VeganMoFo III: Just Another Movie Monday

Oh oh oh.  I wish it was Sunday.  Seriously.  I absolutely loathe Mondays.  For some reason I always feel like I'm forgetting something which makes me feel rushed and uncentered.  Then my yoga was interrupted by my sister and husband, I thought I had wine for my dinner but didn't, and the sun went down before I could take pics of the food.  Bring on Tuesday already!  Ha ha.

This is the first Movie Monday and I am stoked about it because it's all about the vampyre.  Remember when vampires were the most feared creatures of the night?  Think really hard.  Long ago, before vampires were reduced to playing dominating high school sweethearts who get their bling on in the sunlight.  Yeah.  There was this movie called Blade II, my favorite of the series.  It has vampires killing vampires and so much kick assery, even Ryan Reynold's abs are jealous.  Wesley Snipes as Blade is as healthy as it gets.  That man just oozes bad assness out of his perfectly formed guns.  And tonight's menu is brought to you by the letter "v" for Veganomicon.  I'm basically killing two vamps with one stake, as the youth say.  I busted out some recipes I had never made before.  It was fangtastic!  One too many vampire references?  One.  One reference.  Two.  Two reference.  Two...a ha ha.  Okay, I'm done.

Blade II Menu O' Doom

Portobello Stakes covered in Vampyre Guts (roasted portobellos and red wine roux from Vcon)

Lower Fat Garlic Smashed Potatoes (mashed potato variation from Vcon)

Daywalker's Detoxifying Kale (lightly steamed kale, balsamic vinegar, and toasted pine nuts)

Chilled Holy Water

I sincerely apologize for how shiny my dinner looks.  It was quite tasty, though!  I had never made those roasted portobellos before, and my life is all changed because of them.  So freaking good!

Breakfast: 1 nectarine, 1 rice cake, crunchy almond butter

Lunch: spicy blackeyed peas & greens, ginger mashed potatoes & apples, and apple juice

Snack: 1 carrot, 1 celery stick, miso tahini dressing (Vcon), chai tea w/ agave and a splash of chocolate soymilk

Dinner: roasted portobello w/ red wine roux, steamed kale w/ balsamic and pine nuts, garlic smashed potatoes

Water-6 so far

Exercise-A little bit of yoga

Notes-This is the second day I've missed my fifth meal so I had to sit down and make a food schedule.  Yes, I'm a little insane.  I also think I may need to get some working out in before class in the mornings.  Maybe.  Getting up that early makes me cranky all day.  I'm turning off my phone tomorrow when I work out either way.

Well, I got a date with my pillow and season 4 of Weeds.  Good night, yo.  Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky...

VeganMoFo III: Domingo! Domingo! Domingo!

What a busy Sunday.  Laundry, working out, catching up on the dvr, and I still have homework to do.  SERENITY NOW!  Today marks the beginning of health week.  I'm going to be eating sensible meals and posting mosaics of my daily intake.  Of course my attempt to be sensible for MoFo means that a bunch of blogs were posting pictures of chocolate chip cookies and delicious looking cupcakes today!  I think I did pretty good, though.

So why health week?  I have been trying to lose the same amount of pounds for years.  I never really struggled with weight until I was 13.  It was a domino effect for me.  I got really depressed and stopped being active which caused me to gain weight and that caused certain jackasses to torment me for being "fat" which caused me to turn to food which made me gain weight...  The list goes on to self loathing and EDs, but this isn't supposed to be a buzzkill.  I became healthy mentally.  I was at a completely comfortable weight in my early twenties but gained a bunch when I started working full time office jobs instead of restaurants and retail.  Honestly, I really don't have an ideal weight.  I just want to have a wider variety of clothing to choose from.  Especially bras.  Is there a certain rule that says anybody above a "c" cup only gets black, brown, and nude for a color?  Digressing...

My strategy when it comes to losing weight is super simple: love what you're doing and love what you're eating.  I don't believe in deprivation.  I know how that forces a person to just give up all together.  So I try to eat 4-5 small meals a day and drink tons of water.  If I have a craving that just won't quit, I'll make a healthy version of it.  When it comes to exercise, I do what makes me happy.  I'd rather spend two hours on the elliptical than to run for 15 minutes.  I hate running with a passion.  Unless there's a psychopath wielding an axe behind me, I take no comfort in it.  So I like doing cardio kickboxing and walking around the neighborhood and pretending like I can play tennis on Wii.

