green MASH(ine)

Let’s get down to it.  Woke up at 4:45, hopped on the subway, fueled up at the ‘bucks, and started my day.

Do I really need to explain these?  My work day eats are so boring and repetitive.

 

I’ll admit, it’s a little heavy on the dried fruit…but my fiancé is in the Jerz for a conference, so…you know…(wink wink)

I had lots of coffee, too.  It was v. necessary since I was yawning at a rate of 7 times/minute.

The day was pretty chill…there were no cases today, and my other patients were all post-op day 4 or longer, so it was smooth sailing.

I got home a little after 8…and I was hungry hungry.

Left to right:  Ocean Spring Harvest to Heaven mixed veggie chips (NOM), steamed broccoli, shroomies, petite carrots, and the most delicious hummus EVAH!!!

To rewind a bit…as I alluded to yesterday, I did a bit of cooking spent the day in the kitchen creating some fun new treats for the week.

Into the blender went 2 c. chickpeas, 1/2 c. edamame, 1/4 c. olive oil, 1/2 c. unsweetened plain soymilk, and a dash of salt.

WoW! 

I know it looks like something Sarah might find in Livy’s diaper, but try to look past that…(note: this is the second time the LovIN kids’ poop has been referenced in my blog…I may need to re-vamp my eating habits, or, at the very least, my presentation). 

Whatever.  My mom taught me you should never judge a book by it’s cover, so until you try it, you can’t knock it.

And trust me, you won't knock it after you try it.  This is a HOLY YUM worthy recipe, furreal.

I dipped each and every vegetable in the lovely green mash, and I even managed to polish off the entire second half of the veggie chips with it, too.  Mmmm…green MASH :)

Dessert was in the fresh AND dried variety! 

Bedtime!  Back to the grind manana!

Winter squash, winter weather

Hi Kids!  How are you all on this fine Monday!  I’m feeling pretty fab myself, despite the 50 degree weather.  I thought winter was over, but apparently not…

After yesterday’s late night grub sesh I thought I wouldn’t be very hungry until later in the morning, but I woke up with the same hankering appetite as usual. 

I guess that just goes to show you, when you listen to your body (even if it tells you it wants 4 Vita Muffins with peanut butter at 11 PM), you can’t do too much damage.  I’d also like to note, I never felt stuffed or uncomfortably full at any point last night, despite the fairly obscene quantity of dessert consumed.  I’m not sure if my metabolism was just in overdrive or what, but I had to give in.  Don’t we all have those days – when no matter how much we eat, we aren’t satisfied?  At least I hope I’m not alone…

Some days I eat a meal, and literally less than 30 minutes later, my  stomach is growling!  What?!  How is that possible?  Rather than deprive myself, I just chalk it up to my crazy metabolism (and then thank the Lord that it hasn’t stalled out on me yet).  I guess I should be pleased that I still have the ability to burn off my chow sessions with a little extra cardio.

But I digress…

Coffee up the YingYang.

I was buzzed out of my MIND after this cup.  What the heck did Kyle do to the coffee this morning?!  I was seriously having an out-of-body experience, I was so jacked up on caffeine. 

I immediately had to get something else in my tummy.

Some breakfast math.  1 vanilla Chobz + plum + honeydew + cantaloupe + watermelon = creamy fruit salad

Mmmm…

This was THE BEST breakfast I’ve had in a long time, and although it seems pretty basic, it rocked my world and got my morning off to a GREAT start.  Sometimes simplicity gets a bad rap.  In all honesty, these are pretty much the same ingredients I have in the AM every day, I just decided to mix them together today. 

Remember this old friend?  Yes, I went back to my favorite sandwich for lunch.  Smart deli “turkey” – how I missed you!  I don’t know why we were apart for so long, let’s never fight again.  Spinach and hummus also made their way between the Alvarado Street bread. 

I also snacked on a few dried pineapple rings before heading to the gym.  Unlike yesterday, today’s trip was one I was REALLY excited about. 

Stats:  elliptical (levels 10 – 11) – 15 minutes (warm up)

          treadmill (6.5 – 7, incline 3.5) – 30 minutes

          elliptical (levels 11 – 12) – 45 minutes

          arms/abs/thighs – 15 minutes

This felt AMAZING!  I left the gym on cloud nine. 

Since I work most of the rest of the week, I decided to make the most of my day off. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon/evening in the kitchen…so be prepared for some delish eats in the next few days.

To start I made KABOCHA!!  I’ve been drooling over Maggie’s kabocha meals for a while now, so I just had to make some of my own.  Talk about perfect timing now that it’s the BSI!!

I baked it in the oven and it was EASY as pie.  Minimal fuss (nonstick spray and salt) works for me!

It was done in no time, so I sprinkled on a little vegan parm and dug in.  I think I might have a new favorite squash – Y.U.M.  It was so tender and tasty.  I could definitely see this being easily incorporated into several other recipes (quinoa, couscous, vegetable roasts, salads, etc.).  Thanks for introducing me Maggie!

I also steamed some cauliflower for another blogger inspired dish.

Vegan mashed “cheesy” cauliflower. 

After I steamed the cauliflower, I let it cool a bit, and then tossed it into the blender with some unsweetened soy milk, vegan parmesan, and salt.

I ate dinner on a TV tray since Kyle is away on business.  In addition to the bowl of the mashed cauliflower, I also had a veggie burger and steamed green beans (also with vegan parm).

Anyone even seen or tried this kind of veggie/vegan burger before?

It was a new purchase for me, but I figured it would be good since it’s made by Food For Life (and they certainly hit the jackpot with the Ezekiel products). 

