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Day in the life

February 9, 2011 by 1 Comment

I haven’t written about a whole day of food in a really long time, so let’s have a show and tell today. Breakfast through dessert in pictures. This was all Monday’s foods.

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Breakfast: Steel cut oats

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 C steel cut oats
  • 1 T flax meal
  • sprinkle chia seeds
  • 2/3 C water
  • 1/3 C almond milk
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 T raisins
  • 1/2 banana

topped with spoonful of jam, coconut, Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal

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Lunch:

This was a big salad of lettuce, tomato, carrots, and leftover vegetables from a Sunday grocery salad (beets, cheese cubes, red pepper, slaw, zucchini). Big blobs of hummus on top.

On the side was the other half banana from breakfast with one Banana Bread muffin from the freezer and a spoonful of peanut butter.

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This is maybe one of my favorite pictures below.

Snack:

Oikos Greek yogurt Vanilla with strawberries, blueberries, and a little Kashi Go Lean on top for crunch. Served with my cute porcelain spoon.

I am not really good at afternoon snacking because I think it’s when I’m most hungry. I had more than this bowl of yogurt + berries, and some cashews and dried apricots too. Just telling you the truth.

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Dinner:

This dinner would normally not be blogged about because it wasn’t very good. Jeffrey has requested I give chicken another chance, so we found a recipe we liked from this month’s Rachael Ray magazine called Chicken with Wine. It’s basically a lightened up coq au vin.
The chicken was yucky. It was too chewy, purple, and limp. That’s on the left side of the plate.
The salad was really good–grapefruit, lettuce, avocado, slivered almonds. The dressing was the juice from the grapefruit with olive oil, salt and pepper.
And the rice was Uncle Ben’s 90 second wild rice. I liked this kind a lot.
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Dessert was one of these.

If you’re wondering about my exercise on this day, I did CrossFit in the morning and walked around the block with Lily once. We take a few shorter walks but it’s not that long.

Do you like seeing what I eat in a whole day?

Filed Under: Daily Update · Tagged With: , ,

Real Good Eats

January 7, 2011 by 3 Comments

I am happy to say that I have been cooking at home a lot this week, it seems even more than usual since our dishwasher is running often. Or maybe it’s just better than usual, from the Kale Salad to the Chili and Cornbread to the Asian Stir Fry. That’s a lot of real dinners in a row for us, plus breakfast and lunch which are made or eaten at home too.

I also haven’t been baking. Since it’s January and all, I have made an effort to cook dinner at home this week and not bake treats. It also helps to know that yesterday through Sunday will be full of birthday eats and treats, so I better start the week right!

I haven’t posted a whole day of meals in a long time, so here are a breakfast, lunch and dinner that I am really enjoying on repeat.

P.S. Thanks for the birthday wishes yesterday! I had a great birthday. Now it’s on with starting my #27 year.

Perfect Oatmeal

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Starbucks has their version, I have perfected mine. I have been in the mood for thicker oatmeal, and I also found that it cooks much faster. Here’s the mix:

  • 1/3 C Oats (Scottish in this batch)
  • 2 T Ground Flax Meal
  • 1/2 banana, mashed
  • 1/4 C almond milk
  • 2/3 C water
  • pinch chia seeds
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • small handful raisins
  • topped with spoonful of peanut butter and sweetened coconut

Instructions:

In a small pot, bring the water to a simmer. Add the oats and flax and whisk. Wait a minute and add the milk. Then banana and everything else. Whisk well until it thickens and bubbles. I turned the heat to low so it wouldn’t cook so fast and burn.

Served in a cup so it looks cuter and more fun to eat. The peanut butter makes it stick-to-your-ribs good. The coconut is a really nice addition of sweet. And the texture with less liquid to more oats is much better for me. I still love cooking the raisins in the pot so they really pop. It all just works together so well. Mmm. This is really, really good.

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An easy lunch with a special treat on the side

In the salad mix: Lettuce, tomato, carrots, hummus, guacamole, 1 hard boiled egg white

On the side is Pumpkin Ginger Bread with a little pumpkin butter. Mmm hmm. I think I made the salad just so I could eat the pumpkin bread. This is my favorite creation of the last few months.

