Meatless WIAW

February 20, 2013 21 Comments

Sooooo, I’ve been really bad with taking picture of my food lately, but since the start of Lent and the end of meat in my life, I’ve been snapping away. Soooo, that means it’s time for a WIAW! These are just some of the things I’ve been eating since going veggie. It has been way too long since I joined in this partay and thank to Jen for hosting!

First up, one of my favorite new finds at Trader Joe’s – salmon burgers. They come frozen, but completely raw and I just throw one on a skillet and cook it up. Top with some sriracha and a side of veggies and you’ve got an amazing lunch/dinner

photo(23)

Speaking of Trader Joe’s, I’ve also been enjoying their pre-made sushi. I love that they use brown rice!

photo(26)

My number one new favorite thing in life is the Almond Coco Loco Chobani. If you can find these in your supermarket, jump on them. They are like dessert in Chobani form.

photo(22)

Another thing that I’ve been slightly obsessed with are English cucumbers. I have been eating these as a crispy treat with Chiptole Pepper Hummus. Delish!

photo(24)

This is Vegetarian Duck with Mushroom in Garlic Sauce from Chai Thai, where we went for dinner over the weekend. I’m not sure where vegetarian duck comes from, but it might just be heaven.

chai vegetarian duck

Lox are one of favorite things to get when we go out for bagels for breakfast, so I decided to recreate it at home. Not as great as it would be on a fresh bagel, but not too shabby either. photo(25)

Black Bean Veggie Meatball Pitas. When I told Tommy what I was making for dinner, he told me that he wasn’t looking forward to it until he tried them. They were very yummy. black bean meatballs

Soy Glazed Salmon. Only 15 minutes under the broiler and dinner was served.

IMG_3125

So these are my meatless eats so far. I thought that I would miss eating meat, but it’s been a week and I haven’t had a single craving. I always had a feeling that I would do well as a vegetarian. I think that Lent will show me that I don’t really enjoy eating meat as much as I thought I did and that veggies are my BFFs.

What was the best thing you ate this week?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Oatmeal Quinoa Breakfast Bake

November 11, 2012 25 Comments

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, but some mornings I am not conscious enough to make myself something yummy and nutritious to start my day off right. Luckily, I am a creature of habit and can eat the same breakfast for days, even weeks, without getting sick of it. Last week, I enjoyed this Oatmeal Quinoa Breakfast Bake from Monday through Friday, and when it was all gone, I still wanted more. I just couldn’t get enough!

Oatmeal Quinoa Breakfast Bake
 
Print

Ingredients
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 cups almond milk
  • 1 large egg
  • 1½ tablespoon coconut oil
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1 cup strawberries, sliced

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 and lightly grease your pan.
  2. Mix together oats, quinoa, baking powder and cinnamon.
  3. Pour melted coconut oil over the dry ingredient mixture.
  4. In a separate bowl lightly beat egg and add in milk and vanilla.
  5. Combine wet and dry ingredients and fold in berries.
  6. Bake for 40 minutes.
  7. Serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt and drizzle of maple syrup (for extra deliciousness)

I kept it covered in the fridge all week and just popped it into the microwave for a minute to reheat in the mornings. Easiest breakfast ever!

And if you need some more quinoa action, head over to Wish & Whimsy where I am guest posting today with more quinoa action!

What’s your favorite quick breakfast?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes

November 5, 2012 34 Comments

I think this is the longest I’ve even been away from my blog since I started a year and a half ago. Even though I was off from school and work and basically had all the time in the world to cook, bake, workout and blog, none of that seemed right. Now that I’m going back to school and work tomorrow, it’s time to return to normalcy on the blog front too. That being said, if you haven’t yet, check out my last post on how to donate to the relief efforts. Every little bit helps.

After many Facebook convos back and forth regarding whether it was right to go trick or treating, we decided it was a go. I had been hyping up Halloween for Alex for almost a month and I knew that he deserved to have fun and get some candy in the process. But before we set out to get sugar high, we ate a good breakfast – Blender Pumpkin Oat Pancakes. Pancakes are a breakfast that we love, so I always try to starts off exciting days with pancakes. Check out last year’s Halloween pancakes.

