Salt & Humor

Just a quick post tonight.  I must proclaim my mad love for Los Gorditos.  It is no secret that my favorite food would be mexican food. Well, finding vegan options in traditional restaurants can be a bit challenging, especially if they don’t even have veggies on the menu. With a bit of research and plentiful options in this veggie-friendly city led me to find Los Gorditos.  I ordered the soy curl tacos with rice and beans and we shared chips and salsa.

I cannot even begin to say how much I loved this lunch.  I am hoping that with a bit of bribery, I may convince J to take me back tomorrow.  Is that too soon?? I say, it’s worth a shot

Having tacos for dinner is like celebrating your Birthday or a Holiday.  Or, at least that is what it feels like in our house.  What is your favorite dinner?  ”Tacos.”  What was served at your wedding?  ”Tacos.”  What do you always eat on your Birthday?  ”Tacos.” You see, I just love tacos!  What makes taco night even better??… Homemade salsa, I tell you!!

Tacos consisted of  homemade “refried” (smashed pinto) beans with cheddar, salsa and Greek yogurt for her and sour cream for him.

Those tortillas look a little different, you ask?  Oh yeah, Jason made those from scratch!!

Let me just say, “I made one!” There is no way I have the patienience for that! He, on the other hand did and did a great job! Thanks Jason!!

Taco Night Success!!

What is your favorite dinner of all time!?

Did you think I forgot all about blogging? Well, I pretty much did.  I left for Reno last Wednesday and returned last night.  I had a wonderful visit with family and friends! It was a good break from blogging, but nontheless, I am stoked to be back! I was not diligent as to photo all the marvelous eats but I did snag quite a few. Coming at you fast, here we go!!!

dinner at Dad’s: turkey enchos, fish tacos, quac and beans

Jason’s amazing salsa!

Dad busy fixing his famous breakfast potatoes!

crab pan roast from the Atlantis

tofu/veggie soup from Pho 777 (this was to die for!!)

salad at Mom’s

spaghetti squash with Mom’s marinara

eggplant and brussel sprouts

All together now!

My Mom is a little rock star! She is the single most, best influence in my life! She is an amazing cook and I owe my love for cooking to her! Miss her already!!

I completely forgot to take a photo of the dinner I had at Sue and Jasons. Shoot! We had homemade cheesy polenta, steak with blue cheese on top and a green salad! OH MY! I had no idea I was going to like the steak that much!! What a treat, I must say. Thank you guys!

Get a glimpse of the generous gift basket from my brother and his girlfriend! Can you tell, they know me pretty well! Rather than list it all out, I will just remember to mention the goodies as I break into them.

Thanks Ray & Nichole!

Check out the makings of that stout! Let me just say, I did see organic coca nibs in the recipe! I am thinking a trip back for a sip will be in order!

I had such an amazing time, however, it always seems to fly by.  I miss everyone so much already! I love you ALL! I have much catching up on laundry, cleaning, petting some neglected kitties and planning a healthy(ier) dinner.  Happy Tuesday bloggies!

***GIVEAWAY*** Check out this amazing site, oh yeah, and a giveaway!

Happy Wednesday! I got my workout in tonight, so all is well. Jason got me a Polar heart rate monitor for my birthday and it came in the mail last night.   Tonight was my first chance to use it.  I programmed it with all my information and set it for exercise mode.  It seemed like it constantly beeped! Either telling me to get my heart rate up, that I was in good range, or to lower it.  Are you kidding me right now! Stop beeping! I need to figure out how to knock that off! Otherwise it was rewarding to know a # to my calories burned.  In 45 minutes of I burned 403 calories. Nice!!

I am pretty much a fan of combining any vegetable, grain and bean.  Last night it was adzuki beans and wheat berries.

This was my first time using adzuki beans.  I have found their stats to be pretty attractive.

Adzuki-Wheatberry Salad

3/4 cup of adzuki beans

3/4 cup of wheatberry

1 medium carrot

2 stalks of celery

2 roma tomatoes

1 avocado

2 persian cucumbers

1/2 red bell pepper

1 tbsp.  cilantro,chopped

Dressing:

1 clove garlic, minced

1 lime juiced

2 tsp. honey

1 tbsp. olive oil

1/4 tsp. mustard powder

salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook beans and wheat berries. I soaked beans all day then rinsed and cooked over medium heat for 1 hour.  Wheat berries cooked on medium heat for about 45 minutes.

2. Chop all veggies and set aside.

3. In small bowl, mix lime juice, garlic, honey, mustard powder and olive oil with whisk or fork and set aside.

4. Drain cooked beans and wheat berries and rinse under cold water. Transfer to large bowl.

5. Add  chopped vegetables and cilantro and combine.

5. Drizzle dressing and season with salt and pepper. The salt will create more juice and add to the dressing.

I had the adzuki-wheatberry salad over a bowl of arugula for lunch.  For dinner tonight, I had it with 2 corn tortillas and greek yogurt.

It is a pretty simple meal. You can make with any vegetable you like.  I usually just use what I have on hand.  Carrot, celery and cucumber are some of my favorites.

That’s all for now, I ran out of stuff to say. *Goodnight*

So, last night was taco night. Tacos are one of the best dinners around if you ask me.  I made black beans that we made into refried beans.

This was simpler than I was expecting.  Can’t take all the credit though.  Karla knows her black beans.  I have seen them pop up on her site several times. Finally I had to make them for myself. Check out her recipe. If you checked her out, then you will know where I my going with my lunch:arrow:

This meal was so darn good, that I have declared that I will be having the same thing tomorrow! 1 egg and 1 egg white, DKB with Sunbutter, and black beans.  Yes, that toast is a bit burnt. Is it crazy that I love burnt toast?

Backtracking to last night’s dinner.  I was telling myself that I would just have a taco salad and not have a tortilla.  Well, schucks, I had two!

This ended up making me way to full.  This is no surprise.  I think I always have a full belly ache on taco night. It is the one dinner, I have a hard time stopping when I am full. I griped and complained, then finally told myself to just do better next time!

I woke up an knew just what I needed.

That is much better! I love how juice can make you feel so good.

Jason and I met with a photographer this morning.  It was a Christmas gift from my dear cousin. I was stunned when I saw some of her work that she did for her and a friend.  She is from Chicago, but was visiting family.  We lucked out! I am soooo excited to see the prints.  The best part of all was that it wasn’t raining when we met her.  I was pretty nervous that it would.  I woke up to rain and we drove to meet her downtown in the pouring rain.  It stopped raining within 5 minutes of our meeting up with her.  I kid you not!! I had a lot of fun.  I realized again, just how much I love Jason! He is my best friend and I adore him!

I passed on the tortillas and cheese tonight.  Taco salad it was.

I did not make the bed today, however, some folks did not mind.