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Quinoa with Veggies, Dates and Apples

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I am really proud about this dish. I don’t know why, but making use of things in the pantry and refrigerator without having to buy more seemed like I was making use of what I have.

Ingredients:

  • 1 C dry quinoa
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • big bag of green beans (1 pound?) with ends cut and chopped into thirds
  • 1 apple (I used Braeburn), chopped
  • EVOO, salt, pepper
  • 1/2 C dates, chopped
  • 2 T apple juice

Instructions:

  • In one pot, cook quinoa like it says on the box (1 C quinoa to 2 C water), boil and then let simmer 10 minutes until liquid is gone.
  • In a separate pan with a little EVOO, cook green beans and red pepper until tender. Season with salt and pepper. Add apple and dates and let soften too.
  • Add apple juice when all fruits and vegetables are in the pot and stir around for a few minutes.
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  • When quinoa is done, pour on top of vegetables and mix to combine.
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I ate this as dinner with some leftover tofu on top. The apple juice was key! It added a really nice but not too sweet flavor to the quinoa since it had no seasoning. And don’t leave out the dates! I don’t like dates plain, but I love to add them to things. It’s like a raisin but more chewy and sticky. It was a perfect addition to this dish.

This would also be a great side dish to serve more people. It made a lot! I’ll have a lot leftover for a few days. I think it would also be great for lunch over lettuce.

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And I thought that dinner was just too healthy, so for dessert, I had one piece Ezekiel Raisin Bread with Orange jam and chocolate chips. This is a favorite dessert. I have seen it a lot with peanut butter, but I lightened up the calories and did a light jam.

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Filed Under: Breakfast, Daily Update, Dessert, Dinner, Lunch, Recipes · Tagged With: , , ,

Pasta Party for Two

October 19, 2010 by 5 Comments

I have been creating a few really great meals lately. This oatmeal is the best one yet! Jeffrey even took one bite and liked it. Maybe one day he’ll let me make him a whole bowl.

We also had a make-your-own-pasta dinner since we eat differently, and it was very tasty! Just some extra dirty pans to wash.

Scottish Oats with a Crunch:


Ingredients:

  • 1/4 C Scottish Oats
  • 1 C water
  • 1/4 C Almond Milk
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 C raisins
  • 1/2 Mashed banana
  • Pinch Chia seeds
  • Pinch Salt
  • On top: Drizzle maple syrup, sprinkle Kashi Go Lean Crunch

Instructions:

Boil water, then add oats and whisk in. Let cook for 5 minutes. Add other ingredients except toppings and whisk together. Let cook for 5 minutes until thick. Pour in bowl and add toppings.

I loved the banana mashed instead of sliced and the raisins to cook together instead of pouring on at the end. And the cereal makes it crunchy. The almond milk also added a different flavor than regular milk.

Lunch Sampler Plate:

Lunch can be boring, and I especially get bored of lettuce sometimes. This lunch was great, and I put the greens in the drink.

On the plate:

  • Tomatoes with crumbled Athenos Feta Cheese
  • Store-bought Tabouleh
  • Baby Carrots
  • Athenos Greek Style Hummus
  • Pumpkin Apple Muffin (so good, I’m still eating the original batch from the freezer)

Side of merky Green Monster (1/2 banana, handfuls spinach, ice, 1/4 C almond milk, frozen mixed berries) I only drank about half of that.

I really like the sampler idea when you don’t know what you want.

Make Your Own Pasta Night:

Jeffrey and I eat different foods, and when I suggested pasta for dinner and said I wanted mine with vegetables, he said that vegetables don’t go with pasta. Hmmph. Anyone want to argue with him? I can’t win. So we made our own pasta dishes and only overlapped on the noodles and sauce.

This was a great one-dish dinner and only used one extra pan than it would have if we ate the same meal.

This is mine:

For the noodles, I boiled whole wheat penne according to the package.

For the vegetables, I sprayed Pam on a pan and let it get hot. Then I added small slices of broccoli florets, a diced red pepper, and small pieces of mushrooms. I let these cook until soft.

