Stocked

Since I have a sinking feeling this week will be just as busy as last week, I wanted to plan and prepare some of my food in advance.  I got started shortly after dragging myself out of bed around 8:45 this morning.  

First step was coffee, then I started hard boiling some eggs.  I have really been enjoying these lately and ate one for breakfast.

While eggs took their hot bath, I chopped up veggies for roasting.  They filled the silver bowl to overflowing, and I tossed them with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, S & P before roasting on a cookie sheet at 400*F for 30 minutes.

Eggs were removed from boiling water, given an icy bath, labeled and put back in the fridge for use sometime this week.

I re-used the egg water to boil lasagna noodles.  The pot may have been a little small, but since the pasta would cook again in the oven, I wasn't too worried

Pause here for 10 AM Insanity.  Look how committed we are---5th day in a row!!  Today was "Pure Cardio," and it was nice to the see the people in video wimping out almost as quickly as we did.

Post workout, I guzzled some chocolate milk.  I've been told it's an excellent post-work out recovery drink, with carbohydrates, protein, and calcium.  A quick Google search confirmed this, as well as my suspicion that the studies were funded by the National Dairy Council but I will use any excuse to consume more chocolate!  It may be working though, because I have not been as sore as I thought I would be following the switch to Insanity.

While I still had energy, I constructed my lasagna.  I followed my mom's general recipe, which is less of a recipe and more layering instructions, but is nonetheless responsible for the creation of my favorite lasagna on the planet.

Sauce, noodles, cottage cheese, spinach...

...noodles, sauce, cottage cheese, roasted veggies, shredded cheese and the last "soysage" from last week.

Finished off with more spinach, the last layer of noodles, sauce and parmesean.

Baked for a while at 400*F, which may have been a tad too warm.  The top turned out a bit crispy, but hopefully a week in the fridge will soften it up again.

Dinner for the week!  Plus I still have Thai Fried Quinoa leftovers and I made a double recipe of Mexican-style rice for dinner.  Rice plus roasted veggies, tuna, cottage cheese, guacamole and hot sauce = tasty fajita bowl in a jiffy.

Fridge is set for quick, easy dinners.

Now it's back to the homework.

Econ 101

Had Economics not been a required class in both high school and college, I might have forgotten even the basics.  But since I took it twice, a few concepts have actually stuck with me.  This week was all about opportunity cost.

As many of us are only too aware, there are only 24 hours in a day.  I like at least 7 of these hours to be spent sleeping, leaving me sufficiently rested for the other 17.  These 17 hours tend to fly by, filled up with class, work, getting to and from school, and other necessities like feeding & clothing myself.  As a grad student, homework also takes up a "healthy" chunk of time, especially this past week.  Now, let's add in a new workout plan, requiring roughly an hour everyday.

My housemates and I have been exercising together since I got back to Charlottesville in January.  We started with P90, and worked our way up from level 1-2 to 3-4.  We didn't do it everyday, but were pretty consistent.  Now, spurred on by a challenge with their male co-workers we have leaped forward to Insanity, which certainly lives up to its name.  It is very challenging and incorporates exercises that I have never done (or even imagined).  

We are only a few days in and there is a huge difference in how I feel after Insanity vs. P90.  P90 felt like exercise at the time--with a moderate endorphin release afterwards--that allowed me to get on with dinner/homework etc afterwards.  Insanity has an intense endorphin release period after, which is great if I keep busy.  But the second I stop, or even worse take a (much-needed) shower, I experience a huge crash and want to curl up in the fetal position until morning.  I am hoping this gets better as I become more used to the workouts, since it is not conducive to my usual evening activities (cooking dinner and homework.)

Exercising and eating healthfully are right up there with sleep as necessary parts of my daily routine.  However, with long days at school and extra homework this week, something had to give.  I didn't eat a freshly made dinner until Friday, instead relying on salads, leftovers and frozen ravioli.  

So I had high expectations for my meal last night.  A few weeks ago, I went to Whole Foods and picked up some red quinoa from the bulk bins and found this "reci-pea" for Thai Fried Quinoa that sounded like it had real promise.

After Insanity, I got out the ingredients and got started before I even stopped sweating.

Quinoa: I knew it was healthy, but geeze!  I guess I will be back to the bulk bins soon!

 

It's hard to tell in this picture, but the red quinoa turned the coconut milk/broth a lovely pink shade as it burbled away.

My mix-ins: shrimp, peas, garlic, ginger, and pineapple chunks.

After what seemed like forever, but was really about 30 minutes it was ready to eat.

I loved the pineapple and shrimp, but overall found the 2 T of soy sauce stirred in at the end too overpowering.  I will use much less when making this again.

