What I Ate Wednesday #47: Weekend Favorites

Last weekend was another one for the books. We did a lot of running around and had a ton of fun but I think I’m paying for it this week. Don’t worry though, I’m catching up on my sleep at work 😉

I forgot to snap pictures of a bunch of meals so I thought I’d highlight some of my favorites from the weekend.

Effen Cucumber Mojito at Kona Grill

I met Nathan at Kona Grill for happy hour before a last-minute Orioles game and got this awesome cocktail. It’s on their skinny menu [I’m the expensive one during happy hour..] and is a mix of Effen cucumber vodka [best name ever], mint, cucumber, and splenda simple syrup. I skipped on the sweetener because I know I love cucumber vodka as it is. This drink was so refreshing! I’m definitely going to be making it at home.

Plantain flatbread topped with peanut fluff and granola

Summer Fridays at work are the best. I get to leave work at 3:30 and I love to head home and make myself a snack instead of eating a bar like I do every other day. This time I tried plantain bread. I used recipes from Powercakes and the Purely Twins as a guide and made my own. Serves 1-2.

Ingredients
– 1 plantain- 1 tbsp ground flax*
– 1/2 tbsp coconut oil*
– 1/2 cup water

Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F and grease a loaf pan. Blend all ingredients together and pour into the pan. Let rest a few minutes, then bake 20-25 minutes.

I topped mine with peanut fluff [peanut flour*, stevia*, and water] and some granola for crunch.

*These ingredients can be found on iHerb.com. Use code ZAF482 to receive $5 off of your first order.

Grilled veggies, Nathan’s Tuscan ragu, parmesan, & merlot. Perfect Friday dinner!

Friday night, we stayed in. I grilled up some zucchini, corn, sweet potato, and kale, mixed it with some of Nathan’s delicious Tuscan-style ragu, and topped with grated parmesan. This is one of my favorite meals lately; it’s like a big bowl of comfort! I may have also polished off the bottle of merlot.. it looked lonely. It wasn’t full when I started though!

Protein-Packed TVP Oats

Breakfast is always a highlight for me and my protein-packed TVP oats are the best. I always top with 3 different kinds of nut or seed butters and a little granola; this one has a homemade pumpkin seed butter, crunchy coconut peanut butter, and sunbutter. SO good!

Saturday night, we went out with Nathan’s sister. Before dinner, we took her to Brewer’s Art for some local brews and rosemary garlic fries. We went downstairs to the dark beer cave. It’s a fun atmosphere with, what we refer to as “mob” rooms. I tried to take pictures of the delicious food and drink, but it was just too dark.

Masala Dosa with coconut chutney at Indigma

Vegetable Coconut Korma & Indigma Lamb Special at Indigma

After drinks, we went over to Indigma for some Indian food. We shared the huga masala dosa, a potato-stuffed rice and lentil crepe with coconut chutney. I could pass on the potato stuffing next time and just go for the crispy crepe! It was delicious nonetheless. They also brought another flatbread to the table that tasted like it had strawberries in it.. I’m not sure exactly what it was but gosh darnit was it tasty!

Nathan and I shared two entrees; the vegetable coconut korma [which I primarily ate] and the Indigma lamb special [primarily for Nathan]. He ordered his spicy so he must not have wanted to share too much 😉 They were both so flavorful and surprisingly not too heavy. We left there absolutely stuffed and will definitely be going back! Next time, we’ll hit up the lunch buffet so we can try more 🙂

Food for Thought

What is your favorite type of cuisine? Are you adventurous or do you typically stick to American?

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?