Lilveggiepatch » veggie burger

Call me Lil’ Veg-Out

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:36:33 +0000

Thanks so much for your words of encouragement about the running situation… as of now, I’m still planning to run the half-marathon on the 21st, but I’m going to take it one day at a time.

This morning I had some things to do before work so I woke up at 5, headed to the gym for 30 minutes on the elliptical, and came home to git ‘er done. I had a delicious breakfast cookie waiting for me when I got home; I made a similar mixture last week and it was so good that I had to try it again!

1/3 cup oats
1/2 mashed banana
1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
splash skim milk
1 tbsp chocolate PB2
1 tsp chia seeds
toppings: goji berries, Greek yogurt, pumpkin, dried fig, agave

I brought an orange and apple to work… I’m always paranoid about my apples being too noisy, so today I sliced it beforehand. Did the trick!

I also had a slice of Gluten Free Bran bread… I love more each time I have some! This recipe is a keeper.

My lunch salad did a good job of cleaning out the fridge…

In the mix:

mixed greens
steamed broccoli
celery
grape tomatoes
goji berries
dried cranberries
TJ’s Vegetable Marsala burger (I missed these!)
Goddess dressing (mixed in at work)

Danielle had bought a package of Lemon Poppyseed Heart Thrive bars and wasn’t a fan, so she gave me the remaining bar. I love these! They were great snacks when I was in Russia, and just as good today.

Dinner required little planning, but worked out perfectly.

I made SELF’s Creamy Lemon Shrimp, halving the recipe and making a few substitutions:

Greek yogurt in place of plain yogurt/ sour cream
celery in place of chives
agave in place of sugar
spinach in place of arugula

It may not look so pretty, but I really enjoyed this! It was healthy, voluminous, and filled me right up.

I packed half for lunch tomorrow; I love when I don’t have to think about what to prepare for the next day.

Dessert was Banana Soft Serve with a melted square of Bakers chocolate.

A superoon may have also sneaked its way in

Off to watch Gossip Girl! It’s a lovely, lazy night. Have a great one.

Hippie Juice

admin — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:59:55 +0000

Happy Christmas Eve eve! I still can’t believe it’s already here. I won’t be blogging tomorrow, so please have a very merry holiday

Last night, Ari decided he wanted a bowl of oatmeal! This is actually pretty shocking, because he’s not a huge fan of my breakfast creations (although he’s eaten Jim once once or twice), favoring bagels or bacon-egg-and-cheese breakfast sandwiches instead. To each his own! Anyway, I wanted him to like his snack, so I mixed a scoop each of pumpkin butter and Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter. This combination got the thumbs up!

He then opened a can of pickled jalepeño peppers. That’s my man!

This morning I made myself one of the best bowls of oats. Seriously!

1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup water
pineapple
dried cherries
plain nonfat yogurt
unsweetened shredded coconut
agave nectar

This breakfast was tropical and festive, and reminded me of a piña colada in a bowl. We used to go to Guadeloupe this time of year, and it reminded me of traditionally cold months spent in a warmer climate!

As I’ve mentioned, there really weren’t too many people in the office today… mostly other assistants who are holding down the fort while their supervisors are away. I took advantage of the downtime to sort out some glitches with IT; the highlight of my day was actually when the computer technician and I spoke for almost half an hour about our favorite things to eat and cook! All of that talk made me hungry, and after some embarrassingly tummy growls I finally went to the office kitchen to retrieve my snack: plain yogurt with pumpkin butter, almond butter and cinnamon.

I split my lunch hour into two parts to get the most out of it. My hair is in that in-between stage where I can definitely wait another month or two to get it cut, but my bangs were starting to resemble a curtain. I’m going to a wedding next week, and thought it would be nicer for everyone if I cleaned myself up a bit. So 20 minutes and $15 later, my bangs were neat and tidy! I know some of you have master skills and can trim them yourselves; if you’d like to do a tutorial on this for us lesser folk, I would greatly appreciate it.

When I got back from the salon, I gobbled down my lunch while manning the phone. I’m trying to eat up the (scant) ingredients in my fridge, so I made a salad with romaine, raw red cabbage, and two types of WF tofu (“balsamic baked” and “Sal’s special”).

Then I journeyed back outside to Westerly Natural Market for a juice run with a coworker. He treated me to his favorite green juice, green lemonade (not 100% positive about the ingredients, but I think it was made with romaine, kale, apple, lemon and ginger). It was so refreshing, and great to know there’s a good health food store within walking distance! This could, of course, be dangerous for my wallet…

Someone came by my office at 4 saying we were all desperately in need of a sugar high and brought us each iced sugar cookies. These aren’t normally my style, but oh my lordy, they were good! It literally tasted like eating sweet butter. Trust me, that’s better than it sounds.

I’d planned on going to a spin class at 5:45, but after almost 8 hours of not much action at work, we had a borderline crisis at 4:30. So, no spin. I was exhausted by the time I finally left the office and didn’t feel like going to the gym for any kind of exercise, so I just went home to relax.

Ari and I had nearly matching dinners: Whole Foods minestrone soup and a slice of Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin bread with a Morningstar Farms Pizza Burger and melted cheddar. Ari was a bit of a pansy and wasn’t feeling the veggie burger love. He did, however, ask for “hippie juice” when I offered (what I refer to Bragg’s as). Baby steps.

