Tag Archives: baked tofu

Once upon a time yesterday I woke up and decided that I would eat a tortilla.

But it was not just any tortilla.

It was THIS tortilla >

THIS tortilla was spread with Laughing Cow, microwave-softened Granny Smith apple slices and cinnamon, pan grilled until crunchy, and dipped in “sauce” of maple syrup and plain yogurt.

THIS tortilla was special.

Once upon a time today I woke up and decided I would eat some oat bran.

But it was not just any oat bran.

It was THIS oat bran.

THIS oat bran was different. THIS oat bran I cooked in a lot of water, cinnamon and flax. Not so different. But then at the end of it all I stirred in… my dreaded chocolate protein powder – This stuff only works in smoothies. ONLY.

And thus… THIS oat bran was NOT special.
Well it was special in the sense that it got to experience the very rare event of getting trashed after I could no longer handle any more of its gritty lacklustre taste. I ate all of the banana and plain yogurt out of it though. They still shone on.

Lacklustre breakfasts require redemption baking endeavours. As do mother requests for zucchini muffins for work staff celebrations tomorrow.

And the redemption is born.

The big kahunas for the work peeps.

And the leftover batter bit mini muffins for my snacking pleasure. I ate the top right away, mmk?

Besides baking muffins, I also baked up some tofu that was getting funky in my fridge along with some polenta that was most likely getting funky in my fridge considering it had been in there for… at least 6 months? I saw no mold, I smelled no skeez, I made polenta fries. Daring to live on the wild side.

Skeez tofu solo.

Et avec old geezer polenta fries stacked on top.

Equally great and musty free a day later, I finished up said polenta fries dipped in pasta sauce alongside my greener than a forest salad.

I ran. I sang. I cried. I walked. I read. I ate. I browsed. I found this.

And this.

(how great are these cards?)

My evening ~~was~~ is now complete.

Sun is Shining, the Weather is Sweet Yeah

March 11, 2010

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Make you wanna move your dancing feet…

Tuesday

The sun is rising earlier and earlier so even on my earliest class days I now get to dine in daylight! My toasted english muffin with PB&J (left) and coconut butter (right) tasted extra sunny.

And speaking of coconut butter, it’s definitely growing on me. I didn’t dislike it when I first tried it but I expected more. However, it seems to be getting better and better with each little taste. I think the main problem is that I haven’t really been melting it, just trying to scrape and eat while it’s still hardened. Clearly not the way coconut butter is meant to be consumed. But soft and melty? Now that’s more like it.

I did the class thang and then came home and did the P90X thang. I did the first DVD of the set, arms and shoulders or something like that? It involved a lot of push ups anyway. And a lot of pull ups but I have no bar so I just used a band. It did the job, though not nearly the kind of job a bar would have done. I’m thinking I should get one. I’m also thinking I’ll regret it after realizing I probably can’t even do one pull up… but practice makes perfect? Sure sure.

Then I did some shaker salad munching.

And some iced chocolate coffee smoothie slurping.

And some studying… or something. This month has been really slow so I’ve been kind of bored, not gonna lie. I need to be more productive with my free time. Haven’t been doing so well with that the past couple weeks. Therefore I don’t really know where a lot of my Tuesday went.

One portion of it went to baking some Polenta Pie though. I saw Caitlin’s Baked Polenta Pie post the other day and it reminded me that I had 3/4 of a polenta tube hiding in the back of the fridge from who knows how long ago.

It was still good… I swear! (I’m still here today so it must have been okay… ha… ha.)

My version of Polenta Pie

1/2 tube polenta (about 400g)

1/2 block extra firm tofu (about 150g)

2-3 tbsp hummus

2-3 tbsp fat free sour cream

1/4 cup salsa

1/4 cup pasta sauce

1 cup steamed broccoli

1 tbsp Frank’s Red Hot Sauce

Garlic powder + pepper

Food processed it all up and baked at 350 for 50 minutes.
All measurements are approximate because I don’t really measure things half the time, I just kind of threw stuff into the food processor.

