Spicy Peanut Butter Broccoli Wrap

If you've spent any time poking around my blog, it's probably pretty obvious that I'm a huge peanut butter fan.  I could eat peanut butter every day and never get bored - in fact, whether or not I mention it, you can rest assured I probably had some peanut butter at some point on any given day.  But for me the ol' PB usually pops up in sweet treats, whether it's mixed into oatmeal, peanut butter pie, protein breakfast shakes, or on a spoon straight from the jar.  (Love that white chocolate wonderful!) 

 

But peanut butter can also be a delicious part of savory foods as well.  I actually made this spicy peanut butter broccoli wrap before my trip to California last week and loved it so much I made another to stash in my carry-on for the plane.  It's healthy and satisfying, plus with only six ingredients it's so easy to make! 

 

Spicy Peanut Butter Broccoli Wrap

 

Ingredients:

1 whole wheat tortilla

1/2 cup broccoli florets, chopped

1 handful lettuce of choice (I used Spring mix bagged salad mix)

1 1/2 tablespoons peanut butter - if you can find "The Heat is On" by Peanut Butter & Co, that would be great for this, but if not creamy or crunchy regular is fine - just not White Chocolate Wonderful! :)

1/3 cup Israeli couscous, prepared following box directions

red pepper flakes to taste
 

Sautee broccoli lightly in a pan with red pepper flakes.  Add couscous and peanut butter and mix thoroughly.  Place lettuce along center third of tortilla, top with broccoli couscous mix, and fold tortilla over to seal wrap.  Enjoy!

Happy Pi Day

Happy Pi Day!  I hope you get a chance to celebrate with a big piece of pie today ... or quiche ... or pizza!  There really are so many ways to celebrate this wonderful day. 

 

While I haven't decided just what form of pie I'll be partaking in today, I've had a couple of other delicious pies recently that I can reminisce on in the meantime. 

 

In my last post I had a picture of peanut butter pie that I made following this recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie.  While I thought that version was perfectly good, Josh didn't really care for the banana flavor of the pie, so a couple of weeks ago I finally got around to trying the recipe again sans banana.  While you wouldn't think it would work, I substituted a block of lightly pressed tofu for the banana, and this version turned out amazing!!!  I also nixed the home-made pie crust and used a store-bought graham cracker one.  And for extra deliciousness, I made a chocolate ganache to layer on top.  I couldn't believe how amazing this pie was.  Plus super easy ...  The perfect recipe!

 

Then just last week I decided to finally get around to trying my hand at a vegan cheesecake recipe.  I stocked up on tons of Tofutti cream cheese and got to work.  Of course it turned out I didn't really need all that cream cheese.  I ended up with way too much filling - probably enough for two cheesecakes - and had a hard time blending it all together because I had too much to fit in the blender at once!  Oops.  Fortunately the great thing about vegan anything is that you don't have to worry about eating it raw.  I used the excess filling as a delicious apple dip!

 

I have to say, what I ended up with really wouldn't pass as "real" cheesecake in any dairy-eaters book, but was still quite tasty.  The vegan cheesecake just didn't have the "kick" that you get from real cream cheese - and sorry, but adding a little lemon juice just doesn't cut it.  But it was creamy, sweet, and felt very decadent.  In fact, the first night I had it I ate two big pieces!  (Yeah, that didn't make me feel too great afterwards.) 

 

While this cheesecake was great as-is, I also experimented with a few different topping options like masserated strawberries and melted chocolate.  The chocolate was definitely my favorite preferred topping.  My drizzle may not be all that artful, but it still tasted great! 

 

 

 

Hope these inpsire your pi(e) adventures today! 

Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Cookies

After getting our new plants settled Tuesday morning, I decided to make myself a protein shake to make up for the one I missed at breakfast.  On the menu: chocolate banana - no peanut butter this time! 

 

A little while later I decided to make cookies, specifically chocolate pumpkin pie cookies I saw on chocolatecoveredkatie's website.  The recipe is really simple, with no "weird" ingredients, so they're a great choice if you suddenly decide you want to whip up cookies but don't have time to get to the store.  Plus, these cookies have two very important benefits going for them.  1. They're vegan!  2. They involve peanut butter! 

