I literally just finished eating dinner, and I’m sitting down to blog about it right away because it was that good.

I can hardly believe how delicious this Caramelized Tofu with Pecans and Brussels Sprouts was, considering how quickly and easily I whipped it up! Here’s what I did.

After I drained and pressed some tofu, I cooked it in a bit of olive oil until it was golden brown.

Then I added an amazing flavor combo: minced garlic, chopped pecans, and brown sugar.

Plus some fresh cilantro.

Then I set that aside and got to work on my Brussels. The recipe called for them to be cut into ribbons…and I had no idea what that meant! Some nice folks on a cooking forum helped me out. (Thanks you, ladies on The Nest! ) In case you’re wondering, you trim the end of the sprout, cut it in half, and then – with the cut side down – cut thin strips. As such:

Cooked them in a little more EVOO, until there were just a couple of brown bits.

Put it all together for a delicious – and quite beautiful! – meal!

(I hope you don’t mind multiple photos…I can never pick just one!)

Caramelized Tofu with Pecans and Brussels Sprouts
Adapted from Food alla Puttanesca via 101 Cookbooks

Serves 2 as a main dish

Ingredients
8 oz. extra firm tofu, drained, pressed, and cut into 1 inch strips
a few pinches of sea salt
2 tsp olive oil (or peanut oil, if you have it), divided
2 tsp minced garlic
1/3 cup pecan pieces
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 lb. Brussels sprouts, cut into ribbons

1. Heat 1 tsp oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add a bit of salt, and cook tofu until golden brown, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the garlic and pecans, and cook for another 2 minutes.

3. Stir in the brown sugar, cook for another 2 minutes.

4. Remove from heat and stir in the cilantro. Set the mixture aside and keep warm.

5. Add the second tsp of oil to the pan, plus another pinch of sea salt. Turn the heat to medium-high, and stir in the Brussels sprouts. Cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until there are some brown bits.

6. Plate the sprouts, then top with the tofu mixture. Enjoy!

Do you have a favorite tofu recipe? I think this might be mine!

Welcome to the weekend, folks! T-G-I-F, am I right???

Yesterday was a productive but uneventful day for me…fortunately it was also quite tasty!

Breakfast

Breakfast was another one of those wonderful meals that I never thought to eat before I started reading food blogs – OVERNIGHT OATS!

If you’re not familiar, overnight oats are just oats that are soaked in liquid overnight. You eat them cold, and you don’t cook them at all. And just like with hot oatmeal, the mix-in and topping possibilities are endless! Dave can’t get over the idea of eating cold oats, but I think they’re really delicious!!! Kath offers a full explanation of overnight oats, along with tons of great topping combinations, if you want to learn more.

For this bowl, I combined:

• 1/3 cup dry oats
• 1/3 cup nonfat milk
• 1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 sliced banana
• handful of frozen blueberries (added in the morning)

Mixed up into a delicious mess!

Mid-Morning Snack

After breakfast I did some work, then headed to the Y for my workout. I ran for 40 minutes on the treadmill, and I have to say, it was mentally challenging. One of those workouts where you find yourself looking at the clock just a little too often. Do you ever have workouts like that? I’m so ready to be able to run outside again!!! I originally planned on doing some strength training after my run, but decided to scrap it because I just wanted to be out of there. I’m hoping to squeeze some free weights into today’s workout to make up for it.

Came home and got in touch with my inner child with a Clif Z bar.

Lunch

Lunch was a lovely Panera-like combo: soup and salad!

A can of Amy’s Organic Split Pea Soup.

And a big salad.

In the bowl:

• leaf lettuce
• cherry tomatoes
• carrots
• 1 Quorn chik’n cutlet (which was really good, by the way!)
• sliced almonds

For dressing, some spicy brown mustard thinned with a little bit of water.

Delicious!

Afternoon Snacks

One thing I’ve noticed about soup: I get extremely full when I eat it (probably because it’s liquid-y), but often feel hungry again shortly after. Good thing I love snacking!  Not too long after lunch I found myself munching on a small apple with cinnamon.

And a bit later, a toasted Arnold’s sandwich thin smothered with peanut butter and jelly.

But not just any peanut butter, mind you. This was Cinnamon Raisin Peanut Butter from Peanut Butter & Co.

So good. For everyday peanut butter use I prefer my all-natural, nothing-added varieties, but for a little treat this stuff sure is tasty! (The ingredients are: peanuts, evaporated cane juice, raisins, cinnamon, organic palm oil, and salt. So at least no refined sugar or the dreaded high fructose corn syrup! )

Dinner

Dave had a work function last night, so I was on my own for dinner. I knew I wanted to have a wrap of some sort because he doesn’t like them (crazy, I know!). I ended up going with an awesome combo I learned from Caitlin: sweet potato and black beans!!!

It made for a lovely, albeit slightly messy, dinner!

The orange and black gives it a bit of a Halloween feel, no?

On the side, some Brussels sprouts roasted in EVOO, balsamic vinegar, a touch of agave nectar, salt, and pepper.

And some extra sweet potatoes and beans that couldn’t fit in the wrap.

Very satisfying!

Evening Snack

Dessert was pretty darn glorious, thanks to my awesome momma! Look what she sent me for Valentine’s Day this year!

Chocolate-covered Oreos from Compartes Chocolatier! The snow backed up our mail system, so I just got them yesterday! What a scrumptious surprise!

I ate the yellow one.

And then went back and ate the purple one too! That one went unphotographed.

What’s your favorite packaged cookie? Are you a big fan of Oreos? I generally only like them dipped in milk, or – as illustrated here – covered in chocolate!

