It's a Wrap
The week is over and I am relaxing at home on a Saturday. I love the weekends!!!
Friday morning I used my can of Organic Pumpkin (the one I have been using for THE SHRED) to make some delicious oats. I now need to find another partner for my Manwich!
Pumpkin oat ingredients:
- 1/4 cup each oat bran and oatmeal
- 1/2 cup each water and USAM
- Dash of cinnamon
- 1 egg white
- 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
- 1 tbsp. ground flax
- 1 tbsp. better n PB
My oatmeal method: After cooking the first 3 ingredients (I also ususally add 1/2 of a banana, but I’m all out) on the stove top for about 3 minutes I add the egg white and stir it in, then I turn down the heat and stir in the pumpkin. I cook the oats for about 2 more minutes on the lower heat. Lastly, I turn off the heat and stir in the ground flax and serve in a bowl with Better n’ PB atop the pile o’ oats. YUM!
Work on Friday was crrazzy. I was just super busy and had a project that HAD to complete before the end of the day. For lunch I was suppose to meet up with my cousin who was babysitting nearby but ended up trekking it over to a Ellwood Thompson’s for a quick lunch. They’ve just renovated the place and it’s much roomier now to sit down and eat. Plus I’ve noticed that since the renovations things are actually cheaper. The produce is now the same price as other grocery stores, which is awesome because before they were WAY overpriced. I might even consider buying groceries there now, whereas before I wanted to support the local organic shop and the local farmers, but I simply couldn’t afford it.
I grabbed a container of fruit:
And half of the Goddess Tofu Wrap. I so want to be able to recreate this wrap at home. It’s simply delicious!
They were giving away free samples of Vegan banana bread with chocolate chips. I had 3 small peices 
Dont’ mind my wrinkly hand. Or Isaac’s hairy arm below:
We went to Cafe Caturra to meet some friends for a glass of wine. The place was so cute. I loved the decor! Isaac got beer and I got a glass of white wine. The beer above was called the Lion Stout- it smelled of licorice and bittersweet chocolate and tasted like molasses, chocolate, licorice, coffee. I usually don’t go for dark beers, but I took a sip of Isaac’s and it was delicious.
I woke up this morning planning to go to spin, but I was extremely sore. I think it’s from doing ab leg lifts. They are killer. That being said I decided just to streach and take Olive for a walk. Once I was home I decided it was oat time and whipped up another bowl of pumpkin oats but this time I left out the egg white and substituted it with sugar. Probably not the smartest idea, but I wanted something sweet. And actually the sugar I used was actually dehydrated cane juice.
I put the cane juice crystals directly on top so I could have the extra sweetness in in each bite. I have only ever used the cane juice in recipes so I was surprised to realize it tasted more like molasses than normal brown sugar does. But it was still good. After searching online I found this info:
Sucanant
Sucanant is simply dehydrated, freshly squeezed sugar cane that is simmered into rich syrup and dried into granules. Sucanant retains its rich molasses flavor and contains iron, calcium, potassium, chromium and B-vitamins.
Usage: Use in place of refined brown sugar 1 to 1 in your favorite recipes. Sucanant is great for baking or on top of hot cereal. It’s also great in BBQ sauces, chocolate brownies and hot cocoa.
Brown sugar is processed white sugar with a bit of fancy molasses to give texture and color.
Today’s lunch was Tasty with a capital T. Last night I bought way too stuff much at Bj’s Wholesale (a store v. similar to Costco), but one of the products I was really excited to try. Joseph’s Middle East Bakery’s Flax, Oat bran & Whole Flour Lavash Roll Ups. The nutritional facts for this wrap caught my eye. 1 huge wrap has 100 calories, 4g of fat, 14 Carbs, 6g fiber, and 10g protein. So I decided to give old Joesph a try –> GREAT IDEA. The wrap is soft and chewy, just how I like it. The wrap is also hearty and doesn’t break apart when you try to fold it (don’t you hate it when that happens!) And the wraps are huge, you could definitely use half and save the other half for later. What more could a girl ask for?
Example A: I spread a laughing cow cheese wedge on my LAVASH wrap and filled it with sauteed onion and mushroom, 1/4 cup of kidney beans, spring mix, and hot banana peppers. What a great combo!
All wrapped up:
Whew that was a long post so I am going to wrap things up. Isaac’s out of town of tonight I’m hanging out with a friend and going to a little party.
I hope everyone is having a good weekend.
P.S. I think the combo of running and doing The Shred has made my knees sore so I am taking off a few days from Jill 
WHOA, that tofu wrap looks amazing. In fact, everything you had looks delicious!
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that tofu wrap looks stuffed to the brim with good stuff! you always have such tempting eats.
that vegan banana bread looks like a bar cookie – i was pretty surprised when i read that it was banana bread. do you take your camera with you always? cause it’s so cute how you were able to take photos of the samples!
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Hooray for relaxing and for TONS of deliciousness!!
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Pearl- I don’t ALWAYS take my camera with me. Today I knew I was going to get eat lunch out rather than at home so I brought my camera in my purse.
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I haven’t been to ET’s since the renovation. Cool that the prices are lower!!!
The Shred KILLED my knees, too.
I just remember another Richmond blogger, Jessy from Happy Vegan Face in in Richmond. We should plan a meet up. I met her years ago through a different online community and it just dawned on me today that she is a blogger too!
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Oh my gosh – my mouth dropped at your wrap creation (seriously)! YUM!!
The lunch wrap looks fantastic as well! I tried to look for their menu in an attempt to answer my own question but what was in the Goddess Tofu wrap?
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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mm pumpkin oats
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I think that’s a good idea. Listen to your knees or they will be a’screamin’!
BOTH lunches look great. THanks for the link. I’m gonna try to order them wraps!
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Cool, you used the name of my blog for your post! I LOVE Joseph’s lavash. I use it for all my wraps. Check out my blog for cool ideas.
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Wonderful eats! I could eat my screen…!
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Thanks for the sugar info–good to know!
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The Shred killed my knees as well! I had to bid adieu to Jillian for awhile until my knees are in tip top shape again. That girl knows how to work you though!!!
Those wraps sound awesome!
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Both bowl of oats look fabulous. Love all the creamy oat goodness.
I hope you’ve enjoyed your weekend, and I’m going to be on the lookout of those Joseph Roll-ups. They sound delicious, although I have really enjoyed making my own flat bread lately. I had no idea it was so easy.
Hope your knees are filling better soon. I’m sure Jill is missing you.
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The vegan banana bread looks fantastic! I really wanna try the Shred but just haven’t bought it yet. Sorry to hear that it’s killing your knees! Hope that you enjoyed your weekend!
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Thanks so much for coming in and having lunch. We are glad that you like the renovations. We are having a re-grand opening bash April 10th-12th with live music, chair and hand massage, lots of free samples and more fun stuff. We hope to see you there!
Have you had a chance to check out the coffee shop? That’s my favorite part of expansion. The coffee shop has some different sandwiches; my favorite is the vegan Rueben, which I think you, will like if you like the tofu goddess. It also has local beer on tap, microbrews in the bottle and a very nice selection of small production wines. On Wednesday from 5-7 they will be sampling wines and there will be chair massage available.
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