back to BRRR

Cheers to 2009, but jeers to leaving home to return to snow. I packed a TON of plane food the night before (the LAST thing I want is to be stranded/delayed in an airport without food options).

With the other end piece of the Alfaro's bread, the rest of the veggie cheddar shreds, mushrooms, and a fresh, organic tomato, I made a pretty gourmet sando.

Check it out!

It turned into a monster as I was making it, so it's a good thing the bread is SUPER thick to hold all that stuff in. DAYAM!

Also included in the plane snack pack: dried cranberries, edamame, 2 apples, fresh medjool dates, and a spiced chai tea bag. I know, I know. It's a bit much for one flight...but better to be safe than sorry!

My dad drove me to the airport at the crack of dawn, and I was at the gate by 6:30. Unfortunately, the fog was SO thick and dense that we couldn't take off as planned (told ya delays were inevitable)...we were on stand by until the visibility improved to at least half a mile, which ended up being about an hour.

So I got a Starbucks to hold me over while I waited to board. Short coffee with vanilla SILK soy milk :) This really helped warm me up AND wake me up.

On the flight I polished off my sando, one apple, lots of dates, and several bottles of water. After the flight I raced to get into Manhattan asap. Being around Times Square on New Year's Eve was a scene I desperately wanted to avoid.

Okay. Now let me just say, I was prepared for bad weather, in fact I thought I was ready for the snow, but I was freakin' STUPEFIED once I arrived at the LIRR platform. Snow was screaming through my coat, my hood wouldn't even stay on when I tried to hold it because the wind was too strong, and tears were streaming from my eyes - basically it was a miracle I even got on the right train! I couldn't feel my fingers so clearly I couldn't buy a ticket at the kiosk. I am pretty sure I ended up paying 200% what the ticket actually cost on board the train. Whatever. So worth not getting frost bite. I managed to get home by 8 pm, just in time to make some din-din.

My fridge was on the barren side, but lookie what I managed to scrounge up.

I threw the soy noodles in a pot...

heated up the edamame...

and chopped up the tofu.

Here's bowl #1 (with a dash of low Na+ soy sauce).

Not too shabby for a last minute, post-flight meal. It was so good that I made myself a second bowl, finishing off the rest of the ingreds...

I had a BIG time hankering for some sweets, though. Good thing I had some vegan choc pudding left over - saaweeeet :)

Yum Yum Yum. New Year's celebration in my mouth!

This set off a chain of wild and uncontrollable CHOCOLATE urges. I pretty much devoured the rest of the choc sorbet (about 2/3 of the container).

I added soy milk on some sorbet filled mugs...DE-lish!

Empty container = sad

I stayed up til midnight (East Coast time) to ring in 2009 watching my (other) lover, Anderson Cooper, on CNN - then I called K and my parents before I headed to bed (with my pleasantly full tummy).

Work tomorrow - BOO!

feliz ano nuevo!

First day of snow!

I woke up to flurries, and the weather only picked up from there. It was nice to sip hot coffee inside, wrapped in blankets, while the snow fell outside. I only like snow when I don’t have to leave the house though, so I think I’ll be over it pretty quickly since I have work tomorrow.

With my AM coffee, I had a handful of dates, they were SUPER soft and chewy – the way I like them best.

Look at the snow! It's hard to tell how much it was actually snowing from the pics, since I'm not a whiz with the camera. In fact it's Kyle's camera, so I was just glad I managed to figure out how to turn the flash off.

Maybe I'll have my first white christmas this year?

Brrr...

Lunch. Veggie "chicken" spread.

I mixed it with some ff chobani...

Then I sliced up an apple to dip in the greek yog/"chicken" spread mixture.

It was good, in fact great, but it didn't fill me up, so I had some more spread layered on a piece of A street bread. I looooove this spread.

Still hungry, so I made up another slice (this time finishing off the spread). Mmmm...

After lunch I was full and ready to brave the storm. As I walked to the gym, I practically turned into an icicle!! IT. WAS. FREEZING. Looks like my days of outdoor running are over!

At the gym, I was kinda in a lazy mood. I really wasn't too motivated, so I turned on the t.v. and zoned out for a not-so-intense elliptical workout. Good thing ellen was on so the time flew by...I did do an above average (for me) arm work out, followed by a sub-par ab work out, and a lot of stretching. Ah well. No gym tomorrow, so at least I can rest and my muscles can get a break for a few days.

