Guess Who's Eating Kale

Gracie!

I swear it’s a miracle. I made my own take on Veganomic cornmeal crusted tofu for dinner tonight, and accompanied it with a massaged kale salad. I then had to make a “Gracie friendly” salad for her vegetable of the day, and I had some extra kale salad left over. So I forced Gracie to take ONE BITE of kale…and she didn’t hate it! I can’t say she had much positive to say, (it was constantly, “this isn’t lettuce!”) but I added some more of her romaine and some of Gracie’s yogurt dressing and she ate it all! Seriously a miracle, and I’m so impressed. 

In other news, that crusted tofu I made? It was crusted in pretzels. Yup. That’s right. Pretzels. Here’s the recipe:

with ketchup and mustard

Pretzel Cornmeal Tofu

Serves 3

• 1 package of extra firm tofu
• ½ c almond milk
• ½ c crushed up gluten free pretzels
• 1/3 c cornmeal + 1 T
• ½ T guar gum
• ½ t chili powder
• ½ t dried minced onions
• ¼ t tarragon
• ¼ t cayenne powder
• ¼ t cumin

1.     Press tofu between two kitchen towels and place some heavy cookbooks on top. Let it press for about 15 minutes

2.     Meanwhile preheat the oven to 400F and grease a baking sheet with olive oil

3.     Mix together the 1 T of cornmeal and ½ T of guar gum

4.     Mix the other dry ingredients together

5.     Cut the pressed tofu into 10 strips

6.     Place tofu in almond milk mixture one strip at a time, then place in bowl of dry ingredients. Make sure to coat both side of the tofu with the dry before placing it on the baking sheet

7.     Bake tofu for 20 minutes, flip the strips, cook for 20 more minutes

and this is how you make pretzel crumbs:

stomp stomp stomp

In other news...I did yoga at home for the first time today! It was awesome! I am really trying to make some changes in my life, and much of this new positive change stems from severe heartbreak...bittersweet eh? Well one of the biggest changes I have decided to make is around my severe depression. For the first time in my life, my outlook on myself and my situation has directly cost me something, and I am determined to make a change. I am no longer going to allow myself to slip into such severe depression and I am going to try to stop being so hard on myself. I spoke to my therapist about this, and he is in awe that for the first time in the two years since he has known me, I have come to this realization: that I don't have to be depressed - it isn't who I am, just something I deal with. It may take a long time until I no longer feel like my depression is a part of me, but this is a huge start. I am simply refusing to let myself give in to it. 

This year I am actually going to better myself. 

And this all originated around trying to win a guy back ;) haha pretty pathetic huh? Well the other part of my transformation is FINALLY getting to my goal weight. How? Well I am going to start on the Master Cleanse. Yes, that's right the infamous Lemonade Diet. Here’s a little outline of my plan for the next week:

Before Master Cleanse

Tomorrow: drive with my sister to school, run 3 miles home, do an hour of yoga

Thursday: snowboarding

Friday: either running for half an hour, walking for an hour, biking for an hour, and maybe some abs/core focusing...maybe

Saturday: yoga, probably a nice walk - bonus points if I run instead

Sunday: sister snowboarding!

Start of Master Cleanse

Monday through all of Wednesday: week of unlimited yoga and light walking

So hopefully I will have the strength to go through the entire 10-day Master Cleanse. I am really counting on it. I just need a jumpstart for this weight loss. 

My goal is 125 pounds. 

Which was my weight the end of Junior year, the ONLY time i have felt good about my body in my life. 

Wish me luck!

this inspirational photo is me finally beating a game called 300 miles to Pigsland...makes sense :)