Tummy says RAWrrrr

I slept in forever today! 

Initially, I got up at 8, but decided a few more minutes of shut-eye couldn’t hurt…next thing I know, it’s 10 am!!  Whoa, I can’t even remember the last time I slept in that late.  Generally I feel like I’m starting off the day behind when I miss so much of the morning, but to be honest, getting in the extra zzzz’s today felt glorious.

Coffee + crossword = happy grandpa Elise

Newman’s Own organic raisins are gooey and I like it. 

I drowned a few handfuls in my strawberry chobz (death by greek yogurt? I’m in)…some tried to escape via the fruity life preservers apple slices.  They were probably disappointed when they found out that was just another vehicle to my tummy 🙂

Peanut buttery english muffins.  Mmmm…

After brunch I set out to finish all the errands I didn’t get to yesterday from the “rain” (which ended up being nothing more than 10 minutes of poorly timed drizzle).  The sunshine was beautiful!

Check out what came in the mail today!  My dad ordered this trio of Zagat guides for me and I was SO excited to find they had arrived when I got back to the apartment…I spent forever flipping through them.  There are several veggie/vegan spots I’ve been to before, but also some newbies that I’m excited to try. 

The other Zagat books are guides to NYC Nightlife and Shopping.  Yes please!

 

For lunch I had…drumroll please…home-made seitan!!!

I’ve been meaning to make this forever, and on my last trip home I finally got my hands on some Vital Wheat Gluten.

I used the Veganomicon recipe minus the oil.

This stuff is SO weird.  The second the powder ingreds meet the liquids, this glob forms.  It was the most bizarre thing.  I kneaded it as best I could, but it was quite tough.

As instructed, I flattened it (as best I could), cut them into slabs (far easier said than done), and then immersed them in the already boiling vegetable broth.

Can you believe these were actually cut with a knife?  I swear, vital wheat gluten has a mind of it’s own…

Here they are after 30 minutes in the oven on each side.

The bottom part stuck to the pan a bit, but since it was immersed in veggie broth, it came off easily…and went straight into my mouth.  Soooooo good!!  This was a crazy easy recipe to make, and I will be repeating it for sure.

So for lunch today I decided to make a big sammie with 2 seitan cutlets.

Alvarado street bread, half an avocado, clover sprouts, and home-made seitan.  Holy effing YUM!

The one thing I will say is it is important to keep the cutlets submerged in the broth for storage, otherwise they end up kinda tough and chewy. 

This was SO good.  I can’t even put it into words. 

Does this help?

For anyone else interested in making seitan, omitting the oil didn’t have any adverse effects on the outcome of the dish, but next time I will use more broth for storage purposes (to keep it from drying out or hardening up).

A little later in the afternoon I realized it was Wednesday.  Whoops!  Better get my raw eats in!

I salted the second half of the avocado not used in my lunch sando and ate it plain.  Mmmm….LOVE it!  I could scoop it out and eat it with a spoon.  Oh wait.  That’s exactly what I did.

Before I headed off to the gym, I decided to get a little natural sugar in my system.

Super creative (raw) fruit plate.

At the gym I started off on the tread mill, but my knee started aching, so after 30 minutes I switched to the elliptical for another 30 minutes. 

My stats:  treadmill – 30 minutes (4 miles)

                elliptical – 30 minutes (3.5 miles)

               rowing machine – 5 minutes

**I never keep track of abs, arms, or those inner/outer thigh machines, I just do them until I feel the burn (then pause and do 10 more)

Back home, still high on my post-workout endorphins, I started my raw dinner food prep…

Zucchini “pasta,” peeled and submerged in water for ~45 minutes.

Chopped up tomato, cucumber, and heart of palm.

Plus half an avocado…all mashed up into one delish salsa.

After I drained the zucchini “pasta,” I heaped the above mix on top, and voila!

My (raw) dinner is served!

I swear there are zucchini noodles under there somewhere…

Wow.  This dish was TASTY – granted anything with half an avocado is. 

I’m loving these raw challenges.

Of course I had a nice hearty dessert of medjools stuffed with carob covered raisins. 

I didn’t wait too long after dessert to pack up my lunch for tomorrow and hit the sack…back to work tomorrow.