Polenta is awesome. And so versatile! SO glad I added the pasta sauce, polenta is the BEST paired with pasta sauce. I thought about melting some Laughing Cow on top but I enjoyed it enough just like so. Next time I LC it up though for some extra cheesy goodness.

Then I spent the night doing the studying thang while I ate snacks.
Like chopped apples and puffed rice in a sea of yogurt and cinnamon.
And clementines…
And cans of Fresca…
And small pieces of chocolate…

Studying = Snacking. They just go hand in hand.

I was crashing bad last night. Not good when you have a test the next day. I managed to get a good amount of studying in still but my energy levels were almost zilch. I still made it to bed by about midnight…
…and yet woke up not long after 7. My body will not seem to let me sleep longer than 7 hours. I always seem to wake up automatically with 7 hours under my belt. I know 7 isn’t too bad, but sometimes (lately especially) I want 8!!

Wednesday

Today is oh so wonderful Wednesday.

Aka day of yet another biopsych test. You know how sometimes you have a test and you study your butt off and you still don’t quite get it but you think you know enough to be able to half decently answer a bunch of multiple choice questions about it? Yeah no. That test was not a nice one.

But before I had to write it I had a nice big long period of time to study in the morning.

That period involved eating ~~cake~~ breakfast. Which was practically better than cake.

Chocolate Vitatop. 1/2 cup plain yogurt. Couple spoonfuls vanilla yogurt. 1/4 cup fresh blueberries. Flax and cinnamon. Dollop of cottage cheese on top.

Oh. My. Word.

I’d almost consider giving up all other breakfasts for this everyday. Almost.
I definitely might need to clear out my freezer though and fill it only with Vitatops. Yep. Good plan.

Instead of spending the rest of my precious morning hours studying, I opted for a treadmill run thrown into the mix. I hadn’t run in a couple days because my legs and all related muscles were killed for whatever reason, so a run today was due! Plus, I needed the exercise to make my brain as clear and fresh as possible… for optimal test writing of course.

Run ended. Shower came and went. Studying time arrived, along with lunch. I snacked on the last wee bites of cottage cheese with a spoonful of hummus and some sundried tomato and herb spice while waiting for…

…my baked tofu! Mmmm.
Marinated in a mixture of hoisin sauce, rice wine vinegar, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes and baked to perfection. Chopped up and served over a bowl of spinach, cabbage slaw, zucchini, carrots, feta cheese, and balsamic vinegar.

Delicious. But not filling enough.

So in comes the yogurt. With defrosted blueberries and my burnt peanut butter granola. I have to admit, I ended up throwing the rest of the granola out. Tear. I waited a day but the rest of the batch just tasted like burn. So sad. I’ll have to try again, one of these days I swear I’ll make a successful batch.

After some more studying and a mini mug of coffee before running out the door (apparently it’s good for a mental boost…), it was test writing time…dun dun dun. The mock horror music is totally appropriate here. I swear I grumbled and squinted and sighed and moaned at every ~~third~~ question on that test. I almost wanted to jump out of my seat in delight at the two or three I actually knew. Geez Bruce, you make your tests too darn tricky.

Then I had to sit through some “mandatory” comm studies info session at school, where I informed about everything I already knew. Super.

When I got home I wasn’t incredibly hungry. But hungry enough to want to eat din with the fam jam. And I wasn’t feeling up to trying to think about what I actually wanted or even trying to go through the process of making something, so I ate what they were having, but a modified version.

Fam Jam dinner: Swedish meatballs and egg noodles topped with gravy.
My modified version: egg noodles served over steamed spinach and topped with Humnut, meatball and carrot sticks on the side.

Later on this evening I never really got that hungry persay but my bored mood as of late has made me feeling constantly snacky. It’s actually kind of a pain, I don’t necessarily want to snack all the time. But my mind keeps saying “Snack. Snack. Snack” and I can’t shut it up. I need more to do!

This doesn’t really count as a snack. It’s more like a crumb of a snack.
It’s actually a date. Half with coconut butter. Half with peanut butter.

Most of my snacking has been peanut butter straight from the jar and yogurt straight from the container. I think I’ve eaten my weight in yogurt today. I’m such a dairy addict. I actually have some meddling with frozen mango in the fridge right now that I might just have to eat. Then I’m going to go try to find something else to do. That doesn’t involve yogurt. Or food.

