Miso soup with soba

The haven't shut off the power yet (and the guys told me they would give me a heads up before they do) so I have time to get in my lunch post.

I know it is a bit rude to eat while these poor guys are working 3 feet away - but I missed breakfast and I was STARVING.

They shut off the water because instead of replacing the faucets as the management informed me - They are actually redoing all of the pipes in the apartment.

So I had to make lunch without the use of running water.

Miso soup with soba noodles and chicken.

I had the last little bit of the miso soup left, so I threw that into a small sauce pan along with some soba noodles. I let the soup simmer until the noodles were tender (about 7 minutes).

Then I remembered I had this little bit of the stuffed chicken divan left.

I chopped up the chicken and tossed it into the pot.

Ten minutes later I was enjoying a nice steaming bowl by my keyboard.

It was an odd combination but it was quick and filled my empty tummy.

I am typing this while 15 guys are soldering copper pipes, installing a new front door, installing a new bedroom window and a new patio door. 

The workmen just broke for lunch. I had been feeling like a big doofus for hanging out in the apartment while they worked but since they left my front door wide open (no handle or lock on it yet so there is no way for it to stay closed) - I feel pretty smart about hanging around.
  
I am going to go enjoy slurping my noodles in the blissful (if temporary) quiet.

It has begun

The workmen have arrived - so no morning post. Well, not one that will contain pictures. They need to shut off the power at some point so I am shutting down the computer for the duration.

I am digging out my laptop and hopefully by the afternoon I will be at my friends apartment with the dogs and able to post then.

Later all!

Pasta with bacon and onions

Orecchiette pasta with bacon and onions topped with shredded Parmesan.

Cleaning makes you hungry!! I crisped up some bacon and set it aside and discarded all of the bacon grease. I caramelized some onions in a skillet with a few drops of olive oil. Then tossed in 1/2 cup of cooked Orecchiette pasta. I added 2 Tbsp. of the pasta water to the pan and let the pasta get coated with the onions.

I separated the fatty part of the bacon from the meat - set the fatty parts aside for the dogs and chopped up the meat.


I shredded some Parmesan on top and sprinkled the bacon on top. This dish was rich but really delicious. The sweetness of the caramelized onions paired beautifully with the saltiness of the bacon.

And for my greens I tossed some frozen spinach and frozen peas with chopped garlic, shredded pieces of teryaki nori and 2 tsp. of mirin and soy sauce.

This dish turned out better than the pasta dish!

Now it's time to get back to cleaning, Ugh(((  I am looking forward to embracing an Amish-like aesthetic by the end of the day.

Honey in a comb

I have had this locally made honey sitting in the cupboard for a while. 

It is still in the wax honeycomb. I love eating honey that is still in the wax. You get all the great sweetness of the honey along with the chewy wax. The wax ends up being like a piece of honey flavored gum that you chew until you squeeze every drop of flavor out of it.

My favorite way to eat it is smeared across a lightly buttered piece of toast.

Toast with honey, chopped apple and pineapple.

This apple was so pretty - It was a shame to cut it up((

But it also looked really delicious so I only hesitated for a moment.

I also had a big mug of tea.

This is the last day I have to clean before the workmen arrive at my door tomorrow morning - Yikes((

I was stuck staying off my feet because all the walking on graduation day aggravated my bum foot (( But it was well worth it :-)

Happy Memorial Day!

Protein and laver

Today I woke up craving protein and minerals. I did not want carbs at all.

For the protein, I scrambled 1 whole egg with 4 egg whites with 1 Tbsp. of nutritional yeast.

Topped with a sprinkle of sweet paprika.

And since I had leftover miso soup in the fridge, I put some on the stove to warm up. 

I usually eat this breakfast with brown rice but since this morning's breakfast was going to be carb free I just added extra egg whites (4 instead of 2) when I scrambled the eggs.

Scrambled eggs, laver, miso soup and strong tea.

The laver (seasoned strips of nori in this case) did the job in satisfying my mineral craving. 


And since I am too lazy to insert a hyper link into the post today - here is a series of photos to show you how I eat this:

After I dip the nori in the miso soup, I lay the softened strip over the eggs.

