Lazy x2

Hi guys. How was the rest of your Sunday? Mine was glorious. I tackled most of my to-do list and only skipped the things that involved spending money O:-)

I tackled a few chores around my apartment and then headed off to the gym. I did 33 minutes (an increase... AND 0 FOOT PAIN!!) which was right at 3 miles. Then I lifted a little bit.

For lunch I was craving a big salad. Enter: arugula (which I seem to enjoy more than I did at the start of the summer), romaine, generous quarter cup of black beans, one chopped carrot, 2 homemade pickles, all topped with Amy's Lite Italian dressing which is like crack. I've been putting it on everything. I also had some Food Should Taste Goods topped with hummus and tomato paste.

I spent the late afternoon / evening cooking for the week. I roasted up these babies along with some cauliflower and a sweet potato. Look at how big some of them were (TWSS)!

I also whipped up some "Creamy" Cauliflower soup.

• half a head of cauliflower, steamed
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• one carrot, diced
• 1/4c cooked rice
• 21 seasoning salute (or other spice(s) of your choice)
• ~2c vegetable broth

Clean, chop, and steam your cauliflower. In a non-stick sprayed soup pot, saute the garlic and carrot until softened. Add rice, cauliflower, and broth. Bring to a low boil, stirring. When ingredients have come together take off the heat and allow to cool for 1-2 minutes. Carefully transfer mixture to a blender, removing the stopper so the steam can escape. Blend until mixture is pureed.

This batch made about 4 1 cup servings that clocked in around 50 calories and 3g fiber each.

With some cooking for the week out of the way, I took the easy way out for dinner. I tasted a serving of my cauliflower soup to which I added a splash of Amy's Italian dressing, hot sauce, parm, and a crumbled Food Should Taste Good.

I also had some okra fries and the small roasted sweet potato. I also had half of a tamale I found in my freezer. It'd been there for a while and I ate around a few "off" tasting parts.

Dessert was a small serving of GF hot cereal with some brown sugar and PB = ultimate comfort. There's also been lots of relaxing on my couch!

Off to enjoy the last few hours of Sunday. Good night!

Lazy Sunday

I've said it once and I'll say it again. I love lazy weekends! Having no firm plans in place has been refreshing after a hectic couple of weeks. My brain has appreciated the down time and being able to do some planning and assessing. Yes, that's how I spent a good chunk of my Saturday.

I slept in til 11:00am again this morning and it was glorious. Since I wasn't hungry yet I decided to make my way over to the farmers market, if only because I wanted to see some of my summer favorites again before summer ends.

I treated myself to some beautiful okra (purple and green!) and Asian pears. I believe that just this week I announced the longing I've had for a good, in-season pear despite not wanting Fall to arrive.

Brunch was my last donut peach and a baby pear along with an egg sandwich on Udi's whole grain bread. While savoring this sandwich I realized my favorite part of the bread - the crust. It has such a deep flavor with good crunch. Plus there's a bit of flour on it that reminds me of regular bread I've watched people eat for years. When I made a grilled hummus sandwich it took on that grilled texture, soaking up a bit of oil for extra flavor. It's the crust that really makes this bread what it is.

With that, I'm off to tackle some errands. On tap:

• shopping for throw pillows
• gym for the elliptical and weights
• washing dishes
• cooking prep for the week
• maybe seeing Eat, Pray, Love?
• get organized for the week

How will you spend your Sunday?

Got My Feet Propped Up

Sorry for my great disappearing act yesterday. My eyes were so heavy that I crashed before 11pm. I took it as a victory though because I listened to my body instead of grazing mindlessly trying to stay awake and think clearly!

Yesterday was all about foods from the farm (aka my CSA box.) It all started with blackberries and cherry halves stirred into my standard mix of overnight GF hot cereal. I topped it with 1/2T of almond butter and packed it up to take to work.

The only non-farm related meal was lunch. A group of colleague and I went to a restaurant called Nooshi as a going away for one of the girls. She'll be going to Cameroon through the Peace Corps and we wanted to celebrate this next step in her life. We started with some edamame and I had a few pods. For my entree I got the Vegetarian Hot Pot which was a pot of vegetable soup with cellophane noodles, tofu, and veggies. I asked for extra veggies too. I maybe ate a third of this but it was delicious!!

Afternoon snack was a CSA white peach. Plus a bit later I broke into these guys after a week of pickling in my fridge :-D They are amazing!!

 

And I finally made it to the gym for some elliptical time! I have been feeling guilty about not going to the gym because I'm supposed to be "testing" my foot. Last night's workout felt better than Sunday's but it's shocking how slow I feel compared to my pacing in February! I did 2.25 miles in 23 minutes. It felt sooooo good to sweat. I think that workout plus walking errands really tired me out!

I had a couple of other errands to run and then it was dinner time. I had a bunch of things to use up in my fridge. Enter - BBQ Turkey Tacos!

First I diced and sauteed half a small onion and 2 cloves of garlic in some non-stick spray on the stove top. Then I added 4 chopped tomatoes and the large zucchini, diced, and sauteed with oregano and basil.

When the veg shortened a bit I set it aside and in the same pan, heated up a serving of chopped turkey and quarter cup of black beans. I added back about a cup of the sauteed veggies plus BBQ sauce and stirred it all up.

Served on 2 corn tortillas (that I ate about 1.5 of).

Dessert a while later was half of a large farm apple "baked" in the microwave. I sprinkled it with some cinnamon, syrup, peanut butter, and a few crushed Puffins.

This morning's breakfast was a muesli style bowl of overnight hot cereal. In the standard mix I added 1/4 of the same apple, diced, a few blueberries and topped it with 1/2T of peanut and almond butter.

Lunch was a salad with arugula, romaine, carrot, bell pepper, and pickle plus a turkey sandwich with red pepper spread, spinach on a toasted piece of Udi's whole grain bread.

Snack was some leftover veggies at work. I was excited to run a couple of errands after work but why for the life of me I thought it was smart to go to Target after work and during back-to-school weekend is beyond me. I got what I needed though so it was a successful trip!

It'd been a few hours since I'd eaten and was quite hungry when I got home. I whipped up the quickest thing I could think of - veggie fried rice! Plus another side salad.

I now have my feet propped up, am about to watch a movie, and unwind after a long, crazy, tiring week!

What are you up to this weekend??