Fish and a Movie

It is obviously quite late so I will try to make this a quickie (hehe).  A and I had a good walk finish our errands.  I even took a shot of my tootsies because the fabulousness of the Chanel nail polish my mommy gave me needs to be shown.

When we got home we got down to dinner making.  My father and I have been talking about cooking fish (my parents’ new routine is fish every Sunday) and he generously offered to have A and me use his credit card to buy some.

Mahi Mahi is my favorite fish other than salmon.  We were hungry so we did things quickly.  First we did a three minute marinade,

2T mayo, juice from 1lime, and a big sprinkle of paprika.  Then A cooked it on the stove top for about 8 minutes, delish.

We also had oven roasted asparagus,

and sweet potato with Smart Balance Light.

All together.

It was a really nice meal – thanks dad!  I had a small glass of A’s beer too.

Our big after dinner plan was gelato that my girlfriends left but we had the fun discovery that our freezer had completely defrosted – woo who!  So we went to the movies instead   We saw The Hangover which 100% rocked my socks.  While we watched I had a regular sized Jr Mints (as in not movie biggie sized) that I bought at Staples today,

and 2 handfuls of caramel corn.

I like having small hands, my palm can’t physically hold more than a .5C serving.

And now it is totes time for bed – peace!

Drag Me

Sorry for my two day absense – my obsessive need to be near A has lead me to make some stupid (but fun!) decisions.  I’ve done a LOT so this with be a slightly less detailed account.  It’s been a great two days, but I’ll backtrack…..

Monday morning I ate a Cookie Dough Balance Bar for my train breakfast.

I try not to eat Balance Bars all the time because they do have 2.5 – 4grams of saturated fat, but they sure are good!

For lunch I packed a Fiji apple,

a TJ’s Nonfat Honey Greek Yogurt,

and 1serving of Doctor Kracker Fire Roasted Crisps.

 

The apple was super mealy so I only ate half but the crackers and the yogurt hit the spot.

After school I rushed around trying to get some program applications (I’m going to try to post about this on Thursday) filled out and faxed.  It was a lovely spring day and I was glad I dressed in season for school.

The picture is blurry but here is the flowery fabric -

 

I love this shirt, I got it and the same but in black from H&M last year.

With more rushing, I even managed to make it to the gym for a class.  1st I did 15minutes (2walk/13jog) on the treadmill to warm up.  I did 1.6miles.  Then I headed into a 30minute Abs and Stretching class .  Holey Moley, I couldn’t even finish all of the sets!

Next up, making dinner.  I did some snacking while cooked, I serving each of turkey pepperoni and salted peanuts.

It is also possible that I ate an ice-cream Snickers bar.

Yums.

Dinner was very veggie,

baked tofu in a sea of roasted brussels sprouts with a small pile of coleslaw.  I had never eaten a brussels sprout before this year but now roasted they are one of my favs.

The tofu I drained, pressed, sliced, then drizzled with evoo and a sprinkle of dried mustard and paprika, baked for 25minutes at 475*.  My eyes were bigger than my stomach, I only ended up eating 2slices (1/3 of the package).

And finally was homemade cole slaw, recipe below.

All together.

The cole slaw was inspired by this sale item at the grocery store -

Cole Slaw Recipe

• 4C shredded cabbage
• 3T mayo
• 3T apple cidar vinegar
• 1t sugar
• 1/2C raisins

Mix to combine and Done.  I’m sure this will be even better leftover.  I love raisins in cole slaw.

Somehow after dinner A convinced me to see a 10:15 showing of “Drag Me to Hell.”  Drag me to Hell is right – Worst.Movie.Ever.  Seriously, I don’t know if you guys remember the year in the ’90’s when 80 movies in a row were terrible (Godzilla, Breakdown, etc.) but this movie was worst than all of those movies combined!  Even scarier was what I ate during the movie (I always eat a ton during scary movies) – an entire container of pretzel bites with fake cheese and a box of cookie dough bites.  Seriously, I’m glad I don’t have pictures.  A calls me a goldfish, I actually made myself nausous.

This morning I was still feeling so gross from the movie-crapfest that my train breakfast didn’t get eaten until well into 2nd period!

Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch Clif Bar.  This wasn’t bad, but it was my least favorite flavor in months.

Lunch was a total bust – it seemed like such a good idea at the time, but it just didn’t come together.

The idea was Pre-Smooshed PB & J Museli: Greek yogurt, oats, raspberries and peanuts.

Doesn’t that sound good?  Well, no, no it was not.  I took about 2 bites before I decided I’d rather be hungry.

