Return of Vegan Brie and the Chicken Ring

Two weekends ago saw the return of a couple of old favorites - vegan brie and the chicken ring.  Unfortunately, neither of these old goodies turned out quite the way I was hoping.

 

My vegan brie recipe comes from the Non-Dairy Formulary (in fact, it's still the only recipe I've actually made from the book yet), and I loved the way it came out last time.   But when I went to make it again, I realized that I had misread the recipe and completely omitted an ingredient.  The recipe reads "1/4 cup tapioca flour plus more for dusting" and then the text of the directions say "add remaining ingredients".  So somehow I read this and interpreted it as "no tapioca in the mix, just use it for dusting".  Obviously I realized this was a mistake and proceeded to add it on my second go.  Since I'd still liked it the first time, I fully expecting it to work brie miracles this round.  No such luck.  The texture of my tapioca floured brie was way too sticky and off.  Of course I have no clue why this would be - you would think adding a dry ingredient would do just the opposite.  But I'm definitely not going to make it per the books instructions again.  I'll stick with my mess-up version, thank you very much. 

 

Fortunately it was still more than tasty enough for delicious brie and apple sandwiches!  Yeah, I ate these for dinners three nights in a row.  Yum!

Meanwhile, right when my vegan brie was starting to run out I decided that the best way to make up for a weekend full of carbalicious sandwiches was to make another carb-heavy treat - the chicken ring.  Yes, that ring of Pillsbury goodness reared its delicious head again!  I mean, seriously ... what's not to love?!  Crescent rolls, broccoli, red bell pepper, gardein chicken, mayo, and cheese! 

 

But when I went to pull out my trusty Daiya, I found that alas I had inadvertently started on a homemade vegan blue cheese project.  Yup, it was completely covered in mold.  As exciting as it might have been to see where this vegan blue would take me, I decided to play it safe and toss it out.  Without a cheese component for the ring that was already underway, I fell back on the only thing I had in the fridge - parmesan.  Turns out I probably should have just run my lazy butt to the store.  I added the same amount of parmesan that the recipe called for of regular cheese, and it was too salty.  In fact, I realized after the fact that I had actually forgotten to add salt, though the recipe called for it, and it was still too salty.  Whomp whomp.  Not so salty of course that I didn't devour the whole ring in just a few days.  But enough that I'll be sure that next time I actually look at my Daiya before I start laying out my crescent roll triangles.  And yes, there will definitely be a next time.  Long live the chicken ring!

Chia Pudding

I've been seeing so many delicious looking recipes for chia seed pudding online lately.  But when I saw this recipe for Almond Joy chia pudding, I decided it was finally time I got my pudding on.  Of course I had to make a few modifications based on the ingredients I had on hand ... like using peanut butter rather than almond butter.  Maybe that means it's not really "Almond Joy" flavored anymore ... but it sure tasted just fine! 

 

On my first try I also used almond extract because I had no coconut, but that turned out to be too much almond for my taste.  Fortunately, I could see the potential in this stuff, so I tried a *few* more times.  For all my later versions I've used vanilla extract and it's turned out great.  Oh, and I did include the maple syrup and chocolate chips I just forgot to get them out for the picture ...

 

This stuff is so creamy and delicious - definitely a satisfying dessert.  Unfortunately it's also not exactly "healthy" since it's still full of peanut butter and maple syrup, but it's not quite as bad as some other options one might turned to when looking for dessert ...  I've already made this about five times in the past week, and I'm predicting there will be many more batches in the future. 

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!

Ski Weekend ... Wait, ... What?!?!

Wow, talk about a belated post!  Imagine my surprise when I looked at my "draft" blog posts and saw this sucker lurking there!  It's a post from way back in January when Josh and I headed off on a ski weekend to Wisp Resort.  We stayed one night and skied two days.  The whole weekend was my Christmas present to Josh.  It was sort of a two-fold present, because Josh loves to ski and I pretty much hate it.  That's real love, isn't it? :) 

 

Fortunately for me, though we skied most of the weekend, there were a few other perks that I got to enjoy as well.  Like our fabulous cabin at the Lodges at Sunset Village!  We got a whole cabin to ourselves, complete with kitchen and dining areas, living room, and sleeping area.  Though the bathroom was the only room actually fully walled off, the studio cabin was huge and had anything you could want to stay for quite a while.  I actually felt bad we were only there for one night. 

 

Dinner on our first night was at the Mountain State Brewing Company, where we enjoyed a beer flight and some delicious pizza (half no cheese, of course). 

