Vegan Caprese Salad

Good evening!  Hope you’re all doing well tonight!

I had a pretty lazy evening around the house.  I did come up with a pretty darn good recipe, though, if I do say so myself.  I picked up some basil and tomatoes at the grocery store today, so I decided to put them to good use and veganize a caprese salad.  A typical version of the salad would include fresh mozzarella cheese, but I decided to use baked tofu instead.

Vegan Caprese Salad

Ingredients

1 block extra firm tofu
1 tomato
15 basil leaves
1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 400F.  Combine olive oil and minced garlic in a small container.  Slice the tofu into approximately 1/4 inch slices, and coat each slice in the oil and garlic.

2.  Place each slice in the baking pan, and cover the tofu in the remaining garlic from the mixture.  Baking for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

3.  While tofu is baking, cut the tomato into 1/4 inch slices.

4.  Once the tofu is golden brown, remove it from the oven.  On a plate, place two of the tofu slices.  Top them with a tomato slice.  Place three basil leaves on top of the tomato, and top them with another tomato slice.  Garnish with a sprig of basil. 

I ate two of these, and plan on saving the rest for my snack at work tomorrow evening.  It was amazing though.  One of my favorite things about summer is fresh, in-season tomatoes and basil.  Absolutely idyllic.  I love this vegan update of a classic dish.

Once dinner was complete, I sat back to chill out, watch a chick flick, paint my toenails, and sip on some Yogi Detox tea.

The movie was When in Rome, with Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel.

 The nail polish color of the evening was Mod-ern Girl by OPI.

The mid-movie snack was toast with vegan cream cheese.

And leftover berries from earlier.

The movie was meh, but the rest was good.  I now remember why I’m not a big fan of chick flicks.  They’re just too cheesy and ridiculous.  However, I’m about to completely contradict myself and go watch Emma in bed.  Old-school Gwyneth, and quite good.  Plus I re-read the book this past winter.  I can’t help myself.

Have a great night!

❤ Lindsay

Red Robin Burger and Lots of Basketball

Hey!  How’s your week going so far?  I had a fun couple of days off from work.  It involved basketball…lots of basketball.

Sunday night, I played poker with Keenan, our neighbor, and some of their friends.  It was a house game with a $10 buy-in.  I had never played poker before in my life, unless you count playing on Keenan’s phone.  I wasn’t the first to get out of the tournament, but I was close to it.  I really wasn’t getting any good hands though.  Gambling always makes me nervous anyway, not really my cup of tea.

Monday, I drove out to Silverdale, where my parent’s live, and met up with my dad to change my car insurance company, and finally get my own policy.  Yes, I am 24 and was still on my parent’s insurance.  It ended up being a great switch for me.  I’m actually saving over $100 a month by switching from Geico to State Farm.  Definitely nothing to complain about!

After the business was taken care of, I met my friend, Molly, to get pedicures and coffee (well, chai, for me), and chit-chat.  I absolutely love getting pedicures, and I thought about taking a picture, but my toes are definitely not cute enough to put on the internet.  I chose a pale pinky-nude color by OPI.  I wish I could remember the name.  OPI always has the funnest shade names.  I also managed to just about cut off the circulation to my legs by pushing my skinny jeans up to my knees. 😛

Post-pedicures, we headed back to my house to go watch the NBA playoff games at my neighbor’s house with Keenan.  I don’t know how I always manage to get so into the basketball playoffs, even though I’m really not a huge sports fan.  My state doesn’t even have a team anymore, since the Sonics became the Oklahoma City Thunder.   The two games of the evening took about four hours, then we all headed home for the night.

Yesterday, Keenan and I got up, and decided that instead of going for a run, that we would go kick around a soccer ball at a nearby field.  I only played soccer for one season when I was seven, but I was definitely down to go play around.  I think it made me happiest to go play soccer, because of how happy it made Keenan.  He played soccer for most of his life, and even played in college, plus he was really good back in the day, so it’s kind of his thing.  You can tell he’s really in his element when he’s got his cleats on.  Seriously though, just running around, passing the ball and kicking goals ended up being quite the workout.  I was definitely breathing heavily, plus my legs are sore today from using new muscles.  Changing up your exercise is great way to keep from being bored with your activities.  Also, it keeps your body guessing, which can prevent your fitness level from plateauing. 🙂

After playing, we went home, got all cute-ed up and headed out to Red Robin to get some dinner and watch game two of the Heat vs. Celtics series.  Guess who dominated again… the Heat!  Of course.  Lebron James scored 35 points, to which I told Keenan, “Booyah!” and did a little happy dance.  Because I’m mature like that.

I also decided to play undercover blogger and grab a Blackberry pic of the delicious Red Robin burger.

I ordered the Pub Burger with a Gardenburger, and no ranch or cheese.  Red Robin will actually make any of their burgers with a Boca Vegan Burger or a Gardenburger.  Pretty sweet deal.  The picture is too dark to see, but it contains sauteed onions and mushrooms, and tomato slices.  It was bomb.

I also ate about twice that many fries with ketchup, and enjoyed a Pyramid Thunder Head IPA and a Classic Mojito.  I can’t resist bottomless steak fries or Mojitos.  They’re definitely two of my weaknesses.

We went home to watch the other basketball game, with the Thunder vs. the Grizzlies, then went home and went to bed.

Today it’s back to the grind, as usual.  Time to go feed some hospital patients!

What’s your favorite vegan food from a normal restaurant? 

What do you like to do as an alternative activity to standard running and walking?

Have a good one!

❤ Lindsay