TOFU PHOBIA

I have been buying different types of Tofu for years only to throw out the unopened packages.  I just didn’t know what to do with it, but I kept buying it in hopes that one day I would be brave enough to take the plunge and actually open the package.  Well that day finally came.  Tofu for supper tonight. 

The other day on one of my many, many trips to the grocery store I saw this one. 

Blue Menu Coconut Curry Tofu.  Sounded interesting and it was already flavored so that was one thing I didn’t have to worry about.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Tofu actually does take on the flavor of what you cook it with… who knew.   That took care of my first fear.  The texture … well still not 100% sure of that.  I was hoping it would crisp up a bit but it didn’t.  It wasn’t what I was expecting but not bad at all.  Will I ever say I want Tofu over a turkey dinner, No, but I no longer have my tofu phobia, and will be adding into my diet. 

Now if I could only figure out how to disguise it and convince hubby it’s steak!!

Crockpot Lasagna

I found  this recipe over at The WW Chick  and thought I would give it a try.  I have wanted to try a lasagna in the Crockpot for some time but was afraid it would just turn into Lasagna soup.
No soup here, it stayed intact.  It was a little juicier than what I normally like my lasagna to be but all in all it was tasty, figure friendly and easy!!

As I do with every recipe, I made some changes / additions.

• Used whole wheat regular lasagna noodles.
• Half a package of frozen spinach
• Grated 2 large carrots into the meat mixture
• Used half  lean ground chicken and half extra lean ground beef
• Added 1 spicy Italian Turkey Sausage

I would have added more spice to it but the hubs doesn’t like spicy food :o(
Served up with a large salad for supper.
     
During my 650th    I mean 6th trip to the grocery I picked up some Sea Salt and Vinegar Baked Kettle Chips.  I adore chips especially salt and vinegar.  I have yet to find a semi healthy version that actually tastes like a potato chip.  These came very close.  Nice and crunchy with tons of flavor, they beat Baked Lays hands down!!

The other flavors are:  Salt and Pepper, White Cheddar, BBQ, and Lightly Salted.
As always the weekend flew by and it’s back to work tomorrow..BOO!! 

Living at the grocery store…

Ok… so I just came back from yet another trip to the grocery store.  I think this is probably my 5th or 6th trip this week.  Now I’m not talking about running in for a loaf of bread ( I don’t think I have ever just run in for a loaf of bread),  and I certainly can’t use the express lane when I visit the grocery store.  Oh, no I can’t seem to get out the door for anything less than $50.00 and most times I’m just shy of $100.   Besides the fact I am spending a small fortune at the store my house is bursting at the seams with food.  I really need to get a grip, before I go broke.  When you consider the fact that I am only shopping for two people (and 4 fur children) this is more than ridiculous.

Besides stopping for fresh vegetables, I could probably skip grocery shopping for, maybe six months or more.  Both of my freezers are full, so much so that I dread looking in them, I’m going to have to start storing some of my canned / packaged goods in cupboards in the garage soon since I have run out of space in the kitchen (I’m sure hubby will be thrilled with me invading his garage).

Despite having all this food I still can’t seem to make any headway in planning meals and getting organized in that area.  I think that’s part of the reason I keep shopping.  I don’t know what I am going to cook /eat and it seems when I do pick something, guess what there is something I don’t have.  I’m not sure how that is possible, because I think I have just about every item in the grocery store stored in my kitchen, so I just keep going back to the store and buying more and more stuff in hopes that someday I’ll have everything I need to get this meal planning on track.  By the looks of it that will only happen if I can move into the grocery store.  Then and only then will I have everything I need.

Guess I’ll go put my groceries away now, stare at all this food and hope that I’ll finally have a light bulb moment that will get me on track!!

Amazing Grass & Larabars

After reading about Amazing Grass on everyones blogs, I had to try it. I have become a fan of the Amazing Grass Chocolate Superfood unfortunately it is hard to come by here in Halifax. Not too mention it's a little pricey too. I think it was over $40 + tax at Planet Organic when I called. Anyway I found it online at http://www.well.ca/. They don't have a huge selection but I have emailed them and they said if they get more requests they will look at expanding. The Chocolate Superfood is $32.99 plus tax (and no shipping within Canada) for the 8.5 oz (30 serving) container. They also sell Larabars by the box but they always seem to be sold out.

