Month: January 2009

Compromise

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I really really really wanted pizza for dinner tonight, but I didn’t have tomato sauce. And the pizza place is four long blocks away. And the grocery store is six longer blocks away. And it’s snowing. I could have made some sort of crazy pumpkin sauce or even used my red lentil soup as sauce since it’s so thick, but I was only in the mood for some traditional cheesy, saucy pizza. So I gave up. I made pasta instead. Some things aren’t meant to be.

I used 1/3 cup dry whole wheat pasta. While it was boiling, I chopped more red cabbage — the only available vegetable I have (my carrots are for work snacks) — and tossed that in with the pasta. Then I started to worry about not having enough protein, especially after today’s exercise-fest … until I remembered a trick my stepmom taught me years and years ago when pasta was all I ever ate (literally).  I beat an egg in a bowl, poured it into the boiling pasta and cabbage, gave a little stir, and voila! Protein problem solved:

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The fun thing about red cabbage is that it turns everything a deep blue, and blue is my favorite color! Here’s the pasta water after it all finished cooking:

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To my pasta bowl, I added a Tbsp pesto (pre-made!), grated fresh parmesan, grated homemade cheddar, and freshly ground black pepper:

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Details:

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The cabbage turned my egg blue!

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For dessert, I had 1/6 of a giant banana with just under a Tbsp peanut butter:

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And a Godiva dark chocolate:

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With raspberry caramel inside!

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Time to start getting ready for bed and the real work week tomorrow.  I feel so off-balance after just one day off! What do you do to get back into the swing of things after a vacation?

Snow run

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As planned, Kate came over this afternoon so we could go on our own run instead of heading into the city for running club tonight. I’m so glad we went when we did because it started snowing as soon as we stepped out the door. Most of the sidewalks were still lacking a good shovel, so the going was slow and our legs got a serious workout. I tried to pretend it was beachy sand again … but I must have used up all my imagination magic this morning. The snow got progressively heavier as the run went on — I could hardly see by the end. My next running investment will have to be a pair of ski goggles! Stats: 43 minutes, 4.23 miles, 410 calories (total for today is 888), average heart rate 165, highest heart rate 179.

For lunch, I started with red cabbage. So pretty before it’s cooked!

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After chopping and steaming the red cabbage, I mixed it with the rest of last week‘s sofrito rice from the freezer.

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And of course I heated a heaping cup of yesterday’s red lentil-peanut soup. I can’t say enough about this soup! It’s so thick and filling — a perfect winter meal. I garnished it with a little piece of basil from my basil plant to make it prettier:

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Lunch from the rice’s point of view:

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For dessert, I had more sugar cookie sleigh ride tea alongside some pumpkin yogurt:

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I used 1/2 yogurt, 1/4 cup pumpkin, 1/4 large banana (some mashed, some chopped), 1/2 apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger:

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I feel completely satisfied right now and nowhere in the vicinity of hunger … but I’m guessing the 888 calorie burn will catch up with me soon enough and I’ll be at it again!

Beach run

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Running on fresh snow to and from the gym this morning was almost like running on beach sand. Or that’s what I tried to tell myself. I went a little later than normal because I have today off, so I had a spoonful of peanut butter before I left to tide me over until breakfast. The gym was so packed!! I miss my little 5am crew. There was a class in the group room, so I couldn’t get an aerobics step and instead did arms balancing on the Bosu — didn’t have the same heart rate effects as a step, obviously, but at least it kept my legs and “core” engaged, blah blah. And, of course, 30 minutes on the stairs with InStyle. Stats from the HRM: 1 hour, 12 mins; 473 calories; 155 average heart rate.

Breakfast was a no-brainer. A full cup of my carrot cake crockpot oats from yesterday, half cup yogurt, drizzle of honey, sprinkles of cinnamon and coconut:

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Now I’m lounging around with a pot of sugar cookie sleigh ride tea (mmm!), and I have plans for a run with Kate at 1:00 since neither of us feels like journeying to midtown for running club on a vacation day!