We watched The Brave One while we ate dinner. Has anyone seen it? I think it deserves a 6.5/10. Not bad, but not great either. I had the last of the pineapple (recycled photo) for dessert, which was still incredibly sweet and juicy.

My food has been pretty boring for the last week or so (excepting the amazing dinners out), but hopefully I’ll have a little time on my hands to whip some fun things up. I have to work tomorrow (although we close at 3 PM) and Monday, but I’m off Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I can’t wait!

And, if you celebrate…

HAVE A HOLLY JOLLY CHRISTMAS! Safe journeys to anyone traveling.

(And don’t forget to send me your FAQs )

Wacky Wavy Crazy Day

lilveggiepatch — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:18:47 +0000

Evening! How are you doing on this fine Thursday? Today has been a strange day and I’ve felt a little out of sorts for most of it! Not in a bad way, just… different.

This morning I woke up bright and early, eyes-a-burnin’, ready to work. I made a pot of coffee (and drank it black, which is unusual for home-brew… I usually only drink it straight when I’m out) and got breakfast ready. It was nutty,fruity, and choco-coconutty.

In the bowl:

1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup water
frozen berries
leftover un-balled chocolate snowball dust
flaxy PB

I worked all morning, got ‘er done, and before I knew it, it was almost time to go to physical therapy. But what about lunch?! I made a very quick salad, and ate it even faster.

In the mix:

baby spinach
escarole
grape tomatoes
1/2 Gala apple
celery
Morningstar Farms Pizza Lovers Burger
sesame vinaigrette

When I left the house it had started raining, and kept on for the rest of the day. I got to the subway and they were doing track work on my line again, so I had to call my PT and push the appointment back. Again. They must hate me! But I was able to get an appointment at 3:30 instead of 2, even though I probably would have made it on time. I was scheduled to run five miles today; it would have been too dark by the time my appointment was over and I got back home, but I didn’t have enough time to go to the gym first. Quite a conundrum! So I decided to push the run back until tomorrow, but it’s supposed to rain again so I might just have to tough it out and get wet. I’m going to have to figure this out soon, though, because it’s getting darker earlier and earlier now (4:30) and I don’t think it’s a good idea to run in the park at night by myself.

While I was weighing each option, I took shelter from the rain in the subway and snacked on a cup of Strawberry Oikos.

My appointment went well; I did a lot of leg work on the pilates machine which I have a feeling I’ll feel tomorrow! Even though I had recently eaten, my stomach was grumbling the whole time and as soon as I walked out of the office I dug into my purse and found an Apple Pie Larabar. Never underestimate the importance of the “emergency snack.”

The bar held me over for a while, but when I got home at 5:30, I was already thinking about dinner again. I think it must be the darkness outside that’s throwing off my internal clock. I looked in the pantry, the fridge, and the hanging produce basket to see what I could see.

Brandi‘s pasta-stuffed squash inspired me, so I decided to combine two of my favorites: roasted veggies and loaded macaroni and cheese. I cut an acorn squash in half and rubbed each with olive oil, salt, pepper and cayenne; then I roasted them at 450˚ for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, I sipped on a glass of Rosemount Sauvignon Blanc. Sauvignon Blanc is one of my favorite white wines, and from my experience, unless the wine is really cheap (and you remember buying it at the liquor store near your college’s campus), it’s a pretty safe bet.

Rosemount is an Australian-based vineyard. In traditional French Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon grapes are often blended together; Sémillon come from Bordeaux and Southwest France, whereas Sauvignon Blanc can come from Bordeaux, the Loire Valley, southwestern France and Languedoc.(FWFD 19). “Sauvignon Blanc is the dominant grape variety (60 to 100 percent) in most of Bordeaux’s dry white wines, whereas Sémillon dominates the sweeter white wines…. The Sauvignon Blanc part of the wine offers immediate charm; it’s crisp, lively, herbaceous, light0bodied, and develops early” (FWFD 70). Rosemount’s version is also a Sémillon blend.

When the squash was just about done, I made a bowl of macaroni and cheese mixed with tuna, nutritional yeast and chili flakes.

I packed the mixture into the squash halves and baked them for 2 minutes longer.

These were so good! I loved the sweetness of the squash, the saltiness of the tuna and the cheesiness of the pasta noodles. I know I’ve been getting a little crazy with my mac ‘n cheese lately, but it’s so much better that way

I was craving ice cream for dessert, so I started with a Pure Dark Chipotle/ semi-sweet/bittersweet chocolate sauce. A few drops of water, 30 seconds in the microwave, and a quick stir gives you melty freshness that’s far better than Hershey’s.

I added a little Brown Sugar ice cream, and had a nice lil sundae for myself.

I needed to take the night off from thinking about (un)employment, so I climbed in bed with my dessert and popped Wristcutters: A Love Story into the DVD player. It was pretty cute, in a twisted sort of way. I’m going to try to get a quick yoga sesh in and hit the sack. Bed before 10? You betcha!

Sweet Coconut Nights

lilveggiepatch — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:22:30 +0000

So sorry to have disappeared last night! I was so enraptured with Betty White in The Proposal that before I knew it, it was time for bed. I don’t usually like doing massive, two-day catch-up posts, but if I don’t, I’ll be living in the past for a while and we can’t have that.

My new peanut butter was calling my name from the pantry.

How could I incorporate it into my breakfast?

