Posted on

Green Monster Madness

Have you ever tried a green smoothie? Angela has been making them for breakfast, and I got very curious, so I decided to try my own.  It was surprisingly good.  I had to add a few teaspoons of honey to sweeten it up at the end, but after that it was great.  And it’s a wonderful way to get some veggies early on in the day.

Maggie’s Green Smoothie

21-green-smoothie-setup

Ingredients

  • 1 small banana, sliced
  • 4-5 strawberries, sliced
  • spring mix (got a huge box at Costco and I’m trying to use it up) – 1.5 cups, packed
  • chopped collard greens (couldn’t find kale) – 1.5 cups, packed
  • 1 cup unsweetened chocolate almond milk (but you could use any non-dairy milk)
  • 2 teaspoons natural peanut butter, warmed up so that it mixes better
  • 2 teaspoons honey
  • I just thought of another thing that would be good, but I didn’t put any in – wheat germ! (1-2 tablespoons)

Directions

  1. Add the fruit, milk, peanut butter, and honey to the blender/mixer.  Then add as many greens as will fit.
  2. Blend until the greens are pureed.  Keep adding more greens and blending until you’ve fit them all in.
  3. Serve in a nice tall glass.  Eat it with a spoon if you like!

22-green-smoothie

Mine came out pretty thick, so I did end up eating it with a spoon.  I’m hoping it will hold me over, but I’m not sure – I usually have carby breakfasts and I don’t get full on liquids.  So we’ll see.  It was delicious though, and very voluminous!  I don’t own a blender so I made this in my mini food-processor.

This morning I did some old favorites – YogaDownload’s 20-minute Power Vinyasa #4, and The New Method 20/20 Perfect Pilates (40 minutes).  I really do love YogaDownload.

Posted on

Mabu Tofu (Chinese dish)

Hope you all had a lovely Chinese New Year!  Last night I made fried rice (not exactly traditional Chinese, but we take what we can get) for Bobby and tonight I made a traditional Chinese dish called Mabu Tofu (or Mabu Dofu).

19-meat-mabu-tofu

I made a meat version (for Bobby) and a vegan/vegetarian version (for me).  I bulked up both of them with veggies.  This dish is typically served with just the Mabu sauce and tofu + meat, but I can’t make a meal without adding in some bulk!

The prep for this is incredibly easy because I used a pre-packaged Mabu Tofu mix.  The mix can be found at most Asian grocery stores, and I got mine at 99 Ranch.

17-mabu-tofu-box

Maggie’s Simple Mabu Tofu (serves 4)

Ingredients

 

  • 1 box of Mabu Tofu sauce (found in Chinese grocery stores like 99 Ranch) – 4 servings
  • 1 block of tofu (approximately 14 oounces), chopped into ~1cm cubes
  • other meat (optional – I added 1 chopped turkey dog, a slice of ham, and some chicken to the non-vegan version; basically whatever was leftover in the fridge)
  • 2-3 teaspoons sesame oil
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 3-4 stalks of celery, chopped
  • other veggies (optional – I used about 1 cup of broccoli and 1 cup of cauliflower in the vegan version)

 

Directions

 

  1. Heat the oil on high heat in a wok or large saute pan.  Add the onions; saute for 1 minute.  Then add the celery and other veggies, if using.  Saute for another 1-2 minutes.

    2. 18-chopped-celery-onion

  2. Add the tofu (and other meat, if using).  Cook until heated through (I like to get mine a little brown and crispy), then dump in the entire contents of the Mabu Tofu sauce packet.

    3. 18-chopped-tofu

  3. Reduce heat to medium and continue to stir for another 2-3 minutes, making sure the sauce is well-distributed.

 

20-vegetarian-mabu-tofu

Enjoy plain, with rice, couscous, or another grain.

Did you celebrate Chinese New Year?  What is your favorite Chinese dish?  I like very traditional Chinese cooking.  When I first moved to California (Union City in the East Bay) I lived in a house with 4 other people, and 3 of them were Chinese.  The guy was an amazing cook and I got to enjoy everything he made – delicious spicy prawn soups (pre-vegetarian), perfectly sauteed greens, and some crazy bean desserts.  It was so awesome!

