CAO-POW

I mentioned yesterday that I received a package from Navitas Naturals. It was a delightful little package indeed- I am super pumped to try all these super foods.

Said package contained the Trail Power (tasted for the first time yesterday and the bag is now one bite away from being empty- oh yea, it’s that good) chia seeds!!, goji berries, maca powdered, sweetened cacao nibs!!, and cacao powder, plus a sweet little water bottle.

All of the above foods are considered super foods and have a ton of great benefits. Rather than bore you with one long post on the benefits of each. I’ll elaborate on each as I use them.

So, Nativas Naturals touts that they are Power Foods for the Modern Lifestyle. With this in mind I decided to add a little power to my morning routine by having a cao-pow smoothie for breakfast.

This was one of the best smoothies I have had in a long time- I absolutely loved the texture that the cacao nibs added.

Cao-pow Cacao Smoothie

• 1 frozen banana
• ¾ cup frozen blueberries
• 1 Tbsp. nut butter of your choice
• 1 Tbsp. cacao powder
• 1 Tbsp. cacao nibs
• 3 cubes of ice
• ¾ cup almond milk

Blend all ingredients in a high-powdered blender until smooth. Pour into your favorite glass and enjoy!

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Cacao plants produce cacao (pronounced Ka-Kow) beans, the source for all chocolate and cocoa products. We all know that the darker a chocolate is, the better it is for you! Well cacao powder and cacao nibs are straight from the source, darker than dark, and have great nutritional benefits. These benefits include a rich supply of antioxidants, flavanols – which increase blood flow to the brain and offer other circulatory health benefits, dietary fiber, magnesium and essential minerals.

And incase you were wondering what the difference between cocoa and cacao is, because I certainly was.

The official name of the chocolate tree is Theobroma cacao but, some experts say, over the years the word “cacao” became Anglicized, and probably through error, people started replacing it with the word “cocoa”. I’m pretty sure most of us grew up saying cocoa bean, not cacao bean – I know I did. But the raw foodies out there and super food companies alike are going back to the roots and calling it the proper name which is cacao.

Cacao Powder Nutrition Facts: Needless to say, the cacao powder is good for you, but it’s also tasty. Perfect for smoothies, desserts, sauces, and chocolate drinks. I wouldn’t recommend using it plain because it is bitter-sweet and definitely isn’t as sweet as cocoa powder. (Notice the 0 sugar grams below)

If you are interested in purchasing Navitas Naturals product check out their website or the store locator.

I’ll be featuring the other super foods soon, but for now, get excited, it’s almost Friday. Woot Woot!

Sour, Sweet, Salty & Seedy

I think I got my sour fix for the day. These tangy little gems are called Golden Inca berries.

From the look of them you might expect something sweet like raisins, dates, or dried plums. Well, they are a bit sweet, but more so sour. The skin of the Inca berry is thick and the inside texture is familiar, as they have little seeds inside similar to a dried fig. The flavor is similar, but a little more intense, than that of a tart dried cranberry with no added sweetener. Although I don’t particularly love sour foods, these aren’t too sour and they do have a hint of sweetness. Plus you can’t beat the nutritional benefits.

From Peru these berries are sun-dried, vegan and raw. They are nothing short of a super fruit and a good source of bioflavinoids, which possess anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antiviral properties. They are also high in phosphorus and vitamins A, C, B1, B2, B6, and B12. And for a fruit, they are a good source of protein and rich in Pectin. Lastly, they are reputed to be one of the few known plant-based sources of B12. This is important if you are vegan because B12 is almost exclusively found in animal products.

I have Isaac’s mom to thank for these little gems. She orders them, along with Gogi Berries, Maca Powder, Cacao Powder, Cacao nibs and other goodies from Elements for Life. She introduced me to all these things sometime last year, but I never ordered any of my own- just tried hers. Thanks Ellen!

