On the mend

I am still running a slight fever so I am still taking it easy.

For lunch I decided to keep it simple.

Ground turkey tacos.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that my fever breaks tomorrow. It has been tough keeping hydrated after 3 + days with a fever.

It is a bug that is running through my apartment complex so I know from other people's accounts that I have 1 more day or so until I start to feel better.

For lunch I cooked up some ground turkey in a skillet and made a couple of tacos. No fancy toppings for this one - just turkey, avocado and some swiss cheese. 

I am off to get some rest and drink tons of green tea.


Happy Wednesday!
 

Healthy turkey tacos

Healthy turkey tacos.

Wow, step away from posting for a bit and Blogger goes and does an upgrade((

I am sure I will get used to it in no time but posting was a bit slow going this morning.

So, what has been up with me lately? I had a doctor's appointment a couple of weeks ago and I got the news that my blood pressure was starting to creep up.

My doctor immediately suggested medication but since it is not 'in the stratosphere' kind of high - I successfully negotiated a re-check in 3 months.

This means that I have 3 months to lose some pounds, try to relax as much as possible, exercise as much as possible, learn to enjoy a low sodium diet and lastly, and probably most important, eat as many leafy greens as possible.

After hearing that cheery news, I stopped by Trader Joe's to stock up on greens.

And I picked up my favorite TJ's salad.

I am now on a mission to recreate this salad at home in a way that fits in with the super healthy eating binge I will be on for the next 3 months.


My guess is that I will be making a lot of meals using reductions to bump up the flavor and probably liberal usage of Frank's Red Hot Sauce:-)


What was the first thing I made after starting this new eating plan? Tacos, of course!

Tacos with ground turkey and non-fat sour cream and avocado sides.

I simmered the ground turkey in McCormick's taco seasoning blend and a cup of no-salt chicken broth.

The flavor of the meat was pretty intense since I let it reduce on a low heat until most of the liquid was evaporated. It was delicious! 


If anyone has a great recipe for southern style greens let me know - I have a feeling I will be eating a lot of them in the next few weeks...


Happy Wednesday all!

California rolls

 

 

Today I had a craving for sushi. I wasn't in the mood for raw fish - I was in the mood for California rolls.

Halfway through making them I realized I didn't have a cucumber in the fridge. No matter - I really just wanted crab and avocado.

And I did have a whole container of sweet pickled ginger in the fridge.

I tend to make sushi rolls a lot. Check out this post for a step by step walkthrough. 

I am happy to report that I did clean out my car. While it was not the pitch and toss task I had hoped for - 50% of it was easily tossed and the rest was a bunch of receipts and paperwork that just needed shredding.

And I did get some closet organizer items so my quest to become clutter free and organized is going well.

I would encourage everyone to try making sushi rolls at home. It is fairly easy (use half a nori sheet for small rolls) and much cheaper than going out to a restaurant. 

Oh, yeah, Connor got a few pieces of avocado and Abby enjoyed the left over crab.

A wonderful Saturday lunch for all:-)

Tostada

Tostada with homemade refried beans.

I had a can of pinto beans in the cupboard that I wanted to use up.

The beans went into a pan with some cumin, pepper and vegetable broth.

I let them simmer for about and hour and then blended them with a hand blender.

Homemade refried beans with Follow Your Heart vegan mozzarella.

Then I topped the beans and cheese with spinach, avocado, shredded carrot, shredded cabbage, chopped scallions and salsa.

Does anyone have an idea about how to eat a tostada with some semblance of grace?

After the first bite things got very messy...

I am setting this post to upload this afternoon and I am keeping my fingers crossed that I manage to get in at least a small nap before then.

Wish me luck!

Shepherd's pie tacos

The Shepherd's pie experiment left me with a ton of leftovers.

So, this morning I decided on Shepherd's pie tacos. They were not really a Shepherd's pie taco since I left out the mashed potatoes but I did include the Shepherd's pie meat mixture.

The assembly:

Red cabbage, Shepherd's pie meat mixture, avocado and white corn tortillas.

A spoonful of the Shepherd's pie meat mixture.

A little bit of shredded red cabbage.

A slice or two of avocado.

A bit of sour cream.

A generous sprinkle of fresh chopped cilantro.

At this point I realized I had a tomato on top of the fridge that was on the verge of being over ripe.

The dogs got to enjoy some chunks of the avocado (great for shiny coats!) and the surprising event of the morning centered on the tomato.

Connor loves tomatoes (for who knows what reason) and while I always offer Abby a piece, she inevitably turns her nose up in disgust.


This morning I handed her a piece of the tomato and she sniffed it delicately. Then her ears swung forward like rotating satellite dishes. She immediately gobbled it down and asked for more.

That got me interested in the tomato. I tried a piece and it was the sweetest, most full flavored tomato I have ever tasted.

Apparently, Abby does like tomatoes she just has incredibly high standards:-)

Oh, and a certain someone (brace yourself for a fuzzy dog photo)-

The smart boy.

-figured out how to unscrew the top to the dog food bin last night.

And I took that shot of him this morning. He has a stomach ache but he looks supremely proud and a little pissed off because I strapped down the lid with duct tape so the endless food supply was cut off.

Think he will ever forgive me?

 

Tofu + Bacon??

I have seen a lot of recipes for tofu bacon running around the internet and I was curious to try it out.

Thin strips of tofu marinating in soy sauce, liquid smoke, mirin and nutritional yeast.

When I read the tofu bacon recipes most of the comments rave about how it tastes just like bacon. This I find hard to imagine.