I decided to make eggs-in-a-basket (or “toad-in-the-hole”, as my grandmother calls it) which I’ve seen all over the blogs recently. I used Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin bread and cut a hole in the middle with my water bottle. The “hole” was the perfect size to to test the peanut butter out on.

I melted a slice of Jarlsberg cheese on another piece of bread, and put a little pumpkin butter on top of the flax hole.

I love getting as many tastes as possible out of a meal!

After waiting a couple hours to digest, I laced up my sneakers, stretched, loaded my ipod with a new playlist (thanks to Maya for turning me on to this site) and hit the pavement. This was my third run in a month, and I wanted to make it count. I ran slowly but easily, and before I knew it I was bake at home with 4.5 miles under my belt. I wasn’t even out of breath! To be honest, I was worried I would have lost my stamina and wouldn’t even be able to make it half that far. This is a good sign

I went into the city to meet my mom at Macy’s to go coat shopping. It was exhausting. Although I’d brought kale chips and an apple, we didn’t end up eating until 3:30.

If there’s one thing I know about my mother’s side of the family, it’s that we get c-r-a-n-k-y when we get hungry. Au Bon Pain was the only option for us at Macy’s (the rest of the fast food joints didn’t have any vegetarian options), and I quickly made a salad with spinach, artichoke hearts, green beans, roasted red peppers, tuna and Thai peanut dressing.

The only memorable aspect of this salad was how quickly I ate it. My mom got us a bag of mini chocolate chip cookies, and I had one somewhere in the lingerie department while searching for Hollywood Tape.

Three stores and one successful purchase later, we fond ourselves sitting at the old wood bar in DiFiore Marquet. This was only my second time coming here, but it’s one of my favorite spots in the city. It’s charming and quirky, quiet, inexpensive, and the staff is so knowledgeable about their wine list.

Last time we went, I tried my first glass of Vouvray. This time, I went for the Alsatian Pinot Gris (I get this whenever I see it on a menu), and my mom got the Torrontes, which is a fruity white similar to a Pinot Grigio.

The Pinot Gris is on the left, the Torrontes on the right.

On our way home, we made a pit stop at The Donut Pub.

My mom and George both think these are the best donuts in the city.

My mom and I did a taste-test with a glazed and a sugar ring (I had tiny bites of each); glazed won. I got a marble cake donut hole for myself.

I don’t even remember the last time I had a donut! Oh wait… it was almost exactly a year ago!

We finally did get home, where we met my dad for a takeout pasta dinner from La Parmigiana in Southampton. We started with salad… I thought all “Italian” dressings would taste like this when I was younger, and was sadly disappointed when I learned this was not the case.

Their pasta is hard to beat. I had a plate with half linguine with clams, half linguine with broccoli rabe and sundried tomatoes. I gobbled up all of the former, but had had my fill and didn’t quite finish the broccoli rabe pasta.

My mom and I split a Criterion apple that my parents picked last weekend…

… and, later, I had three chocolate snowballs. They were even better the second day!

I’ve been having a lot of trouble sleeping recently… rather I normally have a hard time falling asleep, but have been enjoying a nice respite from that and have been nodding off quite easily. No sleep aids required! The last few nights, however, it’s been hard for me to fall and stay asleep, so that by the time morning comes around it just seems like a mean joke. Needless to say, my breakfasts have had to be pretty darn good to make up for it.

These Berry Mango bran muffins from Trader Joe’s came recommended by both Lauryn and Caroline, and I knew I had to try them. I’m not a huge muffin lover, but bran is a whole ‘nother story. Love it!

I popped half a muffin in the oven to warm it up, and while it was toasting got out the container of almond butter my parents had picked up for me at the Co-Op.

Beat that, Maranatha!

I slathered some on my muffin, and used the nut-buttery-spoon to scoop my banana/cinnamon/honey-filled Oikos. How’s that for a complete breakfast?

My physical therapy appointment was scheduled for 11, and although I left with plenty of time to spare, my subway line is all messed up and is skipping my stop due to track work. So I had to ride all the way to the end of the line and back down again, and by the time I got off at the appropriate stop only had five minutes to spare. I ran all the way there with a shoddy umbrella, dodging raindrops and praying my waterlogged Chucks wouldn’t trip me up. I didn’t fall, but was still five minutes late. Not a problem… I still got quite the workout in.

My left thigh was been really sore for the past few days… I don’t know if it’s because of the exercises I’ve been doing or just freak tightness, but my therapist worked it out for a good ten minutes. I also did some calf, core and quad work on the Proform (which I am really feeling today!), then got iced down and strapped with electrodes. Who knew therapy could be so fun?

I packed my lunch to take with me to eat in transit:

In the mix:

mixed greens
grape tomatoes
frozen pineapple
broccoli slaw
Dr. Praeger’s California veggie burger (like other Dr. P. burgers, this is very mushy and doesn’t have a real “burger” texture. I really like the taste and chunks of veggies, though)
kale chip “dressing”/hummus

Because it was cold and rainy out, there wasn’t really anywhere to sit and enjoy a leisurely lunch. So I ate LVP-style: standing up and shoveling food into my mouth in the middle of the sidewalk.

Also had a Pink Lady apple… wonder if there is a T-Bird variety apple as well?

After I finished my dignified lunch, I walked across town and went up to meet Greg at Starbucks. I got the coupon in the mail for my free birthday drink (if you have a Starbucks card, register it!), which I used for a Grande Skim Dirty Hippie (Chai with two shots of espresso).