I stayed after school to conference with some kids then rushed to the post office to main in an application.  A was my knight in shining armor today – it was pouring and he came and met me at the train with an umbrella.  Even better, he let me talk him into a meal at Sweet Melissa!

It was wet and chilly enough out for a hot drink so I took full advantage, Sugar and Spice Latte.

A caramel latte with nonfat milk and homemade cinnamon sugar marshmellows.

For eats I got the Tarragon Chicken Salad Sandwich.

It came with a green side salad,

was served on a crossaint and had green apples and golden raisins in it.

Delish.  Usually I don’t eat the bread on restaurant sandwiches (and I never eat crossaints) but today I ate the whole thing and it was delicious.

A and I hung out at home for a bit and then he said he was going for a run.  Well, my plan for June is to slowly get back into running shape doing intervals but I’m a crazy-face who misses my husband all day so I jumped up and said I’d go too!  We did some loops in Prospect Park and a few little loops in the Slope.  And get this – in 35minutes (I ran the exact time of my 35minute gym playlist on my i-pod, which was an exciting coindence) we did 4.4miles!  Not only did I know think I could run for 35minutes straight I never thought I could do more than 3miles this out of shape!  Other than a few quick stops for boob adjustment (holey heck I need new sports bras) we ran the entire time.  And my ankles/knees don’t even hurt yet (keeping my fingers crossed)!  I can not even describe to y’all how excited I am.

And then it seemed totally normal to tint my hair…..with Kool Aide (oh yeah!).

I used 4C of h2o and three mini packets to dip my hair into.  The end result?

Pretty much zilch.  It’s a little bit darker and it smells fantastic!  In retrospect, when I did this as a teenager I had blonde highlights.  I’m glad I tried though.

Now it’s time for a sweet (smelling, literally) bed time.  I hope everyone’s week has started without a hitch.

Have you ever used food for beauty?  How’d it go?

Back to Basics

After all of the indulging over the week (and the last week/month/year!) I was more than ready to get back to the basics today.  I’m often torn – I know I’m probably leaving nyc in July and I want to experience as much as possible, but at the same time this is my life and I’m getting tired of feeling out of shape and out of sorts.  Two of my best friends are coming to visit in 10days and I know we’ll be doing lots of eating and drinking so this is a good time to get myself resettled.

A and I could not get out of bed this “Monday” morning – we stayed in bed past 7!  I woke up at 6 and then proceeded to have a terrible nightmare while I snoozed.  My dream was so upsetting I actually felt out of it my whole way to school.  My Boomi Bar did snap me out of it a little though

I tried the Macademia Paradise today, even though this is my least favorite flavor of the three I tried so far it is still good!

For lunch I prepped a museli last night,

Nonfat plain Oikos Greek yogurt, 1/4C oatmeal, 1small banana, and some Nuts Online dried blackberries.  My parents bought me these berries as a gift so I’ve been trying to enjoy them but I’ve decided that they are inedible; they were so sour I had to eat around the parts of the mix that they touched.  It was still delish though.

I also packed a blood orange but I was so busy helping kids that I never got a chance to eat it, it is on my desk for tomorrow.

I stayed after school for about an hour helping kids and when I got downstairs I got the fun news that final grades are now due on Thursday.  Yes, that is Thursday as in all of my final grades are due 2 days from now.  Yes, that is Thursday as in we will be having a month of school in which the students will not be graded.  Fun stuff.

I was super hungry when I got home so I made the mother of all “snacks,” this thing had courses!  1st course – the last scrapings of the Smuckers Natural Honey Peanut Butter jar, about 1.5T total.

2nd course – sliced pear with walnuts and blue cheese crumbles.

This was very tasty – the only improvement could have been a little drizzle of fresh honey but unfortunately I’ve been out of that for months.

3rd/dessert course – strawberry chocolates and my vitamens.  The candies kind of look like carrots, which makes me smile.  But the picture will not load, which makes me not smile.

I did some stuff for school applications (I am hitting all sorts of walls!) and then A and I headed to the gym.  I went to a 60minute Pilates Mat Class that kicked my patootie.  No matter how busy life is the last 5weeks of school I am making a commitment to fitness, I never want to be this out of shape again.

We took a long walk home to pick up Emily crack, a.k.a. diet soda, and then got started on dinner.  I based my meal around this More Than Tofu Spicy Thai Tofu.

I baked my tofu for 30minutes at 475*.  A chopped yam joined tofu in the sauna, along with some purple asparagus.  Meanwhile, we heated some frozen collard greens in a pan uptop.  I seasoned my greens with maple syrup and red pepper flakes, then topped them with yam and tofu.