I pan fried the tofu until it was crispy and it ended up looking like this:

While the tofu had a bacon-like look to it, it in no way tasted like bacon. The only way you could think this would taste like bacon is if you never ate any pork product your whole life - including bacon.


It just tasted like crispy tofu with seasoning. 


So, I am still perplexed by the whole tofu + bacon thing.


I ended up having a bowl of veggies.

Ignore the tofu bacon - I didn't even bother to eat it.

This was one of my 'toss everything together and see if it works' meals.

 
I put 1 chopped tomato, corn kernels cut fresh from the cob, mushrooms and black beans into a skillet to simmer.

I also added 2 tsp. of taco seasoning to the pan.

While the vegetables simmered I put a corn tortilla in another pan to get crispy.

When the tomato started to release its juices and the mushrooms had started to brown, I plated the veggies.

I sprinkled the chopped up tortilla on top and added some diced avocado.

Fresh chopped cilantro adorned the top.

 A very delicious breakfast but now I am behind on protein for the day.

I sense a protein bar in my near future.

Greens in the morning

Brown rice with broccoli rabe, carrot and Miso Mayo with a topping of Udo's oil.

Lol, if you saw the post with just the picture - yeah, that was my big pre-caffeine mistake of the day:-)

And what you see in the first picture was not my breakfast. It was, in fact, the dogs treat.

They have been eating grass again so I figured they would enjoy some greens. They went crazy over this. And, yes, they ate all of the greens and came back into the kitchen trying to sniff out more.

My dogs are strange.

This was my breakfast:

Breakfast bowl with brown rice, black beans, carrots, broccoli rabe.

 I started with the rainbow carrots.

The carrots went into the steamer along with two stalks of broccoli rabe (chopped). 

When the vegetables were tender, I took the pan off the heat and assembled the dogs treat. 

I grabbed my leftover brown rice from the fridge and put a tsp of the rice on the dish, some broccoli rabe, a piece of carrot, a dollop of Miso Mayo and drizzled all with some Udo's oil.

A heavenly dog treat.

Then I went on with assembling my breakfast. I emptied the steamer pot of all but about 1 Tbsp of the steaming liquid. 

I tossed in 1/2 cup of brown rice into the pot along with the carrots and broccoli rabe. 

Then came the spices. A pinch of cumin, cayenne pepper, 1Tbsp of salsa and a pinch of salt. 

At this point I still wanted to boost the flavor so I chopped up one scallion and that went into the pot along with 1/2 cup of cooked black beans (rinsed).


I was liking the way this was coming together but I wanted to boost the protein a bit so I lightly beat one whole egg and stirred that into the pan.

I topped the bowl with more salsa and a bit of avocado.

The pot cooked on medium heat until the egg was cooked through. 

I have a lot of greens in my fridge. My game plan is to try to incorporate greens into every meal I eat this week.

Wish me luck!

Salad nicoise my way

Sorry for the lack of posts. I pulled my back out and I have been stranded on the couch or bed for the last day or so.

So, no recipe today - just a few photos of my lunch.

And excuse the photos. Trying to take clear, focused pictures when your lower back is screaming at you is kinda tough.

Salad nicoise my way.

Salad with hard boiled eggs, green olives, tomatoes, avocado and tuna fish salad.

Here is to hoping my back is better tomorrow...

Happiness in a bowl

Mashed yukon gold potatoes with broccoli, carrot, avocado and cooked chicken.

I woke up hungry this morning and knew I wanted a big bowl of something.

Since my cravings for oatmeal are few and far between these days, I decided on a mashed potato bowl.

One yukon gold potato went into the steamer (cut into medium chunks) and when it was tender I took the potatoes out and mashed them with a splash of soymilk and 1 Tbsp. of Tofutti cream cheese. I also added a pinch of salt and pepper.

Then the carrots and broccoli went into the steamer. When they were tender, they joined the potatoes.

 
And because I wanted to add some protein and healthy fat, I tossed in some cooked chicken and avocado.

 
I ate it all mixed up with a extra bit of pepper.

I would definitely call this happiness in a bowl :-)

Happy Saturday everyone!

Kinda Cobb - kinda not

Today I wanted a Cobb salad but I didn't want all of the fat that comes with it so I made my own version.

I chopped up some iceberg lettuce along with some romaine.

Here is a handy tip if you love the thin strips of carrot but you don't have a food processor. After you clean and peel the carrot, just keep peeling. You will have very thin flat strips of carrot that are easy to slice into thin strips.

It wouldn't be Cobb-like if there wasn't some bacon - turkey bacon that is.

The lettuce went into my big salad bowl and then the following was tossed in:

1 cup of cooked chicken
1/2 cup of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
1 Tbsp. of chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 Tbsp. of Newman's Own Balsamic vinaigrette
1/4 cup of diced avocado

Happy Friday everyone!

Grass appeal

The dogs are back to eating grass.

It is a bit hard to see in that shot but that is Connor scarfing down on some grass while Abby stands next to him waiting her turn.


And it is this one particular patch of grass they are obsessed with.

If I knew anything about plants I would plant some of this irresistible greenery in a couple of pots on my patio so they could nibble to their hearts content.


I also had a craving for greens for my dinner.

Baby greens with herbs, grilled Gardein 'chicken' crisps, quinoa and avocado in a strawberry balsamic dressing.

I enjoyed it using my favorite pink bowl.

And my latest favorite thing?

I am sure it is just the heat but I have been drinking glasses and glasses of this elixir. 

Night, all!