Lately I’ve been in quite the snacky mood. I had some of the Inca berries as a snack before leaving for work yesterday morning and then made a snack mix to bring back to work after lunch. This combo of kashi go lean, raw almonds, and salted pepita seeds was perfect- both sweet and salty!

I used to be head over heals in love with all things trail mix (which is where the name of this blog stems from). But lately they haven’t really been exciting me too much, I’ve even stopped buying my staple- Simply the Best Trail Mix from Trader Joe’s. Hard to believe.

A little more seed action happened this AM when I topped the typical bowl of chia seed oatmeal/oat bran with better n pb and pepitas.

Isaac’s away and I’m eating all his pepita seeds…. that’s what he gets for not reading the blog!

Still loving my chia seed oatmeal. Not only is it delicious, but it packs some serious staying power. Love that.

Work went smoothly and then I headed home for lunch. More salad, how surprising, are you all bored with me yet? This one had spring mix , tomatoes, broccoli, corn off the cob, avocados, yellow bell pepper, tofurkey pieces, and Sabra sun-dried tomato hummus for dressing.

As a lunch dessert I quickly whipped up a frozen banana and fresh blackberries in a kitchen gadget, that I use as a food processor, but in reality I’m pretty sure is a chopper. So, it wasn’t quite banana soft serve- let’s just call it a sorbet for lack of a better term. No matter what it’s called, it was delish and that’s all that matters in my book.

A PACKAGE arrived on my doorstep as I heading back to work and of course I couldn’t resist opening it. When I found out it was from Nativas Natural’s I couldn’t resist trying something that was inside.

Just when I said I was sort of over trail mix, Trail Power comes in my life! This mix had golden berries, mulberries, gogi berries, raw cashews, and cacao nibs. Ah-mazing to the 10th degree. I’m pretty much in love! I can confidently say that this rivals some of the all time best trail mixes out there. Also, I had never had mulberries before and I have to say they were my favorite. I need a whole bag of these on their own!

Do you spy the inca berry in the mix? It’s going incognito, under it’s other name (the golden berry)!

Needless to say I am totally pumped to try the other Navita’s products I received and I’ll be sure to do a proper post on them soon.

Last by not least. I wanna do some house keeping. I’ve been trying to decide where to go with my blog. I’ve been blogging now for over a year and I’m having so much fun with it! I really want to do some updating to my blog and bring it to another level, but I just don’t have the time right now while taking classes and working. Hopefully in the next couple months Eating Bird Food will undergo some changes!! I’m excited for what that might bring.

But it’s not only about me, it’s about YOU (my readers) as well, so I want to know what you all think. One thing I know is that I want this blog to more interactive, so tell me what you like, what you don’t like, what you would like to see more of.. whatever, just bring it to the table.

p.s Thanks for reading. I love you guys!!

I Couldn’t Resist…

Even though I spent a good portion of my last post complaining about how much my stomach was hurting from the pumpkin pie soup, I still couldn’t resist eating some of the leftovers. I know, I’m such a rebel right? No really I just figured if I didn’t devour a big bowl at one sitting it wouldn’t effect me as it did before. Thank goodness I was right because the addition of the pumpkin pie soup to my b-fast was pretty much the best thing eva.

1/4 cup oatmeal, 1/4 cup oat bran, 1 cup h20, 1/2 of a banana, and a sprinkle of cinnamon cooked stove top with 1 heaping spoonful of better n’ PB and a couple drizzles of ultimate orange resulted in one delicious bowl of Pumpkin Pie Oats!!

This held me over ALL morning and I went home for lunch later than usual.

I currently have a HUGE container of Earthbound Farm’s Organic spring mix from Costco so you’re going to see a lot of salads on this here blog as I race against the produce clock to eat it all before it gets all wilted and slimy on me.

For my lunch snack I had more pumpkin pie soup, this time mixed with some Trader Joe’s Nonfat greek yogurt and kashi go lean. I’m still not keen on the sourness of plain yogurt so the pumpkin pie and cereal helped.

