What I Ate Wednesday #40: Passover Fail

I tried really hard. Really, I thought “Passover will be so easy.. I’ll just continue to eat exactly how I always do!” I had recipes ready to go, I had food prepped, and then I realized I forgot about legumes. Ok, no big deal. And then I realized I forgot to read a list of ingredients.

So I’m not perfect.. but I’m doing the best that I can! I mean, it has been a whole day and a half.

[Breakfast]
Slimmed down sweet scramble topped with my homemade maple cinnamon walnut butter, cashew butter, and walnut butter quinoa granola. Success! A delicious, Passover-friendly breakfast.

[Lunch]
Kale salad with lots of veggies, buffalo sauce, and a Savory Mushroom & Roasted Garlic No Bull Burger. Sounds like it should be good.. and then I realized I didn’t read the ingredients on the burgers. One ingredient is lentils; alright, legumes aren’t the end of the world. Oh, how about the barley and spelt? Whoops! Good thing I have the rest of the week to make up for it, right?

[Dinner]
Leftovers! My family always does 2 nights of everything. Seriously, I thought there were 2 nights of Thanksgiving growing up and I didn’t understand why other people didn’t celebrate the second night.

Regardless, the second night of Passover we had some leftovers and some new additions. Salmon, Bube’s brisket, roasted broccoli and sweet potato, and some fabulous charoset which I will be sharing the recipe for very soon! [Figs, orange, and dates! OH MY!]

[Snacks]
Apple.
Carrots with baba ghanoush and curried golden raisin hummus. Gotta work out a recipe for this hummus!
Mini carrot cake cupcake and a piece of dark chocolate covered matzah. Those paleo cupcakes were a huge hit! Glad I doubled the recipe and made minis!

No more No Bull Burgers for me this week.. back on the Passover wagon today. I promise! [Except for the beans in my sweet potato burgers.. ohh legumes, you get me every time!]

Food for Thought

Have you ever failed on day 1 because of minor oversights?

Does your family have any traditions like my family’s two-night celebrations?

What I Ate Wednesday #39: A Weekend of Good

I’ve been loving having the past few weekends free of wedding planning. It has definitely been nice to take my good old time with everything and not have to make it to 100 appointments; plus I actually get to spend time with Nathan! We’ve been taking this time to take advantage of some of our favorite restaurants around town too which is one of my favorite things to do with him. Highlights to follow..

[Friday Night]
Thai Arroy. If you like Thai food, this is the place to be. Their food is authentic and always delicious. It’s also not too expensive [$11 for a chicken hot pot with leftovers!] and to top it off, it’s BYOB. You can’t go wrong with good food and wine.

[Saturday]

Lunch
I’m still not sure how I did it, but I convinced Nathan to stay home for lunch on a weekend. And I made myself an epic kale salad. Seriously, there were so many awesome veggies, a sweet potato quinao bean burger, homemade dijon vinaigrette, and avocado. Everything is better with avocado!

Wedding Research
We’ve been in the market of tasting cupcakes to choose the perfect flavors. I have to say, we might have found our chocolate! The salted caramel cupcake was incredible too, but so close to the vanilla that we’re going to have to find another. Such a tough life..

Dinner
…and a movie! The most important part of the night was the pitcher of white sangria we shared during the movie. Wonderful.

[Sunday]

Breakfast
A lineup of a chocolate Shakeology protein shake, water, and Lamplighter Triple Espresso Blend from my Relay Foods order were the highlight of my post-workout nourishment. I can’t speak highly enough about this coffee; it’s so tasty!

Brunch
Lebanese Taverna. While I love this restaurant to pieces, I should have stuck with what I knew. My poached eggs were not quite what I was expecting. Nor was the fruit parfait. Still, I devoured some of their amazing bread and baba ghanoush so I was a happy camper!

We spent the rest of Sunday grocery shopping and cooking up food for the week, including Spaghetti Squash Kugel and Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bark. I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend with my fiance!

Food for Thought

What is your favorite weekend activity?

What I Ate Wednesday #37: Powerbowl A Day Challenge

I think I’m beginning to see the end in sight! Weekend wedding errands have slowed down and the little pieces are finally falling into place. It’s such a relief to know that all of this crazy is, in fact, coming together. It’s going to be an awesome wedding, if I do say so myself!

In the meantime, last week finished up another #plantPOWER challenge hosted by the wonderful Kasey of Powercakes and Heather of For the Love of Kale. I really enjoyed this challenge the first time around, and while I didn’t participate quite as much this time, I enjoyed it just as much. It really has introduced me to so many options in the world of plant-based food! And since Kasey can’t sit still ;), she’s started another challenge which I am equally in love with; Powerbowl a Day! This challenge just started on Monday, so there’s still plenty of time to join and I would highly recommend you do. [Don’t know what a powerbowl is? Check out Kasey’s tutorial!]

And it happens to go perfectly with this month’s WIAW theme.. go figure! 😉

[Breakfast]
Slimmed down sweet scramble.. gasp! But I do have a little surprise for you.. I’ve been topping my scrambles with homemade cashew butter. Look for the recipe this Foodie Friday!

[Lunch]
Powerbowl #1: spinach base with beets, green pepper, cucumber, carrots, tomato, 2 veggie patch falafel, 1/2 avocado, roasted garlic hummus, and baba ghanoush. It was awesome. And it was devoured!

[Dinner]
I was definitely feeling a big bowl of veggies for dinner so I knew a warm kale salad would be perfect! Enter powerbowl #2: kale base with sweet potato, roasted broccoli, beets, and Kasey’s creamy tahini nooch sauce. It was epic. And I had leftovers for lunch yesterday too!

[Snacks]
– Key lime pie greek yogurt [more green!!] with coconut.. I’m thinking tropical. Take me somewhere warm!
– Good N Natural Peanut Butter bar. I believe my tweet said something along the lines of “natural and SO good!” Thanks for the insight.. happens to be the name of the bar. Duh. But definitely check these out!
– Peanut butter. Yep. I mixed a little old fashioned smooth with a little white chocolate wonderful and popped it in the microwave for 10 seconds for dessert! I added a few blueberries and some dark and white chocolate chips too 🙂

Food for Thought

Are you a powerbowl eater? What are your favorite toppings?