Skip to main content

Unplanned Rest Day & Balsamic Stone-Ground Mustard Tofu

Rest Day
Well, today ended up being an unplanned rest day for me. Honestly, I was feeling a bit blue today and the thought of running or doing any workouts just made it worse. Normally it'd be the opposite for me. But I think my body was telling me to chill out and rest up.

Today's run was supposed to be a 6-mile tempo run. So definitely not an easy or relaxing type of run. And if I was already feeling fatigued, then I knew the run would suffer big time. So, rest up and recharge and get back to it tomorrow is the plan.

I actually ended up leaving work at noon. I was just that blah/blue/yuck feeling. And no worries, I'll be fine of course. We all have those days. Sinuses acting up so giving me a headache, no desire to workout at all, just an off day.

Kitchen Therapy
When I got home, I immediately put on comfy clothes and started cleaning (aka throwing out junk). I did some purging of junk that had collected in our office as well. Kind of made me feel better to be getting rid of unnecessary crap actually.

I also made a recipe I've been eying - SpaBettie's Tomato Basil Beanballs. The recipe is SO simple and so incredibly full of flavor. The only changes I made were to add in some fresh oregano, garlic, and chili pepper flakes. Other than that, I just followed her recipe and tips/tricks and they came out  fantastic.
Oh....But, that's not we had for dinner. I made those to use for tomorrow night's dinner. I also made up some black bean burgers while I was at it. I love being productive in the kitchen. I find it very therapeutic. So I suppose that's why I made yet another dish for tonight. I made Balsamic and Stone-Ground Mustard Tofu with Sauteed Kale and Sweet Potatoes.

For the tofu, I pressed then dry seared before marinating in a mix of balsamic vinaigrette, stone-ground mustard, and splash of OJ. Super simple mix. I let that marinate in the fridge for several hours before baking at 400 degrees until crisp.

For the kale, I simple diced one sweet potato and nuked for 4 minutes. I added that to a pan with white onion and a bit of salt and pepper to begin to saute. I then added in no-salt vegetable broth and some white wine and the kale. I covered to let the kale begin to steam and wilt down. I did add just a drizzle of agave, but that's completely optional. I also added in a pinch of ground red pepper and some garlic powder.

After the kale had wilted down and potatoes were mostly done, I uncovered to let any liquid sort of steam/cook out.
 

I served with some homemade wheat French bread and used leftover marinade to drizzle over the tofu.

Daily To-Enjoy List:
  • Kitchen time
  • Mental health time
  • Sunshine
  • Rest day (better pay off tomorrow darn it)
  • Catching up on TV shows

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I Run to Feel Alive

Today is National Running Day . Guess what I did this morning? Cycling? Nope. Lifting? Nope. I bet you thought kickboxing right? Nope. Running? But of course! I actually sort of planned my running days this week just so I could participate this year. I didn't get to run last year and didn't even know about it the year before. But running has become such an integral part of my life and who I am, that I couldn't miss this year. Basically, I run to feel alive . It calms me, it helps me work through life, it's often a reason to get out of bed. No matter how tough a run is, it makes you feel ... period. My plan was to get in 5 miles (got in 5.5 actually). It was about 10 degrees warmer this morning and definitely more humid. That always makes for a tougher run. We decided to take a different route today. Well, it was really only a few streets over different, but still. The point is we took a different street. Sometimes that's good, sometimes not. I did realize th...

Love in Photos

In honor of Valentine's Day - Love in Photos Husband Family and Furbabies Friends Even if you're not a fan of Valentine's Day - I hope you have a wonderful day and remember the loves in your life.

Weights, Run, & Road Trip Details

Two on Tuesday This morning my eyes opened wide at 4:55 am. I tried to go back to sleep, but quickly realized I was only fooling myself. So I got up and got my workouts done. Today was leg day with quad focus. Wide-stance squats - 3x8 Rear leg elevated lunges - 3x10 Firewalkers - 8 total Narrow-stance squats - 3x10 Static lunges - 3x10 Squats with low-end pulse - 3x8 Wall squats with ball - 6 reps of squat with 10 sec hold Outer thigh raises with ankle weights on ball - 2x24 We had storms roll through last night, so the temperatures dropped finally. It was 74 this morning, so I decided to take advantage of that and get in a short 20-minute run. When I first started out, I seriously didn't think I was going to get very far. My legs were already yelling at me. But, about half a mile into the run, they loosened up and it felt good. What's the Deal With the Road Trip? I am really glad I got the workouts done early. I feel like I still have so much to do to get ready ...