Tofu Friday

Work cut most of my teams Friday hours so I ended up with the day off. Mike is usually always off on Friday so it was nice that we were going to have some couple time.
Mike took Ayden to school which allowed me to lay in bed a little longer and live in denial of the fact that eventually, I'd have to get up and get ready. There was no particular place for us to go but a few things we had talked about. Paint. We are repainting our kitchen and living room a few shades darker than it is now. Simple khaki although I'm sure it's named something much more elaborate. Prairie Dust or some shit like that. I'm not trying to go completely boring but I am trying to keep in mind that we want to sell this house within two years. So we are keeping the colors neutral and the upgrades only if it will increase the value.

First food. We decided on the Wasabi Cafe a little sushi restaurant not far from us. We were going to be in that area anyway to drop off some paper work. So we took care of business first and then headed to the quaint little sushi cafe. It was small and had the feel of a place I'd find in San Fran, NY or Tokyo. I was immediately in love with the feel and decor.

If Mike and I had stood side by side and extended our arms we could touch both walls. The tables lined the wall on both sides and gave enough room for people to walk. The simplistic way in which the special of the day and different sushi options were displayed impressed me. You can see part of it on the right side of Mike. The guy over Mike's left shoulder talked on his phone the whole time and was so loud that I felt like I was in the conversation. LMAO.

Here's the starter salad with a ginger dressing. I looked at it for a second and then dove in. It was deelish! It tasted like there were oranges in it and I loved it.
Mike as well.

I didn't finish the whole little bowl of salad because I didn't want to get too full. Working hard on that.

I ordered Pat Thai and Mike ordered the Drunken Noodles both of us got tofu. This would be our first times trying tofu. We'd seen in the grocery store only to turn our noses up in disgust because it just looked like a big white mass of flavorless nastiness.

It too was great. The tofu actually looked and tasted like chicken. It was very good and I could definitely see myself eating it again. One day I'm sure we'll try to cook it at home.

All and all it was a wonderful day. We stayed on the diet and discovered new delicious foods to enjoy.

I've started my workouts as well. 30 minutes of cardio, five days a week. I can't wait until the weigh in. 8 days!

Food and books, wonderful combo

So I was poking around the book section on Amazon.com, researching a few books when I found "The Fat Smash Diet" by Ian K. Smith M.D. You may know him as the young doctor on the panel of VH1's Celebrity Fit Club. I've heard and read great reviews of this book and at a little over two bucks how could I not pick it up?

The diet is in phases, four to be exact. Each phase is a week long or if you would like to make it longer you may. The first phase is the detox phase so your choices are limited. The good thing is you can have all the fruits and veggies you want. Bad news for some is no meat. I eat the grilled veggie Boca Burgers. I'll have a salad and a burger in a lettuce wrap with ketchup, mustard and pickles. It deelish honestly. I don't really feel like I'm missing out on much. I'm eating every two hours. If I'm not hungry and it's time to eat I'll at least have a couple of bites to keep my metabolism going. My tummy grumbled a little the first day but I do feel satisfied and not overstuffed. The caffeine headache was the worst. I didn't think I drank enough caffeine that it would matter when I cut it out completely but it did. Two Aleve and that passed, hasn't been back since.

I also picked up "The Sneaky Chef" I forget the lady's name but the book is all about pureeing vegetables so that you can incorporate AKA "hide" them into your kids food. My son absolutely refused to eat vegetables although for some strange reason he likes Cole slaw and believe me I'm feeding it to him every chance I get. Anyway I haven't tried the recipes yet but I'll give a review when I do.

On a side note: Jerry Seinfeld's wife wrote a book almost identical to this book after The Sneaky Chef had already been published. There is still great debate going on about plagiarism and if there was any committed by Mrs. Seinfeld. I researched many of the reviews and found that the original was not only a cheaper book, the buyers found the recipes tastier. That was enough of a selling point for me.

The third book was "Special Diets for Special Kids part two". This book is a GF/CF recipe follow up book to the first one by the same author. Gluten and Casein which is also known as wheat and dairy, does not process well in my son's body and the side effects can cause a number of things from diarrhea to an opiate effect like he's stoned out of his mind. It's horrible and he's unable to focus on anything going on. I don't mind letting him go off into his own little world but when he needs to relearn ways to communicate I have to have his full attention or we are wasting our time.

Since we have taken wheat and dairy out of his system it's definitely helped. I can tell when he's had something with wheat or dairy in it. He bounces off the walls. This will be life long for Ayden and he will have to learn to maintain the diet on his own as he gets older. We are having him tested for Celiac Disease soon.