Tag Archives: tofu

Unhappy Owl

by

It is 2o’clock in the morning, holy frick holy frick holy frick!  Let me just add that I am not even caught up with all my work yet.  I am at least, completely finished with the assignment that is due tomorrow (I got 102.2%, woot).  Clearly, this will be a speedy post; I took a few walks, did something very exciting I will mention tomorrow, etc. but I will focus just on eats.

Snack = Justin’s Nut Butter Honey PB packet, squeezed straight into my mouth.

DSC00062

DSC00064

Justin’s was so sweet to send me a box of samples, and I will be doing a full review tomorrow.

Lunch = tried some new veggies, i.e. turnips, parsnips, okra.

DSC00066

Okra is actually not new to me perse, but I kept it whole this time.  Oven roasted.

DSC00067

I ate all the okra and put 1/3 of the rest into the fridge for tomorrow.  My tasty dipping sauce was – buffalo wing sauce, ketchup, maple syrup, chipotle tabasco.

DSC00069

DSC00068

Dinner takes forever = 5 salt water taffies.

DSC00070

Actual dinner =

DSC00071

Orange Tofu from Eat, Drink, and Be Veganby Dreena Burton.  It was good, but I had to sub some ingredients and I imagine it could be better.

DSC00072

Oven roasted white asparagus.

DSC00074

Broccoli, keeping with the citrus theme I sauted chopped broccoli and shalots in some clementine olive oil.

DSC00075

Yums.

Studying hurts my brain snack = packet of Rolos.

DSC00076

Nighty night!  I probably will skip the breakfast post tomorrow, but will be back after volunteering at 2.

What’s the latest work usually keeps you up?  When I was a teacher I would often sleep 2-3hours a night and still be behind!  Nyc’s standards from English teachers were out of control.

Smooth Talker

by

There were some dryer issues and we ended up waiting at the apartment a little longer than planned.  Not an issue though, and we enjoyed the best smoothies ever.  The secret was this Naysoya Smoothie Starter.

HPIM4395

How have I not bought this before?!  It gave the smoothies the perfect thickness, and had the best aftertaste.  The smoothies were more than ready for their close-up.

HPIM4396

For 2 portions I used –

  • 1C Naysoya Smoothie Starter, Vanilla
  • 2frozen bananas
  • 3/4C frozen strawberries
  • splash So Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk

I enjoyed mine in one of our lovely new Guinness cups.

HPIM4397

Now, fingers crossed, we should be off in the next 10minutes.  Can’t wait to see what the wings festival entails!

What do you use to thicken your smoothies?  Usually I’m all about just liquid/frozen fruit, but this was pretty fabulous.  I never ever use protein powders.

Errands to Ecstasy

by

 I found time for a mid-day post!  We’ve been busy, but having fun.  I ❤ errand Saturday with my husband.  We got up around 8:20 and got straight to work; there’s been a lot of movement today.  After loading up the car with stuff for Goodwill (including a heavy mattress that gave me an arm work out) we headed out to our car inspection.  The car took about an hour so Adam and I walked to the post office and back while we waited.  Afterwards we dropped off our donations.  During the drive I ate this Balance Bar I found at Target yesterday for 78cents.

HPIM4350

Gah, too good!  I ate the cookie dough flavor and it was literally like cookie dough.  I try not to eat them that often because they have much more saturated fat (3-4g) than I prefer, but they are a really great occasional treat.  I gave Adam a bite and he fell in love too.

Next we took our coupons to Wegmans.

HPIM4349

I’m sure you’re all shocked that Adam insisted on salad bar again 🙂

HPIM4351

I knew I would eat some snacky food tonight at the party so I skipped my usual buffet philosophy (90/10 healthy food to splurges) and went all healthy.  I had Bourbon grilled chicken, Asian baked tofu, and steamed veggies (that is a small container).

