid (my container has one), and stick it in the fridge overnight or all day long.

The kombu seven hours after immersion.

Step two: Prep whatever you'd like to go into your soup.  I'm partial to the following:

 Thinly sliced shallots, and two green onions (green part for garnish, white parts into the broth)

Step three:  lightly simmer prepared broth with one piece of kombu (remove at the end of cooking), adding shallots and green onion (white part only - remove at end also).

Meanwhile, cook wide rice noodles for about 8 minutes - drain.  In a small ramekin or bowl, reconstitute wakame (1 tbsp of wakame soaked in 3 tbsp of water - drain after 5 minutes.)  

 Step Four: add rice noodles and wakame to broth, simmer long enough to heat (about 2 minutes).  Turn off the burner. Add half tablespoon of miso (I use white miso), and allow to seep.

 Step five: garnish as desired! I use the aforementioned green onion, as well as plenty of this:

Enjoy!  I've yet to try this with tofu or shiitake mushrooms, but I'm sure it would be amazing as well.

Day 27

26 more school days to go. . .

Frozen banana, frozen strawberries, spinach, flaxseed milk. (I thought I'd finish this at home, but ended up taking it to work.  The usual Mason Jar will return tomorrow.)

 Training all morning, and I munched on almonds and carrot sticks, in addition to the tamari pumpkin seeds I brought along.

Lunch: Whole Foods, a new find. . .

 Pretty good, I'll eat the other half for lunch tomorrow.

Long walk after therapy, and a quick snack:

 I liked the vanilla flavor better, but this is still good.

Dinner: nothing new here - kombu broth, wide rice noodles, white miso, wakame, green onions, sriracha

Everyone press "fast forward".  I'm ready for the weekend!

Whole Foods Visit #1

After work this afternoon, I ventured over to the largest and newest Whole Foods.  It also happens to be the furthest away of the three I shop, thus I get there the least often.  Nonetheless, I had so much fun! Prepare your peepers, people - this is a 19 picture post. (These are all via my Blackberry, feel free to click the image to increase size.)

Produce:

 So pretty!

 Prepackaged produce

 Hummus, anyone? (Yes, it's mostly hummus.)

Raw food happiness.

 For Sarah. . .

The Tofu / Seitan / Tempeh / Soy Product case:

 Right next to my beloved Bhakti Chai (Of course I bought one! They were on sale!)

 The halls of frozen food. . .

 Bulk Bins: a little blurry, as there were a lot of people - had to be fast!

Not much to offer vegans in the dessert case, but I can say these (vanilla 'cheesecake') are good:

 I shamelessly took pictures at the hot bar.  

 It's hard to get both sign and dish in the same shot! But you know what these are:

 It says: Vegan Potato and Garbanzo Curry

It says: Vegan Apple Cranberry Crunch

 Vegan Veggie Lover's Pizza (it's the best angle I could get! Employee wouldn't leave me alone.)

Apparently, I'm not the only one who likes these:

Where I get my Veggie Salad Rolls, Vietnamese Noodle Salads, and Tofu Spring Rolls.  I know this case well.

 There were four other pre-made meal cases like this, but none of them had vegan offerings.

The best part (other than the fun at stealthily taking pictures) was that I had less impulse purchases.  I went in for kale, potatoes, bananas, tofu spring rolls and a chai.  And that's what I bought.  If this was enjoyable, let me know! I'll make it a point to visit and post pictures of the other two.

Long day tomorrow, see you Thursday. . .