Tag: Lunch

30 Day Paleo Challenge: Prepping

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So I’ve realized I eat more dairy than I thought I did or maybe that’s just what’s left in my fridge to consume.  So I’m finishing out my non-paleo foods before the 30 Day Paleo Challenge

30daypaleochallenge

I know you’re just as psyched as me.

I’m used to eating yogurt for breakfast.  So today was pretty typical…

breakfast

Green smoothie (1/2 banana, 6 chunks of frozen mango, lots of spinach, and water) + the other half of the banana and a Chobani.

Lunch consisted of more leftovers…

lunch

An apple for a snack.  Then random boxed Potato Leek soup + cottage cheese with tomatoes and hot sauce on a tortilla.  That combo was wayyyy more delicious than I thought.  Since I still have a ton of cottage cheese left, that will be lunch tomorrow too.

After work, I headed to Costco to stock up on some stuff.

groceries

Bananas, Almond Butter, Marinara, Spinach, Eggs, Clementines, Mini Peppers, Rotisserie Chicken, Ground Turkey, Avocados.   I wish that box was filled with Stella Rosa, but no, that’s how I brought home my chicken…

Honestly, the list wasn’t that different from what I normally buy.  The only difference is ordinarily I would buy Greek Yogurt and Cottage Cheese and probably some other type of cheese instead of any type of meat.

One of the criticisms I hear about  Paleo is that it’s expensive.  I spent $56.  That might be a little more than I would normally spend at Costco, but I’m thinking that ground turkey will last a while, and it was the most expensive item (4 packs for $17).

I’ll hit up the grocery store for some spaghetti squash later this week, but other than that, not a whole lot more.

I’ll keep track of the costs just out of curiosity.

How much do you normally spend on groceries?

 

Spinach-Quinoa-Peach Salad with Honey-Sage Vinaigrette, My Type of Salad

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You know how they say people have types?  A type of guy or girl they always date or crush on.

You know what I mean.  You probably have a type.

I like to think this is my type

But realistically, it’s usually some goofy-looking, bearded guy…

I’m not the best at that whole guy thing so instead, I’ll stick to food.

In that department, I most definitely know my type, and this is my type of meal.

I like things that don’t seem to make sense together.  I guess that’s true for guys as well, but let’s stick to the topic at hand:

This salad combines sweet, salty, warm, cold, soft, crunchy and creamy.  If it were a lady it would be that cute, quirky girl that gentlemen seem to pine over in movie.  You know the type:

But in life, it’s just a delicious lunch.

Spinach-Quinoa-Peach Salad with Honey-Sage Vinaigrette

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
1 cup vegetable broth
3 cups fresh spinach, chopped
1 peach, sliced
2 oz goat cheese, crumbled
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp fresh chopped sage
salt and pepper to taste

Combine the quinoa with one cup of vegetable (water and salt works too).  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.  In the meantime prepare the salad and dressing.

In a large bowl, combine the spinach, peach slices and goat cheese.  Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, honey, apple cider vinegar, sage and salt and pepper.

Once the quinoa is ready, fluff it a bit with a fork, pour hot quinoa over the salad, quickly pour the dressing over the mixture and toss to combine.  The spinach will wilt slightly but still stay fresh and delicious, giving this salad the perfect combination of textures.

Serves 4 as a side dish, 2 as a main dish.

So whether you’ve found your type or, like me, have no idea what your type actually is, just make this salad.  Chances are it’ll be your type too.

Fig-Arugula-Goat Cheese Sandwich with a side of Kale

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I have a confession.

I hate cooking at night.

Not always but most of the time.

Most days, I wish someone would cook dinner for me so that I wouldn’t have to touch the kitchen past 2pm.  I guess that’s not totally true.  Cooking for others at night is fun.  Cooking for myself, not so much.

Baking in the morning is my favorite.  Making elaborate lunches runs a close second.

Like this guy.