I had originally wanted to make Banana Oatmeal Pancakes that I saw in Fitness magazines, but after blending together my milk and oats I realized that we were out of bananas and pumpkin came to the rescue.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes
 
Print

Ingredients
  • 1½-C Skim Milk
  • 1 C Rolled Oats
  • ¾ C Pumpkin Puree
  • ½-C Whole Wheat Flour
  • 1 T + 1 t Baking Powder

Instructions
  1. In a blender, puree milk and oats until smooth.
  2. Add pumpkin puree, flour, and baking powder and puree a few seconds more.
  3. Let batter rest for 10 minutes.
  4. Heat a griddle over medium heat. Mist with nonstick cooking spray, then scoop batter into pan in ¼-Cup increments.
  5. Reduce heat to medium low and cook pancakes until air bubbles appear and underside is golden brown, about 5 minutes.
  6. Flip and cook about 5 minutes more.

Later on that evening, we set out for trick or treating.

And at the end of the evening Buzz Lightyear was so tired that he couldn’t fly home…he had to be carried.

Do you have any special holiday breakfasts?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

Official Start to Fall

September 25, 2012 3 Comments

Even though fall officially started this Saturday with the Autumnal Equinox, fall officially began in my kitchen this morning when I cracked open the first of many cans of pumpkin that will be consumed this year.

I threw together one of my favorite waffle combos from last fall – Pumpkin Cream Waffles. All you need is a tablespoon of pumpkin, tablespoon of Chobani, some pumpkin spice and some maple syrup and viola!

 The next thing that I am dying to make are a healthier version of Starbucks’ pumpkin cream cheese muffins. Those babies were my BFFs when I was pregnant with Munchkin, but since then I’ve tried to stay away since they aren’t exactly the healthiest thing on the Starbucks menu.  Every time I step foot into Starbucks, I swear that I hear them calling my name from the pastry case! 

What pumpkin goodies do you want to try this season?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Guest Post: My go-to “on-the-go” breakfast

August 22, 2012 2 Comments

A big HI to all of Sylvia’s readers!! I absolutely adore Sylvia’s blog…she helps me feed my quinoa addiction. (In addition to lots of other things as well!) I’m so glad I found her (or she might have found me, I don’t really remember) through WIAW! That little party sure does bring people together.

So anyway, my name is Cinnamon and I am the blog mastermind behind eatPRAYtri.com. And when I say blog mastermind, I really mean a wife and stepmother trying really hard yet failing miserably at most things (cooking and working out to name a few), buuuuut loving every minute of life anyway and talking about it all on the internet!

Sylvia guest posted for me a while back while I was away in Mexico and her post got rave reviews. When she asked me to return the favor, I jumped at the chance although I don’t think my post will get quite the reviews as hers did. But a girl can dream right?

I present to you one of my all time favorite recipes:

2012-08-14 07.23.07
See what I mean?

I love blogging for lots of different reasons, but one of the biggest reasons BY FAR is the stuff I learn. Sometimes I seriously wonder how I got anything accomplished before I started reading blogs. That was only about a year ago, so honestly the fact that I have actually made it to 36 is probably a miracle. :)

Seriously though, the things you pick up and learn just by reading other peoples perspectives and opinions is just fantastic. This little go-to breakfast of mine is a combination of two things I learned from reading blogs. I just put them together and viola! I have my new favorite (SUPER EASY) breakfast that I eat MOST days of the week.

The microwave egg sandwich

2012-08-14 07.22.54

I had never really seen or heard of sandwich thins before blogging. Maybe I just didn’t pay attention in the grocery store (I have no idea how long they have been around) but I swear I had no idea these existed. Then I saw bloggers left and right throwing peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter (bloggers love nut butter if you couldn’t tell) and banana or strawberry or whatever else on top of these sandwich thins and having (what seemed to me) the greatest breakfast ever.

I jumped on board right away. And what do you know? They are fantastic. Now we get them at Costco, stick them in the freezer and eat them until our little hearts are content.

THEN, I read about microwaving eggs. Probably doesn’t seem like rocket science to most people, and I guess it doesn’t really seem like that to me either, but I had never once before in my life considered microwaving eggs. I have no idea why. So of course, this idea was brilliant to me. And made me feel incredibly stupid all at the same time.

I love eggs and I think I pretty much always have, but I never wanted to make them because they were messy, dirtied a pan and took longer than a minute to prepare. This does not fly when you have to get out the door because you hit snooze too many times and now you are running late and you still have to drive an hour to work. Its also really hard to eat eggs in the car unless they are hardboiled or solidified in some way between two pieces of bread.

What a minute.

Stop the presses.

Hold on.

Idea time.

How about I microwave an egg in the exact same size dish as the sandwich thin? Slap it in the middle, wrap it up and take it in the car so that I could eat it on the way to work?

