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?

When I Dip, You Dip, We Dip

First things first – if you had the same kind of crappy eating day as me and are actually feeling crappy about it please stop over to this fabulous post a la Caitlin.

For train breakfast this morning I had an Odwalla Chewy Nut Bar (am I the only one who giggled there?  anyone?)

I am a fan of this, I like any nut-heavy (more giggles) bar.

School was interesting.  For some reason the copy room didn’t make my copies (that I put in 8am Friday!) for first period and I had to totally change up my lesson.  Next my boy’s class was completely and typically out of control.  Atypically, I made the principal come in and confiscate everyone’s cell phones and ps2s – there are now a lot of angry 8th graders.

The collection/complaining lasted through my lunch so I ended up not eating this random assortment until the end of the day.

I tried a So Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt in Pina Colada.

I love this quote.

For fruit I had an Odwalla (I’m not sure why I had so much Odwalla today) Orange Honey Passion Juice.

 

And dessert was a pb candy cane from my Blue Apron spree.

Yum!

I stayed late after school to redo my bulletin boards and meet with some students.  What is going to be sucky when I quit my job is that my hyper-critical administration actually likes me.  Apparently my old administrator was having a convo with the guidance counselor about how sad she was I was off the floor because I was available to the kids instead of bolting after school (I moved floors this year from 7th-8th grade) and then he came upstairs and saw me meeting with kids.  Actually, I wish they liked me less, then maybe they’d believe me that I have zero control and actually Help me!

By the time I finally got home it was after 6:30 – boo!  A was a sweetheart and met me at my train and I went to Barnes and Nobel and spent way too much $.

The third book was free!  On the walk home I ate these bbq Popchips.

 

Once home I had some school work to do and I decided it was absolutely necessary that I read my new issue of Health with Mariska Hargitay and Sarah Chalke!  I also snacked on A’s leftover pizza crusts.

I dipped them in Diet Dr Pepper Cherry – I always dip my pizza crusts in soda, I also dip pretzels.  What do you dip?

Later in the evening I ate this SWITP sample – a Belly Bar.

It was meh.

And much much later, too late, I decided to make dinner.  My favorite cooking method is oven roasted so that was the focus – sprayed foiled pan, chop food, baking spray and salt, 30minutes at 475* – perfection.

I did 1yam baked fries, cauliflower, and the leftover half block of tofu.

The tofu I sprinkled with this.

And I made DIP out of a lot of ketchup and a little maple syrup and Tabaso Chipotle.

And now it is fully time for bed.  Sleep tight!

Random BAM pics:

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?

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?

Whole Date

Is it dorky that I’ve been planning a trip to Whole Foods for more than a week?  Either way, I was super excited!  A and I did ate dinner from the salad bar and then did our grocery shopping for the week and it rocked my socks.  New York has been unable to decide what the weather is – spring, winter, summer? – so I couldn’t decide either.

I have to give credit to my mommy for buying both the hoodie and summer dress for me – I haven’t bought clothing in almost a year and somehow I have all sorts of cute things!  Since it was a date night I even got a bit gussied.

A and I took forever getting to Whole Foods.  First we had to make an emergency stop for Visine because my allergies are making my eyes so bad, next we had to transfer trains twice, and finally A felt the need to stop for an expresso!  Salad bar was worth the wait though!

Alongside a Honey Drop drink.

This drink was tasty but an inbetweener,not really water or juice.  I tried to get a good mix of healthy/not so healthy.  Edame and seaweed salads.

Asian chicken salad (I think this had broad rice noodles in it!).

Sesame tofu and a teeny serving of baked macaroni and cheese.

Everything was so good!  It was the perfect amount of food, but we couldn’t resist this downstairs:

Locally made gelato?!  I ordered a small dulce de leche topped with honey lavender.

A and I had a great time exploring Whole Foods – better produce, better variety, and better prices than the stores in our neighborhood!  We actually managed to show some self-restraint so we didn’t go too crazy, but I have some super fun products to show off over the next week!

The trains were crazy coming home too, so now it is basically time for bed.  I have a busy busy day tomorrow (especially because we want to go see the new X-Men movie!).  Sleep tight!

What is your favorite grocery store?

What is your favorite flavor of gelato? 

Excused

Holy frick I’m up early enough to do a breakfast post!  I felt slightly guilty about my absence yesterday and figured I’d make it up to my many (ha!) readers; I’m really make an effort to be a more consistent blogger.  I really do have a reason for not posting yesterday though – A was out of town, so I made popcorn for dinner, but in order to explain my healthy choices I needed to mention that A was out of town, and that seemed unsafe.

Here is a lunch preview since per usual I won’t be home until late.

 

I made dinner foods last night and just packed them for lunch.  For the tofu I sliced a block of extra firm into 6ths and placed it in a tupperware overnight with soy sauce, apple cidar vinegar and a little bit of Chipolte Tabasco and maple syrup.  Last night I placed it on a sprayed baking sheet, sprinkled the top with a teensy bit of sugar and salt and cooked for 45minutes at 450*.   The circles are these adorable Italian eggplants, sliced and oven roasted.

