What I Ate Wednesday #28

 

Happy What I Ate Wednesday #28, back to school.  I am so sad for me and happy for Mya today.  She begins fourth grade, and I have to see my baby move up a grade and miss her all day long.  No more “I’m hungry”, “Can we go somewhere”, “Can so and so come over”, no more ice cream wrappers and napkins laying about the sofa, no more Monster high and Lalalopsy houses built out of cardboard intruding my space, oh, how I will miss summer.  Now, all these things will occur after 3pm and on weekends! 

I love having Mya home, waking up with a smile.  Since infancy she has been a wonderful morning person, she ALWAYS wakes up smiling and happy.  We are so blessed.  Mornings have never been an issue.  Off to school will be another post, my “What I Ate Wednesday”, is the day before school preparation crunch.  These are the meals we ate while tying up all the loose ends before the big day.

After my thirty minute cardio session to wake-up, I made a berry protein shake.  I used 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, ice, 1/2 frozen banana, 1cup mixed frozen berries, two scoops vegan vanilla protein powder, 1 tbsp. chia seeds, and 1 tbsp. hemp seeds, and topped with a few tbsp. flax cereal on top for crunch.

I had a lot of office work to do this morning.  I also had to make sure I had everything that Mya needed for school, it was a long list!

I need to get to the grocery store, you know, I can almost see the shelves of my fridge, I can’t let that happen!  

I scrounged up enough ingredients to make a fabulous pot of chili for lunch.

Fresh garden tomatoes…

Helen’s Organic Soy Chorizo…

Kidney Beans and Chili seasoning…

along with some celery, onions and peppers.

This makes for a medium heat chili that a dollop of vegan sour cream can mild out for Mya.  Once the chili was cooked and we were ready for lunch, I cubed and browned up some leftover polenta squares that I made yesterday.  They were a perfect topping for the chili, along with some chopped green onions, a little vegan cheddar and some vegan sour cream.  Perfect protein packed lunch!

Around 2:30, I knew my strength training could not wait much longer, so I had to re-fuel. I made a small pina colada protein shake.  It consisted of ice, almond milk,  frozen pineapple, coconut extract, vanilla protein with hemp seeds on top and inside, I also added some dehydrated coconut.

I was glad I drank this before my workout, because I really pushed myself with much heavier weights.  I think the extra protein will help in recovery.

After some more office work, dinner was fast approaching, and I was hungry.  So hungry that I made a beautiful south west salad, and forgot to take a picture. What is wrong with me??? Here is a pic from a past similar salad.

Greens, tomatoes, onions, corn, Gardein chili lime chicken, my taco sauce/creamy Italian dressing blend.

Onto dessert, which was enjoyed in pieces through the day, peanut butter brown rice crispy treats with chocolate chips.

For me, these blow away the traditional crispy bars. They only contain four healthier ingredients:  6 cups Brown Rice Crispy Cereal, 1 cup Organic Unsweetened Unsalted Peanut Butter, 1 cup Brown Rice Syrup, and 1/3 cup Grain Sweetened Vegan Dark Chocolate Chips. Each thick large bar is about 200 calories.  I like to split mine into three pieces, one after each meal.

I just warmed the peanut butter and brown rice syrup together to loosen and blend, then pour into my large bowl of rice crispy cereal, mix until coated.  Add chocolate chips when almost completely blended. Pour mixture into greased 13x9 casserole dish.  Press down with spatula until smooth.  Cover and refrigerate one hour.  Cut into 18 large bars and enjoy!

Good luck to all the kiddies who go back to school this week, you will be missed!!!

Here is a pic from this morning…

Now that’s more like it…

I hope you all have a great Wednesday.

Polenta Squares

 

In an effort to really try not to each too much bread this week, I am exploring some alternative carbs. I was craving some pizza for lunch, so after careful consideration of all my options (Flat-outs, Middle Eastern Flat Bread, Pitas, Whole Wheat Tortillas, Portabellas, Sandwich Thins, etc.) I opted to use what I had, and go with some polenta squares with pizza like topping.

This recipe is pretty simple and can be made with whatever toppings you have on hand.  I had kale, mushrooms, onions, Field Roast sausage, pizza sauce and some Follow Your Heart Cheese.

This is the recipe I used for above pictured Polenta Squares.

Makes 18 Polenta Squares and Topping:

For the Polenta:

• 2 Cups Organic Polenta
• 6 cups Water
• 1 tsp. Sea Salt

For the Toppings:

• 8 oz. Mushrooms, sliced
• 3 cups chopped Kale
• 1 Sweet Onion, sliced
• 2 Field Roast Italian Sausage, cut half, then sliced
• 1/2 tsp. Braggs Liquid Aminos
• Mrs. Dash Garlic Seasoning, a few shakes
• 4 ounces (1/2 block) Vegan Cheese
• 1 cup Pizza Sauce

In a large sauce pan, bring six cups water with salt to a simmering boil.  Add two cups polenta, reduce heat.  Stir with whisk.  Keep heat on lowest setting and stir frequently to prevent clumping.  In about 8-10 minutes it should be thick. Prepare a 13x9 casserole dish with cooking spray.  Once the polenta is very thick, turn off heat and transfer to the prepared casserole dish.  Smooth out with a spatula.  Let cool 30 minutes until firm.