We got a ton at the grocery store (I got another arm workout carrying purchases up the stairs) and then came home to do some cleaning.  I stopped to paint my toenails and figured drying time was a good time for dessert.  I don’t know if you guys remember my super sample sundae?  Forget that.  This is the new hottness –

HPIM4352

Purely Decadent Dairy Free Coconut and Crofter’s Asia Superfruit Spread.  Ridiculous.

HPIM4353

This is hands-down my favorite ice-creamand the jam addition was out of this world.  I was in ecstasy.

We have a few more to-do’s this afternoon, and then tonight people are coming over for wine/cheese.  I’ll do a recap but I’m not sure how many pictures I’ll take.  See you later for some drogging!

  1. Do you use coupons when you food shop?  I don’t comparison shop or anything like that, but I do clip coupons.  I keep them in a mini file folder, organized by category and expiration date.
  2. Do you bring your own bags to the grocery store?  I sometimes slip, but 90% of the time we bring cloth bags from home.  It’s good for the environment, and I find it way easier to carry heavy bags over my shoulder.
  3. What was your most exciting grocery purchase this week?  We got some organic, dairy free chocolate syrup with a bear on the front that I am pretty eager to open up!

Don’t Cry Over Chopped Onions

by

Wow, today has somehow been packed!  We slept in until 9:30 or so, due to a late night last night, and then got out and had husband/wife time.  I’ve missed Adam now that he is in school full-time!  When we were finally ready to take off our pjs we headed out for errands -can recycling, change making, grocery shopping – check.

Of course, Adam was able to convince me to get Wegman’s salad bar!

HPIM4267

I got tofu curried salad, with red and green peppers, nuts, and raisins

HPIM4268

and a small portion of chicken and broccoli, heavy on the broccoli.

HPIM4269

Adam and I split a Black Forest Berry Honest Tea to drink.

HPIM4270

We tried to shop quickly, but I got distracted by my hysterical laughter over this –

HPIM4272

🙂  I am super excited to be done with volunteering next week so I can buy fun veggies to make for lunches at home.

After we finished the errands Adam played Devil’s advocate again and convinced me to go watch “Inglorious Basterds.”  I was super hungry by the time we got to the theatre and I ate 90% of a thing of pretzel bites.

HPIM4273

When we got home Adam took a nap and it got later and later.  Suddenly it was 8:30 and we had tonsof baking to do.  For dinner we made a Rachael Ray recipe, Lazy Chicken.  It got majorly modified, for some good reasons – I wanted to use my farmers’ market tomatoes,

HPIM4275

and some bad reasons – this was our potato,

HPIM4276

so I decided it ended up being my own recipe. 

HPIM4277

Here is a link.  I had only a small plate.

HPIM4278

It was good, but I was saving my self for –

HPIM4279

homemade french onion dip!  The recipe was from Delicious Dips by Diane Morgan so I can’t post it, but I highly recommend buying the book.  We shared a small bowl with toasted (homemade) sourdough bread.

HPIM4280

Yums.

We are watching “My So-Called Life” and snuggling and then it’s off to bed.  See you Sunday.

What have you made from scratch recently (ever)?

Life

by

Soooo, I guess I’ve been gone for a little while.  Through a combination of slight sickness and extreme laziness I decided to take a short break from the real world.  I haven’t posted, pictured or studied, but I have eaten a ton of crap and spent an inordinate amount of time on fmylife and watching Bones reruns online.  I actually called in from volunteering today because my tummy was feeling off and I didn’t get much sleep the night before.  We live right above a street and I need to buy earplugs, stat!

At 4pm today I decided it was time to rejoin the living and tackle my to-dos.  This is what I accomplished from 4o’clock on, not bad.

  • post office
  • unload the dishwasher
  • do 2 loads of laundry
  • make dough starter for bread
  • make dinner for Tuesday (plus leftovers)
  • pack lunch for Adam
  • and finally make dinner for tonight

The last to-do was the most exciting, because I got to use the new clementine olive oil my mom sent,

HPIM4216

plus the bundle of multi-colored carrots I bought at the Farmer’s market.

