Thursday, February 17, 2011

new things, new loves

well folks, we've survived our week of meat free feasts and loved every minute of it!

...lee did a little better than i did... well, no, that's not true--he gave up meat all together and i decided that if i ate any sort of "meat" it would be fish. so technically, we both stuck to what we promised... i had a piece of fish just last night and a few fish tacos from chang's on sunday... and those are the only times i went for the fish!

tonite we topped it off with two EXCELLENT new recipes. and when i say "excellent" i mean "put the ingredients on your grocery list to make them as soon as humanly possible"

first up:
black bean, avocado & cucumber salad at the recommendation of a blogger friend, brittany

in a nutshell: can of black beans, two diced avocados, one peeled & diced cucumber, two diced tomatoes, a diced red onion... add cilantro, the juice of two limes, & salt 'n pepper... the only thing i'd do differently is 1/2 the recipe--a little too much for lee and i for our side, and the avocado doesn't keep well, but its the perfect size for a cookout or a take-along dish! yum!!

this website looks like it has LOTS of great salad ideas... i've bookmarked this site and will be back soon!

and the main dish:
i used pioneer woman's recipe today as an inspiration, but needless to say couldn't find "goat cheese" or "fontina cheese" at food lion. go figure--they BARELY have hummus.

so, instead we had portobello mushroom slices tossed in a buttery pan... added a little stock... then pulled 'em out, added a little more butter & stock and tossed in 1/2 bag of baby spinach (i wish i'd tossed in the ENTIRE bag)... stirred them around until they were wilted

...and this is where i ran out of butter. so, i improvised--which can only result in two things--epic failure or unbelievable success. well, today, i got lucky. i sprayed a cookie sheet with pam and laid the tortillas on there, put a little cheese on there (i used italian 6 cheese blend--mozz., parmesan, and i forgot the other 4 cheeses), added the mushrooms & spinach then added just a little more cheese on top... popped 'em in the oven (set the broiler on high)... once the cheese melted, i topped them with the 2nd tortilla...

y'all... they were sooooo good... i didn't know wilted fresh baby spinach could be THAT delicious. i could've just eaten a bowl of that!!

this has been a GREAT WEEK!! i'm planning to keep on going... i've enjoyed trying new things and cutting out some not-so-good-for-you foods... its amazing how much better i've felt after my meals... i've not felt "dragged down" or sleepy after anything i've eaten this week! and i've been so much more confident letting eden try what we're eating (since i knew it would be good for her anyway!). there were days where i didn't drink as much water as i'd liked to, but i tried not to beat myself up over it... but hey, i ONLY drank water!! (with the occasional exception of juice at breakfast) and i'm still working on incorporating more exercise, but gosh, i can't do but so much "new stuff" at one time... baby steps... baby steps.

i think what i've learned the most this week is just simply making better decisions... it really is just. that. simple... sour cream or guacamole? guacamole. potato chips or pita chips? pita chips... every thing i chose to eat, i tried to make the BEST choice.

i've particularly loved cooking breakfast at home this week... lee's even gotten in on the action! he's done a great job fixing scrambled eggs & making his lunch! and he's been really good about re-trying veggies that he wasn't crazy about in the past--mainly peppers and onions.

i never did a "starting weight" or anything like that--its not really the reason i did this whole thing, but i certainly feel better!

and yes, i'm still planning on trying lots of new things... and giving SHORT GRAIN brown rice a try (right, grace?)... long grain basmati rice didn't win my heart, but i'll keep trying. quinoa was a definite winner! i'm going to be trying whole wheat tortillas next time we make quesadillas and perhaps some new kinds of squash along the way... and whatever else i come across in the grocery store :)

and my favorite part of the whole week? hearing feedback from all of YOU! i loved sharing your recipes, hearing how you're incorporating more meatless meals with your families, listening to your suggestions about which kind of rice/grain/sweetners/yogurts/milk/etc and what you order in various restaurants... i promise that i'll keep sharing as long as you keep sharing! together, we can make a difference in our families!!

4 comments:

Graceandjoelroberts said...

Let me know what you think of the short grain rice, hope you like it! The one bummer is how long it takes to cook, so usually on Mondays, I make a huge amount of it and eat off it all week. I'd make sure you like it first though ;-)! I think its similar to quinoa, hopefully you love it! And...now I want fish tacos!

ashley said...

That's so funny... I just saw that pioneer woman quesadilla recipe and thought it looked SO good! I'll have to try that one soon. And your black bean/avocado recipe - i made one similar the other day and decided I could probably live on that alone for the rest of my life. It was so good I almost fainted. And SO good for you!! That's the best part. I didn't have cucumber in mine, but I did add corn. One meatless meal we enjoy is quiche. I love it because you can add anything to it you want. I made one and served it with cubed hashbrowns that I browned in a skillet. Yummy and meatless (but full of protein!). Keep sharing your recipes, and I'll try to remember to share mine with you too if I try anything new!

Jess said...

You're inspiring me to try some new recipes and get better about cooking at home. I've really gone down hill in that department later. I focus on Peyton's dinner and Edwin's usually working, so it's hard to want to cook for just 1 person! Sounds like you're doing great, I'm proud of you :)

Analee said...

two recipes that are awesome (my "oh my god this is too good to be healthy" list)

quinoa with peaches
http://stefanieskitchen.blogspot.com/2010/10/quinoa-salad-with-peaches.html

and black bean pumpkin soup (the second one on this link - i'm not sure why i couldn't get just that one recipe, but either way there are lots of other really good recipes on there, i only post recipes that i LOVE! most are no-meat but not necessarily low fat!)
http://theoutcrop.blogspot.com/search/label/recipes