Out of Sight, Out of Mind

The crisper drawer in the refrigerator in our new apartment is lower than the crisper drawer in our old apartment. The old crisper drawer was nearly at eye level, while our new drawer is waaaay down at the bottom of the fridge.

I’m sad to say that the “out of sight, out of mind,” mentality has caused me to overlook some of the veggies I purchased at the grocery store last week. When I opened the crisper drawer and spotted cauliflower on the verge of death this evening, I knew it was time to use it or lose it.

Though I knew I needed to use the cauliflower, I wanted comfort food for dinner…. Something hot, satisfying and delicious.

Enter, cauliflower pizza crust. 🙂

Pre-Cooked Crust

Ryan and I both love this recipe. The first time we made it we didn’t have much faith, but it turned out oh-so-cheesy and oh-so-tasty.

The two main ingredients in the crust are cauliflower and cheese. The cauliflower really takes on the cheese flavor, so you end up with quite the cheesetastic crust.

Cauliflower Crust

Ready for Toppings

Ryan and I topped our respective halves with lots of veggies and goat cheese. Ryan also added MorningStar Farms Grillers Crumbles to his half.

Pizza, Pizza

I think I overdid it on the amount of cauliflower I used in the recipe this time (I didn’t measure it exactly), so my pizza slices didn’t hold up like they previously have.

Luckily it still tasted great!

My Plate

Cheese + Cauliflower = Good Crust

Taxes

I still have to do my taxes. 😦 Boo.

Luckily, my financial savvy fiance has agreed to help me and I’m off to start filin’.

Are your taxes done?

How Did I Not Know This?

You can bake tofu. How did I not know this!?

After learning this fun fact a little less than a month ago, I tested it out in March by marinating the tofu in BBQ sauce before baking it. I was quite impressed with the end result!

On Saturday, I baked tofu without any seasonings at all and still enjoyed it immensely.

I decided to recreate Saturday’s successful lunch today and made myself a big bowl of roasted broccoli, cauliflower and mushrooms, topped with the baked Nasoya lite firm tofu, marinara sauce and ricotta cheese.

Baked Tofu

I Love Ricotta Cheese

Monday's Lunch

I love cramming a bazillion veggies in my lunch. I feel like Super Julie after eating a big bowl of vitamin-rich foods. 😉

What are  your thoughts about tofu? Love it? Hate it?

Chocolate > Spinach

After indulging in my own mini Cookie Sunday and having several slices of my friend Courtney’s cake last night, my body was cravin’ some serious nutrients this morning.

Thank goodness I picked up a large bag of spinach at the grocery store yesterday because a MASSIVE green monster sounded perfect after my morning workout.

Spinach Overload

It’s still almost incomprehensible to me that I cannot taste the spinach in my smoothie when there is practically an entire bush in there.

I’m not complaining though because taste-wise, chocolate > spinach.

My green monster included:

• 5 lbs. of spinach… almost.
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder
• 1 tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1 large frozen banana
• Ice cold water
• Bob’s Red Mill xanthan gum
• Fresh strawberries

Green Monster with Sliced Strawberries

Doesn’t that look ridiculously thick?

It definitely was super thick and I owe it to a combination of the frozen banana and the xanthan gum, a gluten-free thickener and natural carbohydrate.

Bob's Red Mill Xanthan Gum

Monday Morning Breakfast

Red + Green = Christmas in a Bowl

My body is happier already!

Workout

This morning I took my typical Monday morning BodyPump class. This was my first time doing the latest release and it was a goodie.

My chest was burning by the end of the chest track! (It’s really too bad that working out your chest doesn’t make your lil’ girlies grow. 😉 )

After the ‘Pump, I did 20 minutes of light cardio on the elliptical with the June 2009 issue of Women’s Health (slim pickings on the magazine rack today), followed by five minutes of incline walking.

Best Packaged Foods For Women

Women’s Health comprised a list of the best packaged foods for women, sorted into categories ranging from veggies, soups and snacks to condiments, sweets, frozen meals and dairy.

Naturally I went right to the sweets category to check out the “best frozen yogurt.”  The winner was:

Ben & Jerry’s FroYo Chocolate Fudge Brownie
The delicious chocoholic blend not only is thigh-friendly but also delivers 150 milligrams of calcium. Builds bone; fights heart disease.
Per 1/2 cup: 170 cal, 2.5 g fat (0.5 g sat), 34 g carbs, 95 mg sodium, 1 g fiber, 5 g protein

You can check out other winners here.