Work. Oatmeal. Work work work. Chipotle. Work work work work work. (I like the work. Like, a lot.)

Hang out with Kate! Eat Kate’s yummy cooking. She made me tuna. Kate and I used to make tuna all the time when we were younger. We would go frolicking out in the woods and come in starved – then we would create a tuna concoction and eat it plain. Some of our favorite ingredients were…

• tuna (duh)
• mayonnaise
• mustard, especially the kind with seeds
• honey
• egg whites
• random spices

Even at age 10 we loved to eat.

She also made asparagus (with olive oil and soy sauce) and spinach (with olive oil and garlic). And there were crudites (carrots, peppers, cucumber) with a mustardy dip. After eating we talked about blogging and chatted and had a really good time together.

I walked home, which was a little over 2 miles. I actually walked to Kate’s after work while chatting with my mom, which was another 3 miles. Walking home was actually really nice. I haven’t been doing yoga much recently (because my mind is going too fast) but sometimes I need that time to let my mind go blank.

I’m having dessert now, which is a bowl of ripe kabocha!

What did you have for dessert today?

Maggie’s Green Mung Bean Seaweed Coconut Delight

Ingredients (makes 2-3 servings)

• 1 cup dry mung beans (mine were split)
• 3 cups of water
• 1-2 tablespoons coconut oil
• a few handfuls of dried seaweed (wakame is good)

Directions
Dump everything in a pan. Bring the water to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer. Cook, covered, until beans are done. Depending on the beans this could be 40 minutes or it could be an hour and a half. Just keep testing them.

It is AWESOME. I promise. Chockfull of (good) protein, vitamins, and minerals. It even has some healthy fats (coconut oil).

The trick about the oil is that it keeps the water from boiling over. You must use the (healthy) oil.

Yesterday - I walked to work (2 miles), then walked home as well (4 miles total). Sweet. I’m trying to get back into my walking habit; it seems like I am able to maintain my weight more easily when I’m walking regularly. Instead of sitting on my butt (which has grown, and is now a good cushion).

Breakfast was my bean concoction (above), lunch was chipotle (veggie with guac), dinner was from Gourmet Park, and dessert was kabocha. I think I had an apple in there too, and some diet sodas (can’t seem to kick this habit; oh well). Was definitely enough food, and it wasn’t too much eating at night. Oddly enough I wasn’t that hungry this morning. I like being hungry in the morning so I am going to try to shift it even more – less at night, more during the day. This is an ongoing experiment and this blog WILL keep me accountable. I am so tired of being tired of not fitting into my pants.

Tonight I’m going to see Kate and we’re going to strategize. She is going to cook for me. Great cook.

I’m back to work. What’s your favorite weekday breakfast? I think mine is oatmeal (which I had this morning).

I’ve been keeping a list of articles or links that I want to post about, but I keep forgetting. Here they are now:

To Drink Or Not To Drink?

Source.

This article talks about how it’s important to drink a lot of water… except just before and after eating. So many people (including myself) forget to do the simple things that make digestion easier. I may complain about my stomach, but I have to be honest with you – most of my belly troubles are my own damn fault. The lesson? Don’t drink 20 minutes before or after a meal. It’s that simple.

My next link – I have had cold hands and feet since I was in high school (way before I was ever eating disordered). I googled some remedies, and found this page:

Warmer Hands Naturally! Ten Easy Free Tips Help Cold Hands

Source.

Obviously an article written solely for the purpose of SEO, but actually useful and informative (unlike some of the articles I write for the same purpose).

The gist? It gave some physical things you can do that don’t really solve the problem (keeping covered, exercise, don’t smoke), but it also gave some other interesting insights:

• The wrong kind of calcium supplement can be bad for circulation
• Margarine is bad as well (duh)
• And some supplements can help (ginger, fennel, cayenne, potassium, niacin, iron, B C E vitamins, lecithin, Ginkgo Biloba, ACV, etc…)
• They note that eating meat could help as well.
• Then there are “warming teas” like sarsparilla root and fenugreek (neither of which I have tried, and I am a tea fiend, so I must!).

