I fell asleep by 10 last night but had to get up at 12:45 to use the bathroom.  I didn’t fall back asleep until after 3 🙁 Yesterday I felt really achy and my throat hurt and it wasn’t much better this morning.  I don’t know if it’s the lack of sleep or if I’m coming down with something BUT when the alarm went off at 5:30, I made the wise decision to sleep for another hour.  I’ll today as my day off and go to the gym tomorrow. 

I made a nutrient packed juice concoction this morning just in case I am coming down with something.

I used 2 carrots, 1/2 apple, 4 leaves of kale, peppers (full of vitamin C), and a meyer lemon.  It was seriously delicious.  I know it doesn’t look yummy, but it was!

It is coming down out there and I had to drive today :(  It took me 30 minutes longer than normal.  It’s a coworkers birthday and I volunteered to pick up his cake-there’s a trip to Whole Foods in my future.

My lunch bag:

Is full of yummy food today.

Leftover Beet Burgers, a few fries, and leftover carrot ginger soup.  Oh and some cuties.  I forgot to grab yogurt but I figure I can pick something up for myself when I go get the cake.  I won’t be able to eat the cake because of the dairy but I was thinking of getting some coconut ice cream-we shall see 🙂

What do you do when you think you may be coming down with something?  And, any tricks for insomnia?

OMG. Dinner was fabulous. OMG.

Wow. Just wow.  I outdid myself tonight.  See the recipe here.

A beet burger with sweet potato fries (that were not good) and some potato wedges.

Here’s what I had left:

I got tired of the bread and DID NOT like the sweet potatoes. I have yet to make good sweet potato fries :(  I was so excited cut them that way in the food processor too.  I even took pictures just in case I was going to do a tutorial.

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Yeah, not so much. Oh well.

I actually ate a little too much because the burger was so dang good.  I probably should have stopped about 3/4ths of the way through but I didn’t and I’m okay with it.  Guess what I’m having for lunch tomorrow?

On tap for tonight? A VERY early night and some of The Wire-Season 3.

Oh my.  I am so excited to share what I made with you.  I’m giddy because they were so good.  Shaun even tried it and had to admit it was pretty dang tasty-that’s saying A LOT coming from my extreme carnivore husband.

The inspiration came from Angela’s recipe.

Ingredients:

-1 15 oz can white beans, drained and rinsed
-1 carrot chopped
-1/2 onion chopped
-1 red or yellow pepper chopped
-1/4 cup spinach
-3 garlic cloves
-1 cup shredded raw beets OR beet pulp from the juicer (my pulp also had apples and lemons in it)
-zest of 1 lemon (or above mentioned pulp)
-1 TBSP dried dill
-1 tsp salt
-1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
-1 TBSP Braggs Amino
-1 cup cooked spelt
-1/3 cup sunflower seeds
-1 TBSP chia seeds (optional)
-3/4 cups flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)

Instructions:

-Preheat oven to 400* and cover a cookie sheet with foil and spray with high heat cooking spray.

-Place beans, veggies/pulp, and spices into a food processor and process until smooth. I added my veggies in batches so that I wouldn’t overwhelm my processor. 

You may need to scrape down the sides occasionally.

After the beets:

-Place in large bowl and incorporate the spelt.

(I also put some leftover rice in there). Never seen spelt? It’s really great and I have some leftover to eat with dinner tomorrow night.

-Add the seeds.

-Add the flour 1/4 of a cup at a time until fully incorporated.

-Shape into burgers. I made large ones because that’s how I like my beef burgers.

Doesn’t that look like beef?

-Cook for 15 minutes. Flip and then cook for 15 minutes longer, or until nice a firm and crispy on the outside.

-Serve with your favorite toppings.

-Enjoy!

Seriously?  I would give these 5 stars.  It was better than the burger I had at The Plant Cafe for the KERF Meet-up back in November. It was more burger like and DELISH. I think it’ll be even better with the grated beet vs. the pulp and I cannot wait to make it (and eat it)!

It looks like a lot of people took the day off-it’s been so quiet today.  I didn’t get one email from my client so I’m assuming they had the day off.  It was nice.  I got A TON done and that’s always a good thing.

