Monday, May 8, 2023

Weekly Round Up: Messy but Good

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week I experimented with two new to me recipes that were very messy but oh so good.

Eats

Who wants another so-easy-it's-stupid Cheap Lazy Vegan recipe?????

Exhibit A (pictured above) is the 5 Minute Spicy Udon Noodle Recipe.  Now granted it does take more than 5 minutes, but it's fast and easy.  I'd gotten some frozen Udon noodles the last time that I was at the Asian grocery, and my gut feeling is that one serving of noodles was about twice as much as I wanted to eat, so I doubled all of the other ingredients and tripled the sauce so that I'd have two servings.  I've got no regrets about anything and you'll be seeing this one repeated frequently in my meals.

Now who wants a "I saw this on Instra and thought it looked cool" recipe????


Even though I hate chicken with a passion, I couldn't take my eyes off Jalalsamfit's high protein lemon pepper chicken wraps.  So I made it my way:

  • A bag of soy curls in place of the chicken, and I didn't bother with skewers.  I spritzed a little oil on the soy curls, added the spices, gave them a dusting of corn starch, and air fried them at 360 for 20 minutes.
  • Shredded lettuce, red onion, and cherry tomatoes for the veg
  • Regular tortillas instead of whatever wraps he's using and of course I toasted them up in a skillet
  • Vegan mayo instead of "lite" mayo in the sauce - if you're not aware vegan mayo is a lower cal mayo that tastes good.  I also made way more sauce than he was calling for cuz I like my sauce - I just eyeballed it based on the scraps that were left in the almost empty mayo bottle.  

Workouts

I started another round of Caroline Girvan's Beastmode - week 1 of 2 is complete.  The only change that I made is that I remembered from the first time that I didn't like the week 1 HIIT workout, so I subbed in the HIIT workout from The Pyramid series, which I had good memories of.  Thank you Past Me for taking those notes.

Watching

I finally got around to watching some TV.

  • I started the final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.  At first I was sad to see that it was only 5 episodes, but once I started watching my attitude changed pretty quickly to "ouch, this is gonna be a long 5 episodes".  Sigh, the first 3 seasons of this show were so good and the final two just phoned it in.  Oh well.
  • On a more positive note, I watched the first episode of The Last of Us and I like it.

Reading

  • I'm still listening to Like Family by Paula McClain, it's still very good.
  • I finished A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore, solid thumbs up.  I've made a mental note to check out her other books.
  • Next up: Trespasses by Louse Kennedy via HI NICOLE!   It's about a woman who has an affair with a married man in 1970's Ireland and from where I am 10% I can tell that it's not going to end well.  But it's a very good book so I'm in for the ride.

See y'all next week!

20 comments:

  1. Nice job on sticking to your workout routine, Birchie!
    I hope that things are working out on other fronts, too, especially about Good Fish Co.
    We started watching "Manifest" on Netflix yesterday.
    A plane gets into turbulences on its way from Jamaica to New York. After landing successfully, the crew and passengers are told that the world has moved on 5 years and that they had been presumed dead. Such a strange, yet fascinating plot!

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    1. I saw season 1 of Manifest back when it came out and I have good memories. When you get there let me know if season 2 is worth watching! I think the only reason that I didn't see it is because I was watching in real time and something else had come along by the time season 2 came out.

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  2. That udon recipe looks great! I am a big fan of noodles with protein and sauce for dinner. In fact, anything I can put in a bowl is a win for me. I made a vermicelli rice bowl a couple of weeks ago that was a big hit with the fans. My friend is a vegetarian and her kids can't eat nuts, seeds or dairy. I marinated tofu in ginger, soy sauce, lemon and garlic and then fried it in the air fryer and put that and some stir fried veggies (also cooked in the marinade) on top of rice noodles. You can add peanuts or furikake on top and it is an easy, quick one bowl meal!

