Tag: Experiments

Just call me Popeye

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Breakfast this morning was another new and exciting (to me!) creation:

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I got up at 5 to go to the gym, got all my layers on, jogged there in the 30 degree weather … and found six other people waiting outside the locked and gated entrance! My gym is supposed to open at 5am on Mondays, and it was definitely 5:20 by this point, grrrrr. I gave it a few minutes, but every moment counts at that time of day, so I eventually gave up and jogged my creaky crunchy knees back home. It probably worked out better anyway since it gave me time to do the beginning Yoga for Runners #1 from yogadownload.com — my knees needed the rest!

So back to breakfast, yet another work of art inspired by Heather and her spinach oats!

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If you recall, I brought home a giant packed bag of fresh spinach leaves last week when we had extra in the food pantry at work. Despite diligently incorprating the spinach into salads all weekend, I barely made a dent! So last night, I made 1/2 cup stovetop oats custard-style and also added about four cups of spinach, half of a giant grated carrot, and a chopped apple. When everything was wilted and cooked, I immersion-blended my heart out. With the heat off post-blending, I mixed in another 1/2 cup oats (for texture), 1/2 giant mashed banana, 1/2 giant chunked banana, vanilla, cinnamon, 2 tbsp lemon curd, and 2 tbsp unsweetened coconut. The whole thing made just under 4 cups of oatmeal.

This morning, I heated 3/4 cup of the mix, set it on a bed of lemon yogurt (yogurt + more lemon curd + cinnamon), and topped it with strawberries, vanilla-almond granola, more coconut, and a big ol’ spoonful of homemade almond-cashew butter:

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And you know the soymilky black tea was not far behind:

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Thanks for yet another delicious breakfast idea, Heather!

I’ll be back much much later tonight because I’ve got class after work. Can I just say how much I love these endless Mondays??

Where do you go when you leave work at the end of the day?

Changes

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Breakfast was wild and different today.

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But first I went to the gym for 30 minutes on the stepmill (total gym stats: 52 minutes, 358 cal, 136 ave hr, 171 max) and then came home to do the Yoga for Runners #1 20-minute download because I’ve been feeling so old and creaky lately.

And then came the wild and different breakfast with 1/2 cup lemon curd yogurt topped with chopped mango, strawberries, and cinnamon:

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And the best part: 1/3 toasted blueberry bagel with a spread composed of about 2 tbsp plain yogurt, 1 tsp goat cheese, and 1 tsp lemon curd. I topped it with more sliced strawberries and cinnamon:

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Mmmm, it was so good! Need to do more with this combo …

And, because I can’t start the day without oats in some form, the last balsamic-strawberry oatie with a tsp of homemade almond-cashew butter:

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This breakfast was definitely less whole-grainy that my typical bowl of oats, but I feel completely satisifed now. We’ll see how I am in a couple of hours!

As much as I’m annoyed by the snow right now, it is not the first time that spring has started with nasty winter weather. There’s nowhere to go but up! Is it springy where you are?

Found dinner

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img_6232Lunch yesterday may have been uneventful, but dinner certainly was not! As I mentioned last night, I gathered a number of overflow food pantry items on my way out of work, thanks to Mildred and Pura! The goods, pictured to the right, included two packages of chicken fajita wraps, a container of fruit salad with cottage cheese and jello, a flounder sandwich, a pumpernickel baguette, three pumpkin muffins, a blueberry bagel, and a banana (from Jessica earlier in the day).

I sliced the bread items and added them to my freezer bag of carbs for enjoyment at a later date, the banana went into my countertop bowl of fruit, I portioned the 12 fajita pieces into 3 lunch-sized containers, and I kept the flounder sandwich and the fruit out for playtime dinner last night!

The flounder sandwich was loaded with mayo, which I’ve never been able to stand, so I dismantled it completely. I rinsed the lettuce and tomato until all evidence of mayo was obliterated. I also rinsed all of the breading and mayo from the teeny flounder pieces, brushed them with dijon, dredged them in coarse blue corn meal, and seared them in canola on the skillet until browned. They went on top of the clean lettuce and tomato:

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The sesame bun was soggy and loaded with mayo as well, so I pulled out and discarded all the gushy insides. The dry sesame-ridden outer layer went into the oven for 10 minutes at 450 until it turned into sesame chips that I could dip in some asparagus guacamole:

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I rounded out the meal with steamed asparagus and two slices of soy-lime coco loco tofu:

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Next order of business was the package of fruit salad. I immersion blended the 1/2 cup of cottage cheese with 1/2 cup of plain yogurt, the results of which will appear in breakfast and lunch later today along with the berries and grapes :-).

For dessert, I ate the jello and the remaining fruit (pineapple, watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe) topped with about 1/3 cup of crumbs from the pumpkin muffin-slicing earlier and a dollop of chocolate mousse:

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Ummm, YUM!

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And then, of course, there was dessert dessert: one piece of Lindt hazelnut chocolate, fresh from the freezer 😛

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So, it seems I really can’t go a day without having at least one meal deliciously inspired by donations from work. I don’t want this internship to end! (Aside from the food, I actually really do enjoy the work … and my coworkers, of course!)

Have you found any food lately?

Don’t fear the curd

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My oats this morning were partly overnighted and partly cooked … and they spontaneously took shape as one of my favorite desserts of all time 😀

Last night, I mixed 1/4 cup steel-cut oats with 2 tbsp soymilk, 2 tbsp water, 2 tbsp yogurt, 1 small chopped apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, and cloves.

