Gazpacho and Bean Burritos

Today has been totally lame in the science way. Around noon I got an e-mail from my advisor telling me a recently submitted paper had been rejected. The e-mail contained reviewer comments - which he asked me to go ahead and handle for the next draft of my dissertation that is DUE WEDNESDAY. That's almost now. So I was cruising along, trying to finish up all of my corrections for him, and got this curveball thrown at me. In addition, he asked that I address the comments for a resubmission before I defend, which is July 20th. SO my diss. is due July 6th, I defend the 20th, and somewhere in between there I have to rewrite a paper, prepare my public defense, start packing up my house.. I don't even want to go on.

I just had to get up right that second and go for a walk downtown for a few minutes to clear my head and calm down. It will all get done... it's just a stretch. A big one.

Anyway- food today was good. I was hungry almost every second of the day- so I will have to add some snacks tomorrow so that I don't feel like I am about to die at 4:30 like today.

Breakfast - egg whites with salsa verde. Green smoothie - banana, strawberry, greek yogurt, lots of spinach and some almond milk.




Lunch - some tuna salad boats with this tuna salad.




Dinner- Gazpacho and Burritos.

I wanted to make these today since I had leftover guacamole from yesterday. However, when my husband got home from the gym he fixed that issue - so we were Guac-less.

The Gazpacho is Angela's recipe. So, so, so good and simple. Great flavors. This will be added to my tuna boat lunches!



And because of the debacle this morning/afternoon/whenever it was - I made true emergency bean burritos.

Bean Burritos - the fastest and easiest ever
1/2 sliced onion
1 clove garlic
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chile powder
Na++ and pepper
4 large whole wheat tortillas
1 can fat free refried beans
1 cup shredded low-fat cheese
Salsa

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a pan with some cooking spray and add onion and garlic. Saute for a few minutes and add frozen veggies. Add cilantro once the veggies are thawed. Add spices. Done.

Put 1/4 can refried beans on the middle of each tortilla. Top with 1/4 cup cheese. Top with veggies. Roll up. Bake for 15 minutes at 350. Garnish with salsa. So fast, so easy, so good.



Now I really need to get to work!

Egg-y breakfast

Today I am refining my talk for my final post doc interview. I'm being flown up north to a very prominent university tomorrow. I am so nervous! I leave tomorrow afternoon and get in really late - in fact the guy who booked my flight gave me a 5 hour layover in Atlanta (one of my least favorite airports). Hopefully I can get an earlier flight out of there, because I will be in a BIG city and don't really want to be arriving at my hotel at midnight.

Thursday I meet with the department in the AM, have lunch with a current post doc and accompany her on grand rounds - which is immediately followed by an hour long talk by yours truly about my work. That is the only thing that's really making me nervous- I'm a pretty good public speaker, and I've spoken in front of all types of people, but never for an interview! Ah. After my talk I spend the rest of the day meeting with the lab staff I would be working with, so hopefully it all pans out and we know for certain where we are living next year.

Today I plan on spazzing out over my talk all day - reading old papers of my potential mentor - and getting a new outfit later on. To fuel up I started with a simple egg white burrito on a low carb whole wheat tortilla. I love these with salsa verde, a la the Fitnessista. Accompanied by a smoothie of a small banana, 1/2 cup frozen strawberries, 1 cup spinach and 1 cup unsweetened almond milk.



Now to perfect this talk!

My Morning Smoothie (5?)

I've become a creature of habit in the morning recently. This I guess is a good thing, since I function much more effectively with structure. When I used to work with rats in my research, my schedule was so simple. 6am- gym. 8am - class. 10am - rats. 12pm- home to walk to the Dylan. 5pm- home! 6pm - long walk with Dylan. 7pm- make dinner, lunches, clean house. 8-10pm study. 10pm- bed.

Now I work with humans, who have jobs, and want to come in according to their schedule. Yesterday I worked 9:00am-8:00pm and had an off workout day. Today I'm working 10:00-6:00 and sneaking in a lunchtime workout. Everyday I have to evaluate my schedule and determine what I can get accomplished, if I can workout, make dinner, walk dog, etc. For a type-A personality like me it took some getting used to - and I get off track easily. But now that it's push-to graduation time, I need to get very regimented. My study ends next month and I will have NO obligations aside from writing - meaning I will be free to make a schedule conducive to me - hooray!

