A Beautiful Day and Guest Post #2

by Mara @ What's For Dinner? on March 26, 2009

in Asian,guest post,simple recipe,vegetarian

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Today was a great day! The sun was shining, it was relatively warm out, and we started the day with some great food at a wonderful little breakfast place called M. Henry. It’s on the north side of Chicago, not far from my sister’s apartment, and they have quite possibly The. Best. Bacon. Ever.They call it Candied Bacon… no idea how they make it, but it was amazing!

I had black bean cakes with 2 eggs and potatoes, but not many of the potatoes made it into my mouth. My sister had the egg sandwich, which had bleu cheese and bacon on it, and my mom’s eggs and brioche came with a beautiful bowl of fruit:

We then went to an amazingly gorgeous garden store up the street, and the most remarkable thing was that things were green and blooming! I took a bunch of pictures that I just have to share. There are a bunch, so I made an album. Feel free to use them as computer wallpaper!

View Full Album

Then, we went to Fresh Market! There’s only one in the area, and after reading about it on Jenna’s blog, and my mom RAVING about it, I was so excited! First, we hit the produce section, and my sister and I built some apple sculptures with the various sizes of apples:

Those apples on top were “normal” sized. The others were freakishly large! Fresh market also had a fresh almond butter machine, so I got a POUND of fresh almond butter!! They also had a beautiful bulk section where I got some green bean snacks for Adam:

I headed home after that, and went to Jazzercise… and somehow managed to burn 755 calories!!! I told my teacher about the blog tonight, so HI CHRIS if you’re reading!

I made a simple dinner of sweet potato fries and sesame coated baked tofu, using the same recipe I usually do, but I sprinkled some sesame seeds on top before baking. They added a great crunch, and more deliciousness. Sweet potato fries were, in the words of Miss Veggie Girl, oh so very SWEET POTATO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m calling this a square meal because look! Tofu is kinda square, sweet potato strips are kinda square… its a fairly balanced meal… ok, I’m now a joke explainer, which is lame.

Now, as promised, I have a guest post for you! My friend Jessica (a different one than Tuesday) has been a fantastic friend over the last couple years. I met her first on the WW message boards very early on in my weight loss, and then she was assigned to me as my WW secret Santa. I sent her some Penzey’s hot cocoa mix, and she emailed me to thank me. We started chatting on Yahoo about a year ago when I was going through some scary medical stuff that she too had gone through, and she was an amazingly supportive friend. When I brought up the concept of a guest post, we both had a similar thought as to what it should be about, so without further adieu (and cheesiness) I bring you Jessica:

Adventures in Dating and Eating Right

Much like my fellow guest-poster, Jessie, I am single and dating up a storm (kissing LOTS and lots of frogs!). This, of course, entails lots of eating out. As much as I adore eating out and trying new restaurants, it’s a challenge eating out so often and trying to maintain my weight loss.

One of my biggest issues with eating on dates is that I hate to be “that girl” who is so concerned about her weight, that she will only eat salad with dressing on the side. I’ve read multiple articles where men complain about this. While of course it is healthy to want to make good food choices, I do agree that it isn’t necessarily the sexiest thing on a first date to be counting calories and figuring out what you’re “allowed” to have that day. So to avoid that perception, when eating out on a date, I typically suggest sushi.

Sushi is great for a date for so many different reasons. It’s very good for you (if you choose the right kinds, of course!); it’s often cheap; it makes for good conversation; and it’s a great food for sharing—you can order several rolls and split them, kind of romantic and communal. I also find that while most guys eat and enjoy sushi, they often are not very familiar with the different types and what’s good, giving me an opportunity to be a little bit of an “expert”. If the guy happens to not enjoy sushi or hasn’t tried it, there are usually a few menu items that are cooked and a little less scary to the sushi newbie, like a noodle or stir fry dish. Best of all, you can enjoy a full, healthy meal, while not coming across as a high-maintenance “diet” girl.

My typical go-to items at my favorite sushi restaurants:

Miso soup

Edamame

White Tuna sashimi

Yellowtail sashimi

California roll

Tuna roll

Japanese bagel roll—higher in calories due to the cream cheese, but not bad to share

I personally am kind of a wimp when it comes to more adventurous items (octopus, sea urchin) and there are lots of other probably yummy items that still give you a good bang for your calorie buck.