The next day it was back to ski, ski, skiing.  Fortunately, Josh and I figured out a system where he would go down a nice, easy run with me once, then we would ride up the lift together, he would go down a scary, death-defying type of run while I waited nervously at the top, then he'd come up and meet me and we'd go down a nice bunny slope again.  The system seemed to work well - both to balance Josh's desire to actually get some difficult skiing into his weekend, and my desire to not crumple into a pile of tears and nerves (and probably broken bones!). 

 

When my nerves got to be a bit frayed on the second day we stopped into the lodge for a breather and to enjoy some hot ramen from the cafeteria.  I thought the ramen bar was really a brilliant choice for a food offering at a ski lodge.  It's hot and satisfying on a cold day, plus is full of protein and carbs to help you recover from all the exertion (or the mental exertion, in my case).  Plus it's got something for everyone, even the vegans!  I topped my ramen bowl with tofu, broccoli, edamame, scallions, black sesame seeds, and lots of hot sauce.  Delicious!  And while I didn't necessarily have any more courage once we headed back out for the afternoon, I certainly wasn't hungry. 

 

And even though I did end up with a crazy snowboarder crashing into me later that afternoon, I obviously survived the trip, which is the most important thing.  Maybe someday I'll even give Josh another gift of my presence on a ski trip ... or maybe I'll try to convince someone else to go with him :P 

Post-California Workouts

After getting back from California last week, I found that I was pretty blitzed from all the travel and not in much of a mood to work out.  But even though some days I couldn't push myself to do a full-on, heart pumping routing, I still managed to do a little something every day for the rest of the week.  Something is always better than nothing at all, right?  Even if it's just a quick routine in the living room in front of the TV ...

 

(I got home from California very late Tuesday evening, which is why my workout recap starts on Wednesday of last week.) 

 

Wednesday - tabata core workout using my tabata timer app - planks, crunches, scissor kicks. The tabata timer gives you an alternating 20 second / 10 second count for eight rounds - total of 4 minutes.  The idea is you do 20 seconds "on" of your activity and 10 seconds "off".  It might not sound like 4 minutes of activity is that tough but, trust me, whatever you're working will be burning by the end.  I did three tabata rounds, one each of plank, crunches, and scissor kicks, for a total of 12 minutes.  Not only did my abs kill the next day, but my legs did too!  (I'm thinking that was the scissor kicks!) 

 

Thursday - pushup workout (another living room workout!).  I alternated sets of 10-rep rounds between standard pushups (on my knees - I've lost my groove from last year's pushup challenge) and bench dips.  I ended up doing a total of 50 standard pushups and 40 bench dips. 

 

Friday - after a couple half-hearted workout days in a row I decided to really step it up Friday by doing a 30-minute interval workout on the treadmill followed by 2 rounds of ten reps: wide squat, narrow squat, turned out squat, and calf raise, all on leg press at 70 lbs.  Plus 2 rounds of ten reps: bicep curls, bent over row, and shoulder press - all with two 10 lb barbells. 

 

Saturday - 2 mile walk to library plus 30 minutes on the gym stationary bike.

 

Sunday - 2 mile run outside then into the gym for 90 squats on leg press - narrow, wide, turned out (80 lbs). 

Mediterranean Salad

Since returning from California (where I might have overindulged a bit and gained a teensy bit of weight), I've been trying to up the healthy-factor of my meals more than ever.  But since I also don't want to get bored eating steamed broccoli three times a day, it's important to balance nutrition with fresh, delicious ingredients. 

 

This Mediterranean salad is a great example of just such a recipe.  It's got protein from both beans and the hummus (used for dressing) and is packed with healthy veggies.  I've already eaten it twice in the last week and am planning to have it again for dinner tonight!  Plus, it's quick and easy to prepare.  What's not to love?

 

Mediterranean Salad

 

Lettuce mix of choice (I used half Spring mix and half baby spinach)

Grape tomatoes

Green olives (I used green olives stuffed with jalapenos)

White beans

Cucumber

Hummus

 

Toss everything together and enjoy! 

Spring Trip to California

I can't believe I just got back from California last week!  Coming home it's so easy to fall back into your routine that the vacation feeling just melts away instantly and it's back to the old hum-drum.  But fortunately I took lots of pictures to look back at my wonderful trip to the Bay Area, which was full of lots of hiking and lots of eating.  I came back to find that the eating significantly outweighed the hiking (gained three pounds :'( ...), but it was all so good. 

 

There was a lot of Mexican food ...

Some sweet treats ...

And lots of other delicious food along the way ...

Plus a lot of great outdoor activities, including hiking and lying on the beach. 

 

I even found a great vegan snackbox to purchase on the plane when all of my planned snacks ran out and I was still starving a few hours from home.  But be warned, if you tip that bag of olives into your hand to get the last olive out, you will pour a ton of olive juice into your lap and look like an idiot. 

 

All in all it was a great trip and I can't wait to go back ... hopefully for a lot longer next time!