Friday, March 20, 2009

One Scatter-brained Sister

For some unexplained reason, I have been quite the scatter-brained sister lately. On Wednesday night, I failed to set my alarm for the next morning. I awoke approximately a half-hour late, to the considerate questioning of my dear roommate:
"Caroline, did your morning class get cancelled?"
"What? Aw, crap."
I was quite appreciative of her awakening me--I had to turn in a paper that day!
Then, today I was daydreaming in the shower until I discovered that I had shaved the same leg three times. Hmm. It seems I need a little assistance in maintaining focus these days.

On another note, I have been visited by the sample fairy several times these past few days. First my personalized granola from MixMyGranola:
There's still time to enter my giveaway...you have until 11:59 PM tonight to enter!

I also received a few goodies from McCann's:
Any tips on how to prepare Irish oatmeal?

Finally, I also received this book from the people over at POM Wonderful.
It provides an insider's perspective on starting a business and marketing it successfully. I can't wait to read it...however, it will likely have to wait until after school is over.

Despite my recent flightiness, I have not been so distracted that I have forgotten to eat. Here's what I've been chowing on lately:

Wednesday
My mom has this really awesome (and really easy!) recipe for pizza dip for which I have been having an intense craving. So, I called up my mom, got the recipe, and set to work. The recipe calls for cream cheese, but I had the "genius" idea of substituting homemade tofu cream cheese. I whipped up the tofu concoction (which was quite tasty), then spread it in the dish and added the other layers (tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and veggie toppings--I chose artichoke hearts). Twenty minutes later, I had a bubbling mess. Although it tasted alright, the tofu cream cheese had totally disintegrated in the baking process. Lesson learned: stick to the real stuff next time. Those are baked blue corn chips and a salad with balsamic vinaigrette on the side.
For dinner, I had sorority ceremonies to attend for several hours, so I brought my dinner along: a Tofurky-hummus sandwich, an apple, raw veggies, and almonds.
Once home, I whipped up a delicious shake: cappuccino Spirutein, frozen banana, non-dairy vanilla ice cream, and soymilk with a few chocolate chips for garnish. Who needs Starbucks?
Thursday
Yesterday morning was the day of the "absent alarm" incident. After scrambling to put on a T-shirt and yoga pants, I still managed to make breakfast. My roommate remarked, "Hey, you still managed to eat breakfast!" Of course. Breakfast before beauty. I made CCV's Banana Bread Blender again with GoLean, soymilk, frozen banana, almonds, cinnamon, and a little coconut. OK, so my version really doesn't much resemble the original recipe, but it was tasty, nonetheless.
For lunch, I drew inspiration from the most recent issue of Clean Eating magazine. There is a recipe for a Caribbean Tuna Salad, which sounded delicious, but I made significant substitutions to make it vegetarian- and time-friendly. I used chickpeas for the tuna and used prepared peanut sauce with lime juice and jerk seasoning to make the dressing. That's mango and bell pepper in the salad and pita on the side. I'll include the magazine pic too, just for fun.
More sorority ceremonies that night, so I brought by dinner again (in my eco-friendly sack): asparagus-avocado-tomato wrap, grapes, and soynuts with dried apricots. I also brought some little PB cracker sandwiches for snacking.
My shake last night was...weird. I combined strawberries, dark cocoa, chocolate rice protein, soymilk, and non-dairy ice cream then topped it off with a bit of PB2 and high-fiber cereal (I need that crunch!). Not my best effort.
Friday
After a blissful 8-hours' sleep, I prepared a filling breakfast favorite: scrambled tofu. I switched it up this time and put it in a wrap. The green you see is asparagus and scallions. I also had a perfectly ripe orange on the side.
Following my Whole Foods trip, I came home to prepare a simple lunch: hummus pizza. I used leftover Greek hummus (from Tuesday), tomatoes, and an Ezekiel pita. Due to the oregano, olives, and tomatoes, it really did smell like pizza in the apartment! I had some greens with raspberry vinaigrette and an apple on the side.
Another night of sorority ceremonies, another sack dinner: PB & apple butter on whole wheat with grapes, and raw veggies with this bean dip. For snacktime, I brought a Jamfrakas bar and almonds.
Whew! I am pooped. Sorry for the monstrous post...but before I go, a friendly reminder:

Time's a-tickin'...enter the MixMyGranola giveaway before it's too late!

