What I Ate Wednesday #5: On The Fly

Glad to have you back for another What I Ate Wednesday!

Yesterday’s post felt so BLAH to me!!!!  I think its a lot easier for me when I write during the day but usually its just so hard to find that time!

Speaking of time…..I just somehow did not seem to have enough of it today!!  And I can tell I must be settling into this blogging thing because I really and truly did not plan out a single thing that I was going to eat today.  The only thought that goes into my WIAW’s are to try to mix it up to show you different things (when in reality I am a total creature of habit!!) and also to make sure to snap a picture.

So the theme of today’s eats – on the fly!

Breakfast was totally on the fly.  I had a million things I had to get done in the three hours Jake was at school.  I am not usually very hungry early in the morning so I basically just made something super quick so that I wouldn’t get hungry while running errands.

This is a banana with raw almond butter (from my imported Trader Joe’s stash), unsweetened coconut flakes, and chia seeds.  This breakfast apologizes for not being very photogenic.  But I know I must be onto something when both of my kids had this as an afternoon snack today!

Lunch was a bit of a scramble to pull something together.  I started with some of the Butternut Squash Apple Curry soup from Monday.  I paired it up with a repeat from last week – the chickpea “mock tuna” salad on Ezekiel bread.  This is exactly why I take the time to make up things like this ahead of time (soup, chickpea salad, oatmeal bars, etc).  Lunch was thrown together in less than 10 minutes, including making Jake’s lunch!

For my afternoon snack, since I didn’t have anything planned out of course, I kind of went over what I’d eaten today to see what I felt like I was missing.  Decided on some more fruits and veggies, specifically GREENS!  So I threw together one of my green juice/smoothie concoctions.  This one had a handful of kale, handful of romaine, celery, 1/3 cucumber, an apple, 1/2 banana, and a handful of frozen grapes.  I was surprised at how much the grapes mixed up the usual flavor.  I know this picture doesn’t appeal to many, but its just how I roll!  I swear by juice and smoothies like this for awesome energy every day!!!  To me, they are a total pick me up!!

Good thing I was re-fueled because my afternoon included a whole lot of this………..

Dinner, again, was completely on the fly.  We had planned to make jumbalaya but then I realized someone had used the leftover andouille sausage from the gumbo on Superbowl (I’ll give him some credit for using it very creatively on a pizza ;)).  So I did a quick pantry/fridge check and came up with a mexican-inspired soup, similar to a tortilla soup.  This was made completely with what I had on hand and I did not follow a recipe.  I have to say it turned out pretty good.  I realized that this is something that I could keep the ingredients on hand at all times to easily add this to my rotation of “throw together” dinners.

Mexican Chicken and Black Bean Soup

Ingredients

1 onion, chopped (could be chopped and frozen)

1 red pepper, chopped (could be chopped and frozen)

1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups vegetable stock (chicken stock would work too)

1 can fire roasted crushed tomatoes (Muir Glen are organic AND bpa-free!)

shredded chicken (we had about 1 1/2 pieces of leftover grilled chicken)

1 can black beans (pinto beans would work too)

1 cup frozen corn (canned would work too)

2 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. chili powder

Toppings:  shredded cheese, crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, avocado, cilantro – whatever you have!

Directions

In a large stock pot, saute the onion, pepper, jalapeno, and garlic in some olive oil over medium heat until softened.  Add in crushed tomatoes, broth, shredded chicken, beans, corn, and seasonings and simmer for 20 minutes.  Garnish with crushed chips (if you have leftover crumbs you can store them in the freezer for this purpose!), cheese, avocado, and/or cilantro.

Another option that I may try out would be to omit the chicken and use two different types of beans and a grain like rice or quinoa.

Well, that wraps it up.  Happy Valentine’s day tomorrow!