I went through our kitchen and pulled out some ingredients that I felt would work well together and viola, the Asian quinoa salad came to life. Not only is it delicious, it is packed with veggies. While it is pretty healthy, the taste reminded me of some of my not-so-healthy favorites from Chinese takeout, without the empty calories and MSG.

4.2 from 5 reviews

Asian Quinoa Salad

 

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Recipe type: Sidedish

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa uncooked
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup water
• 2 teaspoon sesame oil
• ½ red onion
• 1 red pepper
• 2 cups shelled edamame
• 1 cup frozen corn
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• ¼ teaspoon grated ginger (or powder in you don't have fresh)
• sesame seeds to garnish

Instructions

1. Cook quinoa according to package instruction in water, chicken broth and 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Let cool.
2. Defrost corn.
3. In a large bowl, combine red onion, pepper, edamame, corn and quinoa. Set aside.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, remaining sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, ginger and red pepper flakes.
5. Pour over the salad and combine well.
6. Refrigerate for at least a half an hour for best results.
7. Garnish with sesame seeds before serving.

3.5.3208

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First up are Oatmeal Protein Pancakes topped with melted berries and bananas. These take literally two minutes to make in the blender and keep me full for hours. I make the melted berried by microwaving some cut up berries. It makes a great fresh fruity topping without the sugars of syrups.

A midmorning snack that I’ve been enjoying lately is the Designer Whey pre-mixed Protein Shakes. The Vanilla tastes just like a milkshake, and not a healthified milkshake either!

Another thing I can’t get enough of lately are dried fruits. These are apricots from the Polish deli near my job, but my absolute fav are dried white peaches from Trader Joe’s. I’ve been telling myself that I will make them myself in the dehydrator, but I haven’t gotten around to it…yet!

This is my fav salad from a local diner, the Thai Chicken Deluxe, which I ordered chicken-less. Avocado makes everything better.

I had a brave moment and decided to try something new from the Sushi restaurant we order from at work. This was called a Chirashi Lunch. It was pretty good, but I’m not sure what the white thing was which means I didn’t eat it. I think I’ll be sticking to my go-to rolls and sashimi from now on.

This is the Portabella wrap I got on my lunch date with my little man. Grilled Portabella mushrooms, spinach, roasted peppers and mozzarella cheese on a whole wheat wrap.

This is probably the best thing I’ve eaten lately – crab cakes made by Tommy! I had bought a can of crab meat at Trader Joe’s but wasn’t too sure of what I’d make with it. Tommy followed the recipe on the can and made some of the best crab cakes I’ve had, and it was super simple!

This pizza is my ultimate guilty pleasure – the Salad Slice. It is basically a cheese-less pizza topped with a lettuce, tomato, olives and red onions. It’s super simple, but the flavors go together so well and I literally crave it every time I walk past the pizzeria.

And last but not least is my go to lunch, dinner, midnight snack. A Dr. Praeger’s California veggie burger on toast, topped with cheese and sprouts and a side of veggies with chipotle hummus. I could eat this forever and a day and never get sick of it.

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten this week?

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The seafood salad that the supermarket deli sells has always caught my eye, but I’ve never purchased it because I’m not sure that I trust seafood from the deli counter. I scoped out the ingredients and decided to make my own version at home.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Seafood Salad

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

Ingredients

• 1 pound imitation crab, chopped
• ½ cup sweet onion, chopped
• ½ cup celery, chopped
• ½ cup dill pickle, chopped
• ½ cup chives, chopped
• ¼ cup Greek yogurt
• ⅛ cup mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon mustard
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Toss all ingredients together with Greek yogurt, mayonnaise and mustard.
2. Salt and pepper to taste.

3.2.1230

This

salad was quick and easy to make and I loved it for lunch with some Triscuits. I swapped out most of the mayo for Greek yogurt, but I don’t think the difference in taste is very noticeable thanks to the mustard. I’m usually not a huge fan of celery, but it really worked in this combo and gave the salad a very refreshing taste.

What’s your favorite deli counter salad?

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one of them. I’ve eaten tofu on tons of occasions, but I’ve never worked with it myself, and quite frankly, it intimidated me. On my last trip to Trader Joe’s I decided to take the plunge and bought a package of tofu, with no real idea of what I was going to do with it. It sat in my fridge for about a week, until I got my Rachael Ray magazine in the mail and I was inspired by a recipe.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Tofu Peanut Noodles

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

Recipe type: vegetarian, vegan

Ingredients

• 16 ounces firm tofu, cubed
• ¼ cup peanut butter
• ¼ cup liquid aminos (or soy sauce)
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• ½ pound linguine (I used quinoa pasta)
• 1 head broccoli, cut into florets

Instructions

1. Bake tofu at 425 degrees on parchment-lined baking sheet for 10 minutes.
2. Combine peanut butter, liquid aminos and rice vinegar in a small bowl.
3. Cook noodles according to instructions on box, adding broccoli 5 minutes before noodles are done.
4. Drain noodles, toss with sauce and tofu.

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I ended up eating these noddles for dinner and as lunch for the next two days. I was sad to see the bottom of the Tupperware, because they were amazing. This is the type of dish you can make and enjoy for days because it reheats great. Happy Eating!

What’s an ingredient that intimidated you until you tried cooking with it?

