Vegetarian Main Dish | Healthy and Sane

Touched by yoga

March 23rd, 2010

I’ve been feeling like a sponge lately – soaking up inspiration from everywhere. In this post, I wanted to to talk a bit about my recent yoga practice. I used to do hot yoga before my wedding. I was obsessed with diversifying my workouts – there were never any repeats from day to day and sometimes even week to week. Hot yoga seemed like a good way to add another type of exercise that burnt a whole bunch of calories. It was challenging; sometimes it felt good, sometimes it did not… but I kept going back. It was good for diversification purposes (jeez, I’m such a finance person ). Then somehow I lost interest and didn’t want to waste my time on “easy yoga” at my gym. Last December this all changed.

It was Christmas Eve, and both the bootcamp and spin classes were cancelled last minute. I was already at the gym, dressed and ready to go but not really in the mood to push myself on my own. I needed an instructor to tell me what to do. We all have those days, right? This is when I was informed that there was one class available – yoga. Without much thinking, I ran to the studio and I think that practice has changed my life (maybe a bit dramatic but I really think it’s true). I’ve been going back every since, every Thursday, and I think it’s possible that this class contributed to my decision to stop training for my half. The class continues to push me in such a unique way. It’s physically challenging but more importantly, somehow between all the flowing I am able to let go of all this excess. It is opening my mind to the fact that there is no room for self-judgement and “punishment” for silly things. Last Thursday, during shavasana, our instructor passed by each of us and sprayed us with some lavendar. It would be such a strange concept anywhere else outside of a yoga studio but right then and there, it felt so pure and comforting. I wish I could take yoga with me everywhere. Maybe I can. I hope I’ll get there one day.

All right, enough cheesiness (sometimes I can’t help myself ) – let’s EAT. *Back to Sunday*

BREAKFAST

Whole wheat bagel (scooped out) with olive/jalapeno cream cheese and cucumber slices + coffee

Olive cream cheese is my favorite, and jalapeno is my second favorite. This past Sunday, I decided to combine my two cream cheese loves and make my own cream cheese (well, kinda). I chopped up some jalapeno stuffed green olives and mixed them in with plain whipped cream cheese. I also added some olive juice to the mix, just to make sure the cream cheese is really flavored. This was brilliant!!! I’m a genius. lol. The cucumber slices also added a nice crunch and freshness. I love consuming veggies at breakfast!

LUNCH

Leftover (self-made) sushi

A few more closeups. Yes, I’m a proud sushi mama.

SNACKS

A yummy orange while running errands

Then honey caramel tea at Wired Puppy

A little sample of the breakfast glory muffin – it tasted like a carrot cake muffin…mmmm

And then a special treat! I was at Wired Puppy for a coffee date with my friend Katy. She brought these homemade oreos from Hi-Rise Bread bakery.

I had one and thought I died and went to heaven. I savored every bite. So delicious!!

DINNER

We were running low on fresh produce so I was proud to have come up with a delicious (real!) meal for dinner. I used the artichoke, spinach and feta stuffed shells I made a while back as an inspiration, but kept it much simpler. I chopped up some pepperoncinis, combined them with TJ’s tomato sauce, a can of diced tomatoes and some dried oregano and let it simmer while the pasta was cooking. I boiled 8 oz of whole wheat mini shells, then topped them with some leftover spinach artichoke dip, the sauce and 2 oz of cheese. I baked this for 20 minutes at 350*.

Spicy, creamy, cheesy, carby – I had a happy husband on my hands. Excellent!

There really is some spinach and artichoke dip in there. See?

This was a really great day of eats. I definitely ate intuitively and was happy with the quality and the quantity of my food. If I can eat like that every day, life would be good.

Have your workouts ever inspired other aspects of your life? Maybe just feeling strong and confident is already a big win. I love working out!!

Help me re-energize

March 10th, 2010

I’m not sure what’s going on lately, but I’ve been TIRED… like all I want is to do is sleep- tired. Hoping to avoid looking and feeling like a zombie, yesterday I decided to start my day with a super nutritious green smoothie.

In the blender – 1+ frozen banana, frozen blueberries, 1c water, 1c 1% milk, Greens+ wild berry burst, 8 ice cubes, baby spinach and 1/4t xantham gum and 1/8t guar gum

It made 2 awesome smoothies – Adam and I shared them.

