Adventure Begins in the Kitchen
Breakfast: Leftover Swag Cereal & Almond Milk
Lunch: Souped Up Soup
Dinner: Barley & Bean Salad with Green Beans
The shining star meal of my day was most definitely the soup. I usually keep a few Simply Asia soups in my pantry for when I’m feeling brothy and boring. And today I souped up the brothy and made it far from boring by adding a cup of frozen kale and two tablespoons of hot and spicy marinade. I can’t even describe how much this soup hit the spot – so spicy, so crunchy, so noodle-y!
I had a decent amount of extra shredded “cheese” and zucchini from the fillo cups I made the other night and thought making some mac would be a functional use of said leftovers.
FoodFash Mac
(1 serving)
1/2 cup brown rice pasta
1 teaspoon Earth Balance
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
1/3 cup non-dairy cheese
1/4 to 1/2 zucchini, shredded
1/2 to 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
Prepare brown rice pasta per the package instructions, drain, and put back in the pot. Add all of the ingredients except for the yeast and stir until the non-dairy cheese is mostly melted. Add the nutritional yeast and stir until evenly distributed. Then, serve yo mac!
Zucchini is my all time favorite sneaky veggie because, when shredded, you can barely tell it’s there. Zucchini also has high quantities of fiber, vitamin A and vitamin C, making it a supremely kind form of trickery.
What’s your favorite sneaky veggie?
A few weeks ago before I left for a DC work trip, I remembered that I had a long overdue Clearly Fresh Bag review in my queue. I chopped a leftover onion in half, put one piece in a Ziploc, the other in a Clearly Fresh Bag, and presumably grabbed my luggage and rushed out the door. When I returned a week later, the Clearly Fresh Bag onion (on the right) was clearly the winner.
Now fast forward to hearing Dawn Jackson Blatner speak at the Healthy Living Summit last Saturday… Of the many amazing mantras I took away from her session, there was one in particular that I felt I should start practicing immediately: everyday veggie tray.
The concept behind ‘everyday veggie tray’ is that veggies that are already washed and chopped are just as accessible when you’re busy as a packaged snack. Seems simple, I know, but most healthy living concepts are simple, so simple that they’re easily forgotten.
My every day veggie tray consists of radishes, cucumber, and broccoli – precut for perfect hummus scoopage. I’m also very excited because prior to my Clearly Fresh Bag experiment I would have been very hesitant about chopping this many veggies in advance.
Do you think an every day veggie tray would work for you? What kinds of veggies would you prep for the week?
One of the Healthy Living Summit swag bag items I had the pleasure of stuffing was the package of mini fillo shells. From the second I unpacked the first box, I couldn’t wait to use them. And as I tossed a box in each bag I contemplated the perfect fillo filling.
Well the perfect fillo filling other than the obvious nuts and honey combo that’s responsible for one of my all time fav desserts, baklava. Once visions of sweetness passed, the first savory ingredient that came to mind was spinach.
I went to the market with every intention of finally recreating Emily of Daily Garnish’s spinach and artichoke dip, but for reasons having nothing to do with her recipe (like Rollin’ Oats doesn’t have canned artichokes?) my plan morphed into something different.
FoodFash Fillo Cups
12 mini fillo shells
1/2 bag of frozen, chopped spinach
1/2 zucchini, shredded
1-1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
2/3 cup dairy free cheddar
1 egg, beaten
salt to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Thaw frozen spinach in the microwave for about one minute (do not add water). Add shredded zucchini, garlic, “cheese” and salt to the bowl of spinach and stir. In a small bowl, beat the egg and then mix with the bowl of veggies. Fill each fillo cup as full as you can with veggies, place on a cookie sheet, and bake for 20 minutes or until the egg is fully cooked. Let them cool for a few minutes before serving.
There’s nothing like having a crunchy, gooey, bite sized, party-like, veggie filled dinner on a Tuesday – yum, yum, yum!!