Amazing and fast dinner

Thanks so much for all the kind and supportive words about losing my job. Starting Monday I may post my daily eats again, because 1) I have the time and 2) being at home all day makes it so tempting to eat more, so I want to keep that in check!

The other night for dinner we had some fresh pasta from an Italian market that needed to be used. I decided I wanted to do something different than just plan pasta sauce, so I decided that I would try pesto for the first time. I loved it. I followed Heather's recipe for pesto. To her recipe, I added some pine nuts and nutritional yeast. This was so amazing and actually reminded me of a healthy Alfredo sauce, because it was so creamy. Once the pesto was processed in the food processor and the pasta was cooked and drained, I placed it back in the pot with the fresh pesto and a few fresh tomatoes that I diced.

This picture does not do it justice, because it was so yummy!

We are going to dinner at our friends and I'm taking some No Pudge brownies (which some chocolate chips mixed in)! I hope you all are enjoying your Saturday.

Also sometime tonight I have to get together 5 recipes for the blogger cookbook, because tomorrow is the deadline!

Hit by the Recession

First, thanks to the new readers that have been leaving comments, it means a lot. Second, sorry that I was MIA, but first thing Monday morning I was laid off from my big law firm job. I am very proud that I haven't raided the chocolate bowl or succumbed to emotional eating this week. I have used exercise instead to try to get my mind off the bad news!

Because I am now at home searching for a new job, I have more time to prepare new meals.

Last night I made polenta for the first time ever. A week ago I bought a roll of polenta from an Italian market. I sliced part of the roll and covered it with a little olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper. I baked it at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes. I really enjoyed it.

With my polenta I had some baked tofu that I covered in a mixture of Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce, Dijon Mustard, and Annie's Barbecue Sauce. I had some kale that needed to be used, so I started by sauteing some garlic in olive oil and added the kale, some chick peas, and tomatoes. I seasoned it with a pinch of cumin and garam masala. I really enjoyed this meal, and it was nice to be able to make something new on a weekday.

Last night I also decided to do something with some ripe bananas that were sitting on the counter. I have been wanting to try to make baked donuts ever since I saw them on Angela's website. I followed Angela's posted recipe almost exactly, although I only used 1/2 cup of brown sugar and I didn't sprinkle them with white sugar before cooking. Before cooking though I did add some chocolate jimmies.

Mine turned out a lot bigger than Angela's, and I only ended up with 7 donuts not 12! I had only one of these with some fruit for breakfast and it kept me full until lunch.

I am so happy that I have Sophie to keep me company during this transition in my life after losing my job. Here is a picture to brighten your day too!!

I plan to try something new again tonight. So I'll post more about that tomorrow. Now that I have more free time, I should be able to post daily.

A weekend of trying new recipes

Before I get into some of the fantastic meals I ate this weekend, I am going to tell you about the exercise video I just tried: Jillian Michaels No More Trouble Zones. I bought this DVD and Jillian's Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism DVD from Sam's Club about a month ago. Reading about Caitlin's journey with Jillian's 30 day shread, inspired me to finally unwrap this DVD. WOW, was this rough for me. Maybe it is because I haven't lifted weights in a couple weeks, but I was using 5 pound weights and for a few exercises I had to drop my weights and just do the exercises without them.

Jillian is very amazing, so if you haven't tried one of her DVDs yet, you should. Now on to some eats.

Before I get to the new recipes I tried, I wanted to thank my husband for making pancakes. He is the pancake maker in our house, and today he really decorated them nice with all my favorites. There is some fat free cool whip on there, I haven't bought it for months, because it is full of crappy ingredients, but I really love it, so I picked some up this weekend.

I have wanted to try a Mushroom Stroganoff recipe for a long time and finally tried one. I found one online for Tofu Stroganoff. I followed the basic recipe, but instead of tofu I used more mushrooms and some morningstar crumbles. Also instead of sour cream, I used Fage. We had it over some fresh whole wheat pasta we bought at an Italian market.

Also this weekend, we tried, for the first time, to make Indian food. First, I knew that the recipe called for chick peas, and being previously inspired by Heather making beans from dried beans, I made the chick peas instead of using them from a can. I soaked the chick peas overnight, and then just cooked them in boiling water for 20 minutes when I needed them. This was so easy, I can't believe I was buying canned chick peas for this long and never tried this.

