This Week’s BSI Ingredient IS…

I recently switched work schedules in order to accommodate my life a little better. I have always enjoyed AM workouts and with my desire to practice yoga daily, I wanted to be able to fit those things in before work. So, yesterday, I began and it felt great! I was up at 5 for a 30 minute treadmill session followed by 30 minutes of yoga. I flowed through sun salutations, a number of standing poses, balances and twists before finally settling into pigeon and then shoulder stand. I ended with a short meditation; I really don’t think there is a better way to begin the day than this! It was fabulous!

My new schedule also allows me to eat breakfast at home which I truly missed. Yesterday, I made microwave banana oats with flax seed and a PB spoon.

After breakfast, I headed into work for what would prove to be a challenging day. Monday’s are normally pretty productive because the club is closed and the only people at work are The Pro, T and myself. And even so, it still seemed that if it could go wrong, it was. Lunch ended up being much later than I expected so I snacked on a few grapes to get me through.

Lunch finally came around 1, this week, we chose Red Robin. The menu isn’t very pescatarian friendly is you are looking for healthy, too. I settled on a salmon sandwich on whole grain bun without any of the spicy mayo sauce.

On the side, I had a small salad with oil and vinegar. Overall, it was a good lunch but it wouldn’t be my first choice of eating establishments.

Things sort of settled down in the afternoon just in time for a pre-gym snack; I had greek yogurt with mixed berries.

With my new schedule, it is more convienent for the dear husband and I to meet at the gym after work, so that is just what we did. I had to wait about 10 minutes for him so I walked on the treadmill until he arrived. Once he was there, we headed upstairs to lift weights. We both did the full STRIVE circuit and the resistance machine circuit for a full body workout. By the end, my whole body felt like jelly so I knew I got in a good workout.

Once we were home, I munched on some grapes while I prepared dinner. I didn’t photograph them because they were the leftovers of the grapes I had before lunch. For dinner, I made BBQ tempeh sandwiches with Kath’s BBQ slaw minus the pecans.

On the side, I made skillet sweet potatoes.

 

This dinner was fantastic! I ended up taking the bread off of mine because it was super messy and pretty impossible to eat without a fork. Thank goodness we weren’t on a first date 😉 For dessert, I had a Reese’s heart that we scored on clearance at Target.

After some reading and TV, I realized I had checked my email in a long while so I went upstairs only to discover that I had won last week’s BSI contest! I was so thrilled! My entry for Orange Miso Tofu Stir Fry won the prize but I did feel a twinge of guilt since I just took my favorite parts of a couple of recipes I found online and made my own. That is how some recipes are born, I suppose. Anyway, to top off my win, she also chose me as this weeks host of the BSI contest!

After some thought, I decided that I wanted this week’s ingredient to be kale!  This is for selfish purposes, of course, since kale is my favorite green! It is also versatile, accessible and of course, veg*n friendly. Here is what The World’s Healthiest Foods has to say:

Kale is a leafy green vegetable that belongs to the Brassicafamily, a group of vegetables including cabbage, collards and Brussels sprouts that have gained recent widespread attention due to their health-promoting, sulfur-containing phytonutrients. There are several varieties of kale known commonly as curly kale, ornamental kale and dinosaur kale, all of which differ in taste, texture and appearance. The scientific name for kale is Brassica oleracea.

Curly kale has ruffled leaves and a fibrous stalk and is usually deep green in color. It has a lively pungent flavor with delicious bitter peppery qualities.

Ornamental kale is a more recently cultivated species that is oftentimes referred to as salad savoy. Its leaves may either be green, white or purple and its stalks coalesce to form a loosely knit head. Ornamental kale has a more mellow flavor and tender texture.

Dinosaur kale is the common name for the kale variety known as Lacinato. It features dark blue-green leaves that have an embossed texture. It has a slightly sweeter and more delicate taste than curly kale.

Pretty good stats, I’d say! You can enter two ways:

• Email the photo and recipe to whatiateyesterday [at] gmail.com
• or email me the link to the recipe in your blog.

I will update this page with the links/recipes as I get them. The deadline to enter is midnight, Sunday February 22nd! The prize will be a pair of handmade earrings in your choice of colors using glass beads and/or semi precious stones and sterling silver, you can see a few examples of my work on my Beading Page.

