Tag Archives: Eggs

Pure Happiness

Posted on by
12

Happy happy hump day!

Since I decided to post about my new adorable Ellie workout gear yesterday, I failed to update you on my nummy day of eats from Monday. Since I had a major lack of food photos yesterday (zip-zero), I am going to catch you up to speed from Monday.

Breakfast

Breakfast was a piece of toasted almond bread with organic natural peanut butter and raw honey, served with a cup of coffee with my new favorite cream!

This picture makes me so happy. Photographed is one of my favorite foods: peanut butter, my favorite morning drink that comforts my soul: coffee, and gorgeous yellow roses that my mom gave to me: love and friendship. Pure happiness.

pb toast and coffee

Lunch

A bed of mixed spring greens topped with deviled eggs, red bell pepper, celery, olives, peas, avocado, sunflower seeds and Annie’s Green Goddess dressing. Way good!

salad

 

I ate it outside in the sunshine which probably made it taste even better!

Dessert

Driscoll’s beautiful organic raspberries. Nature’s candy.

 

raspberries

 

There was definitely more snacking that happened in the afternoon. There are no pictures of it but I am guessing I had some mixed nuts, some carrots, and maybe an apple. :smile:

Dinner

For dinner I roasted up brussels sprouts and broccoli with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. To go on top of the veggies I made a marinara sauce using Ragu No-Sugar-Added spaghetti sauce, with one Italian turkey sausage, and sautéed onions, mushrooms, and garlic. I sprinkled in some dried basil and oregano too!

roasted veggies with marinara roasted veggies with marinara

To plate it up I started with a layer of veggies, next I grated some fresh parmesan cheese, and then finished it with a huge serving of the sauce which in my opinion is the best part!

roasted veggies with marinara roasted veggies with marinara

 

I wasn’t loving the brussels sprouts that night. I had bought them fresh and then froze them, and feel they take on a bit of a different flavor once I use them out of the freezer. Anyone else experience this? Anyway, I still enjoyed the dish and ate all but three bites.

************

Alright, it’s time for me to go pack up my lunch and think about what I want for breakfast! I am so food-minded; always prepared for moments when I may need to eat. :smile: The hardest part is not knowing what I will be in the mood for come lunch time. I usually pack myself a couple of options so that I can pick and chose what sounds good.

I am super excited that thunderstorms are possibly going to happen this afternoon. I LOVE a good thunderstorm, as long as no one gets hurt and no damage is done of course. They remind me of being young and hanging out with my family in our safe home. As the thunderstorm approached we would watch the news and make sure we didn’t have to go to the basement. Then, as it whooshed over us I would watch safely out the window as the lightning struck and the thunder rolled (Garth Brooks anyone?) and it would make me so thrilled! I still feel that way when a thunderstorm rolls around! My mom also loves watching storms; she must have passed that gene down to me. :wink:

Watch, we won’t even get one now that I got all hyped up about it.

Do you enjoy thunderstorms?

Have a great day my friends!

 

Chicken Curry Salad in Endive Boats

Posted on by
9

Happy MAY day! 

tulips

 

This is obviously not a MN scene but I think this is such a gorgeous photo and it makes me smile looking at this photo and thinking about the day when flowers will be popping up around here. Hopefully soon. For now, we are in a Winter Storm Warning. Yup…but anyway!

Some exciting news! Today is the last day you will see the old butcher block countertops in my photos because today we are getting NEW KITCHEN COUNTERTOPS! You know you are grown up when you get so incredibly excited about home improvements.

The butcher block countertops have been in the house for goodness knows how long, and they are terrible when it comes to stains and I don’t want to even think about any possible bacteria in the crevices.

banana pb

After much price shopping, stone shopping, and style shopping, we have decided on granite countertops. We went with a gray with specks of gold and red. It will be done by the time I get home this afternoon and I am ecstatic. I can’t wait to show you the refurbished kitchen later this week!

Lunch yesterday was a bunch of small meals throughout the span of 11:00 and 2:00. Here’s one of them…

egg

The afternoon included a lot of food prep time. In the morning I started two large chicken breasts (thawed) in the crock pot, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder, and a cup or so of homemade chicken bone broth. I covered the pot, set it on low and the chicken was done in three hours.

On the dinner menu: Chicken Curry Salad in Endive Boats!

Once the chicken was cooled I pulled it apart and set it aside. I got started on my curry sauce experiment; adding a sprinkle of this, a touch of that, and tasting along the way. This was part of my other small lunch meal. After some time, I came up with what I think is a VERY delicious Chicken Curry Salad recipe!