 

The chocolate cookie dough and pumpkin pie filling came together in no time at all. 

Unfortunately, Katie was a little vague in giving directions on how to really make these cookies come together without looking like a horrible mess.  I needed a little trial and error to get them to work for me.  And I'm sure there's a much better way than what I did, but here it goes ...

 

Step one was to roll an oblong piece of dough, then flatten it out into an oval that's thicker in the middle and tapers out to the edges.  Kind of looks like a cow pattie, doesn't it? 

Sorry for that.  Hope I didn't spoil your appetite ...

 

Next, spoon a bit of filling towards the top of the center of your oval.  

Then roll the dough into a cylinder starting at the top and rolling towards the bottom.  Then push down the edges to seal the filling inside the cookie.  Like Katie said, don't worry much about cracks in the dough.  Even if the filling shows through a bit, you can push them back together.  

Then tuck the flattened edges under the cookie and roll a bit to form a fairly uniform oval.  

The cookies baked up beautifully in just the time she directed - 10 minutes, plus another 10 to cool and set. 

My filling looks a lot flatter than Katie's ... maybe I didn't put enough in each cookie.  But then again, they still tasted amazing so I'm still happy! 

I probably made larger cookies than some might, but with my proportions I ended up with 10 cookies from the recipe.  Enough to make you feel like the effort was worth it, but not so many that when you gorge on cookies until they're gone you have to feel guilty about it :) 

After cookie-making (and eating!) I wanted to do something really simple for dinner, so I whipped up some pasta with Newman's Own sweet onion and roasted garlic marinara sauce and some Parmela vegan parmesan. 

Simple, quick, and delicious.  Plus it left me with enough room to have another cookie for dessert! 

Banana Bread Smoothie

I love having smoothies for breakfast.  They save me time in the morning because I don't have to sit down to eat before I head out and keep me from wolfing down food in the car.  Instead, I take a smoothie in a to-go cup and finish it some time mid-morning at my desk.  But even on the weekends when I'm not rushing out I still like to enjoy a tasty smoothie while I read or lounge around.  With the added time, sometimes I'll even get more creative with my morning meal, like putting together this Banana Bread Smoothie that really tastes like dessert for breakfast!

 

Banana Bread Smoothie

 

1 ripe banana

1 1/2 cups vanilla almond milk

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 tablespoon peanut butter (I used Peanut Butter & Co mighty maple)

 

Blend everything together and enjoy!

Highlights From the Past Month

I can't believe it's been more than a month since my last post!  Bad bad bad.  But rest assured, I've still been taking plenty of pictures of my daily eats, just not managing to actually sit down and write about them.  Which means I've got plenty to catch up on.  Obviously I've been super busy over the past month with the start of the legislative session, and I pretty much have no hope of catching up by actually writing all the blog posts I should have written all this time.  So instead I'm just going to go with an old fashioned photo dump to get it all out there.  And then maybe I'll get back on a normal blogging schedule soon. 

 

So here ya go ...

 

Pasta packets a la Vegetarian Times Magazine:

 

Mmmm ... peanut butter pie from Chocolate Covered Katie:

Dinner at Pizza CS:

Yep, I made my own cheese ... and it came out green.  I guess I should have mixed the chives in by hand rather than tossing them in the blender with everything else.  But it was still tasty :) 

 

 

Mexican dinners rock ... especially chipotle adobo black beans with fried plantains and vegan sour cream!

Chicken Picatta using the recipe from the back of the Gardein package.  (We've made this a few times ... it's delicious!)  Plus asparagus and roasted potatoes.  Would you guess this is vegan?!

Chocolate cake to live for :)  Yum yum yum. 

Dessert again ...  Vegan cheesecake from Capital City Cheesecake.  Unfortunately, neither of these really tasted like cheesecake and at least one of these beauties made both Josh and I incredibly ill.  Never again, CCC. 

 

And ... Valentine's Day dinner!  I made a super simple beer bread and served vegan black pepper steaks and roasted Brussels sprouts with pomegranate glaze on the side.  Josh wasn't a fan of the black pepper steaks, but he loved everything else.  So much for that secret ingredient - love!  I guess two out of three isn't bad. 

Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake

I started Thursday morning off bright and early with a small glass of watermelon agua fresca.  Followed by a protein shake, of course.  Thursday's protein shake of choice was banana mango with vanilla protein powder, flax seed, and vanilla soymilk.  Yum, yum, yum. 

Mid-morning I snacked on a chocolate pumpkin pie cookie.  Still delicious a few days later! 

For lunch I enjoyed leftover sesame noodles.  Unfortunately, these don't hold up quite as well as leftovers as some other recipes.  The sauce dries up a bit and even sprinkled with water and microwaved a bit, they just aren't the same as that first night.  I guess the lesson is ... eat it all when you first make it! 

Mid-afternoon I snacked on some apple mango applesauce.  Guess it was a very mango-y day! 

Of course that little apple sauce wasn't enought o hold me over, so still later in the afternoon I snacked on some oatmeal mixed with peanut butter.  Can't get enough of this stuff! 

Dinner Thursday was another B.A.T. sandwich - super easy, and super yummy. 

 

Meanwhile, Panda watched closely from the comfort of one of her daddy's slippers.  She's so hilarious.  Not sure why she likes to try to snuggle into these when she's celarly way too big for them, but she ends up there all the time! 

After dinner I decided to try to use up the pumpkin puree I had leftover from making chocolate pumpkin pie cookies.  I didn't follow a recipe, but started randomly mixing ingredients together: pumpkin puree, vegan cream cheese, vegan sour cream, sugar, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. 

The mix was so good I could probably have eaten the whole bowl straight as-is. 

 

But what I'd created looked like the makings of a tasty no-bake pumpkin cheesecake, so I decided to pour the mix into a Wegman's pre-made graham cracker crust.  

I stuck the pie in the freezer for a couple of hours for it to set up, but then of course I had to try my creation.  Just as predicted, my first try at vegan pumpkin cheesecake was a success!  It hadn't frozen all the way, but the semi-thawed texture was probably even better than if it had been frozen.  I could probably have gobbled the whole thing up, but I managed to stick to one slice ... for now! 

Weekly Exercise Recap

So, I've been eating a ton of junk lately.  First there was delicious peanut butter pie ...  And then there was that amazing vegan cheesecake ...  And then I had the brilliant idea that I would make chocolate covered potato chips.  Yeah, it's a bit out of control.  And it's showing both on the scale and with how I feel. 

 

So I decided it's high time to ramp up the healthy eating and the workouts to get myself back on track.  And part of that endeavor is going to be keeping better track of my workouts so I know exactly what I'm doing (and what I'm not), and hopefully guilting myself into making exercise a much more regular part of my routine. 

 

So here's a quick recap of my workouts from last week:

 

Monday - 1 mile walk to work trudging through the snow (not much of a workout, but better than nothing!)

 

Tuesday - treadmill + 15 minutes of weights

 

Wednesday - treadmill

 

Thursday - off

 

Friday - off, but about 50 pullups with the green band

 

Saturday - 4 mile nature walk, plus walking to get groceries and go to the library

 

Sunday - off

This list doesn't show all the other random things I try to do, like calf raises while I brush my teeth or a one minute plank before bed, but those aren't the things that will make a big impact on my fitness anyway. 

 

And while I realize this isn't exactly a stellar week of workouts, but hopefully it will set me off on the right foot for this coming week.  Wish me luck!  (Actually, I don't need luck ... wish me will power!)

A Scary Thing Happened on the Way to the Nutrition App

A week ago I started using the app My Fitness Pal to track my daily eating and exercise habits.  I mentioned that I've gained a bit of weight after indulging too much lately, and I thought the app would help keep me accountable and on track with my goals.  After a week of tracking my food and cardio (I didn't really bother to put in weight training), I definitely found myself paying closer attention to portion sizes and whether I really needed that late night snack.  After just a week I was already down a couple of pounds and feeling great. 

 

That is until I landed on the handy feature that lets you compare the amount of carbs, fat, and protein consumed to your "goals" for the day.  Discounting today, because I've only had breakfast so far, you can see that I've missed the protein goal more days than I've hit it. 

