Manic Monday

Went for my morning walk and it was lovely. The beginning of the month was lots of June gloom but lately it has been one high rent day after another. When I got back I made my self breakfast. I got really hungry about 2/3 of the way thru my walk and rushed right in the door and straight to the kitchen. I had a piece of TJ's California sprouted bread with a tablespoon of light cream cheese with three strawberries on top and a smoothie. In the smoothies there was 1/2 a banana, 1/2 a cup of blueberries, a big handful of spinach, and a 1/3 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

I forgot to take a picture of mid morning snack but I had three saltine and choco-pb sandwiches.

For lunch I had a cup of steamed green beans and a chicken sandwich. I used 3 oz f roasted chicken breast, 1/4 of an avocado, a sliced tomato and mixed greens all on 2 slices of TJ's sprouted bread.


After lunch my mom called an asked if I could run home and put some stuff for her on my front porch so I did that and went to the bank.

Later in the afternoon I had a REALLY juicy plum and a chocolate brownie z-bar that I didn't photograph for a snack.


When I got home from work I decided to go for another walk since I had a no-cook dinner planned and I feel like I should take as much advantage of the perfect weather as I can. It will probably only last thru October.


When I got back from my walk I made this salad. It has three cups of mixed greens, 1/2 cup roasted asparagus, 1/3 cup roasted summer squash, a little yellow pepper, a few cherry tomatoes, 1/4 of an avo, the last two tablespoons of my chickpea salad, some red onion and 1 oz of chicken. I was super filling. I ate it while watching the first episode of Band of Brothers. I liked the episode a lot even if it was slightly male-centric.

After that I showered and ate a couple saltines with chocolate pb on top. I was really craving the chocolate and then settled down to catch up on all of this blogging. Now that I am done I am headed to bed.

Things I ate on Sunday

On Sunday I woke up and headed out in to the beautiful morning. I walked six miles and came home and had a white peach, three strawberries, the last of the raspberries and maybe the 3/4 cup of granola that was left with half a cup of 2% greek yogurt.

When I was done with breakfast I cleaned my kitchen and then proceeded to make it a mess again by making another batch of granola. Sometime in the future I will post my granola recipe. I also got out the chicken that I was going to roast for dinner and seasoned it.

While the granola was baking I seasoned my cast iron skillet. Its pretty well seasoned but since I was going to have the oven on for awhile anyway I figured it wouldn't hurt it.

While I was in the kitchen I cleaned my pantry and came up with a craft project. Once the oven was off I headed out to get some crafting supplies and to take some pear cake to my coworkers. I probably walked a mile while getting all of this done. When I got back to my apartment I was ready for some lunch. I had a small spinach salad, a smashed chickpea salad sandwich with sprouts and mixed greens and some steamed green beans.


After lunch I completed my craft project and watched some classic Buffy episodes. Then I cleaned my apartment. Not my favorite chore at all but it really needed to be done. The cat slept the whole time and I wish that I had joined him for a nap.

Once I was done cleaning I made the roast chicken. It was the first time that I have ever roasted a chicken and it turned out AWESOME! I was so very very happy. I had one of the thighs an wings with a big salad for dinner. In the salad was mixed greens, yellow pepper, red onion, cuke, cherry tomatoes and 1/2 cup of quinoa. It was delicious.

After dinner I went for another walk b/c it was such a perfect evening. I went out to the end of the pier so that I could see the sunset over the water. When I got home I finished cleaning the kitchen showered and headed to bed. It was the perfect Sunday.

Things that I ate on Saturday

I also had several slices of a pear cake that I made for my bridge date and migas and salad for dinner.

Saturday Marketing

This is what I got at the farmer's market on Saturday.

• Bag of mixed baby greens
• 4 apricots
• 2 peaches
• An avocado
• A lime
• A yellow pepper
• 2 tomatoes
• 2/3 pound green beans
• 2 baskets of strawberries

There are times that I love living in SoCal

Damn wrong number

I woke up this morning and it was foggy and I didn't feel totally rested so I rolled over and was already to get another half an hour of sleep when my phone started ringing. I picked it up and was greeted by a very irate man asking to talk to Luis in Spanish. Under the best of circumstances my Spanish is minimal and needless to say I couldn't for the life me think of how to say that he had the wrong number. I told him that in English but I don't think he got it.

After I hung up I debated going back to sleep but by then that ship had sailed. I still really didn't want to exercise but I actually put on my running clothes and got back into bed to read the NY Times. Sometimes if I get dressed in workout clothes that is enough to get me going. It totally didn't work today and I realized that it was because I was starving. Got to love that it took my sleepy brain thirty minutes to realize that my body was hungry.

The next problem was deciding what to have for breakfast. I didn't want the bagel and fruit that I had been planning on and oatmeal would take too long so I ate a spoonful of chocolate peanut butter and finally decided to have fruit, yogurt and granola. In the bowl is a white peach, three strawberries, a handful of raspberries, half a cup TJ's 2% Greek Yogurt and half a cup of my granola.

