WIAW #2 and evil food…

Happy “What I Ate Wednesday” everybody – and thanks to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for hosting!

Incredibly enough, it’s the first week of October already! I am still in denial. That denial will be made that much easier by the fact that it’s supposed to be close to 80 degrees here in CT on Friday! Say WHAT?!?!?!? Oh well…I’ll take it while I can get it! I absolutely HATE being cold, so the longer it stays warm, the longer I don’t have to deal with ice and snow!

Of course, October means fall is in full swing, and pumpkin spice has invaded everything known to man! I saw a pumpkin beer float with vegan pumpkin ice cream on the Facebook page of one of my favorite Cambridge eateries – Veggie Galaxy. One of my favorite bloggers is doing a whole week of pumpkin recipes over at The Gracious Pantry with today’s yumminess being Clean Eating Pumpkin Candied Popcorn. Yes, please!! I don’t get overly creative with pumpkin, but my favorite thing to do (other than bake a pie) is to make Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal which is seriously like fall in a bowl! (That sounds a little odd, doesn’t it??).

That’s a little mini tasting bowl from the last time I made it. Soooo good and super easy! I’m sure it would work in a slow cooker too, but this was so quick that I didn’t mind at all.

Okay – so now for what I ate today – after all, this is “What I Ate Wednesday”, right??

Breakfast was a ginormous cup of coffee (I really need to stop that habit) along with one of these little babies – a banana chocolate chip muffin! I made them the other day out of some bananas that had truly seen better days…

I love my little bee spoon rest in the background there!  Mid-morning I had my typical Greek yogurt (which I didn’t take a picture of) topped with a few slivered almonds. It was good, but I think I’m getting into a rut. I have to find something new that will still give me that dose of protein I need to get through until lunchtime!

Lunch was a repeat of yesterday – Campbell’s Sweet Potato Tomatillo bisque. Click here to see it, and my little review. I haven’t been feeling well since last Thursday, and soup seems to be doing the trick – somewhat.

I had a Kashi Dark Mocha Almond chewy granola bar at a meeting. I typically don’t like chewy granola bars, but this one was good! Then again, how could you go wrong with mocha, dark chocolate, and almonds! I’ll be looking for this box at the grocery store on Sunday!!

Dinner was one of my go-to meals – my Funky Fried Rice. You can see the original recipe here. I make it a little bit differently every time. This time the protein was tofu, and the greens were a mix of baby spinach, baby bok choy, and baby chard – both red and green. I also added a chopped orange pepper and some slice shiitake mushrooms. You can pretty much make this any way you want to. That’s the great thing about it! That, and the fact that it goes together in about 10 minutes! Here’s what tonight’s version looked like:

It was super yummy! I think I overdid the crushed red pepper a little bit…it was pretty spicy!

Now to the theme for #WIAW – Spooky Snacks and Healthy Halloween Treats! I don’t have any healthy Halloween treats yet, but I do have a spooky snack. This stuff is so good it’s scary! They call it Smartfood, I call it EVIL FOOD!! It’s so good it’s nearly impossible to stop eating it! I have enough trouble with the regular Smartfood…but this is just ridiculous!

I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to buy this stuff again… It’s just too good! I literally had to get up and put the bag in the other room to keep me from eating it all!

Thanks for joining me for my second WIAW! Hope you had a great day! Now for the questions of the day…

What’s your “evil food” right now?

Are you a “pumpkin spice” everything kind of person?

What I Ate Wednesday…

Okay…so I’m starting to get into these “link-up” things! This is my second one this week. (Want to check out my first “Marvelous In My Monday” post – go here!)

“What I Ate Wednesday” has been around for a while, but I’m just jumping on the bandwagon now! Thanks to Jenn over at Peas and Crayons for hosting! And a major thanks to Eva, my most awesome Zumba instructor, for introducing me to all of these link-ups, and for encouraging me to keep blogging! Check her out at Committed2Nutrition!