Here is a picture of my chick peas:

I used some of the chick peas in a Indian dish I found for Indian spiced kale and chick peas. I really liked how this one turned out. With that, we finally made Happy Herbivore's Red Lentil Dal, which I have seen on so many of my favorite blogs. I think we made this too spicy for me. My husband liked it a lot, but my mouth was burning. Steve had leftovers of the Red Lentil Dal for lunch and still loved it. So I'm sure we will make both recipes again.

Finally with our Indian, we attempted to make our own whole wheat Naan bread, but it didn't work out for us. Steve still loved this bread, but it didn't turn out to be or taste anything like Naan. I attempted this recipe for the naan bread. Has anyone else tried to make Naan? I even went to Bed Bath and Beyond to buy a baking stone to bake it on!

Time to get ready for bed. I'm so sad the weekend is over!

A Chocolate Covered Dinner

No I didn't actually eat anything chocolate at dinner, but I did make one of the Chocolate Covered Vegan's recipes. When I was looking over Katie's recipes in order to get some extra submissions in her contest (which you can go enter by commenting on her post here), I found a dinner that sounded great. Katie talked about making a chick n'parm sandwich. I love Garden Burger grilled chick burgers, and I also had recently bought Morningstar Farms spicy buffalo wings. I don't know why I haven't thought to make a vegetarian chick'n parm before. Instead of using bread I used spaghetti squash. I topped it with some soy cheese.

Even my husband, who usually doesn't like the meatless chicken, because he loves real chicken so much, loved this meal!! On the side I had some raw Kohlrabi with a little salt. I love this vegetable. My mom always loved it in the summer time when I was growing up, and I love to eat it because it reminds me of good times when I was younger. Kohlrobi is full of nutrients, so if you have never tried it or heard of it, check out information on this great vegetable.

Last night I finally got around to spending a $50 gift card to a fun kitchen store in the mall: Le Gourmet Chef. My younger brother knows about my blog, so he thought this would be a great gift for me. Thanks Cliff, this gift card worked perfect!

I bought a lot of ingredients that I needed for a meal I am planning to make tonight. I also bought some chocolate jimmies that I hope to use for healthy donuts this weekend, a zester/grater that I can use for fresh ginger, nutmeg, or lemon, and two small snack bowls.

These two cute bowls are made of bamboo and are biodegradable. They are a perfect size for a little after dinner dessert of puffins and chocolate chips :)

I am going to have an attempt at making Indian food for dinner tonight, so I needed so many spices. I was able to find most of the spices I needed at Le Gourmet Chef. The spices containers are more than I really needed, because for some of the recipes I only need 1/2 teaspoon. Even my husband said as I was buying these that it looks like we will be eating a lot of Indian in the future.

Now that I warned you that I am preparing Indian food for dinner, you can expect a full report on my first attempt at an ethnic food that my husband and I really enjoy!

Sophie and Wendy (Sophie's wiener dog) say have a happy Saturday:)

Wheat free snacks

I am a Girls on the Run coach this Spring and one of my girls is Gluten Free. As a coach I am responsible for bringing a healthy snack for the girls each practice (Monday and Wednesday nights until the end of May).

I brought organic fruit strips last Wednesday. But I want to have as many different snacks as possible. I don't want to single this girl out, so I want to always bring Gluten Free snacks. I have some ideas. But if anyone can help me think of some, I would be very thankful. I am sure that VeggieGirl will be especially helpful :)

Here is an explanation about Girls on the Run:

Girls on the Run® is a non-profit prevention program that encourages preteen girls to develop self-respect and healthy lifestyles through running. Our curricula address all aspects of girls' development - their physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual well-being.

I have a yummy meal planned this weekend, so hopefully it is a success and it turns into a great blog post.

Also last night for dinner I had a creation that was inspired by the Chocolate Covered Vegan - Katie. I will post pictures and talk about that tonight!!