The pie chart feature on the app also tells me that my percentage of total calories for the week coming from protein is only 12%, compared to a goal of 20%.  How could this be?!?!  I feel like I really go out of my way to eat protein at every meal.  I add protein powder to my morning shakes and don't exactly eat a lot of packaged food like cookies, chips, and candy.  How could my nutrition be so ... off?! 

After first encountering the pie chart a few days ago I made an even more concerted effort to incorporate protein into my day, pairing peanut butter with apple slices and adding quinoa to everything.  But no matter what I did that green slice stayed just the same size.  I started reading about vegan protein sources online.  Surely I was missing some critical food item that would square everything away.  But everything I read were things I already knew, suggestions of foods I already ate. 

 

I started to really panic, thinking there was no way I could get enough protein in my day as a vegan.  Maybe I should add eggs back into my diet?  Just one egg a day would surely push me back in the right direction.  And I would get them from the farmer's market - the most humane eggs around.  Would that really be so bad?  But what does even the most humane farmer do with a male baby chick?  Or to a female that's passed her one or two years of egg-laying usefulness but could have several more years of life left to her?  I couldn't let myself pretend they were sent off to a happy and long retirement. 

 

Of course Josh tried to console me.  Was there really any reason I felt like I wasn't getting enough protein ... other than the fact that the app told me so?  No.  I'm not exactly a body builder, but I also have no issues at all with having enough muscle.  In fact, sometimes I wish I had a bit less in my legs ...  So why was I really worried?  Josh reminded me of what I really already knew, but had let myself forget ... too often we're told that we should get more protein in our diet than we really need.  As I read more online, I came across this great article on No Meat Athlete, which explains how much protein we really need in our diet.  And percentage-wise, the recommended figures come out to 10-15% of calories.  Suddenly that 12% doesn't look too shabby.  And all of my crazed concern over what one little app was telling me feels just a little silly. 

 

I'm definitely not trying to discount My Fitness Pal as a valuable tool in keeping track of your diet and exercise.  It's still a great (and FREE!) way to track calories in and calories out, which is what it all comes down to if you're trying to lose weight.  It keeps you accountable for your snacks and portion sizes, which is just what I need right now.  I just need to make sure I listen to my body before getting concerned about those other pesky details. 

3-ish Day Juice Cleanse

Sometime last week Josh was complaining about all the junk food he feels like he's been eating lately (I'm sure still a lot less than the average American) and how tired he's been.  For some reason, I suggested he could do a juice cleanse, which a lot of people claim makes them feel healthy and enegergized while kicking cravings at the same time. 

 

I did a week-long Master Cleanse once with a friend, but failed on about the fifth day when I ate half an apple, and then completely abandoned it on day six when I scarfed a whole bag of Gardein chicken tenders (craving protein, big time).  But a shorter juice cleanse seemed like it might be a good idea.  I'd felt good on day four of the Master Cleanse, and including lots of fruit and vegetable juices seemed a lot more manageable as far as calories and variety are concerned.  Another element of the Master Cleanse regimen we would not be including was the nightly salt flush - yuck! 

 

We also thought the week after moving would be the perfect time because we had barely any food in the house anyway. We headed out Sunday to grab tons of fruits and veggies so we could start the cleanse Monday morning.  With no juicer, my plan was just to blend the fruits and veggies with water and appreciate the added fiber to keep us full. 

 

Day 1:

 

The first menu item: a grapefruit-orange-kiwi juice.  This was majorly sour, but otherwise tasty.  I sipped this one slowly while teleworking Monday morning, and managed to finish it off only a little before it was time to make my lunch juice.  Josh, meanwhile, took a Naked Juice to work for lunch to make his life easier on the juice front. 

 

For lunch, I blended up a green juice using kale, green apple, green grapes, and a cucumber.  This one definitely tasted like grass in a cup.  It was not a pleasant lunch (and dinner - I made three servings so Josh and I could each have this one later too) but with work and unpacking later, it wasn't too difficult to get through the day. 

 

Before bed we each had a glass of banana-cashew milk (soaked cashews blended with water and a banana) with a pinch of cardamom and pumpkin pie spice.  This was definitely my favorite drink of the day, though I won't exactly be adding it to my post-cleanse repertoir. 