At the end of the day, I'm really good at being healthy and losing pounds...but horrible at the follow through (story of my life).  I guess the main thing I have to learn is that one misstep does not mean all hope is lost.  So if I falter on this journey, I'm no longer throwing in the towel.  Enough with the jibber jabber....

Breakfast: 1/2 an apple and 1/2 a pear, 1 tbsp peanut butter (held by a monkey)

Lunch: romaine, tomato, cucumber, and cilantro salad with hot sauce coated baked tofu, salt, lime juice
Snack: banana oatmeal breakfast cookie (VCIYCJ tester), chocolate soymilk
Dinner: spicy black eyed peas & greens and ginger mashed sweet potatoes & apples (Isa weight loss testers)

Water-10 cups
Exercise-45 minutes on elliptical while watching Buffy.  The beginning of Willow and Oz...squee!!!

Coming up this week: Wesley Snipes, raw food goodness, baked falafel, repollo, pear and zucchini soup, and how to turn your fridge into a salad bar.

VeganMoFo III: Are You Epicurious Yet?

So here's a fun little thing that Isa came up with: an Epicurious inspired recipe game.  Basically, she created a formula to find something on Epicurious.com and veganize it.  I majorly lucked out with this recipe for Shrimp and Vegetables in Ginger and Coriander(Cilantro) Broth.  All I had to do was replace the chicken broth with vegetable broth and the shrimp with tofu.  And boy was this delicious!  Do you see all the greatness going on in there?  It was really good and super filling.

Tofu and Vegetables in Ginger Cilantro Broth

yield: Serves 2

1/2 lb extra firm tofu(frozen, thawed, squeezed, and sliced into 8 triangles)

1.8-ounce package bean-thread (cellophane) noodles

1 3/4 cups chicken flavored or vegetable broth

1 fresh jalapeño chili, halved lengthwise

8 fresh long cilantro sprigs, washed, dried,and stems and leaves reserved separately

a 1/2-inch piece fresh gingerroot, peeled sliced thin, and cut into strips
1/2 avocado, sliced lengthwise
2 radishes, sliced thin
2 scallions, sliced thin
2 large mushrooms, sliced thin
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, or to taste
Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 375.  Brush tofu slices with olive oil and salt to taste.  Place on a cookie sheet and cook for 20 minutes, flipping over after 10 minutes.  You can multitask by getting the noodles ready and chopping veggies until the tofu is done.

Soak bean-thread noodles in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes and drain. In a small saucepan of boiling salted water cook bean-thread noodles 3 minutes.  In a colander drain noodles and rinse under cold water to stop cooking.

In a saucepan simmer broth, jalapeño, reserved cilantro stems, and gingerroot for 5 minutes.  While the broth is simmering divide radishes, scallions, mushrooms, avocado, noodles, and reserved cilantro leaves between 2 large soup bowls, putting each ingredient in a separate mound.

Add tofu to broth. Simmer broth mixture 3 minutes and use a slotted spoon to transfer tofu to soup bowls, arranging it on top of vegetables. Add lime juice to broth, add salt to taste if desired, and pour broth mixture gently through a sieve into soup bowls over tofu and vegetable mixture.

Of course, no good meal is complete without a little dranky drank.  Most of the time it's just water for me.  But last night was technically FN Friday (not to be confused with Tami's version) so I made Guy Fieri's Double Apple Mojito.  Sweet merciful Zeus, it was strong!  I had to add a lot more apple juice.  I'm pretty middle of the road with my liquor.  I like it strong enough to feel it, but not so strong to taste it.  I used Simply Apple juice(friggin delicious).  The only changes I made were: a bit of agave instead of simple syrup and pear instead of green apple.

Double Apple Mojito

By Guy Fieri

recipe originally found here

Small handful fresh mint, about 10 leaves
1 cup ice cubes
Splash simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water, heated until sugar dissolves; cool)
1/4 cup apple juice
1/3 cup vodka
2 red apple slices, for garnish
2 green apple slices, for garnish

In a tall glass, crush mint leaves with a muddler. Top with ice, simple syrup, apple juice and vodka. Garnish with red and green apples slices and serve.

Drink one of these and forget all your troubles.  Plus, there's the fun of eating vodka soaked fruit after you're done.  I liked it okay, but I'm kinda not a mint fan.  I really only like it in gum.  In a drink it's too sweet or something.  I can't quite put my finger on it.  But if you happen to like mojitos, vodka, and apples...this is your drink.  Just remember to take it slow and drink some water between because this will knock you on your bootilicious bum.

And so ends Freebie Week.  Tomorrow begins the health stuff.  I'm excited and kinda nervous.  Mostly excited, though.  Off to read more blogs...