Hi friends! Happy Hump Day! Hope you're having a good one. I'm taking a little lunch break to blog today. I ran across this awesome quote earlier: Well isn't that a good healthy living rule of thumb?! And speaking of plants, I have quite a nutritious, delicious recipe to share today: It all started when I happened to see a recipe with marcona almonds somewhere. It reminded me how much I love them, and all of a sudden I was on a mission to nab marcona almonds and create a recipe that incorporates them. Once I decided that I'd make a quinoa salad, ingredient ideas just started dancing in my head. I have a fresh mint plant that I've barely used recently. The other day I got a whiff of the plant while watering it. I love the smell of fresh mint, and I started thinking that I need to ... [Read More]
quinoa
Quinoa & Spinach Mac -n- Cheese
With my trip to Jersey and Christmas right around the corner, I'm starting to get super excited! My hubby and I are flying out to the East coast on Saturday, so food-wise, I'm at that usual point - when you're about to leave the house for awhile and will need to clean out the fridge, so you eat random combinations of food in order to not waste things. Today I wound up eating quinoa twice. For lunch, I had a big salad with quinoa, feta, carrots, avocado and lettuce: For dinner, I used a recipe I had ripped out from Shape magazine awhile ago for quinoa mac & cheese, and adapted it based on what I had open in my fridge to use up: Quinoa & Spinach Mac -n- Cheese 2/3 cup [whole-grain] quinoa1 cup vegetable broth1 medium leek (white and light green parts only)1/2 ... [Read More]
Easy & Healthy Vegetarian Dinner Ideas
Here's a fun little fact: October is National Vegetarian Month! (source) As a long-time vegetarian, I've talked to many people about a meatless lifestyle. Some say, ''Oh I could never be a vegetarian. How do you do it?" while others are more open to trying out vegetarianism, but express concern for not knowing where to start. I think that sometimes people are so used to meat being a main part of their meals, they just can't picture eating dinner without that piece of chicken, steak, or pork as the main focus. For any readers who fall into the category of veg curious people, or just don't think meat is necessary in every meal, I hope that my blog provides some appealing vegetarian recipes to you! In recognition of a month that strives to raise awareness of a lifestyle I embrace, I ... [Read More]
Quinoa Salad, A Dog Fight, and Dark Chocolate Dreams
Hi friends! My random blog title is reflective of the mood I am in. Ever feel like your brain is going in 10 different directions? Then you get it! Before I get to my tasty quinoa salad dinner, here are some things I must discuss: #1 - My Memorial Day evening hike turned out to be pretty adventurous, mainly because Harley got attacked by another dog! OK, attacked sounds sort of dramatic since there was no blood shed, but it was a bit scary at the time. The situation: We were hiking at the toughest part of Kwaay Paay Summit, where it's super steep and narrow, and came across a guy with his dog. Harley and I stopped a bit away to see how to go about this, as there's no way that 2 people and 2 dogs can cross each other at this point in the hike. There's barely room for 1 person really. ... [Read More]
(Super Healthy!) Quinoa Lettuce Wraps
Anyone else find this hilarious? I do have a Pinterest account, but fortunately, I definitely don't spend more time on it than I do working out! Onto food... On Tuesday night I ate dinner at a Japanese restaurant. This must have put me in an Asian food kind of mood, because I found myself thinking about lettuce wraps yesterday. I just so happened to have randomly bought fresh ginger at the farmer's market (I couldn't even tell you why...) and had a ton of different veggies around. I also found miso paste in the back of my fridge from when my friend moved almost a year ago and gave me all the food from her kitchen. I checked the expiration date and it was still good, so with that, I came up with these vitamin-packed lettuce wraps: Quinoa Lettuce Wraps 1/2 red bell pepper 1 large ... [Read More]
Nutty Veggie Quinoa
If that's true, then my fat cried a river this evening! My boxing class had me literally dripping sweat. It was totally gross, yet awesome! This afternoon I realized that while my diet yesterday included a bunch of fruit, the only veggie I had eaten was a few tablespoons of hummus. I decided to quickly remedy my lack of veggie intake and throw together a lunch using the zucchini and bell pepper I had on hand. The pine nuts add a bit of crunch to the dish, and the parmesan really gives plain quinoa a lot of flavor. Nutty, Cheesy Veggie Quinoa 1 serving of quinoa, dry (1/4 cup Ancient Harvest organic) 1 small zucchini, chopped into bite sized pieces 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced 1 clove garlic, minced 1 TBSP pine nuts 2 TBSP grated parmesan cheese Salt & ... [Read More]