Intervals
I had one of those lazy Sunday evenings filled with Dexter, comfort food and pumpkin pie ice cream. All enjoyed in my warm bed 🙂
I can’t remember the last time I just chilled out on a Sunday without homework stress lurking in my mind. It was quite blissful.
As was Monday’s breakfast.
Hello, VOOs (vegan overnight oats). I sure did miss you.
In the mix:
- 1/3 cup rolled oats
- 2/3 cup almond milk
- 1T ground flax
- splash of vanilla
- 1/2t pumpkin pie spice
- 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
- 1t maple syrup
Mix.Mix.Mix.
Topped with:
- dried cranberries
- 1t maple syrup
- sprinkle of cocoa nibs
- Justin’s Chocolate Hazlenut Butter (1t butter + 1/2t almond milk microwaved for 15 seconds)
The hazlenut did not drizzle like I’d hoped but I’m enjoying the spotted effect just as much.
Peppermint tea on the side.
By the way, I’ve managed to lose two pairs of gloves over the weekend. I’m out of control.
Lucky for me I have a 3rd pair so my hands weren’t freezing when I walked to the grocery for a couple of soup related ingredients.
With the soup simmering away (don’t worry, I’ll get to the soup later) I got on down to the work out room for a 40 minute interval workout on the eliptical. And speaking of interval workouts I also got in a great treadmill version on Sunday. Alternated between interval 4, speed 5.5 and interval 2, speed 6 (or 6.5) every quarter mile. Every mile I got water and did 2 30-second planks. I now have floor burn on my forearms…
After my workout I was hungry so I cooked up 1/4 cup quinoa to eat with Sunday night’s leftovers.
We used the Orange Pan-Glazed Tempeh recipe from 101 Cookbooks and it rocked!
Modifications (based on what we had on hand):
- store bought orange juice instead of freshly squeezed
- nixed the ginger
- soy sauce instead of tamari
- white rice vinegar instead of mirin
- garlic powder instead of cloves (because I’m lazzzy)
- 8 oz. of tempeh instead of 10 oz.
- nixed the cilantro and lime
Quinoa and steamed broccoli rounded out the dish.
We used the extra glaze to drizzle over the quinoa and broccoli but I used some soy sauce with the leftovers since there was no more glaze.
Upon finishing lunch = stuffed! Two hours later = starving again! It’s a good thing I brought a snack to work.
Looking forward to this Black Bean Soup from Cooking Light.
I used canned black beans instead of dried and doubled the recipe. I just read a review and one person said they also used canned beans so they omitted the water. Uh oh, maybe I should have done that. Hope it doesn’t taste like bean-y water!
Cookies Baking in the Kitchen
What do you get when you add sweet potato fries, coleslaw, provolone and avocado and put it between two slices of toasted bread?
An odd but awesome sandwich.
What do you get when you add an awesome sandwich and bad kitchen lighting?
A picture that does not do said sandwich justice. Therefore, I’ve decided not to post them. Night time kitchen photos make me cranky so I say no to posting anymore pictures I’m seriously unhappy with. Sorry if that means a lack of dinner photos.
And now, some day time photos.
My stomach has been acting weird since last Friday. Like it’s all tied up in knots. Not fun and I have no idea what’s causing it.
Breakfast was a GM and english muffin in hopes that it would be easy on my stomach.
Every time I drink a Green Monster I’m reminded of how GOOD they are.
It seemed to work.
Then Joey and I gave in and turned on the Christmas tunes. Usually I make it a rule that Christmas celebrating must wait till after Thanksgiving but I just couldn’t help myself.
Plus we were baking these cookies and it just all felt so Christmas-y 🙂
Don’t get me wrong, these tasted awesome but they just didn’t rise like I’d hoped 😦
Joey said they were just okay, then proceeded to eat 5, at which point he decided they were actually really good.
I’ll admit the possibility of stomach pain was not enough to stop me from eating a cookie as a snack.
I also managed to make a quick stop at the mall and get a massage. Lunch was in there somewhere.
Tahini sauce + cranberries over veggies may be my new favorite thing.
Joey and I ended Saturday with a nice date. Flowers and Harry Potter included.
Sometimes it’s nice to enjoey enjoy a meal without having to take pictures, so I did just that 🙂
Ready, break!
I’m officially on Thanksgiving break, wa-hoo!
This morning I turned down an invitation to join my mom and sister for french toast. Crazy, I know. But I wanted to sleep longer and I’m okay with eating oats.
I crushed up some graham crackers and layered them with my oats.
Topped with Justin Choco Hazlenut Buttah and mandarin oranges. Weird? Maybe, but I enjoyed it anyways.
Paper was printed, stapled and ready to go.
Lunch was inspired by a recipe I saw on Foodgawker and I’m too lazy to find it again.
Tahini Sauce:
- 1/4 cup tahini
- 1T maple syrup
- 2t lemon juice
- 1t curry powder
- Dash of garlic powder
- Dash of black pepper
Mix all ingredients.
Last night I had roasted some carrots, green beans and tofu. All tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper.
This morning I mixed the veggies with the tahini sauce and voila, lunch.
I ate the salad at room temp but heated up the tofu before I added it.
Once I packed it up for lunch I realized I forgot a crucial ingredient. Dried cranberries!
I would argue that the cranberries made the dish.
Talk about yum.
Sometimes you find inspirational notes in odd places. Like the bathroom stall. I thought this was very operationbeatiful-esque.
Does anyone else find it fascinating that foods natural come in colors like this?
To say I’ve been looking forward to making Ashley’s Veggie Behemoth: The Lover all week would be an understatement. Also I don’t know why I suddenly can’t insert links but you can find this recipe on (never home)maker.com.
It involves coleslaw. I kinda winged this. Red cabbage, honeycrisp apple, apple cider vinegar, salt and organic sugar.
Then I left it sit in the fridge for a couple hours while I dragged myself to the treadmill.
Just kidding I was actually really excited to run and got in a good 5 miles before calling it quits because it was so dark outside and it felt like 10 pm even though it was really only 5:30.
I’m off to devour a veggie behemoth and hopefully dominate trivia. Yeah right, that never happens. You’ll have to wait till Sunday to find out how the sandwich was 😛
HAPPY HAPPY SATURDAY!!!!!!!
Lauren Loves Good Food 