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I kept up with one of my March goals and packed my lunch for work. I used up almost all of the veggies that I had in the fridge – iceberg lettuce, snow peas, avocado, beets, and leftover mushrooms from breakfast. I topped it off with a little bit of Balsamic and it was to die for! I am so looking forward to packing my lunches because this was so good.

Dinner was a mish mash because I didn’t have a chance to go food shopping this weekend. A Praeger’s veggie burger on a slice of whole wheat toast topped with more yummy cheese. I had a chopped red pepper and beets on the side. I am out of hummus (and basically everything else) so I ate them plain. Praeger’s are hands down my favorite veggie burgers. I love that you can actually see chunks of different veggies when you bite into em, and the ingredient list isn’t a mile long.

After dinner, I had a little treat. Tommy’s aunt came back from Poland a few wees ago and she brought us Dumle. For all the years I spent in Poland, I had never had these amazing chocolates before. They are milk chocolate with a chewy toffee center. So flippin good! I didn’t grab a pic of them, but I found this one online. Maybe someone has had these before?

Finally, after Crossfit, I had a protein shake. I am currently using Fitmixer Skinny in chocolate as my protein and it is quite yummy. I also have the vanilla Sculpt, which is really good too, but I was feeling a little chocolatey today.

I apologize for the blurry picture, but I drank it while en route to a secret location to pick up something for a secret event, that may or may not be occurring this weekend. I can’t specify in case a certain someone reads my blog, but I will share it all next week. I’m so excited!

Enough with the speaking in code. Have a great Wednesday!

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten this week?

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UP: We took a spontaneous strip to Butter Lane Cupcakes on Saturday night. I love that Tommy is spontaneous and we do fun things just out of the blue. The coffee cupcake was to-die-for and the shop was so adorable! I also had a bite of Munchkin’s vanilla on vanilla and it was the best vanilla frosting I’ve ever tried. They are famous for their cookie dough cupcake, but they were out by the time we got there, so we will definitely be back for more!

DOWN: Munchkin woke up with a high fever (102.9) in the middle of the night from Saturday to Sunday. He wasn’t himself all of Sunday and got sick in my bed, while I was trying to put him down for a nap. I hate seeing the little man unhappy. Luckily he was all better Monday, but we still aren’t sure what was wrong with him. I’m thinking some kind of 24 hour bug.

UP: Tommy surprised me with a three month membership to Crossfit! I had been debating on going back, but was having a hard time justifying the cost, even though I loved getting my butt kicked there. On Saturday, Tommy highjacked my iPad so that he could get into my account to surprise me. I checked my email to find that I had a three month membership all paid for! So excited to get back there tonight! I am also thinking that I might want to follow a Crossfit Endurance training program for my half this fall, but I’ll see how everything goes at Crossfit before making a decision.

DOWN: We planned on going to Trader Joe’s on Sunday, but since the little man was sick we stayed home and I’m left with not much to work with for meals this week. Wish me luck!

UP: My mom made ribs for dinner on Sunday. Her ribs are one of my favorite things that she makes, and I didn’t even think twice about not eating them at dinner. This no meat thing is going better than I had expected. I even resisted bacon last weekend! I am thinking of sticking with it for longer than just Lent, but we will see how the rest of March plays out.

Share an UP and DOWN from your weekend.

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Speaking of Trader Joe’s, I’ve also been enjoying their pre-made sushi. I love that they use brown rice!

My number one new favorite thing in life is the Almond Coco Loco Chobani. If you can find these in your supermarket, jump on them. They are like dessert in Chobani form.

Another thing that I’ve been slightly obsessed with are English cucumbers. I have been eating these as a crispy treat with Chiptole Pepper Hummus. Delish!

This is Vegetarian Duck with Mushroom in Garlic Sauce from Chai Thai, where we went for dinner over the weekend. I’m not sure where vegetarian duck comes from, but it might just be heaven.

Lox are one of favorite things to get when we go out for bagels for breakfast, so I decided to recreate it at home. Not as great as it would be on a fresh bagel, but not too shabby either.

Black Bean Veggie Meatball Pitas. When I told Tommy what I was making for dinner, he told me that he wasn’t looking forward to it until he tried them. They were very yummy.

Soy Glazed Salmon. Only 15 minutes under the broiler and dinner was served.

So these are my meatless eats so far. I thought that I would miss eating meat, but it’s been a week and I haven’t had a single craving. I always had a feeling that I would do well as a vegetarian. I think that Lent will show me that I don’t really enjoy eating meat as much as I thought I did and that veggies are my BFFs.

What was the best thing you ate this week?

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First up on my to-do list of meatless recipes was to create meatless meatballs. I have been buying the Veggie Patch meatballs for some time now, and I thought that I could totally make my own black bean meatballs. These babies are super simple and have a great flavor with a kick of spice, just the way I like em!

Black Bean Meatballs

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

Author: Sylvia T

Cuisine: Vegetarian

Ingredients

• 2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup breadcrumbs
• 2 teaspoons Sriracha
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• Spray oil

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. After draining and rinsing the black beans, place them into a large bowl.
3. With a fork or potato masher, mash the beans until they turn into a paste-like consistency.
4. Add in the remaining ingredients and mash everything together with your hands.
5. Form into meatballs and place them onto a cookie sheet
6. Spray with a bit of oil and bake for 20 minutes.

3.2.1226

 Have you ever tried meatless meatballs? What are your fav meatless recipes?

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