A bite close up

Yesterday evening I went to the gym for a quick arm workout and then met up with a friend/co-worker.

We spent a fun evening together grocery shopping and cooking! I taught her how easy it is to make homemade Thai Spring Rolls with peanut sauce and also got her to try the super grain, quinoa (keen-wa)!

The spring roll ingredients consisted of romaine, avocado, cucumber, carrot, mint, and basil.

We also put some shrimp and rice noodles in the wraps, although they were camera shy.

I cooked the quinoa with h20 and tomato juice from home canned tomatoes and topped it with steamed broccoli. I also added black bean garlic sauce and soy sauce to the steamed broccoli so the dish would have more of an Asian flare.

Dinner was delish and I had a ton of fun cooking with a friend. After the dishes were clean and my friend had gone home I finished off the pumpkin pie as dessert. I don’t think that deliciousness would ever last more than two days in my house. I already want to make it again.

Speaking of friends, I woke up this morning and found this little guy hanging out on my back deck.

I hope he wasn’t trying to steal my herbs…. he was awfully close to the basil and rosemary!!

I had a Lean Banana Split for breakfast. And it was yummy per the usual.

I’m excited because I have big plans to do an awesome abs class this evening and then just hang with Olive.

I hope everyone is having a lovely Tuesday!!

Thinking Cap

Today was a lazy Sunday, minus the sun. We went to bed quite late, but I still woke up early- I got the whole internal clock thing going on and even on weekends when I go to bed later than normal I still wake up early. It was rainy out- no morning run in sight and I didn’t want to make a lot of noise so I postponed eating breakfast and got started on some school work. Once the house was bustling and it was safe to run the juicer I juiced a chunk of beet, 4 carrots, 1 fuji apple, and some cucumber.

Here’s the magic potion…

I shared a wee bit with Isaac and enjoyed the rest. I definitely dig this combo. With the juice I had a banana with some AB and thought that would be my full breakfast, but then Isaac got out the Kashi Go Lean waffles. I took a bite of his and decided I wanted one for myself. So I had one. With syrup.

My friend headed back north mid-morning and Isaac and I settled into school work. I broke for lunch around 12:30.

A salad of spring mix, corn off the cob, carrots, avocado, bell peppers, broccoli, grape tomatoes, cucumber and TJ’s Goddess dressing… since I’m a goddess and all (totally kidding).

Post lunch I ran out to do some errands and to workout. After a unsuccessful shopping trip and a successful workout I came home showered and started making dinner, which strangely resembled dessert. I’d seen this recipe featured by both the G’s- Gena and Gina and had been wanting to try it.

Natalia Rose’s Pumpkin Pie in a Bowl

Oh man this chilly soup lived up to it’s name and each bite was filled with pure deliciousness. It’s amazing how much it tasted like pumpkin pie without having a speck of actual pumpkin in it. Besides the fact that my juicer got a little clogged from the boat load of carrot pulp, the recipe was really easy and fast. Unfortunately I can’t post the recipe because it is published and I followed it exactly. But I will let you in a little secret, some folks don’t seem to  care about copyright so you can easily find it with a little goggling.

With the soup I had a salad, which was very much similar to the salad I had for lunch. I’m loving sweet corn right now- especially in salads!

So dinner was amazing, and it was pretty much love at first bite with the soup. That is until my stomach almost instantly started to feel really bloated and painful. OUCH! I’ve had stomach issues before and at one point thought that it was caused from eating the skin of a baked sweet potato. There was sweet potato in the soup, but no skin so now I don’t know. Maybe I ate the soup too fast or maybe I’m actually allergic to sweet potatoes. It would be rare because it’s not something people are often allergic to, however definitely still possible and it’s the only thing in dinner that I can link to the pain – especially after having the same problem occur before with sweet potatoes.  Now I’m scared to even eat the leftovers tomorrow. 