My bowl had half the tofu package and half of the medium yam – so tasty! 

I ate the roasted purple asparagus as my side.

And a tall glass of skim milk.

All together.

It was a pretty great dinner if I do say so myself!

I can’t really start grades until tomorrow because kids still are handing things in and I know tomorrow night is going to suck so tonight I’m going to shower and watch Adult Swim!  I hope everyone else had a pleasant start back to the work week.

How do you balance fun foods with real life?

Rock Star

The day is done and I am a Rock Star!  I am 100% + done with school for this week.

This morning I worked straight through breakfast but around 1 I prepared lunch for A and I.  We bought this Arnold Everything Rye bread on Thursday so we knew we wanted sandwiches.

Tuna salad!  We use a little bit of mayo and a LOT of pickle relish in our tuna salad.

I sprinkled hot paprika on my portion, I had about 1/2 a can (since A ate 1.5cans!)

{More his/hers} I added salt and pepper and cheddar cheese to the bowl after I took my portion out.

I ate my sandwich along with a sliced plum and some Dirty Salt and Vinegar chips.

All together.

I did morework and a little later I made this split-tastic bowl.

A sliced banana, a sugar free banana fudge pudding, 1 crunched double stuff oreo, and a few cinnamon brown sugar almonds.

.more work.

When I was 80% of the way done I went to the gym.  I did 35minutes on the treadmill – 1minutes walking/2minutes jogging for 3.4miles.  Then I did 5minutes of abs and stretching on the mat and 5minutes of arms on the machines.  In spite of being a total fat ass for the last 6months we discovered I can now do 40lbs on some of the arm machines – more rock starness!

After the gym I walked to Staples to do work and to Union Market to buy fruit and a surprise for A, I also bought this Naked Gold Machine Juice for the walk.

Then home, and then to Starbucks to do my final piece of work.

I ordered a tall nonfat iced latte so I wouldn’t feel bad sitting at a bench but A came down a bit later and drank 90% of it.  I made grade reports for all of my students that show every assignment so far this semester and the grades they earned on them.  I have high hopes that kids do make-up in the next 2weeks but it looks like I will be failing a lot students my FINAL QUARTER of teaching.

Once done I came home and made a late lame/awesome dinner.

This was Tofu -Deveganized!  I drained and pressed a block of extra-firm tofu then cut it in half.  Then I cut a hole in the side of the block, careful not to cut through to the other side.  In the hole I stuffed turkey pepperoni and reduced fat mozzarella cheese.  I covered the hole with a small slice of tofu, rolled the block in egg and breadcrumbs, and fried in .5t evoo.

Awesome.

On the side sauteed A and I some frozen broccoli rabe with wasabi sesame seeds and then added in the leftover dipping egg for the last few minutes of cooking.

It was inedible – the frozen rabe was cheap and it was all bitter bitter stems.  This dish was more bitter than a fat wife whose ex-husband just married an 18year old.  My other failure was the Stonewall Kitchen Wasabi Mustard I tried to use as a dipping sauce, also terrible.  But the tofu?

Fabulous.  I would, however, recommend baking at 450* for 30minutes instead of frying, I was pressed for time.

I tried a few sips of A’s beer but ended up going with a diet Dr Pepper cherry.

I totally had to have dessert. Turkey Hill Mint Choco Chip ice-cream with 2 double stuffs crunched over the top.

Mint chip is a favorite of mine but this might be the best kind I’ve ever had, go Turkey Hill!

A and I have super fun plans to celebrate a work free day tomorrow, I can’t wait!  Sweet dreams all.  I will end with some bonus questions -

1. What are you excited for on Sunday?
2. What do you put in your tuna saldd?
3. What is your favorite ice-cream flavor?

Long/Quick, Jumbo Shrimp

Hello there!  This could be a looooong post so I’m going to try to keep it brief as I recap the last 2days – I’ve been extra hungry so there’s been a lot of food! :)  I’m going to focus just on eats.

For yesterday’s [Tuesday] train breakfast I ate a almond sample and a Soy Joy Apple bar.

I actually got this free in the park after SWITP.  It was very very tasty but I was surprised to see so much dairy (butter, parmesan cheese?!) in a SOY bar.

For lunch I packed a small apple,

a Nacy’s Strawberry Yogurt,

and an Ooba.

All together.

