Improv Dinner

I don't know about you guys but I had a lovely long weekend! It was just long enough to be relaxing and productive. Not only did I catch up on my TV (Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica done - mind blown!) and almost finished The Help (also amazing) but I cleaned my apt top to bottom, put up some new pictures, did some cooking, did a lot of eating, got in some exercise, laundry, family time and boyfriend time! The weather was decent and waking up to no alarms was beautiful!

We did a Passover Seder for the first time with my family this weekend. While we've always been proud of our Jewish routes we never celebrated all of the religious holidays. In fact, we really only celebrated Hanukkah until I was about thirteen. So, this year was special! Sure, we all get together with family for dinners and enjoy the family time, but by including the seder it seemed that much more special. We've rekindled our relationship with Judaism and I think we all felt like Saturday was special. I'm really looking forward to many more years of continuing the tradition.

Sunday night dinners are often comprised of the weeks leftovers, especially if it's been a busy weekend where I haven't had the opportunity to grocery shop. Last night was no different.  I looked in the fridge and saw I had some left over quinoa, spinach, carrots, onion, mushroom and some frozen corn. I didn't really know what I was doing but I started chopping and stirring and came up with a sort of stir-fry/mash.

It turned out really great! Quick, easy, filling, lots of great textures and I even had left overs for lunch today. If you're looking for a balanced, quick dinner on a weeknight this is it!

Ingredients:
1T coconut oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup corn
1/2 cup carrots, chopped
2 mushrooms, chopped (that's all I had or I would have added more)
2 cups fresh baby spinach, chopped
1/4 cup BBQ sauce (I think you can get creative here, I'd like to try a peanut sauce next time)
S&P to taste

Directions:
In a small pot boil the carrots and corn for 5 minutes or until slightly tender. Drain.
In a medium pot heat the onion and garlic in the oil until tender, abut 5 - 7 minutes. Add the corn, carrots and mushrooms and heat for 2 minutes. Add the spinach and stir until the leaves are wilted. Stir in the BBQ sauce and salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with quinoa.

I also added a bit of daiya cheese I had in the freezer. I really love quinoa and cheese!

I did something similar last week with quinoa. I steamed some broccoli and served on quinoa with tomato sauce and cheese. I love that quinoa isn't as heavy feeling as pasta, yet its totally filling and satisfies that carbo craving. I also love the texture :)

**Just a thought. Some marinated tofu or chickpeas would be a good protein addition to this meal!

I've got a full week of bootcamp ahead of me as I have a class to make up. I'm feeling OK now (besides a little bit of a food baby) but ask me again on Thursday when I've done class three days in a row! Looking forward to the pain!

Easter Deviled Eggs

The long weekend has arrived!

To celebrate spring, the long weekend and Easter we are having a potluck lunch at work today.

I wanted to bring something fun, festive and deeeelicious. My competitive side comes out for these potlucks. I love making new and interesting things that wow my coworkers and I had just the thing for this year!

Last year I found a recipe for dyed deviled eggs and made them for a family dinner. How perfect are these pastel coloured eggs! I'm sure some of you have seen this floating around the internet as this egg-tastic holiday approached.

These are super easy and super fun to make. I'm always left wanting to dye anything and everything in my sight once I see how beautiful the colours come out on the eggs.

Go ahead and get prepared to make deviled eggs as you normally would. I find the best way to hard boil eggs is to throw them in a pot, cover with water, bring to a boil then cover and remove from heat. Let stand for about 10 minutes and you've got yourself perfect hard boiled eggs!

For these, put the eggs in ice water for at least another 5 minutes to cool down and be ready for handling.

While your eggs are boiling get your colouring ready. I used plastic cups because I'm lazy and didn't want to wash extra dishes. I filled half the cup with cool water then added 1 tsp of white vinegar. The vinegar will help the colour stay on the egg whites. Then I added my food colouring as desired. I followed the package instructions for the purple and orange colours.

Once my eggs were boiled and cooled I peeled them, cut them in half scooping the yolk into a bowl and dropping the egg whites into the various colours. Depending on how dark you want your colour leave the whites in the colouring for 5 - 10 minutes. They didn't need to stay in the red dye for long, that colour seemed to pick up the best. But I left the whites in the yellow and green for at least 10 minutes to get the colour I wanted. Just check on the whites once in a while by lifting out gently with a spoon until you get your desired colour.

While your eggs whites are dying mix your yolks with mayo, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste. I was making 15 eggs (!) so used 6 tbsp of mayo and 2 tbsp of mustard. But again, this is something that is really subjective so don't be afraid to taste your yolk as you mix and add as much "taste" as you'd like!

Finally, fill those eggs whites up with a spoonful of eggs yolk and sprinkle with paprika. Voila! you've got delightful, delicious, deviled eggs! Believe me, you will be the talk of the town after making and sharing these.

The best part about it is you can use any deviled egg recipe you like and colour them for any occasion, birthdays, showers, themed parties, St. Partick's day, etcetera!

Try it out and enjoy.

Poisonous Thoughts

Again, sorry for the radio silence. I've officially been sick for 2 weeks. In my last post I talked about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel...that was just a tease because I spent almost a whole additional day in bed trying to get better.

Currently I'm finally, FINALLY, symptomless. Of course, who knows what will happen tomorrow but for now I am celebrating my health.

Still I find myself a little discouraged tonight. Maybe it's because I've been off sick for so long but my workouts this week haven't seemed or felt as charged as usual. I don't know if that's the right way to put it. But, I just feel like I'm at the point where I think I'm working hard and making good choices but I'm still not getting the results I thought I'd get. I'm not sure if I'm being realistic or not at this point. Maybe for those last 10lbs or those last few inches you need to be even stricter and work that much harder than you have in the past. But I'm wondering if it's worth it.

Is it worth missing out on social functions? Is it worth the extra energy in planning meals and workouts? There are a lot more questions here. And I don't know if it's worth it? I should be happy with my body. It is strong! It is healthy! Shouldn't this be good enough? Why do I want more? Why do I feel like I need more? Why can't I stick to my plan if I think I want it that bad?

Just about every week I tell myself how things are going to be different. I set a goal or talk about a plan out loud. I get excited. Then somehow it fizzles and gets lost. I stopped trying to eat gluten free because it was so hard. Then I stopped thinking about the processed sugar in my diet. No I'm not eating fast foods and I'm still preparing just about all my meals but if I eat some bread, who cares? That little bit of store bought dressing doesn't matter, I'm too tired to make my own anyway. I was good this week, I deserve this night of sweets. All these little decisions are adding up, and I lose sight of my goals.

So I tell myself I'll start writing a food journal. And for two days I'll be really good about recording what I'm eating! Then I'll have a busy or stressful day and forget all about it.

Now I'm thinking about how on the flip side I overdo sometimes. I posted not too long ago how I needed to relax and find balance. Maybe this is just an extension of that conversation, just on the flip side of it.

I can't be too strict with myself and I can't get too lazy. How do I find the balance? If I'm not stressed from working too hard then I'm stressed about not working hard enough. There is that yo-yo tendency that every tells you to avoid.

I just want it to be easy! Ha. Don't we all.