Archives for April 2010

Had a great girls night last night!!  Went to Granbury with some friends, had some dinner, had some drinks, did some hanging out.  Good times!

This afternoon was Concert On the Lawn.  Except that it was raining, so it was concert at the convention center.  Paluxy winds sounded awesome- much better than we did at rehearsal on Tuesday!  But ya know what they say… bad dress rehearsal= great performance at the concert!

Tonight’s dinner was some super tasty Tempeh Tacos- they turned out SO good!!

So if you don’t know what Tempeh is, it’s basically just whole soybeans that are pressed together into kind of a cake form.  It’s soft and you can do lots with it.  Marinate it, grill it, sautee it, use it as a substitute for meat- anything really!

I decided to make mine into tacos tonight!  So here’s the tempeh that I used.  The kind I bought already had spices in it, so I didn’t need to add anything, but if you get the plain kind you will need to add some seasonings- it’s a bit bland in my opinion.

So I steamed the tempeh- you don’t have to steam it,  but I like the way it turns out better when I steam it first.  Not sure why though.

Then I sliced it into strips and sauteed it in a pan with a tiny bit of canola oil

Then it was ready for tacos!

The taco fixins’:

Whole wheat tortillas, lettuce, tomato, onion, cilantro, cheese, dollop of Greek yogurt, and some unpictured salsa and cubed avocado.

YUM!  So good- the tempeh has a great spicy meaty flavor.  It’s delicious!

Here’s ma’ tacos…

Plans for the rest of the evening include watching Sherlock Holmes on Blu-Ray with the husband!

Adios!

Which is awesome for my plants, but not so awesome for the outdoor plans I have tomorrow.  Hopefully it will clear up soon!

Speaking of my plants, I don’t remember if I talked about this already but I’m doing a container garden this year!!  I don’t really have a place to plant a proper garden (nor do I have the know how or a green thumb, lol).  But I do have a patio!  So I’m doing some veggies in containers!!  Just my veggie plants and some organic miracle grow- no bug sprays or anything like that.  I can’t WAIT to taste those fresh yummy veggies!!

I’ve got two types of tomatoes going- yellow pear tomatoes and beefsteak tomatoes- both heirloom varieties. I’ve also got yellow straightneck squash, zucchini, eggplant, okra, basil, rosemary, and sugar baby watermelons!  Oh I’m so stinking excited!  They are growing like crazy and I’m thinking maybe the end of June or beginning of July I’ll start getting some stuff I can pick.

Here’s what my veggies looked like last week…

And here’s what they look like today…

Look how big my eggplant is!!!!

I can’t wait to eat you little vegetables!!!!

Got up this morning and got on the treadmill.  I had planned to go to kickboxing, but it was raining and I just wanted to sleep in a little.  So I did.  But I made myself get on the treadmill and run.  I always feel great afterword, so it’s worth making myself do it!

Then I chopped some veggies to prep for next week.  And I peeled up a huge chunk of ginger- oh my goodness I LOVE the smell of ginger!  It’s so warm and spicy- I need to use it more often.  It’s fantastic and so cheap!

Then I put on a big ole pot of coffee (Spring Blend!!!).  I got a new coffee maker yesterday and I am enjoying my spring blend better in it than I was in the french press.  I like my  coffee with a little organic half and half.  YUM!

And I munched on some pretty delicious trail mix that I found at Whole Foods yesterday.

HOLY MOLY this stuff is good!!!!

So anyway!  It’s time to start figuring out what’s going to be for lunch, then it’s time to start getting ready for girls night!!!!  Woot woot!!  I can’t wait!

Catch ya later!!

What a day today was!!  I’m glad it’s Friday cause that means tomorrow is Saturday and I have a fun girls night planned for tomorrow night!  YAY!

Got up and did some Organic Chem homework- glycolysis.  Not so interesting at 8 in the morning!  Then did my discussion and response for my Food and Culture class, which is online.  Then it was lunch and grocery shopping.

Lunch was the same as it has been for the last few days- veggie burger with pepperjack cheese.  I’m LOVING the gardenburger veggieburgers!

Then onward to a marathon grocery shopping trip!  I hit up the local produce place here in town, then it was on to Whole Foods, then Central Market for my favorite Whole Wheat tortillas(they make the best tortillas EVER!!!)

