Red Quinoa and Lemon Chick’n Wrap

It’s been a nice, quiet Sunday.  Pat and I went out for brunch at IHOP, and then stopped by Half Price Books.  I also got back on the treadmill for the first time in too long, and it felt good to get moving again.  I walked/ran 2.5 miles.

My snack this afternoon was inspired by Rachel’s post of a cherry/blueberry/banana smoothie.  It looked delicious, so I really wanted to try it.  In my mix (2 servings):

• 1 banana
• 2/3 cup frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cup frozen cherries
• 1.5 cups light vanilla soy milk
• 2 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 2 packets splenda

It was thicker than most of my smoothies, so I ate it with a spoon.  It was so good!

Dinner was also inspired by Rachel – she posted a recipe for avocado hummus, so I used it in our dinner tonight.  To make the avocado hummus, I mixed the following ingredients.  I tried using the Magic Bullet, but it didn’t work so well, so my hummus was a little chunky.

• 1 can of chickpeas
• 1 avocado
• 2 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1/4 yellow onion
• 2 tsp lime juice

I used the hummus on a Flat Out wrap, along with Laughing Cow garlic & herb cheese, and topped it with Lightlife Smart Tenders in Lemon Pepper.  This was a great combination!

For a side dish I made red quinoa.  I mixed it with:

• 1/2 yellow bell pepper
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic
• lime juice
• feta cheese

I’m still getting used to the texture of quinoa.  It’s pretty tasteless, so it could have used more feta cheese, but it was good on the side.

Doesn’t it look pretty?  What is your favorite way to prepare quinoa?

My Day in Food

It’s been a long but somewhat productive day.  Let’s start with breakfast… I made myself a cherry chocolate green monster, inspired by Caitlin’s at Healthy Tipping Point.

Into the blender:

• 2 cups spinach
• 10 frozen cherries
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1/4 cup oatmeal
• 1 pack diet hot cocoa mix
• 1 cup light vanilla soymilk

I think this was one of my better green monsters.  The oatmeal taste might have been a little too strong, but it was chocolatey and thick.  Pat wanted eggs instead, so I made some scrambled eggs with Monterrey Jack and cheddar cheese.  We didn’t have any “real” milk so I used the light vanilla soymilk.  When I brought the eggs out, Pat commented that his eggs smelled sweet.  They still tasted pretty good!

After breakfast we took Bailey to an off-leash dog park for the first time.  We weren’t able to socialize her for a long time as a puppy because her immune system was too weak.  And since then, we’ve been a little nervous about how she reacts around other dogs – she’s very submissive when other dogs become aggressive, and seems to prefer people to other dogs.  Well, this dog park was no different – she had to go up and greet each dog owner in the park, while trying her best to ignore the other dogs trailing behind her.  But she seemed to make a few friends and enjoyed the exercise, so I’m sure we will be back soon!

Lunch was a Gardein 3 minute meal.  I picked up a few versions of these when they were on sale at Kroger last week ($2.99), and this was the first I tried.  The Sicilian Trio.

It was easy to make, and actually pretty good.  It was a little spicier than I expected it to be, but I really liked the tomato sauce.  The chicken was a little rubbery and hard to cut with just my fork, but I liked the taste.  With the package of rice, it felt like a lot of food for just 220 calories.  I would buy this one again, but I’m eager to try the other flavors.

We ran several errands this afternoon.  We spent a very long hour at Lowe’s and didn’t end up buying what we came for.  We wanted to get an area rug for our living room.  We picked one out, but they said it would be $70 to deliver it, and it was too big to fit in our car, so we’re waiting to buy it until we have a larger vehicle with us.  We also went to look for a new back door (the one we have now is an old one with a doggy door that we don’t really like), but I had no idea how expensive a single door (and installation) could be.  So instead, we bought some weather-stripping to deal with the water that comes into our house when it rains.  Pat bought a drill and a hacksaw and is ready to start the weather-stripping project tomorrow!

After Lowe’s, we went to Costco.  My parents gave us a Costco membership for my birthday, and I was so excited to go and sign up!  And shop!  We went a little overboard on this trip… yep, $186 in groceries.  Although we had dinner plans out with friends this evening, we decided that we better be eating in for the next month.  Or two months.  Most of what we bought is non-perishable or freezer food, so it should last us forever.

Dinner tonight was Barnaby’s Cafe with another couple.  Barnaby’s is one of our favorites in Houston – they have a little bit of everything.  The prices aren’t bad, but the serving sizes are gigantic, so you get a lot for your money.  This was my first time there as a vegetarian, so I looked at the menu a little differently.  Normally I would order the turkey sandwich with cranberry mayo.  Or the giant cobb salad with chicken.  Looking over the menu tonight, I realized there weren’t too many veggie options.  But, they did have a boca burger and a garden burger.

I ordered the garden burger, not sure what the difference was between that and the boca burger.  I asked our server what all comes on the garden burger and he said, “Onions… cabbage… a lot of other weird veggies.”  Hmm.  I don’t like many veggies, so the chances that I would like “weird” veggies were slim.  I ordered the garden burger with cheese, onion and avocado.  Mmmm, much better.  I also substituted the fries for grilled zucchini.

This was a very good choice.  Maybe not that good for me (do you see that mountain of guacamole?), but it was much better than my normal turkey sandwich.  Let’s be fair here, I haven’t tried anything at Barnaby’s that I didn’t like.  I’m usually not a huge fan of zucchini, but I actually ate most of it.  A very delicious and filling dinner!

No matter how full I am, I always have room for ice cream.  I’ve always said that I have one stomach for normal food and one for ice cream.  So after dinner, I suggested we try the Swirll in Houston, just down the road from Barnaby’s.  After trying Swirll in Austin, I was ecstatic to find out that we have one just down the street.  Tonight I had the Cake Batter flavor with chocolate chips, cookie dough and strawberries.  The perfect way to end the evening!

Mac n’ Chicken

I’ve been craving mac ‘n cheese.  I decided to use Annie’s classic as the basis for our dinner tonight – mac n’ cheese with chicken & veggies.

I chopped up veggies to mix in – 1 onion, 1/2 a red bell pepper & cherry tomatoes from our cousin’s garden.  She gave us a baggie last night, so I wanted to use them in our dinner tonight.  They were so good!  I usually don’t like tomatoes by themselves, but I sneaked a taste of these while I was chopping – they were a little sweet.

While I was chopping up the veggies, Pat worked on the chicken.

I cooked the chicken and veggies in one pan, with onion powder and pepper.

And had the mac n’ cheese going at the same time:

And then mixed them all together for the final product.

Pat dressed his up with extra pepper and wing sauce.  To each his own!

It was pretty good – definitely cheesey!  For dessert I made another dark cherry shake.  I didn’t think this recipe was as good as my first, but it was still pretty good – served in a pretty wine glass:

Into the blender:

• 4 oz light vanilla soymilk
• 4 oz water
• 1 packet diet hot chocolate
• 1/2 tbsp chocolate chips
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla syrup
• 1/2 tbsp instant decaf coffee
• 1/4 tbsp vanilla coffeemate
• 1/4 cup frozen dark cherries
• 1 packet splenda
• Lots of ice