HPIM4213

We started dinner with a salad.

HPIM4217

Chopped Chinese cabbage dressed with clementine oil, sliced plum tomato, and macademia nuts.  Very tasty.

HPIM4218

Then I made Sweet Cilantro Baked Tofu, you can find the recipe here.

HPIM4220

And maple carrots.

HPIM4221

After peeling and chopping the carrots I put them in a pan over medium-high heat with 2T of Smart Balance Light.  I covered and let them cook for 5minutes then pour 2T of maple syrup over the top.  Yums.

Here was my plate.

HPIM4219

We watched “My So-Called Life” while we ate, and now it’s time for bed!  I promise that regularly scheduled posting will continue tomorrow!

To Market

by

What a day!  Saturday is only half over and I am grinning from ear to ear  🙂

Most of our agenda so far has been shopping.  We started at the farmers’ market.

HPIM4202

I loved getting to explore a new farmers’ market, and this isn’t even the only one in town!  There was tons of fresh produce and we bought some great veggies to use this week.  The produce there is definitelymore expensive than at the grocery store, but I think it’s worth it.  One, when you consider that the veggies are basically organic it doesn’t seem as expensive.  Two, in addition to getting food for your family you are helping the famers to put food on their tables; these markets help to support small local businesses.

Next we went to Target for some cleaning supplies and cards.  I got handed a free sample of Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters so I ate them in the car.

HPIM4203

The taste was ok, but it would have been a bazillion times better if made by hand, or at least Lara Bar style.

Our final stop was food shopping at Wegmans.  Adam was starving (it was after 1:30) so we decided to do lunch at the salad bar.

HPIM4204

Yums!  All this was less than $6.  I got blanched cauliflower and curry cauliflower,

HPIM4205

General Tso’s Tofu and steamed veggies,

HPIM4206

and one piece of sesame chicken.

HPIM4207

My plan of attack with buffet situations is to do 90/10 healthy food to splurge.  I also like to stick to a majority of veggies.  I am especially pleased with Wegman’s salad bar because they post the calories for most items.  For example – I wasn’t going to get the tofu because I figured it was deep fried, but then I saw that it was 210calories for 1cup.

After we got home and unloaded all of our purchases I made my best snack ever.  This –

HPIM4208

equals perfection.

HPIM4209

  • Stoneyfield Fat Free Plain Yogurt
  • 1/3 a Jonasgold apple
  • sprinkle of cinnamon
  • crumbled Cinnabon Breakfast Bar [yes mom, this was from the box I bought you]

HPIM4210

We finished most of our fun, now I have to tackle our practical to do’s.  See you for dinner.

What is your plan of attack at buffets? 

Do you shop at farmers’ markets?

Too Hot

by

Woo-who, it is a scorcher today!  You’d think I’d be used to it from growing up on an island but I hate hot weather!  I just feel so puffy and sticky and gross!  I was too hot this morning for breakfast, Adam and I did some move strategizing but mostly I laid around and acted snippy (these days leading up to the move have not exactly been my shining moments).

Lunch, however, was very exciting.  In fact, it was my final check on my ‘to do before the move’ list.  I had to go to the city for a doctors appointment so I had lunch from the Whole Foods Buffet.  There isn’t a Whole Foods (or a Trader Joes, tear!) in Buffalo so this was a must.  On the train ride up I tried to combat the heat by splitting a Bolthouse Farms Mango Lemonade with Adam.

p_00046

Please excuse the crappy pictures, I forgot my camera and had to use the husband’s cell phone.  For lunch I chose vegetarian.

p_00047

Steamed veggies, okra marsala, lemon baked tofu, and Caesar salad.  I had this okra marsala once before and fell in love – it is chewy and spicy and delicious.  To drink I had a hibiscus and lime Ooba.

p_00048

Check!

