Catching Up

This is an old meal, but I really wanted to share it.  Not to mention the fact that I haven't really been taking any pictures, so I have nothing else to share.  

When I finished my cleanse a few weeks ago, I asked for suggestions:  tofu, tofu salad, BBQ tofu.  Miss Shelby suggested BBQ tofu salad.  When I think of that, I usually think of BBQ tofu in a salad (like, with lettuce), but I'm not a big lettuce salad person.  What I do love, however, is a mock "chicken" salad, so BBQ tofu salad it was.  

It started with the BBQ tofu, and while it would have been nice to cook it on the BBQ, it was just marinated for about 2 hours and baked at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes. 

 The BBQ sauce was "homemade", kind of.  I mean, it didn't come from a bottle, but it was super crazy easy because I am almost always in a rush now.  It was 1/3 ketchup, 1/3 soy sauce, 1/3 agave nectar.  Ta-freaking-da.  Seriously, its really easy, and its not the *best* BBQ sauce in the world, but for the amount of time it takes, its awesome.  

I let it cool in the fridge, overnight, before using it in the salad.  

Its pretty easy.  You can probably come up with it yourself, but this is my version.  

About 5.5oz tofu (two of the blocks I made above)

Vegenaise

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1/4 cup chopped celery

1 minced clove garlic

1/4 cup cabbage strips

salt & pepper to taste, if you want

That's it.  Easy easy, and SO good.  Actually, I kind of wish I had some right now.    

This would be equally as good in a sandwich, I'm just not really a big bread person.  It just doesn't do anything for me.  So if possible, I don't eat it.  I've been on the run a lot lately, so I've been having wraps and sandwiches more, and I don't like it.

In other news, I received some pomegranate juice from the wonderful people at POM wonderful a few weeks ago.  

I only drank one straight, and its such good stuff.  Really tart, but sweet.  Careful though, it stains (my brother stained a shirt, but then, you aren't going to spill yours everywhere, are you?)

I had intentions to do all kinds of fun stuff with this.  Then after a few days, I had intentions to do at least one fun thing with it.  Then...it was gone.  It actually all went into some variation of this:

Yes, I've finally jumped on the smoothie bandwagon, and its all thanks to POM.  I believe this particular one was made with a banana, a mango, and pomegranate juice (topped with some pomegranate seeds, of course).  

Since then, I've actually jumped on the green smoothie bandwagon, which is sometimes cool, when its actually green, but today, when it is kind of brown (cherries, bananas, coconut milk, spinach), its not as fun.  But I have been having a smoothie every day for breakfast, and I love it.  I've also been in love with scones, but that is a story for another day.  Actually, if anyone knows of some awesome scone recipes, pass them on!  

So, that's all the food for today.  Sad, right?  I'm gone for three weeks and that's all I've got.  There has been so much going on.  My husband did, indeed, come home about 3 weeks ago now.  Its been kind of hard, because I'm at student teaching all day, then I have class at night, and I have to plan lessons and write my thesis.  Plus, interviews here and there, job fairs, which are in Maryland, so a lot of driving (I have spent over 50 hours in the car since he came home).  I know that you all don't need an explanation, I'm just like....Ack.   

Right now, he is working somewhere in NJ.  What's kind of...um...strange, is that I am not at all looking for a job in that area.  I have interviews mainly up here, in NY, and in Baltimore County.  So, that's interesting.  He's staying down there for the time being, and I'm going to be going down there today, and when school is over, I'll stay with him until I find something.  Then we have decisions to make.  

Speaking of student teaching, I only have a week left!  Its crazy, really.  My new cooperating teaching isn't the same as the guy I was with at the High School, but I still LOVE the kids here.  I can't believe its almost over.  I'm going to spend a few days with my old mentor teacher and the High School kids when I'm done at the Middle School, until grad school is over.  He would just sign off on them all, but what else am I going to do for those three days??  

So, things have been kind of crazy, but I have been planning out all my food pretty well, which is excellent.  For the time being, don't expect any nutrition information, it takes awhile to do it.  If I get the chance to come back and add it in, I will.  

