Salt & Humor

I have too much to blog about and I think I have officially fallen behind.  I randomly took some fun photos over the last three weeks but certainly never got around to blogging about it.  I have no idea where time goes.  No, honestly, I really don’t.  It seemed I was anxious for the Holidays and family to visit and now as I type this, it has come and gone. Gal! I will try to get some of these photos organized and get to posting.  For now I just want to share a bit.  Have a lot to get done tonight, so I’m making it quick.

It is safe to say that my dinner tonight was EPIC! I love the way something simple can end up being amazing!

My favorite masaged kale salad with avocado and tahini, steamed tempeh with dijon mustard sauce and chayote squash. Why on earth have I never tried chayote squash before!?! I prepared it with this recipe and am hooked!!

I had a great Christmas with my brother and his fiance. <3 I miss them already!!

In the last three weeks I have been making lentil sprouts about once or twice a week.

I toss these in pretty much everywhere.

Amazing Sunday breakfast.

Brown rice, green beans, adzuki bean sprouts, kale, nutritional yeast and soy sauce.

For breakfast a few days a week, I have been having steamed kale or collard greens with grains and nutritional yeast and sprouts. Some mornings it quinoa, brown rice or oats.  Today it was cracked wheat.  Honestly, I have not photographed any on this because it may seem odd and it’s not a pretty dish. Besides, I don’t give myself enough time in the mornings to be taking photos.  It’s all about staying on time. This morning I had the time and took a photos of such craziness.

Cracked wheat, steamed kale, nutritional yeast, tahini and soy sauce.

Have you made any sprouts lately? They are very easy to make and are packed with some great nutrition stats!

Giveaway Winner: (Using random.org) is Jenn.

A while ago I cooked a buttercup squash and discovered that two out of the three kitties liked it.  I wasn’t actually planning to give them some because if you know one thing about cats, it is that they are finicky eaters.  Well, when I took it out of the oven and was scraping away thee skin, Yoshi and Choopey were at my feet just staring up at me, begging.  So, I put some in their dishes and was amazed at what I saw…

Little Yoch actually had seconds!

I know I have talked about how much I like massaged kale but I must tell you at least one more time.  I made this one with avocado, lemon and salt.  I promise you, it is fabulous

The combination of this dinner is one I might just have to duplicate the exact same way.  Yup, it was that good.  Avocado-massaged kale salad+ buttercup squash with tahini+ tempeh= perfect.

You know how I talked about kitties always wanting to get in the photos, well it didn’t fail this morning.

I almost forgot to mention the tasty zucchini muffins I made from ED&BV.  This morning I toasted them under the broiler in the oven. Let me just tell you about a really rad memories real quick.  My mom used to make the most fabulous sourdough biscuits (one of the best foods I have had in my whole life) and we would toast them in the oven this way.  Told you it would be real quick.  Have a great night

I planted arugula, kale and lettuce for our Fall garden last month.  It seems that the arugula is ready and I feel like I have almost been forgetting to get out there and well, EAT from our own garden.

Lacinato Kale

Roquette Arugula

Flashy Troutback Lettuce

I have honestly never heard of such a fancy named lettuce.  That is the surprise of growing it yourself I guess.  I also didn’t even realize that I would be able to plant and grow these this late in the season here in the North West.  I’m still learning, that’s for sure. I am very excited about the fancy Mr. Flashy Troutback though. (just seems like a guy’s name, right)

I think the lettuce and kale have a few more days to go so I picked the arugula for a salad this afternoon.

I had a simple salad with leftover beans and rice.  I am finding that I really like nutritional yeast.  I tried it last summer and wasn’t so sure.  I have been using it in sauces and dressings.  The other night I stirred about 1/3 cup in with brown rice, kidney beans and salsa. Let me just say, I was not expecting it to be as tasty as it was!

I must say, warm toppings for salads are my FAVORITE!

(topped with hemp seeds)

So, roquette arugula is very SPICY! I was definitely not expecting that.  Let’s just say I will be mixing it in with other greens from now on.

I almost couldn’t grab my camera fast enough to catch this little bit of amazement…

Nature is simply amazing! That’s all I have to say.

