Tofutti Cutie Patootie

I've been feeling really guilty about the fact that I have probably 10+ vegan cookbooks and I rarely actually cook out of them. I'm usually doing all that I can to play catch up with my CSA goodies and I just cook by the seat of my pants.  Well I was rummaging through my veggie drawers when I found that yuca root I bought a while back when I went to the Strip District.  Oopsie, a little embarrassing haha! Good thing it's a root and was still perfectly fine. 

I made the yuca quesadillas from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Veganomicon only I added black beans, green bell peppers and red onion.  While it was quite delicious and filling, I have to say it was too time consuming and I'd rather just slap some veggies and Daiya cheese in a tortilla and call it a day.  Buy hey, I fully embrace the processed vegan foods at my fingertips. If you're more into whole foods and avoiding that processed jazz I would highly recommend this for your 'dilla fix! 

I took the leftovers for lunch along with some soygurt.  For breakfast, I had a Lara bar, I tried the cashew cookie but I should have known better seeing as how I'm not that big of a fan of cashews.  For snacks I had a gigantic apple and some almonds.  Oh, I also bought some broccoli and cheese soup from the cafeteria but it was so nasty I ended up throwing it out. Definitely lost my taste for cheese. Blargh. 

I had one and a half of the leftover quesadillas for lunch so I was pretty darn full still when I got home.  Nevertheless I fired up the stove top and made Mikey his dinner.  I made two cups of basmati rice for us to split and assembled this beef and broccoli kit I bought at Trader Joes for nights such as this. As in, nights I don't want to cook.  The kit was pretty nice, I just popped the broccoli in the microwave, thawed the sauce, and sauteed the beef strips in a nonstick pan for 6-8 minutes.  Then I tossed all the ingredients together and cooked until the sauce thickened. 

While Mikey ate, I went and worked out to my exercise DVD- talk about being proactive!! I was so jazzed because I can tell the DVDs are working, I feel so much stronger and don't get nearly as tired as when I first began! Aaaannddd it's only been a week and a half!! 

After I exercised, I had worked up QUITE the appetite and I was jealous of Mikey's little beef and broccoli  dinner so I decided to grab my Chickenless Mandarin Orange Morsels and make one myself.  Where's my vegetarian kit Trader Ming!!! 

I microwaved a box of broccoli spears and repeated the steps from Mike's meal and voila! My own Chinese deliciousness.  I added some soy sauce because it's against my religion to eat white rice without it. Wow! It was so.. so.. good. I will definitely be buying this stuff again!!! I'm working on building up my arsenal of ready made vegan foods and this just made my top ten! I ate the entire bag and I don't even care.. 

Then I followed up dinner with a chocolate Tofutti Cutie (which I ate while writing this post). 

P.S. I hate Nicki Minaj

Tuesday slummin'

Monday and Tuesday were days of rest and recovery in our household.  All I accomplished was cleaning up the house, doing laundry, and grocery shopping.  We went to Trader Joe's for our food this week and also picked up our CSA box. The veggies over-floweth at our place! Yeaaa! 

In our fantastic TJ tradition, we snagged their sushi sampler for lunch. This time we also got the spring rolls which were an utter disappointment.  They were basically stuffed with romaine lettuce and a piece of shrimp. Blagh.

Dinner that night was pan seared ahi tuna steak over mixed greens and baby heirloom tomatoes.  Sounds and looks way better than it tasted.  I just don't know how to cook tuna at home I guess... sigh.. 

Also a whole lot of Ghost Whisperer went on those evenings. 

Aaaaaaaand I'm out. 

Naps, Sushi, and TV, oh my!

I need a super chill day after the full Saturday I had so I slept in, and slept in some more, and napped a bit more before finally rolling my butt out of bed. I munched on a Clif bar and chugged some water, I really, really, really hate hangovers. Although, who actually enjoys them? 

Mike and I ran to Costco for some seaweed chips, fruits and veggies, pretzel chips, hummus, and we also found some delicious salmon burgers and ahi tuna steaks. I <3 seafood. 

Afterwards we ran over to Trader Joe's for some odds and ends not available at Costco and wow did their sushi platter look bomb. Mike and I split it for lunch followed by some hummus and pretzel chips. Super, super yum. I think Trader Joe's and Whole Foods sushi blows Giant Eagle out of the water by a thousand. 

I then proceeded to do laundry, read, and fall asleep. Mike woke me up an hour or two later- oops! I was really sleep deprived evidently. For dinner: salmon burgers, salad, steamed snow peas. 