And don’t forget, today is the last day to enter my Country Bob’s Giveaway, comment and link back before midnight tonight for your chance to win some of this fabulous sauce and a secret prize!

The following are entries for BSI: Kale!

• Shannon at Tri to Cook: Kale Skins
• Jenna at Eat, Live Run: BBQ Beans with Kale
• Kath at KathEats: Butternut Squash and Kale Soup
• Mara at What’s For Dinner: Zuppa Toscana Ala Mara
• Brandi at BranAppetit: Green, Eggs and Ham Pizza & Creamy Curried Lentil and Kale Soup
• Sweetie Pie at Just Sweet Enough: Crispy Kale Salad with toasted Walnuts and Pomegranate Drizzle
• Laure at Hey, Mom, What’s For dinner: Sauteed Greens
• Sarah at Tales of Expansion: Kale Crust Pizza & Stuffed Kale Leaves
• Spiceaholic at One Bite at a Time: Panchphoran Potatoes and Kale
• Scrumptious at In My Box: Raw Kale Salad
• Erin at Life is Yumbo: Imposter Pesto Sauce
• Becca at Bites of the Day: Garam Masala Kale
• Hallie at Healthy Twists: Chickpea and Kale Curry
• Biz at Biggest Diabetic Loser: Bean Soup with Winter Vegetables
• Vani at Fit for Free: Kale and Mushroom Pancakes

Burning Lungs

For the second day in a row, I woke up late. I got ready as fast as I could, grabbed my cafe au lait and ran out the door. Once I got settled into work, I ordered breakfast from the kitchen again. Another egg and cheese sandwich but boy was it ever good. The Chef really knows his way around a salt and pepper shaker 🙂

Lunch was pretty simple, I asked The Chef for a salad to go along with my PB on sandwich thin. I only got a picture of the salad because I had company in my office for lunch time.

Work went by pretty fast and by the time I got off, I was inspired by the sunny day to try my hand at running outdoors.  It had been a really long time since I ran outdoors but since I am planning to run a 10k in March, I figured no time like the present to get started. I laced up my sneakers and headed outside. My lungs began to hurt from the cold air pretty instantly. I ran for about a mile before calling it quits, my lungs just hurt too bad. I guess I haven’t built up enough lung strength to handle the cold. Anyone have advice in this arena?

After my short run, I came inside and starting coughing like mad. Finally, my lungs felt normal again so I heated up dinner. We had a quick meal because we had to be at Body Pump class and were hoping to get there a little earlier than last week. I made a huge pot of chili over the weekendso I heated that up and served it over blue corn chips. I topped it all off with queso cheese and a dollop of sour cream.

After dinner, we headed to Body Pump to pump some iron. I love Body Pump because it takes the guess work out of lifting weights and for a newbie like me, that is awesome! Once we were home, I had half of an Honest Foods Choco Peanut Butter bar warmed in the microwave.

For those of you that are looking for a new blog to add to your list, check out my friend Brandi’s new blog. Brandi seems to have the balance of food and exercise figured out and I am proud to call her friend.

Chocolate on Bread

I had a long hard emotional day yesterday. Ever since I started the group therapy, my obsession with the scale and my appetite have increased. I experienced the same thing a couple years back when I started seeing my regular therapist. I think what happens is that all of the issues of the past become so “in my face” that I just wanted to push them back down.  Though I am learning new coping skills that don’t involve eating, food is still one of my very best friends. The kind of friend that is there through thick and thin, the kind of friend that has caused heartache as well as the greatest joys.

I started the day on the scale. It showed me a number that I really didn’t like even though it was only slightly higher than the day before. Of course, in all honesty, it was to be expected with my love for chocolate and dessert lately.  After my “weigh in”  I grabbed my cafe au lait and tried to pretend that my battle with scale didn’t exist. I went to work as normal and ate a normal “healthy” breakfast. I had greek yogurt with berries and granola.

Things became tricky around lunch time. I was feeling really wiped out when The Pro offered to pick up lunch from Panera. Feeling depressed and tired, I wanted something comforting. I ordered the tomato and mozzarella panini

with creamy tomato soup. Once it arrived, though it was slightly cool, I devoured it with no regard to how hungry I was.

Feeling stuffed, I wanted some chocolate. I bought this dark chocolate orange bar

at the grocery store over the weekend and it was calling my name. I took one bite and it tasted heavenly. It was then that I saw the leftover baguette.

