Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!!  Did everyone do something nice and green today? 

I contacted my hospital’s big-wigs to beg ask about an initiative promoting biking to work (and requesting to get a small protected room to store the staff hippies’ bikes).  C’mon Beth Israel, get green!!  This is something I have been trying to get going for a while, so now that the weather is getting nice, and in honor of Earth Day, I figured an extra push may be well received.  We’ll see…

You know how I rocked it out this morning…with a cuppa joe :)

And later on some grub…

Step 1: place cubed tofu in pan           Step 2: toss in spinach

Step 3: sit on your a$%                   Step 4: add in “egg”

Step 5: stir and try not to burn your tongue when you do the inevitable taste “test”

Step 6: plate whatever is leftover after you’ve scorched the roof of your mouth because of your lack of patience…and ENJOY!

 

Needed the crunch factor, too.  An apple a day, right?

Later in the afternoon, my tummy started growling, so I decided on some toast with plain greek yogurt.  I know this sounds weird, but I think I’m onto something here!!  Chobani can do no wrong.

Has anyone tried Tofutti’s “better than cream cheese”?  I kinda wanna try it, but it’s one of those products I always end up passing on while at the grocery store (in the interest of preserving my wallet/bank account).  I’d imagine it could be good on toast like my above invention.  Opinions?

(insert gym here)

I really wasn’t feeling the exercising today, so I opted for lots of mat work (arms, abs, stretching, etc.)…I’m supposed to be tapering for the half marathon this weekend anyways, so I don’t feel too guilty.

Post-gym I refueled gobbled down some perfectly crunchy carrots with my one-and-only lover SABRA.  Chunky!!  I don’t know how or why, but chunky is WAY better than smooth…plus the containers are double the size.  How can I resist?!?

We now interrupt this post with a super important topic…

Non-milk discussion

I need help.  I am getting nervous about my soymilk consumption and looking to switch things up a bit.  Gotta keep that estrogen intake in check.  Plus I know other bloggers out there are fans of a wide variety of non-milk milks.  So what are my alternatives?

• hemp milk
• almond milk
• rice milk
• cashew milk

Who has tried these and what are your opinions? Also, if you don’t like nuts, do the almond/cashew choices taste anything like nuts?  I think they are from a non-nut part of the plant, but I’ll admit, I haven’t done my research…hey, that’s what you guys are for!

Any others I’m missing?  Also, unsweetened vs. sweetened?  Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!!

Ok, back to the good stuff.  DINNER.

 

Salad challenge.  Hummbecue – because 25 servings of hummus a day just ISN’T enough for the growing girl   :)

I practically DUMPED my tofu in BBQ sauce and SABRA hummus, plus onions, and red bell peppers…although the BBQ sauce seems to be the dominant ingred by the looks of the photo.  There’s also half an avocado in there somewhere…

Dessert was quite a treat. 

This my friends, is chocolate/strawberry tofu “cheesecake” aka an “o” in my mouth…

HEAVEN!!

salad challenge kick-off

I’m not sure why it’s a challenge…since I heart salads, and welcome all motivation to get creative in the mixed greens department.  But hey, I’m not one to turn down something I can obviously succeed at a challenge.

Back to the b-fast eats.  A pile of toast with some Smart Balance light.  Note the pre-photo nibbled corner.   ;)

I need to go shopping, after living on live sprouted bread (ie Ezekiel, Alvarado street, etc) for so long, the regular whole wheat stuff just doesn’t cut it…

 

Other AM yummies: vanilla soy yog and chai tea.

My stomach is a-okay now, if anyone is concerned.  I think I had a stomach virus, and working 3 days in a row in an immuno-compromised environment only exacerbated it.  My job has the best perks!

Now I’m only 2 years behind in my half training.  Fabulous.  I’ll be sure to get right on that deficit.

In honor of salad challenge, I made myself a nice BIG bowl of greens for lunch. 

Ingredients:  fancy schmancy lettuce, brocc slaw, shredded carrots, cauliflower, brocc, green peas, and dried cranz to top it off

It was lovely.  No dressing necessary.

