Tag Archives: veggies

by Wendy | May 26, 2010

Baja Fish Tacos

We had a few dreary days in a row, so it was so nice to stick my face out into the bright sunshine yesterday!

Until the inside of my house reached 81 degrees, that is! I’m SO glad we got our run in before 8am. Otherwise, I think it would have been too hot to have little bugger out in the stroller.

Once the husbo got home, I didn’t even have to ask twice before he broke out the AC for the year. If not for the little one, we may have held off a while, but that cold air was SWEET!

The heatwave was the perfect time to try out the Baja Fish Taco recipe I’d been anxious to whip up. I first saw fish tacos on a trip to Los Angeles in the early 90s, and everyone back in PA thought they were so weird. I thought they were light and fresh with lots of flavor possibilities…I was hooked!

I’m usually not a recipe follower (I like to play with pinches and dashes too much), but this one just looked too tempting to pass up. Perfect for a hot day…and I managed to get through it without making too many substitutions!

I found it here:

You can find it HERE.

Don’t you think every recipe should start out with this kind of COLOR!?

A drizzle of honey, a spritz of lime, and some S&P…

I was wishing I had a substitute, but I didn’t, so I went FULL-ON MAYO for the slaw…

I was crushed to find that my just-purchased avocado was all funky inside. But then I remembered I had this newbie in my fridge. I grabbed it out of curiosity–little did I know how handy (and tasty!) it would be!

Sizzlin’ tilapia (I substituted just for the halibut )

The finished product: Slaw, salsa, avo-hummus, and tilapia tucked into a whole wheat tortilla (my only real change to this recipe: the whole wheat.) This was fresh, flavorful and just plain yummy! AND easy enough to make with a baby on your hip. (Snap.)

Leave it to the Food Network.

The husbo gave dinner the seal of approval, and provided dessert! It seems that someone he works with has an abundance of sweet, local berries….see how they’re not all big and white! LOVE local, natural berries.

I rummaged around looking for a suitable accompaniment, then realized that these berries were nice enough to shine on their own. Sometimes, the simplest approach is definitely the best.

Just rinsed and sliced…oh, where did that dark chocolate come from?

Ahhh, It’s starting to feel like summer!

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What’s your favorite warm weather meal?

What do you do with a strawberry surplus?

4 Comments

Filed under Recipes & Food, The Everyday

Tagged as avo-hummus, baja fish tacos, cabbage slaw, chocolate, cilantro, fish, Food, Food Network Magazine, fresh, hot weather meals, recipe, spring meals, strawberries, summer meals, tilapia, vegetables, veggies, whole, whole wheat

by Wendy | May 21, 2010

Hello, Broccoli

It’s the first official broccoli harvest of the season!

Insert catchy line about broccoli here…hmmm…I really want to tell you that it’s that time of the season to rock out with your brocc out, but that’s just too horrible…

Anyhoo, I took this picture only a few days ago, and these lovelies had doubled in size by yesterday! I figured we’d better harvest before they either: A. took off (one had already bolted) or B. the little buggers got them (one of the hazards of being pesticide and chemical free!)

Enter: foil packet, olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic.

On the grill with some cute little chicken tenderloins.

Mayo, Dijon mustard and seven PEPPADEWS! YUM!

Wrapped it up in whole wheat with a little spizznach and grated carrot.

And VOILA! Healthy spring dinner, in no time.

Pretty easy on the budget, too!

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What’s your favorite way to enjoy broccoli? I have a feeling there’s a lot coming my way, so I could use some quick and easy prep ideas!

3 Comments

Filed under Home & Garden, Recipes & Food, The Everyday

Tagged as broccoli, carrot, chicken, chicken wrap, easy meal, eating habits, Food, garden, grill, grilling, homemade, organic, peppadew, peppadew spread, spinach, vegetables, veggies, whole, whole wheat

by Wendy | May 19, 2010

What I am is what I am…

If you are what you eat (and you definitely are), today I am a big pile of refined white crap.

And that’s exactly what I feel like.

Before last night’s LLL meeting, the fam and I stopped off at the Cherry Alley in Lewisburg for sandwiches, only to find that they closed at 6. My fault, I suppose, for not checking, but I really don’t understand why so many local places close so early. Bummer.

So we had about a half hour to find a place to grab some eats. Situations like this usually do not end well.

Enter: the worst pizza I’ve ever had. I did not take a picture, but close your eyes and imagine some dry, crusty (not in a good way) bland pizza with a few dried up mushrooms on top. That’s about it.

Bleh.

This morning wasn’t much better. I neglected to plan ahead for oats (thinking perhaps that the Breakfast Fairy was going to show up and prepare something healthy while I slept? As if.) So when I got to my training session I was faced with a choice: cookies, bagel, or no breakfast. I chose half of the bagel that most closely resembled whole wheat, though I’m sure it wasn’t, and a big cup of decaf, which turned out not to be.