Shepherd's Pie Vegetarian Style

Steve and I had a dentist appointment today so we got home earlier than usual from work and had time to make a new recipe. I have the Hungry Girl cookbook and there is a recipe on page 278 for squash-tastic shepherd's pie. While the real recipe calls for turkey, I used Boca crumbles and vegetarian gravy. Also I used fresh carrots and celery and frozen peas, instead of all frozen vegetables. I googled the recipe and I found it in this article.

We cooked it for 25 minutes, but I think it would have been better cooked longer so the top could brown more like a normal shepherd pie.

Here is what it looks like inside:

Here is my portion with some kale chips. This looks like a huge portion, but it is a salad plate.

I really loved this recipe and love that we have a ton of leftovers from it.

I also enjoyed the last treat that I had left from Gina's package. It was a goji berry bar. And how cute is Gina that she even cut these like hearts. I need to get my hands on a dehydrator so I can try to make Gina's recipes!!

Now for a heart healthy drink that I have been loving - POM wonderful!

I buy San Pellegrino by the case from Sam's club, and a little bit of POM juice goes a long way to add flavor to my sparkling water. Plus pomegranate juice has a lot of great health benefits and one bring great for cardiovascular health. I really value the importance of heart disease because my mother has suffered from heart disease her entire life and my father died from a heart aneurysm when I was only 11. So the fact that studies have show that pomegranate juice is beneficial for people like my mom means that it must be a drink worth trying!

Thanks Diana for introducing me to this great product. I'm glad to have something to drink sometimes instead of water.

Is being a lawyer all that bad?

Sorry I was MIA, I ran the 10 miles on Saturday and ended up with a nasty cold. I think I was starting to get sick Saturday morning and then running 10 miles in 20 degree weather just didn't help. It was the hardest 10 miles of my life, and I have run a 1/2 marathon before. I ended up walking a few times. I averaged 10 min/mile, which is slower than I normally run. I finished the 10 miles in 1 hour and 40 minutes. I will post a picture and my ipod playlist from Saturday later today.

A few posts ago, a reader Gabriela asked if being a lawyer is really that bad?

So I'm going to try to answer that . . .

I really enjoyed law school. I loved the thought involved, and I love reading and didn't even mind the endless amount of law reading I had to do. I love having the legal knowledge that I acquired from law school. So, I'm not trying to discourage anyone from going to law school, but you might want to find out a little about the legal market right now. Maybe check out this blog: http://www.abovethelaw.com/.


I don't know that I necessarily hate the practice of law as much as I think that I'm not a very good match for my current employer. I'm a corporate law attorney, and I work for one of the 10 largest law firms. My firm has about 2000 attorneys worldwide (although impending layoffs might change this really soon). When working in a large firm there is a huge emphasis on billing hours. Currently I struggle in this area because I came to a large firm wanting to do corporate work. I really was hoping to do mergers and acquisitions and other transactional work. Well I graduated in May 2007, began work in September 2007 and the last two years have not been good for corporate work. So I am forced to take any work I can get, just so that I can bill hours.


My ideal position would be working as an in-house attorney for a corporation. I was offered a position with a corporation prior to law school, but always thought that I needed a "big firm" on my resume. Also, the pay for in-house positions are often not as high as big firms. I have learned that money isn't everything, but when you are offered a big firm salary as a naive law student with almost a hundred thousand dollars in student loan debt, money is hard to pass by.

The most enjoyable work I have done at my firm is pro bono work for people that can't afford legal fees. These people are always so kind and thankful for a 20 minute phone call from me, where I try to help solve their legal problem. Thanks and praise are not common in large law firms.

My last problem with being a lawyer is that I didn't realize how much I would hate sitting at a desk all day long. That is why I said if I wasn't a lawyer I would want to be a personal trainer. I get up and go to the water cooler or bathroom so many times during the day, just because I hate sitting still.

I'm hoping the economy turns around and I can start having more billable hours and obtain work in areas that I like. Who knows, then maybe I'll be so happy with work that I'll encourage all my readers to become lawyers : )

Have a great Tuesday! If anyone has any more specific questions about my thoughts on law school and lawyering, please ask!!

Keep reading, because I have a lot to catch you up on including my first day of Girls on the Run, Dave's Killer Bread from Andrea, and POM juice. So I promise more posts.