Lunchtime on Wednesday

My conference was pretty good. I went up on Monday (a 2 hour drive) and had dinner with a friend. We went to a place called Mai Thai--we shared edamame, I had a green curry with Tofu, and for dessert we shared black rice with coconut creme. I was pretty impressed with the waitress--I asked for the vegan red curry and she came back to tell me that the chef couldn't do the red curry completely vegan tonight, but he could do the green. Would I like to have the green or could she help me find something else? It would have been so easy for her to just bring me the red curry--I'd have never known there was meat broth in the sauce--but she took the time to let me know and offered me alternatives. It was very good and the service gets excellent marks as well.

At the motel, I had some fruit and plain oatmeal off of their buffet for breakfast and a banana for a snack. For lunch, I had requested a vegan alternative--everyone else got a pasta buffet; I got a great salad made up of all kinds of raw vegetables cut into really tiny squares over a bed of shredded leaf lettuce served in a cabbage bowl. It had a really light vinaigrette over it. I think I definitely got the better end of the deal over the other participants. For an afternoon snack, I had raw sunflower seeds (out of my purse) and an apple.

Then I had to drive home. I had rain the whole way--I HATE DRIVING IN BAD WEATHER! When I got home, I had a piece of whole wheat bread with a little almond butter and jelly on it. I had to have something--I was starving and the kids were just leaving for karate so we wouldn't be able to have dinner for another hour and a half!

For dinner we had stir-fried teriyaki veggies and sauteed teriyaki marinated tofu (hubby and daughter had hot dogs and cottage cheese instead of the tofu).

My veggies are so easy. Here's what I do:

Cut up into like sized pieces whatever veggies you have in the house (we had zucchini, onion, carrot, yellow bell pepper, celery).
Put a little oil in the wok and heat (I use soybean oil).
When the oil is hot, put the veggie in and toss for a few minutes over the heat.
Pour in 1/2 cup of teriyaki sauce (I use kikoman--just like the soy sauce but teriyaki), toss the veggies some more, and turn down heat.
continue cooking until the veggies are as done as you'd like them. (I like them crisp, but hubby likes them pretty much well done so I do them somewhere in between for us).

tofu:
drain, press, and marinate extra firm tofu (I marinated in a bit of veggie broth and teriyaki sauce for about 20 minutes).
lightly oil small fry pay and fry tofu on both sides (about 3 minutes per side or just until lightly brown.

My son really liked the tofu. And by the way, I buy a block of the extra firm tofu and cut it into 3 steaks. They are a little fatter that way, but that's how I like them.

I was so tired last night, I fell into bed as soon as we got the kids in bed. A 2-hour drive, sleeping in a hotel bed, then an all day class, then a 2-hour drive in the rain had taken their toll on me.

Well, I'm back to work, I had a sandwich--seitan with vaganaise and spinach on whole wheat--and now I'm ready to work again.

Ciao for now.