Starting with my morning routine (which no longer involves 6am spinning class, though it probably should. Everyday.) a smoothie and coffee.
My Morning Smoothie:
1/3 cup silken tofu
1 Tbsp stevia in the raw
1 tsp vanilla
1 handful spinach
1/2 frozen banana
1/4 cup unsweetened, frozen blueberries
1/2 cup almond milk
sprinkle cinnamon

Just mix and serve. I've been having this variation now every day for almost a month. It is good.

Coconut-Hoisin Stir Fry

I was sitting at lab today, thinking of all the wonderful dinners I could make when I got home. I saw THIS POST on Vegan Dad after searching for a bok choy recipe. I had my heart set on tofu - and I didn't have any garbanzo beans, so I decided to meld these two recipes into an amalgamation of goodness. I threw in everything I could think of - and it was FANTASTIC.

Coconut-Hoisin Stir Fry
Tofu:
1 package extra-firm tofu
1 Tbsp soy sauce

Stir-Fry
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 clove elephant garlic (or two regular garlic cloves)
1 bunch asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 zucchini - sliced
3 bunches baby bok choy
1 package cremini mushrooms
1 bunch scallions, sliced on diagonal
1 can full fat coconut milk (with cream removed from top of can to make one of these smoothies)
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp soy sauce
1/3 cup hoisin sauce
Na++ and pepper
Sriracha if you are AWESOME like me

Tofu: cover a baking sheet with tin foil. Press tofu by wrapping in a clean cloth and squeezing it against a cutting board. Slice tofu into cute little squares and toss in soy sauce. Bake for about 20 minutes at 350.

Stir fry: Heat oils in wok, add ginger and garlic, and stir until they actually smell like ginger and garlic. Add the vegetables in descending order - asparagus, zucchini, bok choy... not the scallions yet- hold on! Give each a little time to soften before you add the next. Now add your coconut milk, curry, soy sauce, hoisin, and Na++ and pepper if you desire.

Add the tofu when it is nice and firm from the oven. Stir, plate.... now add the scallions! Heap on some sriracha if you dare.

Back from vacation

I love vacation, even if it is for a few days. School is overwhelming as usual, but one thing I know I am god at is checking out when I am not there. Early in my school career, vacations generally created more stress than they were worth.

Well, no longer to I experience an existential crisis - though I did spend a good chunk of my time up north talking to old colleagues, meeting with old advisors and collaborators and trying to find a path for my future. Mainly, I ate and drank a lot. Now I am back home, a few pounds heavier and worn down to the point of exhaustion. I even received the gift of bronchitis for Xmas. Hooray!

The places my parents like to go are generally meat heavy, so when you do get a vegetarian dish it is either fried or covered in cream sauce. I try to stick to ethnic places because I know I can get something good. One of the meals I had while I was up was absolutely delicious, and seemingly healthy. Tofu hash with black beans, sweet potatoes and caramelized onions. Topped with a chunk of vegan cornbread and a mimosa = heaven at brunch.



I'm trying to get my health back on track with a week full of healthy meals, beginning each day with a green smoothie to help ward off this awful sickness. Let's hope it helps!

My morning smoothie:
1 bunch spinach
1/2 frozen banana
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1/3 cup silken tofu
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 packet splenda
water as needed

Post-Workout Smoothie

Check it out in my cute, little magic bullet mug!

This was so delicious and thick.

3oz. silken tofu
1/2 frozen banana
1 heaping Tbsp freshly ground peanut butter
1 Tbsp dark cocoa powder
2 packets splenda (I am always using packets because I steal them from work)
2 Tbsp coconut creamer
water to thin


Blend and you're done. It tasted like a thick chocolate milkshake for barely any calories! :-D

My morning Smoothie

1/2 frozen banana, frozen strawberries, baby spinach, almond milk, greek yogurt, splenda.


Yes- I have started introducing some dairy back into my diet. I feel like I am missing out on a lot of protein.

I also haven't been cooking much lately- my mother and aunt were in town, and work has been annoying.... and the evening classes at the gym are shortening my days further. I'm going to try to move back to my crazy 6:00 am workout schedule. The husband is up then anyway- and then I get to come home at 5. Which is always welcome.

When I do cook, I've been repeating recipes. Grilled eggplant-olive pizza, jamaican rice and beans, taquitos... I've just been boring. However, I did have bookclub last night - we read Eat, Pray, Love. I'm not sure how much I am enjoying it - especially since I'm not very spiritual. But- the first part is about this woman's trip to Italy to gorge herself on food and wine. It's a good part. I hosted last night and put together a quick Italian spread (of course I took no pictures!) Pistachio gelato, Italian cookies, antipasto (grilled eggplant, mozzarella, cocktail onions, sun-dried tomato tapenade), tortellini with pesto and a baguette with carmelized fig and onion spread. Everyone was blown away- and in reality it took me 20 minutes to throw it all together!