After the polenta has cooled a bit and began to set, in a skillet, Prepare topping. Cook onions until soft, move to the side, then brown mushrooms.  Once mushrooms are almost cooked, move them with the onions and add sausage.  When sausage is just about browned, move over and add kale.  To the kale, add the Braggs and Mrs. Dash garlic seasoning.  Cook until kale softens, then combine it all together and turn off.

Cut polenta into 18 slices.  On a plate, place polenta, top a sprinkle of shredded cheese, top with two tbsp. pizza sauce.  Heat it up in microwave 30 second to reheat polenta and start to melt cheese.  Remove from microwave, top with veggie mixture and serve.

Cutting into 18 squares and dividing the topping evenly, gives the following nutritional info:

Per square topped: 126 calories, 3g fat, 19 carbs, 5g protein, 208mg sodium, 3g fiber, 2g sugar!

Not bad, I ate two.

Hope you enjoy this recipe.  Have a great day!

What I Ate Wednesday #27

   

 Happy “What I Ate Wednesday!”  I hope everyone has had a great week, I know I have.  Change is in the air. My end of summer nesting has begun.  I keep jumping from project to project, and I am trying to get Mya all her gear ready for school and soccer and all the great events that take place in Fall.

I cannot believe back to school is just a few days away. As nice as it is to get back my house, six hours a day, I will miss Mya while she is in school.  No more La La loopsies, monster high dolls, stuffed animals making there way from up stairs to down stairs via all my belts tied to a basket in a make shift elevator attached to my family room balcony. 

Half eaten food, wrappers of all kinds, and lots of shoes, all missing one foot, tossed about the house, these are the things I yell about, and will miss most.   But, with Autumn, comes lots of great change as well.  New books, new shoes, new clothes, new soccer team and lots of new foods to explore.  Trading humid mornings where I can’t bear to go outside and water the garden for cool crisp mornings where you need a blanket to enjoy a steaming mug of coffee.  It has not been long since my last zucchini will have been picked and replaced with it’s much denser, sweeter, cousin, butternut squash.  Strawberries will be traded for cranberries and juicy peaches for crispy apples. The sound of bugs buzzing around at night will be drowned out by the High School football games, pep rally music, band practice, and students cheering that I can gladly hear echoing from the field across our yard. I really think I can declare my favorite season is Autumn. 

What excites you about Autumn and back to school?

With all this nesting, I have kept my meals this week pretty simple and delicious.  After cardio, breakfast was a tofu scramble.  It was a combination of peppers, mushrooms, onions, left over potatoes, one piece of Tofurky sausage thinly sliced, a few cups of kale, poached and seasoned tofu, and topped with fresh garden tomatoes diced with sweet onion.  I had a ton of running around to do yesterday, and this kept me full until noon.

After going to Ikea, then home depot, and then BJ’s, I was starved.  I gave in.  I bought us all a soft pretzel for lunch. It was hot and delicious, and I was totally guilt ridden.  No nutrients were to be found! I could not wait to get home and eat a real meal.  Once I got home, I grabbed a to-go cup of coffee and we ran to a few other places. 

Dinner, however, was full of great nutrients.  We had Amy’s veggie burgers!  I love Amy’s, no fake stuff, just lots of organic veggies and rice. Andy and Mya ate theirs on a fresh baked golden roll from our bakery, and I had mine over a bed of lettuce and tomatoes.  I sautéed mushrooms and onions to crown our burgers and loaded them up with spicy mustard, a little ketchup and some Daiya Jalapeno Jack “cheese”  These babies were served diner style with chipotle sweet potato fries on the side. YUM!!!!!

Since dinner was early, around 4:00 pm, dessert and decaf coffee were eminent around 6:00pm.  Andy had left for horseshoes and me and Mya were busy around the house.  I restored my energy with a super dense and fudgy black bean brownie.  I made these the other day and they were fantastic.  I love the dark, dense, slightly sweet, chocolate combination against the crisp walnuts.  These are completely flourless, gluten free, low in sugar and totally addicting.  You should really try one!   Mya had a Tofutti pop for desert.

You can find the recipe for these on my recipage.

That was all our meals for the day that were photographed, I did have a tiny bowl of Uncle Sam’s cereal around 8:00pm. 

I have a future recipe coming up that I have been obsessed with making, now I just have to jot it down, Coconut Creamed Kale! It is fabulous and a super nutrient power house.  Look for it coming soon.