I paired my smoothie with a Food For Life millet toast with Barney Butter

[300 calories]

MID-MORNING SNACK

[70 calories]

LUNCH

Leftover savory pumpkin pudding

Still delicious the next day

[450 calories]

MID-AFTERNOON SNACKS

TJ’s 100 calorie dark chocolate bar

+ 2 somersault packets

[All together: 240 calories]

WORKOUT

I had a lunch meeting, which meant I had to go to the gym after work. I REALLY hate working out after work but for some reason I got a burst of energy right at 5pm. I left a bit later and found Adam on one of the treadmills finishing up his workout. It never gets old seeing my husband running! Unfortunately, the second I started running, all that energy disappeared. I was dragging. I had 4 miles with 6×200 on the schedule but I wanted to get off the treadmill a minute after starting running. I finished 6×200 with walking for recovery for most intervals (I NEVER do that!) and then got off. I probably ran a little over 1 mile instead of 4. Ugh This is my 3rd crappy run in a row. I considered quitting all together last night. Something is off with me on the running front, and I feel trapped. Maybe the 5K I’m running this weekend will be the perfect fun distance for me, and then I can get back to distance running. We’ll see how it goes.

DINNER

Sweet potato gnocchi with brussels sprouts and walnuts (recipe can be found here, originally discovered through Tri to Cook)

To make this, I used the Nuovo sp gnocchi (purchased at Whole Foods). This was super quick and Adam and I both really enjoyed it. The brussels sprouts overwhelmed the sweet potato taste a bit when eaten together in one bite, but alternating bites between the gnocchi and the brussels sprouts resulted in a great balance between sweet and earthy. The walnut pieces added a nice crunch as well. Great, great dinner!

Oh yes, and there was a bit of vino involved. This bottle of Cono Sur pinot noir was fantastic. So smooth. I had this glass and another splash after that. What a fun treat on a Tuesday night!

Label close-up:

Dessert: the infamous peanut butter chocolate chip granola bar cookie

This time I ate it like dessert and enjoyed it immensely. It really is kind of a perfect bar cookie (minus the calories).

Are you ever super tired for several consecutive days? Any ideas on how to re-energize? I’m all ears!

Vacation booked

March 3rd, 2010

I followed Inna’s eating rules today and this turned out to be a great day of mindful eating. It’s amazing how just paying a little more attention to simple things adds up to so much more. I’m liking this new motivation! What else is motivating me? Our vacation in FIVE weeks! We booked a little 4-day getaway to Aruba today. I am so excited! I think it will get busy at work soon so I should be more than ready for some time in the sun at the beginning of April.

Now onto today’s eats…

BREAKFAST

TJ’s european style yogurt, pear, fresh blueberries and 1/2 blueberry muffin + coffee

The muffin chunks tasted like CAKE for breakfast! Best idea ever.

All messy… mmm

[302 calories]

MID-MORNING SNACK

The other half of the muffin + orange slices

[206 calories]

Man, it hurts me to post this ugly picture. It was crazy delicious though. I promise!

WORKOUT - abs + spin. Nice and sweaty

LUNCH

Baba ganoush, turkey, cucumbers and mustard on white whole wheat bread

A garlic pickle <3

+ baby carrots and cucumber slices

All together:

[326 calories]

I know this is obvious, but I just wanted to remind you all that cucumbers in sandwiches are awesome!!!

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

Strawberry Soyjoy I got at a conference ages ago.

[130 calories]

I liked it a lot. It kind of tasted like a strawberry cookie.

DINNER

Did I mention how much I love our new kitchen? Because I do! It’s seriously a pleasure being in it. I can’t get enough! I hope Adam can keep up with all the dish washing because I kind of want to live in the kitchen for a little while

For dinner tonight I made some sweet potato falafel by following this recipe from the Pink Apron. My pita bread totally fell apart so this was one messy meal, but it was quite tasty nonetheless. I loved how crunchy the baked falafel balls were and the subtle sweetness of the sweet potatoes added a fun twist to the traditional recipe. The tomatoes + cucumbers added a nice freshness to this meal. Unfortunately, the sauce, to be honest, was just okay. I didn’t thin it enough so it was quite thick and Adam is not a fan of parsley so I just used a bit of dried parsley instead of fresh and the sauce ended up tasting kind of like plain sour cream. Not that exciting (not Kelly’s fault since I didn’t follow her directions properly). I’d make the falafel again but probably use hummus for sauce.