Another thing the article said that I thought was very important was that you *must* must must wait 30 days for a dietary change to have an effect on your health. You can’t just go around changing your eating habits willy-nilly and expect something to result in a week. It just won’t happen, especially if you are tackling an issue that has been around for a while.

More tips:

• Be aware of anxiety and other fear issues (ha) and deal with them (double ha).
• Try to breathe better (more deeply).
• And try to stop stressing.

The descriptions of reasons why a person would have cold hands and feet seem to describe… well, me. So maybe I’ll try the tips.

Onto foods and rambles and journalness. More links later!

This morning I walked to work. For the last week I was kind of in non-exercise mode (no reason really, aside from the fact that New York was rainy and gross and I didn’t feel like doing anything) but today’s glorious sunshine got me energized and happy. So I did 2 miles in the morning light while chatting with my dad.

The day was busy and eventful, and my lunch was a lovely break – a macrobiotic meal of random steamed veggies and roots with my favorite: miso-tahini dressing. This meal does not get boring to me because I am constantly changing the veggies. I have a nice rotation going on – spinach, broccoli, burdock, sweet potato (purple), kabocha, carrots, daikon, and probably some others I am forgetting.

I also made a delicious bean concoction earlier this week and I’ve been having it often – it makes an appearance at breakfast and either lunch or dinner most days. Recipe in the morning!

Since I’m still at work I don’t know what dinner will be, and I don’t know what else I will do tonight. Perhaps a leisurely stroll home (probably not – I don’t like lugging the computer more than I have to). Perhaps a snuggle on the couch with Bobby. Perhaps eating kabocha comfort food while watching Biggest Loser.

If you didn’t check it out already, Kate and I started up a cool concept for a blog. It’s about women and food and eating the damn cake.

I’m off to chug some water and wait at least 20 minutes before I eat. What do you do on the weekday nights?

Maggie’s Simple Sardines

Ingredients (1 serving)

• 3 whole sardines
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Prep the sardines – cut off the heads and gut them. I promise, this is really easy! Run a slit down the belly and just pull out the gross stuff. Rinse them in water and try to wipe off the loose scales. (Wow, I sound disgusting.)
2. Heat the butter in a pan over medium-high heat. Saute the sardines on each side for 2-3 minutes. You can put a cover over them and cook for another couple of minutes if you’re not sure they’re cooked through.
3. Eat! You don’t have to worry too much about the little bones – those ones are digestible. Just don’t eat the backbone and the bigger rib-like bones.

My veggies included kabocha, purple sweet potato, spinach, burdock, and daikon. The miso-tahini dressing on top is my new addiction.

Onto my day. So work – work is quite awesome. Some things happened last week that were odd at first, but I am really really enjoying my job. Wish I could say more!

My boss ordered lunch for us today from New York Burger Company and I got the “Tropical Grilled Chicken” salad. It was a garden salad topped with grilled chicken, perfectly ripe avocado, fresh mangoes, dried cranberries, and a few stray chickpeas. I used the yogurt-dill dressing and it was absolutely divine. I don’t think I could have asked for a more perfect salad… not to mention the sweet potato fries that rocked my socks.

Something else that rocks my socks…

Is my new project with my friend (and bridesmaid) Kate! Kate and I grew up together. We were both homeschooled (that’s how we met); I abandoned her for public school in the middle of sixth grade, but we remained close. We drifted apart in college and rekindled our friendship when I moved back to the city and discovered she was here. It gets even better – our fiances are good friends now too.

Eat the Damn Cake.

Go. Read. Give us feedback. We want YOU to help us make this awesome.

Happy almost Tuesday!

First, this is a porgy. I get mine in Chinatown.

Source.

Cumin-Tahini-Miso Grilled Porgy Recipe

Ingredients (1 serving)

• 1 medium porgy
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 1/2 tablespoon miso
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. Make the marinade. Mix together the tahini, miso, vinegar, cumin, chili, and pepper. If it’s still very thick you can add a splash of water.
2. Prepare the porgy – cut off the fins, the tail, and cut out the gills. I usually have my fishmonger do this, but if he didn’t, it’s actually simple. Use scissors to cut off the fins and tail, and use a small knife to cut out the gills (they are red looking). Rinse the fish and pat it dry.
3. Cut 3 slits (all the way to the bone) on each side of the porgy and coat it (inside and out) with the marinade. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour, turning it once in the middle so that both sides get to sit in the marinade.
4. Preheat your broiler. Broil on each side for ~8 minutes. When you put it on the pan and when you flip it make sure to brush on some more marinade. I try to use it all up.
5. Serve with a grain (white rice pictured here).

