What I Ate Today

It’s been months since I stopped doing the daily ‘this is what I ate today’ posts and for some reason this morning I picked up my camera after I made my toast and took a picture of it.  I decided it must be my brain’s way of saying I should document a day of eats from time to time.  :)

Breakfast (275 calories):  Since I quit doing the daily posts I eat the same thing probably 4-5 times a week.  Silver Hills toast with Trader Joe’s almond butter and half a banana sliced on top.  Plus coffeeeeee…obviously.  Now with almond milk.

Lunch (380 calories):  I got overloaded on salads a few weeks back and started eating other random things for a little while.  But I have a whole bag of spinach that isn’t going to eat itself so a bigass salad in the big silver bowl it was for today.  Baby spinach, a sprinkle of shredded cheddar, radishes, cucumbers, and tomatoes dressed with olive oil and coarse salt and topped with a perfectly over-medium egg.  Always with a crunchy, carby side dish….today we have Carr’s poppyseed crackers with light herby cream cheese.

Snack time (260 calories):  Having my workouts smack in the middle of my afternoon generally leads me to two snacks these days…depending on when I scarfed down lunch.  Today enough time had passed that I decided to munch on a Kashi granola bar on the way to the gym. 

And when I got home and showered I powered myself back up with a strawberry smoothie. Simply blended four fresh strawberries, ice, vanilla protein powder and UVAB. Refreshing!

Dinner (575 calories):  Brought to you by these yummy little fresh corn tortillas I picked up at one of our local outdoor markets recently. 

I suppose you would call these tacos since after I took this photo I folded these bad boys in half and chowed down.  Sauce running down my fingers and all.  Isn’t that how you know it’s one of the best tacos?

Corn tortillas crisped up in a hot pan with no-stick spray, topped with seasoned chorizo and black beans, a wee bit of shredded cheese, fresh tomatoes and light sour cream doctored up with lime juice and cilantro.  I love it when a random meal idea becomes the tastiest thing I’ve made in weeks!

Dessert (100 calories):  I’m trying to keep sweets and baked dessert treats to the weekends so have starting eating fruit as my evening snack.  The bag of pink grapefruit I bought recently may have been the best pink grapefruits ever!  Sadly this was the last one.  So freaking good.

Now I’m sitting here wishing I had chocolate (thanks to the bag of PB M&Ms I dominated this weekend) but instead I am about to fill my water bottle, get my fuzzy blankey and hit the couch for an hour of chill time before heading to bed. 

What was the best thing you ate today?

Did you #EmbraceMonday?  Post will be up tomorrow morning!

(total calories = 1590: all calculated by MyFitnessPal)

Butternut & Chorizo Tart

Helloooooo out there!  All of a sudden it’s been like a week and I haven’t had anything to blog about!  That’s what happens when I spend my days eating salad or take-out…nothing exciting to share!

OK, I should share the amazing Butter Chicken Poutine I had the other day, but that’s not what we’re here for now is it?  Tease.  Yep.

Instead I have the first of two recipes involving this bigass bad boy.

Michael sent me home with this butternut squash last weekend in the hopes that I’d turn around and bring it back all cooked up in a soup or some such thing.  Well, lucky boy…it was so big I came up with two things for him.

Thanks to Twitter friends I was inspired to tackle a Butternut Squash Tart.  Well, my lazy variation of a tart anyway.  Let’s just say I’m not friends with homemade pastry just yet…

The suggestion that came my way from Rayna was caramelized onions and goat cheese. Yesssss.  I don’t know about you but I love the flavour combination of chorizo sausage with butternut as well, so I decided to just work all of those ideas into one recipe…and let me tell ya, I felt like a genius for doing it!

Butternut Squash Tart with Chorizo, Onion & Goat Cheese

inspired by Epicurious

yields: 8 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 cups roasted butternut squash
• 150 grams bulk chorizo sausage (2 links removed from skin)
• 2 small onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 4-6 leaves fresh sage, chiffonade
• 1 tbsp olive oil (plus extra for brushing roasting squash)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/3 cup heavy/whipping cream
• (water for thinning)
• 1 tsp oregano
• salt and pepper to taste
• sprinkle cayenne if desired
• 1/4 cup fresh parmesan cheese, coarsely grated
• 60 grams (2 oz.) creamy goat cheese
• 1 pre-made pie crust

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Remove frozen pie crust from tin plate and set into glass pie pan to thaw while preparing filling.
2. In a non-stick skillet over medium heat brown the chorizo, breaking it apart with a wooden spoon if necessary.  Cook until crumbly and no longer pink in the middle.  Remove from skillet and set aside.
3. In the same skillet heat the olive oil and butter together over medium heat.  When hot add onions and stir to coat.  Sautee until becoming translucent, then add garlic and stir.  Continuing sautéing until onions and garlic start to brown, then add sage.  Stir and continue cooking until everything becomes golden and caramelized.  Remove from heat and set aside.
4. In a food processor or good blender puree the roasted squash (may need a little water to help it along).  Add egg, egg yolk and cream and continue pureeing until smooth.
5. Pour squash mixture into a large mixing bowl.  Add sausage, parmesan, oregano, salt, pepper, and cayenne (if using).  Stir to incorporate.  Add onion mixture (reserve a few tablespoons), stir again.
6. Scoop about half of the filling into the pie crust, spread evenly.  Sprinkle with dollops of goat cheese.  Add remaining filling, spread evenly.  Top with remaining goat cheese and reserved onion mixture for decoration.  Sprinkle with cracked pepper.
7. Bake tart for 30 minutes until crust is browned and filling has set.  Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

I have to tell you a secret…  I don’t even really like butternut squash all that much.  It’s like this weirdly overrated Winter food that everyone goes crazy over, but every time I have it I’m always underwhelmed.

