Tag Archives: tofu

This Post Was Technically Born in ’09

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Yikes, I can’t believe this morning started 18hours ago!  Registration went ok, I got into all fo the classes that I had to have.  Right now I’m registered for 19 credits (2 classes more than the normal load), but I’ll probably drop a class once I get things figured out.

It was supposed to snow today (still hasn’t yet, knock on wood!) and I was wearing my Mary Poppins outfit so I had the husband drive me to school this morning.

That kind of cute is so worth it!

I got breakfast from the food court while I studied for my test, a toasted everything bagel with honey walnut cream cheese.

Love that savory/sweet combo!

The test went well, not a 100% but I’ll be surprised if I don’t have an A.  Afterwards I had to meet up with my group to work on the poster for our presentation.  When Orgo rolled around at 1:00 we still weren’t done, ugh.  I snacked on this amazing combo from home while we worked.

1 serving of dried hibiscus and 2 servings of Sahale Snacks Sing Buri Cashews.

Not gonna lie, my afternoon snack was much much less impressive…

The dip was disgusting and got tossed, but I demolished the bag of chips 😉  This was supposed to be my bribe to study in the evening, but then a whole UPS debacle happened and this ended up being just a really unhealthy snack!

Dinner was one of those fabulous ‘I told you blog reading isn’t a waste of time, husband’ gems.

I’ve been reading Kath’s blog since 2008(!!) and I actually bookmarked this recipe way back in February of 2009!  Tofu Quiche.  You won’t believe it but my version was actually less cheesy than the original –

For the most part I followed Kath’s lead, but we did make a few minor changes,

  • increased to a pint of mushrooms
  • increased to 4 (packed) cups of baby spinach
  • cut back to 2cups of (2% Sharp Cheddar) cheese
  • subbed in 1/8 tsp each nutmeg and garlic powder for oregano
  • pulsed several times to chop up the veggies rather than leaving them whole
  • skipped the crust entirely

Our version was delicious!

We hurried and cut before it set, but the flavors were spot on.

The extra cheese wasn’t missed and I actually wished we had added more veggies.  Adam was totally in love with this too.

After a very long, very fruitless drive to UPS we came home and caught up on tv.  …..after a trip the Wegman’s candy bulk bins.

Jumbo malted milk balls?  Yes please!

Do you try out recipes from food blogs?  Any major successes?  (Or failures!?)

Pour Some Sugar On Me

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I’ve had that ubiquitous Def Leppard track stuck in my head all weekend.  Around midnight on Saturday I even requested it be added to the party playlist!  And “Pour Some Sugar on Me” is a fitting anthem for this evening as I’m currently buzzing from a major sugar high.

Let’s cover dinner first shall we?

The tofu I was pressing earlier was cooked up this evening into my fabulous Coco Loco Tofu.  If you haven’t tried this recipe yet I highly recommend it; it’s the dish that got the husband hooked on tofu!

We used the remaining coconut marinade to cook down a big batch of kale.

The creamy (coconut), tangy (rice vinegar) sauce was the perfect complement to the kale.  Sometimes I hate how much greens cook down though; I swear that is a big serving of veggies!

I was ravenous while we were cooking dinner so I made myself a tiny bowl of 0% Plain Oikos with homemade chocolate pb, Crofter’s strawberry spread, and a pinch of shredded coconut.

Tasty, but ruined my appetite for the main event; I ended up only eating 2/3 of my tofu and sharing the rest.

I worked up an appetite for dessert stirring, stirring, stirring in the kitchen.  40minutes later I was rewarded with caramel apples!

I pulled a recipe from Everyday with Rachael Ray for Honey-Vanilla Caramel Apples.  I decided to make a half batch of apples (Adam won’t eat any) and save the rest of the caramel for other means. 

Granny Smith, Paula Red, Crispin.

I haven’t tasted an actual apple yet because I made myself too sick on caramel, but I can already tell you that this recipe is a keeper!  The honey vanilla caramel is divine and it was easy as pie to make.  There is a fabulous deep roasted flavor that makes it addictive; there was a lot of this –


Healthy dinner, check; most of my school work up to date, check; satisfied sweet tooth, check plus!