Posted on

Dave Farmar kicks my butt

I love Dave Farmar’s Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga podcasts.  Today I did the 10/29/08 class, and while the routines were simple, the holding was oh-so-long.  When the hour was up I flopped down in savasana and let it all go.  If you like power yoga, he has a bunch of (free!) podcasts for 60-, 75-, and 90-minute classes.  He’s funny and the time flies by, even when you want to scream at him for making your muscles burn.

After the class, I made a nice breakfast with more Kashi waffles.

16-waffles-pear

  • 2 Kashi Strawberry Flax waffles
  • Fage Greek yogurt
  • 1 strawberry
  • anjou pear
  • sf maple syrup (mmm)

I had this with a big mug of tea.  It was very good.  I will have no problem eating up the 40-pack from Costco.  Have you ever bought way too much of something you ended up disliking?  I got a mombo thing of mango chutney at Costco once and it was awful.  I ended up throwing it out.

(Reminder – I’ve been keeping track of my workouts HERE, if you’re interested.  I usually update it every day.)

Posted on

Healthy Choice Fudge Bars! Review

I got a lot of goodies at Costco on Sunday afternoon.  Included in my bounty was a big box (18 total) of Healthy Choice Premium Fudge Bars, on sale for $5.  I was a little skeptical at first, but after my first lick, I was converted.  This bar is creamy heaven and the nutritional facts are great.

icecream_bars_fudge

Per Serving (one Premium Fudge Bar – 3 fl oz): 100 calories, 1.5 grams fat, 16 grams carbs (5g fiber, 5g sugar, 5g sugar alcohols), 4 grams protein.

They do contain sorbitol, which is a sugar alcohol, but I couldn’t discern any odd aftertaste.  I was also very impressed by the fiber content – 5 grams!

I think the kind sold at Costco are slightly bigger than the ones you get in normal stores (those only have 80 kCal per bar), but I’m sure they taste the same.  I would never have guessed that this was a diet bar by the way it tasted.  It tastes like the full fat version but without the heavy feeling in your stomach afterwards. I will definitely be buying these after I run out of my 18-pack… which could be fairly soon, because I think I’m going to go have another one right now.

Posted on

I like breakfast.

This morning I woke up and tried to do yoga.  I started one podcast (a YogaJournal 75 minute class) and got annoyed with it.  I tried another one (a Padmani podcast) and got bored again.  So I just completed my hour with some kick-butt vinyasas, bridges, and handstands.  My shoulders are sore already.

After my session on the mat, I was pretty hungry.  So I made this breakfast:

14-kashi-waffles-peach-yogurt

 

  • 2 Kashi Strawberry Flax waffles
  • Fage Greek Yogurt
  • a peach
  • some Ts of SF maple syrup

 

It was very yummy.  I bought a 40-pack of Kashi Strawberry Flax waffles at Costco yesterday, so I have lots of waffles to eat.  I had them for lunch yesterday too (waffles are not just for breakfast!).  Yesterday I also made this awesome snack:

13-orange-pear-yogurt-coconut-dessert

 

  • an orange
  • 1/2 a pear
  • Fage Greek yogurt
  • sf maple syrup
  • coconut!!

 

I’m going nuts for coconut.  I also got 2 big containers (4 cups each) of Fage 0% at Costco yesterday.  I know, I know, I’ve been going on and on about how great whole milk yogurt is – but I missed my Fage!  And they only sell 0% at Costco (boo).

Bobby’s coming home for lunch and we can eat together.  I shouldn’t be so happy that I don’t have a job, but I am.  I feel like “old” Maggie, which is Maggie from high school (over 5 years ago!), who was very carefree and excited for everything.  I hope she stays 🙂

Later today I have plans for a walk, and I have to get my butt to Trader Joe’s because I didn’t go yesterday and I NEED more of my Better’n Peanut Butter fake PB.  I have been out of it since Saturday night and I’m going through withdrawal.