What I Ate Wednesday #81: Sake to Me!

I lied. We didn’t actually have any sake [because the happy hour beers did us in before dinner] but that was a much more clever title than anything I could come up with using yakitori.. thoughts? Anywho, Friday night Nathan and I had dinner at Ippuku, a traditional Japanese Yakitori restaurant. We wandered in there after dinner a couple weeks ago and knew we had to check it out.

We were seated in our own little nook.

And they immediately brought out a cabbage wedge with Japanese mayo. Nothing crazy but I always love a good crunch. And as Nathan noted, much healthier than the fried wontons that typically come out a Chinese restaurant.

And we noticed this little sign..

Note the “…poultry (including chicken)…” in that warning. They serve chicken tartare. We were not that adventurous.

We did, however, ask the waitress for recommendations when we were ordering. She happened to be from Japan and told us that this was the most authentic yakitori she’s had since coming to the states. That’s always what we want to hear!

We started the meal with shiitake mushroom skewers. I’ve been really digging the meatiness of mushrooms lately and the light grill flavor offset the earthy flavor of the mushrooms well.

Next up, we shared the chicken thigh and leek yakitori. There was a light teriyaki-style glaze on them which gave them good flavor but not too heavy.

Beef tongue. Ever had it? It might have been my favorite dish of the night. It was grilled nice and tender, not too chewy. And I don’t think it could taste me [ha!]

The squab was by far Nathan’s favorite. It was absolutely delicious and the skin definitely made it. Grilling really does make everything better.

We finished up with chicken ramen, traditionally served at the end of the meal. It was salty but very light and tasty. I grabbed a couple pieces of chicken and put them on my plate to soak up some of the grill flavor from the other dishes. It was a good idea!

This was a really fun meal. I love being able to share a bunch of dishes with Nathan so we can taste and discuss together. We’re planning on going back and trying more soon; Nathan’s got his sights set on the squab again and I’m definitely going to try the whole grilled squid! And maybe next time we’ll save ourselves for some sake.

Food for Thought

Have you had traditional yakitori?
Do you like small plates that you can share or do you prefer a full entree?

My Top 5 Kitchen Staples

Yesterday I thought I had a fun idea to share my top 5 convenience foods that we keep around like the frozen turkey meatballs from Trader Joe’s. Ever had them? They’re pretty tasty, only 100 cals for 2 meatballs, and were only $2.99 for about 6 servings. It’s nice to have that kind of stuff around the house for an easy protein to throw into a salad or on a sandwich. Unfortunately for my list, I realized that it really stopped there, probably because I do have the time to make extras for leftovers! It’s true, I’d rather have my own homemade turkey meatballs or veggie burgers in the freezer 🙂

Rather than sharing my favorite convenience foods, I thought I’d share the top 5 staples in my kitchen. Not a week goes by that these things aren’t purchased and often not a day goes by that I don’t use them!

1. Eggs
   
   Between Nathan and I, we go through about 3 dozen eggs per week. Not ridiculous at all, right? Sometimes it’s less, but I guess this could also go under convenience. Don’t have another protein for your meal? Throw an egg on it! Or if you’re like me, throw an egg on your other protein anyway 😉
2. Peanut Flour
   
   Protein Plus is my favorite brand of peanut flour and I honestly use it all the time [when I’m not using nut butters]. I mix it with a little water and stevia to make a dip for apples, drizzle on pancakes, and lately drizzle on popcorn too! Yesterday I made a ridiculously tasty peanut butter protein pizza for breakfast and added extra on top! You can get it from iHerb.com and if you use the code ZAF482 at checkout, you can get up to $10 off of your order.
3. Leafy Greens
   These days the leaf of choice is spinach. I go through my phases where all I want is kale but since I’m not in that phase right now and Nathan actually eats spinach, we stock up. Two big containers a week? No problem!
4. Chicken
   

   Beer Glazed Citrus Chicken – How Sweet It Is

   

   Baked Pesto Chicken Parmesan – Iowa Girl Eats

   

   Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Fried Plantain and Coconut Fried Quinoa with Macadamia Nuts – Half Baked Harvest

   

   Nathan’s famous roast chicken

   You can always count on at least 2-3 chicken dinners per week at home. It’s one of the cheapest [meat] protein options out there and it’s so versatile. I’ve been having fun experimenting with all of the different recipes to change it up lately since Nathan is the chicken king. Boy could eat chicken all day, everyday!

