Feeding Frenzy

Hello all!  I hope your Monday was lovely.  Mine was busy sun up to sun down and the day flew by!  We had a little cold front come through and it cooled things down quite a bit outside. Inside, my body must have gotten some hibernate, bulk up, message from the universe because I have been eating all the live long day long!  

I sent my sister and brother a text at 11:30 this morning that said something along the lines of...

URGENT ALERT...SEND HELP....eating like I am preparing for a three month hibernation. First breakfast at 7:30 a.m. was a breakfast taco...second breakfast was a piece of sourdough toast with strawberry jam...early lunch was a left over bowl of soup.  It is only 11:30 and I am already thinking about  dinner! 

So, whatever was in the atmosphere or the good ol' menopause hormone tank was a real zinger today. Appetite was in rare form and would not be denied. I did manage to get my plant list for the week off to a great start! 

To start things off, the aforementioned breakfast taco was a thing of beauty!  It had sweet potato, onion, red bell pepper, jalapeño, mushrooms, spinach and cilantro.  A seven plant breakfast. Yum! 

I think part of my feeding frenzy today was because I was looking forward to having the leftover soup I made last night for lunch today. Could not wait to get to lunch!  I should have just had the soup for breakfast and called it a day! 

I think I have posted about this soup before, but if not, it was called Coconut Curry Noodles from the Healthy Haff website.  I modified the recipe just a little to add some garlic chili sauce because I like things spicy.  This soup is so delicious and I was in heaven last night eating it!  In fact, I was so enjoying it that I slurped up a single noodle off my spoon and some of the soup broth flew into my eye!  My eye was on fire!  How does that even happen?  It wasn't like I was slurping like a six year old boy!  It just did something weird between the spoon and my mouth and my eye being on fire.  

Here is a picture of the ingredients for the soup and the finished product.  I added coconut, garlic, green onion, lime to the plant list.

If you like warm, flavorful, delicious soups, please make this one. You might want to consider wearing safety goggles when you eat. But so worth it. So good! 

I also ate a few walnuts and a clementine.  Could not stop!

Look at this beautiful array of veggies prepped for my dinner. I made spring rolls and they were exceptional. I could eat these every day.  I just winged the recipe, but here is the basic idea. I drained, pressed and sliced some extra firm tofu. Did a real quick marinade for the tofu of soy sauce, sirracha and red pepper flakes. Baked it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 25ish minutes. Then I sliced up cucumber, red bell pepper, spinach, carrots, purple cabbage, cilantro and green onion.  To assemble, I soaked the rice paper wrapper in warm water for about 30 seconds, blotted it gently with a paper towel.  I layered the tofu and all the veggies on top of the rice paper, sprinkled it with sesame seeds and rolled it up like an egg roll. The dipping sauce was spicy chili sauce with some vinegar, honey and a little squeeze of lime. It was spicy! 

Thoroughly enjoyed this dinner....but could have eaten five easy!  Crazy!  Let's hope today was just a one off and I will be back to normal tomorrow - or seriously - send help, or bigger pants. 

Hope you have a terrific week and cram in tons of plants! 

Let's Catch Up!

Y'all!  It has been a week!  Work has been intense and busy.  So much so, that at the end of the day I don't want to look at a computer or think about writing a blog post. And also, I have been less and less creative in food selections as the week has moved on! Lawnmower eggs have been on repeat along with a ton of peanut butter and crackers. Not great choices, but WE CAN'T DO EVERYTHING!  

Nevertheless, I will manage to get in my 40 plants this week and I did make a couple of new things that I think are worth sharing with you. That is enough.

Before we get to the food, I have to recount this story from yesterday because I am still cracking up this morning just thinking about it.  

Yesterday, I got up early and walked with Martha. It is one of my favorite things and as a BONUS, our walk wasn't kicked off with a dog vs opossum standoff! We had a great walk and I came home and got straight to work. So, no shower and I am knocking around the house in my leggings and a t-shirt. I am wearing my "Do More of What you Love" t-shirt that many of you are familiar with because I wear it all the time.  Now, I wouldn't normally share my terrible hygiene practices, but it is important for this story.  

Friday morning was busy - I had four zoom calls and deadlines and emails to answer and oh my. Chip was also participating in the Texas Tech Red Raider Orientation online that started at 8:00 a.m. sharp. I was popping back and forth from my office to the kitchen where Chip was watching videos and listening in on zoom calls of his own. About a half hour into the orientation session, Chip realizes he has some holds on his account that will have to be cleared in order for him to register for classes at 11:00.  

We leapt into action. A call was made to the doctor's office for a copy of his shot record. Thank goodness the doctor's office is less than a minute from our house and he was able to retrieve the records in less than five minutes. I was scanning the files to be able to send them in an email. Chip was emailing his high school counselor for a final high school transcript to be sent to Tech as soon as humanely possible. Now mind you, I feel certain both of these particular documents were already provided to Tech when Chip was registering to go over the summer. However, no time to figure that out. We will resend all the documents.  Chip was emailing housing and advisors and tempers were just barely being contained as he tried his best to get it all done in time.  

I was back in my office on another call, just hoping that things were progressing in the kitchen. About 10:15, Chip comes into my office beating his chest and high stepping like Lebron James himself after hitting a game winning shot. He was pumped! All four holds were cleared! Hallelujah!  

Anyway, it was a high stress morning and we were both running a little high strung. I came into the kitchen after my call and Chip put a big celebratory hug on me. He holds me out at arms length, looks down at me and says "Aww mama, are you at the age now where you always look like you are ready to paint?"

Bahahahahahaha!  I fell out. I snort laughed. It cracked me up!  

A quick glance at my reflection in the microwave, I looked like a mad scientist, my hair was CRAZY from the sweating and humidity of the walk! I had spilled coffee on my shirt and looked a mess!  It did look exactly like I was wearing painting clothes.  

Funny kid! 

Let's move on to the few plant things I made this week that were new. The first is a little vegan empanada hot pocket situation I have had in my freezer for a long time. I think it came from HEB, but maybe Sprouts. Not sure. I popped it in the oven for a quick, no effort lunch and it was good! I will be buying more of these if I can figure out where to buy them! 

I also made a little ambrosia yogurt parfait that was pretty yummy. Sliced up a fresh orange and put in some unsweetened coconut and pecans and layered it with plain coconut yogurt. Topped it with some crunchy granola from Trader Joes. It was refreshing. I was a fan.

I whipped up a quick batch of my favorite vegan pancakes from Tasty. I sliced up a banana and put some in the batter when the pancakes were cooking in the skillet and the pancakes got a little caramelized on the bottom. Topped them with more sliced bananas and some toasted walnuts, cinnamon and maple syrup. Tasted like banana bread. 

I woke up this morning and needed one more plant to hit 40 for the week. I reviewed my list to see what I had already eaten, then scanned the fridge and pantry to see what I had that could be #40.  I landed on a can of Chick Peas that I could roast for a football watching snack. I drained them, rinsed them, spread them out on a towel to dry. Put them on a parchment lined cookie sheet, sprayed them with a little olive oil and sprinkled on garlic salt, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper and salt. Roasted them at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes. They are crunchy and spicy and I will gobble these up with no problem. 

So that is the catch up from the week for me! Are you guys making anything new? What are you eating for Thanksgiving. I am planning a pretty simple Thanksgiving meal for me and the boys. All their favorites and a couple good veggie sides. 

I have a very short list of chores to do this weekend and I may or may not do them. Ha! Weekends are for relaxing. We can't work hard all week and work hard all weekend. Need some down time. Hope you find some peace this weekend to regroup for the holiday week ahead!