Eating My Homework!

Happy Halloween everybody! I love Halloween!  This year I went as a kitty cat and I was handing out candy going "Meow meow" to all the kiddos. It was so fun!

 

I paid for my late night by sleeping in this morning and then giving myself a heart attack. This is the second time this week that I've overslept. I had a full plate today so I couldn't waste anytime. Breakfast was savored while working on a research project.

Delicious fresh pot of coffee and a slice of toast with egg, cheddar and smoked paprika= heaven for breakfast.

Smoked paprika mimics bacon in the most vegetarian friendly way!

My last two meals of the day were actually homework driven! Meaning they had to do with a couple of different projects! Talk about killing three birds with one stone (satiety, homework and da blog!)

This is a peanut butter, chocolate protein smoothie. Also known as a funky monkey because of the frozen banana I put in it. A little goes a long way calorie wise, but I can dig it. Lunch it is!

 

Dinner was for that research project I was telling you about earlier. My dear husband went out and bought me this blue plate, (my project has to do with reducing Alzheimer's patients malnutrition through color contrasting plates and food items) Marc is so sweet to me.

This is a ricotta and spinach filled ravioli with a mushroom and soy protein Bolognese (it's supposed to look like beef, did I pull it off?), roasted acorn squash on the side.

 

Since I woke up so late, I felt like I had wasted valuable time that I could have spent at the library (my original plan). I was so frustrated until Marc and I decided to move my desk in the bedroom. Sometimes living in 600 sq. feet is hard to find a place for "you". I can proudly say that I've accomplished quite a bit off of my to do list, and tomorrow can be mostly R&R.  

 

As a gift, Marc bought me a lamp to put on my desk to help me feel more at home in my new desk spot. I love it, it feels very "library-esque". I guess I didn't have to go to the library after all!

 

How was your Halloween? Did you dress up? What was the best costume you saw?

 

Goodnight!

Three Squares: Wolf Peach

Welcome to a special three squares event where I get to rave about one of my favorite restaurants: Wolf Peach!

 Before we get ahead of ourselves let's run through the other meals that made up a very long day. I left my house at 6:30 this morning and just got home around 8:45. PHEW! Breakfast came in the form of a biscuit, Colby jack and an egg with some red pepper. Coffee on the side, yum.

At lunch I was feeling very stressed out, so it was a good idea to eat outside and enjoy the breeze. This curried pumpkin coconut soup helped relieve the tension, especially with the rosemary crackers on the side.

Now on to the main event, Wolf Peach! I had never been here before, but I will be back ASAP. A couple of my friends and I were going to a cooking class tonight, but we wanted to relax and have some food before the main event. 

We caught happy hour and it was amazing. I got to try all three drinks (grapefruit rosemary mix, a whisky apple mix, and mine was a lavender infused vodka!), they were all perfect in their own way. Stroke of genius. Give that bartender a raise! Lavender was my favorite, which is good since I ordered it!

We decided to order a few different plates to try new things. This first one is a great mix between creamy smoky sauce, beautifully charred tofu and a slightly acidic and vinegary romanesco. Breathtaking.

Our next food adventure was a pizza bread, which had some gorgeously fresh tomatoes under this mountain of cheese. Wish you could see the bubbling in this picture!

Here's the bread to load up the sauce on. It was very comforting and balanced. Great dish.

I was really enjoying myself, so I decided to get a beer. I love happy hour! I love IPA's!

Last but not least, my favorite of the day! Crispy cauliflower featuring chickpeas and olives. I loved this so much, I could eat it every day!

Can you just look at this? Seriously! Give me more! Everything on the menu looked absolutely amazing, plus delicious meat options for those in your party who aren't veg-heads.

 

Go to Wolf Peach! Seriously, it's hard to find a restaurant with lots of vegetarian options that doesn't taste like cardboard. Eat here, you'll never miss meat again!

Tofu Hot Diggity Dogs!

Sometimes vegetarians just want a damn hot dog.

 

So here you go, I've helped you get your fix. Pigs not included. It's a tofu hot dog with lots of flavor, great texture and even some protein, you protein freaks! I have seen this marinated carrot hot dog around the interwebs which sounds weirdly good but tofu is where it's at for me in this recipe. I like the tofu because when it's browned in the pan it created the kind of tension that a hot dog gives when it's bitten. Does that make sense to all you hot dog eaters?

