I present to you: the things I put in my belly yesterday.
The day started out with another breakfast quinoa experiment:
This one featured 1/4 of a Fuji apple, about a tablespoon of Justin’s Maple Almond Nut Butter, a ton of cinnamon, and a drizzle of maple syrup. Mostly yummy, though I reaffirmed that I’m not big on warm apples. Definitely need to try banana.
At lunch, I indulged in my morning tea ritual:
It was Celestial Seasonings Decaf Mint Green Tea, plus honey for the sake of my allergies. I purposefully took a picture surrounded by clutter for authenticity. Also, the dark. My office is always that dark. The fluorescents give me a migraine, so I rely on two lamps, which really aren’t enough.
Somehow tea and quinoa held me over until my fantabulous lunch:
Yes, I did turn on the light for this shot, but I ate in the dark. Before you is a spinach salad topped with my lazy sesame dressing (i.e. a little tahini and a couple of tablespoons of Newman’s Own Low Fat Sesame Ginger); purple hull peas from the farmers market cooked with onions, garlic, rosemary, and herbes de Provence; and a piece of homemade vegan cornbread. All three components were sooooo goooood. The peas are based on a method from the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, and the cornbread is from the Joy of Vegan Baking. You can see the recipe on my craft blog here. This is one of my favorite lunches in recent memory — just simple, clean, delicious flavors. I highly recommend purple hull peas if you’re a legume lover. The cornbread, too, is a must try. It’s insanely quick and delicious. After a while, this happened:
Ahhhhh.
Around 3:30, I took tea:
I thought it would be cute to arrange the orange slices around the tea cup. The orange didn’t peel well, though, and it looks mangled. And the saucer was too small, and you can’t really see the handiwork anyway. But the orange and the tea were both tasty, so I can’t complain. I brewed up more of the Choice Organic Earl Grey with Lavender, plus more honey.
When I got home, I snuck another bite of cornbread, not pictured. After an hour-long, 3.5-mile, 218-calorie-torching walk, we came home to a simple but amazing dinner:
It’s a baked sweet potato and green beans (both from the farmers market) topped with my on-the-fly peanut sauce.
Why is it kind of orange? Because it’s full of fire! The proportions are approximate since I just did it to taste, but I estimate that it contains two tablespoons natural peanut butter (Smuckers is the best), about two tablespoons of rice vinegar, a teaspoon of ground ginger, probably a tablespoon of sri racha (I like a lot of heat), and enough hot water to give it the right consistency. It was heaven on top of the potato and green beans. Heaven.
My taller half gave his plate a different spin:
That’s butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon on his potato, butter and pepper on the green beans, and some tomato slices.
I accompanied my dinner with a natural cola beverage:
Look for a review soon.
Monday gets two thumbs up and a planned repeat tomorrow.