Plus, I’m sad because I simply LOVE sweet potatoes. The good news is that the soup can be made with a sub for the sweet potato. I’m actually certain that Gena subs the sweet potato with b-nut squash. I didn’t even think about it because my stomach hasn’t acted up in a long while, but had I been using my thinking cap I would have just used Gena’s sub  from the get-go. Oh well, ya live, ya learn. I’m off to lay down, as that’s the only thing that makes my stomach feel semi-better.

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend! I know I surely did.

Red, White, Blue

Last fourth of July Isaac and I spent the whole day moving into our new apt. The year before last I did a heritage 5 mile race. This year I decided to combine the two. I woke up early, got moving, and did my own independence day run 5 mile run without having to pay $35 to do it. It feels great to be back running.

I returned home just as the rest of the house was waking and we all had some b-fast. I has a little juice concoction. An oldie but goodie, 3 carrots, chunk of raw beet, quarter of a large english cucumber, and 1 fuji apple.

Bright red in celebration of the holiday. Isaac tried the juice. He said it smelled like salad, but liked the sweet flavor and he came back for two or three tastes.

After b-fast and showering, my friend and I headed off to Charlottesville for a blogger meet up on the downtown mall. Kath organized a lunch meet up at Eppie’s with a few blog readers, Andrea of Bella Eats, and Jess of Peanuts & Crackerjacks. I had never been to Eppie’s, but it was a cute little lunch spot. You order at the register and then call you by name, Panera style, only faster.

I ordered the sandwich soup combo- the daily salad with champagne vinaigrette and the soup of the day, which apparently is always gazpacho in the summer and always tomato in the winter.

The Daily Salad had baby spinach leaves, grape tomatoes, dried cranberries, candied walnuts, and bleu cheese.

LOVE candied walnuts! This salad was really good and I was totally a member of the clean bowl club after chowing down.

And the gazpacho

To be honest, it was just okay. I didn’t end up eating it all-  it was a bit too thick for my tastes.

But to my delight, they also served the combo with a mini loaf of pumpkin bread. Loved that!

It kind of makes me want fall to come faster so it’ll feel right to start eating all things pumpkin- oh pumpkin oats how I miss thee.

After chatting over lunch we decided to head over to a little gelato shop to continue the chatting. It looked amazing, but I was stuffed from lunch so I passed on gelato, but I was did get an iced Americano (how appropriate) with vanilla soy milk that was quite tasty.I need some energy for the drive back to Richmond as I have a tendency to be hypnotized by the road on long drives. I’m totally not kidding about this.

Here are the gals.

And here is a shot of everyone (minus the photographers- my friend & Karen)

After the photo shoot my friend and I hopped back in the car to head back to Richmond. The drive wasn’t bad at all- it’s a scenic route and only a little over an hour, plus having a friend to chat with makes the time fly by.

Once back I had to quickly get my goods together for Isaac’s family’s traditional 4th of July party. All I really had to do was put everything in portable containers and bag them up, as I had already done most of the work on Friday night. I made a Raw Corn and Avocado Salad and cut up veggies for a vegetable tray with hummus.

This dish was a huge hit. I didn’t tell anyone at the party that it was raw (besides Isaac’s mom) because really they wouldn’t have cared, but it was DELISH…. honestly, it’s a must try!

Raw Corn and Avocado Salad (Serves 8-12) Based on this recipe.

• 6 ears of fresh sweet corn, husked and cut from cob
• 1 cup red onion, diced 1 large avocado, diced
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 Tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• Freshly ground pepper to taste

What to do:

After husking and cutting corn from cob, pull out as many corn silks as possible. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Easy, right?

Serve immediately or allow it to marinate. I made the salad the night before and allowed it to marinate all night as it tastes even better the next day!

Here are the prepped veggies & hummus:

Sabra sundried tomato hummus….

Sabra is still my all time fav hummus. It much more creamier than any other brand I’ve tried!

The whole shabang:

Lastly, what’s the 4th without a drink to celebrate?