5. Hot Sauce
   You realized that when I said hot sauce, I really meant Sriracha, right? I was never a big hot saucer growing up, other than Tiger Sauce, but within the past year, I’ve really grown to love Sriracha and it is often on the table with dinner [and lunch]. Nathan is also a Crystal man for his breakfasts so those are the 2 staples, but he likes to try all different kinds of hot sauces, just like I like to try all kinds of nut butters. To each his own 😉
6. BONUS! Crate & Barrel Glass Nesting Bowl Set
   Ok, so it’s not a super exciting bonus, but I LOVEEEEE these bowls! I got them as an engagement gift and I use at least 2 of the bowls per day. I think yesterday I used 4 or 5 haha. I also use one of the bigger bowls for my monster salads.

There are definitely other things that I use on a daily basis, but if you spend any time at home with me, you’re pretty much guaranteed to see these things pop up.

Food for Thought

What are your top kitchen staples?
Do you stock up on convenience foods too?

Foodie Friday: Cajun Chicken Pasta

Have you entered my Mara’s Pasta giveaway yet?

When I was a kid, I was a HUGE pasta junkie! My family always knew that if we were doing big dinners, as long as there was a big bowl of buttered noodles on the table, I was good to go. I ate other things, but pasta was go-to. I definitely went back in time a bit on the honeymoon; once I tasted the fresh, homemade pasta in Italy, it was all I wanted! Maybe that’s a lie.. I wanted lots of gelato and wine too. But I digress..

As I mentioned the other day, a few weeks ago, I received a package from Mara’s Pasta. I was excited to make a fresh, summery pasta dish with my new treats. I also knew that whatever I was making, I wanted it to be an quick and easy dish that I could make after work. Enter the dish below. Having leftover grilled corn on the cob and using canned tomatoes helped pull this dish together in a jiffy! And don’t forget the splash of red wine. As Nathan says, you should never miss the opportunity to add alcohol to your food. 😉

Cajun Chicken Pasta

Serves 4

Ingredients
– 1 16oz box Mara’s Fettuccine
– 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
– Cajun seasoning [I used McCormick]
– 1/2 red onion; sliced
– 2 grilled ears of corn; cut off the cob
– 1 14.5 oz can fire roasted tomatoes [I used Hunt’s]
– 2 cloves garlic; minced
– Splash of red wine
– EVOO
– Grated parmesan cheese

Directions
Cook your pasta according to the directions on the box, removing from the water 1-2 minutes before completely cooked. It will be going back into the pot, so you want to make sure it still has a nice bite to it.

While the pasta is cooking, bring a grill pan up to heat. Season your chicken with cajun seasoning, drizzle some EVOO on the pan, and cook the chicken about 8-10 minutes per side until completely cooked through.

After the pasta is cooked and while the chicken is cooking, return the pot to the stove at medium heat. Add a drizzle of EVOO to the pot where you cooked your pasta. Add the onion and saute until translucent. Add the corn and garlic into the pot and saute until the garlic becomes fragrant. Finally, add in the tomatoes with liquid and splash of red wine. Cook for an additional 8-10 minutes until the sauce thickens.

Turn the heat down to low and toss the pasta back in with the sauce. Let cook for another 2-3 minutes until the sauce is fully coating the pasta. Cut the chicken into thin slices, add some pasta to a bowl, and top with the sliced chicken and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.

Food for Thought

What was your favorite food as a kid?

A Marvelous Weekend

Don’t forget to enter my Chobani giveaway!

I’m definitely sad to see my 4-day weekend go, but it ended on the right note. This past weekend was just what I needed!

