Conquering tofu

I conquered my fear of making tofu! I like tofu and have had it several times in restaurants. I just had a fear of pressing the water out of it properly and cooking it. With the help of Emily from The Daily Garnish, I was able to easily follow her directions and make my own yummy tofu for lunch. She has a How To: A Tofu Tutorial posted on her blog, but I was having trouble posting the exact link, so you can search her site if you are interested in her detailed instructions.

Pressing the tofu with heavy books.

I spiced it up with Penzey’s black pepper, Mural of Flavor and Old World seasonings.

I paired it with Green Giant valley fresh steamers veggies.

Dessert was a chocolate chip cookie, naturally.

Breakfast today was greek yogurt with chia seeds, honey and almonds.

Angie and I had fun at the gym this morning. We did 23 minutes on the elliptical & a full circuit of weights.

When I got home from the gym, I was hungry! I snacked on a few (well maybe it was more than a few) of these addictive “Food Should Taste Good” Sweet Potato tortilla chips. Through a Facebook promotion, I was able to get a coupon for a free bag via snail mail.

I ran a bunch of errands in the afternoon, but accomplished a lot, so that felt good. One of my biggest accomplishments was picking up three framed pictures from Target to put above our couch. Craig and I have been searching for something to replace a very 1970′s brown picture with (I detest this picture, as it’s just depressing in appearance and so 70′s). I saw these pictures at Target yesterday and took photos of them to show Craig. At last, we both agreed on a style of a picture we liked!

I brought them home and my sister-in-law was over at our house. She took one look at them and said they were very much our style. They kind of have an Indian style to them and we love all things India.

I also picked up a lot around the house, organized, etc. because that is one of my goals for the new year. I am generally a very clean person, but organization is sometimes a problem for me.

Time to work on writing my goals out a little more. I am taking my time, as I figure they didn’t need to be posted today and could wait until later this weekend.

Tomorrow, I am going to do my usual Sunday paper and CBS Sunday Morning thing, then go to Body Pump with Angie for the new release! Can’t wait to see what the new music is!

So long 2010

Happy last day of 2010! It’s been a good year and I am looking forward to what 2011 brings.

I have had a nice, relaxing day off from work so far.

I made a more elaborate breakfast, since I had the time and all.

I put together a breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, pinto beans, a little colby jack cheese, Frank’s Red Hot sauce and topped it with some sea salt & Penzey’s spices black pepper and mural of flavor.

I watched the Today show while eating breakfast and then got bored with that, so I read My Spiritual Journey.

I am about 70 pages in and I love it so far. His story is so interesting and his positive thoughts are inspirational. I read about 30 pages before bed last night and I kept telling Craig cool pieces of information. One of my favorite quotes so far was this, “…every new obstacle will be regarded as a good opportunity to improve our state of mind!” I definitely need to keep this quote in mind when I come across an obstacle.

I let my tummy settle from breakfast and then I headed to the Y. It was packed there. I completed 25 minutes on the elliptical while watching House Hunters international on HGTV. Then, I did the rowing machine for 6 minutes and almost lifted a full circuit of weights. It was so crowded that I couldn’t get on one last machine because there was a line. Oh well!

I recovered with a berry and banana smoothie with a scoop of soy flavorless protein powder.

Lunch was a yummy salad filled with spinach, baby carrots, Irish cheddar cheese chunks, tomatoes, red sweet peppers and broccoli. I topped it with Penzey’s Garden Salad and Trader Joe’s greek feta dressing.

I was still hungry, so I had a little bowl of Stonyfield Oikos plain non-fat greek yogurt with sliced almonds and honey.

Time to put some makeup on and run errands to Target & Kohl’s.

Have a good New Year’s eve everyone!

Lisa Pizza

I am turning into a pizza, hence my title of Lisa Pizza, which is also what my brother used to call me (besides mona Lisa). I have had pizza the last three days. Is that weird? At least I have had small quantities. Blame it on the free food, which occurred on Saturday night and tonight.

I also am slightly addicted to plain greek Oikos yogurt with sliced almonds and honey. No variety in my diet lately!

Breakfast today was Banana Nut Cheerios and coffee.

Snack was almond poppyseed bread and stollen with another coffee. I think winter is causing me to crave carbs.

Lunch was what else, leftover pizza from yesterday. The rest had a very orange theme and I didn’t realize it until I laid out my lunch for my photo: baby carrots, peach Chobani yogurt and clementines.

I couldn’t resist having this adorable snowman cookie for an afternoon snack. I went to a meeting at work and they had different holiday cookies out, so I grabbed Mr. Snowman.

I knew I would need a little snack before boot camp class later in the day.

My friend Angie and I tried a new Boot Camp class tonight. We met through Boot Camp class with the recreation department. I think we took about 4 consecutive boot camps together until we called it quits with the rec dept. classes last Monday. Since I belong to the YMCA and she will soon, we tried out the Bodyblast Boot Camp this evening. It was a great class and very similar to what we did in our other boot camp, except that we ran for 10 minutes straight, which I liked a lot. I missed running. I haven’t done it much since I sprained my right ankle this fall. The teacher was nice and also a former Blugold (my alma mater is the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and they have this weird, fake mascot, the Blugold). I’ll definitely go back to the Y boot camp. Too bad the nice teacher is leaving though and there will be a new one. I am sure he’ll be fine.

Post boot camp snack was a banana and NuttZo for protein.

Dinner was dare I say it, pizza. My husband got it free from work. Seriously, this is why I blog because I notice these strange eating habits of mine. When I was a kid, I did this with yogurt and other foods. My parents would always say, “aren’t you sick of that?!” but I would tell them when I got sick of a certain food.