I almost forgot to take a picture of my lunch but remembered halfway through the veggies:

I ate it all except about a quarter cup of rice.  I need to dig into my camping gear and get a fork out-I accidently threw away my old stainless fork and have been using plastic ever since-oops!

This was seriously tasty yet again.  I’m not a huge fan of zucchini-it tastes fishy to me (anyone else get this?) but it was good today.

Around 3:30 I got hungry and I had my coconut yogurt-the mango kind this time:

Seriously yummy.  The top had another great quote:

About halfway though I was sad that I didn’t have anything crunchy to go with it and then I remembered that my Mom made homemade granola for Christmas and I had some at work.

My Mom’s granola is seriously good.  She’s vegan, gluten free and does NO refined sugars oh and she has sensitivities to soy-vegetables anyone?  I think this has oats, coconut, pepitas, almonds, cashews, pecan, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, currants, honey, coconut palm sugar, cinnamon, and I don’t know what else.  I should get the recipe.

I’m now on my way to get Lu in this awful weather.  Instead of getting MLK day off, Shaun’s company did landscaping at the beach for Habitat for Humanity today. He’s at home warming up and nursing his knee that he hit with a “big iron thing”.

It looks like there’s a break in the torrential downpour so off I go!

Do you ever have a song that comes on and it just hits a nerve and gets you going?  Today in spin it was Pink’s So What? I didn’t lose my husband and I’m not going to start a fight but I’ve got a brand new attitude and I’m having more fun!  It was awesome.  I needed it too.  I got in bed at 10 last night and didn’t fall asleep until after 2 am.  Yes you read right, 2.  That means I got about 3 hours of sleep-isn’t that awesome?  But! I got up and I went to spin and it was GREAT!

Before class I ate this nanner with PB:

The cutie is for later.

After class I had half of the other half:

Lu saw me eating it and BEGGED for some, so she got half.  That girl LOVES her nanners.

I also made some juice!

I guess I was so excited to drink it that I couldn’t get all of the glass in the picture?  In that was a beet (including greens), half an apple, and a lemon.  That’s a drink that’ll put hair on your chest!

I put a ziplock in the pulp container:

So that I could easily store it for tonight’s dinner:

I’m going to make some veggie burgers and I think that will be a nice addition, plus LESS CLEAN-UP!  It worked really well.

So the goal for today is NO caffeine.  I think that Sencha tea I had yesterday at 11 aided in the insomnia last night.  I may be dragging later but hopefully that means I can get to SLEEP at a reasonable time tonight so that 5:30 is A-OK tomorrow.

I think Lu’s about to do some growing.  She slept 13.5 hours on Friday night, last night she did 12.5 (and we had to wake her up), and then she took a 4 hour nap this afternoon. And then? She went to bed at her normal bedtime of 7 PM.  She’s not acting sick (knock on wood) but she did have some immunizations today, so that could be part of it.

I think, I’ve also grown like a week this weekend-mentally that is.  I’ve gone down this path before but I always get derailed.  I think the blog will really help with this.  I’ve read Victoria Moran’s Fit from Within about 4 times cover to cover and I always try and fail.  I think part of that failure is that a diary is a really important part of the journey and I HATE paper diaries.  I’ve never been good at keeping them up-ever. But! I’m great at blogging, so I think/hope/know it’ll stick this time.

Guess what? My stomach issues? Have resolved themselves.  I think stress does it to me (and dairy).  I’ve been eating sanely and only limiting dairy and I feel 100% better.

My friends didn’t end up being able to stop.  They got a later start to their day then they thought and they had a 6 hour drive ahead of them so we decided it’d be better to visit the next time they were coming through (miss you Callie!).

I decided to make some seriously amazing baked tofu:

To go on some stir fry:

It was great and I ate all of it 🙂

It gave me a chance to use the new knife that my Mom got me for Christmas:

How fun are these veggies?

Now, I’ve got 3 lunches for this week:

I had an incredibly productive day.  I got all my work done, I cleaned out my kitchen drawers, I cleaned the kitchen, did some filing, and put away some odds and ends.  Plus I deep cleaned Lu’s high chair-it needed it!

I also had fun with my munchkin.