I still have an unopened container of the Amazing Grass Wheatgrass in my cupboard but I'm kinda scared to try it. I'm pretty sure it's not a taste I'm going to enjoy but from what I hear it is great stuff.

If you haven't tried any Amazing Grass products Jaime over at http://www.embracingbalance.com is having an amazing giveaway of their products.

Off to watch some TV and enjoy a cup of Decaf mint tea before bed.

Weekly Recap

Nothing too exciting going on here. I've been doing good so far with working out again after my 3 or 4 month hiatus. I thought I would try a different approach this time. Usually I just pick up right where I left off, and that more often than not ends in an injury of some sort, which leads to frustration on my part and I have to stop yet again. This time I thought I would gradually work myself back up to where I was... not rocket science I know. So far so good. I managed to work out 6 days this week ( I haven't done that for about a year). Made a conscious effort to drink at least 2L water each day and I'm down 2 lbs. Not a huge loss but a loss all the same.

On the food front I made some Tandori Chicken for supper the other night that was quite tasty. Hubby didn't like it ... too spicy for him. Why must they be so fussy. It was a package I picked up at Pete's Frootique awhile back. It contained the spices and a package of rice. You add 2 of the spice packets to plain yogurt, along with lemon juice and oil. Marinate the chicken in it for 2-3 hours. The other spice packet is mixed with plain yogurt to make a dipping sauce for the chicken.

While the chicken was cooking I soaked some rice noodles (I didn't feel like rice) and got out some snow peas. After the chicken was cooked I added the noodles and snow peas to the pan for a quick stir fry then added the chicken back. Some of the yogurt dip and some tatziki.

Home made pizza for supper Friday night. Always a fan favorite in my house. I didn't feel like cooking Saturday night so a huge salad for me. I think it weighed 2lbs. Mixed greens, grilled chicken, grape tomatoes, red cabbage, green onions, english cucumber, a sprinkle of feta, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and a couple of garlic croutons. Squeeze of lemon, fresh ground pepper and light Greek Dressing.

Tonight was Roasted Pork Tenderloin, Creamy Parmesan Orzo, and a Turnip Puff. Yummo!! The pork tenderloin was cooked perfectly if I do say so myself.... moist and flavorful.

That's all for now. Guess I better get off the computer so I can get some exercise in tonight.

Quinoa..... Love it or Hate it

So I attempted to cook some Quinoa for supper tonight to go with my grilled chicken. This was my second attempt at it. The first time I thought it was disgusting and ended up throwing it out. I found a recipe in Self magazine thought it sounded good so I gave it another try.

Quinoa Pilaf With Pine Nuts

1 cup low sodium ff chicken broth

1/2 cup organic red quinoa

2 tbsp pine nuts toasted (I used chopped almonds)

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley chopped

1/2 large onion, chopped

Prepare quinoa according to directions. While quinoa is cooking saute onions, and toast chopped nuts. When quinoa is done fluff up add nuts, chopped parsley, and onion.

It was pretty good. Much better than the last attempt. I can't say I love it yet but at least I don't hate it anymore. Do you have a favorite Quinoa recipe?

Breakfast was a breakfast burrito. 4 egg whites, with onion, peppers and 1/2 oz shredded cheddar in a Weight Watchers Whole Wheat Tortilla, with some Cinnamon pastry coffee.

Lunch was a large salad. My co-workers kindly refer to it as my "bucket of salad". Mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, english cucumbers, green onion, red cabbage a sprinkle of sunflower and pumpkin seeds, feta cheese, a squeeze of lemon, lots of cracked black pepper and a tsp of light Greek salad dressing.

To go with the salad a tuna salad wrap. 3 oz chunk light tuna, 1 tbsp Tatziki (instead of mayo), chopped celery and onion. Wrapped in Weight Watchers Whole Wheat Tortilla and grilled for some crunch. For dessert some organic vanilla yogurt with 1 tsp chia and some chocolate grated with my microplane on top.