And the whole thing takes literally about 1 min 30 seconds to put together?

Yep, that just happened.

So this is what I do. I get all my stuff together

2012-08-14 07.18.19

I put the sandwich thin in the toaster and then I crack the egg into the dish and put in some salt, pepper and a sprinkling of shredded chedda cheese

2012-08-14 07.19.44

2012-08-14 07.20.33

Then I scramble it all up and throw it in the microwave for 1 minute

2012-08-14 07.20.57

This is what comes out

2012-08-14 07.22.27

About this time my sandwich thin is done toasting so I slap the egg on there (fits PERFECTLY), wrap it up in a paper towel and put it on top of my coffee mug to take out to the car.

2012-08-14 07.22.45

2012-08-14 07.23.17

I mean seriously. It probably took longer to read this post than to make this breakfast. And its good for you.

This is also proof why reading blogs is good for you too! Especially mine.

What is your go-to breakfast?

Did you know about microwaving eggs before you were an adult? Please say no so I feel better.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

A Good Week WIAW

August 8, 2012 20 Comments

Hi I’m Sylvia and I love to eat! (As if you didn’t know that already) I love WIAW because it lets me look back on what I ate over the week and think to myself, damn I ate some good stuff. Thank you Jenn for being a genius and inventing WIAW. You rock lady! Now let’s move on to the good stuff I ate, because there is quite a bit of it!

 

I shall start with my favorite thing of the week – Thai Peanut Spaghetti Squash. It was so good that I had seconds and ate it for breakfast the next day. No shame!

Numero dos on the list is this watermelon, arugula and Feta salad. Light, refreshing, tasty…the perfect summer salad.

Sushi is my year-round staple. I could eat it every day, but my wallet prevents that from happening. If I ever win the lottery, I’m hiring a personal sushi chef.

Dippy eggs are another S4L – staple for life! Luckily, I make a mean dippy egg so no personal egg chef required.

Let’s move on to the indulgent snackage. I couldn’t resist the Salted Caramel Sauce that I got in this month’s Foodie Pen Pals package. It was calling my name from the pantry, so I gave in. I had it with apple slices, so it basically cancelled out the caramel sauce, right?

And you can’t call it a good week if there is no fro yo involved. End.of.story. There were actually two fro yo trips this week, so you know it was a goooood one!

Lastly, I leave you with an inquiry…

Has anyone ever tried coconut milk yogurt? I only bought one on my last trip to Whole Foods and it took me about a week to try it, and when I did it was chunky and kind of weirdly textured. I wasn’t able to make out the date on the back, so I’m not sure if it’s just an acquired taste, or did I eat expired yogurt. Help?!

What’s the best thing you ate this week? What’s your favorite fro yo combo?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , ,

WIAW Kool-Aid

July 25, 2012 30 Comments

Well we’ve come to the last Wednesday of July and I cannot believe that time is flying by soo quickly! I’m not ready for August people! Since it’s Wednesday, it’s WIAW time and I’ve got some good eats and good fitness to share, so let’s get to it!

Are you getting sick of seeing quinoa egg bowls, yet? I’m not sick of eating them and don’t think it’s possible to get sick of this deliciousness!

This is another amazing breakfast. Dippy egg, two slices of Oatnut bread, homemade guac and broccoli slaw. My food processor makes the best guac hands down. It same out smooth and chunky all at the same time, not to mention it had quite a bit of kick.

As if I didn’t get enough avocado from eating a huge bowl of guac in two days [I had help!] I made chicken salad stuffed avocados again.

I had this amazing meal at Carlucci’s when we were in Philly for the weekend. It’s shrimp and asparagus skewers on a bed of veggie “pasta.” I had to stop myself from licking my plate, this stuff was so good!

And what would a WIAW be without sushi, right? We went out for sushi, post WOD yesterday and it was mighty tasty. Of course, the boys started digging in before I could snap a picture. Guess they were hungry?

I have also been snacking away on my NatureBox goodies all week. The Sunny Trails is like crack. I.could.not.put.it.down!

We also stayed hydrated this week with our Camelbak bottles. Munchkin got his first Camelbak this weekend because he kept stealing mine, and sometimes I don’t like to share. ;) A hydrated mama is a happy mama.

I also drank the Kool-aid this week. Not this guy..

But the Crossfit Kool-aid, and let me tell you, it is some delicious stuff. I’m still in the Foundations portion of Crossfit, but I am in love. Yesterday was my second fondations class and we learned the proper forms of some moves before doing another mini-WOD.

