Roasted Pepper and White Bean Salad

I'm a bit depressed, didn't lose any weight this week :( but I shouldn't let that bother me because in my mind I'm still motivated and I have yet to quit going to the gym.

Taking care of another person is really messing with my inner clock so I'm going to have to start putting aside some me time and get back to taking care of what I'm eating. I've been sort of eating on the run mostly and what I'm sticking in my pie hole is not really conductive to losing weigh or healthy for that matter.
I'm going to the gym tonight so that's a good thing. I've been going at least 3 times a week and squeezing in a walk here and there. Weird to say but I look forward to the gym! I never thought I'd ever say that! Ha!
I did try a new recipe this week that is actually really tasty. It came out of a Canadian Living magazine but I doctored it to fit the vegan bill! It was supposed to have crumbled goat cheese in it but instead I replaced it with a very good tofu feta.

Roasted Pepper and White Bean Salad

4 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 tbs. olive oil
1 small jar *roasted red peppers, chopped
4 tsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. vinegar
1/2 tsp. dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried or 2 tsp. fresh thyme
1/2 block tofu feta, crumbled
19 oz. can white navy or kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Lightly saute the garlic in the olive oil, add thyme and set aside until cooled.
In a medium sized bowl whisk together the lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, salt and olive oil, garlic, thyme mix. Add the beans and peppers and mix well, sprinkle in the tofu feta and toss lightly.

Roasted Acorn Squash

Been really busy lately but it's Monday morning, time for the weigh in! I guess not being bored really makes a difference because I haven't had time to even think about snacking and have actually lost 2 pounds this past week. YAY! Down to 149, I'm finally out of the 50's!!

Anyway, I have to establish a new routine now, my father in law has come to live with us, (he doesn't know this yet) so lots of extra work ahead. He's 91 and is at a point where he really can't take care of himself anymore and needs constant supervision. Just making sure he eats, drinks and takes his pills is a job in itself, but I'm more than happy to do it especially knowing that he's comfortable and relatively happy.

So today's recipe is Roasted Acorn Squash. I like making that for lunch, it's easy, quick and tasty.

Preheat oven to 375f.

1 acorn squash, halved lengthwise and seeded *
2 tsp. vegan margarine, melted
4 tsp. agave syrup**
salt and pepper to taste

Mix together the margarine and agave syrup. Brush the halves with the mix and pour the remainder  into the squashes evenly. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper. Fill a baking pan with 1 inch of water, add the squash halves and bake for about 30-35 minutes.
You can eat these right out of the shells with a spoon.

* If your squash halves are a bit wobbly you can cut a small slice from the bottom to make a flat spot but be sure not to cut too much or you'll end up with a hole in the bottom and the syrup will just leak out.

** You can also use maple syrup or any other syrup you may have laying around.

Delicious Miso Soup

Yeah Yeah, I've been neglecting my blog, been so busy lately with cooking and the gym, housework, yard work....blah blah blah...

I was also a bit upset this week with the Monday weigh in, instead of losing a pound I gained one, not sure why but I decided I didn't want to post it but I'm over it now! :P  The pouting is all over....

I thought going to the gym and sweating my ass off would make it come off a bit quicker but now I'm getting ahead of myself, I did say I was going to take a year to lose the weight so I'm still on track :D

Today I found a new website where you can map a walk and print it out (there's a link at the bottom of the page for those of you who are interested), what's fun about it is you can make it as long or short as you want, once you're done it tells you how long it is including hills and whatnot, I LOVE it! My first mapped walk was 3.9km and I did it in 42 minutes, YAY!!

Also last week I discovered my new favorite soup, Miso soup to be exact, it's very tasty and it's supposed to have several health benefits to boot, too many to list, but either way whether or not there are benefits, I like because it fills you up with almost no calories.
In Japan they have it everyday for breakfast, I haven't tried that yet but hey, who knows, maybe tomorrow I'll give it a try.
It's not a pretty soup but this is one of those foods that doesn't have to be!

I make my miso one bowl at a time since I like to have it ready at the drop of a hat. It only takes about 5 minutes to make once you have your dashi (soup base).

Delicious Miso Soup
1 serving

Dashi:
32oz. water
6-8 dried Chinese mushrooms
Bring water and mushrooms to a boil and then simmer for about 30 minutes. Scoop out your mushrooms and let them cool to slice them. Slice and keep them in an airtight container in the fridge.

The water in your pot is your dashi, pour it into an airtight container and keep in the fridge until needed.
For the soup you'll need:
1oz. extra firm silken tofu, cut in 1/2" cubes
3/4 cup dashi
1 tbs. sliced mushrooms (from the above dashi recipe)
1 tbs. sliced green onions
1/4 tsp. dried wakame
1 rounded tsp. white miso paste
Bring the dashi to a boil and add the tofu and wakame, lower to simmer and add mushrooms. Add the miso paste to your bowl and add about 1/4 cup soup base from the pot into your bowl and whisk the miso paste and soup until smooth. Then pour the remaining soup into your bowl and top with green onions. (You don't want to boil the miso paste as it destroys all the goodness out of it.)