What I Ate Wednesday #51: Pinterest is My BFF

I really do have entirely too many recipes pinned and sometimes I get into a kick where I want to make everything! Unfortunately, most of the time I have high hopes and it just doesn’t pan out. This past week, however, I’ve been making, baking, and devouring! It’s been fun.. especially the devouring part 😉

For Lunches – Kale, Edamame, and Quinoa Salad from Ambitious Kitchen.

Kale, Edamame, & Quinoa Salad – Ambitious Kitchen

Kale, Edamame, & Quinoa Salad – Ambitious Kitchen

I pinned this recipe forever ago. Seriously, my board says it was pinned 43 weeks ago. That’s almost 11 months ago and I still had yet to make it! It looked like a perfect, summery salad so I added the ingredients to my shopping list and had this salad for lunch for two days. I added beets and feta on day one and left out the mango because it wasn’t ripe yet. Day two had the mango and beets, no feta. Either way, it was dynamite! A definite repeat.

For Dinner – Roasted Vegetable and Quinoa Salad from Bev Cooks.

Roasted Vegetable Quinoa Salad – Bev Cooks

As good as it looks. Actually, it’s better than it looks. The recipe says that it serves 4 and after consulting with Bev, herself, it was noted that is for a side serving. I added some sweet potato to the mix and doubled up my side for dinner! Best of all, I had 2 side servings leftover which I’m turning into lunches by topping a bunch of swiss chard with it and adding a few extra things like tomato and mango. Another success!

For Snacks – Paleo Bread from Elana’s Pantry. Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Fudge from Ingredients of a Fit Chick.

Paleo Bread – Elana’s Pantry

I saw this bread in Gina’s post last week and was very intrigued by it. I’ve never made paleo bread before but the idea of bread out of almond flour sounded wonderful! I thought I had all of the ingredients but ended up having to sub half of the almond flour for brown rice flour when I ran out but it still came out great! I think I could have taken it out of the oven a couple minutes earlier since it is a little bit dry, but I guess that just means I have to smother it with peanut butter, right? 😉 [The other half of that broken piece in the middle didn’t last much longer than this picture!]

Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Fudge – Ingredients of a Fit Chick

My sweet tooth has been out of control lately and when I saw this sweet treat a couple weeks ago, I knew it would come in handy! I love having snacks like this at my fingertips for when the cravings hit. Let’s see how long they last!

I have also found one of my most favorite salads at a restaurant ever. Most of the time when I order a salad, I’m disappointed by the size. I understand not everyone eats salads out of mixing bowls, but apparently at Looney’s, they are all for it! The picture doesn’t do the size of this salad any justice. Nathan’s friend told me if I couldn’t finish it, he would be happy to help. He must not know me very well..

Greek Salad with Grilled Chicken – Looney’s Pub

If you ever find yourself at Looney’s Pub, the Greek salad topped with grilled chicken is highly recommended!

Food for Thought

How often do you go back through the recipes you’ve pinned to make something new?

Are you a “normal-sized” salad eater or do you go for the mixing bowl?

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?

What I Ate Wednesday #10 – Out on the Town

Saturday was a rainy, gross, stay inside kinda day. But we just don’t like to do that. It’s the weekend.. gotta have fun!

I started my Saturday with a workout, a hair chop, and a dress purchase. But this wasn’t just any dress purchase. My friend, bridesmaid, and college roommate announced last week that she is getting married. Next month.

Say whaaaaaaattttt?!

I know! And I’m also a bridesmaid! With all of 4 weeks to prep, she asked for the bridesmaids to wear black or silver and she didn’t care what it looked like. And I’m pleased to say that I was successful in a short amount of time! (Thank you very much White House Black Market!)

I wish I could say my night out on the town involved dressing up in my new fun dress, but sadly, it did not. It did, however, involve some delicious eats and drinks!

Breakfast
I’m still way too obsessed with the banana bread protein pancakes from Julie at Peanut Butter Fingers. They’re just my favorite pancakes and I can’t stop wanting them! I also had my Tone It Up Bombshell Spell and since it was the weekend, I topped it off with my favorite coffee. Get this. Chocolate coconut coffee. Seriously, what could be better?!

Snack
Also on my obsession list, cherries. And they were on sale last week! We stocked up.

Lunch – Outing #1
A little while back, I got a LivingSocial deal to Bang Bang Mongolian Grill. If you enjoy cooking and controlling your ingredients, this place is for you! You grab a bowl, load it up with protein, vegetables, sauces, and spices, then give it to the cook and choose your starch. They cook everything on a flat top and hand you a steaming hot bowl of deliciousness! It’s like cooking at home without having to actually cook! And without the mess.

I loaded up on salmon, shrimp, tons of veggies, zesty orange garlic sauce and went for the brown rice. It was delicious and super easy. Definitely going back soon!

Snack
Not pictured, but super delicious. Vanilla greek yogurt with Great Grains Cranberry Almond Crunch. If you’re a cereal or granola lover, this one is for you! But beware, it’s addicting! (Don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

Dinner – Outing #2
Baba’s Mediterranean Kitchen. Oh yes.

If you’re in the Baltimore area, make your way over. We started with a sampler.. hummus, baba ghanoush, spanikopita, and falafel. Nathan said it’s the best falafel he’s had since Israel. It was all amazing though. For my dinner, I got the shrimp ouzo over quinoa with a side greek salad, hummus, and pita. My only complaint is that they don’t make their own bread.. and we’re bread people. Beyond that, I would go back in a heart beat! (And the prices are awesome!)

After Dinner
Since we were with some friends, we headed over to The Wine Market; an adorable little wine shop (duh!) and bistro. The girls got some wonderful assortments of red wines (not pictured) and the boys shared 2 beers. A Tripel Karmeliet to start; an amazingly delicious Belgian tripel that pretty much can’t be topped. But why not try? They followed it up with an Ommegang Hennepin; this one is a Belgian-style Farmhouse Saison. Another winner. And while I was definitely enjoying my wine, I’m clearly much more intrigued by beer. Can you tell? 😉

Fitness
After reviewing that dinner, I’m really quite pleased that I got up for my workout Saturday morning! I hit up my Tone It Up girls for a couple of my toning faves – the Sandcastle workout and the Itty Bitty Bikini workout. Don’t let these names fool you.. it burns! Especially that total ab tone up at the end of Itty Bitty Bikini!

I paired that up with a favorite HIIT elliptical workout from SELF Magazine I was ready to hit the town!

Speak Up!

What’s your favorite type of cuisine? We love Mediterranean! Saturday was our first time trying Baba’s and we’ll definitely be back.