I feel like dancing. Anyone want to have a dance party with me? In my kitchen? It’s starting right now.
Sun is Shining…

Encounters With the Grunt Lady

February 4, 2010

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Should I be worried when walking to class and and a creepy old lady grunts at me out her car window? And these were specific me-directed grunts. I heard them coming from a car behind me while walking down the sidewalk but decided I’d rather not turn around. The car passes and this crazy scrunch-faced woman is staring me down as she drives by! I’m not quite sure what I did to invoke her throaty animalesque sounds but I continued the rest of the way to class more than a little puzzled…

Maybe she was just jealous that I had Banana Bread Blender Cereal for breakfast and she didn’t.

(Yes I did place my bowl in a plant. All in the name of interesting food photography!)

In the bowl: 2/3 C Spelt Flakes, 1/2 C Unsweetened Chocolate Almond Breeze, 1/2 large frozen banana, splash of vanilla.
It turned out pretty liquidy though so I then stirred in a Weetabix biscuit and it became mushy delicious cereal perfection.

Or maybe I didn’t lather, rinse, repeat enough during my post treadmill run and P90x Ab Ripper X (this HURT today) shower, and thus grunt lady was offended by the remaining stenches emanating from my only semi-cleaned surfaces?

Doubtful considering I was walking outdoors in snowy, below 0 degree weather and thus had a bundle of layers to cover up any such possible stenches.
Plus I lathered with Aveeno body wash, it reeks of clean!

(Not me. I love a good shower but I don’t get quite that happy.)

I think ultimately she was just a little batty. I’ll stick with that.

I’ll also stick with the fact that this was one incredibly satisfying and fully loaded salad:
Spinach, carrots, tomatoes, red and green peppers, mushrooms, roasted butternut squash, baked tofu, mini salt and vinegar rice cakes, salsa, baba ganoush, roasted red pepper hummus… I’m out of breath just typing that.

Somehow I still had room for a wee bowl of some sweet. There’s always room for the sweet.
A microwaved date and apricot (they were a wee bit hard…) cuddled up in a bowl of plain and strawberry yogurt mixed with flax. Don’t they look almost cute together?

After this lunch I drove to class on an empty tank of gas, encountered grunt lady, sat through a biopsych lecture about brain blood flow, filled up my gas tank, perused Sobeys and picked up GREEK yogurt, came home, did some school stuff…

Then finally it was time for dinner which = best wrap ever (+ fries + salad but who cares about them cause the wrap was where it was at).
Wrap = Whole wheat wrap stuffed with Egg Beaters, Laughing Cow, Franks Red Hot. Okay so hardly groundbreaking (aka you’ve all tried it before) but I’ve done minimal experimenting with egg wraps myself and only just discovered the brilliance of Franks Red Hot this weekend when they had a duo pack on sale at Costco and I’ve been wanting to try it for ages so… go big or go home? We went big. And a great decision it was. Franks on everything from now on! Egg wraps at every meal!

My fruit count was insanely low today so a post-dinner fruit craving was strong and the colour theme of the night was orange. (Clem + frozen mango)

That theme died after this bowl though when I made an Iced Coffee Smoothie.

Brown is kinda similar to orange…?

I also ate an apple and frozen chocolate from my Christmas stash (yes it’s still kicking around, although significantly smaller) because that’s what I do when I’m working on school work I don’t want to work on. Well let’s be honest, most school work I don’t really want to work on but tonight’s work was particularly unappealing. So chocolat froid it was.

And because I also ate some food yesterday that I kind of liked, here’s a quick recap of:

Tuesday

This would be cherry yogurt, cocoa powder, flax and oats tangoing overnight, plain yogurt added to moisten in the AM, grapes and coffee to round out the meal.