I also packed two clementines.

It should be a busy day at work, so I’m glad to have already checked something off my to do list!  Have a great day!

What’s the first thing on your to do list today?

Check Plus

Best Sunday Ever.  My to do list is beyond checked:

Write my plans for the week.  Make my materials for the week.  Go to Staples for supplies.  Do my grading.  Eat tons of fantabulous vegan food!  All checked off.

I woke up this morning around 10:00 and felt like doing some work before I made breakfast, so I snacked on some Quackers samples from my swag bag.

Noontime breakfast was soooo good, Cinnamon Bun Oats!

I made a 1/2 portion of oats which I topped with “icing,” candied pecans, and cinnamon sugar.  The “icing” was Stoneyfield soy vanilla yogurt mixed with maple syrup.

And here is the recipe for the candied pecans (I made A the same breakfast),

• 1/2C chopped pecans
• 1/2T Smart Balance Light
• 1.5t sugar
• 1pinch salt
• Melt the Smart Balance in a small saucepan and then reduce the heat to low.  Pour in pecans and turn to coat.  Sprinkle in sugar and salt, mix and heat until golden (about 2minutes).

I used 2T of pecans on my oats.

So much better than Cinnabon could ever do!

We did work, work, and more work and then headed to Staples.  While we were out we took the time to take a walk.  I bought A an O’Soy chocolate yogurt to try the other day and now he’s obsessed, so we needed back to the “hippie store.”  We bought a very late lunch to go while we were there.

I loved the bbq, so today I tried Sweet and Sour tofu.

Very tasty.  To be honest though, I didn’t drink soda most of last week and I enjoyed my Diet Coke Plus even more!

For dessert I ate one of these tasty Enjoy Life Caramel Apple snack bars.

After more, more, more work A confessed that he had used up all of the rice I was planning to cook for dinner, so we headed back out to the little store by our house.  We had to spend $10 to charge so we picked up a few things, including Sugar Free Jelly Bellys.  I’ve never had them before, but I’m sure you’ll be seeing them soon.

A very late dinner was based around more new items; TJ’s soy chorizo and a can of lentils.

I’d never had lentils before, I am definitly a convert now!  We heated the proteins in a skillet and then mixed them into 4 servings of rice for a delicious 5serving pot.

For a side we used this giganto head of cabbage.

We are officially naming it The Beast, look at what it did to A’s knife!

He was a trouper though, and when I finally had a pile of shreds I put them into a pot where I had evoo over low heat.  I doused the slaw with apple cider vinegar and A1 Steak Sauce and covered it for 5minutes.  Yum, yum.

All together – Rice and Beans Revamped with Steamy Steaky Slaw.

I must have told A how good this was 8 times during our meal!  I actually have one more grading task to do before bed so I’ve got to run, have a great night readies!

Mondays can suck, what are you excited for tomorrow? I am excited to get back to the gym!

*****Updated to add – while I posted I ate a serving of beans (80calories).

The flavor was right but the texture was pretty weird.  I will finish the bag but I will be sticking to the regular beans for now on.

Am I Fakin’ Bacon???

Question for my readers – Is it still considered “pigging out” if you are only eating vegan things?  Well, pigging out or tofuing up, my belly was kept very satisfied today!  It’s been a foodie lovefest over here at EatingChalk.

Things started very well with my train breakfast this morning.

These Bumble Bars are so frickin’ amazing!  This is another item I ate occasionally in college but have found too pricey as of late, however, I splurged yesterday while at the neighborhood “hippie store.”  The bars are vegan, organic, and gluten-free.  I had Mixed Nuts, which had sesame seeds as one of the first ingredients on the list.  OhMyGoodness they had the best sesame flavor.  I think this is an item I will have to splurge on more often.

I also had a piece of TJ’s fruit leather.

School was interesting, not really good or bad.  I have to toot my own horn (especially because I’ve been so terrible at my 30arm reps a day challenge) – I broke up a fight today in class and my boys class was super impressed at how strong I am.  Woot!

Without meaning to, I packed a lot of sweet components in today’s lunch, all wonderful though, be forewarned, more raving is coming!  I ate the little bit of leftver tofu from last night.

A TJ’s chocolate soymilk box.

1/2C of blackberries with two small plums.

And a Stoneyfield Farms ‘O Soy Chocolate Yogurt.

Um, WOW!  Wow, wow, wow, this yogurt was beyond fabulous.  I always say no wimpy yogurts can stack up to plain nonfat Greek but this was a contender tastewise; I love the combo of tangy with chocolate.  I wouldn’t eat this as often as Greek yogurt (even though it only had 160calories it had 22grams of sugar!) but it will be my go-to item when I want something sweet from now on.

I stayed after school to work on my TAN.  While I plugged away I ate a Chocolate Chip Cosmocrisp Jam Frakas Bar.

Again, holy crap this was good!  The flavor was deliciously honeyed (consequently, after checking I realized the bar contained honey and was Not vegan, I shouldn’t have made the assumption just because it was from Lara).

