Addicted to Results 5/11 and 5/12

5/11

Started the day with a brunch at Teavolve.  It was a beautiful day and we walked to Harbor East with the dogs. Teavolve brunches always start with a  pitcher of red sangria.  For the meal I had the Tomato Bisque with pita slices.

That followed with a green salad made is a green tea vinaigrette.  Not the best dressing I have had. The salad also had goat cheese that I had to pick out.  The salad included tofu, almonds and dried cranberries.

We did not do a special meal for our anniversary because we ate out yesterday.  We finished the brown rice with pesto, tomatoes and pine nuts.  We did have a special bottle of wine.  We try to find a bottle from 1985 which is the year we got married.  This one is a Gruner Veltliner from Leth.

Finished everything up with one of the cupcakes.  I had the pistachio icing and white cake. (the green one.) Not nearly as sweet of the one last night which I think makes it better.

5/12

Last day of the challenge. My body is very fatigued and I am looking forward to several days away from the gym. For breakfast I had a chocolate chia granola with pecans and raisins and rice milk.

For a snack, I spread pesto and ranch dressing on a slice of olive bread.

Lunch was brown rice with the last of the tomato and corn mix and some pesto for flavor.

Cider

Today was grocery day, but I did not have time to make anything and spin class and Monday night is 24 night.  We had a quick bit at Of Love and Regret.  I started with a ginger apple cider.

I had my standby of the vegetarian Bahn Mi burrito and fries.  Later in the evening I had the last cupcake. This one was cookies and cream frosting on a chocolate cake.  This was super sweet and I cut off half the icing.

Cookies and Cream cupcake

Addicted to Results 5/3

For breakfast I thought I would change up by pancakes a little bit.  Instead of syrup I used apple butter as a topping.

I was at the gym from 8:30 to 12:30 today, so I brought a lara bar as a snack.

Lunch was a repeat of the Eggplant Tomato Sauce Sandwich with the Cabbage Slaw on the side.  The weather was wonderful and during the mid afternoon we walked up the Annabell Lee's to sit outside and enjoy the weather.  I had a cocktail and we split a bottle of wine.  We also split a appetizer of polenta with a corn sauce.

Next came an order of very spicy sweet potato fries with a brown sugar sauce. This was early in the evening, so we skipped having a regular dinner.  Later in the evening I had a small bowl of the Shepherd's Pie.

Addicted to Results 4/25

Breakfast was cereal, apple and vanilla yogurt with a little drizzle of maple syrup on top.  I use the So Delicious almond milk yogurt.  I used the Greek style which is really thick.

Lunch was a hot dog and salad. The salad was a type of slaw made with green and purple cabbage, carrot, and celery.  The dressing was vegan mayo and lemon juice which gave it a nice twang. I like the slaw, but I think adding an apple would make it much better.

For the hot dog, I used the Field Roast brand.  It has a list of all natural ingredients so it forgoes the chemical taste.  I wrapped a corn tortilla spread with ranch dress around the hot dog and squirted on some ketchup.

Dinner was a shepherd's pie and salad.  The salad was a simple spring mix with some avocado and the lemon vinaigrette.  The Shepherd's Pie was made in three parts.  First was a mushroom gravy.  The gravy started with a Earth Balance and flour roux.  I added veggie stock and rice milk for the liquid part.  After it was heated through, I added 3 portabella mushrooms, canned tomatoes, shallot, red bell peppers, parsley, thyme and garlic. I let this cook on low for 45 minutes.  The topping was mashed potatoes with Earth Balance, salt, pepper, and rice milk.  The base was saute onion, veggie crumbles and frozen peas and carrots.  The mushroom gravy was added to the base. Then the mixture was topped with the mashed potatoes.  The potatoes were a bit heavy and sunk into the base.

We had some sparkling wine with acorn squash bread before dinner and a Chianti with the meal.

Shepard's Pie

Green salad

Addicted to Results 4/20

Tea of the Day
 

This morning's smoothie was made with soy milk, frozen raspberries, oatmeal, carob powder, and hemp protein.  Good fuel for running and air yoga.  The tea is a rooibos blend that is one of the more flavorful non caffeine teas out there.

Lunch was leftovers. We finished the whole wheat spaghetti and the 'Chorizo' and Pepper Sauce.  I added some kalamata olives and nutritional yeast.

In the afternoon, we had a massage.  That felt great on my fatigued muscles. At this point, I not that sore, just tired.  After the massage went stopped by Vino in Fells Point.  We split a order of hummus and stuffed grape leaves.  I had a glass of Cava and a glass of Savignon Blanc.

I was not very hungry in the evening, so I just had some sweet potatoes with olives, seitan and vegan cheese.  I sipped on some Rose during the evening.

Addicted to Results 4/18

I forgot to start the dishwasher last night, so no smoothie this morning.  I had one serving of an Engine 2 cereal left.  This one is a super fiber blend that was made by shredding a variety of cardboard boxes.  At least that is what it tastes like.  I added some sunflower seeds, peaches and a generous pour of soy milk.  It was pretty substantial and kept me going during my personal  training session.

At lunch, I had leftover Barley Soup.  On the side I topped a corn tortilla with vegan jack cheese and olives.

Ciabatta

Dinner was the same Arugula Salad as last night.  I has a few slices of a fresh ciabatta bread from Whole Foods.  To accompany the meal, we pulled a rose champagne from the cellar.

Addicted to Results 4/17

Black Bean Hummus

The morning started with a Chia Berry Smoothie.  This one was a blend of soy milk, frozen raspberries, chia seeds and maple syrup.  It is easy to digest before gym time.

Chia Berry Smoothie

For lunch, Tommy and I went to Tavern on the Square. We split the Black Bean Hummus plate in the top picture.

The main course was a Roasted Vegetable Salad with balsamic vinegar.  The roasted veggies were eggplant, bell pepper and zucchini.

For an afternoon snack, we stopped by Cup Love.  I had the soft serve strawberry sorbet.  Sorbet does not flow as easily out of the machines as ice cream or frozen yogurt.  But it worked.  I topped it with dark chocolate chips, blackberries, oats and some graham cracker crumbs.

Arugula Salad

The main course for dinner was an Arugula Salad.  Sauteed tofu, bell pepper, celery and cannellini beans were atop a bead of arugula.  Some lemon vinaigrette was poured over.

On the side was a corn tortilla spread with sundried tomato sauce and sprinkled with  vegan cheese and parsley, then broiled. We split a bottle of a white Greek wine with the meal.

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.

Addicted to Results 4/15

 

Berry Bliss Smoothie

Breakfast was my version of Purple Haze, a Berry Bliss Smoothie.  This drink is made with a frozen banana, frozen blueberries, ground chia seeds, tahini, cacao nib and soy milk.  I did a mid morning gym workout with weights.  Today my triceps and legs feel it.

For lunch, I had one of my Black Bean Burgers on a Acorn Squash Roll. I browned some sweet onion while cooking the burger and also added vegan cheese, butter lettuce, cucumber slices, ketchup and sauerkraut.  Some of the barley salad is on the side.

After snacking on some almonds in the afternoon, I made a Spicy Sausage and Pepper Pasta for dinner.  The meat was a vegan version of Chorizo. It definitely had the spicy signature of chorizo. 

The sauce was made with onion, bell peppers, the chorizo, roasted tomatoes, red pepper flakes, kale salsa, cayenne spice mix, and red wine.

The sauce was served over whole wheat fusilli.  For an evening nightcap, we opened a bottle of Late Harvest Ice Wine.