And a gluten free brownie.... nom..

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well I'd have to say I'm pretty busy most days lately, we have one gal on maternity leave and today two more were on vacation so we were UBER busy. Blargh.  I ate one of those bars from my Healthy Surprise box on the car ride to the bus stop this morning. It was so rich and fabulous I was going to look online and order some but then I read the nutrition label and it was almost 300 calories with 14g fat, damn you coconuts, you are so good but so fattening! I knew I'd need to rally so I had an extra big cup of coffee with my soy creamer and splenda followed by some steel cut oats with the cookie butter/soy milk mixture. I also snacked on some almonds and walnuts. I forgot to take pics of the whole dang morning because I was so busy screening floors and looking up labs and what not. I also had a Lara bar which was dee-lish. I definitely need to buy more. 

For lunch I had to buy from the cafeteria and saw that they had a nicoise salad on the menu!! Hook, line, and sinker, I'm sold! I absolutely love nicoise salad but am far too lazy to actually prepare one at home. Who has time to blanch green beans, hard boil eggs, boil potatoes, cut up veggies blah blah blah. Just sell more nicoise salads Pittsburgh! I did eat all the tuna that was with the salad, it seemed to agree with my tummy way better than chicken or beef. Seafood stays. Also, after the pizza last night I learned that dairy is out. Nuff said. I also had some hummus with pita bread, no picture because I ate it in like 30 seconds, super famished. 

Eating at your desk= sad, by the way. 

Clearly I was in a salad kinda mood today because I cleaned a gigantic head of our CSA lettuce and made the world's largest salad known to man. It's topped with red onions, craisins, avocado, sunflower seeds, olive oil, garlic powder, salt & pepper, and my beloved dark cherry balsamic. 

I felt like we needed a protein of some kind other than the sunflower seeds so I had Mike grab from the freezer these frozen "chicken" nuggets we bought at Trader Joe's. 

I wish I'd realized how crappy this photo was earlier, also we snarfed the nuggets down so fast I, again, forgot to take a picture! Drat!! But also yay because they were so good! Mike said "If only all vegetarian substitutes tasted as close to the real thing as these do, then I could possibly do this" At one point while we were dating he said something similar while eating my veggie enchiladas but he avoids my vegan cheeses and tofu way more now that we're married.  Haha. He doesn't have to impress anymore! Oh well, I'm just thankful he's open-minded and eats the stuff I fix without complaint or ordeal, I know some guys would straight up refuse to eat some of the stuff I make. 

Even though I had a full, long, exhausting work day, I was actually in the mood to work out!! So.. I took advantage of this odd and entirely unlike me feeling and did a workout DVD. Maybe I'll actually start enjoying exercise.... well let's not get ahead of ourselves. 

I had a banana flavored Popsicle for dessert

Edit: I had two banana flavored Popsicle's 

Is it just me or does anyone else find the actor who plays George Costanza absolutely vile? I just can't even stand the man. Especially when he attacks Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman". PIG!!  

Another day in the life...

This is the picture I took last night of what was packed for breakfast/lunch for today. Is it weird that I get such a kick out of packing my own lunch? Oh well, here we go : 

For breakfast I had my favorite Italian tofu scramble (top left) with some grapes along with my staple beverage: Seattle's Best coffee with splenda and soy creamer. I don't think I could survive the workday without a steady jolt of caffeine and the creamy soy flavor is addicting. I love Organic Valley soy creamer, it's my fav. Yum yum! 

I started getting a wee bit peckish around 12ish so I went ahead and had my Clif bar but wouldn't you know it, I spoiled my lunch and I was not hungry whatsoever when 1pm rolled around. I just played around on the computer and took out the recycling and what not while the others went to lunch. It was kind of peaceful, a moment just to breathe and keep quiet. 

I went to man the outpatient clinic after lunchtime and I knew I'd probably get hungry so I took my hummus and veggies down with me and snarfed that down while I listened to some Pandora and passed the time. Clinic was super slow today. 

So clearly my actual lunch of quinoa, sweet potatoes, and baked tofu topped with nooch* and Braggs was not eaten, but no worries, it's in the fridge for tomorrow. 

When I got home I was super-famished so I immediately had a low-carb tortilla schmeared with that delicious cookie butter. So freaken good. 

I followed that up with, well, my dinner!! We got these sweet ass Bento boxes from Trader Joe's the other day and I have been super amped to try them out! 

