Here’s what I’m doin with this food THANG

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Almond Butter Toast Banana, Cage Free Eggs Peppers Salsa, Daiya Dairy Free Cheese Shreds, Eating Right Plan, Healthy Eating 2014, Mestemacher Pumpernickel Bread

This was my ‘front-loading’ breakfast this morning. While I mostly like plant sources of protein, I do love my cage-free egg with peppers and spinach and salsa. (Daiya cheese shreds too!)

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Day One of ‘doing the right thing food-wise’ has come and gone.

I woke up feeling ‘clear’ and ready to take on DAY TWO.

I’ve been asked, ‘What I’m doing with this food-thing?’

Hopefully, sharing this adds some value.

So, I thought I’d review yesterday…

Loaded in as many green vegetables as I possibly could.

(More good stuff means less room for bad stuff.) 

For breakfast, this included spinach with my eggs and salsa.

For lunch I made a huge salad for me and George with shredded broccoli and steamed kale and spinach.

For dinner steamed kale with black beans and salsa. (I guess you can tell I love the kick of salsa.)

Stayed away from packaged Lara Bars — and the like — including those lovely little individually-packaged fig bars in the bulk aisle at HEB.

Take sprouted bread and toast and use 1 TB almond butter and four thin banana slices. Voila! (George loves this treat any time of the day.)

(Ate an apple for 2p snack with a piece of pumpernickel and almond butter — only a tablespoon of almond butter.)

My mid-morning snack had been the piece of health bread with 1 tablespoon of almond butter

(yes…almond butter has lots of fat calories, but right now I’m all about moderation and I think a total of 2 tablespoons almond butter per day is fine.)

I attended yoga class and worked through half the postures in the Ashtanga primary series.

After heading home I had for an evening snack a bowl of plain popcorn — and drizzled over it about a tablespoon of Daiya cheddar cheese.

Yes. This YEAR I want to eat RIGHT and FEEL GREAT and USE food as fuel.

But of course making sure the experience is pleasurable.

Do you have a new eating plan for the new year? If so, I’d like to know about it.

Leave a post or shoot me an e-mail. Thanks! And Happy New Year!!

Lovin Stir-FRY SHORTCUTS

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Broccoli, mushroom, red bell pepper, steamed kale, stir fry shortcuts vegan, tofu, wasabi peas

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE stir fry. And I was pleased with this one I threw together tonight. But there-in lies the operative word ‘threw-together.’ These days with this microbiology class, I have to find short cuts. The tofu came from the Whole Foods prepared foods bar and the veggies were pre-chopped. I bought some low-sodium stir-fry sauce. (No oil, just lemon juice to de-glaze.)

This stir-fry was a little more involved. A cube of store-bought tofu was cut into squares and blotted. That way it picks up sauce. (The sauce was a quick throw together of lemon juice, a sesame tamari vinaigrette and low-sodium soy sauce.) There’s even crunchy wasabi peas, steamed kale and sliced mushrooms.

 

Whip up healthy stir-fry in 15 minutes (some planning required)

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Sesame Terriyaki Marinade from Organicville, Stir Fry, tofu, Tofu vegan stir fry, Vegan stir fry

Last night’s healthy, tofu-topped stir-fry took 15 minutes — with some good planning.

I believe good health and eating right takes planning. And lately, ‘doing the right thing’ has become quite a challenge with the demands of this microbiology class.

What I feel like will be somewhat of a solution is preparing a few things in advance — and being super organized. Like yesterday, for example, I saw the following items in the fridge and wrote them on a sheet of paper under the listing:

‘Things I have in fridge:’

– block of firm tofu (need to do something with)

– grilled broccoli (leftovers from previous evening)

– chopped onions (already food processed)

– box of sliced mushrooms (will go bad if I don’t cook it up soon)

– cooked brown rice from the Whole Foods ‘take-out’ bar.

– soy sauce, Sesame-Terriyaki Marinade from Organicville (agave-nectar-based), and sesame oil.

I knew the tofu block would help me generate about five lunches. I went ahead and cut seven even rectangular slices. Then I pat-dried them with a dish towel, dumped those babies in a mixing bowl, and covered them with marinade.

I figured I’d pan fry them later and place at least one rectangular slice on my stir fry. (The other could be used in salads during the week or used as a topper for pretty much anything else.)

I went back to my list because by then I decided I’d do a stir fry with the other ingredients.

I listed items I needed like:

– red pepper

– snap peas

(Of course the list grew because while I was gone for a few days on vacation we ran out of toilet paper, trash bags and all those household items you need but actually don’t want to buy. ha!)

Off to the store I went, and returned with the remaining items for the stir-fry.

Then I sat out to make the dish by cutting the red pepper in strips.

They were tossed into a super hot frying pan with the onion and mushrooms. I make sure to cook those babies enough that the red pepper strips still have a little snap. (I use just a light spray of oil on my pan and sometimes I don’t even use oil.)

After a few minutes I throw in the rest: the pre-cooked broccoli, the cooked brown rice and snap peas.

Meanwhile, in another hot pan, I lay out all the marinated tofu. And I cook them on both sides until I can see that the marinade has left a little carmelization.

The veggie concoction goes on the serving plate first and then a strip of tofu on top. And voila! A wonderful, quick, healthy meal for this busy pre-med 🙂

(George ate a different kind of wonderful dish at our friend’s house, who is an amazing cook! Yep, I heard about the apple enchiladas!! After all, it WAS SUNDAY FOOTBALL WATCHING DAY.)

Related articles

• How To Make Baked Tofu for Salads, Sandwiches & Snacks – Cooking Lessons from The Kitchn (thekitchn.com)
• Green vegetable stir fry with tofu and mushrooms (thegoodfoodtheory.com)