Strawberry salad and creamy carrot soup

Strawberry salad and creamy carrot soup.

The great thing about having a local farmer's market is that the produce is wonderfully ripe.

The down side? I end up shopping about every other day because I have to eat whatever I buy within a couple of days or it goes bad.

The strawberries I picked up on Saturday were starting to be over ripe.

Strawberry salad with strawberry balsamic vinaigrette and goat cheese.

My default lunch dish has been soup and salad recently. I think it is the easiest way to get in tons of vegetables without having to feel like every meal is a grazing fest. 

Creamy carrot soup.

Creamy carrot soup

Serves 3

Ingredients:

4 carrots, chopped

1/2 cup of sweet potato, chopped

1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped

1 Shitake mushroom, minced

2 cups of water

1 cup of sodium free chicken broth

1/2 cup of coconut milk

1 Tbsp of dehydrated onions

1/2 tsp of sweet paprika

1 pinch of tumeric

1/2 tsp of garlic powder

1/4 tsp of chili paste

1 pinch of nutmeg

black pepper to taste

Instructions:

In a sauce pan combine the spices, water and broth and set the pan on medium high heat. Chop all of the vegetables and add to the pan. Bring everything to a brisk boil and then turn the heat down med-low and let simmer for 20 minutes. Then take the soup off the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Using an immersion blender (be careful of any splatter) and blend until smooth. Then add in the coconut milk and stir. At this point do a taste test and adjust the seasonings to your liking.

Enjoy!

The overstuffed omelette

Spinach and mushroom omelette with Gruyere cheese.

This morning I made one of the best omelettes I have ever tasted. And no, I am not biased...

Did I overstuff the omelette with veggies? Definitely. I put in so much veggie filling that I could barely fold it over.

For the filling I chopped up 4 button mushrooms and 1/2 of an onion and they went into a skillet on low heat with a little bit of Earth Balance spread.

When the onion was translucent and the mushrooms tender, I tossed in 2 cups of chopped fresh spinach. I let that cook down until it was wilted then I pulled it out of the pan and set the mixture aside. Oh, and I did end up shredding a small amount of Gruyere cheese and adding that to the mushroom/spinach mix.

I whisked 1 whole egg and 3 egg whites together with a pinch of salt and pepper and 1/2 tsp. of water. I added a tiny bit more of the Earth Balance spread to the pan, turned the heat to low and added in the egg mixture.

Swirl the skillet a bit so that the egg mixture spreads evenly across the bottom of the pan. Then cover the skillet and let the egg mixture cook for a few minutes.

When the egg mixture is almost set, spoon in the filling into the center of the pan. Carefully loosen the edges of the omelette and gently flip the omelette in half. 

I also had some country potatoes and some plump ripe strawberries on the side.

And I always love a healthy squirt of ketchup on my country potatoes.

 Oh, and one huge mug of coffee.

I will tell you all about my trip to Ikea a little later.

Happy Saturday everyone!

A honey of a morning

This morning I wanted honey. 

Big, overflowing tablespoons of honey.

But since ingesting a whole jar of honey, although it is very Pooh-like, is not the healthiest thing to do... so instead I made this:

Yogurt with chopped strawberries, muesli and raw raspberry honey.

On my latest shopping trip I did treat myself to a big tub of my favorite yogurt.

I put a 1/2 cup of Siggi's into a bowl and topped it with chopped strawberries.

 Then I tossed on a hearty handful of muesli.

And then the star of the show - the honey.

And the best thing about honey? It is impossible to get it out of the jar without some running all over the rim. 

Then, of course, an inordinate of time must be spent scooping every last drop of honey off of said jar with your finger :-) 

This morning demanded a big mug of coffee.

I will be making a special treat for myself and the dogs for lunch so check back later!

Strawberry fields

My ideas for breakfast started out with strawberries. Plump, sweet, giant strawberries.

I decided I also wanted to use this:

I mixed 2 Tbsp. of the mozzarella with one Tbsp. of Tofutti cream cheese and added one sprinkle of nutmeg and two sprinkles of cinnamon.

I spread this over a corn tortilla.

Then a layer of strawberries.

I topped it with another tortilla and put it in a pan on medium until the cheese melted. But the question of the morning is - Does non-dairy cheese really melt?

It does, kinda, sorta. 

Yes, it did melt but not in the glossy gooey way dairy cheese does. The non-dairy cheese melted to a certain point and then just stayed that way. Like it was frozen in time with matte makeup.


But the flavor was pretty tasty. The Daiya cheese did have a wonderful, slightly smoky flavor that paired really well with the sweetness of strawberries.

So it was not a true quesadilla experience but definitely a doable option if you are going non-dairy.

Oh, and I had a big mug of coffee. 

I was up (off and on) last night with nightmares. Anyone else feel like they are dragging the next day after having more than one nightmare in a night???

Strawberry dream

I was craving fruit this morning so I decided to make a smoothie.

The ingredients:

Strawberries, oranges, a pear, coconut water and Amazing Grass.

When I bought that container of Amazing Grass I figured I would have a green drink once or twice and the mostly full container would be sitting in the back of the cupboard forever.

But take a gander at this:

An empty container!!

