What I Ate Wednesday #71

 

Hi everyone! I hope you are enjoying these first few weeks of summer. I know we are. Heat and humidity after a long winter does not seem so bad.  I much prefer summer to winter.  I love the early sunrises and having breakfast outside. I love the outdoors.  I hope to get some hiking, biking, camping and some water sports in this summer. So far it has been food, swimming and office work. Not a bad start, I love working from home. Mya is having a blast having her friends over.  I just love seeing them laughing and having a good time like I remember my childhood summers. 

Update:

I am happy to say I have been gluten free for nearly four months.  This was by choice out of nutritional curiosity. I have many people ask me if I can help with gluten issues in my health coaching practice. What started as a temporary change became a permanent one.  No headaches and a much flatter belly are the things I notice most.  I accidently ingested some gluten last week and bloated up immediately, I was shocked. I am also pleasantly surprised to discover that I have not had any cravings, even when visiting the bakery.  My exercise routine has become much more condensed and I have seen better results with the new effort. Overall, I am quite pleased with my whole program. This WIAW I am sharing some of the meals that I ate this week for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert.

Tofu Eggs two ways:

This skillet was a tofu scramble of sweet potato, garlic, onion, black beans, corn, peppers, kale, and diced tomatoes.

This spicy mix is packed with protein and fiber and not many calories.  Two tortillas filled with this scramble are only 285 calories, 14 grams of protein and 7 grams of fiber. I make this big skillet full and have a quick breakfast or lunch in minutes.

Avocado smashed on gluten free brown rice bread with tofu eggs on a bed of kale, mushrooms, peppers, potatoes and onions.

My featured lunch this week is pasta salad two ways.  I used one bag of Trader Joe’s Brown Rice Fusilli Gluten Free pasta and shared the cooked noodles between two bowls to make different lunch options.

The first was a mayo style, but I used Reduced Fat Veganaise, then a mix of broccoli slaw, onions, celery, garbanzo beans, water chestnuts and savory baked tofu. Fresh and dried herbs with some sea salt and pepper brought all the flavors together.

The other style was Andy’s favorite, a hodgepodge of left over salad ingredients including olives, roasted peppers, artichokes, and marinated mushrooms, chickpeas, mixed with some Tuscan balsamic, fresh tomatoes, onion, and garden basil.

The leftovers also served as an early dinner when running out to his horseshoe league All-star game! By making two salads I have plenty of lunch side dishes for the week.

One simple dinner this week Mya and Andy ate was Jasmine rice with mushrooms and broccoli seasoned with a little Braggs liquid aminos with some pan fried plantains on the side.

Broccoli and mushrooms are Mya’s favorite veggies, she ate most of the veggies out of the bowl before I could even serve them!

The plantains were ripe, but not not as sweet as I like them. They were still good, just not my favorite.

While they ate the rice, I was more in a hummus mood.  I had Mya pick a ton of fresh lettuce from the garden, then I made myself lettuce rolls. I smeared Tuscan hummus on a lettuce leaf, added some tomatoes and onions, then rolled it up.  I ate a lot of these.

A rainbow showed up during my lettuce wrap photo shoot. Can you spot it?

Okay, onto dessert. I really wanted to make something that I could use my firm ripe strawberries in. I was inspired by a raw banana cream pie I made earlier in the week, so I thought a raw cashew coconut cream pie with agave tossed strawberries would make a perfect summertime treat.

A raw crust was made from various nuts and dates with a tablespoon of coconut water.  I blended it in the food processor before spreading it in the pan and placing it in the freezer while I made the filling.

I soaked a cup of raw cashews for a few hours before rinsing them and putting them in the food processor with vanilla, agave and coconut milk.

I poured the coconut cashew cream on top of the crust and placed it in the fridge for an hour to set.  I sliced the strawberries and tossed them with a tiny drizzle of agave before putting them on top of the firmed coconut cream.

 

This was a light and refreshing summery treat.  I will definitely make this again with whatever berries I have on hand.  Mya and Andy both really loved it. 

That concludes the meals this What I Ate Wednesday 71!  I hope you are all enjoying all the great newly available ripe summertime fruits and veggies.  I know I can’t wait to be picking more than lettuce and herbs from my garden.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!