Hi all 🙂
I’m wrapping up a kind of blah Sunday. Of course I wasn’t feeling that great all day from yesterday’s eats + drinks. I had a LOT of trouble focusing for the first half of the day and decided to go burn some energy on a walk in the neighborhood. It did the trick – once home I was out of my funk. I took a 45-minute stroll with a magazine. I am really glad I decided to take today off of formal exercise because I could feel the stiffness all over my body (apparently I used my abs a lot in my sprinting yesterday!). The walk felt great though, and I felt much better physically and mentally afterwards.
Earlier I made a salad for lunch. I wasn’t really up for eating much else.
- Spinach base with Annie’s low-fat raspberry dressing
- About 7 sliced frozen/thawed brussels sprouts
- Carrot
- Pepper
- Wheat germ
- Slivered almonds
- Cottage cheese
- Hummus
I didn’t really get hungry for a snack all afternoon. Again, my digestive tract was just not that content. But I did have a few spoonfuls of black-eyed peas that I cooked from scratch for tomorrow night’s dinner. I just simmered them in slightly boiling water for about 2 hours until they were no longer crunchy in the middle. They aren’t as aesthetically pleasing as beans that would have been soaked and then cooked for a shorter time period, but skipping a soak with dried beans is much quicker and easier.
Dinner tonight was a recipe I stumbled upon a few weeks ago in Cooking Light: Bright Fruit and Vegetable Salad.
We modified it to fit what we had on hand. At first neither of us liked it much (the peanut butter and citrus combo was strange…), but it REALLY grew on me and by the end I wanted more!! We used our baked tofu instead of fried, and this was one of the best batches of baked I have ever made. I cut a block (after heavily blotting it with paper towels) into 14 slices and then cut those into thirds, so the tofu was pretty thin. Then I sprinkled on salt, pepper and about 2 tsp of honey. Baked at 450* for 30 minutes. It was PERFECT. Some slices were even crunchy!! It almost had a buttered popcorn taste. I also cooked a small sliced sweet potato along side of the tofu.
So for the salad we combined in a bowl:
- About 25 pieces of the tofu
- About 1.5 cups steamed green beans
- 1 small sweet potato, sliced and cooked
- 1 can of pineapple chunks, drained and juice reserved
- 1/3 of an English cucumber, chopped
- 1 stalk of celery, chopped
- 2-3 tbsp unsweet coconut
- Dressing:
- 2 tbsp EarthFare PB
- Juice of half a lime
- 2 tbsp pineapple juice from the can
- 2 pinches salt
- Red pepper flakes to taste
I always say I am going to take an Epsom Salt bath and never follow through. Well I have a bunch of Organic flash cards to study for a quiz tomorrow AM and I think the only way I can study them is to tell myself I can study in the tub! So off I go.
zestycook says
WOW… I am speechless. That salad looks amazing. I have never been a huge fan of tofu however – I think I am going to have to try this recipe. The presentation looks great and you have excellent photos… Keep up the good work. I am officially addicted to Katheats.
VeggieGirl says
Gorgeous salad!!
Enjoy your bath and good luck studying!!
Kath says
zestycook ,
THANKS!!!
Kath
Nicole says
Both those salads look amazing! Your photos are fantastic.
Amy says
Your dinner looks so delicious and interesting. I definitely want to try it out one night this week! Was the dressing good? Anything with PB must be…I assume 😀
Cyclist Kate says
Yummy veggies today!
Sometimes it’s so hard to remember how effective getting a little movement can be as far as concentration goes! Good to see you got a little something in, even if your body was stiff.
Have a lovely bath! Studying in the bath definitely makes the info sink in better, huh?!
Maureen says
oooh, what a divine dinner. That’s a great, simple tofu recipe. I love how versatile your menu is… I wish all my omni friends/family were as keen on vegan staples (like tofu).
Marianne says
That salad looks interesting – I don’t know how I feel about the pineapple in it. But the way you prepared your tofu looks awesome, I must buy tofu more often! Hope you had a good bath/study session.
madison (follow my weigh) says
epsom salt bath? whats that? sounds nice, hope you studied hard!
lauren says
that tofu looks great! I need to cut mine in thinner slices like you did to get it crispy! I am going to try it tomorrow night!
Biz319 says
Your dinner looks delish!
smilesara says
hey kath,
maybe you’ve mentioned this before, but what do you do when you don’t use up all the tofu at once? do you (or readers?) do that whole “changing the water” thing or can you just leave it in fridge for a day or two without worrying about it as long as it gets used up within a reasonable amount of time for food safety?
Megan says
It was a salad day. I would have been thrown off by the PB and citrus at first too. Sure looks yummy!
Gliding Calm says
wow. that dinner sounds/looks SPECTACULAR. so many of my favorites….usually just the tofu and sweet potato would make my mouth interested…but BAKED tofu and sweet potato…..that’s gotta be AMAY-ZING!
happy evening Kath! And happy Monday too!
jenner says
smilesara, i wrap leftover tofu in coffee filters and paper towels and stick it in a tupperware in the fridge and use it within a day or two. the filters/towels really absorb the moisture, and the more water you are able to get out of it, the chewier the texture! i believe that’s why some cookbooks recommend pressing tofu btwn heavy objects but i think this way’s easier.
or your could just bake/cook it all off. cold baked tofu’s great in a sandwich or cut in chunks over a salad.
Grounded Fitness says
I never in a million years would have thought of putting brussels sprouts on a salad. genius.
Kelly Turner
www.groundedfitness.com
magpie says
That salad looks so awesome. I want to make it. I might make something similar with the veggies that I have on hand this week. Wow. I can’t get over how awesome it looks, hehe 🙂
And the wheat germ addition for the lunch salad is a great idea!
Have a good night!
Molly says
Wow, that is such a unique combination of ingredients!
Do you have staples at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s?
Ruby Red Vegan says
Yes, the idea of a leisurely bath is always nice… But I never do it! That salad sounds incredible, and I am going to try your tofu recipe with some agave nectar. I neeeeever get tofu right, so I am excited to try a new tofu recipe — if you guys liked it, it should be good!
Amber says
First off all congrats on your weekend race!! Second off all how do you all walk and read a magazine I don”t get it!
emmy says
I’m the millionth person to say this, but it bares repeating – that tofu looks amazing! I squashed out all of the water and then froze a batch a few weeks ago but have yet to actually defreeze and bake it!
Kath says
madison (follow my weigh),
Just a hot bath with epsom salts!! I used to do all the PR for the Epsom Salt Council, so please visit http://www.epsomsaltcouncil.org for info on all of the benefits!!
smilesara ,
I always cook it all at once so I’ll have leftovers to use throughout the week.
Molly ,
No Whole Foods here 🙁
TJ’s I’m a fan of greek yogurt, raspberry jam, Nuts over Raspberries trail mix, nuts, salmon patties.
Amber ,
It’s easy – you just use your peripheral vision and look up every few steps 🙂
Kath
WendyF says
I passed that recipe up in my cooking light but will have to revist it . It looked great. Big fan of tofu, I substitute it for chicken in chicken catchatori. I swear by epsom salts and plan to take many a bath when I ride my bike down to San Diego next week (100 miles a day is the plan),
Have a great week.
runjess says
My abs and back (and sometimes even shoulders) are often sore after a race. Going fast is very taxing on your body.
CourtneyS says
I ran a race this weekend and my abs and triceps are more sore than my legs…weird!
andrunwithit says
…you just made me SERIOUSLY MISS MY BATHTUB. I don’t have one at school and it’s just… a tragedy. I’m a bath-loving kind of gal =(