I love mixing jam into yogurt so I liked the idea of Nancy’s yogurt.  It was good, but better in theory, it ended up being a little sweet.  I think that is because I’m usually mixing into Greek yogurt which has more of a tang.  Ooba rocked my socks!  Jenna posted about this a while back and I’ve been jealous for months – when I saw it in a store here I practically peed my pants!  It was every bit as good as imagined – sweet without beeing too sweet, perfectly fizzy.

I was starving and lunch didn’t even make a dent so I ended up getting a single serving of Cheez-Its and a Strawberry Rice Crispies Treat out of the vending machine.

After school I rushed to the train to head to Manhattan.  My exciting event was the FoodBuzz 1millionth post celebration at David Burke Townhouse.  I got there a little early so I made a few fun Manhattan stops.  I stopped in at Dylans and bought A a gift.

And I got a machta energy boost from Jamba Juice.

Then I headed over to the amazing, astonishing, fabulous, fantastic David Burke Townhouse.  I’m going to say in advance that my pictures (grainy and blury because of bad light) don’t even begin to do the food or decor justice.  The restraunt is modern American and the decorating is egg-cellent.

There were a lot of people at the event – food buzz staff and bloggers – and I had some really great conversations.  I got a chance to hang out with Missy, Vani, Sarah, and Diana which was fun and I met Melanie for the first time.  I also spotted an instructor from SWITP and had a long conversation with her!

There were several bars around the restaurant and they had Prosecco (one of my favorites) and fabulous signature lychee martinis.  I had one of each.

In the back room tables of food were set up that blew my mind:

 

There was crab and tuna sushi, oysters, crab legs, HUGE prawns, lobster, and more.  Waiters were also walking around with trays of hot food.  Lobster was everywhere and the egg theme was continued in a truely impressive way.  Everything was basically bite-sized.  Here is what I ate:

crab leg, tuna sushi

prawn, chicken dumpling (I actually had one more unpictured dumpling too, ask me about the dumpling tomorrow, I have a story)

lobster scramble

lox, cracker, creme fresh

lobster flan

crab sushi

lobster dumpling

 chicken and shrimp sate

best crab cake ever

crab leg, tuna sushi

After dinner waiters came around with trays of amazing desserts.  Diana and I were laughing that no matter how full we were we would eat if something new came by (and I did!)  Here are my dessert eats, also all bite-sized:

apple tart

strawberry cheesecake pop

 

butterscotch panna cotta

chocolate cheesecake pop

donut thing – bombolini

grapefruit bar (I wanted to love this – gold dust! – but I actually spit this out!)

Also, instead of mints at the door they had peanut brittle!

The even was 5-7 but I actually didn’t leave until close to 7:20 – I had a great time, thank you so much FoodBuzz!

It took me a long time to get home and an even longer time to wait for A to get home from the city and I ended up being hungry before bedtime!  I was super classy and and this turkey cheddar Lunchable.

I also had Picnic bar (with peanuts and raisins!), my treat from Dylans.

This morning I ate my EAS sample bar for train breakfast.

 

And for lunch I packed the rest of the blackberries,

and this strawberry yogurt.

This True yogurt was vegan and very tasty, I loved the chunks of real strawberry!

After school my insane hunger continued so I had several snacks.  I started by making lunch for tomorrow out of this stuff.

*Note1, I bought Weight Watchers Mexican because it was on sale, my suggestion for the recipe is sharp cheddar.  Note2, I ate about 1/3C of cheese while I was cooking.

Pimento Shmento Spread, serves 2 (x’s amounds as needed)

• 1/3 C small chopped roasted red pepper – about 1 pepper, I patted mine dry with papertowl
• 2/3C shredded reduced fat cheddar
• 2t plain nonfat yogurt

Stir gently to combine.

I ate one serving on a serving of Doctor Kracker Fire Roasted Crisps.

I microwaved it for 30seconds – ooooh, melty! – and ate with a small apple.

I also had a 1/2C serving of Kashi Heart to Heart Blueberry with unsweetened almond milk,

and a spoonful of pb (I told you I was hungry!)

Then I met A at the gym.  When I got there I really wasn’t feeling it, today left me in a really bad mood, but I am so glad that I stuck it out!  I did a 10minute run on the treadmilll.  Then 10minutes on the stairstepper at level 9; I didn’t love this, I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to be staying “up” or let the pedals go to the bottom.  Plus I couldn’t balance without holding on and I know that decreases your actual work out.  Next I did 20minutes of arms on the weight machines, and finished up with 10minutes of abs and stretching on the mat.

When I got home I ate 1serving of jalopeno poppers,

this dark chocolate flower from Godiva (from the Always Infinity event),

and finally this frozen pad thai.