After running a few errands on Saturday, we decided to hit up the movie theater to see This Is The End but not before a little lunch. Nathan has been raving about porchetta since we went to Italy so I did a little googling and found Isabella’s in Little Italy. Everything I read about this place from the amazing porchetta sandwich, to the tiny area to eat [all of 4 tables], to the super friendly service was on point. And while the porchetta sandwich wasn’t the same as Italy, Nathan was still quite pleased. I, of course, went for the Greek Salad with grilled chicken and it was awesome! The homemade feta was my favorite part.

Greek salad with grilled chicken and homemade feta

Off to the movies! One of my favorite things about our theater downtown is that they have a full bar. It comes in handy when you go to see a movie like This Is The End.. not recommended. But at least it got us out of the house and out of the sun on a scorcher of a day! And I had a super tasty cocktail. Check out that top-notch pic! 😉

St. Germain Elderflower Liquer, blueberries, strawberries, white cranberry juice, and soda water

After a quick run to Whole Foods for sparkling water and figs [the essentials], we vegged at home and watched The Amazing Spiderman on demand. Another winner.. though, it was definitely better than the movie that we paid for! We got lazy and I whipped up a little egg white scramble for dinner which turned out to be pretty awesome! Awesome enough that I repeated it yesterday for lunch.

Egg whites, broccoli, corn, kale, cheddar cheese, avocado, tomatillo salsa, and a little sriracha

Sunday ended up being a bit of later start for us.. I got up and did one of my favorite Tone It Up cardio routines, Bikini Cardio. We were going to head to the farmers’ market, but I needed some food in my belly so I chowed down on my go-to breakfast—oats with egg whites & TVP, topped with Sunbutter, coconut peanut spread, and my homemade pumpkin seed butter.

By the time we got ourselves together to head out, it was 10:30. On our walk over, we decided it was hot, late [for the market], and there would be tons of people there, so we detoured over to Teavolve. Nathan grabbed a bite to eat and I got a delicious matcha green tea smoothie. I had only tried it once before, but it was just as marvelous as I remembered. Matcha powder is so pricey though, I just can’t bring myself to bite the bullet and get some to have at home.

We found ourselves around the corner from Whole Foods again, so we ran in to pick up a few things for some serious food prep when we got home, including these gorgeous beets!

How cool are these beets?!

We got down to business and Nathan was cooking up a storm!

He’s really been jonesing for some good Italian food like we had on the honeymoon, so he made a Tuscan-style ragu. It’s delicious and perfect to serve over pasta, quinoa, salad.. anything really! He also grilled up a flank steak which is going to be great  for sandwiches and salads all week. I roasted my beets which, unfortunately, were not as gorgeous as they were raw. I also made some easy kimchi that I found from Brittany [can’t wait to taste it later this week!], Israeli salad [cucumber, tomato, red onion, lemon, EVOO, & dill], grilled buffalo tofu for my salads, and for dinner I grilled some chicken with buffalo sauce.. plenty of leftovers there too.

We’re set for the week! Lunches and dinners are going to be so quick and easy. It really does wonders to set aside a few hours on Sunday to cook up some food for the week. Hope you have a marvelous Monday!

Food for Thought

Did you do any food prep over the weekend?

Are there any foods that you love but you won’t buy because of the price tag?

Foodie Friday: Balsamic Tasting in Modena

You think you know balsamic vinegar? Think again.

One of my most favorite meals and overall experiences from the honeymoon was in Modena, Italy. It was another recommendation from Anthony Bourdain and it was absolutely worth every calorie!

Pedroni. It’s the only name you need to know. We drove from Florence to the Osteria in Modena. As we walked in, we were greeted by the owner; an older, 80-something man, who speaks strictly Italian. And when I say we were greeted, I mean Mr. Pedroni yelled at us in Italian for a few minutes, picked up a rotary phone, dialed a few numbers, hung up, and then continued to yell at us. If you could only see the stunned look on our faces.. Luckily a woman came out speaking English and was ready to take us on a tour.