I really surprised myself - and I feel pretty proud at sticking to a very healthy habit of having a green drink everyday.

*Commence patting myself on the back*

The combination of strawberries and pear was really delicious!

And no coffee this morning because I am beginning to suspect that my 'anxious' feeling lately might just be the result of too much caffeine intake.

Happy Sunday!

All wrapped up and ready to go

I realized today that most of my black yoga/workout pants have holes in them - Yikes!

It is a good thing I have been wearing over-sized t-shirts to the gym otherwise I would have been flashing everyone my business. Not cool.

I am going to be frugal and fix the smaller holes and be smart and toss the ones with the big holes before I accidentally wear them to the gym again.

For lunch I made some hummus lettuce wraps.

Hummus, cabbage leaf, chopped carrot and cucumber and some lettuce leaves.

A spoonful of hummus with a sprinkle of paprika.

And I broke out my favorite water bottle.

Two olives and a bowl of strawberries to round out lunch.

They should call the 5-day split routines 'The workout plan for the those with short attention spans'.

I am loving it and I find the resistance I feel (a.k.a.  the whiny internal voice that tries to talk me out of going) is minimal if I know I only have 4 or so exercises to do.

Oh, and I am not counting the 30min of cardio I do each time. The cardio, for me, is the enjoyable part so I don't even think about it.

My favorite gym personality

There are lots of personalities at the gym. 

The Talker

The Poser

The Serious, iPod wearing, Leave Me Alone Type


but the gym personality that is my favorite made an appearance today -


The Screamer


There are two types of screamers - 

1) The type that actually lifts heavy weights and they workout with a vein bulging (possibly stroke inducing) intensity. That one is not my favorite.


2) The type that clearly rarely works out, never lifts more than 10lbs but they give the performance of a lifetime with every lift. And my ultimate favorite is the screamer that ends the lifting scream with cave man like panting and grunting.


I would really look forward to going to the gym if it could be guaranteed the screamer would show up every time.


After my fun filled time at the gym I put together a salad (with some protein) for lunch.

Tomatoes, carrot, brown mushrooms, turkey breast, cucumber, spring mix and homemade salad dressing.

The dressing was a mix of Udo's oil, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, black pepper, mirin and rice wine vinegar.


I contemplated adding in some pickled cabbage but I ended up leaving it out.

Turkey for muscle building protein!

For dessert it was all about the berries:

Sliced strawberries and blackberries.

Time to get back to work!

Sweet breakfast tofu

Sweet breakfast tofu? It is best explained with a picture.

Tofu pan seared with butter and brown sugar.

This morning I woke up to find a very unusual circumstance, there was plenty of kibble and hardly anything in my fridge.

But I did have some strawberries and some tofu.

I don't mind eating tofu plain - but I knew I wasn't in the mood for a smoothie so out came the saute pan.

I seared the tofu in butter and sprinkled on some brown sugar at the end. It didn't quite reach a caramel stage but it did end up slightly syrupy.

The plain tofu on the plate was the dogs snack :-)

Strong coffee.

I did have a movie night planned for last night - but my friend was sick so it was postponed.

And I was left with what I had bought to bring to the shindig:

Baked sweet potato.

I had saved the braising liquid from the beef shank so I used that as the base of the soup.

I simmered the braising liquid and mashed the sweet potato and added it to the pan. I also added in a handful of frozen corn.

It didn't turn out very pretty - but it was delicious.

Sweet potato and corn soup.

I do have plans for today and they involve lots and lots of greens...

Uptown and downtown

This morning's breakfast was definitely a mix of uptown and downtown tastes.

The uptown part?

Strawberries.

And the dip:
 

Brown sugar and creme fraiche.

First you dip the strawberry in the creme fraiche, then you dunk it in the brown sugar.

As you know, I am not a fan of the sweets - but for this I make an exception. The tangy-ness of the creme fraiche really tones down the sweetness of the sugar which makes it perfect for me.

Remember to dry off the strawberries before you dip. 

Without drying.

 

The dry strawberrys hold a lot more creme!

The downtown part of the breakfast?

My usual green drink.

This morning I mixed 1/2 water and half chamomile tea with one scoop of Amazing Grass and 2 tsp. of Udo's oil.

Oh, and coffee, of course!

Happy Monday everyone - I hope it is a productive one!

Guess who came to lunch?

I intended to take the dogs for a long walk but instead we ended up socializing.

Abby, Connor and their good friend Scout.

 And in the end, I don't think the dogs missed the long walk. After saying hello to several canine friends they were more than happy to head back home.

And guess who came to lunch? A very special guest -


French Brie!

The strawberries I ate for breakfast were so delicious I knew I wanted to include them in my lunch. I was going to save the french cheese for dinner tonight - but I decided I couldn't wait :-)

Here is how lunch shaped up - 

French brie, fat-free raspberry balsamic dressing, strawberries, slivered almonds and lettuce.

I wish I could tell you what it tasted like all together but I will admit that I ate all the brie first, then the strawberries and then and only then did I eat the rest of the salad. 

The dogs got a slice of strawberry with a sprinkle of almonds.

More french cheese (yup, I bought more than brie) on the horizon...