We practiced proper form for dead-lifts, presses, push presses, burpees and ab mat sit-ups. It is such an amazing feeling to finally get the proper form of a move down after doing it wrong for a million times. The dead-lifts owned me, but I owned the burpees. Yes, you read that correctly, I owned the burpees, and I think I might even like them! See, told you, Kool-aid!

Our mini-WOD was AMRAP:

  • 5 burpees
  • 10 dead-lifts
  • 15 sit ups

I got through 2 1/2 rounds and felt amazing afterward. Sore. Sweaty. Amazing!

What’s the best thing you ate this week? Have you tried the Crossfit Kool-aid?!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Back in the Kitchen WIAW

July 18, 2012 26 Comments

So it seems like I’ve been spending an awful lot of time in the kitchen lately which is … GREAT! I’ve tried some new thangs, had a failure or two, but had an awesome time playing. All cooking really is, is big kid playing! Check out this week’s eats! Thanks Jenn and hope your toe feels better! ;)

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so I always try to start my day in a balanced and yummy way. A full belly almost ensures that you will leave the house with a smile on your face!

Chobani plain yogurt, farm fresh peach, Love Grown granola and a spoonful of strawberry preserves.

Two egg scramble with cherry tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts and turkey.

I’m horrible at eating lunch at work. Even when I do pack a lunch, it often doesn’t get eaten until I get back home. Because of this I’ve started packing smaller snacks instead of a whole meal.

Luna Bars have become my go to snack. The White Chocolate Macadamia is to.die.for!

Sometimes we girls get a little crazy and order takeout for lunch. Luckily, the area that I work in has a ton of amazing restaurants to order from.

Nicoise salad with seared Tuna. Who said take out can’t be healthy AND delicious?!

Dinner is a meal I have no problem with eating.

Chicken Pad See Ew. One of my favorites dishes in life. Try it!

Salmon Explosion Roll. Salmon tempura and asparagus topped with more salmon and salmon tobiko.

Seaweed Salad. Recipe will follow..this is so good and easy to make!

Some Tai Thai goodies. Tom Yum Soup, Calamari with Sweet Chili Sauce, Red Curry and oh yea, some white Sangria.

Life ain’t worth living if you don’t enjoy dessert once in a while.

I shall call these quinoa fail cookies. They tasted great, but looked horrible and fell apart when touched. It was my first time baking with quinoa and coconut oil and with some tweaking, I’m sure I can make these look as good as they taste!

If you can say no to fresh cut watermelon, you have superhuman powers. End.of.story.

Since July’s theme is Food and Fitness, let’s move on to the calorie burning portion of the post. Just last night, my new home gym was completed. Tommy ran all the cables and I got to do a killer arm and back workout. I am seriously in love, but was not in love when Tommy asked me to read the instruction while he was putting it together..check this out.

Yeaaaaa…luckily, Tommy is pretty handy without my help. The boy knows how to read plans for skyscrapers, so what’s a little home gym to him!

Don’t mind the curtains, they are coming down as soon as I can find something to replace them. That’s what you get when your dad buys new basement curtains at Walmart!

It’s small and cramped, but it is coming together. I also want to buy some mats to put down under the machines. And maybe some posters and pictures on the walls. We shall see!

I have a feeling that soreness will be coming on rather soon and I could not be happier! Feel the burn!

What’s the best thing you ate this week? Do you go to the gym or work out at home?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Breakfast Quinoa WIAW

July 11, 2012 29 Comments

I’m going on a road trip today! Woowoo! After work, Tommy and I are taking a quick trip down to Philly to pick up my new gym. Sadly, we will only be there for as long as it takes us to pack up the car. I will miss the area. Hopefully, we will be back there one day! Anywho….it’s Wednesday so lets talk about FOOD and FITNESS!


First up is breakfast quinoa. Yes, it appears that my quinoa obsession has hit a new level this week.

I cooked up the quinoa the way I would make my regular oats. Two parts milk to one part quinoa. I added in cinnamon, apple and dried blueberries to make an incredible breakfast. The only down side is that this takes a bit of time to cook, and isn’t weekday friendly.

Luckily, this Veggie Tofu Scramble is very weekday friendly and this is why I’ve been enjoying it every morning this week.

Spinach, green peppers, tomatoes, tofu with a bit of sriracha and garlic salt scrambled together on a hot, hot skillet. If this doesn’t make you smile for the rest of the day, I don’t know what will.

Oh wait, yes I do! How about some Vegetarian Mexican Lasagna.