I am anticipating another busy week ahead, followed by another and another until the 60 days of Insanity are up and/or the semester finishes in early May.  In an effort to be better prepared for the time crunch in the evenings, I am planning to spend some time this weekend stocking the freezer with more homemade "reheat and eat" options.  Stay tuned....

Veg Out

Overall, "winter" has been really mild this year.  The cold days I have complained about here have been intermingled with sunny ones with temperatures in the high 50's/low 60's.  My crock pot is collecting dust in the cabinet and my wool sweaters are languishing in their drawer.

But on Thursday, we had a grey, rainy day with temps in the 40's--soup weather!  With a bunch of vegetables, this one was good for the body and psyche.

I started with this Classic Minestrone Recipe, omitting the celery and adding some potato and soy sausage.

I put the carrots & potatoes in the microwave for a few minutes while I sauteed the onion, "soy-sage" and some garlic in the pan.  Perfectly timing my soups so that everything is cooked but not overdone is something I am working on.

I removed the "soy-sage" and onions and added the broth to the pot with the vegetables.  I boiled them for about 7 minutes and added the beans, tomatoes and pasta.  Just before the pasta was done, I added the zucchini and onion mixture and let the whole thing simmer for a few minutes while I toasted up some garlic bread.

YUM.  Good right away and better the next day for lunch after the flavors melded a bit.  I have several servings left, but I am out of bread!

Muffin Time!

There are only about a zillion things more appealing on a Saturday than school work.  Today's non-school related activities included sleeping in, Words with Friends (where Keizo beats me by saving all his good letters until I only have 3 U's and a T left!) a 90 minute yoga class, design competition reveal, and baking these muffins.

Chocolate Chip Coffee Muffins, found via Cait's Plate.

 

Horror of horrors, I didn't actually have any chocolate chips in the house.  So I used some white chocolate morsels and crushed up Oreos instead.

They baked up quite nicely.  I was expecting more of a sweet, dessert-y muffin, but these aren't very cake-like.   Oh well, still beats doing school work on a Saturday!

Short Stack

Pumpkin Berry Pancakes on a frigid Sunday morning.

Unlike AZ, spring in VA doesn't start in February :-(

Solitary Suppers

It's nice to go out to eat or coordinate meals with my housemates, but more often than not, for convenience and budget, I dine alone.

PROS: I cater to my taste buds and my taste buds alone!  I almost always have leftovers.  No one can see me lick the plate.

CONS: I have gotten into the bad habit of watching TV while eating.  No one to help with the dishes.  Frozen cheese ravioli topped with pesto and more cheese does not equal a well balanced meal.

But, freezer temptations aside, I think I have done pretty well for myself lately.

 Fish tacos with "Mexi-Slaw"

Yakisoba topped with fried egg

Roasted Brussel Sprout & Tofu Salad with Peanut Dressing

Japanese Curry Spaghetti

Tuna Enchiladas

Super Bowl Sunday

I woke up thinking I would be attending a Super Bowl Party, so immediately after breakfast I got to work on my contribution: the appropriately themed Chocolate Covered Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Footballs from the blog Peas and Thank You.

First I gathered my ingredients,

arranged Keizo in the oranges (conveniently located near an outlet for charging)

and got to mixing.  This recipe is easy to follow and create, but has a few steps which require some resting in between which is why I started early.

All of the dough ingredients combined, I pre-heated the oven and got to shaping my footballs.

 

After the balls had baked and cooled, I melted chocolate chips and 1 Tbsp of canola oil in the microwave.

Then I grabbed some chopsticks (a kitchen utensil I find almost as useful as scissors!) and began dipping.  At least the dough balls are now more of the right color!

I put the covered footballs back in the fridge until after lunch, when I piped chocolate laces onto them.  I think they would have looked better with white, but I used up the last of my powdered sugar in the dough and already had some chocolate frosting in the fridge to use up!

Alas, the headache and congestion I began experiencing on Thursday didn't dissipate after a few hours of being awake like it did on Friday and Saturday, so I decided not to attend the Super Bowl party. :-(  I did send most of the footballs along with my housemates.  The ones that got stuck here with me are rapidly diminishing in number, so I don't expect any of the others to make it back.

*****

Without a buffet of high calorie snacks to choose from, I was stuck making my own dinner.  I had already eaten leftovers for lunch, but I kept it simple again with a veggie burger, carrots & hummus and cup of instant potato soup.

Nachos, wings and chocolate covered footballs, this meal was not.  But neither do I have a stomachache to accompany the headache, and I consider that a VICTORY.