What I Ate Wednesday #51

 

Happy WIAW! I hope you are having a great week!

What a day in meals.  I enjoyed each one so much, I could not name a favorite.

I began my day with some coffee followed my 45 minutes of cardio. By the time I was done, I was so hungry, a shake was not going to do.

Instead, breakfast was rye toast with smashed avocado then topped with tofu egg, and a little bit of Daiya cheddar with a sprinkle of sea salt and pepper.

 

Andy and Mya had A tofu egg, “ham”, and Daiya cheese sandwich on rye toast.

While cooking breakfast, I had some oatmeal muffins baking in the oven for later.  They were pretty easy to make and they tasted good, but I probably would not make them again.

 

They were basically a combination of rolled oats, mashed ripe banana, apple sauce, cinnamon, vanilla, walnuts, dates and some chocolate chips.  I think some protein powder would have been a good addition to these little baked oatmeal cups. 

Breakfast was followed by my strength training session, then some office work. I was hungry and exhausted after an unsuccessful negotiation  with the cable company. How annoying!

My annoyance turned to happiness, I was pretty excited for lunch.  Besides being so hungry, I could not wait to make some spring rolls and have another bowl of miso soup I made yesterday.

The filling for my spring rolls was a mixture of leftover Asian broccoli slaw, shredded red cabbage, finely chopped spring mix, finely sliced sweet red peppers gently tossed with some Asian dressing I made from sesame oil, soy sauce, miren and rice vinegar. I also used some sliced avocado and baked tofu in my rolls.

I soaked the rice paper wrappers in warm water and then laid them on a paper towel and began building. First, some avocado, then slaw and tofu.

Next, roll up and viola, spring rolls just like I buy at Wegman’s.

This was a light and refreshing lunch that gave me the energy to get through my afternoon. 

While I made lunch, I also prepped for my dinner. Chopping onions, celery, carrots, and potatoes. I sautéed them in a little coconut oil with some herbs and spices before adding some frozen peas, carrots and diced Gardein chicken in my cast iron Dutch oven.

Then I made a “chicken” flavored creamy sauce that started as a béchamel.

I poured it into the par cooked veggies.

Since I had some errands to run, I covered it with a lid and turned the heat off. I wanted to be able to just come home, pour it into a casserole and into the oven for a quick dinner.

Can you guess what I was making for dinner?

When I came home, I poured the thoroughly coated veggies into a casserole dish.

Then this lovely dish of veggies and creamy sauce was covered by an uncooperative pie crust. I cut out some heart shapes in the crust to keep with being festive for Valentine’s week!

It was put in the oven and baked for 50 minutes to perfection. While this beauty baked, I snuck in another 40 minutes on my elliptical.

Total deliciousness!

Save room for dessert! Keeping festive, I melted some coconut oil, added raw cacao, and agave and blended into chocolate.  I poured a little of the mixture into heart shaped silicone cupcake molds.

Then, I popped them in the freezer for 10 minutes before taking them out to fill them with a secret peanut butter mixture, and top them with some more liquid chocolate.  Back in the freezer for 15 minutes. And then, heart shaped peanut butter cups for dessert!

I hope you enjoyed these meals! I know we did. Have a wonderful Valentine’s Week!

What I Ate Wednesday #50

 

Welcome to What I Ate Wednesday #50!

Almost a year of WIAW’s, I cannot believe it.  These weeks have just flown by.  Glad you could stop by to check out today’s eats.

As much as I wanted my usual shake and avocado toast, I decided to not be boring and try something radically different this week….cherry soy yogurt Parfait with avocado toast. Not boring at all, see…

I blended some plain soy yogurt with my favorite Cherries Jubilee Spiru-tein Protein.

Soy yogurt can sometime be thin, and I like it thick, like Greek style.  The protein powder takes care of that. It turns the yogurt into thick, rich, sweet cherry yogurt. YUM.  I put some yogurt in the bottom of my glass, then I layered in some chia seeds, followed by hemp seeds, then some defrosted wild blueberries. A little more yogurt, then some Uncle Sam cereal mixed with flax granola. One more dollop of yogurt topped with the remainder of blueberries.

I then had to place it in the fridge in anticipation for daylight so I could photograph it in natural light before I could devour it. I could not wait to eat it! I broke down and had avocado on protein bread while I waited.

I was starved after 45 minutes on the elliptical.  

This was a nice change of pace from a shake.  Andy and Mya really enjoyed it as well. 