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    1. Yes! Anything in a Bowl is my favorite thing to eat. You can customize it for what you have on hand/any allergy concerns and you're guaranteed that it's going to taste phenomenal.

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  3. Me! Me! I want another recipe from Cheap Lazy Vegan!!! This one looks perfect- my son is coming home next week, WITH HIS ROOMMATE. The roommate is going to stay for a few days and I'm already trying to figure out how I'm going to feed them. I mean, my son already eats a ton and there will basically be two of him. Sigh.
    I'm glad you liked Spell of Winter! Exposure was another good one, and you're reminding me that I want to read more Helen Dunmore.

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    1. ME TOO!!! Sometimes she does a couple of videos a week, but there are a lot of dry spells where she does nothing. Thank goodness she's got a big backlog of videos and there are lots of gems like this one out there. Everything is SO EASY and it tastes SO GOOD. I really don't know how she does it.

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  4. Yum, I am here for the spicy udon noodles.

    You are so right about Mrs. Maisel kind of fizzling in season 4. Which is so disappointing! I haven't yet watched the final season because I feel like I remember nothing from season 4. And yet... I am not compelled to rewatch it.

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    1. Sigh. I can't hate since seasons 1 to 3 were so good. All that the show has done since then is to let us hang out with the characters. Don't worry about season 4, I didn't remember anything either and it's totally fine.

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  5. Added Trespasses to my book list; sounds like something I would enjoy! The dishes look yummy, too.

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  6. I am so hungry for those udon noodles right now. YUM!

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    1. Now that I've finished them I want them right now too!!!

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  7. HI BIRCHY!!!
    I mean, no spoilers, but yeah. I hope you enjoy it! I really knew shamefully little about the Troubles, so this was a very good educational book for me (I had to google EVERYTHING).
    OMG that foooooooood. I would eat the hell out of those.

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    1. At first I was like, "nah, I can just pick up what's going on from the story" but now I'm at the point where I had to start googling. All that I was able to retain is that the conflict was Catholics vs Protestants but it wasn't religious so basically I'll be going to back to google until I start retaining more. But it's a darn good book so at least I understand that much.

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  8. Ha ha! I wrote "so many burpees" next to my notes on that first HIIT workout in Beast Mode, so I imagine I wasn't loving it very much.

    Can we talk about A Spell of Winter, though? Really? With spoilers and everything? Because WHY THE INCEST?! What did that bring to the table. It was such a madcap book. I have so many questions and no answers.

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    1. Sure! My best explanation is that it's a metaphor for pre WWI Europe. Bad things were happening, there was a war, and then it was a totally new world that everyone had to make sense of. So story wise there needs to be a BIG ICK to say that life as we know it is really messed up. The the war comes in and everything collapses so we know we can't go back there again.

      That's the best that I've got! The author could have done another ick besides incest, but it does kind of get our attention as a BIG ICK. Or maybe it's just Flowers in the Attic fan fiction, who knows?

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  9. Both of those meals look delish. I love that you use soy curls! You might like Plant Basics plant protein too - different shapes with only one ingredient - peas or soy (LOL, I must disclose my husband literally makes this product). I really want to try the udon recipe!!!!

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    1. You and I both know that soy curls are awesome. They're shelf stable and you can do a million things with them.

      I like the look of the Plant Basics as well - more variety in shape and more protein for less calories than the soy curls...hmm...definitely something to consider.

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  10. Lots of good eats (which is no surprise). I have not had a chance to watch Mrs. Maisel, yet, but I have heard so many good things...too bad the most recent episodes aren't as good as the previous ones. I just started Firefly Lane (are you the one who recommended that one?). I don't watch much tv (other than college football and basketball), so it's been a fun indulgence.

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  11. You reminded me that I have soy curls in the cupboard. Out of sight, out of mind, apparently. I must change that!
    I confess that the TV shows mean nothing to me - although I have heard of Mrs. Maisel! :)

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