Back to the mat

I had a great yoga class. 

It was restorative yoga so there was no sweating involved but it felt great to stretch and get all the kinks out.

I did spend the first part of the class wishing I had these socks:

The socks that remind me of the movie Flash Dance and could be (in a really, really retro way) be considered slightly stylish.

Instead of these:

The full foot sock version which makes me feel like a 200 year-old-grandmother with cold feet.

One of the things I love most about yoga is that even after a vigorous class  I always leave feeling very relaxed.

For lunch I decided I wanted something fast so I put together a simple salad.

This salad was a super easy mix of baby lettuce, a shredded carrot, chopped green onion, chopped fresh parsley and some leftover chicken.

I tossed everything with a little bit of the raspberry vinaigrette dressing. 

It did occur to me this afternoon that I need to include more healthy fats in the form of nuts into my diet.

And I also need to rotate in a greater variety of vegetables into my meals.


Does anyone else find themselves falling back into a dietary rut if you don't make a conscious effort to pick up new and different foods?


 

The view from up here

I could have taken a picture of the workman who had a large hole in his pants (you can imagine where) but I didn't. 

I will spare you the horror. That guy with the pants of uber ventilation stood on a ladder just outside my patio window and put up siding...

For hours...


And my desk faces the sliding glass doors...

Yes, I am now scarred for life.


But I am scarred for a good cause because I was snapping pictures of this:

Buffalo rib eye salad.

 I picked up this at the store yesterday - 

I seasoned it liberally with salt and pepper.

It went into a hot pan with a little olive oil. And it cooked fast. I would say it took about 4 minutes on each side? And even with that little time I thought I had overcooked it.

But after it rested for 10 minutes:

A perfect medium rare, me thinks.

Then came the salad -

I used half of the dried cranberries/blueberries and about 1/4 of the dressing. I left the croutons out altogether.

The buffalo rib eye steak turned out tender and very juicy. I was very impressed. I will definitely purchase it again.

 And I can't forget the condiments - 

And, of course, the dogs got to have a nibble:

Nori wrapped buffalo steak.

The cooing - it will break you everytime.

I enjoyed a huge green salad for lunch. And let's face it - the greens were just a convenient vehicle for lots of the Highly Addictive Miso Dressing.

What makes this dressing even better? I huge handful of chopped green onions.

And in my never ending quest to incorporate new and healthy things into my diet, this was included in my lunch:

Fishy goodness packed with Omega-3 Fatty Acids.

Which came in a huge amount of mustard sauce.

And I will be honest, this plate sat on top of the fridge for about an hour before I got up the courage to taste it.

Well, I didn't so much 'get the courage' as I was tortured into it. 

Even though I carefully washed off a fillet and gave it to Abby (aka the fish girl) she still camped out in front of the fridge and cooed non-stop to this plate of fish that was sitting on top of the fridge.


No joke. 

She cooed like the saddest Who in Whoville.

After an hour, this cooing broke me. I broke like that cop in the torture scene in Reservoir Dogs.

As Abby watched me with feral interest, I bravely brought a forkful of the herring to my mouth.

You know what? It wasn't half bad. It was meaty like Halibut and the mustard sauce really cut the fishy smell. 

These guys were much easier for me to handle than trying to eat sardines.

I think next time I will try eating them with crackers.

And I had a big bowl of these sweet globes.

 

My favorite gym personality

There are lots of personalities at the gym. 

The Talker

The Poser

The Serious, iPod wearing, Leave Me Alone Type


but the gym personality that is my favorite made an appearance today -


The Screamer


There are two types of screamers - 

1) The type that actually lifts heavy weights and they workout with a vein bulging (possibly stroke inducing) intensity. That one is not my favorite.


2) The type that clearly rarely works out, never lifts more than 10lbs but they give the performance of a lifetime with every lift. And my ultimate favorite is the screamer that ends the lifting scream with cave man like panting and grunting.


I would really look forward to going to the gym if it could be guaranteed the screamer would show up every time.


After my fun filled time at the gym I put together a salad (with some protein) for lunch.

Tomatoes, carrot, brown mushrooms, turkey breast, cucumber, spring mix and homemade salad dressing.

The dressing was a mix of Udo's oil, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, black pepper, mirin and rice wine vinegar.


I contemplated adding in some pickled cabbage but I ended up leaving it out.

Turkey for muscle building protein!

For dessert it was all about the berries:

Sliced strawberries and blackberries.

Time to get back to work!

Time to go a'visiting

I am burnt out this evening. 

My computer decided to do a hard restart (for some mysterious reason) and I lost a huge amount of data:-(

Luckily, all of my writing (a.ka. 'the book') is stored on a pen drive. But it did bring about the harsh reality that I do need to start backing up my hard drive. 

Terabyte storage drive here I come!

Dinner was light and easy:

Corn on the cob with salt and paprika and a simple green salad.

Having corn on the cob always reminds me of summertime barbecues.

I do need to pick up a salad bowl that holds enough for one because my noodle bowl falls a bit short.

I just got an invite to a spontaneous mid-week movie night. I will have to dig through my DVD's to see if I have any movies that don't require the use of brain cells, i.e. Inception would be out :-)

Time to go a'visiting. Night all!

Easter dinner recap

The Easter recap:

The day started out bright and early at the Carmel Mission - 

Beautiful spring flowers.

On the way.

Heading back home to feast.

The star of the feast was the ham.

Honey baked ham.

The sides:

Rice pilaf, corn and carrots.

A large salad with a side of avocado slices and cheddar cheese.

What did I make?

Dip for the vegetables.

I made a dip for the crudite - I will include the recipe at the end of this post. As you can see from the picture it was almost all gone before everyone sat down to dinner:-)

My plate:

A little bit of everything.

My niece's plate:

And every family dinner should end with lots of this - 

Every family dinner should end with lots of love - not heart shaped pieces of ham - just in case anyone was confused on that point :-).



Veggie Dip (Vegan)


Ingredients:

1 cup of Tofutti sour cream


3/4 cup of Red Star nutritional yeast

2 Tbsp. of Earth Balance margarine

3 Tbsp. of water

1/2 tsp. of yellow mustard
 
1/4 tsp. of garlic powder

1 pinch of tumeric powder 


1 pinch of salt

cracked black pepper to taste

Directions: 

Put all of the ingredients in a sauce pan on medium simmer. Whisk until everything is combined and the sauce is smooth. Add more water if necessary to achieve desired consistency. If the sauce gets too thick just put is back on the stove and whisk in a bit more water.

This is just a basic starting off point for this dipping sauce. Feel free to tweak it for your individual tastes. It is a great recipe to have in your repertoire since it is great for Vegan's and/or anyone who is intolerant of dairy products.

And the soaking begins

Ding, ding, ding! The soaking begins.

But first - my dinner:

I am always on the fence about buying things labeled, "sweet and tangy" because more often than not the sweet over powers the tangy.

I was wrong with this one. Much more tangy than sweet and right up my alley.

Baby greens plus the super tangy dressing with the little bits of fruit that added just an occasional bite of sweet? Oh, and the bite of savory croutons? I was in heaven!

So, take my word for it, don't judge every pre-made salad by its cover - this one was great.

Back to the soaking:

The salted cod.

The initial soak:

Yes, I know it doesn't look pretty - but how many things in life start out seeming like a big question mark and end up being the best thing ever.

Just wait and see...