Holy Mole de Tofu! June 22, 2009

Breakfast started the day simply with a pile of blueberries, raspberries, cherries, and strawberries.

As well as a big glass of Chocolate Mint Vitasoy.

For lunch I brought along left over Tropical Kale salad with an amazing side of tofu.  Sandwiched in the tofu slices is raw mole made from the recipe in Raw Food, Real World, and it is amazing!  It doesn’t taste quite like the mole I’ve had in Mexico, but it’s still really good.  And the recipe was so simple compared to some other that I’ve seen with about a billion ingredients in them.  It’s more chocolatey and bit sweeter than regular mole, but I kinda like it that way.  The only complaint I have about the recipe is the fact that I now have almost 1 litre of sauce hanging out in the fridge!  I definitely need to package some up for the freezer, so it will be nice to have this tasty sauce on hand for a long time to come.

Snacking was accomplished with a carrot and a handful of super sweet strawberry tomatoes.

For dinner I had all the ingredients handy to make some more almost raw sushi rolls, but then I did a rather horrible job of slicing them up.  My knife was just not cooperating.  The tasty nuggets are stuffed with jicama rice, green onion, red pepper, asparagus and avocado.  With a splash of soy sauce.

And for dessert, a pile of perfectly RIPE papaya.

Notice Recieved June 18, 2009

So apparently Mother Nature has been successfully notified that Sunday is the first day of summer…

That didn’t help this morning though, I left my window open last night, and as you can see, my room was rather chilly with I woke up this morning.  The solution, oatmeal.  I played copy-cat and used an almost empty jam jar as my food delivery vessel.  Into my tummy went oatmeal with banana, extra water and chia seeds, my mom’s homemade strawberry jam, and some awesome Maranatha creamy peanut butter.

Then for lunch I packed up a container of snap peas, red pepper, a little bit of carrot (hiding at the bottom) and lots of kabocha (to make up for not eating it yesterday, of course)

Plus for snacking I had a nectarine, a lychee (the other one was for the cubicle-mate), cherries and blueberries.

Then a surprise! Due to the aforementioned first day of summer coming up the building management for my office building had a free ice cream day! So despite having had a little ice cream action yesterday I went all out and enjoyed this treat. So good!

So it was no surprise that I wasn’t very hungry with I got home, but I figured I should get some protein in me so I cooked up the tofu I had started marinating in the morning along with some broccoli, instead of the full on stiryfry I had planned. The tofu was marinated in teriyaki sauce, pineapple, lemon juice, garlic and powdered ginger.  OMG it was good!  I usually eat tofu plain, not even cooked, but I might just had to include this marinating step a bit more often.

And I’m slightly annoyed that I completely forgot about So You Think You Can Dance last night, so there isn’t even a point to watching the results tonight. But it’ll show up online in a few days, I’m sure.

Hide the protein! June 16, 2009

I had something different for breakfast this morning.  When I made oatmeal this weekend I made extra and froze some.  This morning I took out one of those portions (oats and banana) and nuked it with extra water, chia seeds, PB2 and a few toffee sprinkles.  And along with it I had a Starbucks Fruit salad from the pile that had taken up residence in the fridge overnight, and a delicious giant lychee.

For snacking I brought to work with me a container of kabocha, two ways.  First as a sandwich with almond butter, and second cubed and drizzled with soy sauce.  Plus I brought a shitake mushroom because I had an empty space in the container, and I wanted to try one raw to see if I liked it.  I know I don’t like button/cremini mushrooms raw, but I thought I would give the shitake a try.  The verdict? Not so much.  But I did thoroughly enjoy those cherries for lunch dessert.

Lunch itself was a giant salad of romaine topped with carrot, red pepper, snap peas, and tofu marinated in soy sauce/sesame oil/apple cider vinegar.  I seem to be developing a thing for soy sauce…and am running out….must stock up!

When I got home I had a tasty medjool, straight up.

Then for dinner I got a bit creative.  My base was spinach flavoured shirataki noodles, steamed broccoli, and shitake mushrooms sauteed in a bit of olive oil.  Then I hid some protein in the sauce.  I blended a chunk of tofu with nutritional yeast, garlic powder, a splash of vinegar and water, salt and pepper.  And I was happy to discover it tastes really good, and actually cheesy!  But next time I either need to make a bigger batch, or use silken tofu, or both.  I made so little the sauce was flinging itself away from the blades and didn’t blend very smoothly.  So it doesn’t look very pretty, but it sure tasted good!

Ready to Dance? May 21, 2009

This morning I woke up to the tastiest of green monsters, kale, banana. pineapple, and chia seeds. Then I proceeded to waste some time attempting to take a more interesting than usual picture of the drink with a pouring action shot. I think I failed. I had no time to arrange things for proper lighting or camera propage.