Well, apparently roasting it is the key because I am pretty much in love with this.  Never mind the chorizo, cream and two cheeses in there helping tasty it up…shhhh.  And those onions….oooooh, those caramelized onions.

Best part about this recipe?  According to MyFitnessPal a serving of this seemingly rich deliciousness is only around 200 calories! 

Obviously this would be even better with a homemade crust if I wasn’t afraid of pastry. If you’ve got a good idiot proof one for me, please share.

Egg Whites for the Win

Hello healthy friends!  Thanks for all of the support on Friday’s January Joiner post…hope it was a little motivation for a few of you, because it was for me.  I see some serious treadmill time on my schedule today.  My lululemon pants are happy to do something other than walk the dog or sit at my desk!

Eats this week have been really quite deeeelish and healthy, a few meals thanks to this bad boy…

Remember those egg whites that were hurting my head? Turns out I had about a bazillion recipe ideas for them… once the sweet and tart Citrus Curd haze cleared from my brain that is.

Keeping true to form I had to make sure I was keeping the meal budget-friendly and went shopping in my freezer for items to bring my ideas to fruition.

Leftover smoked salmon? Well all right then. Now we’re cooking! Literally.

Egg White Frittata with Smoked Salmon and Capers

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 6 egg whites
• 1/3 cup cottage cheese (I use 1%)
• 1/4 skim milk (or milk of your choice)
• 1/4 cup onions, chopped
• 1 cup smoked salmon, flaked (not lox)
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1 tbsp capers
• salt, pepper and dill to taste
• fresh grated parmesan

Directions:

1. Preheat broiler.
2. Whisk together egg whites, cottage cheese, milk, green onions, salt, pepper and dill.  Set aside.
3. Liberally spray an oven-proof skillet with non-stick spray.  Heat skillet to medium on stovetop, add onions and sauté until transparent (might need a little water to help them along).  Add salmon, stir and cook until warmed through.
4. Reduce heat to medium-low.  Add egg mixture and gently mix to distribute salmon mixture evenly through eggs.  Sprinkle with capers.
5. As eggs begin to cook use spatula to gently ‘drag’ edges of eggs to create space for uncooked mixture to fill. 
6. When mixture is approximately 3/4 cooked through, sprinkle fresh parmesan over entire dish, then place skillet under broiler.  Cook 4-6 minutes, watching carefully, until cheese begins to brown and eggs no longer jiggle.
7. Let stand 2 minutes before cutting and serving.  Sprinkle with more parmesan to serve.

This turned out better than I had expected.  The cottage cheese worked perfectly as a binder and the capers gave an excellent zing and saltiness.

According to MyFitnessPal this works out to a measly 115 calories per serving.  Served with a salad it made a perfect lunch and the next night a delicious light dinner.

January Joiner

In the past I’ve never really needed a milestone or date marker to ‘start being healthy’.  Overall my lifestyle has been pretty healthy for the last five years…balanced eating, balanced exercise.  A few cupcakes, a few carrots.

But… Somewhere along that long drive from Halifax to Victoria I think I lost my healthy living mojo.  I arrived here on the Island with a sense of entitlement to all things beer, cheese, and burger related.  All in the name of socializing with friends I had missed for the better part of three years. I felt invincible or something.  Like since I’d been so careful with my eating for so long a year of throwing calorie caution to the wind couldn’t hurt me.

Guess what?  Life doesn’t work that way.  If you stop working out, and keep eating poutine your ass gets bigger.  And all of a sudden your entire wardrobe doesn’t fit and you spend your time telling your new boyfriend that you have nothing to wear…ever.

So, instead of whining about it for another six months I’ve decided to join all of the other resolutioners and get my shiz together.  Time to get back to that girl I used to be.  Time to be a January Joiner.

My gym membership has literally been a drain on my bank account for months now.  I had all of that hip/leg/back pain over a year ago that slowed me down and kept me from working out, but honestly it just became the world’s best excuse to not do anything.  I’m acknowledging that now and tackling the simple things I can do and I’ll worry about the more intensive stuff later.

I don’t plan to spend much time here telling you about my escapades in fitness.  My workouts can be random and not all that interesting to anyone (including me!) but if something noteworthy happens I’ll be sure to update you all.

What I will do is eat healthier and share that with you.  Nothing like a month of posting cookie recipes to get a girl in the mood for salads, egg whites, and chicken.  Time to revamp some favourite recipes and see if we can healthify them…and if we can’t then I guess we’ll eat them full-fat and just take an extra trip to the treadmill.

When it doubt, run it out.  Word.

Anyone else a January Joiner? 

What’s your New Year’s resolution for 2012?