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Fun & Free Day

Last night’s dairy (ricotta) was okay with my stomach – I felt slightly bloated when I went to bed, but I woke up fine.  Good!

I woke up around 8:30am this morning when Bobby’s alarm went off.  I puttered around for a while, then I did the 30-day shred workout without the video (OnDemand was broken, but luckily I have it written out HERE).  I also did 15 minutes or so of the 20×20 method’s perfect pilates.  It was kind of a ballet/yoga routine – I like workouts that incorporate yoga.

I showered and made breakfast – a heart healthy serving of oat bran (3/4 cup, for those wondering!) with half a large banana, cinnamon, salt, and some PB2.  I also had miso soup (wakame, red miso).

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Lunch (around 2pm) was an Ezekiel pita with peanut butter, carrot sticks, broiled swiss chard, and homemade ketchup.

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I did some yoga (25 minutes on my own), and then around 4pm I had a snack of yogurt – Strauss Family Creamery Organic Maple Nonfat Yogurt.  Now I am kind of pissed – the nutritionals on the package and the nutritionals online are different.  It looks like the ones on the package were calculated incorrectly, so I’m going to go with the ones online.  Nutrition facts (per 1 cup serving): 170 calories, 0 grams fat, 30 grams carbs, 12 grams protein.  I had a little less than a cup, plus some kamut puffs, cinnamon, and PB2.

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My stomach did not like this yogurt so I decided to bake something with it to use it up.  My dairy experiments are not looking good – maybe dairy just does not agree with my tummy.  After the yogurt I went for a few squares of my unsweetened pom jelly.

My yogurty baked good was kind of an oat bran cake.  I cut it into 40 squares, and each square has a little less than 40 calories.  I had 3 to make sure they tasted good – they did!  I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.

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For dinner I walked into Mountain View to meet Bobby at the train station.  We went to Xanh, a trendy Vietnamese place.  I got the Xanh Salad (made vegetarian with tofu instead of beef).  It is huge.  Here’s the description: marinated beef (fried tofu), mixed greens, yellow and red bell peppers, sliced mango, sliced green apple, avocado served with vietnamese crackers, white sesame, and XANH sauce.  There was definitely pineapple in there too.  It was incredible.

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I ate everything except for a few bites of tofu (to Bobby) and part of one of the crackers (I had the whole bottom one and part of the top one).  I wasn’t going to eat the humongous crackers that it came on, but I tried one, and couldn’t stop myself…  It comes in two layers – here it is separated:

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After we got home I had a few more squares of yogurt cake for dessert, and now I’m just sitting on the couch relaxing.  Bobby’s going to the convention tomorrow too, so I have another free day.  Farmers’ market perhaps?  What was the best farmers’ market you ever went to?  I love the one in Ithaca, NY – fabulously amazing prepared foods, and the best flatbread pizzas I’ve ever had.

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Using Leftovers – Random Wontons

I am a very frugal person, and I’m always trying to keep from wasting things.  I try to incorporate leftovers into new meals to save some cash in this crummy economy.  This is not as light and healthy as most of my meals, but I’m posting it anyway because of Bobby’s reviews:

 

  • “This is the best thing you have ever made.”
  • “You HAVE to post this.”
  • “Wow.  WOW.  This is SO good.”

 

He also insisted on making them for our friend who came over last night, because he wanted to share the wonton love.  I’ve never seen him so excited to eat leftovers.  I apologize for the lack of precise measurements, but I wasn’t planning on posting this so I was just throwing stuff in a bowl.  I’m sure it will taste good no matter what amount of ingredients you use though.

Leftover Random Wontons

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Ingredients

 

  • wonton wrappers (maybe 20-30 depending on how many leftovers you have)
  • 3 small potatoes, boiled and mashed – about a cup or so?
  • ~1/4 cup of non-dairy milk
  • 1/2 cup grated parmesan (other cheese would probably be good too, just grate it finely)
  • lots of oregano, chili powder
  • salt & pepper, to taste
  • 2 servings veggie ground (needed to use it up)
  • 1.5 cups leftover couscous (or however much you have: 1-2 cups is fine)
  • a few tablespoons toasted sesame oil, for frying
  • ~1/2 cup leftover spaghetti sauce (had a little bit left from when I made pizza and needed to use it up soon)

 

Directions

 

  1. Cook and mash the potatoes (using a fork is fine).  Add the milk  and mash until creamy (add more milk if necessary).  Add the parmesan, oregano, chili powder, salt, and pepper.  Mix again.  Set aside.
  2. Heat a few teaspoons of sesame oil over high heat in a saute pan.  Add the veggie ground and saute for 1-2 minutes (to make it crispy and give it some extra flavor).  Set aside.
  3. Mix together the potatoes, veggie ground, and couscous.
  4. Spoon heaping teaspoons of the mix onto the wonton wrappers.  Fold as you like and seal with your fingers, using warm water.

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  5. To cook – heat 1-2 tablespoons of sesame oil over medium-high heat in a saute pan.  Add the wontons.  Flip them over after a minute or so and cover.  Cook for another 2-3 minutes (so that they heat through), then add the sauce and stir for 30 seconds.  Remove from heat and serve.

 

Bobby had his with rice (basmati, our new favorite) and I just had a bunch of bites plain.  This was something that I might not normally eat, but Bobby convinced me because he just kept raving about it – I’m SO glad I tried it!  The sesame oil (I got the toasted kind recently and it’s fabulous) really added a wonderful flavor when I fried them.