Caramel, candied, or naked, how do you prefer your apples?

Tough Transitions

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I did not get enough done today (don’t I say that every day?!?!) so I’ll keep this post simple.  I did accomplish a walk to the farmer’s market/co-op for some local goodies.

And a trip to Wegman’s to complete the groceries.  We had a hot bar coupon so the husband and I got lunch.

Can you guess which side of that container is mine?

I filled up on an assortment of veggies,

with sesame tofu and chicken.

Not even an hour after eating I felt empty.  The feeling was so bad I ended up walking to get a (ginormous) slice of bbq chicken pizza.

Post-pizza I had a Double Fudge Brownie mini ice-cream.

And then I was FULL.  I ate my 2nd lunch around 3:00 but I ended up calling it dinner because I haven’t gotten hungry again!

I am finding the transition back to school to be much harder than I expected; and I didn’t think it would be easy!  I think part of the issue is that I didn’t just quit my job and go to school, but rather worker bee –> unemployed –> student.  Do you have any advice to help me become a student again????

Miso Tasty

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That mini bag of kettle corn was good, but dinner was better.

Miso-Marinated Tofu and Eggplant with Soba Noodles, from Health Magazine.  I followed the recipe pretty loosely, here are some of the changes I made –

  • doubled the tofu
  • used buckwheat instead of soba noodles
  • used neon and graffiti eggplant
  • used cole slaw mix for cabbage
  • used more veggies and less oil

Our version was pretty fabulous though.

The miso marinated tofu gets the best crust.

A cautionary tale – the boys left frosting the fridge from their failed brownies and this afternoon I ate at least 8 spoonfuls, straight from the jar.  Instant tummy ache and migraine.

Tofu, seitan, tempeh; pick a favorite.

Age Math

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Eeek!  All sorts of excitement in the lunch post.  I did not supplement breakfast.  I did snag a small dark chocolate from my BlogHer swag,

but I refuse to file that as breakfast.

Then I was sprinting out of the house because I found out I could pick up this beauty –

I earned a new phone rebate more than a month ago and I have been patiently waiting driving Adam crazy waiting for my new phone to come in!  I’m not that important (at all) but it’s still exciting to be able to check my e-mail on the go!

I’m also a genius (just a bit) so I wanted to share my great idea with you; when I borrowed Adam’s phone in NY I discovered that the old standard I-Pod cases fit the EVOO perfectly –

My phone is protected, it looks cute as all get out, I didn’t have to buy a new case, and I repurposed an old case that would have gone in the trash!

Speaking of dorky and phone related updates…

I resisted for months when my friends begged me to try g-mail and that ended up being a good decision, so I figured I should cave on the Twitter issue too.  I have no idea what the heck I’m doing on there so pretty please go follow me so I don’t feel like such a dork?

While I was out and about I took a phone survey with Moe’s and earned myself a free lunch, love that place!  I got a Moo Moo Mr. Cow –

Moooo, I ordered my baby burrito with rice, black beans, tofu, corn salsa, and cucumbers.

I asked for just a few chips (I proved last night I can’t resist them!) and got some guacamole as my side.

Since I ordered off the children’s menu I also got a cookie, white chocolate macadamia.

I bring in coupons like I’m 70 and order a kid’s meal like I’m 7; does that average out to 25?

Can you help me with twitter?

  1. What the frick is a hashtag?
  2. How does the whole @specific_person thing work?

Pep in My Step

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Whew!  I am sad to see Camile go, but it’s nice to have a day with a little downtime.  Before I drove her to the airport this morning I whipped up a Green Monster so she could have a taste.

1cup frozen spinach + 1frozen banana + 1cup oj = a new convert; she thought it tasted great!  Here’s what our mouths saw –

I made the world’s quickest grocery trip (we are out of town with family again this weekend) then came home for some serious cleaning.  I might have been working but at least I was home 🙂

Mid-morning I snacked on a 100-calorie Cheez-It pack Camile left behind.