Then I had to do a small presentation in my tutorial group for my community psychology class. This was the first presentation of any kind that I’ve really had to do in at least 4 years and I sucked. Okay so maybe it wasn’t that awful but I really hate presentations. I’m not a fan of talking in front of groups of people, I get nervous and my mind goes completely blank! How do you feel about presentations? Love em, hate em? Can you rock em or do you clam up and ramble on like a nonsensical babbling fool like me? Or do you lie somewhere in between those extremes? :)

Small breakfast + early morning class + poor presentation woes= appetite increase creating grumbly tummy which = snack raid of fridge that includes leftover soup with crackers and rye bread (among several other things that were quickly shove-in-the-mouth-to-simmer-down-hunger-able (it kind of works if you read it over 2-3 times…).

Then I worked out, showered (with adequate lathering!) and snacked some more before class numero dos of the day.

First off was a plate of S&V mini rice cakes, carrots, snap peas, baba and salsa

Second off was a very random smoothie concoction involving leftover cold hot chocolate smoothie, frozen strawberries, a spoonful of strawberry yogurt, spinach… and a few other additions I can’t quite remember. Trust me, it was random.

The snacks held me through class well enough, but didn’t keep away visions of butternut squash fries dancing through my head.

I brought these visions to life come evening time as I ate my weight and a half in roasted butternut squash bliss dipped in chili sauce ketchup, baked tofu coated in sweet chili sauce and a side of spinach greenery dressed in honey mustard dressing.

And not long after I topped up the very much nonexistent void left in my stomach with a bowl of frozen fruit fun (strawbs + mango) coated with a mix of plain and strawberry yogurt and cinnamon and topped with a dollop of SF crème brûlée Jello rice pudding. Word.

And on a final fun last note: Have you looked up your name on Urban Dictionary yet? If not, do so. It’ll probably give you a laugh and a half. Or a confidence boost. Or make you feel greatly insulted. But most likely a combo of all three. Let me know what you get! You can pick your favourite result ;)

Squash Every Day

October 3, 2009

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So we’re finally at the end of this week and I’m feeling pretty relieved. Straight up, this week’s been a bit of a doozy and today was no exception. But simply because I’m emotioned right out, I’m going to skip right on through to some foodie stuff and keep it simple. Yum.

Wednesday

This was a long one. Every two weeks I have a geo lab that I have to go to at 8:30 in the morning. Luckily it’s only once every two weeks, which is more than do-able, but this was the first week I had to do it and thus the first week in a while that I’ve had to be up and ready by that early of a morning hour.

Because of this, I planned for a speedy breakfast: One package Nature’s Path Instant Oatmeal, spoonful pumpkin stirred in, plus half a banana and a tsp of cashew almond butter.

I took a bit too long getting ready before making this though, forcing me to inhale it much faster than I would have liked before running out the door.

Four hours later I finally had a break in my classes and was able to run home for a speedy leftovers lunch bowl: spoonful rice and corn, cold potatoes, blob of goddess hummus, zucchini, carrots, mushrooms and honey mustard dressing.

I somehow also made time in my very short period at home to fit in some sweetness as well: plain yogurt, cold banana, cinnamon and dried prune. Just recently discovered how great dried prunes are. I have Costco giant bags of dried fruit to thank for that one.

After heading back to campus for one last class of the day where I got to learn about Charlie Chaplin and silent films (Communications class, can’t complain!), I came home and cranked up the oven to prime it for a long overdue
Squash Reunion!

Nearly an hour later I had a perfect dinner of mounds of deliciously crumbly roasted squash, along with a bit of baked tofu (dressed in BBQ + dijon), spinach and a couple pieces of roasted potato. My perfect dinner right there.

After polishing off some more squash (which I could easily eat at breakfast, lunch AND dinner on any given day), I filled the last itty bitty spot in my stomach with a Tootsie Roll. The pic was clearly an afterthought.

Thursday

I was feeling the savour on this morning so I went with messy egg white mound, filled with salsa, spinach, and a slice of melted FF swiss.
Complimented by grapes (probs 3x this amount) and a blob of cottage cheese (probs 3x this amount as well).

My first class on Thursday isn’t til 1:00 so I had plenty of time in the morning to get in some reading, treadmill running and a post-run snack/early lunch.

You bet it was based around leftover squash. Eaten cold. Best way. On top of cabbage slaw, zucchini and a Sabra Baba blob.