I’m watching Titanic on TBS right now – it reminds me of being in middle school and it’s definitely a favorite.  It’s so long though!  I can’t decide if I want to watch the whole thing or go out and run some errands.  Are there any movies that remind you of a specific moment in your life?  For me, Titanic reminds me of a particular sleepover in 8th grade.  Random!  (Like the wontons.)

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Friday eats, and an award :)

Wanted to share a few plates and activities from my day with you all.

I started off this morning with breakfast – whipped banana oat bran. I also had miso soup. This is a pretty macrobiotic breakfast – especially the soup!

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I did do some Morning Yoga from YogaDownload.com, which was nice. I am never disappointed by their podcasts.

In other news, the sweet Kailey at Clean Veggie Eats gave ma a Kreativ Blogger award.

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Check out her blog – she is an incredibly passionate and intelligent young lady and I’m proud that she passed this award on to me!

Bobby and I had the nicest do-nothing night.  We just chilled, ate dinner late, went to Whole Foods, and came back to our clean apartment.  Our friend came over and now we’re just hanging out.  Tomorrow Bobby is going to San Francisco to volunteer at a comic convention (nerd!), which I don’t do… so I’m on my own.  I’m thinking a yoga class, painting my nails, napping, reading, and making yums.  Then we’re going out to eat when he gets back from the city.  What are your Saturday plans?

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Unsweetened Dessert Jelly (Jell-o!)

I’ve been up since 3am (when Bobby went to sleep) – insomnia much?  I crashed around 10:30pm last night though (very early for me).  So I decided to just get out of bed, call my mom (who is on the east coast, and 3 hours later than me), watch the news, and make a post.  It’s peaceful being up this early.  I might do some morning yoga or go for a walk when it starts to get light out.

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I finally discovered the amazingness that is agar agar powder.  Who knew you could make such a nutritious, yummy dessert in about 10 minutes?  Agar agar comes from seaweed.  It’s very popular in Asian desserts, especially in Japan.  It’s a vegetarian/vegan substitute for gelatin too.

Since I’m kind of a linguistics nerd – agar comes from the Malay word “agar-agar”, meaning jelly.  Other names are kanten, China grass, and Japanese isinglass.  Cool, right?  There was actually a diet fad in Japan called “the kanten diet” where you eat it with every meal.

Unsweetened Dessert Jelly

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Ingredients

  • 3.5 cups water
  • 1 tablespoon agar agar powder
  • 1 can coconut milk OR 2 cups fruit juice (I used coconut milk for one batch; POM pomegranate juice for another)
  • optional: chopped fruits (I used 1 chopped apple in the POM version)

Directions

  1. Add the agar agar powder to the water and bring to a boil.  Cook for about 5 minutes (until the powder has completely dissolved).
  2. In a separate pot, heat the coconut milk OR juice for 3-5 minutes.
  3. If you’re using fruit, put it on the bottom of a large flat pan/dish.
  4. Then add the warmed coconut milk OR juice and whisk around until they are mixed well.
  5. Let cool completely before refrigerating.  Cut in squares and eat!

I liked the subtlety of this dessert/snack – usually Jell-O is sickeningly sweet, but that was not the case at all here.  Bobby thought the flavor was almost too subtle, but I liked it.  If you do want to sweeten it, just add sugar/other sweetener to the water and agar mixture and let it dissolve.

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I got this salad at Sprout Cafe the other day with lunch – I don’t remember what was in it though.  I know there were lots of kalamata olives, which I love.  They are one of my favorite salad additions!  The salad dressing was a chili-lime vinaigrette, and it was wonderful.

Do you ever get insomnia or wake up really early?  What do you do?

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Savory Eggplant Stirfry

I was going to make “Eggplant with Ginger and Garlic” (Wi xiang que zi) the other night, but then I realized I had no ginger and no garlic. It was a recipe from my new cookbook, the Asian Vegan Kitchen. So I made up something else, and it was very yummy.

Savory Eggplant Stirfry

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Ingredients (serves 2-ish, or one Maggie who steals most of it and Bobby gets 2 bites)

  • 3 small eggplants, chopped in cubes
  • 1-2 teaspoons olive oil (or other cooking oil)
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1 teaspoon Asian 5-spice powder (I LOVE THIS STUFF – but you can substitute with cumin, chili powder, turmeric, or other savory spices)
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 2 scallions, chopped
  • 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar (or other vinegar)
  • 2-3 teaspoons brown rice syrup (or other sweetener)
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions

  1. Saute the eggplant cubes in a wok or saute pan.  I did not use oil here, but I did spray a little bit of PAM in the wok before I added the eggplant.  Saute for about 4 minutes – they should be slightly browned and tender.  Set aside.
  2. Heat the oil in your wok/saute pan.  Add the scallions, onion, and spices.  Saute for about 2 minutes.
  3. Add the eggplant back into the wok.  Add the vinegar, soy sauce, and brown rice syrup. Cook for another minute or two.  Serve hot.

This dish is slightly sweet but savory at the same time.  Bobby got a few bites, but he’s not an eggplant person so I got to have most of it.  We had it with whole wheat couscous.

Check out this cool Japanese dish I made for Bobby the other night – Shrimp Tatsutaage (fried shrimp).

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His had calamari in it too, because I used a frozen mix of random seafood.  He loved it, and it was the first time I had ever actually used my wok to deep-fry something… Actually, the first time I ever deep-fried something.  Just Bento is one of my favorite blogs and I love her posts.  That’s where I got the bento article from yesterday.

What was the first food blog you ever read? I think mine was Vegalicious – fabulous.