Have a productive Wednesday! 

What I Ate Wednesday #26

 

Another fast week has gone by.  It has been full of food (especially tomatoes), fun, and some new Monster High Dolls too.

This week I realized that I have just three months until my 38th birthday. Did I just admit that? I thought since I love to work in three month blocks on my goals, this would be a perfect time to review and regroup my fitness goals and really get where I want to be.  Wouldn’t that be a great gift?  Those last three pounds gone and some new lean muscle developed.  I really have stayed pretty tried and true to my healthy eating and workout for over a year, consistently. I can see the results, I am close to being in my best shape.  Now, I really want to reach that goal by my birthday.  I want a full 6 pack, not just the shadow of one I sport now while flexing.  I want any remaining “skinny fat” abolished. 

It may sound silly, or that I am not happy with the awesome results I have already achieved, but that is simply not the case.  You see, I suffer form the 90% habit.  I am a vata, so I get bored and distracted easily.  I do everything 90% and then I move to the next thing, believing what I achieved was good enough.  For example, I was a perfectly happy B student, I do a HUGE pile of dishes and leave the last two, I vacuum around things instead of moving them, I dust around things, okay, I don’t really dust too often, but when I do, I have a bad habit of going around things, I put a huge pile of laundry away, and leave the last few clean items in the basket, you get the idea. The only thing I do not do that with is cooking a meal and my work in the bread business.  When I have a to do list, I always complete it, I think that is why I never add cleaning to the list, I would have to actually do it and then cross it off.  

So, all this rambling is to explain why I am going to put a full force new effort into my eating and training program.  I really want to achieve this goal.  I guess I feel if I let you all know about it , I might actually make it to 100% instead of just 90%!  I will be blogging a lot more of my program, recipes and results starting in September when Mya returns to school.  Okay, now that my rant is over, on to What I ate Wednesday!

Breakfast yesterday was a scramble.  I have not had a tofu scramble in awhile, I have been having lots of protein shakes for breakfast, so yesterday, I broke out the cast iron pan and made an incredible tofu scramble.  It was full of potatoes, garden peppers, onions, mushrooms, field roast sausage, and garden tomatoes along with poached and seasoned tofu.  Delicious.

I wake up every morning by 4:30am.  I enjoy a cup of coffee with Andy and we relax and catch up on a show that Mya cannot watch with us, like True Blood.  Then we both get changed and go to the basement for a half hour of cardio, elliptical for me and bike for Andy.  I cannot eat too early, so cardio, then breakfast.  After breakfast I do my weight and strength training.  Meals like this get me through until lunch. 

I used to eat 5 small meals a day like suggested by most athletes, but three good meals seems to work better for me.  although, if I eat dinner too early, some time I have some air popped popcorn for a small bowl of high protein high fiber cereal around 7pm.

It was pouring rain by lunch. The dark sky and cool air made me want soup. Since those tomatoes were still screaming my name, I thought it would be great to have grilled cheese with thick slices of garden tomatoes and onion along side some tomato soup.  It was fabulous.  I have not had that in so long.  I used Daiya block cheese sliced thin as my “cheese”.

I picked a large zucchini out of my garden and have had it on the counter for two days. I wanted to use it for dinner, but I was not feeling that inspired.  I remembered how when my grandmother had lots of zucchini from the garden she would make zucchini fries.  I thought that might be a good idea, so I whipped up some flax eggs and made a whole wheat bread crumb mixture to dip it in.  I smoked up the whole house while making these!  They were good, but not great like my grandmother made.  I think I rushed them.

Mya decided she wanted to make her own What I Ate Wednesday dinner. She made a version of Fondue.  She made it all by herself.  She melted some Follow Your Heart Monterey Jack in the microwave, she added some coconut creamer and herbs de Provence, thinly sliced Tofurky turkey, and some fresh basil. She stirred and melted until it was a perfect consistency to dip.  She cubed up whole wheat bread and dipped away.  I have to say, it was really delicious.  I was so impressed.  Considering I never made fondue before, I could not believe she knew how.  When I asked her where she got the idea, she said, “I make it all the time on this app game”.  Glad my ipad is teaching her something beside playing Office Jerk!  Here is a pic she took of her creation.

Since it is Wednesday morning when I am writing this, I thought I would show you what I actually ate Wednesday morning for a high protein breakfast.  Don’t laugh, I believe it is perfectly okay to have a veggie burger and hummus for breakfast, good thing Andy thinks so too. When you have been up since 4am, by eight, I guess it kind of is lunch!

Our breakfast this morning was a black bean burger with caramelized onions and mushrooms over shredded spring mix , more garden tomatoes sliced thick, with a nice smear of hummus on top. This was absolutely delish!

 

Thanks for reading!  I am now off to do my strength training! Happy What I Ate Wednesday!