Later in the morning I dug into two Activia yogurts. And you can multiple this photo by two to represent the yogurts I had before going to sleep last night. So creamy and good.

For lunch I fixed up a giant salad. It started with baby spinach, carrot, cucumber, grape tomatos, and broccoli sprouts. Then it was topped with steamed edamame and broccoli. And it was finished with a giant dollop of citrusy bean dip. Perfect mix of flavours and textures (though now that I think about it, I could have added some crunchy nuts).

And late in the afternoon I dug into my favourite Clif bar, Carrot Cake.

Dinner was engineered as a way to consume a condiment I just had to make. It started with reading about some one else “lovin” the recipe, and was meant to be when I got home and my roomie told me he made it for lunch and it was amazing. The Back to Basics Balsamic Vinegrette from ED&BV. I used almond oil and maple syrup, and it was truly delicious, my taste buds were pleased. The chosen dressing vehicle was boiled beets and tofu. The beets were particularly wonderful. And as a side note, my roomie made the Savoury French (Puy) Lentils for dinner, and I had a bit, and they were also pretty fantastic. He’s been busy copying recipes into his notebook….

I’ve also been told there are plans to make a spice cake tonight, so I’m saving room for a little dessert later.

On the way home something mildly exciting happened. I saw Sunny Fong (aka. winner of the last season of Project Runway Canada). I stood beside him on the bus, then followed him onto the subway. Well, I didn’t actually follow him, I even stopped to buy next week’s metropass, but he must have been held up somewhere else because I ended up right behind him again on the escalator down to the platform. I wasn’t even entirely sure it was him, because he had a cold so his voice is scratchy when he was talking to his friend beside him, and he was wearing big sunglasses, but the hair was the same, and I checked the tatoos once I got home and they did indeed match. And that’s my fun story for the day.

Now who’s ready for some summer television goodness?  So You Think You Can Dance starts tonight!

I passed! May 19, 2009

I passed the first test I’ve had in over a year!  Not that I was expecting to fail or anything, it was for a safety training course, multiple choice, and not exactly designed to make you fail.  But it’s fun to hear that I passed anyway, and to earn a new sticker for my hard hat.  And to get a pretty cool tour around and subway yard, including checking out the bottom of a subway car.

Breakfast this morning started with RED monster.  I blended up the stalks from my beet greens, a tomato, chia seeds, raspberries, grapes, and a Nutribiotic Mixed Berry Brown Rice Protein Powder packet.  Besides, being a fun electric pink, it was pretty good…after I added a big spoonful of maple syrup.  The beet green stalks were fine, but let’s just say I’m never adding a tomato again.  Luckily, the extra sugar solved the acidic problem.  I guess I still don’t like tomato juice after all these years.

For lunch I brought a bagel-wich filled with avocado, tofu marinated in liquid smoke, and citrusy bean dip.  I was trying to go for a bacon type effect like actual smoked tofu (Pete’s really does taste like bacon), and while I didn’t really get it, the liquid smoke was still really good in the sandwich.

I also packed some red pepper strips and a Chocolate Chip Clif bar (which I shared with the cubicle-mate who was also doing the training session).

For dinner I fixed up two salads.  One featured a new vegetable for me, broccoli sprouts.

I chopped up some romaine and carrots and topped them with the sprouts, and a big dollop of citrusy bean dip mixed with avocado.  The sprouts were really good.  They were a bit peppery, which went perfectly with the creamy dip.  Toronto sprouts has some pretty cool mixes, and I get the impression they’re quite widely available in the GTA (I bought mine from Loblaws, but I see them in most of the smaller health food stores around too). Though, their own store has just closed because they’re moving to a bigger location.

The second salad was a fruity one. I chopped up honeydew, mango, (frozen) pineapple, banana, raspberries, and blueberries, then drizzled the bowl with a little agave syrup, simply delicious.

Brought to you by the letter… May 17, 2009

B!  I noticed an unintentional theme to today while going back through my photos, beets, banana, beans, berries, bagel, balsalmic…  I seemed to be going through a certain section of the dictionary and eating all edible entries!

Let’s start off with another letter B, BSI: Bananas, courtsey of Lara at Thinspired. For breakfast this morning I fixed myself a beautiful bowl Banana Breakfast Pudding, which I originally accidentally made here. The recipe is simple, one banana, 1/3 package (~1/2 cup) soft silken tofu, 2-3 T water, and 1/3 cup oatmeal. Immersion blender, plus toppings = delicious

Though I would like to add a note that the quick cooking oats I used the first time blended more smoothly than the old-fashioned kind I used today. And my toppings of choice were raspberries and honeydew, sweet and summery.