I had some juicy naranjas for lunch dessert while doing bridal research (I didn’t get very far into that mag…).  I’m going to be the worst bride!  My attention span is like that of a fly Jessica Simpson.

Gym time.  BAH.  No energy.

(insert whining and foot stomping)

If you are surprised by the quantity of dried fruit I had as my post-workout snack, you obviously don’t know me very well…

These mini-meals bites kinda killed my appetite for dinner.  But, we all know my lack of appetite doesn’t really matter in terms of what I eat. 

I went for AM in the PM, which I made on my BRAND NEW STOVE. 

This “kitchen” may look tiny compared to what other people are used to…but living in NYC is unlike anywhere else.  Apparently New Yorkers don’t cook, so kitchens are considered wasted space.  How sad is it that the price of my apartment at UCLA was actually cheaper and it had 5 times the space of our apartment now, as well as an enormous kitchen (that’s an actual room) with a dishwasher, an entire wall of counter space, and a normal sized fridge.  It really makes me wish I didn’t take all those years for granted…Even more sad, after living in our first place, this kitchen seems huge. 

So, as promised here are some apartment pics, since I cleaned up enough of the place today to take photos…

When you first enter the door and walk through the kitchen hub with a sink and stove, you get to our nice spacious living room.  Wall art by yours truly.  Off to the right is the guest bedroom, and through the (unpictured) doorway on the left is where the magic happens our bedroom.

Here’s the view of the kitch from the living room.  Not too bad, huh?  There is a huge closet on the other side of the door, which has become a pantry so now I can shop in bulk and have somewhere to put everything!

This is the best part :)

Ok, that’s all for now…back to the food. 

I scrambled up some “eggs” with half a tomato and half an avocado.

FOOD PORN!!

For dessert I had an english muffin with peanut butter, since I kinda OD-ed on dried fruit earlier today (who knew that was even possible).

I apologize for this photo. 

I totally mangled the thing when I was cutting it (mmm…so warm and gooey).  The rest of the decimated muffin was in my mouth before I took a picture…leaving me with 2/3 of an english muffin and enough peanut butter for a dozen. 

What to do, what to do…

I know!  I’ll eat the “leftover” PB plain with a spoon.  I’m so smart.  I’ll be expecting a call from the President any second now on how to solve the US’ economic problems.

Until then, I’ll be on the couch doing my best Jabba the hut impression.

the ER floodgates

..were open today, and I mean WIDE open (that’s what she said). 

As a result, my unit was a mad house.

Cardiac surgery is at a bit of a standstill lately (economy, where are you?), so in order to keep the money coming in, we had to make our beds available to non-ICU patients…waaaaaaaahhhhh (that’s me wailing like a baby due to my insane patient load.  I was ALL over the MAP today with diagnoses.  I mean everything from a “failure to thrive” 92 year old, to a 9 month pregnant woman with contractions every 10 minutes, EEK!  For the record, I’m a cardiac ICU nurse, I have NO clue what to do when a head is crowning from a female’s hot-pocket!!!!

Needless to say I think I burned 1,000,000 kcals at work.  No gym needed with stress filled days like today!

Maybe I should get off my soap box and stop my preaching about heart healthy diets so we can get some more open heart surgery patients (just kidding?)…kinda.

AM coffee from the bucks.

Odwalla bar + an apple for my snackety snack.

Lunch (which I barely snuck away for in the late PM) was a salad with brocc slaw, brocc, cauli, carrots, seitan, and SABRA hummus

 

and a sammie of leftovers (“eggs” and Tribe red pepper hummus)….which may seem weird and random (no argument there), but was actually really good.  As if ANYthing with hummus wouldn’t be!

I hit a HUGE wall around 6 pm, and barely made it through the last few hours of work.  Today was a 4 cup coffee day.  Yeah, I know.

Look what came in the mail!

How did the POM fairy know I just finished my latest read…perfect timing!  Entertainment for long flights never goes out of style, and since I am headed off to Ca (again) tomorrow, this will be at the top of my list.

