Crazy for Quinoa

I've been a quinoa-eating machine lately.  It seems like once I started, I just can't stop.  And while there isn't actually any leftover prepared quinoa in my fridge right now, it's so easy to make I definitely think they'll be some more in their again soon. 

 

It all started when I came across this recipe for Quinoa Pizza Bites on Chocolate Covered Katie's blog.  I live right by a Papa Johns, so I'm always smelling pizza-y goodness, and these seemed like a great way to satisfy the craving for pizza without fully succumbing in the dark side (or is that the delicious side?).  The pizza bites proved super easy and really tasty - definitely a recipe I will be making again and again.  I've also already started to envision all sorts of modifications I could make too - Quinoa Mexican Bites, anyone? 

 

Of course when I was preparing the pizza bites I failed to notice that the recipe only called for one cup of cooked quinoa, so I promptly started off by preparing a cup of dry quinoa and ending up with more than two cups once it was made.  So what was I going to do with all that leftover quinoa?  Experiment, of course! 

 

Successful experiment #1: quinoa mixed with chalula and guacamole, then eaten as a dip with tortilla chips.  This may not look all that appetizing, but I can assure you it was delicious!  It was spicy, but still cool and creamy with the guacamole.  It also packed a big protein punch that made it a lot more satisfying than chips and salsa alone, but not as high in fat as if I'd eaten that amount of guacamole.  I really think this would be a party appetizer winner. 

 

Following along the same lines, I used more leftover quinoa as lunch one day by mixing in more chalula plus a generous helping of black beans and serving it with a bit more guac on the side (not shown in the picture).  All mixed together this didn't necessarily look too pretty either, but it definitely tasted amazing.  Plus the double protein punch of black beans and quinoa kept me full right through the afternoon. 

 

And maybe my favorite quinoa innovation yet?  Mixing quinoa with cashew cheese sauce and whatever other ingredients you feel like (or can imagine!).  I will definitely have a follow-up post on this soon.  The cheesy quinoa was so warm and satsifying - like mac 'n cheese without any of the guilt!  I had this twice - once mixed with black beans (shown) and once mixed with broccoli.  Amazingly delicious both times!  This is definitely one of my new favorite meals. 

Dinners Lately

It's been a long time since I've posted some of my day-to-day eats, so now I have to just lump them all together in one big post ...

 

Hopefully these meals will show a trend - that I've been trying to make sure that I incorporate more protein and more green veggies into my meals.  This is always easiest at dinner, when I can make my meal at my leisure and then eat it right away, but I'm trying my best to do this at lunch too. 

 

Of course, sometimes laziness takes over too, and then I try my best to balance everything - sometimes with great success (and sometimes not).  Fortunately, I'd consider this meal of English baked beans on toast with roasted Brussels sprouts a huge winner.  The beans were warm and comforting, but also still full of protein.  And of course Brussels sprouts are one of the all time top green veggies!

Unfortunately I don't think my beloved (fake) bacon, avocado, and tomato sandwiches can really be considered all that healthy.  And does avocado count as a green vegetable?  It's a green fruit at least ...  And the bacon does provide some protein.  Yeah, there's only so far I can stretch that one.  But they're so delicious!  I ended up having two last week ...

And going even further to the dark side was my excessive consumption of vegan brie last week ...  I got a baguette to make this tasty brie, honey, and almond sandwich (lightly toasted, of course).  But then I took things up another notch by finishing the baguette as a brie, apple, and almond sandiwch - soooo good!  I can't promise I won't be having plenty more of those in the future, but I'll try to be good and wait another month or so before I bring back the brie. 

 

Swinging my dietary pendulum a bit back towards the healthy side, I invented another new favorite - spicy broccoli with sundried tomato cashew cream sauce.  I should probably come up with a shorter name, because I'll definitely be making this recipe a ton.  I made it three times in one week right after I came up with it.  And there's that green vegetable sneaking back into rotation! 

 

The recipe is so simple too.  Just coat broccoli with olive oil, hot sauce, and salt, and roast for about thirty minutes.  Top with cashew cream sauce (with or without added sundried tomato, I'm sure it would be good either way).  I served this twice with polenta, but one evening I just ate a big bowl of it plain.  Yum yum yum.

