Wanted: juicer

I NEED A BREVILLE!!!

Literally, every day I wake up, sigh, and think of the fun Andrea and Jenna (and countless others in the food blog world) are having (that I’m missing out on)…

I even have ingredients planned out in my head.  I wish I could just win the lottery, I have so many plans for $$ in other peoples’ bank accounts.

 

Instead of juice, I started out my day the way I always do…talk about withdrawal issues.

Thank goodness we braved the storm last night, fresh ground coffee is worth soaking wet hair any day of the week!

I might as well have just dumped the Smart Balance light on this!  My english muffin was practically swimming in vegan butter!

Today was a snack-y kind of day, rather than make myself actual meals, I pretty much just grazed through the day.  The peach flavored chobani yogurt is tied with strawberry for favorite flavor.

Later I noshed on some nori rolls (aka the best vegan sushi), with textured protein, carrots, spinach, and brown rice.

Some pre-gym energy (aka coconut date rolls).

Some post-gym replenishing (aka frozen grapes).

My dinner was a salad from Vcon (aka The Bible).

 

I made a few changes to the Creamy Asian Pear and Tempeh Salad with Wasabi Dressing…first of all, I used an apple instead of pear, and secondly, I omitted the wasabi powder because I couldn’t find one that didn’t contain 8 thousand chemicals.  Also I left the tempeh in chunks (rather than crumbling them like the recipe called for) because I like different textures in my salads.

 

I used the second half of the LightLife three grain tempeh I had leftover, and steamed it with peas and then added in the dressing to get this…

Which I added on top of the salad to create a perfect, crunchy, delish meal.  Mmmmm…

  

(I don’t think I can give the recipes for the dressing or salad since it’s basically straight out of Vcon) but it was pretty simple and (as the rest of the recipes are) a total success!  DE-lish!

SOOOOO good – and keep in mind this is from the girl who is still on the fence about tempeh   :)

After chowing down my salad, I enjoyed last night’s tivo-ed Gossip Girl, followed by the best blog ever’s recap.  Does anyone else read the clever witty NY mag GG commentary?? …because I’m addicted!  It’s almost better than the show.

Deezer was a no-brainer, I filled my plate to the brim with coconut date rolls, carob raisins, and dates (because I can’t have just one).

What did you expect?

Click here to  Win a doormat!  But be careful because if it’s too cute, it’ll get stolen like Dori’s!!

Also, before I forget, anyone and everyone please send me recipes with miso paste.  A few people (ahem, Courtney) mentioned they know recipes that include this salty crap miso paste, and since I have about 389 servings to use up, you all have the potential to be my savior…so step up to the plate, PLZZZ!!

those mines aren’t going to sweep themselves

Oh sweet Sabado!!!  I love weekends!

Coffee + crossword = life is good.  Did I mention my BOYFRIEND is coming home today.  China has had him far too long. 

I broke the fast with PB puffins…

What a heavenly bowl of cereal.

In keeping with the nut-butter theme…

I had a heaping spoonful of soynut butter with some apple slices.

Food porn.

Since yesterday’s was so good…

Fresh melon + frozen grapes + soy yogurt

I even added in a splash of POM :)

Later I had a GN (Gary Null’s) veggie burger with hummus.  They make these kinds of veggie burgers daily at my local health food store – so for those who have asked where to get them, I had no idea…I haven’t seen them anywhere else.

On the side I had (one of) my newest obsessions (quinoa and peas with hummus).

I think it deserves a Holy-Yum!  (yup, it’s THAT good)

Time to work out.  You know the drill.  Today was an EXTRA special day of fitness though.  WHY you ask?  Because it was 67 degrees outside!!!!  Central Park was bustling with runners and bikers and walkers.  Families were out and about, and it *almost* felt like spring.  Oh man, I can’t wait for this weather to stay for good.  I had a great 55 minute run, and came home drenched with sweat (seriously I was disgusting).  But the important part was that I was dripping in a tee-shirt and shorts :)

As usual, I got back home and needed nourishment, stat.  Dried fruit sugar to the rescue.

I had yucky non-sugar cookie sleigh ride tea.

Vegan meal starter indeed!  MorningStar is pricey, but they deliver!

I sauteed the “chik’n” strips with broccoli slaw and mixed it in with quinoa.  It was SOO good it could have been a meal on it’s own, in fact, look for it again, it may be a new fave.  It was very quick and easy, and nutritionally, it was perfectly proportional. 

Of course I had vegan sushi (textured protein and veggies) as well.

