Tag: veggies

Short and sweet

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Last night’s lunch preparation with turkey soup (the last of it), yogurt/fruit, two mini muffins (just in case), carrots/green beans, and half an orange from yesterday’s office haul:

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Today’s yogurt had bits of frozen banana from Monday’s windfall, half of an apple, and three blueberries for color:

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Breakfast

I was up bright and early again this morning at 5:00 for the gym! I did my favorite routine: 5-minute jog to gym, 10 minutes of arms with free weights on an aerobics step, 30 minutes with Good Housekeeping Us Weekly on the Stairmaster, 10 minutes stretching/abs, and 5-minute jog back home, at which point I put the oatmeal in the oven at 375 for 30 minutes and flew into the shower. Running with an umbrella against the windy rain on a pitch-black January morning in New York is not the best part of my day, but if it’s going to be the worst, I’m glad it’s done already!

Breakfast was a repeat with LOTS of yellow since I’m all out of colorful fruit. Grainmeal with yellow bits of more frozen banana and half of a chopped yellow apple in a sunny yellow bowl:

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Topped with yogurt, cardamom, and cinnamon post-oven:

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I wonder what dangerous office treats await today …

All about the themes

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Realizing I was low on veggies, I ran into the grocery store next door to my office (it’s much cheaper than the one in my neighborhood) to see what I could find. I grabbed a bunch of green beans (to replenish my dwindling supply) and then went a little crazy and also got a pack of fresh okra (it was only $1.50!). I’ve never cooked okra before in my life and probably only eaten it a couple of times, but I thought it would keep things interesting.

When I got home, I chopped the okra into thinnish rounds and put it (and chopped green beans, for variety) in a pan with a splash of water to steam:

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And then the stroke of genius hit. I added a heaping spoonful of homemade Dominican sofrito, an amazing herby and garlicky sauce that another coworker (hi inginia!) gave me when it was leftover from a work party a little while back. Using the sofrito got me thinking about more homemade Dominican food from my coworkers, so I dug into the freezer to uncover the Dominican rice (hi mildred!) I had saved from yet another work function. I mixed it with some of the cooked barley that I brought back from MA to add a healthy whole grain punch:

Dominican rice (left) and pearled barley (right)

frozen cooked grains: Dominican rice (left) and pearled barley (right)

My plate, topped with grated homemade cheddar:
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How intricate is this okra?!

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It was a delicious experiment that went very well, and I made enough to have for dinner one more night this week, yum!

For dessert, I had the last of the grapenut pudding from MA, another big pile straight from the oven (my apartment is microwave-less, so I do all my reheating in the oven):

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Now the rush, rush, rush to make my 9pm bedtime!

Plugging away

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It’s back to the grindstone today. Thank goodness I still have a couple more weeks until class starts!

As usual, my mid-morning snack was homemade yogurt that I prepared with fruit last night. Yogurt mix-ins at the ready: 1/2 banana (1/4 mashed, 1/4 chopped), chopped small apple, cinnamon, cardamom, and vanilla extract:

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I mixed the above into a cup of yogurt and divided the mixture between two one-cup tupperware containers. The containers had a bit of space at the top still, so I added some grapes and cherries:

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snacks for Monday and Tuesday

Lunch was more turkey soup with an apple for dessert. For a mid-afternoon snack, I packed a snack baggie of green beans and baby carrots. Here it is stacked last night and ready to go to work (the mini-Luna is a back-up emergency snack, but I actually swapped it with two mini muffins post-photo):

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Breakfast:

As planned, I was back on my 5 am wake-up schedule for this morning’s workout: five-minute jog to the gym, 10 minutes of arms with free weights on an aerobics step, 30 minutes stairmaster, 10 minutes stretching/abs, and the five-minute jog home.

I had prepped this morning’s breakfast last night: a half cup of mom’s cooked grainmeal, topped with 1/4 chopped banana, the last five cherries, and 2/3 chopped apple. I put it in the fridge in an oven-safe bowl before I went to bed last night so that all I had to do was pop it in the oven for 30 minutes at 375 when I got back from the gym:

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Topped with a half cup of yogurt and a sprinkle of cinnamon this morning:

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Hope you’re having a good day!

A little too much …

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I wanted to save the rest of the turkey soup from MA to have for lunch this week, so dinner tonight was more fun with crudites! I mixed the cauliflower from home with two Tbsp of herb hummus (also from home), sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and grated homemade cheddar cheese (thanks to my cheesemaking kit):

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I roasted the cauliflower on BROIL until the smoke alarm went off, about seven minutes:

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On the side, I had about a half cup of homemade yogurt (procedure to come :-)) with blueberries and cherries:

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And another mini muffin. All together:

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Dessert was a pile of grapenut pudding:

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I actually was not hungry at all for dessert and probably should have had half as much as I did, but I’m planning to go to the gym at the crack of dawn tomorrow and I don’t want to be hungry while I’m there (and the pudding tasted too good to stop!).

Bedtime!

In transit

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As planned, I boarded the 11 am bus today fully armed with a special mom-prepared lunch. Here it is pre-assembly last night:

turkey salad, 1/4 avocado, toasted whole wheat pita

turkey salad, 1/4 avocado, toasted whole wheat pita

And professionally arranged on a plate because I didn’t think the bus would have the right ambience (and because I would have felt silly taking 20 pictures of my sandwich in front of the little old lady sitting next to me):

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I held off on breaking into it as long as possible (a whole hour and 20 minutes!) because I was worried about the onion causing smell drama on the bus. But hunger won out at 12:20, and I daintily opened the baggie . . . and inhaled the sandwich in approximately 30 seconds:

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Notice the expertly chopped cabbage throughout (that was my contribution to the meal). Mmmmmmm. On the side, I had some crunchy green beans, a kitchen sink muffin, and a two hour nap (my other great love, after food and babies).

Next stop: Brooklyn!