 

Sunday I kept going with the healthy eating plan by trying my hand at making a tofu scramble.  (Maybe an odd choice for dinner, but oh well.)  I followed this recipe, but tweaked the recipe a bit by nixing the broccoli (I'd finished it all with the recipe above).  This wasn't exactly my favorite meal of all time.  The flavors were fine, but I think I messed up with the tofu I used - morinu silken tofu, rather than a "firmer" variety.  It came out too liquidy and with just an all around unpleasant texture.  I'd be willing to give this another shot with a different brand of tofu, but I still doubt it would become a favorite recipe. 

 

Monday I had to stay late at work - the first time in quite a while.  While I could have just ordered a side salad to be technically healthier, I just couldn't bring myself to have such a horrible meal.  My back still hurt from Sunday and I just wasn't in the mood to exert any kind of willpower.  So I ordered the (pretty much entirely unhealthy) portobello sandwich with fries.  And yes, I ate it all. 

 

So, it doesn't seem from the meals above that I've stuck with the healthy eating thing all that well, huh?  But I suppose if I just keep returning to the same goals I will still be doing better than if they weren't floating around in the back of my mind.  And if accountability works for exercise, hopefully it will help keeping my healthy eating on track too!

Workout Recap

Once I decided I would start making a concerted effort to document my workouts, I really found that it gave me a ton of motivation to actually ... work ... out.  It's funny how much public accountability can influence your habits. 

 

Even on days when I really didn't feel like doing anything, I still got myself onto the exercise bike for a half hour so I'd at least done something.

 

Last week's workout recap:

 

Monday: at home body pump routine

 

Tuesday: 30 min bike (while reading) manual level 5

 

Wednesday: 30 min bike random hills level 5 plus1 1/2 min plank 

 

Thursday: off

 

Friday: treadmill intervals - 5 minute warm up on 5, then alternating 1 minute at 8.0 with 1 1/2 minutes at 3.2.  25 minutes total.

 

(Saturday and Sunday it rained all day so I didn't get a chance to get outside like I did the previous weekend.  So sad ...)

 

Saturday: back to the at-home body pump - such a good workout!  Though Saturday's routine didn't leave me as sore the next day as it did the first time around.  I guess my body's already getting used to it and I'll have to change things up soon ...

 

Sunday: 35 min elliptical - last 5 min in reverse, 19 dead lifts with 70 lbs. 

 

Why only 19 dead lifts, you ask?  That's because I totally through my back out on lift number 19 and just managed to hold it together to get the weights back to the rack and walk back to my apartment - in great pain.  Whomp whomp.

 

I was watching my form and I've done dead lifts with a lot more weight before (I did a 1RM in crossfit less than a year ago of 115 pounds), so I'm not really sure what happened.  But it took me out for a few days.  I really didn't want to do anything to injure myself any more. 

 

But now I'm back to my old self and ready to get back into the workout swing!  And next time I'm going to scale way down on the deadlift weight ...

Vegan Brie!

The only thing I asked Santa Clause for for this past Christmas was a copy of the Non-Dairy Formulary.  I'd read about it online last year, and heard how great all the vegan cheese recipes were, so I knew I wanted to try it.  But of course Mr. C wasn't so obliging.  So I went ahead and bought the book for myself right after Christmas.  I flipped through it right away, but promptly shelved it when I started to see the days-long process for making rejuvelac, and ingredients for other cheeses like kappa carrageenan and tapioca flour.  These didn't seem easy to find, and with session ramping up I didn't have a lot of spare time for involved cheese-making. 

 

But I still flipped through the book from time to time and also got around to looking for some of those trickier ingredients - buying tapioca flour at Wegmans and kappa carrageenan on Amazon.  It may still take me a while before I actually make rejuvelac, but once I had these other ingredients on hand it turns out the recipe for brie was pretty simple.  So last weekend I got to work ... and it was so worth it! 

 

You definitely need to have some time on your hands for the brie recipe, but most of the time involved is down time, so it's not exactly labor intensive.  I mixed up just a bit more than would fit in my little mold, so I ended up making one larger wheel of brie and a little mini-wheel as well.  The mixing up took all of about fifteen minutes, then I had to let them cool at room temperature for twenty minutes, sit in the fridge for six hours, take them out and dust with tapioca flour, then sit overnight before finally getting to try my little masterpieces. 

 

I won't try to claim they really tasted like brie.  The texture was pretty close, but the flavor still just doesn't have the bite of real cheese - alas, maybe no one will ever be able to accomplish a real "cheesy" vegan cheese.  But if you go into it not expecting cheese, then what you get is really quite good!  I ate my mini wheel of brie for breakfast Sunday morning with crackers and a berry banana protein shake.  Delicious! 