 

Let's get to how we make this treat before I get myself into trouble. The best thing about Tofu is that it's the chameleon of the veggie protein world. It needs a coat of many colors to get it to taste like anything worth chewing. So in comes my fiesta of flavor in the form of a marinade (recipe at the end of this post).

Hello tofu, you look extra cardboard-y today. Let's have Marc cut you all up while I photograph your mutilation.

 We're looking for a hot dog shaped cut, so this block will equal 8 Tofu dogs. Cut into 4ths and cut each again,  thus making 8! Viola!

Just in case my words are confusing here are some more tofu chopping pictures...

Riveting. You can't find this on anyone else's blog folks.  Also Marc asks for you to forgive his mechanic hands, they're clean (I swear!).

 

After making your dogs, place them in some sort of device that will keep them covered in the marinade. We used two plastic sandwich bags. I had originally thought a shallow pan but I want these to be completely covered in the marinade on both sides, so no shallow pan. No. Just do what I say!

 

Ooo, pour, pour, pour.

 

Soak. Soak. Soak.

After marinating, sauté in a frying pan with cooking spray until all sides are browned. We want that texture of a hot dog, so make sure it's a nice super firm tofu!

 

Tofu Hot Diggity Dogs

 

16 oz Super Firm Tofu, cut into 8 rectangular pieces

cooking spray

 whole wheat hot dog buns

desired hot dog toppings

 

Marinade:

1/4 cup low sodium Soy Sauce

1/4 cup water

1.5 TBSP apple cider vinegar

1 TBSP olive oil

 dash liquid smoke

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 tsp dried ginger

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp granulated onion powder

 

Marinade cut tofu into sauce mixture. Allow to soak up flavor for 1 hour, up to 24 hours. Spray frying pan with cooking spray and cook marinated tofu on medium heat until all sides of tofu are browned. Place on buns and add toppings of choice.

 

 

Hot diggity, you've made a tofu dog!



In Sickness and Health

 

this should about cover it folks. I was super sick this past week, and now I'm super stressed. Trying to find a happy medium but I've come to what I'm going to call "blog marriage testing". I want to keep you updated, but do I have the time to do so everyday? No. RIGHT NOW I SHOULD BE STUDYING FOR AN EXAM THAT'S GOING TO PILLAGE THE COUNTRY I CALL MY SANITY.

For now, I must test the limits of our bond. I have to try and reconfigure how often I can post and still feel like I haven't lost the connection to you, and my Three Squares. I've been taking pictures of meals but not having the time to upload and discuss. !?

Help.

Meep.

Three Squares: Friday Escapades

Fridays are my work days, where I nanny a 4 year old. I start my day taking the older brother to kindergarten, make sure they eat breakfast and brush teeth. After that chaos is over it's like a "normal' play day at home with my youngest friend!

Here's my breakfast after chaos... hopefully you'll judge me on this meal instead of my dinner.... ok let's just say no judging at all haha!

Cashews, eggs, tomato breakfast

After breakfast it's keep little one busy so she doesn't ask for TV time, minimal TV on Czesia time. So we played "hide toys" and then...

Hide and seek! Here I am hiding behind a red curtain. I know you could see my pink socks-but she couldn't find me! I ended up laughing and then she found me with a "gotcha"!

Here she is hiding under the fabric lining of the couch haha! She's so funny! You can kind of see the outline of her pink pants.

Lunch was a waffle with peanut butter and walnuts, a delicious pear as well.

Dinner was a treat from my love. I didn't eat the donut, it was stale. The coffee is half caf for studying purposes. Normal DD Nummies.

 

Other news, I lost 5 pounds this week. I know, I know :) and I'm off to go study so I can ACE this test on Monday.

 

Nighty night!

Three Squares: "Deez Nutz"

Marc picked the blog title... He's really mature.

I'm writing this while snuggling cozily on the couch watching TV that requires no brain power. My day at the hospital was amazing, I learned so much. Especially from my last patient who was undergoing so many complicated problems. I'm just so grateful for my health right now.


Breakfast was on the run, half this container of cashews. By the way, Marc packed all my food day. I'm a lucky lady.