My Morning Smoothie 2

Frozen strawberries (they were buy 1 get 2 free all this week, so I bought 6 and chopped and froze them all), 1/2 banana, 1/2 mango, hemp seeds, coconut yogurt, orange juice, cinnamon and splenda.

*** since I do not eat meat (no, not even fish) - I have to derive my omega 3's from other sources. Hemp seeds are a great source.

My Morning Smoothie

Frozen banana, blueberries, almond milk, coconut yogurt, vanilla extract, cinnamon, kale and hemp seeds. :-)

Swimming!

I like swimming. I started swimming competitively back when I was 8! I swam club, summer team and Varsity. By the time I was ready for college - I couldn't wait to be done with competitive swimming. I got some letters from nearby colleges- but my thoughts at that time were that you either went to college to play a sport- or went for academics. That being said, I bypassed all offers and stopped swimming. Throughout the years, I life-guarded at local pools and kept up my swimming to the required 20 laps per shift. Recently, I decided to get back into swimming - and joined the local Master's swim team . We practiced at 6:00 am, but I LOVED IT! I loved being back on a team, completing workouts, and seeing myself improve as an athlete! I was recovering from a overuse injury I developed from running, and poured all of the energy I was using to tri-sport train into swimming.

I was training for my first meet in almost ten years, when I felt a pain under my arm pit when I swam. The pain got worse and worse, until I could no longer take a stroke. I took a break, came back two days later, to find that I couldn't do a single forward pull. I went to the doctor, and he almost laughed as he told me I had a stress fracture. Who even knew you could get them from swimming? I had an X-Ray, and even though stress fractures rarely show up on film - there they were, clear as day. One on my first rib, second rib, and a nice one way down on the 8th - near my sternum. Apparently I upped my yardage too quickly, and the pulling of the muscles caused tiny cracks in the attachment points on the bone to form.

They told me it would take 6 weeks to heal, but at my follow-up, no improvement was to be seen. I was given cortisone injections into my arm pit and sternum, which felt pretty awesome. A bone scan 2 months later showed a new one forming. They had told me cycling was still safe, so I was doing that. I guess the position I hold myself in over my handle bars was putting even more stress on the fractures- causing them to worsen instead of heal.

I was allowed to do exercise that wouldn't engage my upper body - I couldn't even do the elliptical machine because you have to steady yourself as you do it. Soon, 6 months had gone by and the only exercise I was allowed to do was the recumbent bike. I went back for a check up and had a new diagnosis! Chondromalacia Patella! All the stupid recumbent cycling had fired up my cartilage problems in my knee. So - I got an injection right into the space below my kneecap- which was also a dream. So, needless to say - the last year has been hard on my body. Add to that my second dissertation experiment that I finished in 5 months (requiring many, many 12+ hour days) and it's safe to say I am not in great shape. I did yoga (bikram and ashtanga) - trying to get my body to heal on its own, which feels great, but doesn't provide the same cardio benefits of a 20 mile bike ride followed by a 3 mile run, or a 3500 meter swim at 6:00am. So- I'm feeling better and getting back into it. Starting with swimming.

People tell me swimming is boring, and I agree - if you are just swimming laps, alone. I get bored myself, it's like running - but without the iPod. However, workouts break up the monotony of simply counting laps. I completed my first workout yesterday - which was hard, not going to lie. I could not hold the pace as well as I would have hoped - but I got it done. I had a great post-workout smoothie yesterday also. About 1 cup chocolate soy milk, 1 banana, 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, and some coffee ice cubes - all whirred in the blender for a minute or two. I poured it into two glasses to share with Dave - since I am a nice wife.


I've been cycling also, but not so much because of the tragedies in the news lately. Some drivers down here are very aggressive and angry at cyclists. Dave and I had a guy rev his engine at us when we were ahead of him in the turning lane, and he proceeded to cut us off, almost flinging Dave from his bike. I've been yelled at countless times, and they love to pretend like they're going to hit you, by swerving into you, hoping you'll fall off.

But anyway - if you are wondering what I am doing these days- it's trying to get back into shape and FINALLY complete in a triathlon before I die.