Two sample trays came by while we were chatting: Peppermint Mocha and Crème Brulée.

I remember when I used to get so excited for Peppermint Mocha-season… now I found this – and the crème brulée- way too sweet. The only sweet coffee drinks I like are Chai lattes and the occasional Mocha or Frappuccino; I tend to stick to lightly sweetened cappuccinos and black coffee.

The rest of the afternoon was spent running errands (found the perfect pair of jeans on sale). I was in four different areas of the city in under four hours, and let me tell you: it gives you an appetite! It was the kind of day where I felt hungry all the time. I dug into my bag and found this Tropical Fruit Grain-Ola bar that Bear Naked sent me as a sample and ate it on the subway.

Review: This was way too sweet for me, and the ingredients list (and 18g of sugars) explains it. Why does the fruit need to be dried with sugar on top of the additional tapioca syrup, honey and maple syrup that gets thrown into the mix? It was also very, very greasy.

Would I buy this? Thanks, but no thanks.

When I got home, I started making this recipe for Coconut Barley Pilaf.

My dad had made it a few weeks ago and recommended it to me, so I decided to give it a go. I substituted shrimp for chicken, light coconut milk for regular, and chili flakes for jalepeño.

I didn’t know how many people would be around for dinner so I made the full recipe… we’ll just have a lot of leftovers!

I really liked this. The sweet barley, salty cashews, chewy shrimp and fresh mint were in such harmony! I would definitely make this again (although I think I can get another 3 meals out of this batch). Ari didn’t like it as much… he prefers chickpeas and mushrooms.

We also had some Sauvignon Blanc…

… and I finished off the snowballs. Nom.

We’re off to Connecticut for a wedding this weekend. What are your plans?

Back to the Microwave

lilveggiepatch — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:05:29 +0000

Evening, chickadees! How was the rest of your weekend? I can’t believe it’s over already… the days are just flying by, and I can’t seem to do a thing about it!

Yesterday, my last day in Minnesota, was quite relaxing. I slept in a little, then woke up, had some fruit…

I did quite a number on those grapes! Produces isn’t safe when I’m around.

We had a 12:30 reservation for brunch at the club, so I didn’t want to fill up too much… but I did caffeinate.

I loaded my plate to the brim on round one at the buffet…

In the mix:

mixed greens
artichokes
hearts of palm
peppers
cottage cheese
cherry tomatoes
pumpkin seeds
cauliflower
balsamic vinaigrette
seafood salad
citrus- marinated mushroom
strawberries, cantaloupe & pineapple

The halibut cake (about the size of an orange slice) called to me on round 2.

I took a little bit of everything for dessert: mini magic & fudge bars, the bottom of a piece of pumpkin cake, and fresh berries.

I sipped on a cup of Darjeeling tea throughout the meal…

Don’t silk tea sachets feel so fancy? I love it!

With good reason, brunch held me over for hours. We went straight to the airport from the club, with just enough time to check in and board. I snacked on Pink Lady apple on the plane, more out of boredom than hunger. (Hopefully I’ll finish this book before the year is out… it’s been long enough!)

When I got home, I made something quick and easy (although perhaps not as aesthetically pleasing as one might hope): Annie’s Mac & Cheese with a Morningstar Farms Pizza Burger, one small sweet potato, chili flakes and a scoop of nutritional yeast. The entire thing was made in the microwave! Unfortunately, not all of my meals can be like the ones I ate over the weekend. If only!

As per Sunday tradition, I ate my dinner while catching up on Thursday’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

I wanted something sweet (because I hadn’t quite had my fill already ) so I microwaved a banana for 90 seconds and topped it with Pure Dark cardamom chocolate, cinnamon, and agave nectar.

The first thing I ever cooked by myself on the stove was a version of this… I used to eat it while watching Wishbone after school. Pretty cool.

Well, I’m off to get dinner started. Please excuse my foreseeable absent-mindedness over the next few days… I have a lot to do to organize myself, and a wedding to go to at the end of the week. I’ll do my best!

Have a great night

Gym Class Heroes

lilveggiepatch — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:07:08 +0000

Good evening and happy Monday! I hope the start to your week- and your November- is going swimmingly. It’s strange to think that another year is almost over already, and I feel like I only just graduated! I have two bits of news… one I’ll share now, and one that’s going to wait until the end of the post.

As you know, I’ve been devoting most of my time recently to researching and applying for jobs. I recently applied to an entry level job at Wine Spectator, and the editor who looked over my application noted, after browsing through the blog and reading my cover letter, noted that while I have a clear and definite passion for food, my interest has not been directed towards wine. While I may not get this particular job, I’ve decided that I do want to take a more active pursuit towards learning about wine. Wine has always been important to my family, but with the exception of knowing that Malbec is from Argentina, Vouvray is from the Loire Valley and 2007 was a good year for white, I know next to nothing. So I’ve decided to take a proactive approach! I’m going to take advantage of the free tastings that go on every day around the city, and I’ll do my best to have some inkling about the wine I pluck off the $10-and-under shelf at the liquor store. In the next few days, I’ll add a special tab on the blog devoted purely to vino in order to chronicle my progress. I don’t know where this will take me, but since I have a little more time on my hands due to unemployment, I’m excited to learn a useful skill and pursue a new hobby!

Anyway… let’s jump back a bit.