It was perfection and exactly what I was craving.

The afternoon went by in a blur. I went to farmer's market where I got a purple and white onion, a cucumber, a bunch of kale, three apricots, a plum, two white peaches and three bunches of asparagus.

When I got back to the office I was feeling a bit peckish so I had my snack. I packed a kind of big snack because the board meeting I knew that dinner was going to be late. I had a hard boiled egg with salt and pepper, three garlic stuffed olives, about a third of a cup of boysenberries, a third a cup of raspberries and a strawberry.


My snack kept me feeling full at the board meeting which is good because there is nothing worse then being hungry and talking about the theater's finacials.

When I got home I made baked tilapia for dinner. The recipe is below. This was a kill two birds with one stone kind of meal. It is wicked fast and therefore perfect for a night where I didn't get home until 7:30 and I am submitting it to Jenna's e-cookbook.

My whole meal was two ounces of tilapia, eight stalks of asparagus, half a cup of quinoa and a cup of steamed kale. This whole meal makes me happy. Later on I had a Weight Watcher's ice cream bar.


So before I get to the recipe I must admit that I always hesitate to call this a recipe since in many ways its really a techinque but sometimes you need a little inspiration and a starting place and that is exactly what this recipe is. I have changed the veggies on the bottom and the type of white fish endless times and it always turns out.

A quick note about the name of this dish: I don't like fish very much and up until my senior year of college would not under any cirumstances touch the stuff, My best friend Cara was horribly distressed by this particularily since she had grown up on the western end of New Hampshire and couldn't understand how I having lived within spitting distance of the Pacific could not eat fish. She made it her mission in life to convince me that fish has its place in the kitchen and this was the first meal that she made me. I am still not totally sold on fish but as Cara would say this is a "wicked dinner."

Wicked Fast Tilapia

Feeds Two

1/2 a pound of Tilapia or other white fish
1 bunch asparagus tough ends removed
1 medium sized tomato sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
1/2 a cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1/2 a lemon
1 tablespoon Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Pre-Heat oven to 375 F

On a sheet of tin foil about 18 inches in length lay out the asparagus spears in a single layer. Lay the fish on top of the aspargus and salt and pepper to taste. On top of the fish layer the sliced tomato, bread crumbs, and cheese. Add the juice from the lemon and the olive oil.

Fold the edge of the tin foil up to make a ouch and close both ends. Put the whole packet in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes or until done. Open the packet and serve.

Revenge of the Shirt-Staining Risotto

Breakfast totally kept me full today. When I got to work I put together my breakfast post and then did some work emails and accounting. Fun stuff I promise you.

At 12:30 I was ready for some lunch. I packed maybe a cup and a half of pizza risotto, a cup of green beans, a small apricot and a plum. I love this risotto and made a huge batch on Sunday for my lunches this week so you will be seeing it again. I didn't eat the plum. It will probably become a snack later today. Great lunch but it has left me feeling like I could use a nap. That also might have to do with the waking up at 5:40 am...

I also managed to get a HUGE stain on my shirt which is total awesome. I debated going downstairs and buying a new shirt. One of the cool things, or bad things depending on your mind set, about having my office in a mall is that if I totally screwed up my outfit for the day I can fix it pretty quickly. Of course I could also go all of the five blocks home. I will probably just rock the stain.

I got the recipe from Smitten Kitchen but I always make some changes and have included the recipe for my variation below. Basically I add some spices that aren't called for cut the meat down, halve the spinach because as much as I love spinach I am not convinced that cooking it is the best way to go, and I don't add butter because I have never understood why risotto needs butter added at the end.

Marj's take on Martha's Tomato and Sausage Risotto by way of Smitten Kitchen

Supposedly this feeds 4 but I get 6 Marj's size servings.

Ingredients

1 28-oz can Diced Tomatoes
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1/2 pound hot Italian turkey sausage casings removed
1 medium onion chopped
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
Kosher salt and ground pepper to taste
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 bunch spinach (5-7 oz) stems removed and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

In a medium sauce pan bring the tomatoes, their juices and three cups water to a barely there simmer.

In a small stock pot heat the oil over medium and add the onions, sausage, and spices. Cook breaking apart the sausage until the onion has softened and the meat browned. About 3-5 minutes.

Add the rice and stir for 1-2 minutes or until well coated. Add wine and stir until the rice has absorbed the liquid.

Add about two cups of the tomato mixture and stir rice until the liquid has been absorbed. Continue this process of adding the tomato liquid a cup at a time and stirring until the liquid is absorbed until the rice is cooked. About thirty minutes and you may not need all the liquid.

Remove from heat. Stir in spinach and cheese. Risotto will thicken as it cools.

*This risotto also freezes well.