Enjoy your weekend!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

I’m so thankful the weekend is here! This week has been quite the roller coaster because of the weather, which is especially frustrating for all the planners of the world (such as myself). I’m looking forward to a fun weekend and then hopefully a more routine work week.

Let’s start at the beginning…

Breakfast

My stomach had been feeling a little off, so for breakfast I wanted something extremely HEALTHY and in LIQUID FORM. And of course, it also had to be GREEN!

Hello, GREEN MONSTER!

For those of you who aren’t yet familiar, a Green Monster is an ultra-healthy meal or snack made by blending up a bunch of good-for-you ingredients. The star of the show, of course, is the greens – usually spinach, but sometimes kale. There are many possible ingredient combinations, but yesterday I used the most basic recipe.

Into my blender went:

• 2 huge handfuls of spinach
• 1 medium frozen banana (you can add ice cubes instead of freezing the fruit, if you prefer)
• 1 cup milk (cows, almond, soy – any kind works)
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter

Let me assure you upfront that YOU CANNOT TASTE THE SPINACH. It tastes just like a peanut butter and banana smoothie. The greens, however, add so much in terms of HEALTH. Did you know that calorie for calorie, leafy greens like spinach provide more nutrients than any other food?

And let’s be honest, the very idea of drinking a Green Monster is sorta fun!

Like I said, there are endless possibilities for these smoothies. I love making them with Chocolate Amazing Meal or chocolate protein powder, and while bananas are my go-to fruit, any fruit works well (I’ve had great success with frozen strawberries and frozen mango chunks). If you want to learn more about Green Monsters, go can go straight to the source: Angela from Oh She Glows (an amazing blog, by the way) has all the info. and tons of recipe ideas at the Green Monster Movement.

After I took the initial photos, I decided I didn’t really want to drink my smoothie, so I took a hint from Kath and had my smoothie in a bowl.

With some Barbara’s Bakery Shredded Oats on top. So good. So healthy.

Lunch

Of the many wonderful things about Green Monsters, perhaps the best is how FILLING they are. That smoothie kept me full all morning long, and a vigorous morning it was. I spent the majority of it shovelling snow, which is quite the workout!

Afterwards I wasn’t ready to go inside – it was actually quite a nice day, and I was so sick of being indoors! – so Dave and I decided to go for a walk. We are very fortunate to live a mere mile from an adorable little candy store, Wockenfuss, which is a company based here in good ol’ Baltimore. As you shall see, we loaded up on sugary goods, then came home and grilled up some sammies!

Seriously delicious!!! My grilled sammie was made up of:

• 2 slices whole wheat bread
• spinach
• ham
• Swiss cheese
• tomato
• dijon mustard

After we polished off our sandwiches (in about 2 minutes flat, no joke), it was time to break into our Wockenfuss loot. Seriously, look what we came home with!

That is $20 worth of chocolate right there!!!

Dave and I have rather different tastes when it comes to chocolate and other sweets.

Katie’s picks:

• sea salt caramels
• dark chocolate vanilla butter creams
• dark chocolate nougats with cashews
• chocolate peanut butter fudge
• vanilla fudge

Dave’s picks:

• milk chocolate cashew caramels
• milk chocolate coconut mounds
• almond AND cashew bark
• chocolate caramel fudge
• chocolate fudge with walnuts

A few photos to make your mouth water.

I opted for a sea salt caramel and a dark chocolate butter cream. The butter cream wasn’t bad, but the caramel was out of this world!

Afternoon Snack

My afternoon was consumed with school work and writing, but I peeled myself away from the computer around 4:30 to make this little snack plate.

Admittedly a bit random. Grape tomatoes, a carrot, a clementine, and a few Trader Joe’s peanut butter pretzels. These pretzels have been all over the blogosphere. This was my first time trying them, and now I understand what all the fuss is about! Warning: eat these from a plate, not straight from the bag. Because chances are high you will not be able to put the bag down…until it is empty.

Dinner

Dinner was another Kath-inspired meal. (Sometimes I wonder if I ate anything interesting before I started reading blogs!!!) I cut up some broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and turkey kielbasa (fully cooked), tossed it with EVOO, salt, pepper, and oregano, and roasted it all together at 400* for about 25 minutes.

I usually make this meal using one of Trader Joe’s amazing fully-cooked chicken sausages, but the snow prevented me from getting them this week. Turkey kielbasa from the Safeway down the street made a decent substitute.

Completed the meal with some whole wheat penne pasta and a good sprinkling of grated Parm.

Protein? CHECK. Veggies? CHECK. Carbs? CHECK. I love one-dish meals!

I managed to snag a photo of a post-dinner ritual in my household. Every night, without fail, at the end of the meal Hamilton comes over and sits in Dave’s lap…just like a real boy!

He looks a bit like Yoda, no? A good kitty, Hamilton is. 

Sometimes he even sits up like that all on his own!

Crazy cats. I’m pretty sure they walk around on two feet when we’re not home.

Evening Snack

Great dessert last night! I made my 2-minute, “healthified” version of apple crisp.

Chopped up apple, “baked” in the microwave for about 2 minutes, then topped with some generous shakes of cinnamon and granola.

A sweet, healthy way to end the day!

Two questions for ya!

What are your thoughts on the Green Monster? Love it? Hate it? Terrified of it? Can’t wait to try it? What’s your favorite green smoothie recipe?

AND what’s your favorite kind of FUDGE? I can’t wait to break into the Chocolate Peanut Butter!