Fur is flying in our house this morning! Man, some of the battles these cats have is unreal. All three of them are male so I guess they are fighting for dominance and territory. Yeesh. And I thought the dust was enough to clean up!
I had a good 8 hours of sleep last night and I feel back to my old self. Sometimes I find when I don’t get enough sleep I am more emotional (like yesterday). It’s funny how sleep affects every part of our body and mind!
So yesterday, while I was doing a ‘little’ grocery shop for our birthday dinner, I decided to get some tofu. I have always been scared of tofu since I had a bad experience with it in stir-frys many years ago. I hadn’t bought it since!
But I decided that I need to try some tofu recipes seeing as I am following a vegan diet now. Tofu is a great way to get some extra protein. My new cookbook, Eat Drink & Be Vegan, has a bunch of awesome looking tofu recipes that I can’t wait to try!
So today I decided to do the unthinkable. I added tofu to my green monster!
Here is the President’s Choice Extra Firm Tofu.
It has a whopping 16 grams of protein per 88 gram serving! It is also low fat, low calorie, low sodium, and has a little iron and calcium in there.
I bought this variety because it was the highest in protein out of all of the tofu varieties- by a landslide!
I decided to add 1/2 of a serving since I was unsure what it would taste like.
Here is my half serving– as you can see 44 grams is not much. Eight grams of protein packed into that tiny serving!
The tablespoon of flax is next to it if you are wondering about the actual size. I would estimate it was about 2” x 2.5” for my half serving.
My ingredients (plus 1/2 a frozen banana not shown):
- 1 Cup original almond breeze
- 1/2 serving extra firm tofu
- 1 T flax
- 2 large organic kale leaves
- 1/2 frozen banana
The taste?
O-M-G. This was maybe one of the BEST green monsters I have ever made!!! I honestly can’t believe that I waited so long to try tofu in my GM!
The taste was sweet and silky which was a bit surprising because ‘they say’ you are supposed to use silken tofu for smoothies. But this extra firm stuff seemed to work wonderfully- good to know!
I was just blown away by this combination. I will 100% be using tofu in my smoothies from now on! It will be interesting to see how long it holds me over compared to without the extra protein.
And now for the reveal…what was in that box???
My mom and stepdad had planned on buying us our first couch for a house warming gift when they were down here about a month ago. But since they discovered that we are not ready to buy furniture yet (we want to have our colours decided and all that jazz first), they decided that it would be a wonderful idea to buy us something else.
A ride on mower.
When they told us while they were visiting last week we were so thankful- we have over 2 acres of property and it takes a good 6 hours to mow with a push mower!! We got a great deal on it too- the store was having a big blow out sale the day we went. We saved about $1,000!
I admit I was not happy about buying one of these because of my environmental concerns, but with 2 acres we really didn’t have many options.
I will be out there, with my ipod and beer mug, twice monthly! :) I will probably be able to do our whole yard in just over an hour.
Day 41 (May 6th): It is time to do some side crunches and some jack crunches! These moves are excellent for ‘love handles’. I just discovered these ‘jack’ crunches last night and boy do they work! Do 3 sets of side crunches and 2 sets of jack crunches.
I’ve gotta get cracking here! It is supposed to be another hot and sunny day so I may try to get outside for my workout after I get my work done.
Enjoy your hump-day!!! :) I hope you have a happy, healthy, and rocking day.
Today’s question: Do you eat tofu? How do you eat it?
“I long to accomplish a great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”
~Helen Keller
What a cool gift! I would have never guessed that! ;)
Your green monster looks super creamy!
If anyones interested I have greek yogurt giveaway over at my blog.
Nice gift! That will definitely be better than using a push mower. My parents have a 2 acre yard as well as the ride-on mower is a huge time saver.
Awesome that the tofu in the GM worked out!
Awesome wheels! Congrats! hehe
I just finished reading “Skinny Bitch” (which I really had no idea what the book was about – I just jumped in) and now am struggling to eat any kind of meat/meat product. I am so glad that you tried Tofu again. I have no idea why I’m afraid of tofu but I’m glad I’m not (or wasn’t) the only one. Looking forward to reading about your tofu experiences and recipes. Keep up the great work :)
I love tofu – it is the cheapest protein source I can find, I get my blocks for 70 cents at a local market! Baked, fried and marinated in a million different sauces.
