As I blogged this afternoon, I was eating a pear with the left over TJ’s raw almond butter. I scraped the jar clean and will have to move on to my brand new sunflower seed butter tomorrow!!
1/2 pear w/ ~1 1/2 tbsp raw almond butter
Aren’t the pictures so much better with a real camera???? I haven’t decided if I’m taking it to work yet (they don’t know about my blog) so I might get weird looks. But I might just let the cat out of the bag and tell them.
After unpacking and straightening up my room, I played with the puppy and read downstairs. Mona and Jeff went out for dinner and a movie for Valentine’s Day, so I was left to have a romantic evening with my date…
Devil Dog aka Sophie
She sat on the floor next to me as I ate my dinner. To me, Valentine’s always makes me think of Italian food and wine at some cute little Italian restaurant. Anyone else?? So a big bowl of pasta was in order. But I had lasagna last night so I decided that I didn’t want anything heavy. Also, I bought TVP (texturized vegetable protein) in its dehydrated, uncolored form while at my mom’s house and wanted to use it. My mom has always been concerned about my protein intake, as she’s a mother and a nurse (lethal combination). Even though most Americans actually eat TOO MUCH protein, I appeased her by getting a few protein-enhancing things. So I added it to my sauce to make a faux-meat sauce and served it over whole wheat orzo. So yummy! I also roasted some left over veggies with olive oil, salt, and pepper. And treated myself to a glass of wine.
1/4 small butternut squash, 1 cup brussel sprouts, 1/2 beet, roasted w/ ~1 tsp olive oil, salt, and pepper
1/4 cup whole wheat orzo (measured uncooked), 1/3 cup marinara sauce, 1/4 cup TVP, parsley, parmesan
The container of orzo said a serving was 1/3 cup uncooked, which yielded 3/4 cup cooked. That seemed like a lot so I cut it to 1/4 cup uncooked. So it yielded… 2/3 cup cooked? Do you like my math reasoning there? It was a lot. I knew it cooked up, but jeez! Still, with the TVP it was super yummy and I liked the texture.
While I cleaned dishes and let everything digest, I had this little baby freezing up for me:
Frozen banana whip (1 medium banana, 1/4 cup skim milk, 1 tsp flax seeds, cinnamon); topped with 6 dark chocolate edamame
I threw all the ingredients in the food processor (which involved a struggle…. the bowl did not want to unlock, but I forced it into submission). I covered the bowl in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer for ~2 hours. When I took it out, I wanted to try out the dark chocolate edamame I got at TJ’s today (for quality control reasons, obviously) and enjoyed these on top. It was like banana ice cream!
Shout out to my friend Brett!!! We were talking earlier and he offered to be my Valentine and requested a shout out. 