The doctors office went ok, I currently have 4 plantar warts on my left foot, ugh!  My protein light lunch left me pretty hungry and when I was still complaining after my appointment so Adam bought me some corn chips.

p_00049

I have been randomly craving Fritos (I haven’t had them in years and years) the last week or so and these perfectly hit the spot.  Plus, kudos to Utz, this bag had only 150calories, the reason I hadn’t just bought Fritos is because the “small” bags were all 300calories+.  Another fun fact about Utz – I got to tour their chip factory as a teenager and it rocked my socks.

Before you think “God she eats a lot of crap,” go ahead and picture a slice of provolone cheese with two slices of bread, because that’s what I ate when I got home.  I was too lazy to take a picture but the whole thing was 210 calories if that helps you to visualize.

I have fun plans for dinner too: a mini blogger meet up at a new restaurant.  See you then.

Do you prefer hot or cold weather?  I can handle cold, but hot makes me crazy.  The main thing is that my body really reacts to temperature so when it’s hot my jewelry is all too tight and my clothing feels super uncomfortable.

Verdict? Amazing

by

Who guessed that my exciting package was from Amazing Grass?  You would be correct!

HPIM3675

We decided not to open the huge jar we bought until after the move to Buffalo.

HPIM3676

For now I have to be excited with the sample packets that they sent.

HPIM3677

I did some work on the computer before dinner and I snacked on this Yoplait Light Thick and Creamy in cinnamon roll.

HPIM3669

Yums, I saw this flavor floating around blog world a few months ago and was so jealous.  It lived up to my expectations.

For dinner we decided to go with stir fry to help use up some ingredients from the pantry, mainly –

HPIM3671

I very loosly followed a recipe from a magazine, but mainly was directed by the ingredients on hand.  We started by draining, pressing, and cubing a block of extra firm tofu.  Then we shook the cubes with some cornstarch.

HPIM3673

Next we added some sesame seeds (the last of the seeds + some wasabi sesame seeds) to the bag.

HPIM3674

We used the wok to brown the tofu in a little bit of evoo.  Then we removed the tofu from the pan and replaced it with 16oz of frozen veggies.  After the veggies cooked up we poured in some stir fry sauce, about 2/3 of a cup.

HPIM3679

I had combined our two sauces (with a smidgeof soy sauce) before I realized that the veggie bag actually came with a sauce packet, whoops!

HPIM3678

Finally we added the tofu back to the pan, stirred to combine, and voila.

HPIM3680

My serving, topped with a little red pepper.

HPIM3681

After dinner I hung out in front of the tv, has anyone else gotten into Make It or Break It?  I know it’s for teenagers but I get very easily pulled in to anything with gymnastics.  Growing up on an islands it wasn’t an interest I really got to pursue but I did go to gymnastics camp the summer before 6th grade.

I made myself a super impressive plate of cookies and chocolate milk while I watched.

 HPIM3684

The cookies were a serving each of 2 varieties of Newman’s Own Organics.

HPIM3682

Verdict?  Rocked my socks!  The pb cookies had a great roasted flavor to them and the chocolate chip ones were nice and crumbly.

The chocoaltemilk was skim milk with an Amazing Grass Kidz packet.

HPIM3683

Verdict?  Impressive, although I don’t know what the difference between regular and “kidz” will be.  It was a little grassy but I actually liked that part of the flavor.

After my snack Adam and I took a quick stroll around the ‘hood for funsies and now it’s time for bed.  Sweet dreams!

P.S.  Everyone has seen the constantcoverage of MJ’s death, but who else has seen this?!  No matter what you think of Jackson as an artist (and I 100% believe that personal failings do not take away from professional talent), I have been disgusted by the nonstop media coverage of his death.  1) He was 1 person, do we seriously not have anything more important to talk about?  2) Even if it wasn’t weird to focus on a story like this Jackson was accused of being a pedophile.  What is wrong with our country that we would glorify a man with this reputation?  What message are we sending to young viewers, let alone viewers who have suffered abuse?