Yesterday I was awakened quite early as Ari left for a morning meeting. Musicians keep very strange hours, I tell ya! Since I was already up, I decided to make a breakfast cookie to plop in the fridge while I went back to sleep for a few hours.

Jim was made of:

1/3 cup oats
1/2 banana
2 T skim milk
1/2 packet YouShake Vanilla Dream protein powder
1 t peanut butter
toppings: cinnamon, 2 prunes, 1 fig, 1 pecan

I also broke into my new McNulty’s Sumatra coffee to get my buzz on. And on and on.

Finally found a real solution to the Ester-C problem… POM Wonderful‘s Pomegranate Nectarine juice (which the company sent to me a few weeks ago) is sweet enough to completely mask the taste! I simply dissolved 1/3 teaspoon of Ester-C into 1/4 cup of juice and gulped it down as fast as possible. All I was left with was a pleasant fruity taste!

After I finished up breakfast, I looked at the time, packed my gym bag and hustled out the door to make a 12:15 60 minute Pilates class in the city. I got there five minutes early and went into the studio with my jacket, bag and shoes still on so that I could reserve a spot on the floor. Class had already started! I was a little annoyed- I didn’t want to disrupt the class, but it was early! It was also pretty warm and really stuffy, and I thought about asking the instructor to turn off the heat. After ten minutes, we still hadn’t moved to the mat to work on our cores and instead seemed to be moving through a Vinyasa flow. I turned to the girl next to me and whispered, “This isn’t Pilates, is it?” She shook her head and whispered, “Nope, it’s hot yoga!” Oops. I really love Bikram, but had I known I would be taking the class I would have hydrated, brought water with me, and not just had half a pot of coffee! Still, I’m glad I stayed for the full 90 minutes, and even more glad that I didn’t pass out from dehydration!

When class was over, I went home to have lunch and get some work done. I was surprised with festive snail mail from my girlies, which brightened up my day.

I hadn’t brought any food with me, so I rooted around in the freezer to check out the pickings. Not bad! I found bulgur pilaf with mixed vegetables, to which I added raisins and cilantro:

I also found sweet potato soup with navy beans from the Moosewood Cookbook, which I also added cilantro, peanuts and raisins to.

I washed it all down with Natural-flavored Zevia:

Not bad for an improvised lunch!

A little later, I snacked on a Jonagold apple while I did some work.

I’m pretty sure Ari had dinner while it was still light out, so I made a big orange salad with cilantro-chili vinaigrette for myself.

In the mix:

two handfuls of spinach
1 sweet potato, microwaved and diced
1 orange
1 Trader Joe’s Vegetable Masala Burger
shredded carrots

I made the cilantro-chili vinaigrette with:

1/2 T toasted sesame oil
1 T olive oil
2 Trice vinegar
1/2 t Sriracha sauce
1/2 T raw blue agave nectar
1 slice red onion
handful cilantro
1/2 t chili flakes

It was enjoyed with a bowl of leftover miso soup and Christina Yang.

For dessert, I had 1/2 each of a brownie and blondie Edgie.

We watched half of Good Bye Lenin! before tuckering out for the night. It’s been on my Netflix queue for years, but I’m really glad we finally saw it! Or, half of it at least

Onto the second bit of news! My dad called today with a proposition. He’ll be traveling to Russia in December for work and offered to take me with him. Let me think… yes!!! We’ll be in Moscow for four days, then we go to St. Petersburg for two. Not only do I get to spend some much-needed quality time with Daddy-O, but I’ll also get to see my Sarah!!! I can’t wait. Life is good!

The Mysterious Squash

lilveggiepatch — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:05:09 +0000

Good morning and happy Thursday! It’s going to be a good day, I can just tell How has your week been going? What was the most surprising or thing that brought you the most happiness?

The rolled oats stash still hasn’t been replenished, and I haven’t gotten a new batch of steel-cut whipped up yet, so I had to think a little about what I wanted for breakfast yesterday. I opened the fridge, pulled out the almond butter, and…

Oh no! Take me to a Trader Joe’s and make no stops on the way! Well, I don’t know when I’m actually going to get to TJ’s, so I tried to leave a little nut butter on the sides to make oats-in-a-jar when the time is right. That wasn’t enough for breakfast, though, so I pulled out a sample of Sunbutter that I’ve had lying around for a few months.

When squeezed out, it looks likes this:

One Ezekiel English muffin half had almond butter and TJ’s pumpkin butter, the other Sunbutter and raspberry jam.

The Sunbutter definitely tastes like sunflower seeds. I think I still prefer almond and peanut butters, but this was a nice change. I don’t know if I would buy a whole jar of this, but if I had more travel packets I would use them for on-the-go snacking.

I took all of my new vitamins with breakfast (except the melatonin, which is only for when I really can’t sleep at night).

Unfortunately I didn’t read the label carefully when I was at the store and bought the powdered Ester-C (which aids iron absorption) instead of the capsule, which means I have to drink it. And let me tell you, this is one of the worst tastes I’ve ever known.