In and of its self it was ok, but this was the worst frozen pad thai I’ve ever had.

Also today, I wrote my plans for next week!  I’m ready for bed.  Sorry for the long/quick post, love ya!

Booze and Birds

Gosh I love Spring!  It was a beyond fabulous day, but it is after midnight so I’m going to try to make this quick.  A and I got up around 9:30 this morning and weren’t really sure what to do with ourselves – it was way too pretty for schoolwork yet!  We ended up deciding to head down to 5th Avenue for brunch.

I was naughty and drank my new favorite beer – Abita Strawberry – on the walk down.

 So perfect on a spring day.

For brunch we decided on Apertivo, a small Italian spot.  We went in on a whim and we are so glad, it was great!  They brought Panatone to the table as soon as we sat down.

I had a piece with apple jelly,

and a piece with butter.

For less than $13 a plate, brunch included booze and caffeine!  Coffee -

I added 1sugar and a splash of cream to mine but ended up only drinking a few sips because it was too rich.

I also had a Bloody Mary.

This was so tasty, it was spicy spicy spicy!  I had never tasted a Bloody Mary before my trip to Boston this year but I think I am going to be hooked   I only let myself drink half because I knew I had work to do.

For food I ordered the Eggs Florentina- Two poached eggs with Hollandaisesauce on top of steamed spinach and an English muffin.  All the meals came with a potato latke.

Yum!  I only ate half of the latke but I practically licked the rest of the plate clean!  There was a great citrusytang that made this just perfect.  I will say, though, I think I prefer plain sunny side up eggs or poached egg with bread, you just do not need the rich sauce.

The food was so great we knew we wanted to try dessert so A and I split the Chocolate Pyramid.

This was chocolate mousse with a caramel mousse center- tasty!

After brunch we took a long walk around our neighborhood, I say this every time but I love Park Slope!  When we got home I randomly took an intense 2hour nap.  I was o-u-t, if I I didn’t have a deadline to get to Staples I wouldn’t have gotten up.  I lured myself to my desk with candy.

Smarties are basically prettier, yummier M&M’s.  I love the way European candies bubble the calorie count in on the front of the package.  And instead of pretending people will eat small servings they just list the nutrition stats for the whole package, these had 174calories.

As I worked I also snacked on some Danielle Pumpkin Chips.

I had 1serving.

We had to hurry-scurry out the door to make it to Staples in time to do my copies.  We are doing a month on fairy tales and since I’m not allowed to use the text-book I have a ton of copies to make.  On the way home A bought a slice of pizza and he dropped his crust outside our house.  We ended up spending a ridiculously long time sitting on our stoop watching the birds have a feast!  I even went down and broke it up into little pieces to discourage the fights that were breaking out.

Once our bird-watching was over we came back in and got back to work.  Much later, it was time to start dinner.  The recipe was inspired by three things – 1. I am super busy this week and this meal needs to last us through Weds, 2. I finally made my prize-won wheatberries,

3. I need to use this adorable can of tomatos I bought at Whole Foods.

I ended up making Berry Better Than Spaghetti.  Recipe, serves 5

• 2.5C cooked wheatberries
• 1T evoo
• 3/4C chopped onion
• 20 oz extra-lean ground turkey
• salt and pepper
• 1C frozen kale
• 3C canned diced tomatoes, rinsed

1. Pre-make the wheatberries; we did this yesterday since they take an hour to cook.
2. Heat evoo in a saucepan.
3. Add in onions and turkey, season with s&p, cover and cook through.
4. Meanwhile, heat kale in a medium pot.
5. When kale is ready, stir in wheatberries and tomatoes.
6. When meat is cooked, stir into pot with the rest of the ingredients.
7. Cover pot and heat over very low heat for 5minutes.

You could obviously use fresh kale or sub in another type of green, use tomato sauce, use pasta, etc.  We thought the combo was pretty great.  Here is my serving -

Look at those chewy wheatberries.

After dinner I had tons more to do, hence my much too late post/bed time.  A delivered a doomed Peeps couple my way.

I am pretty thrilled to say that my plans, materials, copies, computer presentations, and posters are all done for this week!  I hope you were in bed before me!

Ice-Cream Man

After my last post I realized I wasn’t starving, but that I should probably eat before I was.  I had 1.5T of this fabulousness.

A little later I ate the champagne mango I found at Whole Foods the other day.

I was so impressed at A’s mad slicing skills – usually we get 1bite of flesh per mango!

This was delish, but tasted just like a regular mango to me.  Has anyone else tried this? Thoughts?