Lunch was one of the best ones I've had. I want to eat this every day. Yellow pepper, celery with peanut butter and dried cherries, hard boiled eggs with smoke paprika and pepper and those leftover cashews.

It's pizza night! Yay! Onion, green pepper and jalapeño. I'm pretty sure a glass of wine is calling my name now.

Three Squares: Quitting the Blog

Hello Faithful blog readers! I love it when you come out of the woods, so to speak, and announce yourselves. I really do in fact, one of my elementary school friends (yes we keep in contact!) told me she looks forward to the blog every day! YAY! Made my whole night, morning, afternoon and look I'm still talking about it. I would just be sitting here babbling to myself if it weren't for you. Thank you for dropping in.

School is ramping up. Poo. Today I woke up at 5 am to work on a large project, and have spent over six hours on it. I'm proud to say I just turned it in.... it's only a rough draft though, ouch. I'm going to be in pain when the full one is due next week. Anyway, I've digressed. With school ramping up means I have less tome to devote to the blog but this semester I am not going on hiatus. No. I refuse to quit. You will see why a little later. Ooo Foreshadowing?

Breakfast: Eggs, veggie breakfast sausage, kale, spinach and cheddar. So good! I love eggs, I want to eat them every day.

Lunch SUCKED, SO NOT GOOD. I think it was because I was just grabbing stuff in the fridge and pulling it out all "creatively".

..ooo this is good in salad, ooo this is also good in salad...

Baby Kale, tomato, mozzarella, kidney beans, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, sage, rosemary, avocado and strawberry vinaigrette. I'm blaming this weird kitchen sink mix on my fried brain last night when I made this.

After school I saw a hawk kill a squirrel! Can you see him try to pick him up?

The hawk is sitting on his prey, he's saying-  "my squirrel"!

 

Lately, with all of life's stress I want to try to remember that I'm not the only one who is experiencing my crazy life, schedule and work load. Marc is always there to cheer me on, so I wanted to do something for him "just because". So I went to the grocery store before picking him up from work (we carpool), and I bought popcorn, chocolate, dark lager and a card. Some of his favorites, there is nothing better than seeing his surprised smile! I have to remember to do things lake this more often. Everyone enjoys a surprise!

 

He shared with me!

 

After the popcorn, I really wanted a second bowl. Without thinking about it I poured myself one and Marc said, you have to take a picture of that for your blog and I paused. I didn't want to admit to you that I had a second bowl SO I DIDN'T EAT THE SECOND BOWL, I POURED IT BACK IN THE BAG! I'm proud of myself! Go me! I didn't need more popcorn, I didn't need more snacks. This was supposed to be a treat, especially for Marc! This is why my blog is so important for me to maintain, so I stay honest, and I am not quitting.

 

Marc made dinner! Love our agreement! He made the tofu hot dog recipe, radish and cottage cheese salad with green onion and mustard on the side. I swear the recipe is coming for the tofu hot dogs! I have all the pictures done! Hopefully this weekend.

I took this picture to show you what I look at when I write my blog posts, and do my homework. This is why I moved my desk to the window. I'm thankful and blessed to have a neighbor with gardening love.

I'm off to print out some work for school tomorrow and relax for the night, phew! See you all tomorrow.

Three Squares: Zucchini Lasagna

Today was long, overwhelming at times and frankly, I was in a bad mood most of the day... for no good reason! At least my food was delicious! Breakfast: Hardboiled eggs, avocado and salsa. I loved this breakfast, and it kept me full all morning.

 

Lunch was when I was in my worst mood. I believe that unless you have a mental condition, it is important to remember that happiness is a choice- but today I chose not to try and be happy. I didn't want to, I wanted to wallow in it. Silly, but why stifle yourself if you're not hurting someone? It's a tricky slope but I think it's healthy to be in touch with your emotions, good or bad. 

 

I forgot to take a picture of my peppers and olives but I devoured it before I remembered! Those orange peppers were sweet and super crunchy.

The rest of my lunch was string cheese and nuts.

 

Marc made dinner!!!!! Spinach with strawberry vinaigrette and zucchini lasagna. The lasagna was made with zucchini instead of noodles and soy protein plus mushroom instead of beef. Duh, we're vegetarians lol.

 

Off to do more homework. Damn it.