Addicted to Results 4/19 Date Night

Sangria

As usual, the morning started with a smoothie. It is not the most photogenic color, but it did it's job.  This was a blend of soymilk, cranberries, pumpkin puree, frozen spinach, carob powder, spirulina and agave syrup.

Lunch was a mix of leftovers. The seitan mushroom mix was served over mashed sweet potatoes.  I added some kalamata olives and a sprinkling of nutritional yeast.

For dinner, we went to Orza in Little Italy. This is a Persian restaurant. At the start of the meal, they provide some hummus, tomatoes and pita to split.

I had the Veggie Ghormeh Sabzi Stew which is made with red beans, green herbs and mushrooms.  You have a choice of 4 types of rice.  I picked a basmati with sour cherries. The cherries gave a great taste to the stew.  Photo was a little blurry.

 

I tried a dessert which was presented as a lemon sorbet with cherry compote.  It was not at all what I expected.  The sorbet was basically frozen grated lemon peel with a little bit of cherry juice.  That was not good and I did not finish it.  Everything else was fantastic.

Lemon sorbet

After dinner we went to Landmark Theater for a movie - Raid 2.  The nice thing about Landmark is that it has a bar.  I had a Transcendence which was a gin and tonic with blueberries.  The bartender is great and has a good knowledge of foreign films.

  After the movie we stopped by Talara for a night cap.  I had the sangria pictured at the top and we split a order of black bean hummus and guacamole.

 

Wine from dinner

 

 

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.

Addicted to Results 4/14

Hemp Protein Green Smoothie

Time for another Addicted to Results challenge at Canton Club. I will be using the blog as a food log.  I started the day with a Hemp Protein Green Smoothie.  This is a blend of water, frozen pineapple, ginger, hemp protein, frozen banana, lemon and ice.  This kept me fueled for a 3 mile and some treadmill inclines.

Lunch was a modification of the Tofu Fra Diavolo.  I did not quite have of the sauce for a serving, so I made up the difference with some Kale Salsa on top of the whole wheat spaghetti.   It worked.

A snack of banana with  almond butter spread on it, was my pre workout snack before the XPF Foundations class at the gym.  The class is a circuit of resistance training with some cardio thrown in.  Yes, I am sore today.

Roasted tomatoes

In the afternoon I made a large batch of roasted tomatoes to use for several meal.  The tomatoes were quartered and seasoned with salt, pepper and parsley and cooked in a bit of olive oil.  Once they done, a splash of red wine was added.

Barley Salad

The base of dinner was a Barley Salad.  I used some of the barley that was cooked a few days ago and added cucumber, kalamata olives, Kale Salsa, Roasted Tomatoes, chickpeas and a Lemon Vinaigrette that I had also made earlier. 

Lemon Vinaigrette

The vinaigrette is easy.  Some fresh meyer lemon juice, olive oil, salt, black pepper, and a little bit of sugar.

This is the final dish.  The Barley Salad is on top of some butter lettuce and topped with some Beyond Meat mock chicken.

Kale Salsa

Privateer Day

This was a beautiful day in Baltimore.  That meant walking down to Fells Point for Brunch and Privateer Day.  This day celebrates the small private ship owners who took up the cause of the US and attacked and boarded British ships during the War of 1812.  Some played the role of pirate and seized the goods of the boarded ships.  So there were a lot of folks walking around in pirate garb.  We started our day at Red Star for brunch. I had a spicy black bean burger with garlic fries.  Spicy and garlic are the key words here. 

 

Once home, I made a large batch of barley for future recipes.

Barley

The first of those would be a Barley Soup for supper.  I sautéed a mix of garlic, carrot, celery and mushrooms in olive oil.  Next, I added some white wine to soften and flavor the veggies.

To make it soup, I added my veggie stock, Beyond Meat 'Chicken', cayenne spice mix, pepper and green onions.   A toasted Acorn Squash Roll was toasted and we poured a little bubbly to complete the meal.

Barley Soup

 

After dinner we took a little walk to O'Donnell Square.  The plan was for some sorbet at Vaccaro's.  However they were packed and we did really want to wait.  Tommy got a pastry and the crepe shop and we were about to head home.  I wondered if Cup Love had a non dairy frozen yogurt, so we checked it out.  They did have a soft serve strawberry sorbet which I will try one day. But even better was a vegan Ginger Cupcake with pumpkin granache and banana frosting.  Great way to end the day.

Partially eaten cupcake.