The chicken and the curry sauce before it was mixed together (not the most appetizing photo). Later I mixed in cilantro, green onions, and raisins too.

curry chicken

The kitchen sure took a beating with all of this food prep!

Note the white backsplash next to the yellow paint–we removed the wooden backsplash to prepare for our new counters and the new backsplash of course. Also, Dana loosened the countertop in preparation of removal so that all we had to do last night was pull it up and out of there. This ended up being a bigger task than we were expecting, but we got it out of there nonetheless.

kitchen mess

After the chicken was mixed with the sauce, I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for 4-5 hours. This helps the flavors blend together and “get to know each other.”

Once dinner rolled around, I gave the chicken one last stir, added in the celery and almonds at the last minute because I didn’t want to risk them getting soggy, taste tested it one more time, and scooped it on to some beautiful endive leaves. We went super classy with the Dixie paper plates last night because of the kitchen demolition.

curry chicken salad curry chicken salad

You could enjoy this chicken salad on a whole grain wrap, in a lettuce cup, with endive boats, celery, zucchini, or on a lettuce salad. It was a really nice change of pace dinner!

Chicken Curry Salad
Print
Ingredients
  • 3 cups cooked chicken breast, shredded
  • 2 Tbsp. cilantro, chopped
  • 3 Tbsp. green onions, diced
  • ⅓ cup raisins
  • juice from ½ a lime
  • ¾ cup Greek yogurt
  • 3 Tbsp. Light Mayo
  • 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp. mustard
  • 1½ tsp. honey
  • 1½ Tbsp. curry powder
  • ¼ tsp. garlic powder
  • ½ tsp. ginger powder
  • salt and pepper
  • ¼ cup celery, diced
  • 3 Tbsp. almonds, sliced
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl combine chicken, cilantro, onion, and raisins. Set aside
  2. In a small bowl mix together lime juice, yogurt, mayo, vinegar, mustard, honey, curry, garlic powder, ginger, and salt and pepper.
  3. Pour over chicken and stir until chicken is evenly covered in sauce. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3-5 hours.
  4. Remove from fridge, add almonds and celery, stir, and test for seasonings. Adjust if needed.
  5. Serve in endive leaves, in a whole grain or gluten-free wrap, whole grain or gluten-free bread, in lettuce cups, or on top of a lettuce salad.

 

This was super tasty and what’s great about it is all of the prep can be done ahead of time so that once dinner rolls around, all you need to do is throw it on a wrap and eat it up! Also, research is showing that curry (namely the main ingredient turmeric) may have some health benefits such as aiding in alzheimer’s prevention, reducing inflammation, easing digestion, boosting immunity, and more.

Have a happy Wednesday my friends!

Do you ever cook with curry? How do you usually use it?

Zucchini Carrot Refried Bean Tostadas

Posted on by
10

Happy Friday Eve! The snow is still drizzling down which makes for a super cozy morning. Yet again, a morning where all you want to do is sleep in and then cozy up on the couch with a good book and a cup of coffee. I am still anxiously awaiting the warm spring air that motivates me to jump out of bed and energizes me for the day. Soon enough….right? :smile:

For breakfast yesterday I had a veggie frittata thanks to some meal preparation on Tuesday evening. I used an old frittata recipe of mine for guidance but then added some different veggies into the mix. This time around I added 3 eggs, egg whites, kale, red pepper, mushroom, onions, and a little bit of cheese.

frittata

I took a couple of bites and then realized something was missing…

AVOCADO of course! I also added a little SCD ketchup to my plate. This dish was EGGcellet! I loved that it was ready for me when I woke up. Next time I will add more eggs to make it thicker.

frittata

Dinner

My creative foodie brain started wandering during the last 30 minutes of work about what to make for dinner.  I mentally ran through everything we had in our fridge and freezer.

Zucchini had been on sale this weekend so I had picked up a couple of those and wanted to use that for sure, and I had a huge batch of super cooked and easily digestible chili beans in the freezer and sort of wanted to use those too. After a while of pondering it dawned on me. I was going to make zucchini and carrot tostadas with refried beans! It sounded strange in my mind so no worries if it sounds strange to you right now too, but I just had to give it a shot.

Into the food processor went one zucchini and one cup of carrots which I shredded. I poured them onto a thin kitchen towel, gathered all corners, twisted the tops together, and rung out as much liquid as possible.