I worked and researched most of the morning, and broke for lunch around noon before I had to leave for physical therapy. I made a big salad through my session:

In the mix:

1/2 head of romaine
grape tomatoes
1 orange
leftover roasted Brussels sprouts
julienned carrots
Trader Joe’s Vegetable Masala Burger
Trader Joe’s Three Layer Hummus
Cayenne pepper-spiked agave- cinnamon dressing

It was a big salad! I almost couldn’t finish it, but I’m not usually one to leave greens on my plate. I went into the city to get my H1N1 flu shot (seasonal flu shot has already sold out almost everywhere), then went across town to my physical therapy appointment. I was early, so I popped into Tasti to get a treat and read a little. I got a small cup of chocolate raspberry mousse:

My appointment went really well. I really like my therapist; she’s a former marathoner and current Half-Iron Man-er, and just seems to know what she’s doing (a welcome change). She worked with me for over an hour, and came to the same conclusion as the first PT: my muscles aren’t strong enough to support the kind of running I’m doing. If I want to be an endurance athlete and compete in races, my quads, glutes, calves, etc. have to be really strong. I need to work on strength moves, increasing my flexibility (stretching, rolling out with the foam roller) and core moves every day. My knees do point in (the first PT diagnosed me with “squinting patellae”) but strengthening my quadraceps will force them back into place. And the even better news? I can start back up again (slowly) in the next few days, and can run the 15K in December!!!

She asked if I’d be okay with running on the treadmill for a few minutes to analyze my gait, and you should have seen the way my eyes lit up. Running? Now? Even though I hate the treadmill, I felt like I was flying. I do pronate, and my hips do come out and come forward when they shouldn’t (which has caused tightness in my IT band that I didn’t even know about until she worked it through with her fingers), but it can all be corrected. Woohoo!!!! I’m going back today; she wants to see me twice a week for a month or so. Thank the lordy. If I had a job right now, I wouldn’t have this kind of flexibility!

On the ride home, I was hungry again so I snacked on a Trek Mix bar.

When I got home, I did some more searching and researching, and started to think about dinner. It was going to take a couple hours to make, so when Ari ordered sushi for himself and Josh I politely requested my very own sweet potato roll.

Seriously, I don’t know how I didn’t know about these until now. What would I do without Ilana and Ari? Amazing!

My own dinner was based on this recipe. When I went to the produce store, I found a squash I’d never seen before. It started with a G… Galaban? Galabaga? When I looked it up on this handy squash glossary, however, I discovered that it was one of the most popular squashes with bloggers: the kobucha!

These were sold already halved; each half was about 70 cents.

I changed the recipe a little bit; I halved the “pudding” recipe, only used egg whites (I don’t have whole eggs), didn’t use anise, and used red onions instead of scallions.

It took a long time to cook (about an hour and a half), but the results were worth it.

I ate one half of the squash and saved the rest for another day. It was really satisfying, and so good that I ended up eating the skin, too! Oops.

For dessert, I smeared a pumpkin bar with peanut butter. It wasn’t worth it: still tasted bad. Into the trash they go!

Ari and I took Carlye‘s suggestion and watched the pilot of Psych. We thought there would be a few more episodes on the first disc, but it was just the one! So off I go to the mailbox… must make sure there’s a Halloween movie here for Saturday!

Have a great day

P.S. Averie is giving away ProBar Fruitition bars!

Pumpkin Salads & Ice Cream In Bed

lilveggiepatch — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:06:50 +0000

Bonne samedi, mes amis! How are you all? Is your weekend off to a nice start? I know I make it a terrible habit of disappearing on the first day Ari’s back, but I’m here now.

Hmm, so… Thursday’s breakfast was based around YouBar‘s The Best Trail Mix.

I plopped half the bag on top of a big mound of pumpkin and an even bigger mound of steel-cut oats, and covered it all with cinnamon and agave nectar.

It felt quite festive.

This was the morning that I had my bone density test (the results of which were called in to my orthopedist… who did not return my call and share the findings with me before the weekend but that’s okay). I had an apple when I got out of the hospital…

… came home, read InStyle took care of some chores, and went back to sleep for a few hours. When I woke up, so did a hungry beast. I was inspired by the previous day’s salad dressing adventures, so I played around in the kitchen a little bit.

Behold: Pumpkin- Miso Vinaigrette!

Pumpkin- Miso Vinaigrette

Serves 1

2 tablespoons pumpkin purée
1 teaspoon white miso paste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon agave nectar
sprinkle of cinnamon
sprinkle of nutmeg
squirt of fresh lemon juice

This was delicious. I vow to never have a boring salad again!

Into the salad itself went:

1/3 block tempeh
1 apple
red onion
carrots
red chard
pumpkin-miso dressing

I followed it up with a cup of Trader Joe’s Organic Greek Nonfat Vanilla Yogurt.

After a few hours of job searching, I snacked on a piece of Pumpkin-Banana-Date Tea Loaf with peanut butter and raspberry jam.

Other than walking and cleaning, I have done almost nothing physical in almost two weeks. It’s slowly driving me crazy. Emily alerted me to these workout videos you can watch instantly on Netflix (if you have an account), which is great. Unfortunately, my will power is not. I did about 10 minutes of this yoga class, then made dinner and went to the airport to pick Ari up. Blegh.

I’m going to wager that my dinner is not going to ignite any food jealousy. I had no idea what I wanted for dinner except that I had to have an Ezekiel English muffin. On one half I had a TJ’s Masala Burger with mustard, on the other egg whites with salt, pepper & ketchup. Boring, but got the job done.

We found the band at the airport, piled all the gear in the car and squeezed in like sardines. Everyone was a little jet-lagged, so we just watched a short movie and In Treatment. While doing so, I had another piece of Pumpkin-Banana-Date Tea Loaf with almond butter and jam and a small glass of Merlot.