Crappy photo but this is what the box looks like, it's in the frozen section for those of you who want to give it a go!! Oh, did I mention the box is only 99 cents? Yea.. I said it right, 99 cents. I just wanted to compare what the actual product looks like to the photo- typically the comparison is quite comical..

Way to go Trader Joe San!!! It looks just as delish! Oh! Miso hungry! Oh oh miso hungry! 

Starting in the top left box and going across, we have:

Here's what Mike and I thought of the various boxes: 

1. Pumpkin with Shiso Seasoning= Disappointing, flavorless, no trace of shiso seasoning
2. Spicy Long Beans= Yum! Just the right amount of kick!
3. Eggplant with Miso Paste = Eggplant was good but no trace of miso :( Miso disappointed (okay, okay, I'll stop) 
4. Soba Salad with Oyster Mushroom = This was MY favorite box!! I love soba noodles
5. Shiitake Mushroom with Edamame and Carrot = This one was hard to mess up and thus, tasty 
6. Baked Tofu with Teriyaki Sauce= Again, no trace of teriyaki flavor and the tofu was really gelatinous, like they used that vac-pak Japanese style tofu instead of Chinese. We were not fans.
7. Brown Rice with Seaweed & Sesame Seed = I gave up at this point and added soy sauce, no hint of seaweed to be found 
8. Curry flavored Brown Rice = Yum! Mikey's favorite box, you could taste the curry for sure, but it could have used more. 
9. Teriyaki Flavored Brown Rice with Vegetable= Same was 7, no hint of teriyaki noted, soy sauce added.

Verdict: I would say this was a fun thing to try and for 99 cents you can't beat that! I don't think it will be making its way onto my Trader Joe's must have list though, it was just too bland for me.  

Also, since we were thinking the Bento Boxes wouldn't suffice for dinner, we grilled up some eggplant and zucchini that I topped with garlic powder and soy sauce. [Insert Homer Simpson gargling noise here]

Now I gotta go workout.. *groan*... I really hate exercising.. 

Cooookie Butter!

This is the most magnificent discovery of the century. 

If you've ever had those gingerbready Biscoff cookies commonly doled out as your "snack" on airplanes, you'll have an idea of what this tastes like. The texture is super unique, creamy like peanut butter but with crunchy bits of cookie throughout it. I could literately put this on anything. One thing I particularly like to do is make a big batch of oatmeal and put a dollop of this in it. 

And, on days when work is particularly crappy and long, I eat it right out of the jar with a spoon while watching True Blood and Ghost Whisperer. Weee! 

Extra bonus- the jar is indestructible- it fell off the top of my fridge right onto my rock-hard kitchen floor and not so much as a crack- the lid however did not survive the fall. 

Mikey went to the Childish Gambino concert so I'm home alone with the pooch who tends to ignore me when Mike's gone. Fine with me! 

I've been dealing with an upset belly since the beef incident, today I was good though- I had a tofu scramble for breakfast, a Clif bar for snack, and had some of my spinach/sweet potato/tofu mixture but had some tummy troubles so I wasn't all that hungry. I also snacked on some chocolate covered raisins. 

For dinner I had a Praeger's veggie burger sandwich with some stuffing and a pickle. I'm not doing so well on veggies today but good lord at this point I don't care. 

Ahhh... also True Blood was again.. a true dud. I need to just stop bothering to watch it. 

A Lunch in the Life of Lindsey

I don't know what it is about boys and breakfast, but they sure know their way around some eggs! Mike treated me to a delicious omelet this morning with cheese, salsa, and some turkey deli meat. I snarfed it down and relished every bite- the man makes a good omelet. 

For lunch, I had some oatmeal with vanilla soymilk, cinnamon, walnuts, and COOKIE BUTTER in it. Yes. I said cookie butter. I've never had something so fantastic in all my life- I'll be sure to talk about it in more detail at a later time. 

The rest of our day was spent napping, doing laundry, and me preparing foods for the work week. 

I also spent a major portion of the day snacking on this little gem found at your local Trader Joe's:

I had to chortle a bit that it says Trader Joe-San. I love how they name their ethnic foods cleverly. ex. Trader Jose for the Mexican foods..

For dinner I have a major confession to make. For the past month or so I have been trying really hard to stay predominantly meat-free/vegetarian. I've even avoided for the major part eggs and dairy products. But tonight, something got into me and I was really, really craving this Vietnamese steak sandwich that I have a recipe for from one of my Martha Stewart cookbooks. It's a marinated flank steak with a carrot-cilantro asian slaw on a hoagie bun. It's superb and I'm not going to lie it was outrageously delicious. 