I had only taken a bite and dipped it into my soup while I was eating lunch but it was calling my name. I wrapped a couple of squares of the chocolate in the bread and proceeded to finish off stuffing what I could down. By then end, I was miserably stuffed. I wanted to cry, even looking back on it now brings tears to my eyes. I got through it by chatting with my friend Sarah on Gmail and for a little while, my negative feelings subsided.

After work, I had a date with the dear husband at the gym; the plan was to run for 40 minutes on the treadmills. I got on the treadmill and started a 5 minute warm-up followed by about 7 minutes of running. I couldn’t do it anymore. My mind wouldn’t let me. I slowed down to a brisk walk and finally made my way back up to running for about 2 minutes. After that, I just didn’t have it in me anymore. I slowed down to a stroll and finished out the 40 minutes. Had the dear husband not been right beside me, I would have bailed after that 7 minutes of running. It felt so frustrating because, lately, running has been a freeing, mind clearing release for me and in those moments, it was mental torture.

We left the gym and came home to make dinner. I made orange peel tempeh from a recipe I found on Sally’s Blog. I made the sauce over the weekend and assembled it all last night over brown rice. It was way too spicy, I ended up not measuring the rooster sauce and over did it big time. I could only eat a couple of bites before calling it quits. The dear husband was a trooper and finished off his serving.

I was still hungry. I decided that the safest thing for me to have was popcorn. I air popped a batch and we headed upstairs to watch Brothers and Sisters on the computer. We normally DVR it but for some reason, it didn’t record this week. Once the show was over, I found some leftover chocolate covered sunflower seeds from our wedding and proceeded to dive in.

At the same time, I grabbed my copy of Eating in the Light of the Moon and sat down. Thankfully, reading the stories calmed me down. Enough so that I only ate a couple of tablespoons of the seeds. It felt good to finally stop eating but I am still ravaged with the shame of it. I know that doing this therapy is the right thing, if I don’t face all of “my stuff” I will continue to reach for “my log” for the rest of my life. In the end, it isn’t about the food and my only way to recovery is through it.

So Much to Do, So Little Time

Happy Monday, Bloggies!!

My weekend was exhausting, I think I was a little over ambitious about the things I wanted to get done. I woke up yesterday and enjoyed a cafe au lait while blogging/blog reading and then when the dear husband woke up, I made breakfast. We had a repeat of last Sunday, I made poached eggs in the microwave and put them on top of english muffins and a little cheese. This was the last of our english muffin stock so I will miss this breakfast!

After breakfast, I got started on my really long to do list, I had a lot of food prep to do for the week including cooking beans, chopping veggies, making chili, draining tofu, making sauces, the list seemed endless. In addition to all of the food prep, we had laundry and other preparations for the week ahead. Once I had all of the food prep done, we went upstairs for a quick workout before lunch. I did a 30 minute walk run with incline interval workout on the treadmill while the dear husband rode the recumbent bike.

After our cardio, I made lunch. I made baked tofu BBQ sandwiches; a favorite combo in our house. I normally do this on pizza crust but with my new obsession with sandwich thins, I thought we would give that a try. I drained the tofu, the coated it in olive oil, salt, garlic powder and onion powder and finally baked it for about 40 minutes. While it was baking, I caramelized some onions with balsamic vinegar. Once I had all the part made,  I assembled the sandwiches. On the sandwich thin, I layered the baked tofu, jack cheese, BBQ sauce and the onions. What a great combo, next time, I will add some pickles.

On the side, we had orange quarters from an orange that I removed the skin from in my food prep.

I also made us caramel lattes but ended up giving mine to the dear husband.

Once lunch was done, we rushed off the meet my friend Becky at the gym for Body Pump. It was an awesome class and I can already tell that I am getting stronger. Once we were finished pumping iron, we split this protein bar on the ride home. We both really enjoyed the flavor, I think I commented at least twice that it was like a candy bar. It did not have that protein bar texture that neither of us like so these will go on our next shopping list for sure.

Once home, we had to finish up the laundry and shower. Finally, we were *basically* done and sat down for an easy peasy dinner. I had a more elaborate dinner planned but I was just too tired to make it happen. We had buffalo mozzarella pizza topped with fresh basil

with steamed artichoke hearts on the side. I topped the artichoke hearts with garlic, olive oil, sea salt and parmesan cheese. This dinner was really good, especially given that it was so easy.