Lastly? I had a great eating day.  I ate a lot less than I normally would and I feel 100% satiated.  I call that a success.

Overall, it was a good week.

How’d I do this week?  It’s a learning process and I think I learned a lot this week.

1. Stop putting myself down.  Treat me like I would want others to treat Lucy. I have done so much better  at this this week.  I’m really proud of myself.

2. Eat something green every day. Check!

3. Eat 2 servings of fruit every day. Check!

4. Completely cut out dairy except yogurt. Check! I feel good too!

5. Get back on my bike. Not yet-it was raining this weekend 🙁 but I am on the spin bike!

6. Do something only for me 1 hour each week. Check! After I got done working today, I took some time to just decompress at Peet’s, it was nice.  I still really want a pedicure-hopefully next weekend!

7. Do something with Shaun that doesn’t include me sitting on the computer and him on the XBox or us watching TV for 1 hour each week. Check! We watched The Hangover on Friday night and then this morning while Lu slept (and slept) we just hung out together in bed like we used to before she came. It was really nice.

8. Dress nicely, including putting on make-up, at least 3 times a week. Check!

9. Clean out Lucy’s drawers. I’m getting close to starting this.

10. Clean out and organize the filing cabinet. I started today-YAY!

11. Complete Lucy’s birth book. Not yet.

12. Become a faster walker. If you can speed train for running, you can sure as hell do it for walking. I am still working on this and I have a treadmill workout to help (dork!).

13. Send out thank you notes in a more timely fashion and to everyone that deserves one. I fail at this one this week 🙁 I didn’t do them last weekend, I will do them.  I will do them.  I will do them.

14. Lose 30 pounds or fit comfortably into my size 4-6 clothing. Feed myself healthy food and exercise, trust myself. I think we all know I’m working on this one 😉

15. Save my personal money for a new wardrobe. Check! I was wrong last week, I had over $300 and now I have over $500-YAY!

16. Be on top of my budget and update Quicken every 2 weeks. Check!

17. Severely limit my computer and phone time when I’m with Lucy.  On weekdays, I should never use them when she’s awake and on weekends, I should use them sparingly when she’s awake. Check!

18. Get the bird out 4 times a week. Erm, does 2 times count as 4?

19. To appease my husband, never let the gas tank get below 1/2 a tank. Check! Such a pain in my arse.

20. Improve on my photography. I’m working on it.  I got my 50mm lens out and played with it some more.

And, the original 10 in 2010:

1. Take time out every day to simply enjoy my daughter. Check!

2. Try not to look too far forward or lament the past.  Enjoy NOW. Check!

3. Drink more water-at least 70 ounces per day. Check!

4. Use my juicer A LOT. Check!

5. Go to the gym more often than not. Check!

6. Eat healthfully-don’t put anything in my mouth that I wouldn’t feed Lucy. Check!

7. Save money. Check!

8. Run to the top of Waterdog Lake Road, while pushing Lucy, without stopping and back. Working on it.  We were supposed to go today, but the rain had other ideas…

9. Post at least 365 times in 2010.  I can post 3 times a day or skip a day but I want my average to be 1 post per day. Working on it.

10. Fold my laundry when it comes out of the dryer. by Sunday night. This one is ever evolving :)  I think getting the laundry folded by Sunday night every week is a great goal.  I’m not a fold laundry during the week kinda girl and I’ve come to terms with it-good thing I usually only do laundry on Saturday and Sunday.

Actually, a pretty good week if I do say so myself 🙂

How did you do?  We’re past the 2 week mark into the New Year, are you sticking to your goals?

A stir fry is a dish where you cook veggies and proteins at a high heat with very little oil.  It’s similar to sautéing but you use higher heat and don’t normally cover what you’re cooking.  It’s a fast and easy way to make a healthy dinner. *Tip-try to make all the vegetables approximately the same size for uniform cooking.

Ingredients:

-Half an onion, sliced
-10 garlic cloves, chopped
-1 inch of ginger, peeled and chopped
-4 carrots, sliced
-8 small zucchini, sliced
-10 mini peppers, or 2 big peppers, sliced
-~20 mushrooms, quartered
-1/4 cup Bragg’s Amino/Soy Sauce
-1/2 tsp sesame oil
-High heat non-stick spray

Instructions:

-Spray a wok or a big skillet with high heat non-stick spray, turn heat to high.  When pan is hot, add sesame oil, coat bottom of pan.

