I love my CSA!

I wrote a few months back that Steve and I signed up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that we pick up every Tuesday. We love it and have tried so many new things because of it.

Tonight we decided to use up a bag of Braising Greens, which are a mixture of hardy greens such as kale, chard, collards, mustard, bok choy, radicchio, and turnip greens. We rinsed them off and chopped them up for a pasta dish. I started with a little EVOO in a pan with some garlic, chopped green onions and chives, and pine nuts. After a few minutes I added the Braising Greens.

Once the greens began to wilt, I added about 1 tablespoon of red pepper flakes and some pasta sauce.

If you are interested, I used a pasta sauce from Trader Joe's.

I also used pasta from our CSA. This was a tomato basil pasta that was fresh when we got it, but we put it in the freezer the day we picked it up (it came only a few days before we left for our 2 week long trip at the end of May and we didn't have time to use it before we left). I could still tell that it was homemade because as I was boiling it, some of the basil came off and was floating in the water.

Here was my portion, which really satisfied me (I think the red pepper flakes helped too because I ate it slowly because it had some "bite" to it)!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

Amazing and fast dinner

Thanks so much for all the kind and supportive words about losing my job. Starting Monday I may post my daily eats again, because 1) I have the time and 2) being at home all day makes it so tempting to eat more, so I want to keep that in check!

The other night for dinner we had some fresh pasta from an Italian market that needed to be used. I decided I wanted to do something different than just plan pasta sauce, so I decided that I would try pesto for the first time. I loved it. I followed Heather's recipe for pesto. To her recipe, I added some pine nuts and nutritional yeast. This was so amazing and actually reminded me of a healthy Alfredo sauce, because it was so creamy. Once the pesto was processed in the food processor and the pasta was cooked and drained, I placed it back in the pot with the fresh pesto and a few fresh tomatoes that I diced.

This picture does not do it justice, because it was so yummy!

We are going to dinner at our friends and I'm taking some No Pudge brownies (which some chocolate chips mixed in)! I hope you all are enjoying your Saturday.

Also sometime tonight I have to get together 5 recipes for the blogger cookbook, because tomorrow is the deadline!

Rascal Flatts and long post!

Steve and I have been busy this long weekend, so I didn't have time to post. So below is a long post.....

First to answer the comments about the potato in Thursday's post. It was stuffed with corn, pinto beans, and salsa. The recipe comes from a great cookbook "Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites."

Friday

I wanted to be at work before 7am, because I had a lot to do. I didn't have the time to pack up my food the night before, so Friday morning I grabbed a few things to eat.

On the way to work I stopped to get an iced latte. I also had a packet of granola that I bought at whole food.

For a late morning snack I had some grapes.

For lunch I decided to go to Pita Pit and had a falafal whole wheat pita with a lot of veggies. I also had baked lays and a diet coke.

I had an apple around 4pm.

For dinner I made multicolored gnocchi from Target. For the sauce I started with my favorite Newman's Own sauce and added mushrooms, chick peas, artichoke, and Morningstar crumbles.

Close up of dinner:
Even Sophie likes when we eat outside:

Saturday

I woke up and had 2 mini bagels with assorted toppings. Each mini bagel has 130 calories, and I only use a total of 1.5 tablespoons of pb & company peanut butter.

Before lunch I ran 2.5 miles on our treadmill. We were doing a lot of house work, so there wasn't a lot of time for a good workout.

For lunch I had a little bit of left over gnocchi, some pasta salad I mixed up (whole wheat orzo with tomatoes, artichokes, chick peas, and some olive oil and balsamic vinegar), and some Kashi crackers.

After lunch I had a sweet tooth and decided to have some chocolate and dried cherries.

Around 5pm Steve and I left to go to the Rascal Flatts concert, we packed up food to tailgate and picked up two friends on the way.

No food pictures from the concert, but I had a yummy Garden Burger (the fake chicken one) without a bun and some baked lays and pretzels on the side. I also had diet coke mixed with parrot bay rum. Everyone else was enjoying beer, but I'm not a beer drinker.

Here is Steve and I with funny lights in front because the camera was on the action setting:

We had lawn seats, and here is a view of Rascal Flatts from where we were standing:

I just love Rascal Flatts and this was my 4th time seeing them live.

After the concert I had some more baked lays and pretzels.

Sunday

Sunday morning I decided to mix some Kix, Kashi Go Lean Crunch, dried cherries, and trail mix for my breakfast.

After finishing my mixture, I had some chocolate milk (no picture).

For lunch Steve and I went to Qdoba and I had the Vegetarian Mexican Gumbo and some chips and guacamole.

Before dinner we met another couple for a nice bike ride. We only did 11 miles, but it was a nice casual ride.

For dinner we went to an Indian restaurant. So sorry but still no pictures. These friends, one is another attorney at my firm, do not know about the blog, so I didn't want to weird them out by breaking out the camera.

