hurry August 16, 2008

this will be a hurried post because i don’t want to be late to my mom’s birthday party and i haven’t posted since yesterday lunch because i’ve been super busy. the pictures are taking forever to load so i’m gonna write everything up and then just put the pictures in at the end.

i had a z bar pre-workout and my workout was good. it was real good, i’m still sore. lots of awesome guided strength training. after working out i headed home to freshen up and pack my bag for the night so i could sleep at my parent’s house since the wine bar i was going to is closer to their place. i stopped over there to eat dinner with them before i went to meet the girls for wine. i snacked on a small handful of honey wheat pretzels before dinner was ready. then i had a small serving of the chicken and vegetables with black beans my sister made for everyone. at the bar i started with a glass of white, an Argentinian Torrontes. then we ordered some bruschetta, of which i had two halves. one of prosciutto, brie and fig and one of salami, manchego and pesto. i washed that down with a Malbec Rose. and then we shared a tuxedo chocolate cake for dessert. the girls really wanted to be on my blog so they posed for me

this morning i wasn’t hungry before my workout so i jazzercised without a snack. i got back to my place and made banana oats the same way as yesterday to fuel me for yoga. then i went to yoga!

after yoga i had pb&j on wasa crackers. and the rest of my h2h with soy yogurt and agave nectar with almond slivers. and just now i had the rest of my cucumber, sliced, with tomato quarters and lemon-yogurt hummus. and that’s all i’ve eaten since my last post…

pics!

the tofu experiment August 11, 2008

but first can i just say how crap it is to live on the west coast and have all the results of the olympics ruined for me because espn.com is my homepage? i don’t see anything until 3 hours after everyone on the east coast has already seen it. grrrr.

on the plus side, i’m officially back in the game. i went to spin and pedaled hard after work and i have plans to do the same thing tomorrow. i ate the lunch that i packed for myself and felt satisfied with my food all day and didn’t spend so much as an extra dime. basically, this will be my routine until something (ahem, A NEW JOB) dares to disrupt it. one can only hope…

after working out i wasn’t even hungry right away which is a miracle. i ventured into the kitchen to tackle the tofu but not before i put a load of towels in to wash and cleaned the kitchen a little. by the time i found kath’s bbq tofu recipe and was ready to press the tofu i started to get munchy. of course, the kashi h2h was sitting right in front of me so i dug in for a handful and decided it would taste much better with soymilk, even just a little bit. so i had a mug of h2h as an appetizer

then i pressed the tofu. it was an interesting process because i just ran out of paper towels so i had to use napkins that are substantially thinner (not to mention ones that say ‘happy new year’ on them) to drain the moisture. kath’s recipe called for a heavy cutting board for 20 minutes but i got impatient so i did this

there’s actually blocks of tofu under there

so i waited until 8, not even sure what time i put the blocks under the weight but 8 seemed like the right time to move them to the pan. here they are before i stuck ‘em in the oven

they were pretty juicy and thick which i’m pretty sure is the opposite of what they were supposed to be. but whatever, i wanted dinner so i put them in anyway. while the tofu was baking i poured myself a glass of wine

and sauteed some zucchini and mushrooms in a canola oil blend instead of olive oil because supposedly olive oil isn’t safe to cook with above certain temperatures. since i’m not sure i played it safe and went with the canola for the veggies. i think i went a little overboard on the oil but i drained the excess before i ate them

when i took the tofu out after the prescribed 20 minutes the blocks still looked mushy so i cut each block in half to get 4 pieces and put them back in for another 10 minutes. when i took them out i decided they were done

to prove it, i even ate one. on a toasted english muffin with an extra smear of bbq sauce and some spinach (but i didn’t add the greens ’til after i took the photo)

the verdict: meh. possibly feh. definitey not bad but not life-altering by any stretch of the imagination. pretty decent for my first go round. next time i think i’ll buy extra-firm tofu and actually marinate it after it’s been pressed for longer than 20 minutes. and slice the chunks properly before i put it in the oven the first time. also i’d like to make my own bbq sauce like kath did because the one i used had HFCS! no bueno. i’ll be on the hunt for HFCS-free ketchup…

for dessert i had an uncle eddie’s

and i’m spent. i wonder how long i can stay up watching the olympics before i pass out?