P.S. After all my snacking while cooking yesterday, I finally got hungry around 9:30 last night and had Banana Fudge VitaTop with peanut butter. Here’s a cross-section:

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P.P.S. Oh She Glows is having another Honest Foods giveaway!! Enter here!

Twelve cups of healthy

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In typical Sunday fashion, I spent allll day today preparing food for the week. Even though I have tomorrow off, I kept to my Sunday routine because I love it. There’s nothing more relaxing than a day of creating and tasting food!

First, I started on this week’s batch of crockpot oats. I decided to make carrot cake oats when I found two items of questionable freshness (belonging to the roommates of course since I have a mind like a steel-trap when it comes to my own food!) in the fridge while I was cleaning it yesterday. Slimy baby carrots:

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And fermented pineapple:

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Since I’d be cooking everything, I figured any unfriendly bacteria/fermentation would burn off. I grated the carrots, crushed the pineapple, shredded an apple, and zested an entire orange:

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I also added 1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger and 1 cup fresh frozen cranberries. The mix-ins:

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Because I’m out of steel-cut oats, I substituted 1/2 cup rye berries and 1/2 cup kamut (other whole grains). Other than that, I followed my crockpot oats procedure exactly, using the 5-hour low-heat method. The recipe made a little over 6 cups. I ate the “over” topped with plain yogurt icing and cinnamon:

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Next project was Red Lentil-Peanut Soup. My roommate Tara made a similar soup last weekend following a Weight Watchers recipe, and it smelled so good that I’ve been craving lentils all week. The peanut butter addition was my idea, and I must say that it was a fabulous one!

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Also during the fridge cleanup yesterday, I found these grape tomatoes in desperate need of assistance:

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I’ve never been one to ignore tomatoes in distress, so I chopped them and added them to the soup, too. And half of the chicken broth I used was my very own homemade stock that I’ve had frozen since I made it from a chicken I bought at the farmers’ market in November.

Just like with the oatmeal, the soup made a little over six cups … and I ate the “over”:

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Soooooo good! I barely had 1/2 cup of this soup, and I was instantly satisfied. Or almost satisfied, since I followed the soup with my last two pieces of peppermint salt water taffy. Then I was satisfied.

Gourmet brunch, thrifty style

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If you’ve been paying attention, you know that my dinners out this weekend have provided me with two new food items: whole cardamom pods from The Ayurveda Cafe and freshly baked bread from Le Pain Quotidien. This morning, I combined the two to make Cardamom French Toast!

I broke into a cardamom pod, and here’s what I found inside:

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I gathered about a tsp of the seeds (and I still have more pods left!):

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Because I don’t have proper spice grinding tools and I didn’t feel like using a knife to chop the teeny seeds to smithereens, I added them to my French toast batter in the hopes that they would soften as they soaked. In addition to the cardamom, the batter contained 1 egg, 3/4 cup skim milk, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. I sliced last night’s bread so I had four pieces:

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And pressed the bread into the batter bowl so it could soak in the fridge for 30 minutes while I worked on other things:

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Eventually, I heated 1/2 Tbsp canola oil in a nonstick pan and dumped in the entire contents of the bowl. Some of the bread pieces fell apart because they were so saturated with the batter. Can you spot the cardamom?

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Once the French Toast finished cooking, I topped it with cinnamon and a tsp of my roommate Brigitte’s (of the pulled pork fame) maple cream. Have you experienced maple cream before? It tastes exactly like those leaf-shaped maple candies they sell in Vermont … except that it’s creamy (surprise!).

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Here’s my brunch spread with Nutcracker Sweet tea, the last half cup of chopped cantaloupe and strawberries (with nutmeg), and French Toast:

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Mmmmmm:

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Of course, I ended up topping the toast with the fruit:

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I loved the cardamom flavor in this dish. The whole seeds were definitely more flavorful than my ground cardamom, and they added a fun crunch to the meal. Because some of the seeds were still a little too strong, I’ll probably soak them longer or find a way to crush them next time.

Although delicious, I’m not sure how long this meal will hold me over since the bread was definitely not whole grain. I will very likely be eating again sooner rather than later!