pasta & procrastination.

hey guys! hope your tuesday was all you hoped for and maybe more.

day 2 of operation wake up and work out before work was a raging success! actually, today marshall had to be to work an hour and a half before i typically go in, so i had to wake up at 5:30 instead of 6:45.  eesh! on normal work weeks, we will have to wake up at 4:45 on mondays and at 6:45 tuesday through friday. not so bad—6:45 i can do.  because marshall’s job was out of town (in wyoming), he had to go to work early today.  for those who don’t know, marshall and i work together. i run the office and he is one of our installers—so we don’t actually work TOGETHER, just for the same company.  yep, good talk.

anyway, after a hot and sweaty insanity workout, i did a painful 10 minute session of foam rolling. my back is SO sore from bikram yoga. is that normal? because i have muscles hurting that i didn’t even know existed!  it’s a good hurt, but a hurt none the less. after rolling out some of the kinks, i hopped in the shower and got ready for work.

i had a lot of time, so i decided to make some protein oatmeal. i found some PB2 in the back of my cupboard last night, so i decided to top my protein oatmeal with the PB2 and some erin baker’s peanut butter protein granola.

looks great, right?  well, guess what? the PB2 was NASTY! i checked the jar and it turns out that it expired last year. oops? it actually tasted like some sort of chemical. you know when you remove your nail polish and then accidentally put your finger in your mouth? that’s what it tasted like. such a bummer!  i tossed the jar and skimmed the top layer off my oatmeal. luckily i hadn’t mixed it all in, so the majority of the oatmeal was salvageable.   to make up for the lost portion, i had an enormous spoonful of PB&Co crunch time peanut butter. that made everything better.

after eating breakfast, i still had time to kill! i typed up my recipe for chicken cordon bleu, cleaned the kitchen and started a load of laundry. after all that, i decided to go to work. i ended up getting to work a half hour early.. wow.  i can’t believe it. i should have knitted a sweater for randy in all that spare time! except it’s almost summer. and i don’t know how to knit. and randy probably wouldn’t like rocking a sweater…

lunch was leftover chicken cordon bleu casserole with asparagus. you can see it here. snack was yogurt and cereal.

i got off work a half hour early (since i went in early, obviously) and so when i got home and DIDN’T have to go to the gym, i wasn’t sure what to do with myself! we all know knitting a sweater for randy was out, so i decided to do some more foam rolling and get an early start on dinner.

dinner was something i have been pondering up for awhile now and finally decided to execute it. oh and GASP, a recipe that isn’t a casserole?! i know, weird.. i also just realized that it is vegan!

spinach & cannellini roasted garlic rotini with tofu.

serves four

ingredients:

• 6 oz whole wheat rotini pasta
• 1 block extra firm tofu, pressed overnight (or for 4 days…)
• 1/2 cup vegetable broth
• 1 large red onion, diced
• 4 cups spinach
• 1 can (15 oz) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 bulb garlic, roasted
• ~1 tsp garlic powder
• salt + pepper to taste

directions:

for the noodles, place a pot of salted water on the stove to boil. once it is boiling, throw in your pasta and cook al dente. rinse and set aside. (you can do this simultaneously with the other steps—i promise.)

for the tofu, dice it into 1/2” squares. spray the squares with olive oil cooking spray. put the tofu in a ziplock with the garlic powder.. shake vigorously and then  you can choose to either bake or fry your tofu.  i baked mine at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, flipping halfway through.

for the garlic, the easiest thing to do is peel each clove, wrap them all in foil and bake for about a half hour at 400 degrees. it will be fork-tender when done. and your whole house will smell like garlic!

for the rest of the dish, follow these steps..

sauté your onion in a large skillet that is coated in olive oil cooking spray (over medium-high heat).

once the onion begins to soften, add the broth. add salt and pepper.

bring the onions and broth to a simmer and let simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from heat.

throw your onion+broth mixture into a blender or food processor along with all the roasted garlic. add salt and pepper.

blend well, adding more broth if needed—you will be left with a creamy sauce that has a great color!

i find it fabulous that an onion, a bulb of garlic and 1/2 cup of chicken broth makes this creamy, flavorful sauce.

sauté your spinach in the same pan you used for the onions.

cook it down so it is slightly wilted.

time to toss!  in the large pot that you cooked the noodles in, toss the noodles, tofu, onion garlic sauce, beans and spinach together. taste and add salt and pepper if you need to.

time to eat!

yum. this recipe was so simple but tasted really complex. the various textures of the noodles, beans, tofu and spinach really kept each bite interesting!

here are the stats per serving:

not bad, not bad at all.

so.. that was the “pasta” part of my title. now about the “procrastination” part.  as you may or may not have noticed, i have really been putting off that whole 30 day question challenge thing.  it’s not because i don’t intend to finish it. it is because i am real good at procrastinating. in fact, i would consider myself a professional procrastinator. i procrastinate everything and anything i possibly can. i wish they paid people for such things, but alas.. that is not the case.

i decided to finally get around to doing day 10.. and then i saw what it was and was kinda disappointed because it is a lame topic:

discuss your first love and first kiss.

okay, starting with my first kiss! my first legit kiss was in 7th grade. by legit i mean french kiss. i had a boyfriend. we were “going out” (what a ridiculous term!) in 6th grade, broke up, and then got back together in 7th grade. he lived about a mile from me, so he was walking me home one night and when we were saying our goodbyes, he kissed me.  i remember thinking his tongue felt absolutely disgusting in my mouth.. but for some reason i liked the kiss. probably because it was my first “real” kiss.. but still, i thought it was slimy and strange. i think we kissed a total of 3 more times before we broke up. love ‘em and leave ‘em, right?

next up: first love. meh.. who cares? not me. but it’s part of the challenge. my first love was a guy i started dating when i was 17.  he was the first to say “i love you” and it was about 4 months after we started dating. we moved in together right after i turned 18, which was about 6 months into our relationship.  i was young and dumb. we lived together for awhile but that drove us apart and we broke up. the one good thing that came out of living together was that we got our dog, mable, you may have heard me talk about her before.

anyway, i dated this guy on and off and on and off and finally it ended with OFF.  we tried to stay friends but he was always in and out of jail and usually only called when he needed a favor. i was nice so i always helped him out. our friendship was complicated and whenever i had a new boyfriend he would steal mable from me. when i started dating marshall, he stole mable from my house when i wasn’t home and refused to let me see her. a few months later, she was hit by a car and was killed. worst thing ever. we eventually lost touch and he would call every so often. i always tried to be nice to him because that’s how i am. nice.  but we never really we friends after that.. with good reason.

where is he now? well he is in prison. and i am married to the best guy on the planet. so really, your first love doesn’t matter. it’s your last love that is the most important.

there you have it! maybe i will get to day 11 in the next 5 months…

Qs~

1. are you a procrastinator or a get-it-done-now type?

2. how old were you when you had your first legit kiss?

xo. janetha g.

p.s. i made some AMAZING lemon yogurt protein muffins and the recipe will be coming later this week. get excited!