17 comments:

Nicole said...

That pizza dip sounds amaaaazing!! I need to try it!

Anon said...

i love the blue corn chips - they remind me of my fav mexican restaurant appetizer of nachos ;) and coconut in oatmeal is soooooo delicious!!

Erica said...

hahahahha you shaved the same leg three times! I always daze out in the shower!

Anonymous said...

holy crap, tofu cream cheese?! That's GENIUS!

hahaha three times? I've done it twice before, not gonna lie ;)

curlytop said...

Oooo I love pizza dip idea! May have to give that one a try.

And you do not pull your pitas apart just like me! That's the reason why they are my bread of choice-more surface area=more time to enjoy the yumminess. :)

Your smoothies beat out Starbucks anytime. (And I should know since I work there) But if you ever want to satisfy a caffeine craving, I'm doing an insider post on ordering Veg at Starbucks tomorrow. Check it out.

With Love,

Emily

Anonymous said...

Obviously tons of great food, as usual. The pizza dip sounds like a great concoction - I would love your mom's recipe :D And great samples of course.

Everyone gets a little flighty every once in a while, I'm sure it will pass.

Anonymous said...

You are so smart. I was just reading that CE magazine last night, trying to figure out how to de-meat the recipes. Chickpeas!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Hang in there, girl - don't let the studying fry your brain!! That's why I get scatter-brained, haha ;-)

LOVE CLEAN EATING MAGAZINE!!!! And all your foooooooood (and smoothies, duh).

Chat soon, girl?

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

I must try coconut in the cereal-- genius!

Also genius: the pizza dip.

And I love your "breakfast before beauty" motto.

HEAB said...

I love your creativity and you totally scored with all the samples. I like Irish oats, but I never cook them nearly as long as the directions say as I prefer them a little creamy.

Your Caribbean chickpeas look like they turned out great. What a great sub for tuna. I love anything inspired by CCV, and I must try your hummus pizza soon. Have you ever tried Eating Bender's Humbecue Pizza? So good!

Thanks for all the foodie inspiration. Love it!

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha you silly girl! Well, it happens when our minds are a million places right?
I love hose little PB and cracker sandos! SO CUTE!
My mom makes McCann's however the container says! IT'S AMAZING.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you have your priorities straight - food trumps everything else!!

Yay for PB crackers! Yours look much more healthy than my Kroger brand ;) I love the abundance of snap peas in this post! Don't apologize for a long update, we love it!!

Anonymous said...

all of your salads look so great!
oh and blue corn chips yum!

Anonymous said...

I like your idea for subbing in chickpeas for tuna - they probably go better with a peanut-lime dressing anyway!

I love mango in salads - haven't had one in a while, but now I'm craving mango ;)

Gotta love those loooong sorority meetings and ceremonies. If they're tied to rush, I feel for ya!

Anonymous said...

all those meals looked so good!!! i hope that you don't think you are lacking creativity anymore because all of those meals were so fun and definitely stuff I have never seen before!!! we need to meet and you need to cook for me!! :) or at least show me how to make all your famous meals!

have fun with all the sorority stuff, that will be me the next few weeks!! I have something almost every night!

Oh PS! I don't think I have ever re-shaved the same leg before, but a while back my roommate was getting changed after a shower and realized that she just completely forgot to shave one of her legs!! haha! so don't feel bad! :)

Anonymous said...

Love all your eats!

My mom makes a chili dip that is seriously addicting. Hmm.. I'm going to have her give me the recipe because thinking about it right now is making me crave it! haha

Your asparagus, avocado, tomato wrap looks DE-LISH! Sounds like my kind of wrapppp!

I love, love, LOVE tofu, but I have yet to use it myself in any of my meals. It's like I'm afraid that I'll mess it up!! I need to try something easy. That scrambled tofu looks perfect! I want to try pan fried tofu but it looks a little challenging. Well.. it can't hurt to try!!

You make so many amazing looking shakes.. my god girl!!!

<3

Little Miss Sunshine said...

Bummer on the not-so-successful attempt at making your mum's pizza dip (I think all "mum's recipes" are hard to recreate ... they always need that special touch to make them taste the same! :D )- it sure sounds good to me though!! :D

Woah, I like those mini pb cracker-wich that you made ... looks so darnny good! Gah, I want some pb2 NOW!!

Last but not least, I hope your brain would return to its 'non scatter' mode sometime soon ;)