You could easily use my Tahini-Miso dressing recipe in this marinade!

I also served a salmon neck – recipe coming soon (so simple). I had most of the salmon and a little bit of the porgy; I wanted Bobby to have most of the porgy because I already knew it would be a great recipe. It was so tender and so perfect. If it weren’t for the bones, I think it would convert a non-fish person.

I forgot to mention that I first learned about porgies in my cooking class with Auntie Jo last week (still have to post about this…). The recipe we did that night was also grilled/broiled, but very different from this aside from the cumin. I honestly think mine is better

Onto my daily rambles…

This morning I went to a macrobiotic talk at Souen in Soho. I did not eat there afterwards because I was meeting up with friends for brunch (at The Mudspot on 9th Street and 2nd Ave – it was really good! The coffee was fantastic). I am so glad I went to this talk (speaker – John Kozinski). He told a new story of macrobiotics that I hadn’t really heard before. I had always focused so much on the macrobiotic diet specifically, but he expanded to talk about balance in life overall.

Some things I learned…

• The only foods you should really “eliminate” from your diet are the ones advertised on TV (from Michael Pollan’s book).
• Even meat is okay, if you balance it out. It should be naturally raised, organic, etc…
• Fish is great. So are beans. Try to have 1 cup of beans at lunch and dinner, or a serving of fish (fish 3-6 times a week). Some good fish are cod, scrod, sardines, small salmon, flounder, and red snapper. Ocean fish are better than lake fish, which tend to have PCBs.
• Most supplements are totally pointless.
• Eat seasonally. Eat natural foods. Eat whole foods.

Oh so many more… I’ll try to keep giving little tips I got from the session.

After the session I met up with my friend, her boyfriend, and Bobby. After brunch Bobby and I headed down to Chinatown again for some cheap veggies and fish. We came back, and now we have a friend over. My dinner was a very macrobiotic meal – steamed kabocha, broccoli, purple sweet potato, burdock, daikon, and lotus root. I put some miso-tahini dressing on top, and finished off the rest of my cornbread from yesterday.

For some reason I’m really feeling the macrobiotic thing. Especially after today, when John emphasized fitting it to your own needs and way of life.

I like rambling. But now I have to go do a bit of work. I’m trying to cut back on my hours, but there are some things that need to get done! Hope y’all had a good weekend.

Today I will include food, or at least mention it. I am on a Souen kick (macrobiotic, vegan and vegetarian – but has fish restaurant) and I cannot get enough. For brunch Bobby and I went to Souen in Union Square. I got the Brunch A ($8.50, the best deal ever) again:

• Kenchin-Tofu Drop Soup  - tofu, shiitake, burdock, carrot and watercress in kombu kuzu broth
• Corn Bread (you can also get Spelt Bread or Sour Dough)
• Steamed Vegetables (carrot, daikon, kabocha squash and greens)

Bobby got the Scrambled Tofu with Salmon ($10.50) – Served with brown rice, bread and yam and mesclun salad. You can also get this with Tempeh Bacon for $2 less, but we are not really fans of tempeh. Here is my crappy phone picture:

I shared my soup, took most of my cornbread home, and ate Bobby’s yams. I also had a lot of their miso tahini dressing, which I posted a recipe for the other day.

When we got home we needed to relax, so we went across the street to a spa called Enliven. We got a Couples Massage – 60 minutes for each of us and we were next to each other (screen between us). It was really nice. The spa is very Traditional Chinese Medicine-y and I know they also offer acupuncture and other cool services. They have good reviews on Yelp.