I'm still not sure how regularly I'll be posting, although I'll be bored as anything after May 15th, so you can probably expect to be hearing too much from me around then!

Cleanse Favorites

Spring Break is almost over.  Sad, because I had a ton of stuff to do and I didn't really do any of it.  I did relax though, and I do feel a lot better, and I did finish Breaking Dawn (in less than 3 days, pathetic).  I really liked it.  My mom came in and asked me if it was as weird as she had heard.  Seriously?  Its a book about vampires, it wasn't any weirder than I expected.  I know there was a lot of fuss about it, and that a lot of people didn't like it, and I can't see why, except that they were upset it was over!  Joanna and one of my students both told me I would like it though, so I'm glad I got around to reading it.    

The cleanse is almost over too.  It has gone really well, but I think what I got out of it the most was how much planning the week helped.  So I sat down and planned out all of next week.  This doesn't really make for exciting blogging, but I am going to be so ridiculously busy this week that it would have been either this, or go back to eating like crap.  I chose planning.  

Why is my week going to be so busy?  Glad you asked.  First, my husband is coming home on Monday.  Not like, he's coming to visit, he is coming HOME.  Here.  Done with active duty Army.  Finished.  Holy crap.  So after school on Monday I go to pick him up (2 hour drive from school).  Oh right, school.  I take over all the Physical Science classes on Monday, doing a Biology review for their state exam (I hate Biology).  Tuesday I'm being observed by my clinical supervisor.  Wednesday I have a meeting right after school with one of my professors about my research project.  I have started said research project, even have the data, but still have not compiled it, which is what she is looking for.  Thursday I have my Capstone Project due for my student teaching, which I have actually started, but still have a ton of work to do on it.  Friday might be okay, except I'm jumping in the car after school and driving down to Baltimore to spend the weekend with my husband and my inlaws.  My dad has business in Baltimore next week, so he is going to drive my husband down with him on Wednesday, because, as you can see, I don't really have time for him (that's terrible, right?).  Whew.  

After this week, things should calm down a little bit.  Its really almost at the end.  I'm almost done student teaching, I'm almost done with grad school, I get to move out (again) soon.  Its all good, I just need to get through this week.  Good thing I planned my meals.  

Okay, so wrapping up my food during this cleanse, I want to share two things.  First, another dish was was originally raw that I de-rawified.  This Cauliflower Curry was on GoneRaw, and sounded awesome.  A curry sauce made with avocado, coconut, flax, etc.  Lots of healthy fats.  The problem?  The idea of raw cauliflower seemed icky.  I know they don't taste the same, but when I think of cauliflower, I think of broccoli, and I hate raw broccoli.  So....I cooked it!  

So this is steamed fresh cauliflower and steamed frozen peas, with a raw curry sauce.  This was really good, nice and spicy but not overwhelming, and I highly recommend it.  I did only put in half the cayenne, and then added about 1 tbsp of agave nectar because something was a little off at first (I think it was too much tumeric).  This was easily my most favorite meal I made this week.

Of course, I had a favorite dessert too.  Technically, um, I wasn't supposed to "snack", but I did anyway.  

This Melon-Berry Sorbet was so easy.  So very easy.  It is a bag of a frozen, organic, melon-berry blend (canteloupe, honeydew, pineapple, and blackberries).  I took out the blackberries, and mixed the melon and pineapple in the food processor with a tbsp of liquid coconut oil and some water until it was pretty smooth.  Then I added the blackberries and pulsed until they were slightly broken up.  Yum.  This made a lot.  You could easily have it be two servings.  In fact, I made it to be two servings, but I ate them both.

I hope that everyone enjoys the rest of the holidays, whatever it is that you're celebrating.  We have Easter Saturday  today at my grandmother's (we thought this was an Italian thing until about two years ago...turns out she made it up!), and Easter Sunday at my aunt's tomorrow.  Easter is my favorite holiday.  Spring is also my favorite season, I was always that loser in school who didn't say summer was her favorite season.  Anyway, I love that its starting to get warm, and I love all the cute things:  bunnies, chicks, all baby animals, etc.  What I like the most though, is that it is such a low-key holiday.  There's no pressure, there's no fuss.  Its just relaxing.  