Then I added noodles to the vegetables and let them get hot together. Then I added about two spoonfuls of pesto (recipe below) and mixed it in. The cheese in the pesto made a great cheesy, melty sauce when it got hot. It was a very flavorful addition to the dish. I liked this a lot!

This is Jeffrey’s:

For Jeffrey’s dish, he cut three raw chicken breasts into strips and cooked them on the stovetop in garlic + olive oil until cooked through. He loved the garlic oil sauce flavor in his chicken.

Then he added noodles to his chicken, and added canned artichokes to the dish plus pesto.

Classic Pesto:

Ingredients:

  • 2 C fresh basil leaves
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/4 C grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/3 C pine nuts
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • up to 1/2 C olive oil

Instructions:

In a food processor, blend the basil and garlic.

Then scrape off sides and add cheese, nuts, salt and pepper. Pulse until combined.

Through nozzle on top, add 1/4 C olive oil while machine is on and let whirl. Then add up to another 1/4 C depending on how you like it. Taste and season with more salt and pepper.

Filed Under: Breakfast, Daily Update, Dinner, Lunch, Recipes, Vegetarian · Tagged With: ,

Fresh Ideas–BLDD

September 15, 2010 by 2 Comments

Remember to enter the giveaway for five 18 Rabbits Granola Bars!

**To enter this giveaway, please leave a comment on this post telling me that 18 Rabbits is something you’d like to try. You must also become a fan of 18 Rabbits on Facebook to enter, and for a bonus entry, follow them on Twitter @18rabbits and leave a separate comment telling me that you did.

You have until Friday to enter, and I’ll announce the winner on Monday morning. Good luck!

Running:

Over the summer, I created a big spreadsheet to train for the Dallas Half Marathon. It’s over on my How To page, but you can ignore it. I should probably just post a link to Hal Higdon’s website in its place. I have not kept to the long run plan at all. I still keep track of what I do each day, especially regarding mileage, but I haven’t gone more than 6 miles outside ever. I am not worried yet, as December 5 is still 10ish weeks away and my overall fitness is fine. I just need some cooler temps to get into the real training (it’s still over 90!). And I don’t want to overdo it since my legs and hips are not the most willing to run! Until then, I giggle that the spreadsheet is saying 9 and Saturday is Yom Kippur. I guess I didn’t consult the Jewish calendar.

BLDD:

That’s breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert. These are the fastest, easiest, yet super tasty meals I’ve done in one day.

Breakfast:

Zucchini banana bread with two hard boiled egg whites and 1/2 banana. The banana goes great with the loaf since there’s banana in it.

Lunch:

I am still obsessing about the Flat Out wraps (90 calories and the wrap is huge and tasty), so I made another. This wrap had hummus spread on the inside, then I filled it with lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and leftovers from the Whole Foods Salad bar of corn, peas, jicama, and wild rice. On the side was carrots and the other half banana with peanut butter. Don’t knock carrots + peanut butter until you’ve tried it.

Dinner:

Chicken with Tomatoes and Herbs

Let’s talk about simplicity. This dish had 4 ingredients, and two could be optional. I took a pack of chicken and put it in a Pyrex dish. Then poured flavored diced tomatoes in a can over it. Then topped with oregano and rosemary leftover from last week. That’s it! Bake at 350* for 30 minutes. With a few minutes left to bake, we added shaved parmesan cheese on top to melt.

Served with a side of Alexia potatoes plus vegetables, and steamed snap peas seasoned with Mrs. Dash Salad Supreme (just a basic spice mixture) and salt and pepper.

Dessert:

Fresh Figs with Honey and Chocolate Chips

That’s it, those are the ingredients. I used 2 figs with a drizzle of honey and a few chocolate chips. Voila. Delicious flavors together.

Filed Under: Breakfast, Daily Update, Dessert, Dinner, Half Marathon, Lunch, Recipes · Tagged With: ,

Goals, Product Review, and Easy Meals

September 1, 2010 by 2 Comments

Happy September! I think in most places September means that Fall is coming, but we’re still in summer mode. The sun is setting earlier, but the heat isn’t going anywhere. My legs and I are waiting for 70 degree temperatures at 6 a.m. so we can practice outside! I’m looking forward to fall foods, cool breeze, not sweating when I walk the dog two houses, etc.