No no, that’s not a boring sandwich.  Don’t be fooled, it’s amazing and perfect in every way.  I plan to eat it for the next few days. You should try it too.  Here’s what you do to make 1 wonderful lunch (or dinner I suppose):

Fig-Arugula-Goat Cheese Sandwich with a side of Kale

2 slices of bread (I used oat nut something or other), toasted
1-2 oz goat cheese
2-3 figs, sliced (I have a tendency to eat pieces as I slice, so 3 for me)
1 handful of arugula
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 tbsp olive oil
2-3 cups of chopped kale
1 garlic clove
salt and pepper to taste

Place 1 sliced fig and 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar in a saucepan over medium heat.  Once it comes to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until reduced (about 5 minutes, you can do this while you prepare the rest of the sandwich).

Spread the goat cheese on the toasted bread (either on one side or both, I did one side).  Lay the sliced figs one side, the arugula on the other.  Once the balsamic reduction is ready, drizzle it on the figs and arugula and your sandwich is ready.

Next make the kale, heat oil in a pan to medium/high.  Add kale, garlic, salt and pepper and stir around.  Add some water if it’s too dry.  Once the kale has cooked (but is still pretty bright green), top with remaining (or just some, if you don’t like things too acidic) balsamic reduction and cooked figs.

Crumble some more goat cheese over it, if you’d like, and serve along side your sandwich!

Best eaten at lunch but works well for dinner too… If that’s your thing…  And if it is, come over and make me dinner!

Also Reminder:  Summer in a Box Giveaway ends Saturday!

Colorful Quinoa Salad

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I’m in the life stage where I’ve graduated and living with my parents again.  I somehow managed to skip this step when I graduated the first time around by going to India then grad school.  Since moving back home, I’ve made one major observations:  my family eats a lot of meat and very few vegetables.

I’m going nuts.

I offered to cook all meals for my parents.  They said no, because they would pretty much be exclusively meat-free meals.  So basically, I’ve given up on trying to get them to eat healthier.  Instead, I’m making stuff for myself and sharing leftovers.

Yesterday, I made a quinoa, bean, vegetable salad.

Surprisingly, everyone liked it (even though once they claimed to not like quinoa).

Colorful Quinoa Salad

1/2 cup quinoa
1/2 cup edamame
1/2 cup black beans
1 red pepper, diced (I used about 5 multicolored sweet mini ones)
1 mango, diced
1 cucumber, diced
1 tomato, diced
1 handful of cilantro, chopped
Juice of 4 limes
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin powder
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the quinoa in 1 cup of water.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes with some salt.  While the quinoa cooks dice your vegetables.  Place edamame, black beans, red peppers, cucumbers, tomato, mango and cilantro in a large mixing bowl.  In a small bowl, whisk together lime juice, olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper.  Once quinoa is done and slightly cooled, add to the mixing bowl with vegetables, pour in the lime dressing and mix.  Serve and enjoy!

Serves 4-6.

So I guess this is my new strategy: make healthy, tasty (to me) things I like and hope they’ll eat it as well.

Off to the gym I go! Have a great day!

R.I.P. Ipod

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My nano is a goner.

As a result of my dead ipod, I went to the gym music-less today.  It wasn’t too bad at first because they play loud pop music in there anyway for example this came on:

So that was fine, until a woman decided the music was too loud for her so she turned it off. Boo!

She was polite enough to ask me if it was okay, but sadly my Italian is good enough to understand what she said but too bad to know how to say “can you just turn it down instead of off?”

The next half hour of my workout was in silence. Woh woh… Not as fun, but the 45 minutes went by pretty fast.  Apparently I have a lot on my mind.

On the bright side, there was basically no one there when I got there!  It was lovely since that place is pretty small.

After the sweaty work out and a shower, I made lunch.  This meal was a crazy mish mash of things that probably don’t really go together, but I sorta loved it.

Tuna Salad + Curried Potatoes with Peas (Aloo Mattar, sorta) + Green beans

Delicious!  I’ll be making those potatoes again. Super tasty and went great with the green beans.  Tuna salad (made with a small can of tuna, mustard, lemon juice, capers, onions, salt, pepper and a handful of garbanzo beans) surprisingly wasn’t bad when mixed with the curried potatoes.  But then again I’m generally a fan of mixing everything on my plate together.  I seem to have this idea that it heightens all the flavors.

True or False? Who knows!  Probably all in my head…

Enjoy the weekend!

The Time We Climbed 1 Million Steps…

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Remember that time that decided to take a vacation. We walked, bused, trained, bused again and finally made our way to Amalfi, because let’s be honest, Rome is fantastic but the Amalfi coast is pretty much amazing.