Nice way to end my Spring Break, right?  

Spring Swing

I want to say that I'm getting back into the swing of things, but I'm just not.  Honestly I could really use a Spring Break.  Don't you miss those days, when everyone got a week off when the weather got nice, and just got to relax?  Oh wait...I get one of those.  And its this week.  THANK GOD.  

I don't think its going to be a very exciting week.  I had plans of seeing friends and whatnot, until I realized that all of my friends are working.  As it is, I have a lot of stuff to do...like my taxes and planning for the week we get back.  Other than that, I'm going to do a lot of yoga and try to stabilize my diet.  

Speaking of food, this week started with veggies.       

Veggies are good and all, but what makes this is the nutritional yeast sauce.  Its nice and cheesy and really really simple:  1 cup nutritional yeast, 2 cups soymilk, 1/4 cup spelt flour, 2 tbsp tamari, and as much cayenne as you like.  You start by toasted the flour and nutritional yeast over low heat, then slowly add the soymilk, stirring until smooth and creamy.

I had it on top of some squash, and some sun dried tomatoes on top of that.  Simple, fast, just the kind of thing I needed.  

Serves 4

Nutritional Information:  198.7 Calories;  4.1g Total Fat;  0.9g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  23.2g Carbohydrates;  10.7g Fiber;  22.6g Protein  

Anyway, yes, I'm alive.  In fact, my birthday was on Monday, so I'm another year alive (25, if you were wondering).  Thanks to those of you who have checked up on me.  

A picture of me and Zoe as proof:

I apologize for being away for so long, and for my last post being so personal.  I know none of you minded, but I still don't really want this blog to go in that direction, so I deleted that post.  At the same time though, I really want to thank so many of you for the comments and words of encouragement, I really appreciated it.

I have been at my second placement for a little over a week now, and its going okay.  I do love the kids already, but I'm not a fan of the material or the teacher I am working with.  She's alright but we just don't click.  It makes things a little boring.  

Also, I should apologize for not even keeping up with your blogs.  I feel badly about it, but to be honest, I haven't really been doing much of anything that I like lately.  When I took the pot out to cook last night I couldn't even remember the last time I had used a pot (sad, right?).  Hopefully this week will set things back on the right track.    

Three Loves and a Hate

Its small and unassuming.  It sits at the bottom of the bulk bins, hiding between the brightly colored split peas and my most favorite carob raisins.  Its become super popular amongst many of my fellow bloggers over the past few weeks.  Yes, I'm talking about oat bran.  I was extremely wary.  To me, it looked like Cream of Wheat, which I tried once, in high school, and spit it out because the texture freaked me out so much.  Now, I don't know if oat bran is really different, or if I have just evolved, but I finally bought some last week, and I had a little love affair with it this weekend.  

No special recipe, its pretty easy to figure out.  This is 1/2 cup oat bran, cooked in 1 cup soymlk (stovetop), then thrown into the food processor with 1/2 cup of strawberries and 1/4 cup water.  Threw on a container of plain Wholesoy & Co yogurt, topped it with some strawberries and a spoon of my soynut butter, and breakfast was deliciously served.  I wish I had time to eat this every day.  I can't believe how filling just 1/2 cup of this stuff is.  If you are wondering about the little grain, you should check out Heather's posts (info and calories) on it; they're completely informative and it'd be overkill for me to repost it here when she already has done such a good job.    

If you are wondering what my bran is sitting on top of, my first student teaching placement ended on Friday.  My 8th period class went all out, baked a cake, brought another cake, and made a giant card that they all signed.  It was *so* sweet.  They had a little party for me at lunch too, my mentor teacher is good friends with all the secretaries and I go "eat" with them every day (I don't eat then, they do, but I sit there).  They brought me a whole bag full of stuff from the school, as well as some lottery tickets...one of which was fake and I TOTALLY fell for it, haha. One of the women also brought a disposable camera (they still make those?), and she is going to send me the pictures of me with the kids and whatnot, but this is what I have in the meantime.   