As well as some Canada Candy!  This Cadbery Pep was basically just a foreign York Peppermint Patty.

Truth be told, I wasn’t even hungry, I just ate it because I was hot.  We try not to run our A.C. all that often and cool minty refreshingness straight from my fridge was hard to pass up.  Not the best reason to consume 200calories though…

When I did finally get hungry late in the afternoon I set out for a neighborhood wander.  We had food at home but I was in the mood for a walk so I let myself celebrate our $15 grocery bill (God coupons rock my socks so hard!).  I ended up at Saigon Cafe for Pad See Eiw with tofu.

I have zero control around broad rice noodles so I plated half of the serving and put the rest away before I even took a taste.

Sidenote – how cute are the plates I got for my birthday?

They almost match my favorite chopsticks.

Back to the food; Pad See Eiw is my favorite Thai dish but I was shocked to see how many veggies this version boasted.  You never see yellow squash in this dish but the addition was fabulous.

Tonight is something along the lines of dinner, tv, mini workout, more cleaning.

What tricks to you use to keep yourself from eating all of too big portions?

8hours in the Car Later

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We started off this morning with another bike ride!

Actually, my mom and I biked around and my dad and Adam walked behind.  It was a short ride because our main destination was coffee.

Piqua gas stations aren’t exactly floating in soy milk so I ended up having to use Irish crème non-dairy creamer, yetch!

For breakfast I pulled a Coconut Acai Prana Bar out of my snacks bag.

This was not enough food and I was starving the minute we hit the road.  I ate a bag of honey mustard and onion pretzel thins,

and I opened some honey roasted cashews.

Miracle of miracles, we managed to find another healthy road trip food option!

I have major adoration for Einstein Bagels anyways, but this was by far the healthiest car lunch one could eat.

I got the veggie sandwich – red onion, cucumber, tomato, lettuce on a sesame bagel thin – and subbed in hummus for cream cheese.

Filling, healthy and delicious.  It even came with an apple as a side.

A mealy and disgusting apple that I ended up throwing out the window, but at least it came with one! 😀

Things were going well until we realized we missed an exit and added 2.5hours to our trip.  Arrgh!  At least, when I was starving and things were looking grim, we found a Sheetz, with fresh fruit.

Watermelon,

and grapes.

And pretty road sign flower sculptures across the street.

When we did finally get back to Buffalo we quickly unpacked before grabbing dinner from the Co-op.

Baked veggie rolls,

and baked tofu with cilantro ginger sauce.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend!

When I Dip, You Dip, We Dip

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I’ve been pretty productive since last posting… For example, while I ate my watermelon (❤) I watched an episode of “The Dollhouse.”  I discovered it this weekend and I’m in love; why do I always discover shows after they’ve gone off the air?!?  Meanwhile, Adam and I split a serving of Salsa Kathy’s Krackers.

How gorgeous is that?

Also, I joined Adam for a trip to the gym.  Since I’m turning 25 in a month I don’t think my incidental exercise walks are going to cut it by themselves.  I did an easy season on the treadmill (remind me that I’m NOT to run for more than 15minutes until next week!), that was actually not that easy.  Can we say out of shape?

  • 5minutes walking warm up
  • (3minutes running + 2minutes walking) x 3 = 12minutes intervals
  • 6minutes running
  • 4minutes walking

I ended up covering 2.5miles in my 30minutes.  Then I finished up with some stretching and pt.

Post-shower I made a delightful, dippable dinner.  Boco Meatless Nuggets,

oven roasted yellow squash, zucchini, and potato.

All together, with honey mustard dipping sauce.

I was still feeling hungry after dinner, probably because my day was pretty light on proteins and fats, so I made myself a revolutionary snack.

Protein pudding sans icky fake protein powder – into the blender went

  • 1 large banana
  • 1 serving silken tofu
  • 1T maple syrup
  • 1T peanut butter

And finally, I worked on my oral presentation for Thursday.  I actually have a test tomorrow but I’ll work on that in the morning 😉

Now I’m going to go accomplish bedtime.

What is your favorite dipping sauce?  Mine is 1000island, with everything!