I think my home-made sushi was better, even if it was actually a sushi burrito.

I needed an apple for the texture.  Sometimes a girl needs a little crunch.  That, and I hadn’t had one yet today.

Is this platter ridic or WHAT!  I had just been grocery shopping, so I wanted to sample a little bit of everything.  You understand.

rolls in my tummy

Woohoo...I finally made my own sushi! It's been on my 2009 to-do list, and we all know how much i LOVE checking things off lists :)

But that's dinner, and I'm type A, so let's get back to the beginning, already!
Coffee (duh).

Note: snow on the window (still)

Brekkie wrap: soy bacon, "eggs" and avo in a flax wrap-up

Jealous? You should be, it was bomb.com

My coconut date rolls look like a reverse AT&T ad (or whatever company it is that does the "more bars in more places" ad) - that's what she said!

For lunch I had a bowl of sugar (aka vanilla o'soy yogurt mixed with POM and chopped up figs)

And a plate of sugar (aka melon)

And another plate of carbs (aka Alvarado street bread with sabra CHUNKY hummus)

Again, I skipped the gym. I'm a lazy ass. There's not really any other way to put it.

I guess it did give me some extra time to make a nice dinner for myself (silver lining?)

First I grilled some asparagus in the oven (nuthin but salt)...

Then, I got out all the ingreds to MAKE my own sushi!!!! Seriously, this has been on my to-do list for-EV-er. But, I didn't go with conventional sushi ingreds. I'm way more crafty.

This roll contained quinoa, greek yog, hummus, grilled asparagus, tofu, avocado, and carrots.

YUM!!!!

The only problem with my rolls were their inability to slice (the knives weren't sharp enough to cut through them), so I ate it burrito style. Once a gringo, always a gringo.

My second roll was the same, but BIGGER (and with more hummus).

I got lazy though, so after this I took the left-overs and made it into a pretty presentation.

Um, not to toot my own horn or anything, but...is this a cute little dish or what? Bring it Tom Colicchio! Hummus and quinoa all mixed together is prob my new fave thing.

Chopped and zoomed.

For dessert I added a mountain of soynut butter to a VitaTop choc/peanut butter muffin. Can't go wrong with this combo!!!

Work tomorrow. Remember what that is? I don't...

Valentine’s day = chocolate overload

So, I’m not a huge Valentine’s Day person.  In fact, I pretty much refuse to “celebrate” on the actual day.  It’s not that I’m anti-romance, it’s just…I don’t need a designated day of the year to display my affection, I love Kyle all year long (and I make sure he knows it all year long)!!!

That said.  HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!!!!!!

I worked today.  What can I say, work was work. 

Lunch:  sammie with every color bell pepper

 

Other treats: carob raisins, dried fruit mix, dried pineapple, dried figs, apple, odwalla bar, and lots of silk-ified coffee

Let the record state – carob covered raisins and dried fruit together are my idea of HEAVEN 

I also picked up a little treat from the ‘bucks while I was there.

FYI, I’ve literally been to 8 different stores this week looking for SF vanilla syrup, too bad the thought to ask starbucks where I can get some didn’t occur to me a bit sooner…anyways, when I went in to ask them, they said, you can buy it here directly from us.  Heyo!  If only I’d know that before hitting up every store on the upper west side!  I can’t WAIT to add this to my morning coffee.

Like I said, V day is bad for a chocoholic…(even though I now consider myself a reformed caroboholic) – haha, I actually typed carboholic just then (which is equally accurate in describing me)

Half a bar my co-worker shared with me…(I managed to avoid all the bombitters (aka almonds)

My commute home was INFURIATING, but in honor of Valentine’s Day, I’ll keep the venting to myself and channel loving thought (just know that the weekend subway sched BLOWS)

Dinner: texturized vegetable protein (vegan) sushi rolls

Plus, vegan soy-tein with spinach

(which I combined with the last of the Fage greek yogurt – nom nom)

Dessert was none other than chocolate! 

Chocolate Tofu cup ingredients: tofu, maple syrup, cocoa powder, rice, orange zest, pure vanilla extract, sea salt

Vanilla Tofu cup ingredients: organic tofu, maple syrup, lemon zest, sea salt, cinnamon

**no oil, no sugar, no gluten – pure vegan deliciousness :)

The vanilla one was SO SO good, but the chocolate one was just so-so…the best part is the pure ingredients, so I didn’t feel remotely guilty.  I hope this dessert wasn’t just a V day special because I could definitely see myself getting this 7 nights a week :)

(clearly)

This cute card pretty much wraps up my day…