First stop was our hotel.  L’Antico Convitto. 

Then it was time to venture out.  We walked about 200 meters to the Duomo, the main cathedral.

Our vacation ambitions somehow convinced us to shell out 3 Euro to take a tour of the Cloister, Catacombs and Cathedral.

Lovely!   Then of course, we fed ourselves, because Sara’s main goal on her trip to Italy was to gain 10 lbs.

Challenge accepted.

 

For lunch, pizza and gelato on the steps of the Duomo.

After there was no more food to eat (for now), we wandered, because really that’s what we’re good at and that’s what there is to do on the Amalfi coast.   There’s one main street in Amalfi.  We walked up and down it probably 20 times.  After we window shopped enough, we decided to wander through the neighborhoods.

The neighborhoods are not what you would imagine.  First off, Amalfi is built into the side of a mountain.  So the streets are made of tiny corridors full of many, many, many stairs.

After getting lost a few times, we referred to the map to try to get to the neighboring little town, Atrani.  After an hour of stairs, twists, turns, amazing views and a few more stairs, we made it.

Atrani was tiny.  We saw a main square, a bar, some people going to church, a restaurant, and two fisherman.  Then we turned around and headed back to Amalfi.  This time, we walked along the side of the road.  It took about 15 minutes to get back, compared to an hour and a half to get there… Stair free.

A few hours later, our friend Lis joined us!  By this time it was about 10 pm.  Most things were closed but luckily the restaurant we had scoped out in one of the random alleys off the main street was still open.  We then proceeded to have the best meal EVER.

Mussels with lemon and pepper.

Pasta with tomatoes and mussels

Grilled Calamari

Arancini (Risotto balls)

 

Then we proceeded to pass out in a food coma.

Life is good in Italy.

Mushroom-Spinach Risotto

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Last Tuesday, after a full day of work and two hours of class, I went to the grocery store.  In my drowsy state of exhaustion, I decided I wanted rice.  Unknowingly I purchased arborio, the kind of rice used for risotto, instead of the regular longer grain rice that I’m accustomed to.  I don’t think it was a language barrier, as the box was clearly labeled “arborio.”  It was probably just that I was tired, hungry and not in the right state of mind.

Long story short.  I now have a box of arborio rice sitting in my kitchen cabinet.  Clearly, it can’t go to waste.  Neither can the huge bag of spinach that I purchased in a moment of desperation when I felt like I’d had it with carbohydrates.

But alas, carbohydrates can’t seem to escape me.  Luckily, they’re delicious.

Mushroom-Spinach Risotto

2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 cup arborio rice
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 cup white wine
3 cups vegetable broth, warm
2 cups fresh chopped spinach
pepper to taste
1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese (or more if you’d like)

Heat oil in a pot on medium heat.  Add mushrooms and arborio, cook for 5-10 mins until rice begins to turn translucent.  Add garlic and cook for an additional minute.    Add white wine, stir until it is almost completely absorbed.  Then begin to add the broth, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring until the liquid absorbs.  Repeat until you’ve used all but a bit of the broth.  Stir in the chopped spinach and the last bit of liquid.  Keep stirring until almost completely absorbed, then add the pepper and parmesan.  Once all the liquid is absorbed, serve immediately.

Serves 4.

I think I’m going to suck it up and pay the 195 Euro to use a gym for three months.  I think it might be worth it.

Even though I walk everywhere here, I don’t think it’s going to cut it.  I hadn’t realized how lucky I was to have a cheap gym so close to me in Ithaca.  While I don’t miss the snow, I definitely miss how easy it was to work out.

I’ll keep you posted on the gym dilemma.  Any thoughts?

Pasta alla Puttanesca

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I’ve probably mentioned this before but I’ve never been a big fan of pasta.

It just was never that exciting.  UNLucky for me, I’m spending the next few months in the land of pasta.

But as the saying goes… When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

So I’m trying, and here’s my experiment.  Pasta alla Puttanesca, which I guess literally means “whore style pasta.” It’s not a Roman recipe originally, and I like to think I’m not a whore, but why not give it a shot.  While I’ve never been a big fan of pasta, I’ve always loved sauce (or “gravy” as they call it on The Sopranos) and more importantly I love olives.