We learned all about the process of making balsamic vinegar from start to finish, which, in their case, is sometimes over 25 years! At Pedroni, they do everything in-house, all the way down to the bottling, so while they are making large batches, they only produce 80-100 bottles per year. The rest of the vinegar gets to sit in the wood barrels and continue to age. After the tour was over, it was time to taste!

We started small; balsamic vinegar jam. Holy moly, that stuff was so tasty! The first thing Nathan and I both noticed was that we didn’t get that pucker in the backs of our mouths that we often get from vinegars that we buy at home. It was very smooth and as we continued down the line, it got even better! We tasted four different vinegars; we started with the Italo, aged for 12 years, it was like nothing we had ever tasted before. Followed by the 15-year aged Umberto, this vinegar was aged in oak and juniperwood barrels giving it more of a spicy flavor. The Giuseppe, or the “Extra Old” vinegar, is aged 25 years in oak and chestnut woods. And finally, the Claudio. This cream of the crop “Extravecchio” is aged over 25 years in chestnut and cherry woods. It is so silky, smooth and has a slight fruity flavor. If only it weren’t so pricy, we would have taken home a barrel! 😉

We did, however, bring home a bottle of the Italo and a few jars of the jam. We just couldn’t leave without it; there is nothing that we’ve ever tasted before that could compare. And we will definitely be ordering more when we sadly finish this bottle!

Happily, the tasting didn’t end there. It was lunch time! We started with a bottle of their homemade sparkling red wine. YUM! [We will also be adding that to our online order.] The pasta was served family-style but it was just for the two of us so we had no problem digging right in!

First Course
Fresh ricotta tortelloni drizzled with the Italo vinegar. Have you ever had fresh pasta? It completely melts in your mouth. I could have eaten the whole plate myself!

Second Course
Tagliatelle with ragu sauce drizzled with the Umberto vinegar. Northern Italian ragu is completely different then what you’d expect. It’s more of a meat sauce with just a touch of tomato. Pasta ragu was definitely one of my favorite meals to get on the entire trip. We added a little extra vinegar for those last little bites 😉

Third Course
Chicken with onions, a couple ribs, and frittata drizzled with the Giuseppe. To say that this frittata was the best I’ve ever had would be an understatement. Nathan, who never ate eggs before, asked me if I would kindly follow the recipe and make him one at home. He devoured it!

Dessert
Crema gelato drizzled with the 25+ aged Claudio. Good golly! We practically licked all of our plates and bowls clean, which is a very good thing because Mr. Pedroni does not let you leave without finishing everything on your plate!

And if that wasn’t enough, they brought about 9 or 10 bottles of different liqueurs, one being their homemade grappa. Being the polite guest that I am, I promptly began tasting! I might have had 1/10th of a shot of each.. I don’t think I could handle any more but I sure am glad I tried all of them.

Nathan and I wrapped up our amazing [and incredible filling!] two-hour meal and concurred that this was one of our top experiences of the trip. If we do make it back to the Tuscany area, you can bet we’ll be heading to Pedroni for lunch!

Food for Thought

What is the best experience you’ve ever had at a restaurant?

When you return to a travel destination, do you go back to the same places, or do you try something new?

Guest Post: Itz Linz Rainbow Salad

Happy Foodie Friday! I’m back with another guest post from Lindsay of Itz Linz. This girl is great; I found her blog more recently and love all of her fun stories and her workout posts definitely keep me motivated! Not to mention she posts so delicious food too.. always a plus! I figured it was only appropriate to share her beautiful rainbow salad to kick off the weekend. How delicious does this look?!

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Hi all! Itz Linz here and can I get an “AMEN” to the fact that I’m totally jealous of Brittany and her honeymoon right now? For now I’ll just pretend like I’m back on the beach… #wishfulthinking

While I’m certainly no food blogger, food photographer, or food connoisseur like Brittany is, I do know how to throw together fast, easy, healthy, and tasty meals. One of my favorites is a rainbow salad, and with summer nearing I thought it’d be perfect to share with you today!

Rainbow salads do take a bit of prep work, but if you designate an hour or so each week, you’ll be able to throw together these salads in no time flat. There is so much variety with the foods that can be used, I never get bored. And let’s be real… they look pretty, too!

