A Day in the Life…Part Due

Has anyone else noticed that buds are beginning to appear on the trees?! And that ants and spiders are starting to call our living room walls home again? I think it’s spring!

Today’s Breakfast

I quickly grabbed a fig shmeared in peanut butter before the gym this morning to keep my energy up during my treadmill speed workout. Breakfast is always the first thing on my mind when I wake up so heading out the door without even a tiny nibble is impossible. After my workout, I went next door to the coffee shop and whipped out the cereal bowl I prepared last night: Nature’s Path Heritage Heirloom 100% multigrain cereal, chia seeds, sliced banana, sliced strawberries, and a handful of walnuts. Added some skim milk this morning! Shh, don’t tell….I played it off like I just enjoy really light coffee…

Second Breakfast

This wasn’t much of a second breakfast, just a handful of roasted almonds to carry me through until lunch!

Lunch

Lunch was easy peasy to throw together last night – leftover channa masala, Trader Joe’s “pocket full of fiber”, a mixed green salad with yellow bell pepper, carrots, tomatoes, and cucs, and the last of the pineapple!

I’ll be frank…channa masala is a risky lunch to have at work and is exactly why I keep a toothbrush in my desk. Garrrllliccc city. And it left me with this raging jones for chocolate! Luckily my coworker had placed a box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts within reach. One of those babies finally cut that garlic edge.

Even though this lunch was initially really filling (fruit tends to trick my belly into thinking it’s full), I was hungry only 2 hours later. I packed small handful of Nature’s Path Hemp Plus granola and a few Wheat Bran cereal squares but completely forgot to snap their photo! They didn’t really do much for my hunger in the long run, though, so I made an emergency trip to Whofie after work so that I could put together this dream date on a plate…

Dins

Fresh whole wheat papardelle with chicken andouille sausage, freshly grated pecorino romano, and peas!

Oh, yes. Soft, chewy whole grain noodles with spicey bits of sausage, salty touches of pecorino cheese, and a fresh snap from the peas. It was everything I could do not to eat the entire pot (uh, yeah, of course I made a double serving to get in on the fun again later in the week). That plate up there is a dessert plate so despite how it looks, I did not quite eat my body weight in pasta.

Dried pasta doesn’t stand a chance next to the fresh variety. Dried is the weeny younger cousin, always running after the big kids but never fast enough or strong enough to keep up. Yeah, it’ll work in a pinch (and, truthfully, is what I use most often) but if you want pasta, go for the fresh. It is the pillow of the food world =) (No, that title does not belong to mashed potatoes in my universe.)

I don’t usually add salt to my pasta water but fresh pasta really needs the help – just a sprinkle will really bring out the flavor.

After adding the salt and a teaspoon of Garlic Gold Olive Oil (to prevent sticking annndd because it’s delicious), I boiled the water and added the pasta.

While the water boiled, I sauteed the sausage (antiobiotic-free, minimally processed precooked andouille flavored chicken variety) in a bit of olive oil. When the pasta started cooking (fresh pasta is fast, only a few minutes), I added a cup of frozen peas to the sausage; the heat from the pan and later the heat from the pasta was enough to thaw them and cook them through.

After draining the pasta, I grated pecorino romano cheese on top and mixed it all together with the sausage and peas. Supper time! This is absolutely the best pasta dish I have ever made (thanks mostly to great ingredients) and will absolutely be made again.

I also ate a small bowl of green beans but, quite honestly, they were outshone by the pasta and not really worth remembering!

Dessert

A small glass of Lactaid and a vegan double chocolate cookie. I made these a while back and froze most of the batch (individually wrapped in foil…wasteful and a constant source of amusement for my roommates). As soon as they disappear I will share the recipe! Promise! I don’t think I could go a day without some form of cookie in my freezer…

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A Glorious Sunday

Woohoo! Best ride I’ve had in a loooonnngg time. We made plans to head out bright and early this morning (…more like 9am) and hit the bike trail! With a promise of sunny and 70*, we couldn’t miss out.

Taz (yup, that good looking road bike up there) stuck with me during my first clipless ride on real roads. I finally felt like a real cyclist! When I first got my bike 9 months ago, it was all I could do to just manage the bike. Never in a million years did I think I’d be zipping through traffic (clipped in, no less!), zooming down hills. I turned to my roommate halfway through the ride and yelled “I am SO HAPPY”. Nothing like a morning in the saddle to set the mood for the week =)

My traditional pre-long active day breakfast

as well as a pit stop for some dates

kept my tummy happy until just before we got home.When we walked through the door we were FAMISHED and had eggs and sweet potatoes on the brain!

Scrambled Egg Muffins

makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

6 eggs

5 egg whites

1/2 cup low fat milk

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 small zucchini, grated

1/2 red bell pepper, small dice

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

few cracks fresh black pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 350*.

Mix everything together in a large bowl. Pour into lightly greased muffin tin and bake for 20-22 minutes.

These were so tasty! Unfortunately, they sank a bit in the middle after coming out of the oven but they were still absolutely scrumptious and totally hit the spot. Yes, I suppose we could have just made scrambled eggs, but c’mon. You have to admit that these are much, much cuter.

On the side we had sweet potato home fries, spiced up with some cumin and kosher salt, and a big mixed green salad. Hiding underneath all of those greens is the mango salsa from last night’s taco potluck. Sweet and savory salads are definitely a favorite of mine.

And just as promised, for dessert…

This was even better today! I wasn’t totally thrilled with it last night but absolutely fell in love today. I usually like my crumble piping hot but this recipe might be better cold.

If you have never tried the lactose-free vanilla ice cream from JP Lick’s…well, what are you waiting for? Hands down the best vanilla ice cream I’ve tried. I just don’t know how they do it…