weekend August 11, 2008

another short weekend ends rather unceremoniously. i’ll start where i left off saturday. that lunch i had really filled me up and kept me completely un-hungry for way too long. it was 830 before i felt anything. so i had a heaping bowl of kashi h2h with pecans and blueberries in soymilk

i was full, no lies. but that was when i started to get hormonal and crave-y. the sweetness of the cereal made me want to forget it immediately. so i cracked open two things: a can of amy’s spicy organic chili with tofu AND a bottle of riesling that has been sitting in my fridge since february. i suppose i was waiting to open it for a special occasion that never came along or perhaps to wait to drink it with someone special who also never came along. instead of holding out, i decided to just start drinking it with myself because i bought it at a wine tasting in california so i knew nobody else would even enjoy it as much as i could. it was the perfect olympic-watching companion.

here’s the first glass along with the bottle

glass #2

glass #3

it’s a good thing i took pictures because i thought that was the last one. but my camera doesn’t lie and there was a fourth glass pictured like so:

who knew watching the olympics would be so much fun on a saturday night? i got to watch michael phelps win his first gold medal and completely smash the world record that he set himself… that’s why i love athletes and like to pretend i am one.

after all the wine i really wanted something cheesy, of course. but it was not to be. i toasted an english muffin and called it a night. luckily i didn’t get the spins while i was trying to fall asleep and also managed not to wake up with a headache. i still have about 1/3 of the bottle left which should be gone in no time.

winos out to lunch August 7, 2008

before lunch at around 1145 i had a handful of honey-sesame cashews

then Dad and I went to lunch. here he is on the phone

he was so excited about his coke in a glass bottle. supposedly it tastes better. i wouldn’t know, i haven’t drunk (drank?) coke since the 90s. he also had a chardonnay with his food and another glass with dessert. i had an iced tea to start and a viognier with my food

my sandwich was really good, i might have to re-create this

it was portobello mushrooms with tomato and potato. i ate a lot of the waffle fries, too. the other side to this dish was fresh fruit which i also enjoyed. then i ordered a key lime tart for dessert which Dad split with me

it was good eats for sure but i should have gone slower because i was super full afterwards and i hate that too-full feeling. looking back, i didn’t need that many french fries. and i could have had the inside of the other half of the sandwich without the bread (which was a bit dry to begin with, but still good). possibly skipped the wine? nah…
now i’m going to change into my workout clothes and go to jazzercise! i’m pretty excited, i can’t wait to dance up a sweat, my body is definitely craving it. then i’m going to see mamma mia with my mom and sister. should be a good night…

yesterday May 30, 2008

i want to put it behind me. i managed to workout twice so i’ll count that as a victory BUT my food choices set me back significantly. after work i went to jazzercise and had a good time sweating it out with some dancing. but i felt odd all day because of my eyes. my energy levels were fine but i couldn’t keep my eyes open very long, they just hurt. so basically i was tired but i wasn’t. it made as much sense to me yesterday as it does now in writing. here’s the kicker, I WENT TO MY PARENT’S HOUSE FOR DINNER. i know i shouldn’t do that. i’m the one who even suggested the pizza. i was only planning on having the one slice, i even cut it into two pieces in order to enjoy it longer. the side salad was really good, too. i wasn’t hungry after my first serving. but it was there and i kept eating…
bottom line, i know how to avoid that situation and i blew it. i needed some comfort and my sister invited me over for dinner and i caved because i really wanted to go home. and my dad always has wine with dinner but i got there earlier than the food did so my dad and i hung out and watched some games (wcws, nba playoffs, dbacks) with a hearty glass of wine. luckily, there wasn’t any dessert to tempt me.
anyway, i was also very tired by the end of the night because i had woken up so early to swim. that in combination with my eyes just wanting to be closed for a long long time had me playing a game of “how fast can i get in bed” once i got home from the long drive. that’s why i didn’t even open the computer to blog last night. i’ll post the offending pictures but no comments, no calorie counts. i don’t think it would be good for my focus. today is a new day!
correction, i was going to post the pictures but photobucket doesn’t want to work again so i’ll have to try again later. i can’t make any promises, i’ll be busy socializing tonight
6-2-08 PICS FINALLY UP!