So how do you make a rainbow salad? Well, you buy tons of fresh fruits and veggies, clean ’em and chop ’em up! The more colors the better. Itz not called a rainbow salad for nothing! I love all colors of peppers, carrots, corn, onion, celery, and carrots. Nuts and seeds provide you with healthy fats and a crunch – sunflower seeds are my favorite.

If you’re a sweets fan like me, then you’ll appreciate a bit of sweetness in your salad. We don’t have to go all sugar crazy, but if we get sugars from naturally sweet foods, then we’re all good. Raisins and apples are both good options, and I’m thinking watermelon will be perfect for the summer.

Iceberg lettuce is so yesterday. It provides zero nutritional value and is just plain boring. You have way more options than you think for a salad base. Shredded cabbage, spiralized squash or zucchini, spinach, or broccoli slaw are the best.

Don’t forget the protein! When eating a salad for a meal, you must add some type of protein to keep you full. Any type of lean meat will work, such as chicken or fish, and tuna is an easy option, as well. Beans, beans, the magical fruit are a wonderful source of protein, too! There’s a million and one types of beans, so pick your favorite.

Alright, so you’re loaded with fresh fruits and vegetables, you’ve got a good protein source, now itz time for the dressing. Don’t lose it all with the bottled stuff. Itz easy to make your own out of a few ingredients. If you mash an avocado, you’ll get a totally creamy dressing. Make sure you add fresh lemon juice to prevent browning. I also like using plain Greek yogurt in my dressing; plus, it increases the protein content. Play around with what flavors and combinations you like. Sometimes I add red pepper for a spicy kick, other times I add fresh lime juice for a tang. Itz whatever you please!

What are your favorite ingredients for a rainbow salad?

Thanks for having me at Barr & Table! Check me out at Itz Linz, on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

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Thanks again for sharing this tasty recipe, Lindsay!

Foodie Friday: Buddha’s Feast

Often times, Thursday ends up being a dinner of leftovers from the meals we had during the rest of the week. We typically plan on going out to dinner on Friday so we’re happy to use up what’s available in the fridge. This Thursday offered up some delicious choices; homemade turkey meatballs, lemon herb chicken, and roasted spicy orange chicken.

As I was trying to figure out what intrigued me, I came across this tweet. Done! I couldn’t wait to get home for dinner!

Traditionally, a “Buddha’s Feast” bowl is a vegetarian dish, but since I was using what was already cooked, I decided a turkey meatball would be a great addition. Below is the recipe for the specific bowl that I made, but this is so versatile that you could really make it with anything! The end of this post has a bunch of different options you could try!

Buddha’s Feast

Serves 1

Ingredients
– 2 beets; sliced
– 1/2 medium sweet potato; diced
– 1 cup broccoli florets
– 2 oz turkey meatball
– 1 cup baby spinach
– 1 tbsp peanuts; chopped
– 1 – 2 tbsp spicy Thai peanut sauce [recipe below]
– 1/3 – 1/2 tbsp EVOO
– Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F. Place beets and sweet potato on a lined baking sheet. Drizzle with EVOO, season with salt and pepper to taste, and roast about 20 minutes.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven, add broccoli florets, and toss with EVOO, salt, and pepper. Return to the oven and roast another 20 minutes until all vegetables are tender.

In a bowl, add your spinach and top with roasted vegetables and turkey meatball. Drizzle with spicy Thai peanut sauce, top with chopped peanuts, and devour!

Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce

Serves 2

Ingredients
– 2 tbsp peanut flour*
– 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
– 1/2 tbsp lite soy sauce
– 1/2 tbsp garlic chili paste
– 1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

Directions
Add all ingredients into a small bowl and mix until well combined.