I finally went to my afternoon classes where I learned first about data analysis, then about the developmental phases of unborn babies and health assessments for newborn infants. During this learning I daydreamed about how I would use up the last very old tortilla and small piece of chicken hanging around in my kitchen. Yes, I daydream about leftovers.

Such daydreams led me to this:

BBQ chicken tortilla “pizza” with tomato and BBQ sauce, garlic powder, chili powder, oregano and basil seasonings, spinach, tomato and chicken.
I was slightly too heavy handed with the seasonings (mainly the garlic powder I think) so this was a little too “zesty” so to speak, but otherwise it was pretty tasty.

And then… there was more squash.

During studying I had things like iced coffee (which made me way too cold!) and apples chopped into wee pieces.

Then I spent nearly two hours thinking about the maple fro yo sitting in my freezer and promised myself I could have a taste if I just got through my darn chapters of cognitive psych before bed.

You can bet I got through those chapters. And you can bet I very shortly after dug into the fro yo tub for a spoon or two as a pre-sleep snack.

Friday

Now here we have arrived at today.

And a downright dismal day it was. I don’t think it could have possibly been more grey or rainy. The ickiest weather possible. Not just rain but cold rain, the kind that feels like little ice pellets and chills you to the bone. Or maybe that’s just me but I didn’t like walking in it much.

Before I had to venture out though there were some morning chow downs and morning running sessions that took place. I didn’t eat a real breakfast, just bites of things like cottage cheese and banana straight from the fridge before getting my sweat on.

Post-sweat though was snack time. L-R = baked tofu, squash, snap peas, mushrooms, roasted red pepper hummus, plain tofu, zucchini.

That was the last of my squash. I saved it for last out of all the eats on this plate. I think it was the saddest bite of my day. (I loved that particular squash that much. I’m not even exaggerating when I say breakfast, lunch and dinner. I would eat it for every meal and not get sick of it.)

Expect to see plenty more squash now that the weather is getting chilly again.

Then I went to my one class of the day and learned about clinical interviewing.

Then it was time for shopping. My friend and I went to two different malls and were shopping for about four hours. Guess how many items of clothing I bought…

None.

I did not find ONE thing I liked. I don’t know if it’s our city that has a pathetic selection of clothing this season or if this season’s fashions are just awful but I saw nothing. I was pretty disappointed, I need new clothing for the cold weather! Maybe today was just not a good day for me to shop. I did buy some new headphones (because mine stopped working … sigh) and a pair of earrings. I guess I saved money at least…? Oh and I bought a veggie sub too in the midst of the unsuccessful shopping. It was decent, nothing to write home about.

But THEN when I was on my way home, getting off the expressway on a very curvy ramp… in the rain… well my car just did not want to follow that curve. So it decided to start sliding… right off the ramp. I threw on the brakes but not enough and I ended up sliding halfway off the ramp up onto the curb and grass on the side of it.

Double sigh.

My car is now sitting at the garage waiting to get looked at on Monday. I was still able to drive it and there were no funny noises, noticeable leaks or smells, or strange parts hanging down from underneath but the bottom did get scraped along the curb and the rim on the front tire is bent so I have to get it looked at to see if there’s any damage done.

When I finally got home from that mess I just ate random foods to clear my fridge and fill my dinner quota.

Pizza sliver, cabbage slaw with baked tofu topping

Half a reheated stuffed pepper that I pulled from my freezer stash. The other half was eaten promptly after this one.

Pumpkin, plain yogurt, chocochip Weetabix, dried fruit, carob chips

A mug of the greatest tea ever

The unpictured eats…this part I don’t particularly want to admit but whatever:
- Cottage cheese, handful chips, handful tortilla chips with salsa, mini bowl maple fro yo and strawberry yogurt, couple dates stuffed with chocolate chips.

Could have forgot a thing or two in there as well. Tonight’s one of those nights where I don’t really care though, I just needed some comfort food. And I couldn’t decide what I wanted so I just kind of had everything haha.

Anyway, it’s definitely time for some sleep. Tomorrow is the weekend! Actually technically today since it’s now past midnight. So with that… have a good one!