Recipes

Southwestern Tabbouleh

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I don’t know about you guys, but when I’m planning for a big event or vacation I tend to over-organize.  I usually have several lists going of things to do, things to buy, etc.  Vacation is about a week away, and I have a feeling the further I get into the week, the more and more things I’ll add to these to-do lists…  I think deep down I secretly like giving myself busywork.  What a weirdo I am 🙂

Since I was so pleased with the Shrimp Tabbouleh I made last week, I was pumped to see a recipe for Spicy Southwestern Tabbouleh in the July 2010 issue of Cooking Light!  I decided to make a double batch (in anticipation of (self-inflicted) limited free time later in the week).

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What I ate

Cold and crunchy Monday

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It’s Monday!  Woot. 

😉 actually today has been a pretty decent Monday thus far.  The office is super quiet since many of my coworkers opted to use our floating holiday today.  I decided to bank mine and take my birthday off (next week) instead.

Hope you all have a fabulous fun/food/framily filled weekend!

The PB2 Giveaway ended last night!!!  Read further for the lucky winner 😀

Breakfast #1

It’s been so hot these past few days, that I was craving something super cold for breakfast this morning.  I decided a fruit smoothie would be the ticket to cooling things off.  I threw the following into the blender:

  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
  • 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s Vanilla Greek Yogurt
  • 1 cup fresh frozen strawberries
  • 1/4 cup blueberries
  • 1 packet Truvia (Stevia) all natural sweetener

Once I blended everything up, I opened the fridge to put the almond milk away and saw a lonely half-empty bag of spinach sitting on the shelf begging to be eaten. 

I’ve read lots of posts on the “green monster” smoothies, especially on Julie’s blog, but I’ve never tried one myself… Until today that is!

I grabbed a handful of spinach and threw it into the blender and gave it a good pulse. 

Yes, that is spinach you are seeing

The result:

One huge smoothie with “monster” flecks:

This was surprisingly tasty!  You can’t specifically taste the spinach itself, but it gives the smoothy a hearty fullness.  It also cuts on some of the sweetness of the fruit, so I was glad I used a whole packet of truvia.  I think I’ve officially jumped on the green monster bandwagon 😀

If you’re intrigued — check out the Green Monster Movement.

Stats on the Green Monster:  197 calories, 37g carbs, 2g fat, 12g protein, 6g fiber

Breakfast #2

O…. O…..   mmmmmm…. haven’t had overnight oats in a few days, so I went with the go-to OO Combo: 

  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 1/2 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • sprinkling of cinnamon
  • fresh strawberries

All stirred up:

Overnight oats… oh how I’ve missed you :-*

Stats on the oats:  208 calories, 38g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 6g fiber

Lunch

Keeping on with today’s cold theme, I thought I’d add a little crunch to my lunch with a nice salad.  Last night, I threw together a monster salad that consisted of:

  • 1/2 bag fresh express romaine
  • 1 roma tomato
  • 1/2 cucumber
  • 1/4 cup white onion
  • 1 serving baby carrots
  • 1 link of Jennie O’s hot turkey sausage

Topped it all off with 2 tbsp of fat free ranch dressing:

Stats on the Monster Salad:  295 calories, 28g carbs, 10g fat, 22g protein, 7g fiber

And the winner of the PB2 Giveaway ……………

Drumroll please……

Based on the random number generator, the lucky winner is:

Monique at She’s Going the Distance!!!

  

Thank you guys for taking the time to post on my blog!  I really love seeing what you guys have to say, and as cheesy as it may sound (who doesn’t love a little cheese?) it really brightens my day 😀

Monique – please send your mailing address to:  ferventfoodie@gmail.com

Everyone else – you can purchase PB2 online at www.netrition.com.  Since it’s flat rate shipping, I’d recommend getting some Mama Lupe’s low-carb tortillas, Joseph’s low-carb pita, and some carba nada pasta 🙂

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What I ate

July 4th Quickie

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Happy Fourth of July!

This weekend has been very busy, busy, busy! The BF is leaving for Belgium tomorrow, and we leave for vacation the day after he returns… sooooo we’ve been doing a whole lot of packing, planning, and organizing.

We’re hoping to get in some R&R tonight, so this will be a quick post. But, I did want to share the super easy healthified pasta salad recipe I made for the family picnic:

  • 1 box dreamfields low carb spiral pasta
  • 1 bottle fat free giant eagle dressing
  • 1 carton grape tomatoes, halved
  • 1 green peppers, cubed
  • 2 celery stalks chopped
  • half bag baby carrots chopped
  • 1 bag cheese cubes

Voila!

Amazing giant jalapeno cheddar bread and cheesy jalapeno dip my sister made!