Just looking at these pictures makes me want to reach through the screen and grab it. It was incredible!

But what’s a good dinner without a good drink, right? We picked up this lemon juice beer from the Beer Boutique, a new beer store that opened recently in Brooklyn.

White Aphro is a Belgian style Wit Ale made with lemon peel, ginger & lavender and tasted amazing.

The Beer Boutique has this crazy contraption in which they can put on-tap beer into plastic bottles that will keep for up to 6 weeks. The machine first fills the bottle with CO2 so that the beer stays carbonated and it shakes it while pouring it into the bottle. According there are only 5 machines like this in the world!

And no day is complete without dessert. Be it healthy like the watermelon I enjoyed on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

..or indulgent like the Coldstone Ice Cream Munchkin and I shared yesterday.

And since calorie-less ice cream is yet to be invented, I turn to fitness to keep myself in check!

My favorite way to burn calories is through running. If you would’ve told me two years ago that I’d be running a 10k in a few months, I would’ve laughed in your face. Until a few months ago, the extent of my running experience consisted of being a sprinter on my high school track team. Those long legs came in handy!

When I first started running for distance, it was an incredibly difficult transition for me. I started out way too fast, burned out way too quickly and ended up walking home disappointed and discouraged. I believe that this is why I wasn’t successful in my running last year and never got to race.

This year, something just clicked. I stopped running on the track which made me feel like a hamster in a wheel and I just took it at my own pace and had a good time with it. I listen to music and dance along with it while I run run on the street. I set mini-goals for myself like I want to get to the park and get a drink at the water fountain before turning around to go home. Lemme tell you, getting to said park is now a breeze, but it felt nearly impossible when I was starting out.

I am planning on running three races this year. Two of them are more for fun and one is my ‘serious’ race. I am doing the NYC Color Run on August 25th (keep an eye out on the Fitfluential blog for my recap!), the Down and Dirty Mud Run 5k and the Rock and Roll Brooklyn 10k in October. Since these are my first races ever, I’m going in with a goal of just finishing. Once I see how I do in these, I think I will be able to step up the training and work on speed, but for now I’m happy being the tortise in the race. Slow and steady wins anyway, right?

So long story short…I love to run!

What’s the best thing you ate this week? What’s you favorite way to burn off those eats?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Food and Fitness WIAW

July 4, 2012 19 Comments

Happy Fourth of July!

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. Not only is it my cousin’s birthday [Happy Birthday Particia!], it is also a day that is always spent outdoors, enjoying the weather and amazing eats. We are heading out to Tommy’s aunt’s house to a pool party/BBQ today, so I am sure that I will have some good eats to share next week, but don’t you worry I have a ton to share today too!

As always, the wonderful Jenn of Peas & Crayons is hosting WIAW and this month’s theme is Food and Fitness – does this girl know the way to my heart or what!

First up is food! I’ve been on a quinoa kick as of late and have been including it in pretty much everything!

This quinoa and dippy egg combo has been gracing my breakfast plate multiple times a week. When you break that yolk, something magical happens, I swear!

Southwestern Quinoa Salad. I shared the recipe for this yesterday. It is literally too good for words and I could eat it everyday. And my mom says that’s okay!

Kitchen sink salad, with what else, but quinoa! Baby spinach, tomatoes, red peppers, cucumbers, Italian sausage and quinoa. It got topped with some Honey Dijon dressing and tasted amazing!

Before we move onto dessert, let’s backtrack to breakfast.

Ezekiel French Toast topped with bananas and sprinkled with some real Vermont Maple Syrup.

And last but not least, Banana Soft Serve..

This is just frozen bananas purreed in the food processor with a bit on vanilla extract added. I like it, but Munchkin wasn’t really impressed. I was thinking that maybe if I add some coco powder next time, it’ll go over better.

Since this month’s theme is food AND fitness, I decided to share my favorite workout of the week. While I love running and the way it clears my mind and makes me feel like a marathoner when I can get over three miles, but my fav workout of the week was with my little man.

We rode 4 miles on our bike with his bike seat. And rest assured, even though his face is less than thrilled in the above picture he LOVES it. That’s just the face he makes when I say smile and he is not interested in taking a picture. The only downside about the bike seat is not being able to go up hills – it isn’t possible to stand up on the pedal to better push yourself up the hill.

Whats the best thing you ate this week? What was your favorite workout of the week?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
«Older Posts

Calendar

May 2013
M T W T F S S
« Apr    
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

To the Top