After breakfast I packed Mya’s lunch and we got her off to school.  Upon returning home, I psyched myself up for my strength training session.  Upper body today.  I am so sore from yesterday’s leg training, I could barely walk up the stairs this morning.  It was a good feeling.  I vowed to amp up my workouts considering summer will come fast, and I want to be ready.  I also did a super hard abs workout yesterday which left me in pain with every sneeze today.  I am just getting over a little cold.  Anyway, I cranked up the music and got to it.

While I was working out, my lunch was in step one preparation, cook some wheat berries for Wheat Berry Salad.

I love to use wheat berries because they are a true whole grain and they are high in protein and fiber, 6 grams of each per 1/4 cup uncooked! Wheat berries are hearty and chewy and I enjoy them more than rice or pasta for cold salads.  They take almost one hour to be done, so they cooked while I pumped! 

I drained them and added 1 can of rinsed and drained white beans for even more protein and fiber.  I put them in the fridge to cool down. Next step, make some lemon vinaigrette. I mixed up some lemon juice, agave, Dijon, oil, parsley, vinegar, salt and pepper in my bullet until emulsified.  Then I poured it onto the almost cool wheat berries to let it marinate while I chopped up the veggies.

Cucumber, tomatoes, onion, olives, artichokes, marinated mushrooms, grilled asparagus, and mixed peppers were the veggies I used.

I made some tofu feta yesterday so it could go into todays salad.

I mixed it all together and let the flavors combine in the refrigerator for an hour before serving.

After lunch, I ran some errands with Andy. When we got back I took a short rest before I engaged in my afternoon cardio. Another 45 minutes on the elliptical.

Aside from my Wednesday eats, I also wanted to share what gets me and keeps me going with my daily workouts, especially fitting in cardio.  So read on if you are interested, if not, skip right down to dinner!

New Cardio Motivation:

I have been trying to get in two 45 minute cardio sessions a day. Since I am not nearly as active in the winter, I feel like the extra is necessary. Of course it does not have to do with my latest obsession, really, it doesn’t. Let’s call it motivation, not obsession. Have I mentioned it? Oh, well, I am onto some new juicy vampire romance novels. I rarely read fiction, usually just nutrition or business books. I save the vamps for poolside in the summer.  Since this winter has been super stressful, I thought back to some relaxing activities, and I know I can always get lost in a good vampire story. If you are wondering, yes, I do find myself kind of twisted for being a vegan and also loving vampire love stories. Vampire Diaries is my favorite show, then True Blood. Did I just say that out loud?  How embarrassing.

I just needed some relaxation and motivation on the elliptical for two sessions a day, I find I get the best results when I do two cardio session per day at least 5 days a weeks. So, In hopes to see a six-pack again, I scoured amazon for some good reviews and samples on my kindle app.  The last series I really loved was Black Dagger Brotherhood, before that I read the entire Southern Vampire Mysteries (True Blood) series, and of course Twilight still holds a place in my vampire loving heart.  I must have downloaded 10 samples, after reading all the sample books, I settled on Jeanine Frost’s Once Burned.

It may be titled once burned, but my legs were what was feeling the burn, burned up from so much extra elliptical time! I could not stop reading it.  Every spare minute of the day I ran down stairs and got in a few minutes of reading. I vowed to only read on the elliptical or in bed. When I finished the book so quickly, I knew I was onto something, so I downloaded the first in another series Frost wrote. Needless to say, after 1.5 hours yesterday and today on the elliptical, it was just as engaging.  My point of all this babbling is, find a great book and get on your elliptical, treadmill or bike. Time can go by so quickly when you are in another world. But not only that, it is really relaxing to take the mind out of stress mode for an hour or so a day. This has been working so well, most of the time I do not even hear my timer go off.  If I keep this pace, I will have my summer body just in time. Give it a try, and let me know if it works for you too!

Okay, back to the food.  I had a lot to do around dinner time.  I kept it simple.  Leftover Miso soup for me and Andy and Mya and Andy also had grilled “cheese” on wheat.

I made my miso yesterday, I always prefer soup the second time around. I made it slightly spicy to help clear up my cold. Miso is a healing food, and I need the enzyme boost this week.  It must have worked, because I feel so much better now.

No desserts today, I have been pretty good this week, not even indulging in my healthy chocolate.  No craving this week.

What is your fitness motivation? I would love to hear how you keep motivated.

Have a great Wednesday, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I LOVE YOU!