I really loved this placement so much.  They are such a great bunch of kids, especially this class.  It is over 50% special ed, so they are so much more attentive than my other classes.  If that sounds weird, I should mention that my other classes are all Non-Regents Chemistry classes.  If you aren't from New York, that means, these are the kids who are taking the Chemistry class that doesn't require a state exam.  Stereotypically, these are some of the least motivated kids in the school.  Obviously that isn't true of all of them, but...stereotypes exist for a reason.  Almost all the kids are just good kids though.    

Anyway, I've mentioned quite a few times over the past few weeks that I haven't been posting because life has handed me a few balloons of stress.  First, the job interview, which went well, but they still haven't called.  They said they would call this week, and if they don't, I'll call them, but I have a feeling I know why they didn't.  I'm not technically certified yet; I would have to get a job first in order to get an internship certification.  Secondly, this placement that "ended"?  Yeah, I'm still there.  I'm supposed to be at a Middle School now, but my school (college, not where I'm student teaching) seriously f*ed up.  The really obnoxious part is that they won't admit it, and are blaming it on the district where I am student teaching.  I talked to the secretary to the head of the School of Ed yesterday, and she fed me SO many excuses.  I am apparently an idiot because I don't realize how much "paperwork" there is, and they don't usually work with this district because I live *so* far away, and they just can't put me with anyone who agrees, because there is so much that has to be done, and poor little me just doesn't know enough about how schools work to comprehend this.  After talking to her, I texted my mentor teacher, and he said:  "Wow, you got a lot more high maintenance since January....all the "paperwork" I had to do was answer "yes" in an email".  Not that I didn't already know they were feeding me bullshit, but I'm still kind of furious with them.  I mean...I'm paying for this.  I'm supposed to be with another teacher now.  I'm still with this guy.  Don't get me wrong, I love love love him, I adore the students, I would absolutely love to stay with him...but because I'm supposed to be moving, I haven't been doing anything all week, just waiting.   So, after I bitched out my grad school yesterday, and talked to the assistant principal today, all the science teachers in the district got an email (my mentor teacher showed it to me), asking if any Chemistry or 8th grade teachers would take a student teacher.  Seriously, this crap should have been figured out weeks ago.  So my mentor teacher (who again, is really fabulous) decided that it was time he just took control of things, and told them that if they were okay with it, I could just stay with him, and do some work with the Regents teacher next door.  

That is the word as of right now, they haven't gotten back to him yet.  I felt like such a tease coming back yesterday after these kids threw me a party.  Not that they haven't all been really happy to see me, but I just felt like an idiot.  On the bright side, I may get to stay with them for another 7-ish weeks, and they're finally going to have a test on the stuff I taught them, and I do want to see how they'll do.  

I guess that might not really sound like a lot to be stressed about, but I was really upset about leaving, felt an idiot coming back, and that coupled with getting called back about that job, with the added stress of having to find a job in general...its just been a little overwhelming, and my diet has seriously suffered.  Let's just say that my "fat" pants officially fit me today.  The sad thing is, I've still been going to the gym every day, I've just been eating way too much peanut butter.  I know, I said I was going to stop buying it, and I have, but now I just reach for the crap my mom buys (Skippy, I know, it barely even tastes good).  I tried the Better n' PB, and that stuff is nasty.  Sorry, I know some of you like it, but I can't even force it down with melted carob chips.  Anyway, maybe by confessing that I'll be able to back off.  We'll see.  I haven't weighed this much since I was in college, its kind of depressing.  I know "its not about the number on the scale", but again...the fat pants fit.  On the bright side of THAT, it gives me another wardrobe option.   

If you decided to read that, thank you for updating yourself on my life, it was really nice of you :)  I'm trying to plan out the rest of this week's diet very meticulously, I have an easier time sticking to things that way.  Hopefully it'll also make me cook more and I'll have some more to post about.   

If you missed it...

3 Loves:  mentor teacher, students, oat bran

1 Hate:  my college

Love to all of you too!