What I Ate Wednesday #7

Another full day re-cap of my meals for the day.  I’m going to try to keep it brief because we are busy around here packing up and getting ready to head north for a weekend of skiing!

For breakfast, I have been trying to shake it up a little with my green smoothie ingredients.  I have read that its a good idea to switch up your greens every once in awhile to vary your exposure to the naturally occurring toxins as well as the beneficial alkaloids.    Diversity is always a good thing!

I am loving this combination:

• 2-3 Rainbow Chard leaves
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1/3 of a cucumber
• 1/3 cup of diced fresh pineapple
• 1/2 of a banana
• Enough water to get to your preferred consistency

Right after that, came my new breakfast obsession!!!!

Overnight Chia Pudding

• 1/2 cup lite coconut milk
• 2 T. chia seeds

Mix well and let soak overnight in a sealed container.  In the morning, add toppings of your choice.  This has diced mango, fresh blueberries, and chopped walnuts.

If you’ve gone out on a limb and bought some chia seeds to experiment, I strongly encourage you to give this recipe a try.  When mixed with liquid, the seeds will absorb the liquid forming a gel-like consistency, which some describe as being similar to tapioca pudding.  They have almost no flavor so they take on the flavor of whatever liquid they absorb.

Benefits of the Amazing Chia Seed

• loaded with soluble and insoluble fiber – helps keep you full
• the richest plant source of Omega 3’s – reduces inflammation to reduce chronic disease
• a rich source of complete plant based protein
• help stabilize blood sugar
• extremely high in antioxidants – help fight the damage causing free radicals

Chia seeds are so packed with nutrients, its no wonder that they are considered a SUPERFOOD!

While getting ready for lunch, I snacked on some gluten-free crackers and hummus.

Lunch was a salad with romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, lightly toasted almonds, diced avocado.  It was topped with a simple dressing of 1/2 balsamic vinegar and 1/2 flax oil and some fresh ground salt and pepper.  I like to mix this really well to incorporate the avocado.  This salad combo tastes great with mixed greens too!

Afternoon snack was 2 of the Mini Banana Chocolate Chip muffins that are a regular feature in this house now!!

Dinner was so easy and so good – I just wish the kids liked this a little more.  Its not that its overly spicy.  They did like the veggies.  It may just take a few more exposures to this dish.  And chopsticks always help make a dish more fun!

Coconut Curry Chicken with Red Pepper and Snap Peas

Ingredients

1 cup light coconut milk

1 T. red curry paste

2 tsp. fish sauce (don’t be scared by this!!  You’ll find it in the Asian section of the supermarket)

1 T. brown sugar

1-2 chicken breasts, cut into thin bite size pieces

1 red pepper, chopped into medium-size pieces

1 1/2 cups snap peas

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

coconut oil for stir frying

Directions

Heat skillet to medium and add about 1 tsp of coconut oil (or other high heat oil such as grapeseed).  Stir fry chicken for a few minutes until no longer pink.  Remove from pan and set aside.  Add a little more oil to the pan and stir fry red pepper and snap peas for a few minutes until tender crisp.  Meanwhile, whisk together coconut milk, red curry paste, brown sugar, and fish sauce.  Add minced garlic to pan and saute for 1 minute (garlic burns very easily).  Then, add chicken back to pan and pour sauce in.  Combine and let simmer for a few minutes.  Serve over rice.

Enjoy the rest of your week!  Thanks to technology, I have a few new recipes scheduled to post in the next couple of days while we’re out on the slopes