For dinner I made a salmon head/neck that I got in Chinatown (I just boiled it with veggies and dill and miso, but I will post a more official recipe later… when I feel like uploading pictures). I also made a Porgy that I learned to cook at last week’s cooking class (which reminds me that I still need to post about that). And kabocha. I’m kind of giving in to my kabocha addiction again. I fully expect to regain my orange glow.

Now we are sitting on the couch. We watched this week’s Biggest Loser (I am getting a little bored of this show, which seems to be one big long commercial) and I don’t know what else we’ll do for the rest of the night. I think I see more kabocha in my future (sad, but it makes me happy).

Tomorrow’s plans? I am going to try to get down to Souen in Soho at 10am for a talk with John Kozinski, who is apparently some famous macrobiotic dude. Then Bobby and I have a brunch double date with a friend. I think we’ll go to The Mudspot. (Anyone been there?)

What did/will you do this weekend?

Maggie’s Miso Tahini Dressing (based on Souen’s dressing/sauce)

Ingredients (1 serving – multiply as needed – I usually make 2x this)

• ~1 tablespoon tahini
• ~1/2 tablespoon miso (I use red)
• ~1-2 tablespoons water

Method

Mix everything together with a fork or chopstick. Add more tahini to thicken, or use less water.

I had this on a few things. I think it was best drizzled over my macrobiotic lunch of steamed kabocha, broccoli, daikon, and burdock…

But it was also lovely (though this batch was a bit too watery) atop of a veggie stirfry. This was cauliflower, eggplant, frozen corn, watercress (yum!), and burdock. I used coconut oil and butter to cook it.

Another yummy thing (which would probably also be good with this dressing) was an egg puff (inspired by The Fitnessista). I mixed 2 eggs (whole eggs) with some salt and pepper, then microwaved them in a flat dish for about 2 minutes.

I topped my puff with nooch (nutritional yeast) and agave nectar.

Have you ever made an egg puff? What’s your favorite dressing/sauce?

I don’t consider myself a feminist. Or at least, I didn’t until yesterday when I read Gena’s post and then today when I had this particular discussion with Kate and her mom. I am not a feminist in the traditional sense; I don’t think that women should have high-powered executive jobs and I don’t think that women have to have wonderful exciting careers to prove that they are just as capable as men. No. I just think that the work women do for their families should be considered just as important as the work that a CEO does (if not more important, actually). I think the feminists of the 60s and 70s got it wrong, and I think they actually made life harder for women of my generation.

I actually have a lot to say about this, but I am saving it for something – you will just have to wait and see what it is! I promise; it’s exciting. Kate is in on it.

Here are some things I might do if I could do whatever I wanted all day:

• Review a macrobiotic diet plan (this was such a fun experiment).
• Make new creations with PB2… (PB2, where are you?? I ordered a new box over a month ago.)
• Experiment with rice cooker recipes (I’m on this weird mailing list for recipes – I don’t know why they send me recipes all the time, but I’m actually kind of glad for it!)
• Bake more! I have been meaning to make these black bean brownies that I made a long time ago.

In an effort to use my womanly baking skills and show off a bit, I made these cookies for my office last night (Monday was a rough day; baked goods are always good for cheering up) and took them in this morning. I think they worked. I enjoy baking even if it’s not as “important” as working in an office.

Quinoa Flake Cookies (Gluten Free)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup quinoa flakes
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• dash of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg

Directions

Preheat oven to 375F.

Mix everything together. You can mix the dry together and the wet together separately if you want, but I didn’t and they still came out good.

Drop onto a baking sheet – heaping spoonfuls – and bake for ~15 minutes. Make sure they don’t burn! Soft yet crispy – see:

What would you do all day if you could do anything you wanted? I forgot to mention I would also play with my fats…

Fat cat in a bag (we didn’t put him in; he just likes it).

Fat cat on a couch.

Anyway… What would you do all day if you could do anything you wanted?

We have picked a place for the ceremony – the meetinghouse I grew up going to in Yardley, PA. Here is a nice picture (this is in the winter):

They are so sweet – when my dad told them I was getting married they blocked off every weekend in July for us (we still haven’t picked the exact date).