We slept in a bit yesterday, although I woke up a good hour before the boy. This is usually the case even when he hasn’t just come back from a tour in Europe. No matter! I made myself a bowl of brown oatmeal: steel-cut oats with 1/2 banana, cinnamon, brown sugar and peanut butter.

By the time Ari woke up and decided he wanted chicken parm for breakfast, I was ready for lunch. I made a salad that was almost a repeat of the day before’s, but why mess with a good thing?

In the mix:

red chard
carrots
1/2 avocado
1/3 brick tempeh
1 pear
red onions
pumpkin-miso dressing

I also had a cup of Trader Joe’s Organic Nonfat Honey Greek Yogurt.

We went into the city and took care of a bunch of errands, including chopping what Erin refers to as Ari’s “alterna-hair.” We stopped by my old restaurant for a glass of wine before going to dinner at Friend House, one of Ari’s favorite sushi restaurants. Something happened to my camera and it would only take really blurry (and incredibly frustrating) photos.

I ordered the sashimi entrée… I promise that’s what’s in the picture!

It came with miso soup.

We went down to the Lower East Side for some Upwelling work, got caught in the rain, and practically ran all the way home. After showering away the acid rain, we settled in for the night with our cartons of Ben & Jerry.

I went for Light Phish Food (but demanded asked nicely for the peanut butter cups in Ari’s Everything But The…), and did my best to put it down after I plowed through 1/4 of the carton. I guess I have a little bit of will-power.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Bed-Stuy Restoration Corp 10k Race Re-Cap

lilveggiepatch — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:25:35 +0000

My only hope for the race yesterday morning was to finish the 6.2 miles in under an hour. That would require a sustained pace of less than 10 minutes/mile. When I’ve run my 6.5-mile route in the past, I’ve usually come in around 1 hour and 10 minutes (an 11-minute mile). So, with the hope, but not the expectation, per se, that I would reach my goal, I quickly ate my breakfast (Ezekiel English muffin with almond butter, cinnamon, honey and a banana) and drank enough coffee to worry me about needing to stop during the race.

Ari and I drove into Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, to meet up with Judy at the registration booth.

There was already a refreshment table out; I grabbed some water while Ari went straight for the Swiss Miss.

I wore the same outfit I had on at the Komen 5K… don’t need any surprises!

There were only about 400 runners; a particularly good size considering I wasn’t too familiar with the area.

Soon it was time for Judy and I to start warming up (and it was a little chilly out); Ari said goodbye and went home to practice.

We got up to the front of the line and decided we would run together, but if one of us wanted to race ahead, she should. I didn’t want to overexert myself too quickly, but I wanted to set a good pace. Good thing I brought some good tunes!

Mile 1: 9:34

Mile 2: 9:00

We managed to maintain about a 9-minute mile throughout the entire race. Judy likes to start off slowly, and I tend to peter out towards the end, so we were a very good match and really pushed each other. There were times, towards the end, that I wanted to walk (or throw up), but I didn’t want to let Judy down. When we rounded the final corner and I saw the finish line, I sprinted to the end, finishing with an official time of 55:47. Judy was a mere two seconds behind, at 55:49. (The top female won at 49 minutes; she is the red-headed woman in some of the photos above.)

Total distance: 10K (6.2 miles)

Total time: 55:47

Maximum heart rate: 193 (97%)

Average heart rate: 182 (92%)

Calories burned: 696

After making a quick bathroom stop, I got on the refreshment line and picked up some fruit. They were also serving bagels, but I wanted to wait until I got home and could have a real lunch.

We hung around to watch the awards ceremony, and is it lucky we did! Look who won FIRST PLACE IN HER AGE GROUP?

Congratulations, Judy!!! The second and third places were about 15 minutes behind Judy’s time. In case I haven’t bragged enough about her in the past, Judy has done dozens of triathalons all around the world, often placing in her age group. This was by far not her first trophy, but it was exciting nonetheless. On the way home, she was stopped and photographed by strangers on the street, including a group of French tourists on the subway. C’est super!

It ended up being a huge gadinx to get home from Bed-Stuy, and by the time I got off the subway I was ready to eat my leg. I knew the pickings in our fridge would be slim, so I stopped at the health food store to get a sandwich.

I thought this look like the Whole Foods chicken salad I love, but it ended up just being a wedge of iceberg lettuce, two slices of Tofurkey, and vegan mayo.

Thanks, but no thanks. I threw out the inside, saved the bread, and plopped on a Trader Joe’s Masala burger with hummus and tomato sauce. Yes, it may have been a little strange, but I was too hungry to try to figure something else out.

I also had a Blueberry Chobani.

After lunch, I’d planned on getting some work done, but I was so tired that I passed out in bed for the next two hours. It wasn’t exactly a “restful” sleep, and the only indication that I’d even shut my eyes was the different time on the clock radio. When I woke up, I was starving again, and had a bowl of Kay’s Naturals Gluten-Free Honey Almond Protein Cereal.

I ate the cereal with skim milk and 1/2 banana. It tasted a bit like eating air. Sweet air, but air nonetheless.

Unfortunately, right after I ate this, Ari got home and decided he wanted to go out for a light sushi snack. Don’t you hate when that happens? I went with him anyway, and we split some hot sake. We were celebrating Sunday!

I also had a piece of his sweet potato roll. I wasn’t hungry, but these things are so good!

Then Ilana, Ari and I decided to go to the movies to see Whip It. Before we left, I had a kiwi.