Nutritional Information
Per Buddha’s Feast bowl with 1 serving Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce

371 Calories  /  18g Fat  /  37g Carbs  /  7g Sugar  /  10g Fiber  /  23g Protein

Additional Buddha’s Feast Options

Bases:
– Quinoa
– Brown rice

Greens:
– Spinach
– Kale
– Collard greens
– Swiss chard

Roasted Vegetables:
– Sweet Potato
– Broccoli
– Brussels sprouts
– Asparagus
– Beets

Protein:
– Chicken
– Beef
– Turkey
– Tofu
– Tempeh
– Beans
– Nuts
– Seeds

Dressings:
– Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce
– Creamy Tahini Nooch
– Spinach Basil Walnut Pesto Aioli

Food for Thought

Do others’ posts or tweets ever inspire your meals? How would you customize this bowl?

What I Ate Wednesday #29 – Back in the Swing of Things

You know how every year the holidays sneak up on you and you say “I’m going to be good. I’m not going to overindulge!”? And you know how every year you overindulge? Yea.

Alright, so I didn’t go crazy this year, but I’ve definitely stepped up my game since New Years! More specifically, since Monday. Last week was pretty much a wash with NYE on Monday and New Years day Tuesday. That only left 3 days to get back into my routine and then the weekend hit.

Monday started Tina‘s Best Body Bootcamp; that along with Tone It Up‘s new Love Your Body challenge (you can still sign up!) has really gotten back into the swing of things! Especially since TIU is giving away prizes for checking in! If you follow me on Instagram, you may be getting tired of all of my meals and workouts, but I’m in it to win it, baby!

[Pre-Breakfast / Post-Workout]
Fitmixer Amino. This was part of my Fitbloggin’ swag that I just recently started taking advantage of after my morning workouts. I have to admit, I don’t love the fruit punch, but it’s not bad. And it certainly helps me get 2 extra glasses of water down a day!

[Breakfast]
I whipped up a lightened version of my favorite sweet breakfast scramble. Check it out..

– 1 egg
– 2 egg whites
– 1/2 banana, mashed
– 1/4 cup squash [I’ve been using pumpkin]
– 1 tbsp ground flax seed
– Cinnamon
– Ginger
– Nutmeg

I just recently started adding the ginger and nutmeg.. it makes it taste like gingerbread!

Scramble it up like eggs and top it with your favorite oatmeal toppings! Aka lots and lots of peanut butter 😉

[Lunch]
Getting back on my salad kick, I topped a bunch of spinach with tons of veggies, chicken, and some healthy spinach basil walnut pesto aioli for my dressing! This dressing was a bit of an accident, but it came out so well!

[Dinner]
Warm kale salad. Sounds a little weird, right? But it’s not. It’s amazing! And it’s an idea I stole from Kasey.

I absolutely love roasted veggies, so while roasting sweet potato, parsnip, tomato, and broccoli, I chopped up some kale, tossed it in a big bowl and threw it in the microwave for about a minute. This softens it and also makes it a little less bitter. For my dressing, I made a tahini nooch sauce, similar to Brittany’s dressing here [I love the little bit of sweetness from the maple syrup!] Then I toss half of the dressing into the kale and massage it in, again, making it a little less bitter. Finally, I throw all of my roasted goodies on top, the rest of the dressing, and some crunchy bits, like sunflower seeds.

Have I convinced you to try it? Because you really should!

[Snacks]
Coffee with unsweetened vanilla almond coconut milk <– a new favorite find!
1/2 grapefruit with stevia.
Madagascar vanilla almond KIND bar.
Apple with peanut fluff.. the only picture I missed!

It definitely feels good to clean up my eating again and get rid of the extra sugar I was eating. And it definitely helps to be getting my butt kicked by TIU and Tina (more details on Tina’s butt-kickings later)!

Food for Thought

Did you overindulge over the holidays? How have you cleaned up your eating recently?

What I Ate Wednesday #22 – Election Day Eats

The day after a presidential election is always a good day. Whether you’re please with the result or not, I think we’re all glad the ads are over!

All politics aside, the day after election day means it’s time for another WIAW!