Okay one last day of the 3 day weekend. Have a happy labor day everyone!!

Stressful day.

Today started out stressful and continued to be that way all day. I was getting emails on my work blackberry before 8am when I was trying to make my way through traffic to get to work. So at 8am I already felt like I was running behind. I didn't get the chance to leave my office to go to the gym or anywhere for that matter.

Breakfast was a mini bagel with a 100 calorie pack of Justin's Nut Butter Maple Almond Butter and a banana.

I had a 11am snack of grapes.

Lunch was 2/3 cup of vegetarian chili over a piece of rye bread from a local bakery.

After lunch my stress left me wanting chocolate. I really wanted frozen yogurt, but I don't know anywhere downtown to get that. So I had to mini pieces of chocolate that were in my desk. I said last time I didn't like this kind much, and I still don't, but I guess it helped my craving.

Around 4pm I had a pack of Late July organic peanut butter crackers. These were AMAZING and I can't wait to have them again!! They were only 120 calories, although the crackers where not whole wheat, so the protein and fiber wasn't great.

When I got home I had a tiny pack of nuts from Hawaii and some Kashi Crackers.

I was in no mood to cook and Steve had MBA classes, so I had a can of Annie's Vegetarian pasta with soy meatballs. This was great because it heated in only 2 minutes and it tasted good for a canned dinner. Obviously I would have prefered something homemade, but some nights I don't have energy for using pans and the stove.

I also had the last Vita-muffin brownie and the last weight watchers ice cream sandwich for dessert (no picture)...this dessert was stress induced. My mom once sent me a card that said that Stressed spelled backwards spells Desserts, she knows me too well!!

I just did 30 minutes on our treadmill at 4.0 speed and incline at 6%. This helped me de-stress. I wanted to do 60 minutes but I needed to play with Sophie.

Great Products = Lots of Pictures!

I woke up this morning and started getting hungry so I ate the last blueberry oat bar. I need to make these again this weekend.


On the way to work I munched on 1/4 cup of Udi's Granola, that I measured out into a snack bag. Yesterday I just received a package in the mail with a bunch of different flavors of Udi's Granola, and today I had the Cranberry. This actually filled me up pretty well. Until I had a sample from my grocery store a week ago, I had never heard of Udi's. Apparently it is also a restaurant and bakery in Denver, Colorado. The ingredients in the Cranberry are: Thick-Cut Rolled Oats, Wildflower Honey, Dried Cranberries, Canola Oil, and Walnuts. I've never made homemade granola, but my guess is that this is much closer to tasting homemade than other granola on the market. Also included in my package was a recipe for Udi's Granola Chocolate Chip Cookies, which I may try to make in the next couple of days.

At work I ate the berries that I was going to eat with my granola, but instead ate in the car. Overall this wasn't a big enough breakfast (oat bar only had 100 calories, granola 120 calories, 1 cup of berries about 50 calories). Normally my breakfast is about 350 calories. So I think my smaller than usually breakfast is the reason I am still hungry while I type this.


I was in meetings all morning and ate lunch at 12:40. I packed hummus, tomato, and romaine lettuce on a Ezekiel english muffin. I had too much lettuce and tomato so I ate the extra on the side with a little salt.

While eating my sandwich I was reading the post on Jenn's blog and saw her Starbucks trip and instantly craved it, so about 10 minutes after my sandwich was done and I made sure I was still hungry I walked to Starbucks and got the Grande Mocha Light Frap.

Around 4:15pm I started getting hungry so I ate the three Back to Nature Classic Creme cookies that were tucked away in my desk drawer. These tasted so good, but didn't do much to curb my hunger.

I got home about 6:20pm and while my husband and I got dinner ready I snacked on a handful of baked tostitos.

For dinner we had a pack of Rising Moon Creamy Artichoke & Olive Ravioli which was Vegan. The packet has two servings at 240 calories each. I really have loved all of Rising Moon's Raviolis that I have tried. My husband loves them too and would have no idea that they are Vegan. I am really sad though because I think my Whole Foods has stopped carrying these, so now I need to find them someplace else!

We covered the Ravioli in Newman's Own Sauce (we added fresh mushrooms and Morningstar Crumbles to the sauce). We add Morningstar Crumbles to so many of our dishes, but it has never let us down! On the side we had a salad.

After dinner I had one of these for dessert (it jumped into my cart at Target). I loved it, because 1) it was portioned controlled and 2) I love Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough!

After dinner and my dessert I went to my hour Pilates class, and I could really feel my abs working hard. Pilates ended at 9pm and then I had to stop and pick up a card for my brother in law's graduation from his Nursing Program. Steve and I are attending a lunch tomorrow at his University. I am just sneaking out of work from 11am - 1pm. Hopefully they have something healthy and vegetarian. When I finally got home around 9:40pm, I started to get hungry again, so I had a bowl of grapes.

Wow that was a lot of pictures for one day!! Now it is way past my bed time!