Addicted to Results 4/16

xper

Tea of the Day

I drink a lot of tea and this is one of my favorites.  Matcha is a finely milled green tea that is dissolved directly in the water.  It is also very expensive so mixing it with regular green tea leaves in a bag gives you a taste of both at a lesser price.  It is also nice to start off with a picture of something other than another smoothie.

Green Mango Smoothie

Of course, I still started the day with a smoothie.  This is a Green Mango Smoothie. It is a blend of kale, mango and soy milk. Yes, I drink kale in smoothies.  Simple and good before a personal training time at the gym

For lunch, I topped some whole wheat spaghetti with the Sausage and Pepper Sauce that was left over from last night.  I sprinkled some nutritional yeast on top.

Chilaquiles Casserole

After my second gym trip, I made a Chilaquiles Casserole for dinner.  For this, onion, pinto beans, roasted tomatoes, corn, mock hamburger meat, and my cayenne spice mix were heated in a sauce pan.  Next, I layered corn tortillas, the bean mix and vegan pepper jack.  I repeated the layer and covered with more tortillas.  On the top, I added some roasted tomatoes, kale salsa, and pepper jack.  Then the dish was baked to heat it through.

After dinner we had another dessert wine.  These are nice because the bottles are about one quarter the size of a regular bottle of wine and low in alcohol percent.  This is one we picked up at the Reif Estate Winery at Niagara on the Lake in Ontario ten years ago.  It has been aging in our cellar and had the look of scotch when poured in a glass.

You know you wanted a dog picture.

Date Day

After being up until the early AM from the midnight run, Tommy and I sleep in late.  We have not done that in a long time.  First order of business was to take the dogs to Pooches and Purrs for daycare and baths.  They were fluffy and nice smelling when we got them back in the evening.

Pear Melon White Tea

Then it was off to Brunch at Teavolve.  It has been a couple of months since we ate there. I started off with a pot of Pear Melon White Tea.  The melon flavor was dominant - it was like drinking a hot honey dew melon. One of the reasons we love Teavolve is for their Red Sangria.  The drink is made with roobios tea and for my tastes, the best sangria in Baltimore.  Also, it is half price by the pitcher at brunch.

Red Sangria

Teavolve is also vegan friendly.  The soup of the day was a Tomato Rice Soup made without cream.  The tomato flavor is more intense without the dairy.

The soup was followed by the Marinated Tofu Salad with a warm, spicy vinaigrette. These two items were enough to fill me up, especially with all the liquids.

Tofu Salad

After a lingering 2 hours of food and drink, we wandered into Harbor East for some shopping.  Tommy needed some new athletic shoes, so we headed into the Underarmour store.  He now has some florescent yellow shoes for the gym.  While we were there, we added a tee shirt and a sweatshirt. Next up was Urban Chic to replace Tommy's jeans that disintegrated a weeks ago.  I added in a sweater for myself.  A pair of socks at City Sports finished the shopping.

After all that shopping, we needed a drink.  Of course, we headed to Wit & Wisdom.  Tommy love the Japanese scotch and the wine choices are always great.  While we were, we ran into some friends who were doing a wine tasting.  We had the chance to have a drink with them before heading out to pick up the dogs.

Wit & Wisdom

A few days ago in the Highlandtown area, a woman was stabbed to death during a home invasion.  One of the FB entries I read while at Wit & Wisdom mentioned that she was a bartender at Shiso Tavern.  We have a favorite bartender there that was about the same age and we were worried that the victim was her.  We always sit at the bar and she takes good care of us.  There was a huge sigh of relief when we walked in and she was tending bar.  The victim worked there part time and was not someone we had seen before.  After talking about what happened, we had some dinner.

Sushi

I started with  the vegetarian sushi.  Tofu and veggies are on the inside and cucumber is wrapped around the seaweed.

Miso Soup

The sushi was followed by Miso Soup.

Spring Rolls

The last dish was some Vegetable Spring Rolls with a spicy sweet and sour sauce.  After that it was time to go home.  All in all, this was a great Date Day.  It is nice to have a relaxing day with no obligations. We rarely eat out these days, so it makes a day like today so much better.

Make it so Number One - Tommy in the Captain's chair

Addicted to Results 4/26

Jack the cockapoo

Workout - Spin
1 hour walk
Kettlebells
The pain level has finally subsided. Now I  can push myself a little more.

Breakfast - Smoothie made from orange juice, coconut milk, soy protein and flaxseed.

Lunch - Veggie saute with garlic collard greens on a fat free tortilla.

Snack - maple granola. I tend to graze on this during the day.

Dinner - Black bean burrito and roasted potatoes.

Leftovers are boring, but don't I have the cutest dog ever?

Comfort food

Today was a very cold day.  I took the dogs for a walk when the wind chill was 5 degrees.  It was so cold Jack crawled under a blanket on the couch. Cold days are great for comfort food, which is what I did for breakfast and dinner.