Then A and I skilled more than 20minutes wrestling (no, I’m not being cute trying not to be dirty, I actually mean wrestle – A and I have a long history of beating the crap out of each other).  He totally won, our longstanding date-breaking with the gym means that he’s fatter and I’m weaker!

After my “workout” I headed out to do some grocery shopping.  We needed almost nothing for next week but A was going to the movies and I was going alone so I made an event of it.  I stopped in all the “hippie” stores to peruse before I went to Key Foods for $17 in staples!

On the way home I spotted an ice-cream truck!

This was so Park Slope!  Van Leeuwen is all-natural and stocks grown-up flavors.

I got a small espresso and giandujia (chocolate hazelnut) – yum!

Just as I paid A swooped in from out of nowhere to steal a few bites!  Kicking my butt made him so late his movie was sold out so he walked home with me while he waited for the next show.  After I said goodbye to A and put away my groceries I got started on dinner.

First I sliced up these guys, put them on a sprayed, foiled baking sheet, sprinkled with a little salt, and put in the oven at 450* for 25minutes.

I ended up eating all of the green and yellow squash and 1/2 of the tempeh.  While I was baking I cracked open our new beer – Abita Strawberry Beer.

Tasty, tasty!  I didn’t necessarily get strawberry, but it tasted like summer and went down easy.  I’m someone who usually only drinks half a beer but this I finished and almost went back for a 2nd of!

When the roasting was done I put my veggies on a plate and got started on my open faced sandwich (inspired by this kerf’wich).  I toasted 1 slice of rye bread, spread it with pumpkin butter, laid down 1/2 a package of the sliced baked tempeh, topped with 1oz sharp cheddar, and baked for 5minutes.

Yum!  All together now.

Roasted squash is one of my favorite veggies and this sandwich was frickin amazing – I could never go raw!  If you are a fan of the salty/sweet combo you must try this!

I am all packed and excited for tomorrow (SELF Workout in the Park) so once I get a shower it is time to laze in bed with my book.  Don’t let the bedbugs bite!

Have you tried tempeh yet?

Took the Cake

Happy Monday everybody!  Today was actually a really nice day of work.  My kids were well-behaved and we got more done than usual (although still not as much as I would like!).

I started my morning with an Apricot Almond KIND Bar, my fav.

A walked me to my train so I was in a big bliss cloud for most of the ride!

During lunch I was busy setting up my SmartBoard and I didn’t get a chance to eat anything   We had a faculty meeting after school, but I did manage to snag my baggie of green grapes before I went to that.

After the meeting I stayed to clean up my room and call parents so I ended up not getting home until after 6:30!  I organized some things and cooked dinner while I waited for House to begin.  I ate this yogurt when I got home to make up for no lunch.

Wallabyis a brand of Australian organic yogurt.  Nonfat Strawberry Guava was pretty impressive, I love the look of the containers too.  I also ate at least two bites of A’s junk food (pizza and a cupcake).

For dinner I tried out this new preseasoned tofu from More Than Tofu, in peanut ginger.

I sliced it and baked it for 20minutes while I made a side using this stuff:

Heat over low heat in a small pan; 1can seasoned greens + 1/4C blue cheese crumbles + 1/4 unsweetened dried blueberries = Blue Blue Greens.

I ate the entire package of tofu! (360calories) 

It said that there were 4 (90cal) servings but that seemed a little skimpy to me, although half a package would work if you’re not super hungry.  I made a sauce for the side out of stir fry sauce, Chipolte Tabasco, rice vinegar, and honey pb.

Everything was hella yummy!

After House (amazing!) I headed to the gym; I’m proud of myself for making it two days in a row.  I did 15minutes on the elliptical at level 10 and 15minutes on the stepmill at level 7.  I ended with 5minutes of abs/stretching on the mats.  I had a great work out but the bonehead on the machine next to the mats would not stop grunting!  I get that you might struggle at the end of a set but if you are screaming straight through 10+minutes of weights you are doing something wrong!  Even worse was the fact that he kept yelling at himself, berating himself anytime he stopped.  I felt bad for him because it was clear he had some issues but please live out your body issues quietly

A met me for the walk home and we took a walk around the neighborhood for funsies.  I might have felt the need to go back to Tea Lounge to buy the gigantic Oreo cupcake I was drooling over earlier in the day.

I also might have scraped off all the frosting and thrown the cupcake away [carnage].

I am fully aware that a. this is wasteful and b. it pretty much undid any calories I burned at the gym, but damn it I like cupcakes!  Belly full, I’m off to take a quick shower and snuggle into bed, night!