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This morning at the gym was arms + steps/elliptical: 1 hour and 14 minutes, 392 calories, average heart rate 119, max 179. When I got home, I transferred the bowl of oats from the fridge to the oven for 30 minutes covered at 375 while I got ready.

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Post-oven, the oats went on a bed of lemon custard (1/3 cup yogurt mixed with 1 tsp lemon curd). I topped them with 2 crumbled basil-spice meringue kisses, 2 balsamic-strawberry oaties with homemade cashew-almond butter tips, and another dollop of my forbidden food:

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YUM! It was warm and fluffy and tasted like lemon meringue pie 😀

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Many of you commented that you’ve never heard of lemon curd but that it sounds gross. Leave it to the British to give something so heavenly a name like curd. However, if you like lemon pudding, lemon cake, lemon meringue pie, or any other lemon-themed dessert, really, I’m pretty sure you’d be a fan of lemon curd.

What are some foods that you love despite their off-putting names?

Giveaways of the Day:

1. YOUBars and YOUShakes at Run to the Finish.

2. Coupons for free yogurt (enter before 3pm EST) at Say Yes to Salad.

Forbidden foods?

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My festive morning continued at the office today without skipping a beat. First on the agenda? Pina coladas!!! You heard read right — Myrna came through at 9am with a giant homemade batch. “But it’s alcohol-free,” she explained apologetically. Fine with me! I had about 1/2 cup, and it tasted just like a tropical island, mmm.

img_6152Then, I noticed Belkis’ son Emanuel sitting in the conference room. She explained that his school was indeed closed for St. Patrick’s day (have you ever heard such a thing) and that he had baked us a cake to celebrate!! Here’s the masterpiece: a yellow cake with vanilla frosting and a cherry smiley face 😀

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Belkis started talking about how they should have frosted it green, and Inginia piped up that we still had green food coloring AND vanilla frosting left from play-dough and cake yesterday. I ran down to fetch the supplies and set Emanuel up with his new project. I also helped myself to two or five spoonfuls of frosting.

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When I got hungry for real later in the morning, I had a cup of cantaloupe, also left from yesterday’s group.

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Katty and I had to leave around noon to head up to the Bronx for a lecture on bilingual language development, so I ate my cup of roasted veggies and drank another half cup of pina colada to tide me over.

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I also packed up a hefty piece of cake for the road. You didn’t think I’d pass that up, did you?

When we got to the institute, there was a sign that no food was allowed in the auditorium for the lecture! I wasn’t about to wait two whole hours until 3pm for the rest of my lunch, so I quickly inhaled my cup of mac & cheese (from group yesterday), fried rice (from Vianni’s lunch leftovers yesterday), and mixed-grain salad (from my lunch yesterday).

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On the subway platform after the presentation, I ate my asparagus guac with a serving of sea salt RiceWorks.

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(Side note: I made this guac on Sunday, and look how green it still is without so much as a stir! I think it’s a combo of the lime juice and asparagus.)

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And finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, my green frosting-slathered hunk of cake:

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Oh, it was sooooooooooo good.

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While I was standing on the subway platform tucking into this ridiculously satisfying pile of refined sugar, I spent some time considering Vani’s Forbidden Foods Challenge. The idea is to demystify a food that you usually force yourself to avoid, whether for fear you’ll lose control and overeat it or for its scary nutrition facts or for any other number of reasons. Vani’s suggestion is that you challenge yourself by keeping it in the house and enjoying it in moderation; in essence, this challenge is designed to help you take control over a food that you feel has controlled you in the past.

So once again, I was standing there eating maybe my fourth giant slice of cake in two days … and wracking my brain to think of an appropriate food for the challenge. When I got off the subway in my neighborhood nearly two hours later, I stopped into the local gourmet shop to peruse the aisles (and sample cheese, roasted duck, and a giant hunk of hard sourdough pretzel). And I realized, nothing is forbidden … as long as it is FREE. The food restrictions I impose seem to boil down to money more than anything else. I examined dozens of delicious sounding organic cookie products, locally produced ice creams, full-fat stinky cheeses, dried fruits, fancy nut butters … and I kept thinking: I can make this myself for less money, more health, and more flavor. And if I don’t make it myself, I’m sure I’ll stumble upon it in sample form at some point 😀 No craving was strong enough to make me want to spend the money on anything except for produce!

But, I love the idea of this challenge and really wanted to participate! And that is when my eyes alighted upon the shelf of fancy spreads … full of chutneys, jams, syrups, etc. And I realized, I never buy condiments. They always strike me as such a luxury and never even cross my mind as an option. Granted, I can make most of them myself, but one in particular caught my eye. Meet my forbidden food:

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I love lemon curd, and I probably haven’t had it since I was 12 and went to traditional afternoon tea at a fancy Boston hotel with my family. OK, maybe I’ve had it since then, but only in similarly rare situations. To me, lemon curd represents the epitome of luxury, class, and sophistication — none of which I have! It’s not something I would ever buy because, not only is it a ridiculously frivolous product, but it’s also full of butter and sugar. Seems silly when I could just mash a banana on my scone and call it a day.

So, $8.99 later, I am the proud owner of my first jar of lemon curd ever. And I am EXCITED. It was pricey, but the Forbidden Foods Challenge is conveniently taking place when I have done next to no grocery shopping due to free produce flying at me from every direction, so I can make it work. And this $8.99 jar is going to last me a while because I’ll be eating it in moderation. Lemon curd of this quality, made only with real and natural ingredients, is bound to pack a powerful flavor punch. A little will go a long way.

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Thank you to Vani for encouraging me to loosen the reins — both financially and nutrionally — in a healthy way!

Have YOU joined the challenge?