I gotta be honest here.  It wasn’t my favorite burger. 

Pros:  It was filling and the nutritionals are stellar, plus they don’t cost as much as other brands.

Cons:  It was a little chewy with not much texture, and the flavor wasn’t anything I’d write home about.

Look at these beauts!!  Cucarachas stuffed with carob covered raisins will never go out of style :)

I also had a few more dried pineapple rings and papaya spears…while perusing the shown cookbook which was a gift from a co-worker.  I got some good ideas for (raw) Wednesday in it!

Ok, time to pack up my eats for tomorrow.  The catch some zzzz’s.

hummus soup

Sundays = the end of the weekend

SAD!

Unfortunately, this Sunday was especially blah. The cloudy, overcast weather pretty much reflected how I felt. 

Enter caffeine love.

In the interest of preserving my current mood, I’m going to stop reflecting on yesterday’s thoughts…just know I was kinda a Debbie Downer all day.  I’m not sure why, as there was no true reason I should feel gloomy – I was just stuck in a funk.

Blueberry chobz + dried papaya spears + apple slices + melon = pretty fruity breakfast!

After my AM sugar loading, I headed to the gym.  I wasn’t even remotely interested in working out, and I had to drag myself there in the hopes that I’d get pumped up once my foot hit the mat.

…yeah, that didn’t happen.  I eked out 60 (weak ass resistance filled) minutes on the elliptical before heading home.  Sure, I stretched a bit, but you can bet your ass I slipped all abs/arm exercises.

I was starving when I got home, and really wanted carbs…rather than inhale a loaf of bread (which I could have easily done in less than 5 minutes flat), I took a little timeout to really think about what I wanted. 

As Bethenny says “check yourself before you wreck yourself.”

So this was my attempt to eat mindfully, and practice my favorite Housewife’s NY Times Best Selling tactic…while making sure I had what I wanted, without going crazy.

 

In the end, I decided to make some hummus.  No recipe used, just chickpeas, EVOO, and salt to taste.  It was a bit runny, but I ‘aint complainin’ (all the better to drink you with my dear).

I dipped 2 pieces of my favorite carb (Alvarado Street bread, obv) into the hummus soup.  I DIE.

Carb check!  Even though I wanted 10 more pieces of bread, I decided to take a little break and had a seitan cutlet to get some protein.

But in the end, I knew I was not going to be satisfied unless I had more bread.

Here was round #2

It was effing tasty too, but I felt like I was sloshing with chickpea soup after having TWO full bowls of hummus.

Food coma.

I was tired after all that food, so I took up residence on the couch.  It was delightful to just curl up in a blanket and doze off.  I watched the Prez speak at Notre Dame, finished my book, and read blogs for the better part of the afternoon.

I had some munchies, too.

Snacky day much?

I wanted to get in my greens for dinner, so I loaded a plate with the usual suspects (cukes, sprouts, tomatoes, carrots, and 1/2 an avocado on a bed of spinach).

Along with…

You guessed it!  The last of the hummus (note: I made this less than 4 hours before).  Sick?  Or super?

And yet, I STILL wasn’t satisfied!  WTF?

This is when the day took a turn (for the worse).  I’m not gonna lie, it got a little ugly.

My sweet tooth was calling, and I answered.

And answered.

And answered.

And answered.

You get the point.

So, there you have it.  Dirty laundry aired.  Given the time of the month, it’s not really that surprising?

I mean, I’m not pleased, but I’m not going to let it ruin me, so Monday is a new day and hopefully my cravings will have died down (at least a little bit).

MY place

Workity work.

I was up with the cock-a-doodle-doo this morning…I’m not sure why, but for the fifth day in a row I woke up at 4 am on the dot (without my alarm even going off).  Whatever.  I dragged myself to the subway, and woke up a bit more along the way…

What’s there to say.  Work was work was work was work.  I was craaaazy busy all day, but not really in a good way.  I felt like I was in slow motion and I couldn’t get myself organized, which is so unlike me.  Blah.  I don’t wanna talk about it anymore.

This is for you Courtney!!

The one and only, seaweed salad!  The ingredients read: organic seaweed, organic sesame seeds, organic ginger, organic green onion, organic tamari, and sesame oil.

It is SO good.  Although a bit on the oily side, I usually mix it with other things (salad, veggies, etc.) which neutralizes it a bit…or at least greases up the rest of my food…

Here it is in today’s lunch salad:

Other tuperware attendees included spinach, clover sprouts, broccoli slaw, shredded carrots, dried cranberries, raisins, and heart of palm.

The rest of my packed goodies: Newman’s Own dried apricots, berries gomega odwalla bar, apple, dried mangoes, and Ocean Spring’s harvest of heaven fruit chips.

I was still starving by the time I got off work…

TGIF!

For dinner, Kyle and I decided to do a little something special.  Friday night dinner date!  After I got off work we met for some bomb ass grub at….HUMMUS PLACE

Be jealous.  Be VERY jealous.  It was a cozy little place, but believe me, what it lacked in space, it made up for ten-fold in flavor!

Falafel balls, hummus masabacha (whole chick peas, olive oil & spices), quinoa salad, lebane, hummus tahini (tahini, olive oil & spices), and the most amazing, PUFFY, whole wheat pitas on earth!

Ummm, yeah, it was horrible.

We enjoyed the nice weather and walked home…

And as we both made playlists for our 10K tomorrow morning, I enjoyed this plum and a bowl of dried cranberries and carob covered raisins for dessert.