Goal Setting:

A lot of people set goals at the beginning of each month, but fitness goals cause me more stress than encouragement. I’d like to say that my goal is to run 40-50 miles within the month, but I won’t do it if my shins hurt. And I’d like to say that I’ll perfect my form on 20 inch boxes for box jumping, but if not, I’ll just keep trying. I created a personal half marathon training plan, but I have gotten off on the running part due to leg pains. They are mild now, but I don’t want to exacerbate. And I’ve got lots of time! Cross training is perfectly on track.

Do fitness goals work for you?

Eats:

I have been eating some great, simple meals lately. Here’s a sample:

Breakfast:

Chobani Plain yogurt mixed with Cinnamon and Honey, then topped with Blueberries and a new Galaxy Granola flavor that I won in a Twitter contest called Hint of Honey. I have been hooked on vanilla flavored Greek yogurt, but everyone eats plain, so I’ve been trying to add my own flavors to plain to make it more tasty. I still like Vanilla best. And this Galaxy flavor was more crispy than crunchy (does that make sense?) than Not Sweet Vanilla, which is m favorite of their flavors. I think I like the oat-y text of granola better than the crispy rice texture. But I still like that it’s 120 calories and 2 g fat for 1/4 cup. Better than other granolas for sure.

Lunch:

This lunch was delicious! I want it again. Now. I used an Orowheat Sandwich Thin with Laughing Cow Garlic and Herb Cheese, and put tomato and lox on one side and cucumber on the other. With a side of leftover green beans and mushrooms. And unpictured berries. I use Laughing Cow for so many things, but replacing mayo or cream cheese is the best use. Just like a traditional lox sandwich, except better for you!

Have I shown you my lunch buddy? This is the only spot that she’ll go and stay quiet. Hi Lily, go take a nap somewhere and let me eat my lunch. Unless you want to do computer things for me.

Dinner:

Last week y’all told me some of your favorite go-to weeknight dinners, and here’s another of mine. Lettuce, sauteed vegetables, 1/2 sweet potato, and black beans. I’m not going to say it was my favorite dinner ever. I had PB&J Banana Ice Cream for dessert.

Filed Under: Breakfast, Daily Update, Dinner, Lily, Lunch, Product Reviews · Tagged With: ,

Recent Eats and a Book Review

August 26, 2010 by 4 Comments

Last day to enter the tote bag giveaway!

**Giveaway Reminder** Please remember to enter my giveaway for the Envitote. It’s a reusable grocery tote that is more sturdy but still lightweight than other reusable bags. You have until this afternoon to leave a comment on the giveaway link to get you entered!

Book Review: Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner

I just finished Jennifer Weiner’s most recent book, Fly Away Home. I love her earliest books like Good In Bed, Certain Girls, and Goodnight Nobody, so I was eager to start a new one. I have actually read all her books because I love her writing style so much. Did not enjoy last summer’s Best Friends Forever.

Fly Away Home is about a politician who cheats on his wife and mirrors real life couples like the Spitzers, Sanfords, Edwards, and Clintons. (Gosh, why are there so many? And always men?!) The book tells the story from the wife’s point of view. She and her two grown daughters (one a doctor who is having her own affair, and one a recovering addict who is knocked up by a man) cope with his infidelity and move on with their lives in the public eye. The book was also similar to “The Good Wife” television show.

As always, I like Jennifer Weiner’s writing style and character development. The women were easy to like and relate with. Her jokes were funny, there weren’t too many characters to get confused. But to me, the plot didn’t go anywhere. It almost seemed amateur that the women were broken down and then came back together to heal at their vacation cottage. There wasn’t much surprise anywhere in the book. It was enjoyable and a quick read, but when it ended, I was ready to move along.

What I’ve been eating lately:

My meals have been really simple. When it’s just me I’m cooking for, I like to put things together with minimal ingredients or mess. That also means clean eating mostly, so no complaints here about my recent minimalist approach to meal preparation.

Breakfast:

One slice of Blueberry Cinnamon loaf, 2 hard boiled egg whites, unpictured extra blueberries. I cut the loaf when I made it and froze it in slices so I can eat them without any prep. Just defrost and enjoy. And I boiled the eggs over the weekend. Ready in seconds.