Speaking of yogurt, I noticed in the Sobeys flyer that Liberte now has a Greek yogurt. Can't wait to give that a try.

All in all a pretty good day. I even managed to get in 45 mins of cardio.

What I learned today... X-Weighted Fitness Challenge

I learned two things about myself today after taking the X-Weighted Challenge fitness test.

• My workouts that I thought were tough workouts were far from it. If that is what I am am supposed to feel like when working out, I am falling WAY short. Who knew laying down and getting back up 20 times would be so hard.
• I have realized that the lung damage / scarring from my Sarcoidosis is much worse than I thought after doing the fitness test. In everyday life I'm fine but it is now almost 10 hours later and I'm still weezing and coughing like I have a chest cold. I have noticed it when doing some aerobic activity that involves more than moving just my legs but NOTHING like today. So now there is one more reason for me to put in the extra effort . How many reasons will I need before I manage to stick to it for good?

I need to organize myself in order to ensure I fit exercise in every day again. So I am attempting to start some meal planning. I find that so hard. It sounds easy in theory but I don't know what I want to eat tonight let alone what I will want 6 days from now. Any suggestions? I spend so much time making dinner through the week it is ridiculous. By the time I decide what I want, prep it, cook it and clean up the night is gone. Most nights I end up cooking twice, one meal for me one for the BF. Mainly I cook twice because he is home late, and partly because, as I have said before he is a meat and potato guy. Still stumped about what to do about that.
Hopefully I'll stop weezing soon.

Kahlua Oatmeal & X-Weighted

I have to give credit where credit is due. Jess over at Bye Bye Love Handles talked about this on her post yesterday so I had to give it a try. I have one word "YUM". I added about 1/2 c of Kahlua coffee to my oats this morning with a dash of Agave, 5 dark chocolate chips and a sprinkle of coconut on top. Breakfast of champions!!

I have been debating wether or not I was going to join the X-Weighted Challenge today. I decided it could only help in my journey to be fit and healthy so I signed up online this morning. Snapped my before pic, took my measurments, stepped on the scale and then the big one.... I did the fitness test. Well let me tell you that was an eye opener. I don't pretend to think I am fit by any stretch of the imagination but wow.... I didn't think it was that bad. I have 2 bad knees so I had to skip the lunge portion of the test but did the others. My legs felt like jello when I was done, and my lungs felt like they were going to explode. My cardio sucks and it's only been about 6 mos since I did a good workout. It's amazes me how fast my fitness level drops when I stop for a little while. They were the longest couple of minutes of my life I think. One good thing though I can only improve from here.

Have any other Haligonians joined the challenge?

.... AND THE NEW YEAR BEGINS

I really can't believe the holidays have come and gone for another year. It seems 2009 has just flown by, and December came and went before I knew it. Christmas was great. I enjoyed spending time with family and friends. It appears I was a very good girl this year too judging by my Christmas loot. People always say you shouldn't give your spouse appliances or kitchen implements for Christmas, so I guess I am an exception to that rule. I love, love, love getting kitchen stuff. Here are some of my favorites this year.

Since we bought a propane stove I have been complaining about my pots and pans. They were great for the electric stove but for the heat of the propane, not so much. Everything burns. This was the start of my new collection - Cast Iron KitchenAid - I'm hoping for better luck with these.

A couple of years back I splurged and bought myself a Henckel Chef's Knife, and have been wanting more ever since, but couldn't justify the cost. They are pricey but soooooo worth it. You will never go back to a regular knife once you have tried one of these. My honey got me the full set and then bought me a 10" Grohmann Chef's knife. I've never tried them before but a chef he knows said they were the ones he uses. They are made right here in Nova Scotia. I haven't tried it yet but can't wait to get slicing and dicing.

Here are a couple of my fun presents.

Animal Zoo - Silicone Pot Mitts and Another frog for my collection























Oh yeah, I almost forgot.



This is the Rachael Ray Oval pot. It's made for cooking long pasta so you don't have to break it or smoosh (I think that's the technical term) it down in the pot, something that has always annoyed me. She uses her pots on a gas stove so I'm hoping it will stand up to the propane.














That's all for now. Happy New Year!!!