I'm Baaaack!

Sorry that I have been MIA for the past two weeks, but I really had zero time to blog my eats while in Florida last week. Then, my little sister came back to Seattle with us, so I wads ridiculously busy showing her the city PLUS starting my new quarter of school. Whew!
But I'm back now!
I ate sooo much rich food these past couple of weeks between the wonderful restaurants my parents took us too, and the excellent restaurants that we took Rebecca too. I am officially in rich food detox!


This quarter I have an hour or two everyday in between my morning and afternoon classes so I plan on packing my lunch nearly everyday. I'm actually really excited about this because I LOVE packing lunches, but I haven't had a reason to for years!
Last night I packed my lunch for today (which I ate at 11:30). We didn't have much in the fridge (no food in the fridge after the trip, and little time to shop with my sister here), but I was able to come up with a fun and tasty lunch! We did stop by the store once this week and I grabbed a few fresh produce ingredients that I knew I would want (baby spinach for green smoothies, a fruit platter, etc.).
I made a delicious grain salad and packed a few Food Should Taste Good Multigrain chips and BBQ popchips! as dippers! I also packed a small tupperware of mixed fruit (mango, strawberries, grapes, pineapple, and cantaloupe- just a piece of two of each).

It was a PERFECT lunch!
The grain salad (which makes 2-3 servings) included:

• 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa (you could use millet, cous cous, or even wheatberries)
• 1 small carrot, diced
• 1 itsy bitsy garlic clove, minced
• maybe 1 tbsp chopped onion
• handful baby spinach, torn
• 2 small campari tomatoes, diced
• 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 3-4 tbsp gorgonzola cheese crumbles
• juice of 1 lemon
• about 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper

Just cook the quinoa and then mix everything together! 

When I got back from class around 3pm, I was fairly hungry since my lunch was rather small (plus it had been almost 4 hours). I decided to make a green smoothie in a bowl- one of my very favorite treats!

My mix included:

• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1 banana
• a couple of mango slices
• a few strawberries
• 2 HUGE handfuls of spinach
• maybe a tablespoon of ground flax
• 3 ice cubes
• small original yogurt from Red Mango that I had in the freezer

I then toped it with a few tablespoons of some awesome Blueberry Flax granola that I got from Pike's, and about a teaspoon of Nuttzo.

It was SUPER filling and I couldn't quite finish all of it, but it was absolutely wonderful!!!

Dinner was a unbelievably wonderful "Yoga Hot Pot." The recipe is from Green Kitchen Stories.

I made a couple of adjustments:

-I used 2 15 oz. cans of whole peeled tomatoes PLUS 1 can filled up with water

-I used 2/3 cup of red lentils instead of 1/2 cup

-I only used 1/2 a large yellow onion

-I only used 1 tbsp fresh ginger and it was plenty

-I didn't add the fresh cilantro in while cooking, I simply sprinkled it on top of the finished dish

-I only cooked it for 20 minutes as opposed to 45 which was more than enough time

*While cooking, I munched on a few Dr. Kracker's in the Sunflower Cheddar flavor, yum!

So comforting served with a dollop of 0% Greek yogurt (yes I ate that giant mound of food, hah)! By the way, this recipe makes quite a bit, but I can;t wait to pack the leftovers in my lunches :).