Lunch:

Big Salad with Tuna Fish. The salad part was lettuce, 1/2 tomato, 1/2 avocado, carrot sticks, two slices fresh bread left over from Sunday dinner.

Tuna was 1 4 oz pack tuna, 1 hard boiled egg white, pickles, salt, pepper, yellow mustard.

Snack:

4 oz Oikos Greek Vanilla yogurt with banana and ginger snap

Dinner:

Although not the prettiest, this is one of my favorite go-to dinners when I need some vegetables and basics. 1/2 sweet potato, 1/2 C baked beans, roasted brussels sprouts, snap peas, and yellow pepper. I roasted them at 350* for about 25 minutes with olive oil, salt, pepper, and cumin seed. I ate more vegetables than pictured.

I have the second half of the whole meal for the next night.

Quick doesn’t have to be boring. And it doesn’t have to be from the freezer aisle. These meals are flavorful, varied, and nutritious. Plenty of fruit, vegetables, protein, and fats.

What’s your go-to meal?

Filed Under: Books, Breakfast, Daily Update, Dinner, Lunch, Snacks · Tagged With: ,

A Day of Food

August 13, 2010 by Leave a Comment

The winner of the Everyday with Rachael Ray one-year subscription is lucky commenter 2: Nicole from stellashopper.com

Email me your mailing address and I’ll send in the subscription! marci1684 at gmail dot com.

Didn’t win this one? I have a few really great giveaways coming up in the next few weeks, so stay tuned. Who doesn’t like more food related free things?

Tomorrow is the Aquathlon! I got a little worried earlier this week when I read on the race site that the prize categories by age grouped everyone over 19 together. I thought I’d be a giant in a pool of teenagers. But no worries, the kid categories are because the race benefits a kids swimming group. Many adults competing. Now I’m back to looking forward to it! Who can I bug at 5 a.m. when I wake up on my way to the race?

My sister is also visiting Houston Lily this weekend and leaves for the airport early on Sunday. So I will not be sleeping past 6 a.m. until next Friday I think. Bummer.

Here is a typical day of eating. The above picture is how it looks all ready to go in my lunch bag. It’s a Lululemon bag behind the tupperware tower. Have you tried anything I’ve posted? Let me know what you  like so I know what to write about!

Breakfast:

I wish overnight oats looked better in pictures. They taste great. This one is 1/3 C oats, 1/4 C milk, 1/3 C Oikos Vanilla yogurt, 1 T chia seeds, and a banana added on top the next morning. I hadn’t been adding a full T of chia seeds because they are soooo many, but they really do add a nice texture and don’t get stuck in your teeth like they look like they would. Not familiar with chia and its benefits of fiber and omega 3s? Read here. They are the new “it” thing now.

Lunch:

I had a salad of lettuce, carrots, cucumber, snap peas, red pepper, and tomato basil feta, just like I wrote about yesterday. Side of berries and hummus, and an unpictured slice of Orowheat bread with peanut butter. The salad wasn’t as exciting for lunch than when I made it the night before.

Snack:

1 delicious peach and a Babybel cheese. Mmmm fruit and cheese is great together.

Dinner:

I love breakfast for dinner and have been wanting to make pancakes for a long time. They are too heavy to have for breakfast on the weekends because I exercise after usually, so I never get any!

Alert for new (to me) delicious product! Kodiak Cakes has a mix that is so easy, it only needs 1 C water added to 1 C mix. It is good for pancakes or waffles, and is whole wheat and honey flavored.  The combo made 7 nice sized pancakes, seen below. It was plenty for two people. The package had so much left, it will last us a long time. Pretty box too.

I added blueberries and chocolate chips (not together) to mine, and left Jeffrey’s plain. He’s a plain Jane like that. Put on griddle for 1 minute per side, and done!

Pretty, tasty, and the perfect size when finished! Would be great with nuts, or bananas, or even toppers like peanut butter or yogurt. And the chocolate chip was great at dinnertime.

I had 2 3 with a 3-egg white scramble with spinach. And some extra blueberries.

Have a great Friday and weekend!