Breakfast was a Huevous Ranchero using tofu for the eggs.  It was served on a tostado with my salsa.  On the side were Garlic Kale Hash browns made from what the name implies, garlic, kale and potatoes.

For lunch I made a Chickpea Salad from chickpeas, red bell pepper, celery, apple, capers and parsley with a tahini based dressing.  I had a piece of my peasant bread on the side.

One of the best ways to keep the house warm without turning up the heat is to have something simmering on the stove for several hours.  I made 3 quarts of vegetable stock from veggie pieces that I keep in the freezer.  Whenever I am prepping vegetables, the ends or stalks or other pieces that we don't eat are stored in a plastic bag.  When I need stock, I empty the bag into a 5 qt. pan, add water, and simmer for several hours.  I strain the liquid into a large pitcher and have enough stock for a couple of weeks of soup and rice.  I also made a large batch of Sweet Potato Lentil Chili with onions, sunchokes, garlic, crushed tomatoes, sweet potatoes, lentils and black beans.  I roasted some tortillas sprinkled with garlic and onion powder as an accent.

What was nice about the meals was that I didn't miss meat or eggs at all.  Everything was warm, tasty and filling.

Football Weekend

I started out the day  with a repeat of yesterdays Ginger Banana Smoothie.  For lunch I toasted some corn chips to go with a Mango Salsa. That was paired with a salad made from what is leftover in the fridge.  It had romaine, cauliflower, grape tomatoes, cucumber, almonds, blueberries, chickpeas and carrot.

Our afternoon plan was to watch the Baltimore - Denver game at the Lighthouse Tavern.  However, the crowd was just too much for us.  We spoke with the bartender the next day and she stated it was the biggest day in the history of the bar.  So we ended up watching the game at home. Of course, that also meant that we ended up drinking more, 2 bottles of wine to be exact. At half time I microwaved some of the leftover Chickpea Ratatouille.  After the game, I had a peanut butter and cherry preserves sandwich on whole wheat bread. Later that night I snacked on a Oatmeal Banana Bite.  Oh, and the Ravens won 38-35.

Sunday started out lite with a Oatmeal Banana Bite and some peanut butter.  For lunch we thought it was just warm enough to eat outside the dogs.  We ventured to Mama's on the Half Shell which has outdoor seating most of the year.  The menu was not the least bit vegan friendly.  The only option besides combing sides was on the kids' menu.  I had pasta with marinara sauce and a side salad. It was good, but I now know it is the only thing I can eat there.  That is a shame since it was one of our go to places for eating out with the dogs that was also in walking distance from home.

Dinner was more emptying out the fridge. I roasted a batch of Kale Chips and mixed the last of the Chickpea Ratatouille with the Couscous with Peas and Carrots. 

Today was the second time this week I have had a migraine.  I usually have one a month.  I hope the change in diet is not a cause.

Leftovers

For the next few days I will mainly be eating the leftovers from the last week.  I started the day with the last of the Apple Oatmeal.  For lunch I had the Balsamic Zucchini Sandwich which was the last of the zucchini, bean and pepper spread, and corn rolls. Also I had a bowl of the Wild Rice Soup that I made before the Kickstart Program.

Dinner was leftover Moroccan Bean Stew with Sweet  Potatoes and Couscous.  That was finished up as well.  I snacked on an Oatmeal Banana Bite and some Facon Bacon.  I think I was a little hungry because of the low calorie count yesterday.

On of things I do for my dogs is make dog food. I buy meat that is on sale at Safeway and mix it with eggshells, and veggie pieces and vitamins.  It feels strange buying 3 family packs of chicken breasts (this week's special at $2.69 a pound.) when I am not eating meat. The eggshells were from the veggie omelet I made Tommy last night since he did not like my meal. I know there is vegan food for dogs, but I can't imagine given that to dogs.  They love their fresh meat, (I cook it because Jack will not eat raw.) and vegan dog food is heavy on brown rice.  Jack has always had an adverse reaction to rice.  So I will continue to chop up meat, throw it in the food processor  and bake it.

Cute Dog Day

Nothing exciting today, just some good basic meals. But who doesn't like a picture of two adorable dogs?  I started with a Tofu Breakfast Scramble and some fresh berries.  Turmeric makes the tofu look like eggs and some potato was added to the dish.

Lunch was an Artichoke and Tomato Salad over greens with chickpeas and almonds and a the last of my ginger vinaigrette.

Dinner was an Oven baked cauliflower with garlic and tamari and Couscous with peas, carrots, peppers and onions and some red wine vinegar.

For an evening snack I tossed some fresh strawberries with balsamic vinegar.

I only had 985 calories today, but it didn't seem that low.  I had more fat than usual because of the almonds in my lunch salad.   My other stats -

Fat -       37 g      31%
Carbs -  133.2 g  49%    Fiber 39.1 g
Protein -  53.2 g   20%