I was starving after the gym, so I heated up a bowl of creamy butternut squash soup, which I then spilled.

Since I was a klutz, I was left with only half the bowl (post spill), so I also snacked on some soy nuts. Man do I love salt.

For dinner I had "Health is Wealth" vegan nuggets. L-A-Z-Y!!

Here's my full spread. Yes, that's regular bbq sauce, HFCS and all. I'm pretty sure the carrots make up for it, though, right?

I didn't wait long for dessert. This choc sorbet was an obvious choice. I had a third of the container and then got mad at myself for eating without designating a set portion (a BIG no-no).

So then I scooped the rest of my dessert into a glass. In total, I think I had half the carton? While I'm annoyed that I didn't eat dessert very mindfully, I'm glad that I realized it and corrected the situation before it got out of hand (a problem I'm definitely not a stranger to).

Hello sugar high.

i'm thinking squash

Buenos dias! No work = sleep in day (woo hoo)!

Made a nice big frothy mug of coffee this morning. Yum yum yum. I spent the next few hours doing errands around the apartment...and I didn't even realize how much time had passed until my stomach started growling around 2 pm. Whoa! Late lunch much?

So I made a nice platter for myself with the best hummus EVAH (Sabra).

First I had some carrots and a slice of Alvarado street bread...

Then I had one more piece of bread (caked with delicious Sabra)...

And another...

And then a GN veggie burger...with a (large) dollop of hummus on top :)

Doesn't it look a bit like a hummus hairdo the way I arranged it?

Since it was UNseasonably warm today (no complaints) I decided to run outside. I ran to Central Park and did 2 laps around the lake (maybe 40ish mins total). Then I cooled down at the gym on the elliptical (level 8) for 15 mins and stretched.

For dinner, I had quite the meal planned. Thanks to Erin from Care to Eat (shout out), I was all set for my first go at cooking spaghetti squash. Look at this massive baby!!

I only sorta knew what to expect when I cut it open (which was a serious feat in and of itself)! The outside was way tougher to penetrate than I expected (that word will always sound dirty).

Here's the inside, seeds and all.

Before and aftershot. Scooping is not so fun. Reminds me of carving pumpkins. You just want to get it over with so you can start the fun part. Ordinarily I would have saved the seeds to bake (just like I did last year with pumpkin seeds) but there really weren't enough to make it worthwhile. And I'm lazy. ;)

Here's one half cleaned out and ready for the oven...

the second half was a bit bigger, so I cut it in half so the pieces would all cook evenly.

Here they are all ready in the pan (along with approx 1 cm. of water).

I don't know how long they were in the oven, I just kept checking on them until the skin was soft enough to stab with a knife.

Look how the insides are just naturally stringy! So cool!

Once it cooled I started scooping out the flesh.

BEAUTIFUL stringy noodle-y spaghetti squash!!

Here's a view of the inside mid-scraping.

And here are the skins all hollowed out.

There was so much I separated it into containers for future quick dinners.

While the spag squash was in the oven, I got to work preparing for the rest of my dindin. I decided to make a vegan spaghetti with meatballs, so I had to start seasoning the tofu with some italian spices. Sometimes I forget to mention the specific spices I use, but we have a pretty extensive spice collection, so it's rare that a recipe calls for something I don't have. Our apartment may be teeny tiny, but we are stocked with seasonings.

That's not even all of them either!

So on the tofu I used:
onion powder and flakes

garlic powder and flakes

basil

oregano

fennel seed (ew, never again)

s + p

Here's the final product. I popped a few into my mouth before everything else was ready, and they were TASTY!

Plus some of Brad's organic pasta sauce (tomato basil flavor).

Below is the first plate all together.

This deserves quite a few "holy yum"s. Each bite got better and better. I wasn't sure what to expect with the spag squash noodles, but in my opinion, they were even better than reg noodles! The big chunks of tofu were an especially great addition to the spaghetti meal.

Very much a meal I'll make again.

This was plate #2 - heavenly :) Not much tops warm comfort food in winter.

I did have room for dessert though (clearly).

But I only had a few spoons - not enough to warrant a bowl.