I am not feeling so great tonight. I hope I am not coming down with a cold before the holidays. I keep getting the chills, have a headache and was coughing most of the day. Time to lay down on the couch under a blanket and rest.

TGIT

(I started writing this during lunch yesterday, so I will just leave the title and references to Thursday on here. TGIF now for the rest of the world!)

TGIT=Thank god it’s Thursday, which is what I will be saying for the next three weeks! I am looking forward to having the next three Fridays in a row off. Tomorrow, I want to get some more Christmas shopping done and also just relax a bit. I may or may not set the oven for an hour and clean as much as I can in the house.

For breakfast, I had a bowl of Oikos plain greek non-fat yogurt with honey and sliced almonds. I can’t get enough of almonds. Maybe that is a sign of a deficiency. I know that my magnesium levels are low. Maybe it’s the calcium in almonds that my body needs?

I had almond poppyseed bread again for a snack at work.

Lunch was what I had for dinner yesterday since it was easy to pack up leftovers and put them in the fridge to grab for lunch today! Love when I can do that! So it was brussel sprouts and two slices of pizza again. I had some Newman’s Own Organics chocolate creme cookies for dessert.

Dinner was a veggie masala TJ burger on an Arnold’s Thin. I had some sliced red peppers on the side.

Dessert was a pb dough ball.

Thursday night yoga class was exactly what I needed. I really need to do more yoga at the Y, as I love it. I just wish more of the classes worked with my schedule. A Sunday morning yoga would be perfect, but for now, they don’t offer it. My body felt very stiff tonight. Maybe it is all of the stress lately. My right side especially hurt during the many lunges and hip stretches. It hurt so good to stretch!

I wanted to post this yesterday, but stress got the better of me and I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30 and then went to bed at 10 something. My body just shuts down at the end of the week.

My second try at Zumba

Today was much happier than yesterday. I only cried once when my dad wrote me an e-mail that said he still is in the habit of turning on the light for Garfield at night.

I tried Zumba for the second time tonight. It was a good class again. I think I actually did worse this time trying to keep up with the steps. I didn’t have anyone in front of me directly who was coordinated that I could follow. Next time, I won’t be late and forced to go into the corner of the gym. While doing Zumba, I was thinking to myself, “this is my fun workout of the week.” Yoga is my calming workout, body pump is strengthening and challenging and so is boot camp. I spoke to an older lady next to me at one point and she said to me in her thick foreign accent, “I like this class. It is fun. I could be on the treadmill for an hour and time goes so slowly. With this, time goes by so quickly and it’s fun.” She must have read my mind. I agreed completely.

Breakfast was Kashi Autumn Wheat. I figure it’s “almost” winter (next week is when the season technically starts, even though it’s freezing cold where I live) and I should be eating up anything labeled autumn!

My morning snack was half of a sprite bottle and almond poppy seed bread baked by my mama. I only drink soda occasionally. Sometimes when my stomach is bugging me, I crave a sprite.

Lunch was a NuttZo and strawberry jelly sandwich on wheat, Oikos Stonyfield plain yogurt that I mixed with sliced almonds and local honey from Oconomowoc. I am on an almond kick lately. I also had some homemade Christmas cookies for dessert. One was a mint and chocolate kind my mom made for us and then my peanut butter dough balls.

Craig made yummy Trader Joe’s 4 Formaggi pizza for dinner and it was ready when I got home from Zumba, so that was a nice surprise. I had two slices and made some brussel sprouts spiced with three different Penzey’s spices.

Dessert was a dough ball, of course!

This is how our cats look in the morning, waiting for their “food food.” We trained them to know the word food and anytime we say something that even sounds like it, they freak out. They swirl around our feet in the morning until Craig or I announce “food food” and they run to their food bowls.

For once I am not blogging an hour before my bedtime and I actually have more time tonight to relax and read. My mom gave me a whole bunch of magazines yesterday, so I am going to chill out with those on the couch.

Stonyfield Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt review

After work today, I went to a smaller, local grocery store because it is often better than the big box store I go to in terms of carrying unique products and flavors. My goal was to use up some of my free yogurt coupons. I found everything I wanted and tried one of the yogurts this afternoon. Until today, I had never tried the Oikos line from Stonyfield.

I picked out the Stonyfield Oikos Organic Greek Strawberry yogurt. It was so creamy and delicious! I think it may have been one of the creamiest yogurts I have ever had. It didn’t taste as thick as other Greek yogurts. I definitely liked the creaminess!

The nutrition facts are pretty good too:

Thanks to Stonyfield for sending me the coupons to try this yogurt out. I have been really impressed with all of their products. Plus, I love their Rewards program.

You can try some for free if you win my giveaway that ends tomorrow morning at 8 a.m.

Over the weekend, I will try the Stonyfield Mango Honey and I’ll let you know how it is.

Now enter to win some coupons!

My first giveaway-Stonyfield yogurt coupons

I am hosting my first giveaway on Fit in the Midwest! I asked Stonyfield yogurt if they would send me some coupons.

They sent me two 5.3 oz. Oikos Greek yogurt coupons and one 6 oz. coupon for their regular yogurt so I could try the yogurt myself. I received the same coupons to share with one lucky reader! If you haven’t tried Stonyfield yogurt yet, here is your chance! I am most excited to try their Oikos Greek yogurt. I have tried all of their other yogurt products except the Oikos.

To enter:

1) Please comment below with your favorite yogurt brand and/or flavor.

2) For an extra entry, please follow me on Twitter @FitintheMidwest and tweet this giveaway.

3) If you don’t have Twitter, just link to the giveaway on your blog and share that link with me (this also gets you an extra entry).

You have until 8 a.m. on Saturday, December 4th to enter. The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. I will post the winner on my blog that morning, so please check back in a week to see if you won! Good luck!