[Breakfast]
Poor, poor planning on my part of not requesting an absentee ballot, not changing my voting place to right down the street from where I live now as opposed to down the street from my parents house, and not attempting to vote early resulted in an early morning for this gal. Knowing this, I planned accordingly. Cinnamon overnight oats adapted from my Overnight Oats & Quinoa recipe made me quite happy while I was waiting in line to vote.

[Lunch]
Trader Joe’s has some awesome boxed soups. If you haven’t tried them yet, I’d highly recommend you get on it! I added some edamame and nutritional yeast* to my tomato and roasted red pepper soup. Delicious and full of protein!

[Dinner]
Thai red curry chicken with roasted broccoli, sweet potato, red onion, and turnip. I’ve become a big fan of Sharwood’s sauces and since finding a reasonably priced bag o’ garam masala, I’ve been looking forward to breaking out the Thai red curry. I’m happy to have leftovers 🙂

[Snacks]
A (not pictured) grapefruit in the morning and Gnu Espresso Chip Bar in the afternoon are added to the list. But the snack to top them all is my current favorite (clean eating) dessert. Vanilla greek yogurt with mini chocolate chips and peanut fluff (peanut flour*, stevia, & water). This has been satisfying my night time sweet tooth and has a good amount of protein to make it a great snack for after workouts. Sometimes when I need a little crunch, I top it with a few bunnies 😉

*I get my peanut flour and nutritional yeast from iHerb.com. Use code ZAF482 for $5 off of your first order.

Look out Friday! I have a delicious treat coming for ya that I can’t wait to share.

And big thanks to FitSugar for sharing my Pumpkin Protein Souffle with Cream Cheese Filling & Frosting!

Food for Thought

Did you stay up all night watching the election results roll in or did you find out this morning?

I zonked out at 11, but woke up at 2am and checked twitter to find out. Because really, where else do you go to learn about current events?! 😉

What I Ate Wednesday #20 – Fly By Food

I cannot believe it’s already time for another WIAW (and I even missed last week!) Is it just me or have the days been flying by faster than usual recently?

Let’s get back into the swing of things..

[Breakfast]
I had a revelation. I always put raisins in my oatmeal because I love dried fruit. So why not do that with my protein pancakes? BUT I decided to step it up a notch. Dark chocolate cherry protein pancakes. To die for and the recipe will be posted on Friday! You don’t want to miss this one.

[Snack]
Organic pineapple Oikos greek yogurt. I always get whatever yogurt is on sale, and 9 times of out 10 it’s fat free. The organic pineapple, however, is 1 1/2% fat and it’s so tasty! It has an extra creaminess to it that you definitely miss with the 0%.

[Lunch]
Leftovers. I have so many leftovers! Not that I’m complaining because the leftover salmon, roasted red pepper hummus, and caramelized onion hummus has been delicious on my salads. I also recently ordered some nutritional yeast and have been sprinkling that on top of my salads and it is very tasty! It has a little bit of a nutty flavor and adds so many nutritional benefits. I also topped off my lunch with a mini Intense Dark Chocolate Espresso Escape Ghirardelli square. YUM!

I got mine from iHerb.com and if you use code ZAF482 at checkout, you can get $5 off your first order!

[Snack]
Guava goddess kombucha. It has to be my most favorite flavor and definitely hit the spot. And I followed that up with a mixed berry granola bar from Eat. Think. Smile. I’d never had their bars before but I would definitely go back for more. It was light and tasty and had just a hint of berry flavor, which was great because the rest was delicious cocoa!

[Dinner]
LivingSocial is our friend and we cashed in! I treated myself to a Old Dominion Octoberfest beer and some amazing homemade baba ghanoush before diving into my salad. I almost couldn’t finish my salad because the app was so tasty, but don’t worry.. I managed 😉

I’ve found that Nathan and I both prefer baba ghanoush over hummus. Thoughts?

[Spooky Snacks]
I’ve not done a great job of actually making spooky snacks for you all, but I did find out that my office is having a Halloween pot luck, so over to Pinterest I went! I found this little gem and they’re just too cute! I hope I get the chance to make them for the party!

Food for Thought

Does time fly faster for you as the year goes by?

What’s your favorite Halloween treat?