Splurge Saturday

Today started off with a breakfast of banana, almond butter and flax waffles with some 5 minute espresso brownie crumbled on top. With two mugs of coffee.

So I had a healthy lunch of yellow squash, spinach, chicken breast and marinara on low calorie yam flour noodles. It looked nice and summery with the green and yellow. See previous post about being cranky due to crappy weather and wanting sunshine.

Then there was another afternoon splurge of Dairy Queen. The blizzard of the month is a chocolate covered pretzel with peanut butter blizzard. Could there be a better combination in the world? Especially when you have a buy one get one free coupon? So, we indulged in a blizzard in honor of Brian’s birthday this week.

After our treat, we took a long walk to Target. There, I saw this month’s Food Network magazine where they gave cover space and two pages on 50 things to put a fried egg on top of. Brian makes fun of me all the time because he claims my motto is that any food becomes breakfast food if you just “put an egg on it.” Has the Food Network been stalking me?

After all those rich indulgences today I had a light supper of zucchini and egg whites. But man, I’ll be dreaming about that blizzard tonight.

A case of the cranks

I’ve been cranky all week. Cranky and tired and dragging. I couldn’t figure out what was causing my unrelenting crankiness until I was sitting at the table eating breakfast this morning and noticed drizzle and flurries outside. It was the weather. Rain and gloom has blanketed the city and my mood this week. I decided at this point I needed to turn my attitude around.
After finishing my breakfast, I took a long hot shower, did a little meditation, and slathered my self with some self tanner. If my skin can’t glow from the natural sun, I might as well fake it. I returned to the living room to make my plans for the day and noticed the sun was shining bright outside. Rejoice!
I got my short grocery list ready and headed outside to be greeted by cloud cover and more flurries. The sunshine was short lived. I spent my walk to the store trying to keep a positive attitude by thinking about the things in my life that I am grateful for.
I came home in a slightly better mood. The potential for 70 degree weather tomorrow helps. I’m trying not to think of 4 straight days of rain after that.
Summer, I’m so looking forward to you.

Weekend madness-Sunday

Ugh. I can only get Sunday’s pictures to transfer right now, so this weekend’s post will be split into two with Saturday coming as soon as I can get things to work!

Sunday started out with a morning walk to Target. I needed to pick up a few things, including some corn. Brian did the grocery shopping a few days ago when I had put corn on the list. He accidentally picked up cans of cream style corn, which had me gagging at the sight. On my walk to Target, I saw this car. In fact, I see it every time I walk to Target. It has a flat tire and hasn’t moved in months and totally reminds me of the car in Harry Potter than Ron and Harry flew into the Whomping Willow.

After meeting my friend Katie at the track and going for a run(for the 3rd time this week), I was hungry! I made myself a giant lunch of a veggie patty, a broccoli potato pancake, some fruit and tortilla chips and jalapeno greek yogurt dip.

I took advantage of the Whole Foods one day special on Friday and picked up 10 mangoes. I like mangoes so much that I don’t even mind that I’m allergic. It’s not a severe allergy, but if I’m not careful, my lips swell up.

Knowing that they were going on sale, I started looking up recipes while I was at work last Friday. I decided on a whole wheat mango ginger scone. DE-licious!

Later in the afternoon I began assembling a healthier version of Shepard’s pie. Since I was combining 3 separate recipes, I did not properly scale back the portions and had this before the potatoes were added to the top. Ooops. Looks like we will be having a lot of leftovers!

I was so busy(in a good way) this weekend that the weekend seemed like it lasted for a whole week. Can’t wait to update you on Saturday and post some of these recipes!

Greek tuna salad

When I was traveling in December and dreading the unhealthy airport food, I ran across a really cute fresh and healthy restaurant/stand in the Houston airport called Camden Food Co. Right across from an organic pizza place. What? Two decent options right by each other in the airport? I love that it’s not impossible to get good food while traveling anymore.

Well, they had a Greek tuna that was so delicious. It was fresh flaked tuna with kalamata, cucumber, diced tomato, feta, herbs and a Greek vinaigrette. I bought a container of that and put in on a bed of fresh mixed greens from their salad bar and topped with a few chickpeas. So delicious.

I’ve been thinking about that tuna ever since. So, I had to attempt to recreate it as I don’t know when will be the next time that I am in the George Bush International airport to get more. It’s so good, it’s almost worth the trip just to get some.

Here’s my attempt at the remake. I also threw in some diced yellow and orange bell pepper. A great way to jazz up plain old tuna. It would also be great as a dip on crackers or in a pita. Mmm. Ican’t wait to make it again.

The work breakfast

I love eggs for breakfast. They are one of the few things that keep me full. I usually try to get in at least one serving of veggies in at breakfast, too. I don’t eat breakfast until I get to work in the mornings. That usually means that I am eating breakfast 1.5 to 3.5 hours after I get up in the morning, depending if I go to the gym before work. I have never been one(for the most part) to want to eat as soon as I get up in the morning. So, this doesn’t work out too badly for me.

Here’s a look at some of my work breakfasts(FYI: I have a microwave-able vegetable steamer at work). More simple than my weekend meals, but still nutritious and filling.

Carrots and hummus, steamed broccoli, banana and hard-boiled egg:

A big bowl of steamed broccoli with warm hard-boiled egg:

Sprouted grain toast with guacamole and hard-boiled egg, walnuts and banana with cinnamon:

Plain Greek yogurt with banana and walnuts and a side of detox salad:

And this week, I have really been into sprouted grain toast with mustard and slices of hard-boiled egg. Usually with a side of sliced banana with cinnamon. Maybe a few almonds. My coworker brought in an extra dozen colored eggs that her kids made:

What are some of your fast breakfasts that can be taken on the go?