For lunch I did a bit of chopping and trimming and came up with a fresh and flavourful salad of steamed green beans and beet root dressing with yogurt, apple cider vinegar, and tarragon. And on the side were two apricots that I picked up this morning, simply because they amused me in their extreme pointyness and non-fuzzyness (that are unfortunately a bit lost in the 2D photo). They were surprisingly too, apparently they’re “the first of the season”.

In the afternoon I snacked on half a bagel spread with strawberry, blackberry, and acai jam.

And a piece of chocolate. Cocoa Camino is awesome chocolate, but they could have added a few more (and larger) nut and berry pieces. Though the full size bar might have larger chunks in it, I may have to investigate that some time.

I was especially excited for dinner today after buying the beets in the morning. I usually don’t buy beets, because later in the summer I can easily get my fill for free from the parent’s garden, plus typically, I don’t even eat the root (that’s what compost piles are for, right?), just the greens, and grocery store beets tend to have pathetic greens. But today, I found a giant pile of beets sitting in the organic produce section with lots of BEAUTIFUL greens, and before I could even think about it, I found a bunch in my basket!

So for dinner tonight I sauteed the greens with sweet onion, tofu, olive oil, and a giant handful of parsley, thyme, and sage. Plus I pan “grilled” a portabello mushroom with balsamic vinegar and topped it with herbed goat cheese and tomato slices. Best dinner in a long time, the beet greens were so good!

And I did a even did a good job of trimming up my bountiful window herb garden. It’s grown a bit in the past three weeks, hadn’t it? I’ve even been cutting away at it before today…

And now for what will surely be a good Desperate Housewives finale, and getting ready to NOT go to work tomorrow, yay!

Minty Green May 15, 2009

I had a couple surprises today, both of them fun things.

This first surprise was when I got up this morning and the roomie was gone!  Apparently he worked this morning, which means I was free to make as much noise as I wanted.  Enter the blender.  A foot long sprig of chocolate mint, chocolate rice protein powder, red kale, chia seeds, a banana and grapes.  Amazing.

This protein powder was pretty good, a first time try for me.  I bought a berry flavoured one too.

For lunch I repeated my salad mess.   They’re really tasty.  Today I included zucchini, tofu, orange pepper, yogurt, stone ground mustard, and a handful of chives.

And lunch dessert was a granny smith apple with almonds.

My second surprise of the day was when we finished all the work we could do on site, so we went home early!  Extra long weekend for the win, even though I didn’t actually work summer hours this week!

So I went for a long walk this afternoon, and at some point the idea of a sandwich for dinner popped into my head and sounded like the best idea in the world.  So I actually stopped into grocery store on the way home to pick up the necessary ingredients (I never do that).  I ended up with a whole wheat kaiser roll, sliced turkey breast, and herbed goat cheese.  At home I also added mustard, freshly picked parsley, tomato, and dill pickle.  It was a pretty awesome sandwich, and it made my stomach very happy

Sweet Strawberries May 11, 2009

So today was an extra long day at work. But only by 45 minutes. And I’m perfectly okay with it because it means next weekend will be EXTRA EXTRA long 12:30 Friday to Tuesday morning, go May 2-4 a week early this year (I just realized it this morning, hence the excitment)!

Breakfast this morning I was happy to have a green monster featuring a banana, apple, spinach, and chia seeds. Yummy, and it didn’t even look any darker despite the addition of black chia seeds instead of white.

For lunch I brought a zucchini, celery, and carrot all chopped up and waiting to be dipped in a tasty, but slightly odd sweet salsa/relish thing made by my roomie’s grandma.

And of course some fruit, tomato, strawberries, and frozen pineapple and grapes. I wasn’t going to buy strawberries until local ones came since the last ones I bought were quite diappointing, but when I walked by the display the over whelming berry aroma broke my resolve. And I’m glad it did because these one’s are so sweet and delicious!

For an afternoon snack I had a  nice and crunchy Starbucks yogurt and garnola parfait (a barista roomie perk).  The slices of strawberry in the yogurt were MASSIVE! I loved it!

For dinner I made a delish stirfry of tofu, snow peas, portabello, wild leeks, rice, thyme, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.

And finally, for dessert, I savoured the last little slice of delicious chocolate cake. Thanks again Ricky!

Orange and Green May 7, 2009

Those two colours seem to have been the unintentional theme today.

It was dark and cold and rainy when I got up this morning, which made me want a warm breakfast.  So I threw some of the awesome Hewitt’s oats my mom gave me, some Dorset Fruits, Nuts, and Seeds cereal, cinnamon, and a banana in a pot with water.  That oatmeal is seriously good…

While my breakfast was cooking I was busy chopping up some fruit and veggies for work.  I filled the classy broken-cornered Rubbermaid container with carrot, red pepper, snow peas, cucumber, and steamed broccoli sprinkled with lime juice.  And I channeled my inner Picasso while packing everything up.

