Cornmeal crusted tempeh

I just ate a days worth of protein in one sitting. I love tempeh, but I've never really cooked with it, so I figured I should give it a try today. I did a cornmeal crusted tempeh with some balsamic brussel sprouts. While this dish was very satisfying and tasty, it needed some sort of a sauce. I didn't feel like making one once I had started eating because I was so hungry, but I will make one for next time.

Cornmeal Crusted Tempeh

Ingredients:

• 1 package of tempeh
• 1/4 cup tamari
• 1.5 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 gigantic garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, crushed if you can
• 1/2 tsp thyme (didn't really like this)
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne

Directions:
Boil or steam your tempeh for atleast 10 minutes. Now, mix your tamari, maple syrup, and garlic in a bowl. Place tempeh in a baking dish and cover with your tamari mixture. Cover, and bake for 50-60 minutes at 350. When it's cool enough that you can handle it, cut into manageable pieces and then roll in the dry cornmeal mixture. Now heat over a pan. Oil in the pan will lead to your pieces getting crispy. I only used a bit of oil (1/2 tbsp) and they were the perfect crispiness for me.

This is the tempeh in the marinade

The dry cornmeal mixture

Out of the oven and about to be cornmealed

Finished product! Delish!

Since yesterday's post inspired me to try and work a lil' harder in the gym, I decided to do things a bit different today. I did "century sets", which are sets of 100 reps. You only do 1 set, but trust me, you will feel it. I did legs, so my excercies were a back squat, hack squat, leg press, leg curl, leg extension, and the deadlift. I used a weight that was about 30-50% of what I normally do. For example, on the leg press I used 40 lbs total, where I would normally use 90-120. I found that for the first time ever, my legs were shaking as I was trying to get changed for the walk home. It felt so good!

The reason century sets are so good is that they use both your fast and slow twitch muscle fibers. When lifting normal weights in the 5-8 rep range, you're using explosive movements which require your fast twitch muscles. But your muscle isnt just composed of fast twitch, some slow twich is in there too ( its a different proportion for everyone, though I'm sure I'm all slow :) ), so it makes sense that once in a while you should pay attention to those slow guys. As you get to your 50th rep your slow twitch muscles will began to tire and will soon work to failure, thats when your fast twitch will come in and help out (I almost felt a second wind in my legs each time this happened). So hopefully utilizing both sets of muscle fibers will lead to greater muscle gain!

Now I'm off to watch some more Galactica.

I'll be doing century sets all week, i'll keep you posted.

Spaghetti how to

Ryan ended up getting Subway for dinner last night (he's obsessed), so I was the only one doing the breakfast-for-dinner idea. I did two slices of Ezekiel toast with hummus, scrambled egg whites, tempeh bacon, and some leftover veggie salad from last night. It hit the spot.

I liked the spaghetti squash from the other night so much that I made it again today for dinner. Below is a "how-to" for spaghetti squash, seeing as how I had to search for 20 minutes on the internet on how to cook a spaghetti squash.

Step 1: Cut the ends off your squash, and then cut down the middle. Also, preheat the oven to 350.

I did a hack job. Don't cut it as badly as I did.

Step 2: Scrape out the insides with a spoon or fork and make sure your dogs don't eat the pieces that fell out of the garbage.

Step 3: Fill your baking sheet up with about 1 cm of water

Step 4: Place your gutted squash face down into the water.

Step 5: Bake for about 45 minutes. Let it cool enough so you can handle it, and then scrape the insides out with a fork into spaghetti strands :)

Step 6: Top with your favourite toppings ( butter and salt, tomato sauce, etc).

Delicious! Now I am off to work again! :)