For dinner I put a few things together and we kind of had a mismash of things.  I had some Annie’s mac and cheese in the pantry, so I made that and stirred a can of drained Rotel into it (thanks for the idea Amanda- it was delicious!  I can’t believe I’ve never tried that before!). 

Then roasted up some broccoli (if you’ve never had roasted broccoli you have to try it- it’s amazing!).  And sprinkled a little parmesan cheese on top.  YUM!

Then I tried a new product that I grabbed at Whole Foods this afternoon.  I’m always a bit wary of the veggie versions of meat- I’ve tried so many that were disgusting.  This is a brand that I heard about on a podcast that I like to listen to- it’s called Field Roast, and they make all kinds of veggie meats out of wheat gluten. 

I got the Mexican Chipotle style “sausage” to try.

Look- you can pronounce all of the ingredients!

Now I’m not going to say that it tasted exactly like sausage, but it definitely had a sausage flavor to it.  I just used one link for the both of us, so I’ll have plenty of other opportunities to try it in other things- there are three more of them left.  It was REALLY spicy though- so if you don’t like spicy stuff, you wouldn’t like it.  Overall, though, I thought it was pretty good!  I would probably buy it again.

I served that up with my broccoli and mac and cheese.

I’m exhausted- I think it’s my bed time now!  Nighty night!

Got my hairs did today!!  LOVE it!!! I got my usual highlights on the top layer of my hair, but this time I got a little red highlight thrown in there too.  My hair lady is the shiz-niz!  Love you Rayline!!!  Love the cut too- It’s perfect!  And I love how shiny and pretty my hair is right after I get it done.

YAY!!

Then when I got home we decided we wanted to go see a movie.  We saw how to train your dragon and it was AWESOME!!!  If you haven’t seen it, go see it ASAP!  You’ll thank me, I promise.

I had my first vegetarian challenge at dinner tonight.  We decided to go out to dinner and we went for Italian.  I’m glad I thought to ask about this, but turns out that they have chicken stock in their marinara sauce.  And almost everything on the menu had marinara in it.  No joke.  The only things that didn’t was fettuccine alfredo and salad.  Salad it was!  LOL.  I guess when that’s your only option, then you’ll take it.  Thankfully the salad was delicious!  It had romaine lettuce, tomatoes, olives, roasted red bell peppers, feta cheese, and a olive oil and lemon dressing.  Very good!  But I didn’t like that that was the only option.  I mean I know that this is small town Texas, right in the middle of beef country, but come on!  Up until today it had been a cinch, but I got through my first challenge with flying colors! Whew!

Then we went to a new fro-yo place that opened up in town!  It’s called Pure Bliss and it IS pure bliss!  When they first started putting it in I thought it was going to be a spa, haha, but this is much better!  😀

I got a litle plain tart yogurt and a little pomegranate ascai yogurt.  I like to mix and match- that’s how I roll!  Then for toppings it was blackberries,  blueberries, strawberries, kiwi, and CHOCOLATE CHIPS!  YUM!!!  And the place had those really cool retro diner tables and chairs.  Loved it!

Now THAT is what I call delicious!

Alright I’m sleepy- time for bed. Peace out dudes!!

Cause my spring blend coffee is here!!!!  My favorite favoritest coffee EVER is Fresh Market Spring Blend!  It’s amazing.  You can only get it in the spring of course, so this year I ordered two bags!

It tastes like caramel and toffee and just pure deliciousness all combined into one.  I dream about this stuff in the winter.

I had the most awesome lunch that I have to share that as well.

I made a kind of open-faced veggie burger and had a baked sweet potato alongside it.

My favorite kind of veggie burgers are the gardenburgers.  I love that you can cut it open and you see big chunks of veggies- so good.  And the trick to cooking a veggie burger patty… I put mine in the toaster oven and let it get super crispy.  This adds an awesome crunch to it that reminds me of back in the day when I used to eat beef when you get that burger right off the grill.  I did mine today open faced- a piece of whole wheat bread, toasted; lettuce; mustard; pickles; a little ketchup, and of course my favorite pepperjack cheese!

Look at this amazing-ness!

And a baked sweet potato.  I always forget about sweet potatoes, I don’t know why.  They looked really good at the grocery store this week, so I grabbed a few.  I put a tiny bit of butter on it- everything’s better with butter, right?

On the agenda for the rest of the afternoon… an errand to the post office, some homework, and SPIN CLASS!!!