On Friday they were doing a tasting at Trader Joe’s of an awesome Sangria. It was so good that I bought all the ingredients and decided to make it for the 4th. On a side note, I probably need to stop doing the wine tastings there because two weeks in a row they have convinced me to buy the wine/drink that they were sampling. And, they had smoked gouda paired with the sangria on Friday I also ended up buying that! I don’t even like cheese that much,  because the sample was so delicious I really couldn’t resist.

I didn’t get a good shot of the Sangria, so I’m not going to post a pic, but it was quite pretty with all the fruit floating around. Plus it was so easy to make and totally refreshing on a hot day. I had about 4 small glasses while eating, chatting, and watching the fireworks display from Isaac’s lawn! All in all, a fabulous way to celebrate. Happy 4th of July!

Italiano…Run to Amici’s

I woke up super early this morning to hit the trail (aka I-95) back to Richmond. This time the drive was faster, about 2 hours instead of 3.5 and I was able to stop by my house for a minute before heading to the office. This was good because my plants were in dire need of some water and looking rather pitiful – espcially my beloved basil.

Once at work I realized my company had planned a lunch outing today to celebrate two office birthdays. I’m always up for lunch outings because there are so many great restuatants around our office.  The birthday boys choose to eat at Amici Ristorante in Carytown. I’d never been there before but I will definitely be going back, as I was super impressed. We (all 15 of us) LOVED our meals and the chef even came out to say hello!

I ordered the house salad as a starter with the house dressing on the side:

Such a gorgeous presentation for a house salad. I totally want to recreate something similar sometime.

I had such a hard time choosing what to order because there were so many delicious sounding things on the menu but I finally decided on the lump crab meat with avocado, red pepper, and grape tomatoes

I was glad I went with this dish. The crab was fresh and you can never go wrong with avocados. Oh, and those little pink things are locally grown micro greens. YUM!!!

My dishes looked awesome but seriously all the dishes were beautifully plated…

Amo Amici Ristorante!

On the Road Again… delayed

I felt like a true DC native as I walked to the Metro this morning in my black suit. Although, people may have realized I wasn’t actually a true Washingtonian considering I was wearing flip-flops with my suit. I had to do it! My feet are sensitive (I get blisters faster than you can say Dr. Scholl’s) and I was going to be standing on concrete for 8 hours in the heels I had neatly packed in my bag. Plus I didn’t feel as though heels were necessary for the Metro.

But, before leaving for the conference, I cooked up 1/2 cup of steel cut oats in water with 1/2 of a banana, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and a dollop of pb.

Oh so chewy! I’m not sure I prefer steel cut over regular oats or oat bran, but it’s fun to switch it up from time to time.

After a quick metro ride I was at the convention center and talking to folks about education technology and the software that my company sells. Apparently today was busier than yesterday at the booth, which was a good thing because the morning went by rather quickly and lunch arrived just when I really needed to sit down and rest. I walked around the convention center food booths and decided I didn’t want to pay $8.00 for a greasy garden patty (one of the few veggie options besides plain side salads). I ventured out towards Chinatown looking for a Cosi or a Chop’t. I kept seeing people with those bags so I know they must have been around there somewhere but I never found the actual shops. I ended up at Starbucks and it was good, but it was pretty pointless for me to leave the convention center because there was a Starbucks right inside.

I went for the Power Protein Plate, one of Starbucks Healthy Breakfast Items, which includes 1 whole wheat mini bagel, a packet of PB,  2 slices of cheese, 2 apple slices, a small bunch of grapes, and a hard boiled egg.

For a little under $5 I got a really filling lunch, plus they were playing Paul Simon’s Kodachrome so that pretty much made the extra walking in heels worth it. It was the perfect portion for lunch and I would definitely buy it again. I stayed full all afternoon and only snacked on a few Life Saver mints that I snagged from other vendors. Although, when the conference ended at 5 I was pretty exhausted and needed a snack.