 

That afternoon Josh's parents came to visit for a pizza lunch at Pacci's and to take the dogs for a walk in Rock Creek Park.  I actually convinced them to try a slice of the larger wheel on crackers, and they both said it was actually pretty good (again, if you don't expect actual brie).  But the real fans of the vegan cheese were the dogs.  They're big cheese fans, but the fat in real cheese isn't exactly good for them.  But there are no such issues with vegan cheese!  They gobbled up the little tastes I offered them and begged for more :)  Even Panda loved it! 

 

So I happily devoured my vegan brie over the past week, finally finishing the last of it over this past weekend.  Some fun variations on the standard cheese and crackers that I tried this week:

 

Slices of brie on crackers drizzled with honey (shown at left) - for a nice desserty treat (yes, I still eat honey, so I realize I'm not really vegan)

 

Honey, almond, and brie sandwich - so good (but not quite as good as ...)

 

Brie and apple sandwich - this was the big winner of the week.  I'll definitely be making this brie again soon, if only to have more of these sandwiches!  They were something I'd enjoyed with real brie in the past, but frankly thought I would just be without forever now. 

 

It definitely seems like the longer I'm vegan, the more I find I can adapt all sorts of my old favorites.  Next on the agenda from the Non-Dairy Formulary?  I'm thinking a nice Stilton :)   

At Home Body Pump

Today is Thursday.  But I'm still feeling sore from Monday's workout.  Seems like the sign of a good workout to me.  So how did I get to this sore but happy point? 

BODY PUMP

 

A long time back I took a body pump class thanks to a Groupon, but the class had some issues - bad instructor, poor pacing, etc.  So I didn't give it much thought and didn't seek to attend any more classes.  But after reading Tina's blog about how much she loved body pump (though she's now moved on to her new love, Crossfit), I thought I would give it a shot. 

 

But rather than pay for a class, I decided I could make up my own routine to go through in the comfort of my apartment's gym.  Someone with a set of light freeweights or even canned goods could even do this workout from their own home!  

 

My workout was also modified a bit because I didn't have a playlist all set out to follow for the duration of my routine.  Rather than set myself to four-minute exercise increments, I decided to just do 100 reps of each exercise - which actually seems better because you can't slack off!  If you take a rest, you still have to complete all the reps ... so laziness doesn't reduce what you do, it will just take you longer! 

 

My routine:

 

5 minute warmup on the elliptical

100 squats holding two 5 lb weights

100 chest presses holding two 4 lb weights

100 bent over rows holding two 4 lb weights

100 tricep extensions holding two 2 lb weights

100 bicep curls holding two 4 lb weights

100 lunges (no added weight)

100 shoulder presses holding two 4 lb weights

100 sit ups (no added weight)

1 minute plank

 

Yeah, I was incredibly sore Tuesday and even into Wednesday.  And there are still a few minutes that I am "noticing" today.  This routine is definitely a keeper.  And it's so easy to scale up the intensity by upping the weight or increasing reps.  I'm so excited to do this workout again soon!

Lentil Soup

For the past few days I've been enjoying healthy lunches with no crazed running around in the morning thanks to a giant pot of lentil soup I cooked up Sunday evening.  Unfortunately I just enjoyed my last bowl today for lunch, so it's back to the drawing board for tomorrow. 

 

But this soup is so simple, delicious, (and did I mention healthy!) that I know I'll be making it again and again ... even once the weather warms up.  (It is going to warm up, isn't it!)

 

In the mix:

 

1 cup lentils

4 cups vegetable stock

Diced carrots

1 white onion

1 zucchini

Garlic (I used about a teaspoon of minced garlic from a jar)

Tomato paste (I'd say I used about 1 1/2 tablespoons)

Cumin (I used about a teaspoon, but to taste is fine)

Salt (also to taste)

 

I tossed in the veggies to cook in olive oil for about ten minutes before adding the lentils (rinsed), veggie stock, garlic, tomato paste, cumin, and salt.  Then let the whole mixture cook for about an hour and a half, but you're probably good to go after only about an hour.  It's not exactly ready instantly, but the actual amount of working time is so low, I still consider this one of the easiest recipes I've ever made. 

 

And did I mention it's healthy? :)

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!)