Tag: salad

Post hike lunch: pan seared salmon, organic kale salad, & garlic fries

Adventures, Recipes

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Went hiking for the first time in forever near Rose Canyon Lake and had a blast! It was so amazing to be out in nature on a beautiful sunny day. Even got lost, and you know what? Had fun doing that, too. We were out there for about 2 and a half hours – not in any rush, took lots of breaks, and took lots of pictures. Afterwards, I was exhausteddddd. Ate this fantastic lunch then passed out for a 2 hours. Felt good.

For the salmon: seasoned simply with salt, pepper, and canola oil – then seared for a about 4 minutes on each side in a hot cast iron skillet

For the kale salad:

Tuscan Kale (Trader Joe’s)

Brown rice

Broccoli slaw (Trader Joe’s)

small grape tomatoes

raisins

All tossed together with lemon juice and olive oil to taste

Garlic fries from Trader Joe’s and followed the package instructions

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Lovely spinach salad with cannellini beans

Adventures, Recipes, Vegan Recipes, Weight loss journey

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The thing about getting back to my normal diet of rabbit food and beans is that I am always hungry! It sucks! I put a half cup of rinse and drained cannellini beans on top of my salad so I’m hoping it hold me over at least until after the gym.

Either way, I am already feeling lighter and that’s what I really want.

The recipe is as follows:
Two three handfuls of baby spinach (romaine would have been good, too)
One tomato
One carrot
Handful of fresh flat leaf (Italian) parsley
Half cup of cannellini (aka white kidney) beans
For the dressing:
Juice of half a lemon
1 tsp Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Ground cumin

I tossed all except for the beans in a large bowl and tossed. Then I piled the beans on top. That’s it!

I did a calculation using myfitnesspal.com and this huge salad is only 210 calories! Not bad! With the calories that low, guess who’s having a homemade chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich later?

A vegan lunch for old college housemates

Adventures, Menu, Recipes

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I really lucked out when I shared a house with two girls while going to college at the University of Arizona. I found the house on the dreaded Craigslist, met the owner of the house, but did not meet the girl who would be living across the hall and sharing a bathroom with me until after I moved in! Here we are today, graduated, doing big things, and still friends. What could have turned out to be a miserable year turned out to be the beginning of a great friendship and a bond created over both of our love for FOOD. Devynn Hawley, your the best!

On December 29th, 2012, we made plans to get together for lunch, coffee, whatever… we just knew we wanted to see each other. Sure, we keep in touch through facebook, etc, but there is nothing like an in-person hangout.

I decided I would cook lunch for my amiga – just like old times! We both wanted something light and healthy after overindulging over Christmas. So, what better than a nice, nutrient-filled, vegan lunch? I decided to make acorn squash filled with a whole wheat couscous mixture of cranberries, walnuts, parsley, and green onion. I paired this with my favorite spinach salad that I used to make for Devynn all the time at the old house. It consists of grilled or sauteed onions, spinach, apple, walnuts, cranberries, and a simple dressing of apple cider vinegar and olive oil (oh, and salt and pepper of course).

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To wash it down, I made a mocktail of Trader Joe’s Cherry Cider, Hansens Diet Soda in Tangerine-Lime, and apple slices. For dessert, we had a couple of those no-egg chocolate chip cookies I made the night before.

A vegan lunch for old college housemates

It was awesome catching up and gossiping about boys and such. I made a friend for life while living in that house and at the core is, once again, food.

Let me know if you want any of these recipes and I will gladly post them!

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My favorite salad

Everything else

My favorite salad

This one right here, as the title indicates, my favorite salad. I love it because I almost always have all the ingredients in house and it is the perfect lunch or light dinner. I use whatever lettuce I have on hand but my favorite is romaine lettuce for this combination. I add creamy cannelini beans, thinly sliced red onion and fennel, then, salt, pepper, lemon, and a drizzle of fruity extra virgin olive oil.

Yoga Tuesday

Menu, Weight loss journey

I did really good with my menu yesterday, except I sneaked (snuck? snook?) a handful of Kettle Cooked Jalapeno chips while I was making my salad for dinner. I created another menu for today that I have been following already – so far so good. Amazingly, I am not lighter (because I weighed myself this morning) but I feel lighter. On this track of feeling lighter, I am going to do yoga tonight and really push myself to let go of all my extra tension. If you have not already tried yoga, show yourself some love and give it a shot. It’s amazing!

I am also super excited about trying a new pose tonight, Parsva Bakasana (or side crane). I got some really helpful hints from another great blogger, standandfacethesun.wordpress.com, and want to try them out while they are still fresh in my head. The plan is to eat a light healthy dinner of miso soup, stir fried veggies and brown rice. Then, I will go relax and re-center at yoga tonight from 8 – 9pm. Plus, I have a really major interview tomorrow so I need to be at my relaxed best. Wish me luck!

Tuesday menu is as follows:

Breakfast: My favorite oatmeal of whole rolled oats, coconut milk, TJ’s golden berry mix, cinnamon, and raw walnuts.

Snack: Organic gala apple, almonds

Lunch: Greek salad made with romaine lettuce, kalamata olives, English cucumber, grape tomatoes, cannelini beans and parsley. All dressed with balsalmic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

***Tip: Babyfood jars are great for making and packing your own salad dressing. You just shake the little jar to mix it up just before putting it on your salad. I also use baby food jars to store spices that I buy in bulk.***

Snack: grapes and walnuts

Dinner: Miso soup, stir fried veggies (carrot, onion, mushroom, fennel, broccolini, spinach, celery, and edamame are what I have in my fridge right now) and brown rice.

Snap pea, radish, and edamame salad

Adventures

Snap pea, radish, and edamame salad

This is another gem out of the Kind Diet book. I had these radishes in my fridge for over a week and needed to do something soon or they were going to start growing roots in my crisper drawer. This wonderfully simple recipe has a yummy lemon “butter” sauce that perfectly compliments the salad. I added some chopped fresh parsley and it was perfect. I ate a little of this salad with some brown rice tonight for a light dinner. I am going to do the same for my lunch tomorrow but more of it!

Light Monday Night Dinner

Everything else

Light Monday Night Dinner

Another easy-peasy recipe. I always like to pound out my organic chicken breast before I put it on the grill – I think it cooks faster and more evenly that way. I don’t have a meat-pounder-thingy so I just use a heavy sauce pan and it works like a charm. Olive oil, salt, pepper and Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute and that’s it on the chicken. For the salad, it was a simple mix of spinach, arugula, shaved carrot, cucumber, and peas. The salad was dressed simply with olive oil, sesame oil, lemon, salt and pepper. Simple, light and delicious.