Filed Under: Breakfast, Daily Update, Dinner, Lunch, Product Reviews, Recipes, Snacks · Tagged With: , , ,

TGIF

July 30, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Hi friends,

I hope you liked my banana post. I don’t get many comments, but I can tell when my blog has a good day! You should say hi sometime so I know who is reading and can tailor what I write to what you want to read!

In fitness news, my swimming is going, well, swimmingly? Have I used that pun yet? I really like it, I think I’m getting better, and I am excited for my race in a few weeks. I can successfully swim 300 m without breaks repeatedly. If my goggles behave, my laps are even better.

I exchanged the shoes I bought for some new ones. I haven’t tried them out yet but hope to on Saturday. I am trying Asics again, but this time the shoe has support in addition to my orthotics. My poor, messed up legs. Why must I torchure them and when will I get the courage to try cycling?

After I was told I am “slow” at my CrossFit workout on Mondy, I have also tried to pick up my pace and maintain my good movements with decent weight increases. I kept that in mind on Wednesday and  am supposed to make myself uncomfortable for those short workouts. New challenge there.

Here is a recent day of eating. I purposely did not buy deli turkey this week because I have been bored with it, so I have had a lot of veg meals without really meaning to. After cooking the block of tofu this week, it lasted me for three meals!

Overnight Oats:

one container Plain Chobani Yogurt (5 oz)

1/3 C Quaker Old Fashioned Oats

1/4 C milk

cinnamon shakes

drizzle honey

big pinch chia seeds

Half banana added in morning

Lunch:

1/2 Sweet potato

1/2 avocado

lettuce

1/2 tomato

few carrots

1 hard boiled egg white

1/2 Orowheat Sandwich Thin with PB and J

Cup filled with 4 strawberries and 1/2 banana

Dinner:

Tuna and salmon rolls and Broccoli Crunch from Whole Foods

Dessert:

Banana ice cream with a cookie on top

Filed Under: Breakfast, Daily Update, Dessert, Dinner, Exercise, Lunch, Swimming, Vegetarian · Tagged With: , ,

Clean eating and a Tofu Experiment

July 16, 2010 by 1 Comment

Happy Friday blog friends! The picture above was a snack seen below. But it’s pretty to keep you reading for more.

Yesterday was a pool workout. My Aquathlon is a month away, and I am a new swimmer, so I need to practice! I did about 50 minutes of 50 meter laps. I focused on breating less than every two strokes, and taking fewer breaks after each lap. If only I could figure out how to keep water out of my goggles, my breaks would really be short. Next up will be to swim a full 300 meters with as few stops as possible, and also try a swim + run brick.

My shin and hip hurt from running. Not happy about that. :(

The food:

First, I figured out a breakfast  mystery. Last week at the grocery, they were out of my medium sized yogurt containers so I bought single serving 6 oz ones. A few mornings for breakfast this week, I made overnight oats, and realized that it was So Thick. I thought it was maybe because I used plain yogurt instead of vanilla and it had fewer additives or something, but then I realized that I used to mix milk or water with yogurt. Mystery solved. Eating overnight oats without milk makes for a thick (and very filling!) breakfast. Now we all know.

Moving along, I had one of these super dense oatmeal raisin muffins with two egg whites and cantaloupe. A favorite breakfast for taking to work.

Lunch was a turkey and Swiss sandwich on Orowheat Sandwich Thin with lettuce, tomato, red pepper hummus, and a side of extra vegetables and cherries. A simple but fresh and tasty lunch.

My snack was super colorful: 4 oz Vanilla Oikos with a cup of berries and a half Kashi TLC bar crumbled like makeshift granola. I had the other half before lunch.

Then I got adventurous in the kitchen and tried tofu again. I tried it a few weeks ago baked in the oven, and it was good, but not so crispy like I get at a restaurant. So I did some research and found Emily’s blog.  She is a chef in training and has a Tofu Tutorial. How perfect for me. I followed her instructions exactly, and created a delicious dinner. Success!

Don’t be scared of tofu. It is far less scarier than raw chicken. Don’t say it has no flavor, or you don’t know what to do with it. Chicken is blah unless you make it good. Same with tofu.