Once I got home I actually met up with A for a walk.  He found a patch of fresh cement that he carved our initials into so we had to go take a looksie.  We extended our walk to loop around the neighborhood.  During our travels we stopped in at ‘Snice, which I’ve been obsessed with since my blogger meet up.  A and I each got a Milk-less Shake.

He had cappuccino and I had malted – soooooo good!  Again, this is an item I would choose vegan over regular for; I don’t eat much fullfat dairy so milkshakes I can’t order with skim milk make me sort of sick.  (not that that stops me from eating them, something in my brain refuses to accept that I can’t eat certain foods.  When we were in college there was a TGIFridays near campus and we ate their regularly.  At the time I was having a lot of weird food allergies <I still really don’t know what the deal is but I know that Hawaiian fruit gummies and frozen pot pies make me very very sick> and after eating their pecan crusted chicken salad I threw up, a lot.  However, that salad was really really tasty.  So the next three times we went I ordered the same damn meal and threw up when I got home.  If A hadn’t seriously threatened to leave me I’d probably still be ordering it!)

Enjoying our shakes while we walked, we stopped in to the grocery store to buy to veggie cheddar cheese.

Check those nutritional stats.

I need to be honest though, we bought the cheese so I could make vegan bacon cheese fries (that’s right, say that dish a few times and try not to salivate).

I enjoyed the first batch of oven baked fries I made so much that the small potato in the pantry has been taunting me ever since.  I used one small potato to make the “fries” and topped it with 1 slice of veggie cheese and 1 slice of fakin bacon.

Y-uuuuuuuuuuM!

After doing a bit of school work it was time to make dinner (I realize I probably could have stopped eating, but dinner was actually started last night, and I’m a fatty).  This dish was inspired by a recipe from THE BINDER.

I have torn recipes out of magazines most of my life.  Since I’m nerdy as hell, I organized them into a binder, by category.  After a few years of being mocked, my mommy found me a binder made just for such a purpose, legitimizing my lameness.

It’s pretty and I greatly enjoy organizing my finds.  I actually also have a workout binder, and a “good ideas” binder, but I’ll discuss them more in a later post.

Dinner was inspired by the recipe binder but I put my own delicious spin on it.

Coco Loco Tofu, serves 2

• 1package firm tofu, drained and pressed
• 3/4C unsweetened shredded coconut
• 3/4 of a can of unsweetened coconut milk
• 1/2C rice vinegar

1. Mix coconut milk and rice vinegar in a shallow tupperware.
2. Take the prepared tofu and cut it into 6 slices (I did 7, but only because I’m clumsy).
3. Place the tofu into the marinade and leave it for at least 2hours or over night.
4. (After marination is done) Preheat the oven to 450*, and prep a baking sheet with foil and baking spray.
5. Place the coconut flakes in a shallow bowl and drudge the tofu slices through.
6. Lightly spray the slices with baking spray and cook for 25minutes.

I used the leftover coconut milk by stirring it into leftover rice before I reheated it.

And I also prepared some oven roasted veggies, brussels sprouts and colored cauliflower.

Oven roasted brussels sprouts are seriously my favorite food, I like them even better than broad rice noodles.

All together.

I realize I’ve said every item today was “the best thing ever” but this truly was.  If you are a tofu newbie I beg you to make this recipe so you too can become an addict.

This was a long post, so it’s time for me to hit the hay!  Don’t let the bedbugs bite!

What is your favorite way to eat veggies?  I think everything is better oven roasted.

Collard Greens Make Your Butt Big

The title is what I overheard a child saying in class last week.  I tried to explain to her that food doesn’t work like that, and that greens are actually very low in calories and quite healthy, but she totally didn’t buy it.  Further evidenced by the fact that she then led the class in a 10minute discussion of “Mrs. Wax has a nice butt, it must be because she likes collard greens.”  Kids!

Discussions of my butt aside, during that convo I came up with a fabulous recipe idea.  My class was scandalized when I told them I was going to eat cg’s with tofu, but A and I think the end result was pretty wonderful.  I used these products as my recipe base:

Southern Classic, Vegan Style

• I drained and pressed 1 package of firm tofu.
• Then I preheated my oven to 475* and foiled and baking sprayed a baking sheet.
• I cut the tofu into small cubes, placed it on my baking sheet, and sprinkled liberally with salt, paprika, and nutmeg.  Then I put the tofu in the oven for 25minutes.
• Meanwhile, A cooked 2 servings of brown rice according to the directions on the box.
• Next I prepared my package of fakin bacon with a little evoo.
• When the bacon was cooked I used the same pan with the “bacon grease” to heat a can of collard greens.
• Once the greens were warm I added 4 slices of chopped bacon back into the pan.
• Finally, I topped the rice with the greens and the tofu – perfection!

Look at all those great spices.

 

A and I really enjoyed this dish.  The mix of flavors went wonderfully together and it felt like very healthy comfort food.

Still on my to do list for the evening – put away the folded laundry, finish my grading, make my parent letter to get copied, take a shower, and most likely eat dessert.  Feeling stressed, I clearly need this bathrobe!  I’ve got to run, have a super duper night all!

Other than the classic – green m&m’s make your horny – what food myths were you told growing up?