Unplanned Is Better Than Not As Planned
In case you missed the weekend:
- Friday I got groceries and ate from Whole Foods and gave nut butter recipes
- Saturday people weighed in on an awkward and moralistic gym situation.
- And Sunday was the big Mother’s Day brunch
I live off to-do lists and plans(you should see my to-do list for today. Yikes!). It should then be understandable that I’m no happy camper when things don’t come out 110% like I planned.
Vegan Tiger Fudge
The “new recipe” I alluded to was vegan tiger fudge: a layer of vegan chocolate fudge with a layer of peanut butter fudge on top. After a few hours, the top never set, so while this was tasty, it wasn’t wholly “fudge”. Boo 😦 It’s back to the drawing board for that recipe. On the bright side, my vegan chocolate fudge tastes as good as ever.
As opposed to not-according-to-planned, things that are unplanned have seemed to have great success recently. Betty White never planned that she would actually get on SNL, and she was hysterical. Amy Adams in Leap Year didn’t plan to fall in love with the Irishman she hired to take her to Dublin(even though it was the most predictable plot-line ever), and that worked out for her. And this dinner, while completely made on the fly, was fantastic:
EVOO Seared Sweet Potato And Chickpeas
EVOO Seared Sweet Potato And Chickpeas
How could something so simple be so good? This was just sweet potato chunks roasted and then seared in a little olive oil with the chickpeas added at the end to finish them off in the oil, and heaped on spinach. It was 5 ingredients with the salt(gotta have the salt), and that was all this needed. Best of all, it combined two of my favorites: sweet potatoes and chickpeas. Love it! Anyone else want to boast a kitchen success story out there?
Oatmeal With Chocolate Peanut Butter
Cascadian Farms Organic Vanilla Chip Bar
Maple Sugar Maple Leaf
It was certainly unplanned that I turn in to the carb king between dinner and breakfast this morning(add in the tiger fudge from before and you’ve got yourself a few meals there). And I’ll admit: It had me feeling a little down. Until I realized what those unplanned carbs could do for me.
12.1 Miles In 1:46:48
As a sort of “Last Hurrah”, I ran on the treadmill watching The Today Show and my other morning television for a strong and unplanned 12.1 miles. Hurrah! My entire gym set up is a luxury of convenience I will sorrowfully miss over the Summer.
Mighty Maple Oatmeal, Pineapple Chobani, Gingerade Kombucha
After all that, I’m happy to be sitting and having a well-balanced, moderately-sweetened breakfast with Mighty Maple and a pineapple Chobani. And, yes, that would be a Gingerade Kombucha at breakfast no less. It’s the only thing keeping me sane today between my to-do list and walking up and down 3 flights of stairs to cook and do laundry.
What do you do when a recipe’s a flop? My gut response: Call the neighbors over. If it’s something bready, I can usually crumble it over yogurt and call it granola. But with anything chocolate and sweet, just hand me a spoon and let the pity party commence.
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I can’t tell whether I’m happy or sad Sunday night has come already. Today, I was lucky enough to have done most of my work and not have anything planned. The next day that’ll be like this is… farther off than I know. So instead of trying to do more, I just took care of everything domestic, starting at the gym.
10 Miles In 86:18
I ran a rather speedy 10 miles while watching the first episode of the new Dr. Who season on my ipod(!!). So excited that’s back, and even more excited that I was able to multi-task like that because otherwise those miles would have felt looooong. Lunch was definitely not a quick post-workout meal, but it was well worth the time put around it.
Burger, Vegan Cayenne Cheddar Fries, Gingerade Kombucha
Burger, Vegan Cayenne Cheddar Fries,
I threw sweet potato fries as soon as I got back, and after 30 minutes they weren’t crispy but definitely edible. I tossed those with some cayenne parma for serious flavor. The burger was meh. It was a lot like the last, in that a) I undercooked it and b) the meat was of questionable quality/age. Getting sick threw off my “mojo” but now I’m happy those burgers from last week are all gone. And my gingerade kombucha was tangy, but not fizzy; what gives? I hope the probiotes were still alive… Not being able to keep sea monkeys I can deal with, but killing kombucha and I’d really feel shame.
Whole Foods
I walked the 1+ mile to Whole Foods in the mediocre weather because I’m not sure when/if I’ll have time in the coming days. If you’re wondering “Why the money?”, it’s because I’m following suit with Holly on Project Cleanout. Not only do I have more than enough lying around to eat, but I’ll literally have to clean out the dorm in a month, so it’d be a lot easier if most of it wasn’t here. I gave myself a $30 limit to buy whole foods I’ll eat over the week.
Groceries
I’d say that was a success. I clocked in at $23.05. I actually don’t think Whole Foods is all that unreasonable, except for the produce. I have a post in the works on how to shop there and get bargains. Yes, you heard that right. Keep an eye out for that. In my bag was
- Grass-fed beef
- Nasoya tofu
- WF Golden Sesame tofu
- 365 Chickpeas
- Plain Oikos
- Plain Chobani
- Honey Vanilla Bean Voskos
But let me stress: I’m not perfect.
Chocolate And Cheesecake
If you count these in, I definitely went over budget. “What’s the deal, Evan?” Well, the deal is that these were a deal. I knew I’d be buying my favorite chocolate bar again some time some day, so I bought 3 while they’re on sale to save $3. I’m also putting them out of reach so that I won’t touch them until I eat more of the other chocolate bars I’ve started or won’t replace. And the vanilla bean cheesecake was 1/2 off, so I couldn’t say no. All of these little “splurges” that aren’t real groceries I buy with a gift card I was given by my neighbors, and I save the grocery money for fresh foods.
Lake Champlain Peanut Butter Breakfast Egg
I’d like to say I snacked on a healthy egg, but instead I snacked on a peanut butter egg from my Easter basket. This was a Lake Champlain creation with milk chocolate, white chocolate(somewhere), malt, peanut butter, and peanuts.
Lake Champlain Peanut Butter Breakfast Egg
If I realized before it had wheat, I probably would have passed it up. Honestly, it was just alright and not really worth risking setting off my gluten intolerance. I loved how much of it was peanut butter; it was like eating straight out of the jar. But it also had a pretty “cheap” taste to it even if it was all-natural. Clearly, I’m not a fan. But I would have felt amiss not to have a giant egg this time of year.
Red Anjou Pear
I also snacked on the largest red anjou pear I’ve seen from the dining hall while dinner cooked, and did chores around the place. My new “saving grace” is baking soft tofu for 90 minutes instead of pressing it first and still getting the same texture. Pressing’s great, but it uses up too much paper towels, and I much prefer this no-fuss method.
Maple Salad With Tofu, Cashews, Cheddar, Onion, Carrots, And Spinach
For dinner, I made a simple salad with spinach(!!), maple baked tofu, Next Generation organic raw cheddar, carrot shreds, red onion, Tierra Farm’s maple glazed nuts, and watered down maple syrup for dressing. Perhaps it’s being a blogger, but I’ve gone for not caring for any greens to seriously preferring spinach over any other, so I’m always happy when the dining hall has that. Besides that, I loved how easy and no-fuss this meal was 🙂 What’s your favorite no-fuss meal? I could always use suggestions for that.
On the agenda for tonight:
- Write up a short paper
- Call my cousin to say happy [belated] birthday
- Eat cheesecake!
Sounds domestic to me 🙂 G’night.
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Food Makes Fun Fuel 