Psst…  Check out her pottery here:  JMNPottery

The goods:

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Recipes, What I ate

Something old, something new x2

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Breakfast #1

For breakfast this morning I was craving one of my standards:  dippy eggs and potatoes.  So, I cooked up 1 egg over easy, heated up some of Jarrod’s special cajun oven potatoes, and a Thomas’ multi-grain english muffin. 

Served up with a dollop of ketchup, of course! 😉

Delicious as always!  Sometimes you just gotta go with the tried and true.

Stats on breakfast #1:  219 calories, 39g carbs, 6g fat, 12g protein, 9g fiber

 

Breakfast #2 = Healthified Low-Carb Waffles

I recently picked up some Bob’s Red Mill Low-Carb baking mix, so I decided to try and make some low-carb waffles this morning.

I mixed up:

  • 1/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill Low-Carb baking mix
  • 1/4 cup + 1 tsp Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 egg white
  • Sprinkling of cinnamon

Poured the mix onto the waffle iron, and let it cook for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, I mixed up half a serving of PB2 and made it a little on the runny side (for drizzling!).  I also microwaved 1/4 of fresh frozen strawberries.  Once nice and hot, I added a sprinkling of Truvia to sweeten them up and a drizzle of Smuckers sugar free syrup.

All together:

This was a good first stab at low-carb waffles!  Next time, I think I’ll add half a packet of the truvia to the actual waffle batter and also 1/8 tsp of baking powder to help the waffles perk up a bit.  Definitely gonna play with this idea some more!

Stats on just the waffles:  126 calories, 12g carbs, 3g fat, 18g protein, 5g fiber

Stats on waffles with all the fixins:  170 calories, 21g carbs, 4g fat, 21g protein, 6g fiber

 

Larabar success!!

Yesterday, I was feeling adventurous (albeit hesitant) and decided to try the Peanut butter & Jelly Larabar that I’ve been neglecting for the past week due to Larabar Fail #1 and Fail #2. 

Every other larabar I’ve tried to date, I’ve taken 1 bite and tossed the rest.  I actually enjoyed this one!  Wow!  I’m so surprised!  And I LOVE the simple ingredients:  Dates, Peanuts, Unsweetened Cherries, and Salt.  Still keeping an eye out there for the coconut and key lime flavors…

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What I ate

Friday Success-2, Failure-1

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Happy Friday!!!  I’m pumped for the weekend!

I started this lovely Friday morning off with Day #1, Week #3 of my interval training (2 minutes walking, 4 minutes running for 30 minutes).  Knees are doing really good, which makes me SUPER happy 😀

 

Breakfast #1

GRILLED FRUIT AND NUT BUTTER WRAP!  YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Regular PB2 + black raspberries + Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla =

+ George Foreman

= HEAVEN:

SUCCESSSSS.   If you haven’t tried a grilled fruit and nut butter wrap yet… get on it!  They are delicious!

2 more days to post a comment on the PB2 giveaway!!!

Stats on the grilled PB2 + black razz wrap:  129 calories, 14g carbs, 5g fat, 11g protein, 6g fiber

 

Breakfast #2

After seeing the breakfast cookie success Leashieloo had on her blog, I decided it was time for round #2 with the breakfast cookie. 

Last night  I gathered all my ingredients:

That’s:

  • 1/3 cup Bob’s Red Mill Extra Thick rolled oats
  • 1 tbsp smuckers organic creamy peanut butter
  •  1/8 cup unsweetened Almond Breeze Vanilla almond milk
  • 1/2 cup Mott’s unsweetened applesauce
  • 1/2 tsp brown sugar
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp sweetened coconut

I was a little hesitant when I combined all the ingredients because it seemed like it was just going to be a big mushy mess.  I contemplated making back-up overnight oats, then decided to just pack some extra almond milk so I could make on-the-spot-overnight oats if needed.

Well my worries were valid — my breakfast cookie didn’t turn out like a cookie but more of a mushy mess. 

I added a 1/4 cup of almond breeze to the mix to make it more like overnight oats.  Overall, I think I’m just not a big fan of the applesauce in the breakfast cookies.  Not sure why, but it doesn’t jive with me!

Fail 🙁

Stats on the breakfast cookie (including extra almond breeze):  322 calories, 44g carbs, 12g fat, 9g protein, 5g fiber

 

Lunch!

Today I had a very special lunch treat!  My friend & colleague Natalie and I had an outdoor picnic courtesy of Jimmy Johns!

I got the usual:  Beach Club Unwich – Mayo + Onion + Giant pickle 😀

Success!

Weekend plans include shopping, dining, cookouts, R&R, and fam time 😀

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