I have never felt so sick in all my life, I feel like I had food poisoning. Nuff said. I'm back on the wagon. 

Here's my lunch (and breakfast) for tomorrow: 

Breakfast: tofu scramble (puttanesca style) 

Midmorning snack: Clif bar 

Lunch: hummus & veggies 

cooked spinach, roasted sweet potato, craisins, and baked tofu topped with Bragg's liquid amino acids and nutritional yeast. 

Dessert: 1 prune :) 

I've been in a tofu-y kinda mood- what can I say?  

I'm kind of nervous about tomorrow, a bunch of new units are opening in the hospital tomorrow and we weren't granted anymore FTE's for more staff. Shit's about to get real. Excuse my french. 

BRGR & Grocery Shopping

Well I was lucky enough to have a lazy little Saturday again, I slept in late and then made pancakes for breakfast (I had some leftover tofu omelets also because Mike wasn't into them and I wanted to finish those up before they went bad.)

We lazed around the living room, checking out our email and Facebook for a while and basically wasted the Saturday morning away. It was really nice to just relax and unwind however so I don't feel guilty. 

I needed to run to Whole Foods for a few specialty items and forgot that Trader Joe's was on the way! Much to Mike's chagrin, we went to both. 

Here's my stash: 

Whole Foods: 

2 jugs cherry lemonade (sale!) 

1 jug cherry juice

1 jar Kim Chi 

1 carton Soy coffee creamer

1 tub Miso (This stuff seriously lasts years, I actually bought my last tub when we lived in Columbus and just finished it up last week) 

1 bag cherries 

1 bag chia seeds (these things are freaken expensive! Good thing a little goes a long way) 

1 carton peaches

1-2 # blue potatoes 

1 box Ener-G Egg replacer

1 carton Tofu 

1 GIGANTIC BAG of rice crackers

2 cartons sushi (for dinner, mmmm...) 

1 cup of vegan ramen noodles (a brand I've been wanting to try) 

Trader Joe's

1 bag wasabi peas (so addicting.. luckily Mikey no likey) 

2 Lara bars 

1 bag frozen Naan

1 bag whole wheat pizza dough (my sister-in-law turned me on to this, awesome TJ product!) 

1 bag everything bagel chips

1 bag frozen beef & broccoli (rare treat, I hope it's good) 

1 jar Speculoos spread ( So, so fantastic, please pick up a jar if you have the opportunity!!) 

2 frozen Bento Boxes!!!!!!! I can't wait to try them!! 

I would also like to take this moment to say it's nauseating how less expensive Trader Joe's is than Whole Foods and that I really need to veer more towards going to TJ's. I think that TJ's is even less expensive than Giant Eagle! I wish we were lucky enough to have a Krogers here but alas, that's only for the lucky bastards in Ohio... 

Before we headed out to the stores, we stopped for lunch to avoid over excessive impulse buying.  There is this burger joint near Whole Foods that Mike has been wanting to try so we thought today would be a good time to try it! It's called BRGR , located in East Liberty (literately up the street from Whole Foods) and they're known for their delicious specialty burgers (duh!) and their adult (read: spiked) milkshakes!! 

Mike and I couldn't pass up trying a spiked milkshake even if it was around noon, we have no shame. We did at least decide to split one because we figured a milkshake plus burger plus fries would prove to be too much even for us. Bless the waitress's heart too- she had them split the milkshake into two fancy glasses. 

Ooooh sweet mystery of life at last I've found youuuuuu.... 

rum + pretzel crumble + salty caramel + 

dark chocolate = Lindsey's personal heaven

I shouldn't have split 

I got the California Lovin' burger

turkey burger + provolone, pesto mayo, oven 

roasted tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts, avocado

Mike got a Double Yoi burger (he tried.. to explain the significance of the name to me... ask him..) 

Burger + pastrami, Swiss cheese, fried egg, cole slaw, 

thousand island dressing

He really enjoyed the burger, especially since he was able to order his burger medium rare like he likes it! I have to admit it looked juicy and fresh so I took a little nibble. It was good but I liked mine better. 

For a side we ended up splitting one of my absolute favorite things that I feel ALL restaurants should serve: 

Fried Pickles (with ranch) 

Holy crow were these amazing- I really appreciate the portion size of 4 spears too, enough to get your fill, but not enough that you eat the entire thing and have a gigantic load of guilt afterwards.

Plans for tonight: watching The Wunderstudies perform followed by (hopefully) a trip to The Park House for some late night beverages. 

But first.. I gotta work out... :(