I have no idea if this recipe is anywhere nearing authentic, but I read the basic ingredients of Pasta alla Puttanesca, took a quick trip to the grocery store and came up with this:

To be honest, it was delicious. And to be even more honest, I didn’t measure these things.  So these are estimates of how much I used.  If you give it a try, add stuff and keep tasting and adding more until you like the flavor.  After all, who cares about authenticity if it doesn’t taste good to you? (At least in your own home)

Puttanesca (ish) Sauce

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced (apparently the original version doesn’t include onions)
2 gloves of garlic, minced
2 cups tomato puree
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp dried basil
1 cup sliced olives
3 tbsp capers
salt and pepper to taste
1 handful of fresh italian parsley, chopped

Heat oil in a large pot, add onions and cook until translucent.  Add garlic and cook an additional minute.  Add tomato puree, tomato paste, basil, olives, capers, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 15 minutes, then stir in parsley.  Simmer for another 15 minutes or so, really the longer you simmer it the better.  If your sauce is too thick, add a bit of water.

Serve over pasta and enjoy!

And enjoy I did, standing at my window, admiring the view

Off to Florence for the weekend!  Be back with pictures!

Spaghetti alla puttanesca

Toaster

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Who doesn’t love toast?

Luckily, I have a toaster in my apartment.

Looks normal right?  Well I spent the better part of 10 minutes figuring out how it works.  I pushed down, pulled, turned nobs.  Finally I figured out how easy it is.  Slip the toast in, turn the dial and when it’s done, pull it out.

I could have sworn I bought some jam, but apparently I didn’t.  So instead I had cheese on my toast with a side of yogurt and green tea. I don’t know if I was just hungry, but this cheese tasted amazing!

Strangely enough we don’t have a coffee maker.  As much as I love coffee, this just means I have to go to a bar/caffe to get coffee.  I’ll survive.

After a getting ready and going to the Cornell in Rome campus to print some internship stuff, I decided to wander.

I walked around aimlessly, and it was great.

After a while, I picked up some lunch:

and sat in a piazza to enjoy.

Great view, right?

The did some more wandering.

 

Finally, when a borderline creepy Italian man hit on me, I decided I was tired and headed home.

Now, I’m going to do more internship prep to see how soon I can start!

 

Discovering Indoor Exercise and Roasted Vegetables

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As much as I hate to admit this, being at my parent’s house was driving me crazy.  For some reason, being there makes me the most sedentary person on the planet.

Example: I watched every episode (5 1/2 season) of How I Met Your Mother in the nearly 3 weeks I was home.  Hilarious show! But that’s wayyyy too much TV.

The truth is, I feel better when I’m more active.  I like walking places and working out.  It just makes me feel better about myself.

So now that I’m in Ithaca, I’m trying to find ways to feel better about myself and my health… despite this:

I won’t lie.  The weather here can be terrible.  I walked to meet up with some friends and my toes were numb even though I was wearing tights, thick socks and snow boots.

But to keep myself moving, I present to you, my home gym:

Real state of the art, right?

Lately I’ve taken to doing circuits while watching episodes of last season’s The Biggest Loser.

Circuit 1: 25 Step ups
Circuit 2: 20 crunches
Circuit 3: 25 jumping jacks
Circuit 4: 20 bicycle crunches
Circuit 5: 25 bunny hops (back and forth over my computer charger)
Repeat

Not the most exciting work out ever but definitely better than sitting and doing nothing.  I’ve also recently discovered ExerciseTV online!

I made another discovery.  It’ll revolutionize lunch (or dinner… for me, at least).  Okay so I didn’t really discover it.  Rather, it’s new to me.

Roasted Broccoli

Who knew it could be so delicious.

What you need:

  • Broccoli, Carrots, Onions, etc.
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • salt and pepper
  • baking sheet
  • oven preheated to 400F

Combine broccoli, other vegetables, olive oil, balsamic vinergar, salt and pepper.  Put it all on a baking sheet like such:

Roast at 400F for about 25 minutes.

Makes a wonderful side dish.  I’m so pleased!  Last night I went and bought more broccoli just so I could have it again.

Definitely recommend it if you haven’t tried it.

Off to try to get some work done, or at least move myself a bit.  Have a wonderful day!