Now for the reception! We have a few options. We may be able to have it at the meetinghouse, if we can get them to let us have wine and beer (Quakers typically do not drink, myself included). If that doesn’t work out, we will likely have it at my parents’ house in New Jersey. My really sweet Auntie Jo and Uncle Morris (remember our gingerbread houses?) offered their house (in Flushing) for the reception as well – they have a great backyard. I think we will have a party there this summer anyway even if we don’t have the reception there.

Speaking of Auntie Jo, we took a really awesome cooking class last week… I must update about that. Soon, I promise. It was called “Eat Local, Drink Global” and the focus was fish. The very talented Peter Berley was the teacher. I think Bobby is jealous of my celebrity crush on him.

Onto the food! Here are some yummy things I have eaten recently: frozen yogurt from Berrywild – The Art of Yogurt.

Berrywild has two kinds of yogurt – “berry smooth” and “kinda icy”. Bobby and I both got “kinda icy” (they taste the same, but “kind icy” has fewer calories). So good! I will definitely go back. Bobby always gets toppings but I am too cheap for toppings.

I like to switch up my morning breakfast grains (when I go for grains). This is grits with lots of cinnamon (that’s why it’s kind of brown and looks like oat bran). I topped it with agave nectar and coconut oil.

I don’t understand what the difference is between coconut oil and coconut butter. The oil is solid at room temperature, so it’s kind of buttery. The butter melts really easily just like the oil. Are they the same?

I was thinking a lot about oil this past weekend (I have weird thoughts). I went through a phase where I did not eat much oil, and I was miserable. You can’t get full not matter how much you eat, you are cold, and your skin is dry. High quality oil is amazing for your skin, hair, hormones, etc… You have to eat fats! It is so important. I would even go so far as to say that eating more fat will help you lose weight, provided that you don’t overdo it. I have gained weight this winter and I know it’s because I wasn’t eating enough fats and I was eating too many carbs. That is changing though – I want to look awesome in my wedding dress this summer

What’s your favorite healthy fat? I think mine is coconut oil or butter. Love them both.

• Becoming Whole, by Meg Wolff (book review)
• 2-week wrap-up
• 1-week thoughts
• Lessons learned

Here are some more tips for a DIY Macrobiotic Lifestyle…

Tip #1: Don’t stress. Chill out. Do the things that make you happy, not the things that make you sad/angry/depressed/anxious/etc… So many people forget that stress is probably the number one cause of disease. So don’t stress!

Tip #2: Don’t exercise too much. Incorporate movement into your daily routine, but don’t overdo it. I like to get my movement through walking – I aim for about 2 miles a day. Last week I walked to work every day (I think), so that was 2 miles a day. Then yesterday I didn’t really walk at all, and Today I ended up walking about 4 miles because Bobby and I went out to enjoy the lovely weather we’ve been having in New York. Central Park was beautiful today. Anyway, it all balances out.

Tip #3: Keep your meals simple. Souen has very balanced dishes – the Macro Plate, the Planet Platter (different names for the same dish at different locations) – that incorporate squash (kabocha), veggies (broccoli or kale, carrots, diakon, and hijiki seaweed), beans (pinto I think), and rice (brown). The dishes come with a great dressing (lots of healthy fats) – miso tahini. I cannot get enough! So I had to make something similar for myself.

This was my attempt at recreating last week’s brunch for lunch: kabocha, broccoli, and carrots, topped with a black sesame seed sauce. After this shot I packed it into a tupperware to eat at the office.

The sauce is so simple, and so good. I have been having it on everything this week.

Black Sesame Seed Paste/Sauce – Ingredients

• 3-4 tablespoons black sesame seed powder (probably just ground toasted black sesame seeds)
• 2 teaspoons agave nectar or other sweetener (maple syrup or brown rice syrup would also be good)
• splash of soy sauce (<1 teaspoon)
• water, as needed (for thinning)

Black Sesame Seed Paste/Sauce – Method

Mix the powder, sweetener, and soy sauce. Add water to thin, if needed. Add more powder to thicken, if needed. Adding more agave will make it creamier, which is how I like it.

Hope you enjoyed these macro tips… I’m off to watch more of the Oscars. Go Sandra Bullock! (I loved The Blind Side.)

Who are you rooting for?