Copycat Whole Foods date logs

I’ve mentioned before that I love Whole Food’s date logs. So much that I decided recreating them at home would be a good idea. This idea was encouraged when I saw the WF’s worker restocking the bin of them the other day and learned that they don’t make them in-house! What?!?! I had been believing that I was getting date logs fresh out of the kitchen only feet away from where they were sold. Not true. Not true at all. They come from one of their largest distributors. They come in a plastic lined box and are put into the bin by the nice WF workers.

I’m not getting my date logs minutes after they are made? But, I have to be! They are so fresh. I mean fresh tasting.

After I got over my disbelief, I picked up a 5 pound container of pitted medjool dates at Costco. Feeling like they may be a little dry, I attempted to rehydrate them a bit.

This was probably unnecessary and wouldn’t do it again in the future. I think it made the dates too sticky. After re-hydrating and draining them, I tossed them into the food processor and began the process of pulsing and scraping the sides down. This took a bit of time. I felt like they were still too wet, so I tossed to unsweetened, shredded coconut with them to dry them up a bit. Worked like a charm. I sprinkled a line of coconut onto the wax paper then I scooped about 1/3 of the mixture onto wax paper and formed it into a log. Then I rolled that into the coconut to form a firmer log.

I continued this method with the remainder of the date mixture. Then I placed the 3 logs into the refrigerator for about an hour to firm up. Then I took them out and cut them into 1 1/2 to 2 inch pieces. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

These are almost identical to what you buy at the store. Price-wise, I am not sure how they compare, but I am sure they are at least a small savings. And more convenient to keep in my fridge than having to run to the store when I want one!

Oven baked veggie chips: multiple varieties

A few years ago…okay maybe five years ago I made some homemade vegetable chips. I think I did beet, parsnip, sweet potato and white potato. They were good, a lot of work and just plain easier to buy.

Thinking that my thoughts on the subject may have been misremembered, I decided to make some again. Well, it was again, time-consuming without a lot of reward. Here they are anyway.

This time I made sweet and white potato, beets and zucchini chips. The zucchini chips were my favorite. I ate them all in one sitting. Don’t judge that last sentence until you see photos of the product.

I preheated my oven to 350F. Then I mandolin-ed my little heart out. Slice. Slice. Slice.

Then, I tossed the slices with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. I arranged the slices on to cooling racks placed on baking sheets(to help with air circulation) and baked for about 20 minutes.

The veggies shrank a lot in size and reminded me a lot of shinky dinks from my childhood.

After spending time baking all those chips, I had very little finished product to show. And quite honestly, they didn’t bake very evenly. Half of a chip would be burnt and the other half would be soggy. The ones that turned out the best were the zucchini. This is the amount of chip I got from 2 medium zucchini:

Yes, two zucchini fit in the palm of my hand. This is the size of one zucchini chip:

The size of my finger tip.

So, from now on, I will be buying my chips.

All things weekend

Happy belated St. Patrick’s Day!

I started out my weekend by doing a new LUSH face mask. It had lots of mint in it and felt amazing.

Then I headed the the gym for a good workout. And thank goodness I did. The rest of the day was filled with some St Patty’s Day celebrating with friends. I did stop at Whole Foods to grab lunch after my work out, though. I grabbed some salad, bison chili and their amazing jalapeno corn bread. I don’t eat much bread, the WF’s corn bread is a carb that I make an exception for.

I had leftovers of both and made them into a cowboy eggs “benedict” for breakfast the next morning.

Then I headed into the kitchen to make food for the week and weeks ahead. I double up on the meat purchases for the week and cooked it all up so I would have plenty to put into the freezer. Burgers for weeks!

I realized after a very busy and social last week that I really have to have healthy meals on hand to make sure that it is easy for me to make good food decisions. I also made a batch of coconut butternut squash soup that is a little disappointing. But it’s healthy and cooked, so I’ll eat it. Slowly, but surely.

I also make two big pans of oven baked chicken fajitas for a work lunch today. They were excellent and so easy. I got the idea here, but combined several different marinade recipes to create my own.

I tried my hand at Whole Food’s coconut date logs. My current post workout obsession. They turned out pretty close to the real deal and I’m set for a while!

Despite everything I got done yesterday, I still felt like I did a lot of lounging around, snuggled up under a blanket on the couch.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Happy Pi Day!

I’m a math nerd that likes to bake.

Quick sweet and sour cucumbers

I have trouble going to a Thai restaurant and NOT ordering an appetizer of cucumber salad. If they offered it in entrée portion, I would probably order it as my meal. It’s sweet, it’s tangy, it’s crunchy and oh so refreshing.

I’ve made a few attempts at a homemade version before, but they always seems a little off. This is one of the closest I’ve made. It might even taste a little lighter than that in the restaurant.

Ingredients:

• 1 hot-house cucumber, unpeeled, sliced thinly
• 1/2 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
• 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• fresh ground black pepper

Place cucumber slices in colander, sprinkle with salt, toss to coat. Stir occasionally. Let stand 15 minutes.

Mix remaining ingredients in bowl until sugar is dissolved.

Rinse and drain cucumbers well. Pat to dry.

Add to dressing mixture. Combine well. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes or up to 24 hours(I put mine in a glass jar for safe keeping) and ate them a day later. The flavor was superb.