How do you feel about grunters at the gym?  What is the thing that annoys you while working out?

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up with String

…these are few of my favorite things!  None of them have been tied with string, but I have received quite a few exciting packages lately.  Oikos coupons, Dr. Kracker samples (the review is long coming, I want to try all of the flavors first), pasta samples from FoodBuzz, POM samples, and the wheatberries I won in Sarah’s contest.  I can not even tell you how grateful I am to be able to try all of these things!

For accountabilities sake, I should mention that I ate 8 (1.5servings) of A’s mini pb eggs last night.

I started this morning with my Oikos.  Stoneyfield Farms sent me tons of coupons along with information about their products.

Did you know that Oikos is the only organic Greek yogurt on the market in the US?  According to the literature,

Organic refers to they way agricultural products – food and fiber – are grown and processed.  It is an ecological system that at its core relies on healthy rich soil to produce strong plants that resist pests and diseases.  Organic farming prohibits the use of toxic and persistent chemicals in favor of more “earth-friendly” practices that work in harmony with nature.  In the case of livestock, antibiotics are prohibited, opting instead for preventative measures for keeping animals healthy and productive.  Organic production also prohibits the use of genetically modified organisms (GMO’s).

I tried a nonfat plain one this morning with a small banana and some Stonewall Kitchen Carmel Apple Butter.

My thoughts.  I love the fact that Oikos is organic, because that fits into my goal to eat more (all) organic dairy products.  The plain nonfat Oikos cups have 80calories and 15grams of protein.  The flavor was the same as every other nonfat plain Greek yogurt, with the tanginess we have all come to love.  My only complaint was that the consistency was slightly less thick than that of Fage (my favorite Greek).  Overall, the organic products outweighs the slight difference in consistency for me – I will be purchasing Oikos whenever my store has it.  I also have some nonfat flavored ones I am excited to try.

After breakfast I put my nose to the grindstone.  Thank God this is an easy week (the kids have a field trip and I have some pds), I managed to complete all of my school to dos.

In between planning and grading A and I walked to Staples to get my copies done.  We are seriously enjoying this gorgeous weather!

When I got home from my walk I snacked on a Dark Chocolate Cherry Chewy Kashi bar.

And later on I used a teensy sweet potato to make myself some oven baked fries (preheat oven to 450*, wash and slice ‘tater, spray a foiled baking sheet with cooking spray, sprinkle slices with salt, cook 20minutes).

Served with ketchup.  Yumtastic!  I always love to roast veggies but sweet potatoes in “fry” form are to die for!  If you don’t make them, start!

I managed to finish all of my school work by 4:30, in time to make it to a 5o’clock yoga class!  I took Virgin Yoga at Crunch, a 60minute beginners class.  I am 100% to get back into the gym swing!

When we got home from the gym, A and I split a pear and I ate a few Cheddar Pumpkin Seed Doctor Krackers.

I did some organizing, lunch packing, showering, etc before it was time to make dinner.  I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t have to cook my first few days back at school so I made something with lots of leftovers, stir fried rice.

 

I didn’t follow a recipe, just kind of thought about a few recipes I had in my head.  The proportions really don’t matter at all.  Basically here are the “directions”

Very Veggie Stir Fried Rice, 5 servings

• 4C cooked brown rice (prepared a day in advance)
• large onion, chopped
• carrots, chopped
• defrosted frozen broccoli rabe
• red pepper, chopped
• fresh basil
• evoo
• 3eggs
• fish sauce
• 2limes, quartered
• egg tomatoes, chopped
• bunch of scallions, chopped
• **A cooks chicken and adds it to his at the end

1. (A day before you plan on making the dish) prepare 4C cooked brown rice.
2. In a wok or large skillet, heat a little evoo.  Cook the first set of veggies until soft.  I wait to add the basil until the last few minutes of cooking.
3. Remove veggies from the pan, replace with rice.  Heat the rice for a minute or so, stirring to distribute heat evenly.  Add a little bit more evoo at this point.
4. Mound the rice so that there is a hole in the middle.  Crack the eggs into the hole.  When the eggs are mostly firm, scramble and stir them into the rice.  The timing of when you stir in the eggs will determine how dry your final dish is, so follow your own tastes.
5. Add the cooked veggies back into the pan and stir.  Squeeze in the juice of 1lime, along with 4-6 shakes of fish sauce.
6. Add the second set of veggies, stir once, and remove from the pan.
7. Additional lime juice can be squeezed on at the table.

Yum!  I love stir fried rice.