 

Day 2:

 

For breakfast on Tuesday I mixed together frozen blueberries, mango, and strawberries with water.  This juice was actually tasty and, dare I say, a pleasure to drink.  Don't get me wrong, my normal morning smoothie made with soy milk and protein powder is a whole lot better ... But this wasn't a bad option if I happened to be out of both. 

 

For lunch I followed Josh's lead and headed out to grab a pre-made juice for lunch.  This isn't quite in the spirit of the cleanse, I realize, but it definitely makes life a lot easier.  I grabbed an Odwalla Mango Tango, made with mango, apple, organge, and banana.  It wasn't exactly filling, but it was enough to get me through the rest of the day with only minimal stomach rumblings. 

 

When I got home I was pretty hungry, so I quickly had the rest of Monday's green juice while I waited for Josh to get home from work.  He later informed me that during work that day he'd snacked on some peanuts to get him through the day - not the worst cheat, considering we were blending up nuts into our juices as well.  But in theory one point of the cleanse is to avoid solid foods altogether to "rest" your digestive system.  Not sure how much I buy into that ...

 

For some reason I didn't manage to take a picture of our "dinner" juice, which is a shame because it was really pretty good.  I roasted a sweet potato and soaked some almonds before Josh got home, so when he walked in all I had to do was blend up the sweet potatoe and almonds with a banana, water, and a big pinch of pumpkin pie spice.  It was really delicious, and actually pretty filling too!

 

"Dessert" was mango strawberry juice, which was also excellent - the same as breakfast, but even better without the blueberries. 

 

Day 3:

 

Wednesday morning I made us a breakfast juice of banana, kiwi, and mango.  The banana really helped cut the sour flavor of the kiwi and made this a pretty tasty juice as well. 

 

Rather than heading out to buy a lunch juice, I also mixed up a lunch juice before work that I planned to shake up and drink midday.  On the agenda: stawberry and kale juice. 

 

BIG mistake ...

 

This "juice" was disgusting.  The strawberry wasn't enough to mask the kale flavor.  And blending didn't break up the kale enough, so there were big chunks still in the juice that I had to try to choke down.  It was really quite vile. 

 

And so I broke ...

 

I suppose I could have run out to the store to buy a replacement juice, but my heart and will just weren't in it anymore.  Instead I went straight to my office cupboard and ate two heaping spoonfuls of peanut butter.  (Hey, that's still not really solid food, right?) 

 

When I told Josh of my cheat, he said he'd also broken that day and eaten a bagel for lunch.  (Way bigger cheat ...)  But we decided that, despite the breaks, we shouldn't let that be a reason to let the whole experiment fall apart.  I mixed up a dinner juice of blueberries, cucumber, and apple.  There was so much pulp it was hard to drink, but it was otherwise tasty. 

 

Maybe it was our cheats, but we still had energy for a "run" after "dinner" in Rock Creek Park (near our new place).  It was really scary because it was almost dark when we ran, and even darker in the woods.  I got especially freaked out when I accidentally kicked a frog that was in the middle of trying to jump away from us.  Wherever you are, frog, I hope I did not injure you too badly!

 

Before bed we had another banana cashew milk (the same as Monday's).  We also decided our original plan for a 4-day cleanse would be nixed and we would end our cleanse with breakfast today. 

 

I decided to go out with the healthiest juice I could muster - kale, avocado, and green apple.  And I just now took the last sip.  It wasn't good, but I drank it.  And perhaps I'm healthier today than I was Sunday ...

 

So, what's my verdict on our half-hearted cleanse?  We didn't do a pre-cleanse weigh-in, but I feel a bit lighter than I did at the start.  I don't think I've had any more energy, but I certainly haven't had less either.  And I'm sure I've gotten more servings of fruit and vegetables than I normally would, so I've certainly gotten all sorts of helpful vitamins. 

 

Would I do it again?  Probably.  Maybe at another time our hearts would be more in it.  Maybe if we hadn't just moved and were feeling so isolated in a new and strange place.  All we really wanted was to go out and explore, but usually that would have involved looking for new and interesting restaurants near our new home.  That's our plan for tonight.  We'll be Yelping for Mexican food in Silver Spring, and hopefully we'll find something good.  But either way, I'm sure it will seem great compared to the last few dinners we've had ...