I added the remains of the veggies into a bowl and added an egg, garlic, some almond flour, and seasonings (recipe below for further details). I mixed this together and began forming my tostadas on a baking pan which I had sprayed with olive oil. I used my hands to flatten out the dough into tortilla-like shapes.

Note: You could use cornmeal or gluten-free flour instead of almond flour.

I baked the tortillas at 350°F for 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes on broil, flipping half way during the broil.

tostada

When the tortillas were beginning the broiling process, I prepared the beans: In a saucepan on the stove, I sautéed diced onion in olive oil. I then added the beans, broth, and seasonings and gave it a good stir. I let the beans cook in the broth for about 8 minutes.

I chopped the cilantro, tomatoes, bell pepper, and grated the cheese so that it would be ready to top the tostadas.

Once the tortillas were ready, I plated them, added a sprinkle of cheese, a heaping spoonful of beans, followed by tomatoes, red peppers, cilantro and salsa. You could add avocado, black olives, or jalapeno if you would like too!

tostados IMG_2248

These are super-duper healthified refried bean tostadas if I’ve ever seen them! Don’t expect a super crunchy tortilla; it turned out pretty soft but found if you let them sit for a few minutes after they come out of the oven, they set a little further.

I had made a double batch, but scaled the recipe back for you all because it made an insane amount of these tortillas. I froze the leftover tortillas and plan on using them for mini pizzas in the future!

They require a little bit of work, but I think they are worth it! They were fun to eat!

Zucchini Carrot Refried Bean Tostadas
Print
Serving Size: 2
Ingredients
  • Tostadas:
  • 1 medium zucchini, grated
  • 1 cup carrots, grated
  • 1 garlic clove, finely grated
  • 1 egg
  • ¾ cups almond flour
  • sprinkle of onion powder
  • salt and pepper
  • Beans:
  • ¼ cup onions, diced
  • 1½ cups cooked kidney beans (pinto or black beans would be fine)
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • ½ tsp cumin
  • ¼ tsp garlic powder
  • salt and pepper
  • ½ cup chicken bone broth (veggie broth or chicken broth would be fine)
  • Toppings (optional):
  • diced tomatoes
  • diced red bell peppers
  • grated cheese
  • cilantro
  • avocado
  • black olives
  • salsa
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat one large cookie pan with olive oil.
  2. In a food processor, shred zucchini and carrots.
  3. Pour onto a kitchen towel. Gather all corners of towel and twist tops together. Ring out excess liquid over the sink.
  4. Pour remaining veggies from towel into a medium bowl.
  5. Add egg, garlic, almond flour, onion powder, salt, pepper and mix well.
  6. Use hands to form large balls of dough and place on pan. Pat down to flatten to a little less than ¼ inch high and form a round “tortilla.” Repeat until all dough has been shaped.
  7. Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes.
  8. After 20 minutes, turn oven to broil. Broil each side of the tortillas for about 4-5 minutes or until they turn golden and begin to crisp up.
  9. While the tortillas are broiling, saute onion in olive oil in a medium pan on the stove top for about 3 minutes.
  10. Then add beans, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and broth. Stir until beans are cooked through and liquid has cooked out.
  11. Once tortillas are crisp, remove from oven. Place a tortilla on a plate then add the beans and finally your favorite tostada toppings.

 

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday eve! Catch up with you soon!

Question of the day: Have you made any creative dishes lately? Tell me about them and feel free to add a link to the recipe if you have one!

Go Green Tropical Smoothie

Posted on by
2

HAAAPPPY GOOD FRIDAY! This week really flew by for me and I’m not complaining about it one bit.

melanie

 

We are going to have one VERY relaxing Easter weekend! We already celebrated Easter with Dana’s family last weekend, so this weekend we will be celebrating with my family on Sunday. Tonight we have zero plans, and tomorrow we are going to do some spring cleaning! Yes, I’m excited about it. I’m hoping it’ll be nice enough that we can open the windows and let the “winter air” out of the house.

I’ve been loving my new NutriBullet. I whipped up another smoothie and have been having fun mixing in different veggies and finding combinations that keep my taste buds intrigued Yesterday’s was a tropical-ish smoothie.

smoothie

Go Green Tropical Smoothie

  • 1 cup pineapple
  • 1 small-medium ripe banana
  • 2 small celery sticks
  • 1 big handful of kale
  • almond milk**—as much or as little as you would like to reach desired consistency
  • aloe vera juice (optional)

**Coconut milk would be a GREAT substitute.

A little lunch action…mixed greens with tomato, guacamole, and an over-easy egg alongside a leftover almond biscuit and a juicy apple. Perfectly satisfying.

egg over a salad

In the afternoon I snacked on some walnuts and raisins to give me a quick energy boost.

