What I Ate Wednesday #2

Happy Wednesday!

We’ve been snowed in the last couple of days.  Luckily I stocked up at the grocery store before the snow and sub-zero temps hit.  We’ve only been in West Michigan for a year and a half and we’re still getting used to this lake effect snow that seems to go on and on and on!  The kids think that it looks like we live inside of a snow globe!!!

Other than helping to get snow gear on and off, making endless cups of hot cocoa, and playing lots of board games, here is what I’ve been eating on this cold and snowy Wednesday.  The morning started off with my version of a Chai Latte.  Its made by steeping a Tazo Chai tea bag in half water and half almond milk and sweetened with some honey.  I’ve been trying to cut back on coffee (more because of the chemical-filled, sugary sweetener I put in it than for the caffeine).  This stuff is awesome and makes skipping the coffee pretty easy.

I’m still trying to eat super clean to combat all of these viruses going around right now.  Breakfast was a giant glass of one of my favorite juice/smoothie combinations, which just happens to be loaded with Vitamin C.  Its made with 1 red beet (raw, peeled, chopped), 1/2 red grapefruit, 1 carrot, 1 apple, and 1 small slice of fresh ginger.  This is blended up with a cup or so of water in a high speed blender for about 30-45 seconds.  I think if you wanted to try this in a regular blender, you would probably need to steam the beet first to get it a little softer.  This is a great combination to put through the juicer too!

We were all a little bit snacky by mid-morning.  It was just easier for us all to have the same thing with everyone home today.  I made these carrot cake oatmeal bars the other day and they have been a huge hit around here.  We paired them up with a clementine.

For lunch, I had a Greek-inspired salad.  It was a huge bowl of red romaine topped with cucumbers, red onion, tomato, yellow pepper, kalamata olives and topped with a simple lemon and olive oil dressing and some fresh parsley.  I don’t always take the time to chop up fresh herbs for my salad but I had them left over from the veggie burgers on Monday.  I usually like to add toasted nuts to my salads for the crunchy texture and extra protein.  I experimented with something new to top this salad – roasted chickpeas!  They were sprayed with a little olive oil and some kosher salt, pepper, garlic powder, dried dill, and dried oregano.  Roast them in a 425 degree oven, tossing half-way, for 30 minutes.   This is nothing new in the healthy-eating-blog-world, but I had made them before and did not care for them.  Turns out I didn’t cook them long enough to get crunchy and I also learned that they don’t keep very well, which is the mistake I made the last time by trying to make them ahead of time.

 I also had some homemade Tomato Soup to go along with it.  Now that is a lot of veggies to pack into one meal!!!!

I know it was an awesome lunch when I can make it all the way to dinner without a snack!  Highly unusual for me!!  Dinner was chicken stir-fry served over Basmati rice with some pineapple on the side.  It is very loosely based off of this recipe from Danica’s Daily.  I basically use her recipe for the sauce  (3T. Hoisin, 2T. vegetable stock, 1T. sherry, 1T. ketchup, 2 T. soy sauce, 1 tsp. fresh grated ginger, 1  tsp. sriracha hot sauce, and 1 T. brown sugar) but do not make it in the crock pot.  I stir fry the chicken and set aside, then the vegetables until just tender.  I add the sauce at the end and top it all of with some lightly toasted cashews.  Out of all of the stir fry recipes I’ve tried over the years, this seems to be our favorite so far.  Other than chopping up the vegetables (which could be done ahead of time) this dinner comes together really quick!

We’ve switched over to a new kind of rice lately.  I have always used quick cooking brown rice, but I didn’t always get the texture right and sometimes it turned out a little bit sticky.  Hailey had gotten to the point where she would only eat it if I made it into “fried rice” which involves a lot of extra soy sauce (sodium!) and oil.  I recently found this at Meijer and love it.  It retains 80% of the nutrients from the husk that traditional brown rice would.  It is a slow-release carbohydrate with a low G.I. (glycemic index) of 52.  This means the sugar is slowly released into your bloodstream, providing a steady supply of energy and helps you feel fuller, longer.  I love the taste and texture and so far its cooked up perfect every time.  If you see it in your grocery store, check it out!

Well that wraps it up for this Wednesday!!