For dessert, we had warm chocolate pudding the escaped the camera. At that point, I was so tired, I wanted to cry. Needless to say, shortly after, I was in dreamland.

What do you do to relax when the time that is supposed to be your down time is too busy?

Another Day In Paradise

UGH. Work is a nuthouse. We are in the process of closing last year and it is very stressful. I am hoping to have it all wrapped up by the end of the week so that I can take advantage of the slow play and have some down time.  It always amazes me that working in an industry of leisure can be so stressful.

OK, mini rant over, let’s get onto the food and stuff.

Before leaving work yesterday, I had some greek yogurt topped with thawed mixed berries. I guess my camera likes greek yogurt, too, because my picture is missing. 😦 With a satisfied belly, I made my way to therapy, which has been pretty intense lately. But, I have to say that I have started to develop some healthy coping skills and finally feel that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Along with therapy, yoga, regular exercise and meditation have really changed my life.  I’m so thankful to be on this path to wellness.

And for those of you that are curious, no, I’m not dieting anymore. I learned with  my last stint that I’m just not cut out that way. This revelation came to me about six weeks in, I had a net loss of 1 lb and it sucked. I’d rather focus on being healthy and strong. I *know* in my heart that I will find my happy weight without deprivation. So there ya go, thanks for sticking with me through the tough times.

After therapy, I picked up the dear husband and we made our way to the gym. It was PACKED. This was our first time going to this particular location at this particular time of day. Normally, we only go there on the weekends and we learned last night that we will not go there again for free weights and cardio machines at 5:30 PM ever again. We are signed up for a class there on Thursday night but since we are already signed up, it shouldn’t be an issue.

Anywho, we did the STRIVE strength training circuit followed by 15 minutes on the bikes. There were no treadmills, no ellipticals or no incline treadmills available. Not even one. The bike isn’t really my thing so I was bored to tears after 15 minutes, no offense to you spinners out there. Oh well, live and learn, I guess.

Once we were home from our sucktastic gym experience, we were both hungry and tired. I made a easy peasy dinner to fit our mood.  I baked Boca Chik’n in the toaster oven and topped it with jack cheese. Once it was done, I put it on a sandwich thin with BBQ sauce and pickles. Kinda reminded me of Chick Fil A except for that actual chicken thing.

On the side, we had  a steam bag of yellow and green beans with carrots. I topped them with an olive oil drizzle and garlic with sea salt. The dear husband was really diggin’ the little round carrots that he lovingly referred to as “carrot balls”.

For dessert, I had a little “junk food” to satisfy my sweet tooth. A small bowl of cocoa pebbles with milk, I love those things, they make me think of my grandma. As a kid, we only got junk cereal at Grandma’s house and cocoa pebbles was always my favorite. As an adult, I have learned that they really satisfy my sweet tooth.

By the time dinner was over, it was almost bed time! I did some reading and a little tv watchin’ and then turned in for the night.

Be back later!

The Stress Monster

By the time I got home from work last night, I had a migraine. It had been a few hours since I had eaten so I decided to make dinner right away. I made a thai coconut curry with seitan and veggies over brown rice. For the sauce, I used lite coconut milk, green curry paste, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, basil, cilantro and, of course, a little rooster sauce. It turned out really well.

After I ate, I laid on the couch and eventually went to bed around 7:30 as I wasn’t feeling any better. I woke up this morning feeling better but thankful for the coffee that was waiting for me. I made a cafe au lait and then headed in to work. Once I arrived and got settled, I had a toasted whole wheat english muffin with a natural peanut butter smear.

Work has been uber stressful this morning since we are trying to close out 2008 and continue to run into accounting road blocks 😦 Needless to say, this little break to blog feels nice. I’m having my lunch that I grabbed out of the freezer this morning: spicy black bean soup. I topped it off with a dollop of sour cream and a crumbled cheese stick.  So good and warming on such a cold day.

I have a massive insane pile of work and hope to plow through that so that I can leave work with a clear mind. After work, I have  a therapy appointment and a date at the gym with the dear husband. We are planning to lift weights and do a short run on the treadmill. Hopefully, when we get home, I will have time to squeeze in some yoga and a short meditation.

Be back later!