The fruit side was covered by an orange, a granny smith apple, and blackberries.

For dinner I rediscovered the can of pumpkin that’s been hiding on the top shelf of the fridge.  Well, it was actually in plain view, but I tend to keep my food on the middle shelf, so if I stick something on the top shelf my eyes like to skip over it.  I sauteed more of the giant vidalia onion with mushrooms and soft tofu in olive oil, then mixed in pumpkin, water, pumpkin pie spice, maple syrup and a handful of chives, blended, then topped with a spoonful of yogurt for a delicious (and rather large!) bowl of soup.

Purple monster and a meme. April 23, 2009

So we turned the heat off over a month ago in our apartment, and refuse to turn it back on.  As a result, it’s been a bit chilly the past few days, especially with no sunlight to warm things up through all the south and west facing windows.  So this morning I warmed up with a big bowl o’ oat bran.  I nuked it with almond milk and a banana before topping it with crumbly pumpkin seed butter and raisins.  An excellent bowl of oats to start off the day.  Though I am considering attempting to add a little oil to the pumpkin seed butter to make it more….buttery.

That bowl kept me nicely satisfied right until lunch time when a pulled out a romaine salad topped with red pepper, cucumber, lentils, and asparagus edamummus.  This was the best salad I’ve had in a while, the red pepper, lentils and edamummus together were awesome.

And because Caroline asked, I did make the hummus myself and it contains approximately 2/3 cup each chickpeas and edamame, 1 trimmed 340 g bunch raw aspargus, 1 T tahini, 2 T lemon juice, half a head of roasted garlic, and a little salt.  And a trip in the Vita mix for an awesome smooth store bought texture my food processor has never given me.

In the afternoon I started drinking a purple monster containing frozen broccoli, frozen blueberries, and soft tofu.  Unfortunately it didn’t taste very good because I threw in too much tofu and the berries have been in the freezer forever and had no flavour left, so I only drank about half of it.

Luckily I had also brought along a Chocolate Almond Fudge Clif Bar.  My fridge was suddenly looking very barren after the huge veggie bowl last night.  This is the first time I tried this flavour, and I wasn’t particularly impressed, probably won’t buy it again.  It’s either too sweet or not enough chocolate, or both.

For dinner I fixed up another awesome stirfry, same as yesterday except instead of snow peas I found a bag of asparagus in the freezer, the last bag of frozen veg from my parent’s garden last year.  In the mix was tofu, shiitake mushrooms, asparagus, sesame oil and teriyaki sauce.  Along side I enjoyed a perfectly ripe, local greenhouse tomato.

Then for dessert, to make up for the dissapointing blueberry smoothie earlier in the day I enjoyed a Source Salba Blueberry bar.  And it was delicious.  It’s a bit high in sugar, but the agave nectar they use makes all their bars taste amazing.  Perfect for the occasional treat.

And finally, because Amanda tagged me:

8 Things I’m Looking Forward To:
1. Going back to school in September
2. Going home next weekend for my mom’s birthday
3. Possibly going to San Francisco next year
4. Losing another 50-60ish pounds
5. Switching to summer hours and having Friday afternoons off again
6. A certain cake in a couple of weeks
7. St. Lawrence Farmer’s Market opening for real in the summer
8. Iron Ring! (and finding myself a good job/career afterwards)

8 Things I Did Yesterday: (yesterday was a pretty uneventful day…)
1. Spent the entire day at work happily occupied with real engineering work
2. Got off the subway and walked part way home, even though it was kinda cold.
3. Watched an episode of Bones.
4. Used my Steel Design Code for the first time in over a year (concrete dominates for sure).
5. Taught the roomie how to use the Vita-Mix.
6. Finished the entire crossword on the ride to work.
7. Walked under a series of roof slabs I had spent the day calculating that they failed under the current safety codes.
8. Ate a ton of veggies.

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
1. Speak Mandarin (yes, I’m stealing it from Amanda, it’s technically my first language, but I mostly forgot it when I started kindergarten)
2. Magically lose 50-60ish pounds RIGHT NOW (right up there with winning the lottery without entering).
3. Run, but I’m working on it.
4. Have a small outdoor garden.
5. Figure out a thesis topis for next year.
6. Eat what ever I want without having calories matter (doesn’t everyone?)
7. Be better about keeping in touch with people.
8. Be more outgoing/sociable in general.

8 Shows I Watch: (in no particular order, and not all-inclusive)
1.  Boston Legal (but it’s done now…)
2. Monk
3. Psych
4. Eureka
5. Eli Stone
6. Project Runway
7. Chuck
8. Bones

8 People I’m Tagging:
I’m assuming if this meme has found it’s way to me, most other people have been tagged already, if you want to do it, go ahead