Sauteed Tofu Stir Fry:

Step 1: Buy what Emily buys. I bought Nasoya Firm Tofu. Did not see Lite like hers, so mine was 70 calories and 7 g protein per 1/5 block. I’ll look for Lite next time.

Step 2: Cut like she cuts, and press! I used the whole block of tofu. I don’t know if you could just cook half because it sits in a water, and the block isn’t that big. For one person, it would be two meals, but if you bribe trick cook for your husband or a friend, it could serve two easily.

So I cut the block in strips both ways, then laid them on a towel, folded, and pressed with a cookbook for ten minutes. After pressing, I cut the strips in half, making a lot of little pieces.

Step 3: Follow cooking instructions like hers. I heated a sautee pan with olive oil and laid the pieces down when the pan sizzled. Sprinkled salt and pepper over them. Let cook until brown on bottom, and flip each piece.

Look at that, brown bottoms. That seems to be the basics where you can then add vegetables, rice, sauce, etc. So I added a Thai Ginger sauce to my pan and let it all heat together.

In a separate pan, I steamed snap peas, red pepper, 1/2 zucchini, scallions, and a half steamed sweet potato (all were leftovers from earlier this week) in a little bit of water, salt, and pepper. Once the vegetables were soft and hot, I added to the tofu.

Then I got creative with my camera and made this cute topper. Sweet potato, zucchini, tofu.

And my dish all together: Tofu with vegetables and a sweet potato.

Filed Under: Breakfast, Daily Update, Dinner, Lunch, Snacks, Swimming · Tagged With: , ,

Weekday Eats

July 14, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Check out this article from the New York Times published on Monday. This woman has been writing down her dinners for TWELVE years.
(thanks to Stacy in my office for showing me the article)

What’s Been for Dinner? She Could Look It Up

I don’t know what I had twelve years ago, but here are some recent breakfast, lunch, and dinner eats.

In exercise update news, I bought new shoes to see if that alleviates any hip and leg pain. I probably won’t know if the shoes make a difference unless the pain actually disappears, but here’s hoping for at least duller pain. I am trying Saucony and giving Asics a rest. I did a gym cardio workout in them on Monday, then ran 3 miles on the treadmill on Tuesday. My legs were fine, but we’ll see what happens when I finally start going outside again and picking up the miles.

I also read a great post with a video from Edible Ash. She is a major proponent of barefoot running and running in Vibram Five Fingers, but gave great tips in her video that can also be applied to running slowly and carefully. She says to watch where your feet strike and try to stand upright, focus on picking up your feet quickly instead of focusing on where you land, and taking light quick steps. Interesting, right?

Overnight Dark Chocolate OIAJ (Oats in a Jar):

Ingredients:

1/3 C Old Fashioned Oats

1/2 C Vanilla Oikos Yogurt

1/3 C Milk

pinch chia seeds

~1T remainder of PB & Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter Jar

Instructions:

Stir above together to get PB off of the bottom, let refrigerate overnight.

I added blueberries and a little Fiber One cereal for more crunch in the morning. Toppings are endless, but I try not to go overboard and choose one or two each time.

 

For lunch I had a big salad with berries and crackers on the side. This salad had lettuce, cherry tomatoes, carrots, orange pepper, 1 hard boiled egg white, 1/2 avocado, ~1/3 C Great Northern Beans. And as always, hummus for dipping.

 

Citrus Chicken:

For dinner, I put together a quick 5 ingredient chicken (I don’t count salt and pepper in my under 5 ingredient recipes). Chicken yucks me out sometimes, but I have gotten better at preparing it and adding flavor and liquids to keep it from drying out while baking.

Ingredients:

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (3 in a pack)

1 orange and zest

salt and pepper

EVOO

lemon juice

garlic

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 *

Cut the 3 breasts in half (this for me is a major tip to speed up the cooking and make the pieces not so huge). Place in Pyrex dish.

Drizzle EVOO on each piece and rub in.

Squeeze juice from one orange all over chicken and let juices flow down the dish.

Cut garlic into disks and place in dish and on chicken. Can leave some whole too.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper

Bake for 30-35 minutes. Make sure insides are cooked.

 I cut my piece into slices and served over my Gazpacho.

 

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