After everything I ate from Wednesday to Friday, the only thing I had the heart to eat for lunch on Saturday was this: Arugula, tomato and cucumber salad with a little piece of sour dough baguette.
9 miles done on black Friday morning and a half marathon coming up this Sunday. I can only hope to burn off 1/4 of the insanely delicious carbs and fats that I ate… I’d do it again, darn it!
I’ve already shared with you my strange affinity for hearts of palm (Secret Single Behavior), my love of canned sardines (Omegas!) and my near obsession with blended zucchini soup (Green Machine). So, what’s my newest “hippy-dippy-health-nut” addiction?… red cabbage dipped in spicy hummus.
I crave salty crunchy foods like its nobody’s business but I work too hard to give in to my temptations and completely ruin all the good things I’ve been doing for my body. Why indulge in empty, fatty, non-nutritive garbage when I can still get the delicious crunch I crave from something really good for me?
Purple fruit and vegetables are packed with nutrients our bodies need. Remember, when choosing your food, a good rule to follow is that the more vibrant in color, the more nutrient-rich it is. Look at greens, for example: A hand full of dark green kale has TONS more nutritional value than a hand full of iceberg lettuce.
Here are some articles that give a little more info on the benefits of purple foods:
5 Health Benefits of Purple Food
So, how do I eat it? Cut the cabbage into finger-width slices. (I love those beautiful swirls that are revealed once cut!) and just dip into some hummus which has been sprinkled with cayenne pepper. I put that s*%$ on everything! 😉 Happy snacking!
Day 2 of my 3 day Dr. Oz Detox Cleanse and I’m having olfactory hallucinations of buttered toast and coffee….
Don’t get me wrong, Its not that bad. I just REALLY want to eat something warm that also requires chewing. Is that so much to ask?! On a positive note, I’m not unbearably hungry and I’m glad that I took my friend’s advice to do the cleanse during the work week rather than the weekend so that I have something to distract me from thinking about all the foods I’d like to be eating. Another bonus, I already feel less bloated and cleaner and the dinner smoothy is actually pretty delicious! I’d drink it even on a day when I wasn’t trying to purge my system, lol.
The biggest pain in the butt is the prep. There’s a lot of chopping and measuring the night before in preparation for my breakfast and lunch the following day. I just don’t have the time in the morning to be doing all of that work.
To my chagrin, celery plays a key role in the lunch smoothy. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I love to eat celery but find its juice completely repugnant. The fact that the lunch smoothy also includes a whole cucumber and cup of kale, made it pretty fibrous and unbearable the first day. It was so unbearable, in fact that it took me a good 2 1/2 hours to sip and get through it. My students actually laughed at me as I drank it at my desk because they could see me wincing as I swallowed. One very loud girl asked “why are you making yourself suffer?!” I just laughed but, she was kinda right….
I made a few alterations as I prepped the lunch smoothy last night and it was MUUUUUCH better today. Here’s what I did: 1. Use only those stalks from the heart of the celery. They are much more tender and less fibrous 2. Take about 50% of the peel off of the cucumber before chopping it up for your blender. 3. Blend it a really, really, really long time. Believe me, its worth it.
Here is the actual cleanse worksheet as provided on the Dr. Oz web site.
I’d love your feedback if you decide to try it! Place a comment under this post!
And for those that like my post on home-made Mango Jam,
http://walkruninspired.com/2014/06/25/home-made-mango-jam/
I have to also share that we decided to make some strawberry jam afterwards too! Sticky, sweet, messy fun!
Its mango season in South Florida! People who are blessed enough to have a tree in their back yard are eating them up and desperately trying to give them away to co-workers, neighbors and friends, lest they should rot on the ground or get eaten by squirrels, opossums… or the dog. (My dog Charlie has eaten a few of my neighbor’s mangos and has come back into the house with quite the cute mango mustache on several occasions.)
Well, my caddy corner neighbor and my mother’s next door neighbor has the most gorgeous and fruit-filled mango tree in the neighborhood. Luckily they believe that sharing is caring and gave us a few. And this is what we came up with to use up that yummy goodness. Mango jam!!
Delicious on toast, on a ritz cracker with cream cheese, in the center of thumb print cookies or simply spooned right into your mouth! Although the process is fun, its time consuming and messy. All worth it in the end, though. Check out the photos of our afternoon together.
Enjoy alone or with some brown rice or tortilla chips! 🙂
Today I am grateful for the opportunity to make myself a yummy dinner and relax. This recipe was inspired by my Spanish co-worker’s quick fix dinner recipe for zucchini soup. She calls it “Crema de Calabazin” or “Cream of Zucchini.” I attempted to make it the night she told me about it but made the mistake of making it too thin and watery. I reattempted it today and added my own touches to make it more nutritious AND amazingly delicious.
Ingredients:
Today I’m grateful for the opportunity to cook for someone and enjoy a lovely meal…In Spain a “tortilla” is an omelette, not a flat bread you stuff with beans and rice. 😉 A tortilla espanola is the most traditional and basic of these omelettes which are traditionally served as “tapas” or appetizers. I make tortillas as my main dish on days that I don’t feel like making meat but want a non-soy source of protein. Its delicious, easy, quick and impressive looking.
Here’s how I made mine!
Ingredients:
Directions:
I served mine with simple roasted asparagus and whole wheat baguette… and red wine of course!!
Little Miss Sunshine State 