So now, I am a jittery lump of dried out pizza and doughy bagel.

Some people really eat like this all the time?

Double bleh.

Man, I SO know better than to do this to myself.

On a nicer note, here’s a taste of what’s going on at the homestead right about now:

The Garden.

The husbo won’t pull the milkweed because it brings butterflies. Can’t argue with that.

Here he is, planting scarlet runner beans and yardlong beans (they will climb and form the arbor)…

Carrots, peas and rainbow chard…

Spizznach…

Staggered beet crop…

Broccs…

Little baby paw paw trees…(My Valentine’s Day gift to him, 2 years ago…)

Some pretty stuff around the spring house…

and the start of our long-anticipated blueberries! Can’t wait to be some blueberry oats!

And those are a few of the things I aspire to be.

For now, I’m back at the Cherry Alley, and I plan to spend the rest of the day being a Thai Tempeh wrap with apples, sprouts and spicy mango sauce. Oh, and a big vegan espresso cookie, too.

Yummy me!

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What are you?

2 Comments

Filed under Home & Garden, Recipes & Food, The Everyday

Tagged as bad pizza, bagel, beets, blueberries, breakfast, broccoli, carrots, Cherry Alley Cafe, cookie, eating habits, Food, garden, La Leche League, Lewisburg, lunch, paw paw trees, peas, rainbow chard, refined white flour, sandwich, spinach, tempeh, vegan, vegan cookie, vegetables, veggies, whole

by Wendy | May 17, 2010

Finally, a moment to sit…

Jeez…It feels like it’s been a week since my last post!

What a busy weekend. I still feel like I didn’t get anything done, but I always feel like that. I’m always thinking about what I didn’t do, instead of focusing on my accomplishments.

Maybe I should write it all down so I can see it on paper, because I know I did A LOT. Or maybe, I should blog about it…

I worked on Saturday from 5am until about noon, which makes for a pretty early morning with a 60-mile commute. I lucked out, though…it seems there were some white sweet potatoes, peaches and nectarines ripe for the taking, and nobody else wanted them. I took a bunch, and left a bunch behind in hopes that someone else in my office might take advantage of free produce!

Take a look at my booty (hee hee...)

Not a bad haul, eh?

The little fam and I made a run to the local greenhouse and our favorite “Bent & Dent”, where we always find unexpected treasures. I picked up the first of my seasonal herb plants (cilantro and oregano) and stocked up on rolled oats, organic tea, breastmilk storage bags, and lots of other goodies for dirt cheap (mostly discontinued and close-coded items). It’s amazing how many organic products you can find at Bent & Dents and clearance aisles (although, I’m thinking that’s not a good thing, because it means nobody is buying them…)

I was feeling inspired by my sweet taters, so I threw them on the grill alongside some salmon (both in foil packets.)

I felt a salad coming on, so I started rummaging through the fridge to see what I had to use up. I sent the husbo to the garden to collect some greenage, and proceeded to build what shall hereby and forever be known as the Snowball Salad.

It just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger…

and it was OFF. THE. CHARTS.

DIY Snowball Salad

-Grilled lemon pepper salmon

-Grilled sweet potato chunks

-Garden greens (spizznach, beet greens, lettuce mix)

-Black beans

-Avocado

-One falafel ball

-Carrot

-Zucchini

-Mushrooms

-Oregano

-Italian vinaigrette

-Everything else in your fridge

One thing missing: Big spoonful of zingy salsa (I didn’t figure that out until I was done.)

No, I did not eat the whole thing. Yes, I came very close. I see more Snowball Salads in the near future!

And for dessert:

Any chocolate that comes in a black wrapper has to be good, right? Nope. It was very waxy, and very disappointing. Boo on that.

Big surprise of the day: Mommy and Daddy even had a few minutes at the end of the night to relax together, alone. Mark that one in the record book! (and get your mind out of the gutter…)

Fast forward to Sunday morning:

Breakfast at Subway (See tomorrow’s post for more details…)

Grocery shopping

Home to clean like a hurricane, do 2 loads of laundry, and snack on this old friend from late last summer! It was still fantastic after a long sleep in the freezer. Don’t you love it when you do something great for yourself, and later you get to enjoy it and remember how cool you are?

Pineapple Zuke Bread

…made a BIG FAT DELICIOUS CREAMSICLE!

This is one of my all-time favorite drinks. The Polar vanilla seltzer makes it smell just like a creamsicle, but it’s not nearly as sweet. I use about 1/4 calcium-fortified OJ to 3/4 seltzer. LOVE this.

Made Finn’s dinner for tonight/lunch for tomorrow: funky white sweet potato puree.

