Cooking All Three Meals — Some Days You’re Feeling It!
On mornings when I don’t do an early morning workout and have a few more minutes for breakfast (or, more accurately, a little more time before I’m starving and no longer have the patience to “cook” anything but a chicken sausage or egg in the microwave and peel a grapefruit), I like to start the day with an actual meal. It sets a nice tone for the day. And lately, per Karen’s how-to post, I’ve been trying to perfect the omelette.
Not too shabby, right? This two-egg omelette had smoked salmon and goat cheese inside (oh my goodness, so simple yet so good), and a freshly sliced tomato topped with chopped basil — both homegrown from my garden! Just taking a little bit of extra time to make the plate pretty really does help me to appreciate my food a bit more. And the colors make me smile. (Yes, I’m a huge dork like that.)
This breakfast, plus a cup of dark-roasted coffee, kept me full until lunch, when I decided to hit the stove again for lunch. On days when I want to eat a bunch of veggies but I’m not feeling a full salad per se, I like to make a sauteed salad. It pretty much has everything I put in my usual Big-Ass Salads, but instead of being raw, it’s slightly cooked in a large skillet over a medium heat. Sometimes my stomach has trouble digesting too many greens, and cooking it just ever-so slightly helps. Also, it’s a fun new twist on the usual salad. And instead of doing my usual balsamic-vinegar-and-walnut-oil dressing, I douse it in sriracha. Amazeballs. Oh, and the slightly cooked grape tomatoes that explode in your mouth? Double amazeballs.
(And, yes, I realize there are lots of balls and “explode in your mouth” jokes there. Have at it.)
Later in the afternoon, I walk the dog, do a 30-minute power yoga workout DVD an refuel up with a White Chocolate thinkThin bar and sip on a cup of green tea.
Feeling very zen later and still in the mood to do some cooking, I start to think about dinner. What do you do when you have thawed grass-feed ground beef, onions, kale and lots of red peppers in the fridge? You make stuffed peppers, of course! I like to use ramekins when I make mine — they fit in there pretty perfectly and don’t topple over when cooking or eating!
Afterwards, Ryan and I both had a sweet tooth, so I popped some frozen bananas, a little coconut milk and lots of unsweetened cocoa powder in the Vitamix for one of my favorite desserts — banana-chocolate “ice cream.” We recently were sent a bunch of these cute mini chocolate chips from Santa Barbara Chocolate Co. (thanks for the surprise, guys — they’re so yummy!), so I sprinkled some of those on top. This dessert is so good. Filling and healthy, too!
Do you ever have days where you just feel like cooking and getting creative in the kitchen? What fun things do you like to whip up? —Jenn