I ate an Apple Cinnamon PURE Bar as I walked to the Metro station. I’m pretty sure that I mentioned it before but I’m not in love with the PURE bars. I find them to be just okay, but today the Apple Cinnamon flavor tasted remarkably good- maybe I just really needed a snack but I’m now, pretty much certain, that the Apple Cinnamon is the one flavor I would consider buying!!

I was planning to leave DC this evening after the conference. I hung around until dinner time – 7:30PM to beat the rush hour traffic. One of Isaac’s house-mates cooked up a rather tasty dinner of vegetable sauce with eggplant, turnip greens, red peppers, onions, summer squash, nutritional yeast, and other spices- I’m actually unsure of what all was put in it, but it was served over whole grain pasta and tasted quite yummy.

I was all ready to leave with my belly full of pasta but due to the current weather conditions- pouring rain- I’ve decided just to stay one more night in DC and head back home and straight to work in the AM.

Happy Humpday!

Avocados, Avocados, Avocados

Last night, Isaac was in charge of the house dinner for he and his house mates. The house dinner must be vegan, per house rules, and of course, I was more than happy to help out. We couldn’t decide whether to do bean burgers with b-nut squash fries (everyone needs a little b-nut fries in their life) or the quinoa dish I had made last week. When it came down to crunch time grocery shopping the quinoa dish won. And, I’m happy to say the Greek Quinoa with Avocados proved to be quite delicious again, even with tripling the recipe and sans the feta.

The quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) with avocado was served on a bed of spinach and zucchini with a side of my fav- Roasted Broccoli. I felt like I was on Next Food Network Star. Isaac had talked up my cooking and the blog to his house mates before my arrival. So, needless to say I was nervous cooking dinner for them.  No worries though, the Quinoa did not disappoint and everyone loved it! If you haven’t tried Quinoa this is a great dish to start with because it’s quite easy, very tasty, and will have you wanting to make more.

Before dinner we went to a drum circle at a nearby park. It was so cool. There were a TON of people from every different nationality joined together drumming and dancing. And the drumming sounded awesome- it brought back memories from an African drumming class I took in elementary school.

Isaac went off to school today and I worked from “home” -aka, his summer home. I went for a nice walk this morning before work. I was going to run, but yesterday was my first real run since my knee injury and my shins were so sore this morning that I decided just to take it easy and walk. I walked around the neighborhood, to the National Zoo (it’s super close) and then found a big hill to walk up- that got me sweating!

For breakfast I made some steel cut oats with a banana – so chewy! And for lunch I whipped up a kale salad massaged with 1/4 of an avocado, topped with leftover cold quinoa and tomatoes. On the side I had another 1/4 of the avocado and some All-Bran Crackers.

The All-bran crackers are too sweet and highly addictive. I went back for more- 2 TIMES!

Tonight we’ll be having dinner (made by someone else in the house). I’m pretty sure it’s going to invovle tofu and spaghetti squash! Later were heading out to meet up with some friends from the area for salsa dancing!! Tomorrow I’ll be working at a conference here in DC then heading home. Gotta get home to Olive – I miss her.

DC Living

This weekend I decided to make a trek up non-scenic, traffic laden I-95 to visit my love- he is spending the majority of summer living in DC for a training program. What was suppose to be a 2 hour trip took me 3.5 hours (lots of traffic)-  it’s cool though I was able to catch up with both of my best friends from college, a new friend from blog world, and listen to some of my new favorite jams… I highly recommend this compliation album as there are a ton of great artists on it including some of my favorites, plus it’s for a good cause, not to mention it’s cheap!

Before leaving on Saturday I woke up early, went to my usual Saturday morning spin class. After getting the heart rate up I did a quick weight workout and then headed home to pack up everything including ms. Olive who is spending the weekend at Isaac’s parents’ house.

For lunch I decided to try the Natalia’s Green Lemonade:

Foamy… Ummm….. I wasn’t impressed. The smell was a little off putting and the taste was even worse. I found it hard to choke down the whole container and I actually didn’t end up finishing it. I don’t  know, maybe I did something wrong or maybe romaine would have been a better than celery or more apples? I used 1.5 Jazz, which is a sweet variety, similar to fujis. However, they were small. Perhaps I need to give the green lemonade another go. For those out there who have tried it… do you like it? Do you use celery or romaine? Is it something that grows on you?