Ilana and I liked it, but Ari did not. It may not have been “brilliant”, so to speak, but I thought it was a cute movie. I saw the Roller Girls once in St. Paul, and it was so much fun! I want to do that again. At the theater, I ate the better part of a box of gummy bears.

After the movie, Ari and I took ourselves out to Locale for dinner using our Coinstar winnings. (Yes, this may have been the cause of my food poisoning, and yes, I did order seafood again on a Sunday. So be it.) We started with bread and olive oil…

We shared a bottle of Washington Merlot.

We split the warm mozzarella and olive appetizer, which was delicious. I have to do this at home… it’s so simple!

For my entrée, I ordered the grilled swordfish with broccoli rabe, purple potatoes, and artichokes in a chimichurri sauce (this was a special).

This was delicious. I ate about 2/3, and brought the rest home. You might see it later on grilled bread as a panini, or in spaghetti as a fancy pasta.

Ari ordered steak! He loves it so much. My mom is going to teach me how to make it perfectly for his birthday. He looks a little like a vampire here, no?

It was a splurge night in every sense of the word, but we were celebrating The Upwelling‘s upcoming European tour (they leave today), my successful race, and just, you know, life. So, we ordered the Peanut Butter Bomba to split for dessert. This is what we call a “tartuffo” at the restaurant I used to work in: peanut butter gelato covered in milk chocolate, with a chocolate center, and drizzled with chocolate and peanut butter. One thing I can always count on Ari for his love of chocolate+pb together. (I scraped off the whipped cream so it wouldn’t ruin his evening… too much white and creamy.)

It was a great day. The band will be touring for the next 10 days, during which I will be watching Charley and getting my life in order. Tall order? Nah. I have to start that now… this is going to be a very busy day. I’m very behind on blog reading and commenting; I hope to catch up in the next couple days, but please don’t be offended if it takes me a little longer than that. I’m a little stressed out right now, but I love you all very much.

Today is the last day to enter my Chobani giveaway… I will be closing the contest tonight at 10 PM EST so get those entries in!

Have a great day.

Girl's Night at Quantum Leap

lilveggiepatch — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:40:08 +0000

Hey there, and happy weekend! Life has gotten in the way, yet again, of my regular posting schedule. I think once I’m settled in a routine it’ll get back to normal, but until then, I’ve just got to learn to be flexible and go with the flow. I’ve got a great giveaway in store for you to supplement your already fabulous days, so keep reading!

Yesterday I was in the mood for something a little different for breakfast, so I made a HUGE cereal bowl… the picture doesn’t do the size justice, so trust me on this one! I mixed Kashi GoLean, some kind of raisin bran, and granola, topped it all with banana, and added a generous portion of skim milk.

I had an errand to run in the city, and took the most roundabout route getting there. I rode four trains, when I’m pretty sure I would have been fine on two! It’s a little embarrassing that I’ve lived here my entire life and still have the worst sense of direction and navigation. I packed my lunch to go (salad with romaine, carrots, broccoli, Morningstar Farms Black Bean Burger & TJ’s three-layer hummus).

I also brought an apple and a peach-flavored Chobani yogurt.

I ended up eating while standing on the corner of Canal & Lafayette… since when did eating a meal on a crowded city street become the norm for me?

Again, I found myself close to the gym with my heavy gym bag, but all I wanted to do was go home and take a nap. So that is just what I did. When I woke up, I snacked on a Ginger Snap Larabar, said hi to this guy…

…before heading into the city to meet some lovely blogettes at Quantum Leap. I was a little late when I got there, but immediately felt right at home with Missy, Elise, Marina, Ada, Olga, and Megan and had a great time chatting with everyone. Ada and I ordered the same Tofu & Veggie Salad:

This came with marinated vegetables, grilled tofu, bean salad & tahini cole slaw, with balsamic and carrot-miso dressing on the side.

To be perfectly honest, this salad just didn’t do it for me. There were only three small pieces of tofu, and I didn’t find the vegetables to be particularly flavorful. Strangely, it filled me up pretty fast and I only ate about half of the salad. Everyone else’s food looked pretty good, though, so I do want to go back to Quantum Leap to try out some other things.

Poor Ellie organized the whole event and ended up hurting her back and hip and spending the day in the ER! She was greatly missed.

Most of the girls went out for ice cream afterward, but I left to meet Ari and go to a housewarming party in Williamsburg. We didn’t stay very long (“We just want to warm the house, not make it too toasty,” said Ari) and I had about half of a vodka-soda. When we got home, we dug into the brownies from Liz. I had one Cookies & Cream brownie and half of a Chocolate one.

I also had a sip of wine, but I wasn’t feeling the alcohol… I really just wanted to go to sleep! Yes, I’m turning into a bit of a ninny, but so be it I took the day off from exercising yesterday and haven’t done anything physical yet today (other than cleaning). When I skip one day, it’s always pretty difficult for me to go the next. I don’t want to do anything too strenuous that would ruin my race game tomorrow, but I think an easy two miles should be fine. We’ll see. It’s turning out to be a very lazy day here at LVP headquarters!

And now for the giveaway! Chobani has graciously offered to send one lucky reader a case of Greek yogurt. To, simply comment on this post. For an extra entry, link back on your blog (if you have one), or post the contest on Twitter and leave another comment to let me know you did. Contest ends Monday October 12 at 10 PM EST. Good luck!