2 acre yard. Soooo lucky. I have the smallest back yard ever. :( That’s such a nice gift from your parents!!
Thanks for the video on “jacks”. I’m sooo going to try those out. I haven’t necessarily been following your boot camp, but I have picked up a lot of great exercises from you. I challenge myself with side planks every couple of days and I’m getting better!!
I am just starting to jump on the tofu wagon myself.
I like it sauteed and put on a sandwich. My favorite combo is my “Green Sandwich” which is Crispy tofu, avocado, spinach in a wrap. I mash the avocado to make it more like a sauce. SOOO GOOD!
I also cut it up into like chunks and fry it in a teeny tiny bit of EVOO and make ‘croutons’. SOO GOOD!
I heart tofu! I love to season it and brown it in a pan with a little olive oil, just a tad to make it hard on the sides. Then we add it to stirfried veggies. YUM!!
What a nice gift. I have only had Tofu baked. I was going try it in a vegan cake once, but I could never find all the ingredients so I never made the cake and I suck at baking so I was too scared to make up my own recipe.
I too was afraid of tofu for a long time! I think I had a bad experience with a stir fry or something and was totally turned off. I recently tried it again and I really liked it and it has now become a staple in our house.
As I mentioned in my comment the other day – the cashew ginger tofu in ED&BV is AMAZING. I also love making the marinated tofu cubes from the reFresh cookbook and putting them into salads. I’ve only ventured into exra-firm territory so far, but up to now it has been a success!
That is a great gift from your parents :)
Love the armrests on your lawn ‘sofa’! What a fantastic gift!
Does it have cupholders? ;)
That’s awesome for a gift. So useful and I’m sure will be used quite a lot. I’m a green-monster addict btw.I’ve finished a big bunch of kale and 2 bags of spinach in the past week and a half. My skin is thanking me and bye-bye chronic mouth sore. So thanks for that!! btw, thanks for the shoutout a couple days in regards to my comment. So happy that it helped you out.
I love tofu! I put it in my monsters, blend it into my oats, grill it, bake it, put it in a sandwich or over a salad…YUM!!!
glad you liked the tofu! I’ve never tried it in my smoothies, but i do like meals with tofu.
I definitely think the “secret” when buying tofu is to get it extra-firm. I grew up eating it so I don’t have issues with its texture, but I know that is usually the biggest complaint for most people and firm is usually the answer :) I’ve never tried it in green smoothies, though!
I NEVER would’ve guessed that it was a mower!!! I can’t wait to try tofu in my green monsters, as I’m now an addict! I don’t know if I’ll move away from spinach though.
woohoo! We can take the boys for a ride on it this summer!!!
:)
I’m a little surprised that the extra firm tofu blended up smoothly…good to know.
I’m sure your yard is big enough to warrant the riding mover. My FIL bought one for a 50 yd strip. He just wanted the John Deere hat. He returned the mower and kept the hat.
LOVE tofu! I always press all of the extra liquid out first (under a heavy cookbook and wrapped in papertowels for about an hour) then I either slice or cube it and brush it with some sort of oil (olive or sesame) and add whatever flavors I’m in the mood for (honey, vinegar, hot sauce, spices). Then I either bake it for about 45 mins, flipping halfway through or do it in the skillet. It is so delicious when it gets crispy! Also, Ellie Krieger has an awesome recipe for “fried” rice with veggies and tofu!
Angela,
I wanted to tell you that I gave the green smoothies a try and now it is my favorite morning boost when I get home from the gym!! I use almond milk, kale, flax seed, banana and almond butter. I think about it when I am working out, so thanks for the idea. I think I will give the tofu version a try as well. I could always use a little more protein!!
Congrats on the riding mower. One of my fondest childhood memories is the rides my grandpa would give me on his in his huge backyard. So glad you gave tofu another shot! I’m a veggie and eat it quite a bit. I love that it takes on whatever flavour you’re cooking with. I like it just roasted in the oven after marinading it. One of my favourite is marinade the tofu in some agave nectar and cinnamon. Then bake it for 20 minutes at 450 flipping half way through. Not only does it smell delicious, but the sweetness is divine when tossed with a salad.