My Favorite Sandwich-TLT!

I am about to share one of our favorite foods in our house-one that we don't eat that often because we usually don't have bread around. It is simple,definitely not revolutionary,but one of the best concoctions ever. The textures and flavors sing! Presenting:

The TLT! Tofu made just so(recipe to follow) with crispy iceberg lettuce,ripe tomatoes and of course vegan manna(Veganaise).

Make the tofu as such:

Gather your ingredients:

• one brick of extra firm tofu drained


• 2 Tbs ketchup


• 3 Tbs soy sauce


• 1/4 cup beer(I used Magic Hat #9 but I have also used juice here apple or cranberry work best)


• 1 Tbs of maple syrup(skip if you are using juice)


• 2 cloves of minced garlic


• 1/2 tsp liquid smoke( I usually use a little bit more-but I LOVE the flavor-add to your taste)

Whisk last 6 ingredients together in a shallow bowl or plate. Slice tofu into 16 strips- I usually do it in half,then cut each piece in half and so on until I get as many slices as I want. Poke slices with a fork and dip each slice in mixture-do both sides! Place on an oiled sheet pan and lightly sprinkle salt and pepper on each slice. Flip and do other side. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes on each side. Let cool briefly.

To assemble sandwich:

Toast your bread if that is your thing-I like mine soft and squishy,Ryan likes his toasted(we used Heidelberg pumpernickel). Spread Veganaise on both sides of bread. Use one big leaf of iceberg lettuce,followed by two sliced and blotted dry pieces of tomato. Add 4 slices of tofu and eat! I have also used mashed and seasoned avocado instead of mayo and it is equally delicious.

We each ate a sandwich and a half! That is a lot but it was far too hot and I was way too lazy to think beyond this into side dishes.

I Went There-Pasta Edition

I haven't done this in about seven years:

Plain spaghetti,plain bottled sauce and white hamburger bun garlic bread-no veggies,no fiber,no protein! A nutritional nightmare for sure-but completely necessary today! After a little too much wine last night(oops!),I wanted carbtastical meals all day today! So I did. That is how you know when you are getting old-3 glasses of wine put you under for a full 24 hours and you are truly and deeply ashamed that you didn't eat any veggies at dinner!

In unrelated news I just watched a stand up comedian on Comedy Central On Demand-Iliza Shlesinger-so funny! I am actually a huge comedy fan-not smart comedy either-dumb,raunchy and stupid is what I like. It is a guilty pleasure of mine-kinda like my pasta dinner-some days are like that!

Tomato Weenie

Look what I found in the produce section :0

A well endowed tomato! I kept it for as long as possible for the humor factor,but the projection started going soft-no pun intended. Oh well,it made a DELICIOUS salad:

• romaine


• cukes


• red onion


• olives


• tomato

In an effort to painlessly cut calories, I cut my creamy italian dressing 50/50 with some Bragg's apple cider vinegar:

Don't knock it till you try it! 2 tablespoons of the normal stuff has 100 calories-new formula-50. Do that for a week and save 350 calories. That is the kind of thing I am going to be trying to do-what are some of your calorie cutting tricks?

Much to Mulder's dismay I am going to post this picture of him:

Aunt Jemima! Actually Muldee hates pancake syrup-he much prefers the real stuff.

Attack of the Sunday Snackies

Today was one of those crazy days where I just want to MUNCH! It all started out innocent enough with breakfast:

• 1/2 cup oats


• small apple chopped


• 2T. PB


• sprinkle of cinnamon

About 3 hours later-lunch:

• jalapeno bean burger


• flatout wrap


• Dinosaur BBQ sauce


• 1/2 cup quinoa-chickpea creation


• 7 mini oreo-ish sandwich cookies

About 3 hours later-chocolate attack! I went to the drug store for the "Sunday paper" and bought a chocolate bar-a HUGEY!

Promptly eaten on the way home with a lemon-lime powerade zero-I was trying to reason that I was so hungry because of dehydration. I think I just wanted to try the powerade-it was yummy =). Lets see-then 7 of Ryan's Swedish Fish. Then off to make dinner:

• salad with olives,cukes and scallions


• homemade balsamic(a little dijon that was left with some vinegar,EVOO and salt and pepper-shaken up in the bottle)


• steamed cauliflower mashed with salt and lemon juice


• another jalapeno bean burger

After dinner called for dessert of course-the other half of the chocolate bar and 14 almonds. Depending on how late I stay up,the hunger bug may strike again-today is one of those days where I just listened to my hunger cues and ate what I wanted. I am usually not a snacker or a grazer so my body must need the calories. I am thinking it could be because I have upped my cardio-does that happen? I upped it to burn calories but it seems my body just isn't having it right now!

Tofu Fingers and Cruise Ins

The motivation continued this morning as I did my new Jillian Michaels Banish Fat and Boost Metabolism that I bought yesterday and then did my Chady bicep and tricep workout. I felt great and I am so happy that I am enjoying my workouts again. Following my workout session I had my usual oats with PB except I was out of bananas so I stirred in 1/2 a cup of blueberries-what a nice change. Utterly delicious as Martha would say lol.

I did my yardwork duties of picking up pine cones,weeding the hostas and I trimmed up a bush that had gone crazy.Then we took puppy-doo for a walk-It was a gorgeous day-77 degrees and sunny- no humidity.

For dinner:

TOFU FINGERS! So yummy-I drained and pressed some firm tofu and cut into sticks. I marinated for 4 hours in a blend of GOYA Mojo marinade,Kikkoman and a dash of liquid smoke. I roasted on a pan with a thin layer of olive oil at 400 degrees for 20 minutes,flipped and did 10 minutes more. Crunchy and perfect. I served with a quinoa creation from last nights dinner and some salad with vegan ranch(both recipes coming soon!).

Heaven on a plate. I asked Ryan if it was weird that I was sad when I finished eating dinner because it was so good and he said DEFINITELY. LOL.

Best part of the day-Friday night Cruise in! It is rare that it so nice and SUCH a good turn out. Here are some of our favorite rides from the night:

Rat rod with a party trunk-epic!

Twin Chevy pickups in candy colors.

Buick representin'! We are big Buick fans!

Ryan's fave.

All its credentials! It actually  had these on all the windows-very impressive!

My favorite muscle car-the Roadrunner! Meep Meep!

So now it is time to kick back and relax! Season 4 of the Hills from Netflix is calling my name...