Alternate Proteins

Twas a good food day today!  I created two fun meals, used an ingredient I don’t often work with, included healthy protein in every meal, enjoyed some leafy greens, and fit in a good (although late) workout.

Some days just come together!

For lunch I created a light version of Salmon Salad on Rye!

When making dinner last night I baked off an extra piece of marinated salmon (it’s some sort of wine and herb).  It was easy to flake apart after chilling in the fridge overnight…

I mixed it with a big scoop of Liberte Greek yogurt, a healthy spoonful of capers, and a chopped green onion…and served it on Light Rye Wasa crackers…

With a side of baby carrots…

The meal could stand a few more calories, so I added a Kashi cookie!  Booohoooo, my last one.  I hope we get these in Canada soon (you hear me Kashi??).

I wasn’t letting another planned workout get away from me, so after work I changed into my gym gear and headed out.  The cardio machines were all pretty busy so I had to alter my plan a bit but I still got my hour in and my sweat on.

• Treadmill: 23 minute run, 2 miles (yes Amy, miles!)
• Core/Abs: crunches, reverse crunches, toe touches, bicycle crunches (3 x 12 of each)
• Recumbent Bike: 15 minutes, random hills, 3 miles

After which I was starving (especially because I made a very sweaty stop at Walmart for TP on the way home!). 

Since I bought a gigantor tub of organic greens on sale this weekend, there’s going to be a lot of bigass salads around here.  :)

Tonight’s creation also involves that block of extra firm tofu I picked up for last week’s stirfry.

I remembered that Marisa once did a guest post about baked tofu for me and thought that would be a good way to go.  The BBQ sauce inspired a Southwest Style Tofu Salad!

In the big silver bowl tonight:  organic leafy greens, matchstick carrots, sliced mushrooms, yellow peppers, grape tomatoes…

Dressed with 1 tsp of BBQ sauce mixed with 1 tsp of Ranch dressing and tossed with 1/2 oz of Probiotic Light Cheddar and a big scoop of corn heated in the microwave…

For the tofu:  I just sliced off four strips and pressed with a paper towel.  Then coated in BBQ sauce and baked on a sprayed sheet at 400 degrees for 20 minutes (flipped at about 12 minutes).

Placed on top of salad and sprinkled with last few shreds of cheese.

So yum!!!  Second tofu attempt WIN!! It was really filling too.  For the first time in a long time I didn’t finish the bigass salad.  Lunch for tomorrow.  :)

Of course, being full doesn’t mean that I don’t have room for dessert.  I didn’t quite make it past the Easter display at Wally World tonight.  Somehow a marshmallow egg made it into my basket…

tee hee!

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Don’t miss my Super Giveaway of yummy Crofter’s Supercrackfood Spreads!  Click here for this morning’s post.

And while you’re in giveaway mode, make sure you visit Dairy Free Betty and enter to win her Coconut Peanut Butter.  Drool. 

We’ve got sunshine…

And by sunshine apparently I meant the inside of the gym.  :) 

I knew if I fiddled around getting changed at home and tried to do cardio around my neighborhood all I would accomplish would be a slacker walk, so I just grabbed my gym bag and hopped into the car and went to the gym.

Did my cardio first so I couldn’t put it off yet again.  Cardio and I are NOT friends these days.  Which is not the end of the world because I do enough to support my strength training.  But…I haven’t doing as much as planned and the only person that hurts is me!  So I grabbed an open elliptical, cranked up the resistance and set the ramp to focus on glutes and calves.

Elliptical (cross-country)	2 miles, 22 minutes
Lunge & lifts (5lb weight overhead)	3 x 12
Hamstring curls on the ball	3 x 12
Stab ball leg lifts (core)	3 x 12
Crunches (feet on ball)	3 x 12

I had planned to mix Day Two and Three of Intro to Iron together to make up for the missing day this week, but I was getting really lightheaded and worried I might actually pass out so I had to call it quits.  I managed an extra set of crunches at the end since I happened to be laying down. 

Don’t you hate when your body betrays your plans?!

I suppose my blood sugar was a bit low but sometimes it’s just so random!!

When I got home I snacked on this Weil Chia Razz bar I received from Krista…

Really moist and it tasted like real raspberries!  Very tasty!!  Sorta like a fresh and chewy Larabar.  I liked the added chia crunch. 

Not much in the protein department though, so as soon as I showered it was time for dinner.

My second attempt using tofu!!  This time using the refrigerated variety, as recommended by many lovely readers, instead of the yucky shelf stable stuff I used previously.

The difference is like night and day!! This was sooooo much better.

Yummy yummy stirfry…

• Cut off the chunk of tofu.  Press between paper towels to soak out as much moisture as possible.  Cut into cubes.  (I used 1/4 of the block = 1 serving).

• Toss the cubes with 1 tbsp of the stirfry sauce (I used store bought). Let marinate while prepping veggies.

• Heat large non-stick skillet over med-high heat, using 1 tsp grapeseed (or veggie) oil.  Once hot, add tofu and toss to coat.  Sizzle until all sides browned and a bit crispy.  Remove from pan and reduce heat to medium.
• Add another tsp of oil and bring to temperature.  When hot, add veggies (I used carrots, red onion, leek, yellow pepper, broccoli) (and saved snow peas and mushrooms til the end).  Stirfry for a few minutes, grate in garlic, then add about 1/8 cup of water and cover to steam the veggies…approx 2 minutes. 

• Remove lid, add mushroom and peas, stirfry 1 minute.  Add sauce, stir and keep cooking until desired crunch reached.  Stir tofu back in until warm and coated.

• Serve on top of noodles or rice.

Voila!

Then finish off with a fuzzy blanket, fuzzy kitty, and more than your fair share of Eggies.  :)

Good and Bad

There was tofu…

And asparagus…

The tofu was marinated…

And roasted in the oven with the asparagus…

It was OK.  Recipe not worth mentioning.  It won’t be making a reappearance.  Tasted weird and the texture was off.  It was supposed to crisp up.  It did not.

I ate the asparagus.

And the “cheetahs”!  AKA: sweet potato fries.  Around the blogosphere people are calling these cheetahs cuz of their spots.  I was confused.  Whit explained!  She sent me to Snackface to learn all about it!

Mine had maple syrup on them.  nommy!

They made up for the un-good tofu.

So did the last of the Apple Pomegranate Crisp.  With yogurt.  :)

And Gleeeee! 

But not SYTYCD.  Is it just me or does everyone this time kinda suck? (comparatively of course…they are all awesome…just not awesome like previous seasons) And I don’t like the new set.  And Nigel was extra hardass tonight…not the entertaining kind of hardass either…the kind of hardass that makes me not want to watch.  Dude. Chill.