This came out surprisingly smooth and creamy. I can’t wait to start making pureed everything.

Packed my lunch/breakfast/snack for tomorrow:

Has anyone out there tried these Evol Burritos? I’m very excited about it. That, and my tiny banana. I love that I can be excited about a bag lunch. (My kick-arse husbo bought me a new lidded oats mug!)

Then, finally, baby and I headed over to the ‘rents so Shane could paint at home in prep for the appraisal. No baby in the house with paint, No-VOC or not.

Upon our arrival, Mom was busy creating this lovely concoction:

Rhubarb and raisin chutney. Really nice with a grilled pork chop. Spinach and orange salad on the side. (Vitamin C + Iron = better absorption. Go Mom!)

Alright, so maybe I did get something done this weekend. :)

It was a pretty good food weekend. Sometimes I feel like I’d have so much more time if I bought more prepared foods. Then, I tell myself to shut up.

Now, my sweet potato-filled boy is snuggled in his bed and I’m going to spend some time with my Mom. It’s Survivor finale night!

If Parvati wins, I’ll be so p’ed.

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Do you give yourself credit for what you get done, or do you tend to focus on the one thing you didn’t accomplish (like me)?

I didn’t get my run in this weekend. Something had to give. What did you NOT get done this weekend?

1 Comment

Filed under Parenting & Family, Recipes & Food, The Everyday

Tagged as Baby, baby food, baby food puree, banana, bargain shopping, breakfast, busy mom, eating habits, Evol burrito, falafel, Food, grilling, homemade, homemade baby food, lunch, nectarines, oats, orange creamsicle, oranges, peaches, Polar seltzer, pork chop, rhubarb, rhubarb chutney, salad, salmon, spinach, spinach salad, sweet potatoes, vegetables, veggies, whole, zucchini bread

by Wendy | May 15, 2010

Jamocha Madness!

Yesterday, something alien took over my body and I had a moment of JAMOCHA MADNESS!

Everyone in the office was talking about running out for Brewster’s ice cream, which I’ve never had, but it really planted the ice cream bug in my ear. Then, I walked out to my car around 3pm and it was hot. And it was Friday.

That’s when it happened. I drove right to Arby’s ( ) and got this cute little $1.00 size Jamocha shake. (Oh yeah. That’s right. I’m that spontaneous. Kind of like a daredevil.)

Adorable, don’t ya think? Ok, so maybe a shake this size doesn’t qualify as full-blown madness.

(and, as you may have noticed, I’m not doing so well with cutting out dairy. I hate milk, but the cheese and ice cream are a different story. I have cut way, way back, though. Call me a work in progress.)

I loved Jamocha shakes as a kid, and I hadn’t had one in years–maybe decades–and this one ROCKED. Plus, I really think getting that tiny little shake through that super huge straw qualified as exercise. Bonus!

I do have to disagree with the sentiment on the cup, however. It reads: Happiness is just a curly fry away. My personal happiness definitely has nothing to do with the location of the nearest curly fry.

I’m glad I stopped, too, because we didn’t end up eating dinner until nearly 8:30pm and I hadn’t eaten since the falafel at noon. I was ravenous. We really need to work on that.

The husbo wanted to go to Red Robin. I felt a challenge coming my way. I like their burgers, but I rarely eat them, and I didn’t feel like weighing myself down with a heavy meal. Plus, even at 6 months old, I want my son to see me making better choices than a mammoth burger and fries (He’s mesmerized by our food now!) I considered the tuna focaccia, which never disappoints, but then I saw it…

The Bamboo Steamer is back!

I used to get the Bamboo Steamer years ago, but it was taken off the menu for a long time. I even contacted their customer service center to ask about it, and they said it was discontinued (which happens to everything I like. EVERYTHING.) Now, here it is again, with a big, happy “New” next to it on the menu! Woohoo! It is comprised of a pile of steamed veggies, a pile of teriyaki noodles, and an optional grilled chicken breast, with ginger sesame and ranch dipping sauces on the side. There are, no doubt, unhealthy aspects to this meal, but for a restaurant meal, it’s a pretty darn good option. Plus, it’s AWESOME.

Looks good, no? I was thrilled to find it, but not so thrilled to notice the very obvious absence of the aforementioned dipping sauces. Argh! It’s just so frustrating when someone messes up your order.

Ah, to be so happy, and yet so not happy, all at the same time.

C’est la vie, I s’pose!

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Have you found a healthy option at an otherwise not-so-healthy restaurant? Do share!

4 Comments

Filed under Product & Restaurant Reviews, Recipes & Food

Tagged as Arby's, Baby, Bamboo Steamer, broccoli, chicken, eating habits, Friday night, Jamocha shake, mushrooms, parenting, pasta, Red Robin, restaurant, snow peas, vegetables, veggies, whole, zucchini