Dinner for one

I was super excited to try my last new flavor of Chobani so I packed it as a snack for yesterday’s ride home.

I topped it with some almond crunch granola before digging in.  Oh man, this was good.  It had big hunks of black cherries in the bottom, which are my favorite type of cherry.  I always forget how much I love cherries, until they go on sale and I buy some.

This flavor reminded me that I need to find some frozen cherries for smoothies.  Unless cherries are in season, they so expensive.  So it’s nice to know that you can get your cherry fix with the real cherries in Chobani when cherries are out of season.

Black Cherry Chobani gets two toe-thumbs up, but lemon is still my one true love.

When I arrived home, I put on my workout gear and decided to do some 30 Day Shred. I was feeling ambitious, so I did level three.  As usual, it kicked my bootay.  I had the most trouble finishing the sets of plyometric lunges (my legs were tired from that early morning run) and the traveling push-ups.  I did the second set with my knees down.  I was nice and sweaty and so glad when it was all over.

I was not happy, however, to get a phone call from Brad saying he had no idea when he would be home from work. 🙁

I put on a smile anyway and started preparing my dinner for one.  Thank you exercise endorphins.

I snagged this Indian sauce at the Healthy Home Market a couple of weeks ago and was ready to put it to good use.

First, I made crispy tofu.  After pressing the tofu for 15 minutes, I cubed it.  In a large bowl I covered my tofu in one tablespoon of coconut oil and doused it in salt and fresh ground pepper.  After stirring the whole mixture together, I placed the tofu on a baking sheet at 400 degrees F.  I cooked it for 15 minutes, stirred and flipped the tofu, then cooked it for 15 additional minutes.

The cooking all went down when I was working out, so by the time my workout was complete, I only had to throw the rest of my meal together.

Here is the key to crispy tofu.  While I prepared the rest of my dinner, I left the tofu in the stove to continue to bake on 250 degrees F.  It needs to cook for at least 15 more minutes, but I have left it in longer on occasion.  It only gets crispier the longer you leave it in the oven.

I took the easy way out and microwaved about 1/3 of the leftover box of red quinoa in water.  It took about 10 minutes total, but I took it out and stirred it twice.  Then I also microwaved some broccoli in my Pampered Chef steamer microwave container.

Once everything was done, I assembled my meal: three heaping spoons of quinoa, about 1 cup of broccoli, 1/3 of the tofu, and 1/2 cup of the sauce (one serving).  I reheated everything in the microwave for 30 seconds to heat up the sauce.

I loved this sauce.  I must recreate it! The quinoa was just a  bit moist so when it hit the sauce, the sauce got extra runny.  I traded my fork in for a spoon to make sure I could eat all of the sauce.

Lime flavored bubbily water on the side.

Even though, I wanted to lick my bowl myself, I let Rascal have the honors.

It’s virtually impossible to get a non-blurry shot of Rascal.  He doesn’t get posing for photos at all.  😉

Brad ended up working most of the night, even after he finally came home.  Rascal and I turned in early after I did a little reading before bed.  My book keeps getting better and better!

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