Thursday, July 10, 2008

Refreshed


Hi y'all
! I can't believe how fast time flies these days. It's already a new week. Wow. I had a fun-filled, busy weekend spent with friends. We celebrated a birthday of Friday night by having a few cocktails, playing charades, and birthday cake of course! I spent most of Saturday working, and Sunday morning as well. The weekend highlight was yesterday when we went out on my friend's boat. It was a very windy day, but the sun was strong and we had a lot of fun. Chris and one of my friends even convinced me to go tubing. My arms are sore today but it was worth it!


Last night I was in bed by 9! The weekend wore me out so it was great to wake up feeling refreshed and well-rested. Lately, I've been liking to bake right away in the morning. So while I sipped on coffee I whipped up a batch of carrot, apple, and pecan multigrain muffins. These fiber rich muffins were on the back of Hodgson Mill's Multigrain Hot Cereal. I made a couple of changes to the recipe so I posted it on my recipe page.


I wasn't feeling a big breakfast so I had one of these and it was great. The muffins are moist, not too dense, and have the perfect amount of sweetness for me. I also had half of a grapefruit. It's been awhile since I've had one but I just love its refreshing quality.

To continue the refreshing trend I went to a yoga class this morning. My body was a craving a deep stretch. I have missed it so much the last couple of weeks. I hope I can continue to practice yoga at least once or twice a week, but sometimes my schedule just doesn't allow it. The instructor for this particular class likes to hand out cards that have sayings on them to focus on during class. I love this. Today mine said "Every thought I think is creating my future." This is so true and made me think about how important positive thinking is. The class definitely refreshed my mind and body.

I miss blogging my meals everyday so I've decided that when I have the time to do it, I'm going to be posting them again. I'm hoping that posting my meals again will motivate me to have more creative meals. The last few weeks have not been the most exciting food-wise. Of course, I've baked lots of goodies, but cooking? Not so much.

For dinner I made the
Caramelized Tofu from 101 Cookbooks. I cannot rave enough about Heidi's recipes. Every single recipe I have tried from this website is amazing. The first time I ever tried cooking tofu at home was with this recipe. It came out great and my whole family enjoyed it. I prefer my tofu with crispy edges. My trick with tofu is pressing it for as long as possible (usually about 1 hr) and then slicing it in half depth-wise. Then I slice each thin block into thin strips. I just find that this method is easiest for crisping the tofu up and flipping it in the pan. 



Tonight we enjoyed it with broccoli and brown rice. I also like to add crushed red pepper flakes for some heat. Yum!



Oh! I made another batch of the Strawberry Pecan Shortbread Crumb bars last week. Only this time I used blackberry jam instead of strawberry. This version was just as deliciously addicting as the first. The bars were a hit and my only caution is that you cannot just eat one. Well, maybe you can if you have a strong willpower against desserts. I certainly don't!! I meant to take a picture of these pretty bars but they didn't last long enough!

9 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

So glad that your weekend was fun!!

Oooh those crumb bars sound heavenly - I do hope that Blogger will let you upload photographs soon!! :0)

Anonymous said...

ahhhhh after reading about those crumb bars i now want some strawberries!

chandra said...

I went tubing behind the boat for my first time ever 4th of July weekend - it DOES kill your arms!! :) Glad you had a fun weekend!!

healthy ashley said...

I love the picture of you and the girls! You look great.. classic!

I've definitely bookmarked the tofu recipe. I have a block in my fridge just begging to be used!

Anonymous said...

That tofu looks great! I'm usually too scared to make it - maybe I will conquer my fears (or at least try!)

I love tubing! It really does give you an arm workout! It looks like you had a lot of fun :o)

Anonymous said...

Looks like so much fun! And udos to you for so much great baking!

Anonymous said...

Wow, looks like you had a perfect weekend. I loooove going out on a boat. Especially for TUBING!! Sooo much fun.

I think I'm going to make that tofu (or something along those lines) tonight!

Ashley said...

Wow that tofu looks really good, I want to try that for sure!

Justine said...

I've made the tofu recipe before and it IS delicious!

Justine