I use chopsticks to pinch the ends of the nori together, scooping up a bit of the eggs.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Moving on to greater things

My niece graduated today - she will definitely be moving on  to much greater things.

The graduate:

I am not that short and she is not that tall. I was sitting down.

But it was definitely a great day.

I got to watch my niece walk on stage to receive her diploma.

I got all dressed up - 

 
And a fancy bag to match.

My dinner:

 
Night all.

What a racket

They were working on my patio this afternoon so I used the dogs as an excuse (I do have to spare their poor delicate ears from all the racket, right?) and I hit the mall.

 Macys to be exact. And I finally broke down and bought this:

I will take some 'before' pictures and if I see a significant difference in four weeks - I will post the before and afters.


*Gasp* That is right - in four weeks you may (or may not) get a chance to take a gander at my beautific visage. And you may never be the same again :-)


Oh, and since I was taking pictures in the car - and because I am such a nice person - here is an *awwww* moment for you on this Friday:

Tigger who hangs on the windshield.

For lunch I stopped here:

I ordered a iced chai latte.

I tried the hot version before and it was way too sweet. This one was just right - very cinnamony and just a little bit sweet. The barista must have gone overboard on the syrup last time.


And a chicken Caesar salad and an apple:

I was craving that apple like a Jurasic Park dinosaur craves lysine.


Maybe I am low in pectin?

Breakfast fried rice

I was running a good streak with having kibble in the house.

And then I woke up this morning - open the food bin and there are only 3 lonely pieces of kibble. I shake the bin because maybe more kibble will magically appear????

No such luck. So, this morning the dogs and I had the same thing for breakfast. Breakfast fried rice.

The title of fried rice is not really accurate since there was no frying involved and I did not add in any green onions which are typically included in fried rice. (Remember onions are bad, bad things for dogs 'cause anemia is kind of a bad thing - or so I hear...)

I started with 1 cup of rice in two cups of water, one cup of frozen peas and several pieces of seasoned nori torn into small pieces in a sauce pan. I set everything to simmer away.

While the rice cooked I scrambled 3 whole eggs, 2 egg whites and 1 Tbsp. of soy milk in a pan.

I had some defrosted pineapple so I gave that a rough chop.

I layered the pineapple in the bottom of the bowls.

After the rice finished cooking, I added in 1 Tbsp. of soy sauce and 1/2 Tbsp. of oyster sauce. Then I portioned out the rice mixture into the bowls.

The next layer was the scrambled eggs and I mixed everything together.

The sweet and saltiness of this dish was a great combination.


The dogs were great fans of this dish - they gobbled down everything including the pineapple.

I also had a cup of tea but per usual I forgot to take a picture of it - because some trends are too good to break :-)

Happy Friday!!

Spicy cream of carrot soup

I am on a soup roll of late.

Spicy cream of carrot soup.

 The ingredients:

4 carrots, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 yellow onion, chopped
3 cups of water
1 bay leaf
a pinch of cumin
a pinch of thyme
a pinch of paprika
a pinch of salt
a pinch of black pepper
1 Tbsp. of Tofutti cream cheese
3/4 cup of unsweetened soy milk
2 Tbsp. of Rotel chopped tomatoes and chilies
1 tsp. of coconut oil

I put the oil in a sauce pan over medium heat. Then the onions went in and cooked until translucent. The garlic went in next and when that became fragrant, I added in the rest of the spices.

Then I added in the water, chopped carrots and brought everything to a simmer. I wanted the liquid to reduce to concentrate the flavors - so I let it simmer for 30 minutes.

Then I broke out the immersion blender (take the pan off the heat for this) and pureed everything till it was smooth. Then on low heat, I stirred in the Tofutti cream cheese. When the cream cheese had melted into the soup, I poured in the soy milk. After everything was warmed through I served up my soup.

I ordered an air purifier today - Hopefully I picked a decent one...

Living and learning goes better with bacon

Just a friendly heads-up - there will be ranting up ahead and yes, ohhh yes, there will be bacon.

Do you have someone in your life that is dismissive of your accomplishments?


Oh, wait - here is a shot of bacon to hold you over while you read.