I ate my portion along with a juice cocktail; 1part POM and 2parts club soda.

When I received my package from POM the other day I was pretty psyched; A goes through these things like nobody’s business!  A drinks them straight, but I like them best mixed with club soda or incorporated into a recipe.

We don’t drink a lot of juice because I think you are better getting the fiber from a piece of fruit instead, but POM is a “worth it” situation to me.  Here is some of the information the company provided me with that I found interesting -

•  
  • Pomegranates are one of mankind’s earliest cultured fruits.
  • Many scholars now suggest that it was the pomegranate, not an apple, depicted in the biblical Garden of Eden.
  • POM Juice is the only juice guaranteed to be made exclusively from “Wonderful” variety pomegranates.
  • [Their] pomegranate orchards are looked in California’s sunny San Joaquin Valley.  [They] never use imported juice.
  • POM Wonderful is the only juice whose health benefits are backed by $25million in medical research.
  • [In a study in which participants drank 8oz daily] after only three weeks, blood flow to the heart improved approximately 17% in a a group that drank POM Wonderful 100% pomegranate juice, but worsened approximately 18% in the placebo group.
  • Drinking 8oz of 100% pomegranate juice per day for two weeks lowered the incidence of LDL oxidation, believed to be a key factor in arterial plaque formation.
  • Hundreds of scientific tests also show POM to be a superior source of antioxidants, with more and better antioxidants than red wine, grape juice, blueberry juice, cranberry juice, green tea, vitamin C and vitamin E.

POM juice is also shown to improve prostate health and erectile function, but I don’t think those figures are of much use to most of my readers! (You seem to be young and female, but if any grandpas are reading please give me a shout out!)

Tomorrow is my first day back to school after Spring Break, tear!  On the agenda for tonight?  Relaxation.  I have a new episode of Scrubs to watch online and a serving of Jelly Bellys calling my name, zzzzzzZ.

Don’t forget about my first giveaway ever, ending Weds!

1, 2, 3

I made it to break!  Today was actually the sickest I felt, but knowing that it was “Friday” I was able to push through.  My lack of post yesterday was due to the fact that I was in bed before 9.  Thank God too, I can’t even imagine how I would have felt today without a healthy dose of shut-eye.

Yesterday morning I packed this on the train, a small banana and a Balance Honey Yogurt Peanut Bar.

I don’t a lot of Balance bars because they have 3.5grams of saturated fat.  However, they are hands down the best tasting bars on earth.  This flavor knocks my socks off.

Lunch’s flavor kept my socks firmly on unfortunately.  I tried a new yogurt brand and was muy unimpressed.

I like that fact that it was dairy and soy free, but the flavor was just off.  My two clementines were juicy as usual though.

A ate a lot more food than we were expecting this week so we actually ran out of meals early!  We ended up going for sushi last night while we were out on a drugstore run.  We went to Sinju, a place close to our house.

Here is my plate.

From left to right: California handroll, spicy crunchy salmon roll, broccoli tempura roll.  Delish.

I did manage to sneak in some snacks before my early bedtime though.  Easter candy,

and some paper bag popcorn.

This morning I packed an Iced Oatmeal Cookie Luna bar for my train breakfast.

I also cracked open this stash bright and early.

In spite of slightly reduced taste (I have no smell because I’m so stuffy) my lunch was a mega success!  You guys know I love pina colada flavored things, and today I went for double trouble.

Pineapple Coconut Light and Fit yogurt, 1/4C oats, 1T unsweetened coconut, TJ unsweetened dried pineapple, and a small banana.  So frickin’ good!

Try this mix at home!  Of course I had two clementines with it.

After lunch I had to give a presentation at our teacher meeting so I didn’t get a much needed chance to rest my voice.  This chocolate flower a student brought me made up for it though!

I didn’t eat it, but I did have two of these guys.

I got home as quickly as possible today, I am on vacation for a week and a half, woot!  At home I snacked on the few bites of leftover couscous A ate earlier this week.

We are out of food so I know I won’t have to cook dinner tonight   I do have an agenda though, I need to put some laundry away before I pack.  I like to be organized, but I am the worst procrastinator packer ever!  In college I would start packing for trips home literally 5minutes before my SuperShuttle pick up time!  I’m planning on being a grown up today and getting it done tonight though.  I also am hoping to get a pedicure!  Other than splurges on food, we haven’t bought much fun stuff this year.  I know how much happier I will be on the beach if my feet are pretty.

I’ve got to scadaddle, I’ll be back with a quick post later.

What are you celebrating this year: a. Passover, b. Easter, c. both, d. neither?