Well, two wonderful food discoveries for me over the last year would be tempeh and massaged kale.  Yes, I have heard of kale but it’s not like I was really eating it.  When I did, I think I only put it into smoothies.  Well, one day I discovered massaged kale.  Crazy right?

Massaged Kale

I start with a bowl of rinsed kale pieces

Next, add salt. (hopefully sea salt)

Then add lemon or lime juice. (I used 1/2 of a lime.)

Lastly, massage the kale.  I mean use your hands and mix and squeeze. If you let it sit for a few minutes it breaks down even more.

Then add your topping and dressing.  I recommend using less dressing than usual because of the tangy juice.

This salad was topped with tempeh, marinated in dijon mustard, olive oil and basalmic vinegar, purple bell peppers and tomatoes.  Which brings me to my next favorite discovery, TEMPEH!  If you have followed this crazy blog for a while, you may have noticed it pop up from time to time.  I LOVE the stuff.

I added some tahini sauce for my dressing.  I was at Trader Joe’s the other day looking for tahini, which I discovered they DO NOT have.  Will have to make a seperate trip, gal! However, they do have tahini sauce.

Well, this stuff is WONDERFUL! The ingredients are tahini, lemon and garlic.  It is like whipped tahini goodness!  Is it too late to mention that another favorite food would be tahini.?  Anyways, do get to your nearest Trader Joes and get some of this stuff.  I could practically eat it by the spoonful.

How about you, any new foods lately?  What is a favorite food discovery you have had?

Best news in a while! I finally geared up and got to the gym yesterday.  I admit, it has been since before Christmas that I was last there. I enjoy my home workouts and feel I get a good workout.  I just think it’s nice to balance the two.  Since it has been about a months since my last gym visit, it has also been a month since I last wore my iPhone arm band.  I announce, it was LOOSE !! Yay! I think that gave me an extra bit of energy during my workout.  So did this:

Just a bit of my granola with almond milk. I know some of you don’t care for the elliptical but I love it! I spent 35 minutes on it and burned 523 calories! I was so jazzed that I then did 15 minutes on the stair master and then arms. I love when gym days go like that.  That is why I like to balance my workouts with gym, home and outdoors. It keeps each activity exciting.

Dinner was zucchini, kale and broccoli with tahini-yogurt dressing, tempeh with tahini and quinoa.  It took maybe 15 minutes to prepare this dinner and I loved every bit of it!

Just a quick post today.  It is my Birthday and I think the day is going to be jam packed! Road trip! Enjoy the weekend!

Skipped the coffee this morning and replaced it with some juice.  I swear, it gives you the same feeling, only better.

That is really a monster carrot! They are Italian carrots-cool huh.

I made oats before my workout so they would be ready after. I have really been enjoying making overnight oats (no-cook), this was similar, only 2 hour oats.

1/4 cup dry oats, 1 scoop of Amazing Grass-Superfood, 1 scoop of Chocolate Biochem protein (thanks April!), 2 tbsp. of ground flax, dried fruit/nuts, unsweetened coconut and cinnamon mixed with half a smashed banana and almond milk. Today, I added the juice from the bottom of the pitcher.  It is usually foamy…ehhh. Depending on my mood, I may or may not drink that part. So in the oats it went!

After my workout and a shower the oats hit the spot, with some almond butter, that is.

It was a beautiful, sunny (for the most part) today.  I am not the only one that loves the sunshine…

This little handsome devil does not like his photo taken! He usually runs off.  So this was discretely taken from inside without his permission.

I picked up a mysterious winter squash at the store a while ago.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with this one, so I sliced and baked.

It was just ok.  The sweet dumpling was way better! The other part of my dinner was better though.

Massaged kale with lime and salt, tahini/yogurt dressing, grilled tofu, yellow pepper and grape tomatoes.

Have a happy Saturday night!

You betcha! Why can’t I enjoy the great taste of falafel with a healthy spin? Well, I say make falafel patties and bake em.  Into my favorite kitchen appliance (food processor) went: 1 can drained and rinsed garbonzo beans, 1/4 sweet onion, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 3 tablespoons each of cilantro and parsley. After it was a good consistency (whatever that means) I added 5 tablespoons of wheat flour and 1 teaspoon of baking powder and pulsed a little more.  Then I made little patties and plopped them into a glass baking dish with a little bit of cooking spray. Baked @ 400 for 20 minutes on each side.