Afternoon Workout

I pulled up YouTube on our Apple TV and flipped through some workouts and found the ToneItUp girls arm workout. I completed their arm workout and then went right into Insanity’s cardio abs routine. After that I headed down to the treadmill and cranked out a half hour walk. I felt a little guilty that I didn’t take the pup out for a walk outside, but it is SO muddy and I just didn’t feel like dealing with that yesterday. Sorry Mooser. Maybe next time.

Dinner

I roasted a large handful of Brussels Sprouts in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper. While those roasted, I cooked a couple of mini turkey patties on the stove, along with sauteed onions and mushrooms. Once everything was done cooking, I plated up the sprouts, then the turkey patties, onions, and mushrooms, and I finished the dish off with some shredded cheddar and monterey jack cheese.

I ate a couple spoonfuls of cooked quinoa while I waited for this to come together.

veggies and turkey burger

veggies and turkey burger

Talk about taking a trip to flavor town! The only seasonings I used in this whole dish were salt, pepper, and olive oil, but the foods all took on their natural flavors and it tasted absolutely delicious.

I spent the evening sobbing over  watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I read these books a long long time ago, and watched the movies, but it has been so long. Oh how I love a good chick flick! For an evening snack I had a handful of dates with pb; definitely my biggest weakness lately.

Okey dokey, I’m off for the day! I hope you all have a fantastic Good Friday!

Do you celebrate Easter? Do you have any fun plans this weekend?

A Minor Food Slump

Posted on by
7

Haaaaaaaappppy Friday!

You may have noticed that there weren’t too many food photos this past week. That’s because I went on a lazy hiatus this week with my meals.

Breakfasts have been my typical banana and peanut butter, lunches have been leftover meatloaf or whatever I can throw down during my lunch break…

turkey meatloaf energy bite mah ball apple peanut butter

…and dinners have been more leftover meatloaf! Lame!

meatloaf

However, yesterday morning I did attempt to be more creative and I made myself what turned out to be an egg pancake made with one egg and 1-2 egg whites. I cooked the eggs over too high of heat on the stove and they quickly turned from an omelet into a pancake.  In the pancake was sautéed onions, green peppers, and kale, topped with avocado and Parkers Farm salsa.

eggs

It wasn’t my proudest breakfast moment, but it did taste alright and kept my tummy satisfied well until lunch.

Once lunch rolled around, I ate my usual breakfast of pb and banana (haha I just couldn’t go a DAY without it) and had a bunch of other random bites. I have got to turn this food slump around, because it is NOT exciting.

To tell you the truth, this entire week has been one of those weeks where everything seemed to take twice the effort; preparing meals, workouts, work, daily chores…everything. I really think that it has to do with the cold weather around here that keeps droning on and on. I am so ready for warm weather. I feel like I did pretty well this winter without feeling any symptoms of seasonal affective disorder, but now that it’s technically spring, I am realizing I have had enough of the cold and I know I’m not alone on this one.

Out with the cold and in with the warm please!

I did try to get snazzy with my workout yesterday afternoon. I was feeling sluggish and slightly under the weather after work, so decided that a calm 30-minute yoga session might be nice.

I rolled out the yoga mat and started flipping through the selections OnDemand looking for some yoga, but ended up scrolling across a 45-minute session called Grace and Gusto which combines Pilates and ballet. Being that I used to dance and miss it dearly, I decided to give it a whirl.

sweatpink

The verdict: It was fun and different and was the perfect pace for my mood (not super fast). It didn’t include a lot of jumping around, which was what I was looking for, and the instructor did a great job of combining both ballet and Pilate moves into the session. I was glad I did it and it reminded me that I need to step outside of my comfort zone more often and try new workouts.

As for today’s workout, my tentative plan is to go for a run. We will see what kind of mood I am in though! I seem to be kind of a rollercoaster lady lately.

My goals for the upcoming week are to jazz up my meals and to reenergize my motivation for more intense workouts. Who knows, maybe my body was telling me to lay low this week, but I’m ready for amp it up again!

Question of the day: Have you tried any new recipes lately? Any new workouts?