Talk about cleaning out the depths of the fridge…dinner was more of the same (lunch repeat with a twist).  Seitan with an “egg” scramble.

 

Food porn for all y’all…

Tea and an apple for dessert.

And guess what else I FINALLY got around to doing?  Calcium/Vitamin D chews.  It’s about damn time, right?

If you know me, you know I rock my porcelain white skin like a champ, but since I live in the hospital or under a coat of SPF 500, it’s hard to get in the Vitamin D I KNOW I need.  Especially being an athletically active, white female (osteoporosis risk, check, check, check), calcium and Vitamin D should go hand in hand.  Let’s just say this is long overdue…

Anyone else take supplements? 

As for dessert?  Go big or go home, right?

Carob covered raisin love, AND a couple of coconut date rolls.

I couldn’t resist them! 

Kickin' it with the Knicks

When I woke up, it was WAY later than I expected...obviously my alarm didn't go off. Shoot! But then I made my way out to the living room (aka the only other room in the apartment that's not the bedroom), and our houseguests were all still sound asleep. No worries, I figured, they are probably just jet lagged...I made my coffee and headed back into the bedroom to sip and read blogs.

Stevia and silk makes the world go round. This mug is CRAZY big, so this was quite the caffeine load.

(Not wanting to make too much noise) I grabbed the bag of dried figs to snack on for a make-shift brekkie.

FINALLY, around 1:30 pm, I heard some movement, and was beyond relieved to find they were awake. Seriously? If I were visiting NYC, I'd be up and at 'em exploring the city way before 2 pm. But that's just me...oh well.

I emerged from my lair to get some tofu baking.

While it was doing it's thing in the oven I snacked on an apple.

Then started making some (late) lunch. I decided on an "egg" scramble sammie, so I threw some spinach on the skillet...

The tofu was done baking, so I took that out to cool (the far right ones were flavored with some Country Bob's, the others are plain).

I tossed shredded carrots and "eggs" into the mix, too.

Once it was done, I threw it on a toasted Arnold's thin...

(and 2 slices of baked tofu since it was there)

Food porn anyone?

In the words of Fergie, it was TASTY tasty!

A bit later I had some dessert (sugar).

Dates

+

carob raisins

= HEAVEN

I had way more than pictured. Uncomfortable full. This is why I should NOT have the full bag right next to me...note to self: always portion out amount and put the bag away!

(After some time to digest) I decided to go on a run outside because the waether was GORG! So sunny and bright, I could have stayed outside forever just to soak it all up.

In fact, I was so pumped up on my run I did the full loop of Central Park (~6 miles) and then some...followed by a 3 mile cool down on the elliptical at the gym. Yeah, I was THAT motivated by the weather. Reason #720,539 I need to move back to CA.

All that exercise left me way less time to get ready, I felt like the tazmanian devil - showering, blow drying, straightening, and dressing in a whirl of chaos. All this for a Knicks game!!

Ok, it wasn't just any knicks game...it was an early birthday party for Kyle - so we rented out his work's box suite at MSG.

I know all too well from previous trips to Madison Square Garden that their vegan options are non-existant. So, even though I was in a crazy rush to get out the door, I still had enough time to make a little somethin' somethin' for dinner (and shove it in my purse's hidden zipper compartment). I'm so crafty!

Red pepper hummus and greek yogurt spread on Arnold's thins, with spinach and smart deli "turkey." Not re-inventing the wheel with this one, but like I said, I was in a hurry to get out the door.

I inhaled this odwalla bar on my way to the subway.

The Knicks were (are?) really bad, but I wasn't really watching the game.

You really can't beat a birthday party in a box suite at MSG filled with your friends.

Jess and me enjoying the dancers and cheerleaders, and the score (below).

I told you, I'm as mature as a 5 year old.

I was also a couple beers deep, so that wasn't really helping...I heart B minus.

The Knicks lost :( as if I really cared, haha.

We got home pretty late, but I can't go to bed without my plate of dessert goodies.

Meanwhile everyone else had (non-vegan) brownies that I made and Kyle opened one present (his real birthday is tomorrow).

Happy early birthday Kyle!!!!