The really yummy part is the sauce that I made to go with it!

I did not measure, so bear with me.  Tahini, maybe 1/3 of a cup, juice of 1 lemon, salt, ground cumin, 1/2 packet of stevia and 4 tablespoons of non-fat yogurt.  I am so hooked on this dressing/sauce.  I plan to make this more often for sure.  I might thin it down a little with some water or more lemon juice next time.  With the falafel, I had massaged kale salad with yellow bell peppers and cucumber.

The massaged kale is oddly, one of my favorites as of late.  I just put lots of lemon juice and a little salt and its perfect.  It is even more perfect with that sauce.  I want to make the falafel again soon.  For one, it was so good, and for two, I over baked them.  So depending on how you like them , cooking times should vary.

Worked out with Jackie again last night.  Not sure if Netflix will be getting that dvd back anytime soon.  No worries, that is why we have 3 on rotation. I am thinking I just bust bust out of my home workouts and go to the gym tomorrow.  Hopefully, if it doesn’t rain, I plan to take a bike ride.  There is  part of a trail I need to discover that I found this winter!

Tonight is my Friday. My cheat day is actually, Thursday night.  I feel better if I only cheat part of the day.  So, I am thinking one of these and some Pop Chips sound delightful!

The deal I made with myself, is that if I cheat tonight, it’s gym tomorrow.  Deal.

Have a good night!

What is your favorite food or drink for cheat day?

I slack again! Ask my brother, one of my nicknames is, Slacker. HA! Today, I am a slacker because I DID NOT make it to the gym.  Instead, i did this:

Oops!

I was going to do a Jillian Michaels workout when I got home.  I have excuses, I swear.  Bottom line; tomorrow it’s going to happen, I swear.

Last night I made ciabatta bread. What-Ev! Really it was just a yummy white flour blob.  It’s that bread machine that makes shitty bread, I think.  Well, it’s not like I would have made it otherwise.  So, I guess the machine comes in handy from time to time.

This was an allrecipes.com knock off. No biggie!

It did have fresh garlic and rosemary though….nope, still just a processed, white flour blob! The part that did have me groovin though, was this:

YES!  The bread was just a reason to sop up as much vinegar as possible.  Possibly even enough to choke a little.

Tonight, my eats were simple.  I got off track, talked on the phone for too long and sipped a bit of grape juice was only cooking for one. Twas a simple grilled sandwich thingy.  Is it called a wrap or a sangwich??

Flatout,  kale, tomato, veggie burger, sabra hummus, and yellow mustard, of course.  It was pretty good. Heh!

Time to catch up a few of my favorite bloggies.  I might just make nog ice cream.  What is that you say?  Well, you will just have to wait and see.

Let me just say that when you are trying to eat good and diet, IT IS HARD! Imagine my temptation when I came home to this!!!!

This is probably Jason’s favorite dinner to make.  It may or may not look terribly appetizing in that photo.  Take my word for it, it is!  It is insane good!  It is ramen noodles, chili and most likely a frigen block of cheese! Um K! Lets see…served on a tortilla with more cheese and sour cream, it is hard to walk away.  When I first walked in, he had just made it, so it was all warm and gooey too  I DID, take a bite.  YES, it was good.  Then I realized how this S%#t is not worth it and how awful I feel after… So I made my own dinner (as usual).

Salad: steamed kale, tempeh, olives, red peppers and mushrooms with MORE hummus for a dressing.  It was good times.  Plus, I feel so proud for resisting that fat globule producing crud!

Enogh ranting.  Sorry.

Last night we were kinda on the same page.  I made his and hers enchiladas.  We both had shredded chicken and black olives.  His had cheese and mine had zucchini.

a little hot sause and greek yougurt make it all good!

I did make it to the gym before work yesterday. YAY! However I slept in this morning.  I didn’t make up for it either, because I had a hair appointment after work. It is a must tomorrow.  I miss it now.  I don’t like it when the soreness starts to go away. Up at 5 am yo, bring the soreness!