Bacon wrapped rice balls (the dog's treat).

This morning I got some good news and I was calling people to share. Everyone is ecstatic for me. This is something I have been working on for a while and it is finally starting to pay off. 

Then I make a call to a person who's reaction goes something like this:

Me: "Blah, blah, blah *insert any great news you want here*"

Other person: "Oh *pause* well I guess that is good news. *another pause* So anyways, I bought these really cute shoes the other day..."


And I am thinking - "Wow, way to be dismissive."


And then it hits me - Why do I keep expecting different results???


Wait, you probably need another shot of bacony goodness at this point.

Seasoned rice with an over easy egg with a sprinkling of bacon.

Have I confronted them on this issue? Heck yeah. Which results in them saying in a condescending tone, "Oh I didn't realize it was THAT important."


So my positive action of the day (aka. my living and learning moment)? In the future I will wait for the giddy euphoria to pass before calling them - that way it won't bother me.


There, *big sigh*, I feel much better - Thanks for listening:-)


On to the food:

Seasoned rice with egg and bacon, miso soup, nori strips and green tea.

I always mix the rice and egg together.

 This is my favorite green tea:

If you want to see how I go about eating this you can check out an earlier post here.




Since the dogs looked like they were contemplating taking me out so they could wolf down the bacon, I made them this:

Bacon wrapped rice balls.

They are now draped over the couch in a porcine induced stupor:-)

Enjoying success

Everything is done and I am exhausted. 

My gift to myself was a dinner that needed as little work as possible.

Tomato soup and Popchips.

I heated one can of Campbell's tomato soup plus 1/2 cup of soy milk.

The Popchips are just pure comfort food. And the best thing? They are only 3g of fat per small bag.

I really can't express how comforting creamy tomato soup really is.

I did use the Popchips to scoop up the soup.

A great dinner that took very little effort on my part. A definite winner.

 

Almost there

Seasoned black beans over rice.

It is good to know I am not alone in my cleaning hysteria.

This morning, while I was making a billion trips to the dumpster, I kept passing my neighbors. It turns out that 3 of them stayed home today to finish clearing their patios and they were all frantic. Panic is always more fun practiced en masse.

It would be easier if we could leave some stuff on the patio but since they need to re-pour the concrete, everything has to be removed. I am sure you were desperate to know that.

I stopped at lunchtime for some sustenance. I had these ingredients on hand:

Garlic, onion, black beans and chopped tomatoes.

I also had a half a packet of this spice mix:

In a deep skillet I added 1/4 chopped yellow onion and 2 cloves of chopped garlic with some olive oil on medium heat.

After the onions started to soften, I added in the garlic and 2 teaspoons of the spice packet. 

Then I added 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed and 1 1/2 cups of the chopped tomatoes. I also shredded one carrot and added that along with 1 cup of water into the skillet. While I let that simmer I put 1 cup of rice in a sauce pan to simmer.

I think it turned out well :-)

My lunch portion was heavy on the spiced black beans and light on the rice. The portion pictured above is one I made to photograph. It just looked better with more rice:-)

*Had to pause for a bit - it started to rain and I had to scramble to get the couple of boxes I have left in under the overhang*

Since the beans turned out so well I am including the recipe.


Spicy black beans


Ingredients: 

1 15oz. can of black beans, drained and rinsed.
1 1/2 cup of chopped tomatoes
1  cup of water
2 Tbsp. of nutritional yeast
1/4 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. of chili spice mix
2 tsp. of Rotel tomatoes and green chilies
1/4 tsp. of oregano
1 carrot, shredded
2 tsp. of olive oil


Directions:

Add the olive oil to a pan on medium heat. Add the chopped onion to the pan and let it cook until softened (about 5 minutes). Toss in the minced garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. 

Next the black beans go into the skillet along with the tomatoes, chili spice mix, oregano, Rotel tomatoes and chilies, the shredded carrot, nutritional yeast and the water.

Let this simmer for at least 20 minutes so that the flavors marry together. Keep an eye on the pan and add more water if the mixture is starting to look dry. 

Serve over cooked rice (white or brown - your choice) with some sour cream or shredded cheese - or both!

Enjoy!