If you’ve never been part of #WIAW or seen one of these posts before, it’s basically a way to share some ideas for healthy eats, recipes, and it’s also a pretty darned nifty accountability tool! Taking pictures of what you eat all day long is no easy feat! It’s a bit awkward when you’re with people who aren’t used to eating with healthy living/eating bloggers who take pictures of EVERYTHING! Thus, there is no picture of my lunch today! Oh well…can’t be perfect all the time!

Here’s what I remembered to actually take pictures of today…

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal is one of my favorite breakfasts EVER! I shared the recipe a little while ago here. I know that flavored Greek yogurt isn’t the best, but to me it’s a treat! Generally I eat the plain stuff with some fresh fruit, cocoa powder, or PB2 (which ROCKS by the way!) in it. This key lime flavor from Oikos is A-MA-ZING! I love key lime, and this is just the right balance of sweet, tart, and tangy and totally kills the craving for the pie version. Added a few Trader Joe’s Roasted Coconut Chips to the top and it was heaven! Dinner was one of my go-to quickie dinner recipes – Tempeh-Veggie Fried Rice. I tell the story of how this one came to be, and also share the recipe here. I’m telling you – you could make this with just about anything you have in the house and it will taste good!

Tonight I’ll probably just have my usual decaf tea – been getting into the fruity/herbal flavors at night. The hubby brought home an apple cinnamon one the other night that tastes just like hot apple cider – without all the sugar and calories! A perfect treat… 🙂

I know this is a pretty crummy WIAW post, but I promise I’ll do better next Wednesday…I’m going to ask for newbie forgiveness on this one!

What’s one of your favorite go-to meals for busy nights?

Any other ideas for sweet but low-cal treats with a fall-ish twist?

Funky Fried Rice

I was looking for something different to make for dinner a couple of weeks ago, and up popped on my Twitter feed a recipe from Whole Foods for Vegetable Brown Rice with Feta Cheese.  Their recipe served as my inspiration, but I went off a little on my own! I’ve even made it four different ways now, but this is the original one…

Tempeh-Veggie Brown Rice

1 bag Trader Joe’s Organic Power Greens (kale, spinach, chard)1 package tempeh1 bag frozen brown rice, heated according to directions (or use leftover cooked rice)

1/2 bag frozen veggies (heated through)

1/2 red onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

a few tablespoons of EVOO

Sea salt, black pepper, oregano, and crushed red pepper to taste

Crumbled feta cheese

White wine vinegar

Heat a large frying pan over medium – high heat. Saute the onions, garlic, and tempeh together until the tempeh starts to brown and the onions are translucent. Add the greens and saute until they wilt.

Add a splash of white wine vinegar. Add the veggies rice, salt, pepper, oregano, crushed red pepper, another splash of vinegar, and the feta. Heat through and serve.

This has become a once-a-week dinner at my house – often with enough for one lunch worth of leftovers. It’s really a quick, inexpensive dinner, and it’s gotten good reviews from my hubby and one of my besties – and she had it as leftovers! I’ve tried a few different things with it, and I think my favorite version is exactly as above, only adding some sliced shiitake mushrooms to the starting part with the onions and garlic. They add a little something that I can’t quite explain in any way other than to say they are yummy! I’ve also tried making it using coconut oil instead of olive oil – that was the way I last made it. YUM!! I once made an Asian-inspired version with the shiitakes added at the beginning, a frozen stir-fry veggie blend subbed in for the mixed veggies, a handful (or two!) of edamame, and instead of white wine vinegar I used a little soy sauce and rice vinegar. I did omit the feta for that one – don’t think that would have been very tasty…

I see this as one of those “clean out the produce bin” meals where you could add just about anything you want to it and still wind up with something tasty! I’d love to know if anyone tries another spin on this… 🙂

Do you have a dish that keeps coming back in different ways?