-Add onions and half of soy sauce/Braggs and cook until glistening.

-Add garlic, ginger, and carrots.

Since carrots take some time to cook, I cover them for about 3 minutes.

-Add the rest of the veggies and soy/Braggs. (I used half Braggs and half soy sauce tonight).

-Cook until just tender.

-Lucy and I had ours with the baked tofu I made.

Lu’s (I added some leftover peas and corn from lunch):

Mine:

Shaun is not a tofu fan so I marinated some shrimp in Braggs and sriracha and cooked those on the side.

Shaun’s plate:

Shaun gave this a 3.5 out of 5 and I agree-it was tasty.  Lu didn’t agree so much.  She ate a few pieces of tofu and then cherry picked the carrots, peas, and rice.  She didn’t care for the mushrooms, peppers, or zucchini. But she tried them and that’s all I can ask 🙂

I had never made this before and man was it easy-and delicious!

Ingredients:

-1 package extra firm tofu
-1/4 cup soy sauce or Bragg’s Amino
-1 TBSP sriracha (optional)

Instructions:

-Preheat oven to 400*

-Cut tofu block into 1/2 inch thick slices.

-Lay out on multiple paper towels, cover with more paper towels, and then place something heavy on top to drain for ~10 minutes.

(I use a cutting board and my cast iron dutch oven)

-Marinate pieces in soy sauce and sriracha (optional) mixture for 10-15 minutes, flipping part way through.

Siracha mixture (for me):

Braggs mixture (for Lucy):

-Cover a cookie sheet with foil and then spray the foil with high heat non-stick spray. Place tofu on sheet and pop into the oven.

-Bake for 40 minutes (or until crispy), flipping half way through.

The outside will be nice and crispy and the inside will be soft and yummy.  I seriously loved this stuff.  I give it 5 out of 5 stars!

That’s how late we kept Lu up tonight 🙁 Two of our very good friends were celebrating their birthday and they requested that Lu come.  She’s a “in bed by 7” kinda girl but we decided to try.  The restaurant was only 5 blocks from home and I was ready to walk back at the first sign of a melt down. She lasted until our entrees came.  Daddy took her for a walk while I ate and then I brought her home.  She was such a good girl and I’m so glad we went.  At first I felt like those people who should have left their kid home but then I realized that everyone wanted us to bring her.  She had a good time, they had a good time, and we had a good time.

This afternoon while Lu was enjoying her papaya yogurt (pureed papaya mixed in with plain whole fat yogurt) I tried something that I got at Whole Foods today.

Coconut milk yogurt. Gena mentioned this yogurt the other day and I had seen it but never tried it.  It was good.  The nutritional make-up is pretty good too.

140 calories, 60 from fat-only 1 gram of protein though and a sort of long ingredient list BUT for someone who can’t have yogurt-this is fantastic.  I really liked it.  I love the quote on the lid.

I got chocolate and mango to try as well.

I had a really great day with Lu today.  She was a very good girl.  She’s getting harder and harder to take pictures of though because she’s always in motion. I feel bad that they only pictures I show are those of her eating but that’s the only time she’s still.  I got some very serious shots today though.

She was coloring.

She LOVES her notebook and crayons.

I didn’t break the camera out tonight at dinner.  I had enough on my plate trying to keep Lu happy.  I did really well though and I feel like I had a great eating day.  I’m proud of myself. 

For dinner I had:

-1/2 grilled artichoke with a few dabs of goddess dressing
-1 fried shrimp
-1/2 a roll
-1 glass of Riesling
-1/3 of my entree-seared sashimi tuna, seasoned sushi rice, and baby spinach in a sesame ginger garlic sauce.  There were these little fried things on it (shoestring yams?) and I had a few of those too.

Very sane eating 🙂 I feel very satiated right now too.  I don’t feel like I missed out on anything. Dinner was delicious as well.  They were cupcakes for the whole table but I left before they came out and I really don’t need or want the dairy. Plus, I’m not missing them 😉

Let’s hope that tomorrow is sane too.