Once I FINALLY arrived at Isaac’s place I was starving. The green lemonade, carrot sticks, and raw almonds I had packed just weren’t cutting it. Isaac was excited to fix me up a sweet treat from goods he had purchased at the Farmer’s Market earlier.

Toasted sunflower and flax seed bread topped with homemade creamy peanut butter, homemade apple butter, and some local blueberries and strawberries.

The perfect snack… the bread was so dense and being topped with both pb and ab- this snack had some staying power. It kept me full well past dinner time.

Isaac showed me around his home away from home. He is subletting a room from a friend at a community house shared with 5 other tenants. It’s a HUGE old house in Mount Pleasant (NW DC) and everyone living here is vegetarian/vegan and VERY eco-friendly. (I guess Isaac won’t be eating much meat this summer!)

They have a roof top garden and 2 compost bins in the back yard. They make their own laundry detergent, ride bikes or walk, and have a water/power usage graph hung in the kitchen. They share food as well, and are members of a CSA. Someone in the house is in charge of making a Vegan meal each night for dinner and tonight is Isaac’s night so I’m going to help him prepare something delish. Quinoa will be involved!

I don’t think I mentioned it, but I’m actually staying in DC longer than just the weekend because I have a conference to attend for work  here on Tuesday. It just so happened that I planned on coming this weekend to visit and the conference was this week. I’ll work from “home” tomorrow, go to the conference Tuesday, then head back to Richmond. In other big news… I finished my first nutrition course and start my next one tomorrow- wish me luck!

Isaac’s napping now, but later we are headed to  a drum circle. I’m not exactly sure what a drum circle entails, but I’m assuming it will be fun! Then coming back to the casa to cook our meal for the house.

Hope eveyone is having a lovely weekend.

Busy Up in Here

As most of you know I’ve been extremely busy, but with that said, I’ve still had to time to create some delicious eats.

For instance, the breakfast below is what I like to call The Lean Banana Split – all the flavors of a banana spilt but with less calories, more protein and fiber, and it’s for BREAKFAST!

• 1 serving of Kashi Go Lean

• 1/2 scoop of chocolate protein powder

• 1/2 banana, sliced

• 2-3 strawberries, sliced

• Approx. 3/4 cup of Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk

I’m skipping over lunch (because I usually just have a salad) and heading straight to meal that is usually the most time consuming.

Quick, healthy, and tasty dinners are hard to come by without falling in a food rut and eating the same ol’ things week after week. Well this week I came up with two standbys. One is an oldie- frozen/fresh combination stir-fry and the other is a new recipe that I decided to try and will continue to make because it was absolutely spectacular!

First up, frozen stir-fry veggies (from Costco), stir-fried in water. I added a touch of freshness by tossing in a portobello mushroom and some bean sprouts. Once the veggies were cooked to my liking I added some Bragg’s Liquid Aminos and some sriracha hot sauce… quick and easy!

That one little pea is taking the spotlight in the photo….

And for the spectacularness… I give you my rendition of Fitness Magazine’s Greek Quinoa.

I will definitely be making this again, especially when Isaac is back in town because I’m sure he’ll love it. It was fast, very easy, plus it tasted heavenly. I am so glad I made the whole recipe (4 servings) rather than halving it because now I have left-overs!

I pretty much followed the recipe but I did change a few things. The changes are italicized.

My Ingredients

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
1 cup juice from home grown canned tomatoes, plus additional water
2 Roma (plum) tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped
1/2 cup shredded fresh spinach
1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
4 shredded basil leaves
1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Spinach leaves
2 avocados, pitted, peeled, and sliced
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

Off to bed, I need my beauty rest as the rest of the week is gonna be B-U-S-Y!!